Second chapter will be released a little earlier than I planned. For release dates, it'll be much quicker than my SCP one(every 1-2 weeks compared to once a month). A little earlier than usual only because I didn't mention this in the first chapter. Probably should have...So if I forget anything, you'll have to wait at least a week until the next one.
Now, why? Frankly, the chapters are pretty short and you guys will breeze through it quickly. Not to mention every chapter is a "scene," pretty much. Not a lot to take in, so I want to make sure the time isn't too long in between updates.
Reviews:
The 18th Avatar: Apologies, but Issei won't be with Sylvia(rather Irina instead). I've had some of the story planned ahead of time and the pairings were one of them, along with the order of the initial arcs.
Guest: Thanks, I won't be giving too much information dumps, but hopefully you'll like her as the story progresses.
desropter: I won't be doing harem pairings, for Sylvia, Ethan, or Issei, so don't worry about that(and those who want a harem will need to worry, sorry...). Also, if you were looking for OCxIssei, it isn't happening, apologies for that.
Disclaimer: I don't own DxD.
Hope the story will be worth reading. Until next chapter.
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On a final note, anyone following me and seeing this chapter, the next SCP chapter should go live on the end of July at the latest. It is done, but I kind of want to begin a chapter or couple ahead first, to give me time to work on the future chapter for this one.
Their gazes met for a long time, before Ethan nodded and said, "Go ahead."
Sylvia beamed, and he noted it was a genuine smile, as if she were expecting him to tell her to fuck off.
"Danke~" She took a smaller slice and Ethan filed that away. Cautious or keeping from being rude. He took the next one, leaving her two choices:small size, or the largest in the pizza.
Garo's eyes shifted over to him and he smirked before turning around to attend to another customer.
"Is there a reason you're hiring someone to kill yourself?" Ethan asked as he took a large bite which caused Sylvia to cough and choke on the portion she was chewing.
I might not even have to do anything, he thought in awe as he watched her struggle for air.
He calmly took another bite as Garo watched the two with regret.
Garo was one of the Provost Captains who valued life, whether human, Demon, Devil, Angel, Fallen Angel, or even Yokai, provided the entity didn't endanger his clients.
Ethan himself was concerned, he heard of the elder sister of Gremory make huge advancements in the Underworld, beside Sairog Bael, and she didn't seem to be a person who took lives indiscriminately.
The opposite, really.
Then again, this was his first time meeting her, so he could be completely off the mark.
Koneko looked over in concern, and Ethan met her gaze.
Don't do anything, he thought. Then realized that her gaze was penetrating.
Disapproving. Oh shit, she wanted to talk to Sylvia, huh?
Sylvia attempted bent back against the counter, pressing her fist to her diaphragm as Ethan reluctantly approached, turning her around and bending her over.
She began to struggle but Ethan hissed, "I'm helping, I'm helping, fucking stop."
She gasped for air, hissing something. He thought she was making some comment, but she said something else entirely.
Koneko had launched over her table at the person approaching the bar as a guttural scream filled the room, the patrons standing up at the noise, and Ethan saw they were reacting to someone else.
"Assassins are here." Sylvia had said.
Garo had grabbed the arm of the new customer he was attending do, twisting it in a circle and breaking it, a magical dagger, enchanted to essentially be non-existent, was held in his hand, his other hand pressing the woman's head so hard into the counter it creaked and bent.
Nonhuman then, as a human's would have been crushed to a pulp with his strength.
That dagger served as an assassin's weapon, as it didn't show up on human or magical detection. Unless the assassin was actively using it, it couldn't be seen or perceived, even through premonitions or actual visions into the future. If it wasn't in use, it didn't exist. Period.
This meant these were top-of-the-line assassins. Or, as Ethan looked around, Just very wealthy ones.
Koneko sat atop of a man, bending him backward at the spine, an arm around his neck while pulling. He screeched and slapped the ground, but Koneko held firm, "Stay still and I won't break your spine."
Ethan felt Sylvia's hand grabbed his wrist and she leaned close, muttering a request. He looked at the final man, who had his hands up as the five patrons kept their weapons trained on him.
He nodded, eyes on the unrestrained man.
Ethan was instructed to have a knife hand aimed at her chest, and Sylvia held her palms on his elbow.
Feeling the power flowing through, he nodded and she returned the nod before he stabbed.
His hand almost hit her chest when a serpent materialized from within her body, poking out from her collarbone, and quickly leapt right at him. He was saved, as Sylvia acted faster than even the snake, snatching it out of the air right on the neck and quickly cracked it as if wielding a whip, killing it instantly.
"Fucking Constrictors," Sylvia muttered as soon as she could speak again.
More assassination tools, and very high end.
Heljikadors, or called Constrictors due to its similarity to its real world counterparts, were treasured living weapons for assassinations.
They weren't rare, per se. They were the best magical creature for a completely accidental death. It acted exactly as a snake would(this meaning docile)but this could change by the will of its owner. It is normally visible, but it could become invisible with no effort whatsoever, and it acts so slowly, it is very difficult to detect it, even when it is killing you.
As with Sylvia just now, but she seemed to have a good extent of knowledge on magical creatures to know it was a Constrictor. Garo was the first to say something after the chain of events, "You made a mistake thinking that a room full of humans meant you can kill someone within a neutral zone."
The voice was filled with venom, a tone Ethan never heard before.
He raised the woman's head to meet his directly, "Do you know the universally agreed rules among all races in the Sicar's hubs?"
He smiled as her wide eyes met his, "No killing permitted inside. We even give leniency for those who assassinate outside these very doors, but a job executed inside this building is absolutely forbidden. You made a poor choice coming to the World's End. This is the last place of the Sicar's you want to find yourself in trouble."
Out of thin air, humans who appeared to be nothing more than an ordinary person materialized. "We'll take the violators to prison, Provost."
The Demon flung the woman back in disgust, fixing his bar as the humans began to bind the woman and the male Koneko subdued.
They reached the male who was left unharmed and Sylvia held up a hand, "Wait."
The man glared at her, eyeing the snake in her hand, "I'm not answering anything."
She caught the accent and smiled, "May I interrogate him?"
One human said, "No offensive actions threatening the life of another person is allowed."
Sylvia seemed unhappy, "Even if he was the one who sicked a Constrictor on me?"
"Correct."
"Breaking a finger or two is fine?"
"No offensive actions threatening the life of another person is allowed," he repeated.
Sylvia smiled, wondering if the loophole was intentional. Ethan didn't even see her move when he heard the snap of a bone breaking, and the man began to scream as he held his hand.
Nobody in the Sicar's Trjoyepla team moved, and Ethan sighed a breath of relief.
Inwardly, of course. Though he wished the chance to fight her would go away, Koneko still seemed eager to talk to her.
"Can I guess where you came from? Exalt? Crimena? Excalita?" She put her hands behind her back, smiling as she leaned forward, "Or maybe even Rubina?"
The man spat but Sylvia was unfazed, simply closing her eyes when she saw him wind up. "Fuck you, whore. Only such disgraceful filth would confer with humans for assistance. Even for a suicide."
She opened her eyes after the saliva landed, and he stumbled back at her eyes, but he didn't go far as he bumped into a Trjoyepla, who pulled him up and pushed him forward.
The bright eyes seemed to lose their life completely, turning into dark voids that could drain the life out of you. "I can't believe my family seriously hired the worst assassins. Rubina is expensive, but much like my family, they have their heads up their asses, thinking they're the best just because they can pay for expensive equipment."
Sylvia smiled, ignoring the liquid running down her cheek, "If you were Excalita, I would have had some sort of compassion for you."
She draped the dead serpent over the man's shoulders and patted his head, "Maybe you can choose a better organization next time, like the Sicar."
She walked back to Ethan, still having the dead look and smile, before turning around. "Oh, if I see you guys again, I'll be sure to check my body for snakes before I rip your throats out and shove them up your asses," she added. In the blink of an eye, the male Koneko stopped disappeared, but before the second male could, he threw an arm out, casting a torrent of flame towards Sylvia and Ethan.
Sylvia raised a hand, which Ethan smacked down with his sheathed sword, because the impressive fire disappeared in a second, a Trjoyepla having dissipated it with a touch, and as another glanced at the man, both his arms disappeared.
Not cut or pulverized. Simply disappeared. He looked around in confusion before he screamed in shock.
"This is to prevent you from trying again. If you would like to continue using spoken spells, we would gladly remove your mouth too."
He became quiet instantly, "Your arms will be returned to you once you have been securely locked in a cell. For the time being, we will be in possession of your arms."
Ethan heard Sylvia swallow, and the final two assassins disappeared without a trace.
She glanced at him, "That was..."
"Entertaining? Impressive?"
"Unnerving," she said softly, her eyes turning from black to lilac, over the span of a few seconds. "I had some fun during the fight, but I never heard of anybody simply plucking your arms off and act as if they took your weapon."
"Those are the Trjoyepla," Ethan replied. "The humans here are strong, but those guys are a whole different league. Demi-gods, I can guess. Not even our best humans can do that."
She closed her eyes, face pale, "I can tell."
Ethan pressed a napkin into her hand as he eyed Koneko leaving, who turned around and saw him staring. She tapped her wrist twice and pointed on the floor before leaving the door.
I'll be waiting nearby.
Sylvia nodded her thanks and wiped the spit from her face, "So, you're still interested in my request?"
"I'm more interested in why," Ethan said as he sat down. "All those organizations you mentioned work for the supernatural or are composed of supernatural. You're Gremory and you mention-"
She gently pressed her finger to his lips, leaning forward to give a good view down her shirt, if he so chose to look. "Hold onto that thought, okay?"
He eyed her curiously as she pulled back, sighing, "I don't think you need to know. Not unless this pans out. If it doesn't, we won't see each other again. Ever."
"Is there a reason?" he asked.
"Because if you don't live up to my expectations," she smiled, "there's no reason for me to talk to you."
"Mhm...Are there any conditions, or can I just kill you when we walk out the door?"
"Conditions," she smiled, "Of course. But more to keep you at ease than restricting."
He tilted his head, and she continued. "So this town, Kuoh, I believe we are in the Plehfo Sector of Japan, right?"
Ethan nodded, knowing the boundaries, approximately the size of New York's Long Island, "What about it?"
"I won't leave this sector, and therefore, you won't have to when searching for me," she answered. "I have a home here because the Gremory family owns one, but its a place they never use. So I will be living there."
She smiled, "If you can find that home, you'll have an easier time at night."
Ethan frowned, "Can't you just leave and lead me on, then?"
"Well...normally people don't stay somewhere else during the night if they have a home, right?"
"Normally, people don't have assassin's breathing down their necks. Is your own home in the Underworld safe?" Ethan answered back.
She sighed, "Touche. I'll be taking that in consideration." Sylvia began reaching for the smaller slice, again.
"You can take a larger slice, if you want. I can't finish all of this anyway."
She seemed surprised and he could see the appreciation on her face. Sylvia eagerly took the giant wedge and answered, "You're right about my own home being unsafe. But do you want to have me make it even more difficult?"
"I don't want a win handed to me."
She gave it some thought as she ate through the slice, absently smiling as she chewed. Ethan quietly took another as she was finishing. Sylvia took a third slice and finally answered, "Okay, I'll leave randomly. Not too often, not too rarely."
"Got it." Ethan nodded, "So if I win, how do I get paid?"
"I'll give you the card you can turn in to Garo, everything I have is there." She saw his face and smiled, "Fifty million in USD, all yours."
He blinked. "So if I lose, you find another person."
"And you lose out on fifty million," Sylvia grinned. "And the money you can get from the Devils paying for that bounty. About...another ten million."
"If I win and don't choose to kill you?"
She seemed surprised and shook her head, "It's too complicated to let me live." Sylvia seemed to be lost in thought, getting another slice, "I can't find anyone to join my peerage because I'm a fucking reject. I don't want to spend the rest of my life fighting assassins. I want to die. Simple."
She seemed on the verge of tears, "After five years of looking over your shoulder, tell me how you feel, yeah?"
Sylvia shook her head, "I don't want to suffer that way any longer."
He stared at her, eyes narrowed. Eventually, she ate through five slices while waiting for his questions. When no more came, she began reaching for a pocket, "Okay. I'll pay for your meal."
"It's fine," Ethan replied. "Not expensive."
"It's for my thanks," she insisted urgently.
"You can easily by giving a hunt," Ethan replied. "It's fine."
Her eyes met his and he felt a spark ignite. Shunting aside the emotions, he assured himself he will worry about that later. After he killed her.
His regrets will come once he steals the money off her body.
Her hand was on his thigh and she was leaning forward, as if she herself wanted to make a move on him, but hesitant.
He brought out a wallet and dropped enough money to pay for three, nearly four, meals. Sylvia counted and frowned as Garo picked up the money.
"That's-"
"Place is expensive, but I make enough money to pay it off easily." Ethan was paying for Koneko too, but she was his ace up his sleeve. The spy, a kitten to be dismissed as a normal cat.
She didn't need to know.
"If you're sure..." she said before hopping off the stool, and looked back before she left.
At the door, she turned around. "Oh, Ethan?"
"Yeah?"
"If anybody else kills me, you'll lose the fifty million too. Technically." She winked, "That doesn't mean you can't kill them though."
He smiled, understanding her suggestion. She pushed the door open, glancing outside and checking the surroundings before looking back.
"You didn't want an easy win. If I see you, be fucking certain I'll fight for my life."
She vanished into thin air after finishing, and Ethan hopped off his stool, ready for a hunt he's never done before.