Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit, fan-based story. Devil May Cry is owned by Capcom, Hideki Kamiya, Hideaki Itsuno, and Studio Madhouse while being licensed by Madam Entertainment and Funimation. Familiar of Zero is owned by Noboru Yamaguchi, J.C Staff, and CTC. Please support the official releases and have a great day/night :)
[A/N: This story takes place sometime after the events of Devil May Cry 4 but before the events of Devil May Cry 5]
[Act One, Chapter Three: A Vixen's Flame]
Honestly, Jessie couldn't be annoyed or even angry because one way or another, the truth was going to be let out into the wild. Hopefully, it wouldn't stir up much of a ruckus; it would be much better if Louise and ONLY Louise kept the information to herself and didn't tell a single soul, no matter how tempting it sounded. The pink-haired girl's bedroom was dead silent; the cool wind was blowing in the background from outside, and several crickets were making their trademark noise, caring little for who heard. Letting a few seconds pass, Jessie finally decided to speak up. It was going to be quite challenging explaining to Louise what she was exactly and hoped that the adolescent Noblewoman wouldn't overreact as someone probably would. "You're unaware of this, and that's to be expected considering that I haven't informed you of anything notable about me, but I'm a Devil Hunter." Louise was about to open her mouth and respond, but Jessie beat her to the punch before she could even utter a mere word. "I know exactly what you're going to say, and I'm going to stop you right there." Jessie knew what the first question was going to be. "A Devil Hunter is an individual who is tasked with hunting down malicious demons that plague humankind and savagely prey upon weak and defenseless like animals." Louise frowned at that. Creatures attacking the innocent? How utterly despicable! "Every now and then, the monsters have legitimate reasons for doing what they do, but more often than not, they do it because they can and find it enjoyable despite how cruel it is." The brunette clenched her fists, but then she composed herself. "I became a Devil Hunter to put an end to the meaningless madness and sadistic killing; no more will innocent people perish to slake their shameful blood-lust, that I will make sure of."
"But I'm..." The young Valliere girl paused for a second, then continued. "...but I'm told that those beasts are incredibly powerful, best known and feared for their immense strength as well as their sheer tenacity. How are you able to take them on?" Louise's voice was noticeably soft; she was doing everything in her power to keep her emotions under wraps and not let them explode. She needed to know everything there was to know about Jessie; the brunette clearly wasn't a human, and it was driving her mad on the inside.
"You see..." Damn, this was going to be quite the dilly of a pickle, but it would all be worth it in the end, hopefully. "You might think that I'm an above-average human being, but I'm not actually...I mean, I am human, but I'm not a full-blooded one." Louise was confused beyond all belief, and Jessie couldn't blame her, to be frank. With the half-hearted explanation she just gave out, anyone in Louise's shoes would be rightfully befuddled. "Oh, to the Nine Underworlds with it" No use beating around the non-existent bush as one would say. "Louise, I'm a Nephilim, though I'm only a half Nephilim." Well, that kitten's now out of the bag. "Once again, I know exactly what you're going to say, and I'm going to stop you right there" Louise closed her mouth and allowed Winters to continue. "A Nephilim is a powerful individual with angel blood and demon blood coursing through their veins." Louise was quite shocked to hear such a thing existed; an angel and a demon getting along and conceiving an offspring? How could something like that be? Weren't they mortal enemies? "As I said before, I'm a Nephilim hybrid. The reason for this is my mother being a Nephilim and my father being a human. The two shared a night of passion and here I am. I'm one of the very few individuals that have Nephilim blood flowing through their veins in that Nephilims are a severely endangered species. Demons of all kinds, and occasionally some corrupt angels with hearts darker than the blackest void, believe it or not, have slain most of the Nephilims in fear and jealously for their immense power. The sole exceptions are me, obviously, alongside my sisters, my nephew, and a few others, although I don't know who they are, exactly. Many demons and a couple of angels have played the role of a sickening killer and tried to execute my family and me, but none of them have ever gotten the chance to do so, and I'll make sure it stays that way.
Nothing but silence filled the room once more. Truthfully, the final offspring of the famous Valliere family didn't know what to say; heck, she didn't even know if she could say anything, at the moment. Her familiar's amazing strength, her astounding speed, her extraordinary combat abilities, it all made sense now! A Nephilim hybrid...that's what her familiar claimed she was; could someone spell jackpot, because she certainly could! Finally! She did something marvelous for once; most importantly, she outdid Kirche; she finally one-upped that Germainian floozy! "Yes! Yes! Yes! Mother and Father would be most pleased if they were to see my big accomplishment! Eleonore and especially Cattleya would be proud of me, as well." The young Valliere girl was no longer Louise the Zero; she didn't know what she was exactly, but she was a zero no more, and that's all that mattered in the end.
Jessie silently observed Louise as the short pinkette mentally celebrated. Now that the brunette's secret was spilled like beans, it had to be kept a secret. Truthfully, she would very much prefer it if nobody knew about what species she belonged to and had everyone believing that she was a human being just like they were. "Look, I know you're surprised and many thoughts are running through your mind right now, but if we could keep this little secret between the two of us, I would like that." Now, Louise's smile of joy shifted into a frown of confusion. The pink-haired Noble wondered as to why she would want to keep her race a secret from the public. "For starters, I don't want people running up to me and asking me a bunch of questions, some I might not know the answer to." In Louise's eyes, that was understandable. "Secondly, I'm still new to this world. For all I know, there could be demons and angels that despise Nephilim just as much as the ones do back in my home. I can't take that risk and recklessly tell everyone personal information about me. You understand where I'm coming from, right?"
Louise nodded her head. "Yeah...at least I believe I do." The young Noblewoman understood Winters' problem on the matter. The former was an understandable person, most of the time, so she would see to it that she heeded her dark-skinned comrade's wishes, even if she wanted to tell everybody and their mother, including her own. Moreover, she found the brunette to be quite the scary lady when annoyed and an undeniable nightmare when enraged; she never wanted to get on her bad side again, that's for damn sure. No more of that ridiculous master and familiar nonsense that was going on earlier, she's putting that six feet under where it belongs, otherwise, Jessie would do something that she would never, ever forget no matter how long she lived, and that idea alone made her stomach churn.
Speaking of Jessie, the demon-hunting woman gave Louise a gentle rub on the head, which the pinkette found to be odd, but elected not to say anything. In fact, it almost seemed that she enjoyed it, but it was hard to tell, she was never one to let her sensitive side get the best of her; it must've been her Mother's blood along with her teachings and unfazeable attitude. "Thank you. I'm glad we could come to an understanding" Jessie smiled warmly. If the brunette didn't know any better, she was slowly starting to warm up to the child. Sure, the latter wasn't a saint in any sense of the word, but she wasn't that bad of a person, and, for the most part, knew how to act like a respectable human being; hell, if anything, the pinkette could've been a lot worse. "Alright." Jessie clapped her hands together, a loud clap resonating across the room. "I do believe it's time that we pack it in for the night."
On that, Louise agreed. The young Valliere girl had more questions for Jessie to answer, but she really wasn't in the mood to play twenty-one questions or anything of the sort. The teenager was tired and obviously needed eight hours of sleep; she could have her burning questions answered at another time. Not only that, tonight was a school night, and she absolutely could not afford to fail because she was too exhausted to work. With no arguments, the Noblewoman put on her sleepwear and packed it in for the night. "Finally..." Muttered Louise, Jessie unable to hear her word. That was the last thing said by the former before drifting off into slumberland. Her accomplishment was still fresh on her mind, and she couldn't shake it out no matter what she tried. Louise had every right to be proud of herself; anyone in her shoes would definitely agree if they went through what she went through.
Three days have passed since Jessie's battle, if one could even call it that, with the snobby two-timer, best known as Guiche de Gramont. As of lately, he's been apologizing to every girl he's cheated on and has been doing his best to make it up to them, though some aren't willing to forgive him as much as others. After that day, a wide variety of things changed around the academy. For starters, students have stopped making Louise for being inept at the art of magic, nor did they ridicule the young Noble behind her back when she wasn't looking; funnily enough, every time she came across their path, they would immediately apologize on the spot, asking for forgiveness. It could best be assumed that they were only doing it because they were afraid of Jessie and feared that Louise would have her attack them and put the fear of Brimir in them.
As of right now, Jessie was outside of the academy watching all of the familiars play with one another. "I must admit, these little critters aren't too bad." The brunette admitted to nobody in particular. "Get past their weird features and they're kind of cute...some of them, at least." Jessie has seen bigger and scarier monsters in the past; these guys were neither big nor scary. Right then and there, Tabitha's pet rhyme dragon, dubbed Sylphid walked up to Jessie and got in her face, however, it wasn't out of anger, but curiosity. The latter sure as heck wasn't an animal, but she wasn't a Noble or servant like everyone else; what was she? "I take it everything is going well for you, blue dragon?" Sylphid nodded adorably before shifting their attention to a wooden bowl that had nothing but delicious apples for her to possibly snack on if Jessie was willing to give her some. Eventually, Jessie noticed what Sylphid's eyes were fixed on. "I'm going to go out on a limb here and say you want these, correct?" Once again, Sylphid nodded their head, making a sound that demonstrated that she was famished. "Who am I to deprive someone such as yourself of food?" The Devil Hunter grabbed a yummy-looking apple and served it to the rhyme dragon, who scarfed it down with ease. The blue dragon suddenly made a sound of happiness before liking her cheek, causing the brunette to smile. "I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship." Dragons were a-okay in Jessie's book. Occasionally, she would come across a dragon, and they were either friendly or mean; more often than not, it was the former. Jessie's best guess was that dragons never had a problem with someone like her because they came from two different things.
Louise walked up to Jessie and Sylphid. "Huh, so this is where you've been for the past few minutes." Said the pinkette with her arms folded, to which Jessie sheepishly apologized. Louise didn't really care much at that point and was indifferent because it was going to happen one way or another, so what was the point in complaining? "Class is going to be starting in a couple of minutes. You're free to join me or do something else until it ends, you're choice." Valliere had no control over Jessie, and couldn't make her do what she didn't want to do. "By the looks of it, you seem to be having fun with Tabitha's familiar." Louise smirked with amusement written all over her face. "Tabitha might get jealous if she sees you getting buddy-buddy with her familiar. Heck, the other familiars might get jealous if they see you playing with the rhyme dragon instead of them."
Jessie could only playfully roll her eyes as she let out a false laugh. "Very funny, Valliere..." The Devil Hunter said, sarcastically. It was reassuring to know that Louise had a sense of humor and could be capable of being easy-going. It was a lot better than her being a hard-boiled turtle slapper, who was serious as a fatal heart attack. "You know what? I think I might join you just this one time." Louise raised an eyebrow. "I would very much like to see what happens in that classroom of yours." That was true, Jessie has been meaning to see what classes are like for the students. Adding on to that, it gives her an excuse to keep herself occupied. Now that wasn't to say that the Devil Hunter had the attention span comparable to that of a young child and was easily bored like they were, but in an old-fashioned world like the one she was in where technology and all things similar were nonexistent, there wasn't much to do besides study, sleep, and play with the other familiars, but even that got stale at times. "Let's go, I don't think your teacher would appreciate you being late for class." Louise shivered in fear, some teachers were cool and down-to-earth, but that didn't mean that tolerate tardiness. One of her teachers, Ms. Chevreuse, was a kind soul and treated everyone with respect, but she was someone whose bad side you did not want to get on.
Louise's classroom was noticeably large, something which Jessie noticed as they were much larger than the classrooms back in her previous world. For most of her life, the dark-skinned beauty had been homeschooled by her mother for reasons unknown because she never bothered asking, but she had seen classrooms before and none of them looked like the one she was standing in. Jessie was quietly sitting at a long desk next to Louise with her eyes closed, arms folded, and legs crossed. The scholars, as well as the professor, weren't bothered by the brunette's presence and just assumed that she was there to act as a bodyguard for Louise or because she didn't have anything better to do. Everything was going pretty well until a certain somebody decided to rudely interrupt the professor, and that certain somebody was none other than the red-haired girl from before, best known as Kirche. Jessie silently growled, wondering what was so damn important that she needed to stop the teacher in her tracks and prevent her from doing her duties. "This child again..."
"Excuse me, Mrs. Chevreuse." Said the young Germanian woman, using an 'innocent' tone that even a nincompoop could see right through. "I do apologize for the sudden interruption, but there's a special student with a zero percent chance of success, who can't even use one element." A devilish smirk appeared on Kirche's face as she, along with the other students in the room, barring Tabitha and a few students, directed their attention to Louise, who was grumbling curse words while wearing an ominous scowl. Kirche's attitude immediately changed when something flew past her face, unable to be seen. The buxom redhead cautiously turned her head and a shocked expression formed. What the bronze-skinned Germanian saw with her own two eyes was an eighteen-inch bowie knife that was lodged into the wall behind her with a few strands of red hair sticking out (1). She quickly directed her attention back to Louise, who had her arms folded and was tapping her feet in anger, then turned to Jessie...who was occupied with twirling another bowie knife around like it was nobody's business. Unbeknownst to Kirche, a clear string was attached to the knife that almost struck her face, and Jessie used that to pull the knife out with ease and have it land in the palm of her hand.
After a few seconds of pure silence, Jessie finally spoke up; she had a lot to say, and she was going to say it now. "I don't know where you think you are, child, but you sure as hell aren't there." The dark-skinned woman's unnaturally deep and baritone voice sent chills down the spines of many students, most importantly, Kirche, because she knew that the brunette was referring to her rather than the whole class. "This is neither a place for recreation nor a special room where you make quips as if you were at a comedy club. This is a classroom, you are here to learn and receive education not mess around and poke fun at your classmates for their...disadvantages." Jessie did her best not to offend Louise. "I've said this once, and I'll say it again because it has to be said; act your age and grow up. It's honestly embarrassing that you're a teenager on your way to adulthood and yet you prance around acting like you're ten or something." Now that certainly shut Kirche up and caused Louise to smile inwardly; maybe today wasn't going to be bad for her. Jessie noticed the professor, Mrs. Chevreuse gawking at her like she had just seen a spooky ghost and the former sheepishly apologized with a small smile of embarrassment. "Please forgive me, lost my cool there for a second. Do continue, ma'am." When it came down to children and teenagers, depending on a certain age for the latter, Jessie did her best not to harm them as she had a soft spot for the young ones. However, there were times where she would drop that rule and threaten or two, mainly teenagers if they were doing something she wasn't okay with like bullying or something similar, though her threats were very light at best.
"W-Well..." Mrs. Chevreuse gulped, finally summoning the courage to say something. "I-It would seem Ms. Valliere has summoned a rather...interesting familiar." On that, everyone agreed, even Louise herself. Now that Valliere's familiar declared, in a scary manner, no less, that she wasn't one for their nonsensical behavior, the students of Tristain would have to become a better version of themselves and not show to the world that they're ignorant savages; something of that caliber should be simple to accomplish, right?
Forty-five minutes had passed and the period came to an end. The Noble students were let out by the bell and were on their way to their next class. Jessie and Louise calmly walked through a hallway built on the outside of the Academy. Jessie was occupied reading a book she brought along with her, while Louise just walked with her arms folded. The pinkette was still upset with what happened earlier and Jessie could tell, her sour facial expression was a dead giveaway. "I can see that you're still annoyed with what that red-haired girl had said to the teacher earlier." Although Louise didn't want to admit it, Jessie had a point. "Answer me this, what are you doing to receive this sort of treatment?" Jessie would very much like to get to the bottom of the bullying nonsense and truly put a stop to it; if the teachers weren't going to do something about it, then she would. "You must have done something wrong in the past to trigger your classmates mercilessly harassing you." From what the redhead said earlier, the person she was referring to, who was obviously Louise, couldn't use an element. While Jessie didn't know much about the new world she was in, she had been slowly gaining valuable information for future events to come. From what she knew, each mage had the ability to control an element, i.e. fire, water, earth, and air; sometimes, a mage could wield two or more elements depending on the type of mage they were. There were six classifications of mages, and they were Dot, Line, Triangle, Square, Pentagram, and Hexagonal. Dot mages could only wield one element, Line mages could wield two, Triangle mages could wield three, Square mages could wield four, Pentagram mages could wield five, and Hexagonal mages could wield six. Unfortunately for Louise, she had difficulties using magic, so she couldn't be placed in any of the six categories. It was safe to assume that Louise's bullying just stemmed from her lack of magic, and children were just being cruel as usual; what else was new in the absurd world?
"Every time I perform a magic spell..." Louise growled and clenched his fist in anger before continuing "...it always ends with an explosion followed by people yelling at me and mercilessly calling me cruel names like Louise the Zero, Zero Louise, and many others." Jessie felt bad for the young Valliere girl, no child should be judged because they lack a certain talent. "Damn it all! I don't want to be a failure for the rest of my life, I want to show the entire world that I can be amazing too. I know I summoned you, and that's an achievement in its own right, especially after yesterday, but still. I want to be an astonishing mage; I want to be someone that children look up to and want to be like when they get older.
Jessie gazed upon Louise as the pink-haired Noble was venting out her frustration; something which she really needed to do otherwise she'd pop like a balloon that was filled with too much helium. Never in her life had the dark-skinned Nephilim ever been ridiculed before, mainly because she, along with her siblings and mother, lived in an area that was far from civilization and didn't move out until they were old enough to do so and find places of their own. Gently placing a hand on Louise's shoulders, Jessie gave her a warm smile, one that reminded the latter of Cattleya any time she was down in the dumps like now, for instance. "Child, if you want my honest opinion, I think your explosions are pretty interesting." That surprised Louise, nobody had ever appreciated her explosions; people usually despised them and it was hard to not see why. "All of the other kids can use elements like fire, water, earth, and what have you, but you can use literal explosions, which is much better than what they have in more ways than one. I believe you should be satisfied with what you got and tell anyone that judges you for it to go lay an egg (2). If they don't like it, that's their problem, not yours. With some training, you'll be the powerful mage you want to be."
Louise felt a smile creep up on her face. No one at Tristain Academy, or anywhere else, has ever stood up for her and made her feel like she was someone special, with the exception of Mr. Colbert and Cattleya. Maybe her explosions weren't such a bad thing; maybe there's a good chance that she could control it and use it to her advantage; after all, Tristain was a well-known school that taught students how to hone their skills. "Thank you for your kind words, Jessie. You are one of the few people that see potential in me."
Jessie simply smirked. "No problem, child, I do what I can to help out someone in need." She smirked, ruffling the vertically challenged Noble's pink hair. On occasions, Jessie would act as an older sister or therapist, giving advice and guidance to individuals if they required it. "I must admit, that went a lot better than expected." Part of Jessie thought that Louise would go berserk and say or do something unexpected, but she remained calm and stated what her problem was without complications; guess the Nephilim hybrid's words of wisdom got to her.
Several hours had gone by after Jessie and Louise's conversation. The latter was comfortably sleeping in her bed, while Jessie was at the school library reading the book she had earlier with a stack of books on the side. Right now, the black-haired woman was reading about a deity best referred to as Brimir. Most of the people in the building tended to use his name in their sentences when expressing shock or annoyance, but she had no idea what it meant and didn't care well enough to dive deep into it. From what Jessie's read so far, Brimir was worshipped and admired by many Nobles and commoners throughout several nations, though some didn't worship him nor did they believe in his existence. Jessie wasn't surprised in the least, her old world had that sort of thing, and it was kind of a touchy subject in the case of certain religious people. Truthfully, Winters had no real interest in deities, whether it be god or goddess, real or not real. The only reason she wore that crucifix around her neck, representing Christianity, was because a good friend of hers gave it to her in the form of a gift as the latter was a religious person; Jessie didn't want to hurt her friend's feelings and wasn't one to criticize others for their beliefs, so she chose to wear it. Placing that aside, Jessie was about to pick up another book when Siesta walked up to her, wearing her trademark smile.
"Greetings, Ms. Jessie." Bowed the black-haired maid, politely. "I take it your night is going well, at the moment?" Jessie answered with a nod. "Well, that's certainly good to hear. By the way, I never got the chance to truly thank you for sticking up for me. Not many people stand up for commoners such as myself in their time of need. Honestly, I wish I could've stood up for myself, but fighting was never really my thing and I would like to solve a situation without the need of violence." That was understandable, in Jessie's eyes, at least. Some folks weren't built and suited for combat, sometimes they were built for something completely different like cooking, cleaning, or building, and etc; not everyone could be a fighter like she was. "Ever since you defeated Guiche, the only thing the servants would talk about is you; they even went as far as to call you Jessie the Great Knight." Siesta couldn't see it, but Jessie frowned. Don't get her wrong, she sincerely appreciated the attention she received and was able to do good for the people, but she would prefer it if people treated her like a normal person...who slew demons and had angel blood, demon blood, and human blood running through her veins. "I would love to stay and talk some more, but I have to help out in the kitchen. I just came by because I saw you on my way there and I thought it would be nice to check on you."
Well, that was certainly sporting of Siesta. "I'm pleased we were able to conversate, even if it was for a brief moment." Said Jessie with a small smile on her face. "You take care of yourself, feel free to notify me if anyone's mistreating you or anyone else for that matter." Siesta took that piece of advice into consideration as she bid Jessie farewell and left the library, leaving Winters to her own devices. The dark-skinned lady chuckled to herself as she crossed her arms, placing them underneath her generous bosom. "She's a good child; always appreciate the sweet ones as mother would usually say" Having said that, Jessie went back to reading her book. Unfortunately, she had yet to find information containing universal travel, but she wasn't about to give up and call it quits; she still had to get back home to her friends and family.
Jessie casually stretched as she let out a yawn. The Devil Hunter proceeded to walk up three flights of stairs before arriving on the fourth floor. She continued her peaceful walk until a weird hissing sound stopped her midway. Jessie turned around and was greeted with Kirche's familiar, Flame staring at her with their tail wagging gleefully. "Hey, it's that red-haired girl's familiar." Jessie said, pointing out the obvious. The Nephilim hybrid placed her hands on her hips and she continued to observe Flame, who stood in place. "It's weird to see them alone without their owner by their side." Before Jessie could speak again, the large familiar waddled over to the former and chomped down on her jeans, and pulling them lightly. Getting down on one knee, the brunette gently pulled Flame away. "I would appreciate it if you didn't do that to my jeans. I understand that you're in the mood for some fun, but I'm not and I would like to get some rest if you don't mind." Suddenly, the fire salamander waddled over to a random door with a flame decoration on it and let out a soft moan. "Judging by how you're standing in front of that room with that decal on it..." There was a lot of emphasis on those two 'that' "...if I said this was your owner's room, I'd be correct, right?" Flame nodded their head at Jessie hitting it right on the nose. The brunette could only roll her eyes. "Of all the people in this school, why does she want to see me? Our interactions with one another weren't exactly the best if my memory serves me correctly?"
Instead of overthinking it, Jessie just sighed and shrugged her shoulders; might as well get it over with, and then be on her merry way afterward. The brunette slowly opened the door and entered the room, which was pitch black, as there were no lights, no candles, no nothing. Well, that wasn't bizarre in the slightest. The thought of Kirche being asleep and Flame playing a stupid trick entered Jessie's mind and she was about to walk back out when Kirche's voice called out to her from within the darkness. "Welcome to my room, Familiar of Zero...or would you rather be called darling~" The redhead was using a highly seductive tone, one that would cause countless teenage boys to become her adoring slaves at the drop of the dime. The sound of a loud snap appeared, echoing throughout the room, and several candles lit up, revealing Kirche, who was wearing a very revealing lingerie nightgown.
Jessie couldn't...she *!* just *!* COULDN'T *!*. If it weren't for the fact that the dark-skinned woman had regenerative abilities, she would be shooting herself over and over again, no hesitations, no regrets. "Lord, I know we don't talk very often, but PLEASE give me the strength not to do something that I might regret in the future. I really need you to bestow upon me your power, just this once." It didn't take an idiot to realize that Kirche was trying to get down and dirty with Jessie, who wanted NOTHING to do with her and would jump from the highest building imaginable. The million-dollar question was what was her motive? The two females were never buddies-buddies with one another, and Jessie pretty much wanted nothing to do with the fire mage, so what the hell?
The busty fire mage performed an extremely provocative pose, causing Jessie to inwardly throw up in utter disgust. Never in her life has she ever wanted death to come and take her where she stood. "Don't just stand there, beautiful warrior." Said Kirche in a sultry tone of voice, doing the 'come over here' gesture. "Come over here and let's get this night of passion started." In Kirche's eyes, everything was set up nice and perfect! The scented candles, the sexy outfit, the atmosphere, nothing could possibly ruin this moment. Now all that was left was to get busy with Valliere's familiar. To the Germanian woman's surprise, the Familiar of Zero just stood by the door and was actually giving her a look of pure revulsion; she definitely wasn't expecting something like that to happen. "What's the matter, darling?" Any other person would have been a drooling mess by now. Maybe the Familiar of Zero was playing hard to get, yeah, that had to be it!
Letting a few seconds pass by and finally getting her bearings in order, Jessie finally walked forward and sat on Kirche's bed before crossing her legs. "Look, let's get something straight here." Said the Nephilim hybrid. "I am in no mood, nor will I ever be, for whatever...this mess is." Kirche, still believing that Jessie was acting difficult on purpose, leaned in, but the latter lightly pushed her back with a finger, much to the redhead's surprise; what was she doing wrong? "I want you to tell me, in perfect detail, I might add, what the purpose of all of this?" Unless the buxom mage has a split personality disorder of some kind, she shouldn't be attracted to someone like Jessie, not after the brunette embarrassed her in front of her classmates. "Flirting with an individual you know nothing about is wrong, not to mention it could get you in serious trouble."
"The answer is quite simple, my beloved darling~" Jessie told Kirche not to call her that, but the redhead continued regardless. "I am a woman in love and the one I love is you." Jessie was surprised by that; not from the fact that someone said she loved her, but from the fact that it was a young person that said it, she sure as hell wasn't expecting to hear something like that. "That battle with Guiche was truly breathtaking, I never knew you had such amazing power. Seeing you then, Kirche the Fervent transformed into Kirche the Passion." For a second time, the top-heavy mage leaned forward to give Jessie a kiss, but the Devil Hunter put an abrupt stop to that before she could do so.
"Okay, first of all, we sure as hell won't be doing that or anything of the sort." Jessie stated, knowing exactly what Kirche was trying to do. "There are many things one shouldn't do to me, unplanned and unauthorized kissing is one of those things. "Second of all, and this is something you should definitely hear, you are not in love with me, you're in lust with me, there's a very big difference between the two." Although Jessie was never excellent when it came down to the absolute craziness that was romance, she could tell when a person truly loved somebody, and when they just wanted to get their rocks off and do only that. Kirche fell in the second category and the evidence was all over the place that even Stevie Wonder and Daredevil could see it. The red-haired mage could use every excuse in the book to soften the blow, it still wouldn't change that she wanted passion instead of compassion; sure, the two intertwined occasionally, but at the end of the day, they were two different things. "You love me for what I am, not who I am. This conversation is over, goodnight."
Having said her peace, Jessie calmly got up from Kirche's bed and walked over to the door. Kirche had a look of shock plastered all over her face because her entire plan came to a screeching halt. The fire mage was about to say something when her 'boyfriend', Styx along with her other 'boyfriends' appeared by the window and called out to her. Jessie was so done and tired to the point where she ignored everything that was going on and left the room without even glancing at the commotion, closing the door soon after. Now outside, Winters pinched the bridges of her nose as a long sigh of irritation erupted from her mouth. Good Kamiya, that was...that was terrifyingly horrible in every sense of the word, and no amount of therapy would ever make it okay. There were millions upon millions of reasons why she didn't follow through and sleep with Kirche. The first and most obvious reason was that she was thirty-nine in terms of age and was going to turn forty in June. Hooking up with Kirche, who was probably seventeen or eighteen, would be remarkably disgusting and people would start to believe that she was into young adults and she would NOT be labeled as a goddamn cougar! Adding on to that, if Jessie had taken Kirche up on her offer, the latter would just receiving another way to torment Louise, and nobody, but her, wanted that. Last but certainly not least, Jessie wasn't interested in romance, not at the moment, at least, and was off the market for the time being. The brunette spent most of her days slaying demonic creatures and traveling around the world without a care in the world, so she could never find time to properly find a mate; one of these days, she might find someone, but until that day she'll be as single as a pringle.
The time was eight o'clock in the morning and Louise was peacefully brushing her strawberry-pink hair while Jessie was sitting in a chair, looking outside as per usual. Seeing as things were too quiet and awkward for her liking, Jessie took the opportunity to spark a conversation with Louise. "So..." The brunette started. "...what do you have planned for today?" Today was Saturday, so, naturally, the students of Tristain had the day off, free to do whatever they wanted to do as they didn't have to worry about classes. Jessie figured that she would try to hang out with Louise and get to know her a little better. Their relationship now wasn't as bad as it was when they first met, but it could have been a lot better.
Louise stopped brushing her hair as she turned to Jessie. "I don't know." Answered the young Valliere girl. "Honestly, I was thinking about heading into town and doing a little bit of shopping for some clothes and other stuff." Louise folded her arms and placed a finger on her chin. "I haven't been able to do that lately, so today seems like the perfect day to do so. It also helps that my family, more so my older sister, Cattleya sent me some money" Jessie could only chuckle inwardly as she shook her head. The life of a rich kid, she thought. It must have been interesting to be like them; never worrying about money, living their life to the fullest, having a servant follow their orders regardless of what it was; the brunette was okay with the way her life way, most of the time, but still.
Getting up from her chair, Jessie grabbed ahold of her leather coat from off Louise's coat rack and turned to the young Noble. "Make yourself presentable, sweetheart." She said, her arms placed within the pockets of her coat. "If going to the store is what you desire, then going to the store is what we'll do. Besides, I think it will be a pleasant way for the two of us ladies to bond and learn more about each other." Frankly, Jessie was in the mood for traveling and the market was the perfect excuse for her to go somewhere; she could never stay in one place; she had to be on the move, whether she could control the urge or not. She honestly didn't think there was a town nearby and was actually quite interested in seeing the various types of stores she could visit. Hopefully, one of them would have something worth her attention.
Though Louise was certainly on board with the idea of going to town, there was a small problem. "We have to pay for the horses at the academy, and it will take us approximately three hours to get there." The pinkette pointed out as Jessie frowned. There it was, the small problem mentioned before...if one could even call it that, that is. Now Louise had little to no qualms with spending some cash for the use of horses since they were cheap and affordable, but the travel time was something completely different, though it wasn't going to stop her from going to town; she would just have to power through it and whatever happens, happens. "I highly doubt that you have the time and patient for a horse ride that's three hours long, but if you're okay with it, then so be it." Louise continued to peacefully brush her hair as Jessie's frown shifted into a smile indicating that a fascinating idea had just entered her mind. "Just give me a few minutes, and I'll be ready to go."
"Forget the horse ride, I got something that's much better and will get us to where we need to go in no time flat." Louise was befuddled. Something that's much better and will get them where we need to go in no time flat? What on Earth did Jessie have that was faster than a horse, especially when they were equipped with speed magic to increase their speed? Was it a dragon, or was she going to use her special Nephilim powers to make them teleport or something? "It will only take one or two hours, heck, possibly a few minutes. Bottom line, if we do things my way, you'll see some interesting results." Okay, now Louise was definitely confused and gave the Devil Hunter a perplexed look. "Get dressed and you'll see what I have in store for you." Jessie grinned. "I'll be outside, come out and meet me when you're finished." Louise couldn't get a word in as Jessie promptly left the room, leaving the young mage to herself. The latter could only roll her eyes as she went back to what she was doing before. Whatever her comrade had planned, it probably wouldn't end well for her, or maybe it would; either way, she wasn't rushing to find out.
Kirche was occupied putting on her school uniform as she angrily glared at the destroyed window that lied before her. "Those moronic clowns..." Growled the voluptuous mage, remembering what happened the other night." Never in her life has she ever been rejected before, it put a massive hole in her pride as a seductress and a Zerbst; they always got the man or woman they desired, and she was not about to break that streak, not today. "Tch, not only did they demolish my chance at hooking up with Zero's familiar, but they also caused me to destroy my window. I have no other choice but to lie to the staff and come up with an excuse as to how it happened." Zerbst sighed as she rubbed the temples on her head. "Why did I even choose to date those obnoxious ignoramuses? All they ever did was ogle at the goods and none of them lasted long with me. No matter, now that I'm done with them, I can try my luck with Zero's familiar and make her mine with no interruptions. It'll be perfect, the look on Valliere's face will be a spectacular sight to see." Kirche smiled. The plan was set in motion; she was going to succeed, and damn the consequences, they were just hindrances. Right as the fire user was about to make her way to the dining hall, she heard a loud noise coming from outside. She went over to the window and saw Jessie with Louise standing beside her. "What in Brimir's name is going on down there?"
"This is going to be marvelous, believe me on this one, little Valliere." Jessie was carrying a noticeably wide and eager smile, as Louise just sighed and shook her head. The latter knew she wasn't going to enjoy whatever Jessie had planned, but she also knew that she couldn't back out now, not while the brunette was all giddy and excited. If she was happier than a cat on catnip or a squirrel getting a nut, then that meant her plan was something very wild and potentially dangerous. "Stand back, you don't want to get too close to the action." Louise did exactly that as Jessie took a few steps forward. The Devil Hunter takes a deep breath before placing her hands on the ground and quietly speaking words that Louise wasn't able to hear clearly. Two white magic circles with runes on them appeared, with one placed underneath Jessie and another a few feet away from her. Louise was flabbergasted as she had no idea that her familiar could use magic; what else was she capable of? The two magic circles mentioned previously began to emit a blinding light that caused Louise to cover her eyes, but once the bright light slowly died down and the Noble could uncover her eyes, she gasped in shock and awe. In front of the pinkette was a weird object, but that weird 'object' was actually a motorcycle, a 2005 Bourget Python 330, to be precise, that was cobalt blue and had white flames as a decal (3). "This beautiful piece of metal and additional parts is my motorcycle, Speed Demon. My older sister gave it to me as a present for my birthday and I've treasured it ever since. When it comes down to getting me to my destination in time, Speed Demon is the best around and its speed definitely backs up that claim. Come on, let's go for a ride."
Instead of moving, Louise just stood in place, still in shock and awe; she couldn't take her sight away from the motorcycle that rested before her very eyes. Never in her life had she ever come across something like Speed Devil or whatever Jessie called it, what with a good percentage of the Earth's population using horses and cartridges to travel where they needed to go. The young Noble eventually walked over to Speed Demon and gave it a few pokes. "I don't even know what to do." That was to be expected; technology had yet to be invented in Louise's world, so of course, she wasn't going to be familiar with things such as vehicles and electronics. "She referred to this thing as a mo-tor-cy-cle, but I don't even know what that is. Not only that, the name sounds really stupid and nonsensical like a child came up with it."
Jessie lightly chuckled to herself. "It's simple and easy, really. All you have to do is just get on the little passenger seat behind the big seat and I will take it from there. Everything will be fine, and most importantly, you will be fine." She explained, nonchalantly, pulling out the keys to Speed Demon from within the back pocket of her jeans. Valliere slowly yet cautiously got on the motorcycle and sat in the passenger seat while Jessie hopped on the blue bike as well and sat in the rider's seat. The brunette placed the keys in the ignition and started up her beloved Speed Demon. The sound it made when it activated was like soothing music to Jessie's ears and an annoyingly loud alarm clock in Louise's, who wasn't amused in the slightest. "Alright, I got it up and running." Jessie rubbed Speed Demon as if it were her child before turning to Louise. "Before we go, I would like to kindly inform you that we are going to be traveling at a high velocity, so I would advise that you do everything in your power to hold onto me as tight as you possibly can in order to not fall off and gravely injure yourself." Now wearing a grin, Jessie adjusted her gloves and placed her riding goggles over her eyes. "Remember what I said." Before Louise could even respond, Winters revered the engine and took off at a phenomenal speed; Louise screamed for dear life, clinging onto Jessie tightly, while the latter was having the time of her life.
Tabitha was in her room, peacefully reading a book while relaxing on her bed. As mentioned previously, today was Saturday, and that meant the blue-haired Noble had the entire day to herself, free to do whatever she pleased. The silent bookworm flipped a page in her book and continued reading until a sudden knock at the door appeared, throwing her off. Tabitha merely ignored the noise and went back to reading her book until the knocking got louder and more annoying. With a small sigh of irritation, Tabitha picked up her magic wand, which was actually a staff, and performed a magic spell that unlocked her door. Kirche came bursting through said door, rambling about Louise's familiar and true love, but her words couldn't be heard by Tabitha as the petite young woman had a magic spell that muted anyone who entered the room, barring herself, of course. Tabitha really wanted to ignore Kirche and go back to her reading, but she had a hunch that if she didn't undo the mute spell, the latter would start to get physical to gain her attention and that was something she didn't want. The young mage waved her wand and Kirche's voice could finally be heard, much to her short friend's dismay. The buxom Noble told Tabitha to get prepared because they were going out, but the only thing she received was a very harsh 'no.' from the silent bookworm. "I'm staying here..." She said casually, not even bothering to give Kirche a quick glance.
Kirche sighed at that and rubbed her temples in irritation. "Yes, yes, I'm fully aware that you would rather sit here and read instead of leaving the academy, but this is seriously important to me." Stated the redhead in a tone of voice that expressed she was annoyed before shifting said tone to a determined one. "If I don't act now, I may lose my destined one forever and I can't allow that to happen!" Even after stating her reasons, Kirche still got a 'no.' from Tabitha via a head shake, which annoyed her greatly. The busty fire mage loved her dearly, she really did, but her indifferent nature was somewhat bothersome. "That's right...it sometimes slips my mind that you won't do jack squat for anyone unless you're given a good reason to do so. Okay, Tabitha, listen closely." Tabitha was somewhat listening. "I WANT TO CHASE AFTER VALLIERE AND HER FAMILIAR, BUT I CAN'T DO THAT WITHOUT THE HELP OF YOUR AMAZING FAMILIAR!" Kirche got down on her knees and pulled Tabitha close, looking dead in her almost lifeless eyes. "WILL! YOU! HELP! ME!?"
Tabitha stared at Kirche for a couple of seconds before closing her book and placing it to the side. "Fine..." Kirche squealed as she brought the blue-haired Noble in for a tight yet warm and compassionate hug of friendship, her large bosom pressing against her friend's small one. Tabitha was already regretting her choice and wanted to take it back, but it was too late now and she HAD to do it seeing as she said yes without directly saying it.
"Oh, thank you ever so much, Tabitha; I certainly won't forget this generous act of kindness." Smiled Kirche. Tabitha rolled her blue eyes for a second time and shook her head; the wind mage knew Kirche much better than anyone else at Tristain Academy, and whenever the redhead said she was in love with someone, the former didn't believe her because the feeling never lasted long and she would go on to find another unfortunate soul the very next day as if it were nothing. Tabitha started to question if her friend had a weird kink for taking hearts and breaking them, but that was a question for another time. "Let us make haste, Tabby, we're losing precious time as we speak." Tabitha got out of bed and opened her window before letting out a loud whistle, which caught the attention of Sylphid, who flew right to her. "Your familiar is magnificent no matter how many times I see it." When questioned about where the location was, Kirche chuckled nervously as she scratched her head. "I heard they were going to town. The two of them were on some sort of blue and white thingamajig, which was very loud, I must say. Valliere's familiar said it was called a motorcycle, but I have no idea why it's called that."
"Louise Valliere and her familiar...track them down...refrain from eating them" Instructed Tabitha as Sylphid followed her command with a small nod. Tracking two people down should be a delicious piece of cake with apple-flavored frosting on top for the rhyme dragon since their nose and eyesight were the best around. As for eating them, they wouldn't dare eat a person if they didn't have a legitimate reason to do so and they liked Jessie, so they sure as heck wasn't about to eat her and possibly destroy their friendship. Tabitha and Kirche hopped on Sylphid and the dragon took off with great speed, although not as fast as Speed Demon.
Back with Jessie and Louise, the two had finally arrived at their destination of interest. Granted, it took an hour to get there, but Jessie could have gotten there in under a half-hour or possibly in several minutes had she increased the speed at which she was traveling, but she didn't want to scare Louise, seeing as it was the pinkette's first time and all. The Devil Hunter got off her motorcycle and did a little bit of stretching. "Here we are." She said, grabbing her goggles and placing them back on her head. "Sunfall; not a bad name, I must admit. To be honest, I thought it would be a lot bigger, but bigger isn't always better...depending on what you're referring to, that is." Having said that, Jessie turned to Louise, who looked like she had seen a ghost and that was partially the former's fault. Speed Demon's speed proved to be a bit too much for the pink-haired mage and wasn't like normal motorcycles, it was much faster and took some time to get used to. Jessie had never been in Louise's position, but the wind could be a bit bothersome at times.
Louise's hair was a disheveled mess and it looked like she just awakened from a long slumber. "Let's never...do that...again..." Seethed the pinkette earning a light chuckle from her partner. If there was one thing Jessie found entertaining about Louise, it was her easily angered nature. One teeny-tiny, itsy-bitsy, little mistake was all that was required for the vertically challenged Noble to go off and almost lose her mind. In all honesty, it sort of reminded Jessie of Nero in a way; sure, there was no doubt that the kid was good-hearted and tried to do right by the people of Fortuna, as well as the orphans he and his childhood sweetheart, Kyrie take care of, but he could be hot-blooded at times and was rather quick to anger, though he was learning to control his temper and not let it get the best of him. Louise wasn't like Nero, and that was pretty obvious from the get-go, but that didn't mean they shared similar qualities in terms of personality. The young Valliere straightened her hair out before grabbing her coin purse from within her bookbag. "Come on, Sunfall will end up getting crowded by a certain hour if we just stand here and do nothing."
After walking for a few minutes, the two females arrived at the heart of Sunfall, one of Tristain's many towns. There were commoners darn near everywhere, either conversating with other commoners, buying something, or selling something. All in all, the place looked really peaceful and there was a calm and soothing atmosphere, which Jessie fancied. The Devil Hunter whistled in surprise and admiration as she took in the friendly environment. "Today is quite lively today, isn't it?" That was the understatement of the year, possibly the century. Everyone and their mothers were having a good old time, enjoying themselves and appreciating what life had to offer them. Truthfully, Jessie envied the happy-go-lucky townspeople for what they had; blissfully unaware of the cruelty that lied beyond their world; maybe they were aware of the monsters that plagued humankind; maybe they weren't. In their eyes, they had nothing to worry about. Now that wasn't to say that the dark-skinned beauty had never had a pleasant vacation day in all her years of living, but those days rarely came since she would be busy dealing with hellish beasts and would prefer a day where she didn't have to worry about them.
Louise was the first to step forward. "Be on your guard, Winters." She said, receiving a frown from Jessie. "I've been told this place can be really devious at times. If you're not careful, all of your prized possessions could end up being stolen from you by mangy, no-good thieves." Jessie was most surprised to hear that; from her point of view, Sunfall seemed pretty safe, but she guessed that even the safest of towns could contain a few rotten bad apples that liked to shake things up for whatever reason. "For some odd reason, thieves and criminals of all kinds have been coming out of the woodwork lately, and nobody knows why. Regardless, I want you to keep a close eye on the civilians and make sure they don't steal anything from us, is that understood?" Jessie responded with a small nod. Defending their money and keeping it safe from stealers should be a simple and easy task to accomplish. "Excellent, now let's get a move on."
An hour or so had gone by; Jessie and Louise were calmly walking around Sunfall, looking at various artifacts, clothing, and what have you. Even though Jessie was never one for fancy clothing and would rather be wearing casuals, she had to admit that they looked good, though she would never wear them. One thing that irked her was the insane and outrageous prices; seriously, with those kinds of prices, the individuals that purchased the clothing must have been extremely rich and were fashionistas. Placing that to the side, Jessie noticed a nice restaurant and smiled as she pointed to it. "Are you in the mood for something to eat?" Ironically enough, the Nephilim hybrid had some of Marteu's cooking before she left Tristain, but her stomach was an endless void that could never truly be satisfied no matter what was placed in there. Right as Louise was about to refuse the thoughtful proposal she was present with, her stomach rumbled loudly and she cursed quietly, annoyed that her stomach would betray her like that. Jessie simply snickered, earning a death glare from Louise. "I'm going to go ahead and assume that was a yes." It obviously was, but Jessie wanted to twist the knife. "Why don't we go ahead an-BWAH!" A sheet of paper smacked Jessie clean in the face and Louise would be fibbing if she said she didn't find that funny. The brunette took the paper off her face and read it, but couldn't complete it as most of the words were blurred out. "What in God's name is this? The only words I can make out are Noble and cage."
Louise shrugged her shoulders, not caring much for it. "Who knows, who really cares?" Said the pinkette with a level of indifference that could possibly rival Tabitha's. "If you want my honest opinion, it's best that it stays a mystery; there should be no reason for you to be pulling your hair out over something so trivial and potentially time-wasting." When Louise had a point, she had a point. Something like that was nothing Jessie should concern herself with and she would be better off doing something much better. On the other hand, though, her curiosity was getting the best of her and it was like a wild tiger that absolutely could not be tamed at the moment. "Forget the paper and let's get something to eat. I've heard through the grapevine that the cooking there is really delicious." Were it not for the fact that Louise found drooling, depending on the scenario, to be unbecoming and unladylike, she would definitely be salivating.
Jessie turned the mysterious paper around and was met with a map that was able to be read. "Well, look what we have here." The brunette said with mild interest. "This dingy piece of paper actually has something useful in the form of a map." It might've been the inner troglodyte deep within Jessie speaking and taking control, but she was actually interested in seeing where this map would lead her. Sure, it was incredibly stupid, and any normal person would instantly turn down any and all notions of investigating, but Jessie was unquestionably not normal and when she had her eyes set on something, it was extremely difficult to pursue her not to do so; it seemed to be a family trait because her sisters were like that too, unnecessarily stubborn. "If you want to stay here and eat, you're more than welcome to do so, Louise." Jessie started walking forward. "I, on the other hand, will be seeing where these directions lead me to. As I said before, if you want to stay here and eat, you're more than welcome to do so. Goodbye."
Louise facepalmed as she watched her comrade walk off, leaving her behind. The young Noble shifted her attention to the restaurant that the two of them were supposed to visit, then turned back to Jessie, who was still walking as she had no other reason to stop in her tracks. Ultimately, Louise made the decision to join Jessie. "Damn it all to hell and back..." She cursed to herself. The pinkette really didn't want to spend her day going on a wild goose chase; granted, she had the choice not to do so, but part of her was afraid for Jessie and what she'd get herself into. The latter knew how strong the Devil Hunter was and what she was capable of performing, but she still wanted to look out for her; the world of magic was no laughing matter, and one could get themselves killed if they ended up in the wrong spot, at the wrong place, at the wrong time.
Jessie and Louise somehow found themselves in an extremely polluted and garbage-filled alleyway that smelled like a donkey's rear and cigarette smoke. Louise was wholeheartedly disgusted out of her poor mind and felt like she was going to throw up from the dirty appearance alone, while Jessie was surprisingly indifferent to it and didn't really seem to care that much. In all honesty, she had seen worse and came across alleyways that would put the one she was in to utter shame; dead bodies, offensive graffiti art, sex workers getting jiggy with their customers; whatever you were thinking, she had already seen it. What lied in front of the pair was a rusty metal door that was covered with dried-up blood and a small window one could peek through. "Given how the map coordinates led us to this location, I'm going to go ahead and say it's safe to assume that this is the place we're supposed to be at." Jessie looked at the map one last time, then looked back to the ominous door. "Yeah, this is definitely the place and that door is what's hindering us from the irregularities that lurk on the other side."
Louise nervously gulped and took a few steps back in fear. She was starting to regret her decision with every second that passed and was also starting to have second opinions on what was about to happen. She couldn't back down, unfortunately, because she had already forgotten her way back to the nice and safe part of Sunfall and was now stuck with Jessie until it was time to go, and who knew when that was going to be. "Winters, are you sure you want to do something like...this?" Louise received a confused look from her partner. "Wouldn't you rather do something different like shopping or eating?" Yeah, eating and shopping; those were safe activities. "This could be a dangerous trap for all we know. Why don't we turn back to the nice part of town where everyone's happy and there's good food to be eaten."
Jessie could only wonder why Louise made the choice to tag along for the ride if she didn't want to in the first place. The dark-skinned Devil Hunter was going to question the pinkette about that, but she decided to go against it. "Look, I don't want to come off like this and be that lady, but the way I see it, there's no backing out now and you're already here; the best choice for this scenario is to strap yourself in and hold tight for the wild ride that's to come." Ignoring Louise's complaints, Jessie casually opened the rusty door, and a loud yet ominous creak emitted from it, which startled Louise and caused Jessie to roll her eyes; in her opinion, she found the creaking to be a bit cliche for her liking. Once inside, the ladies were met with complete darkness. "Well...can't say I haven't been in something like this before." Louise was frightened out of her mind, shivering like a cute chihuahua, and Jessie could tell...because the young mage was clinging onto her as if she was a human-sized teddy bear.
Just before Valliere was given the chance to voice her opinion (and she had a lot to say), several torches lit up around her and Jessie, revealing numerous figures wearing blood-red robes. Jessie was instantly reminded of her nightmare-inducing night with Kirche and immediately scowled darkly at the figures that stood in front of her. "A pleasure to make your acquaintance, newcomers..." Greeted one of the many hooded figures, using an oddly polite tone. "Art thou Nobles or..." There was a sudden pause "...art thou Plebeians" There was a whole heaping of venom and hate behind that plebeian part, which hadn't gone unnoticed by Jessie, who was slightly concerned. That didn't sound good; it was almost as if the figure wasn't a fan of commoners, and he probably wasn't if his negative tone was anything to go by.
"My pink-haired companion standing beside me is a Noble hailing from a famous and prestigious family, while I am merely a commoner woman sticking by her side and acting as a guardian until otherwise." Jessie responded, sincerely. "We fou-I mean, we were presented with a flyer that contained directions leading to this place of mysteries." Strangely enough, the greeter said nothing in return and stared at Jessie and Louise for a couple of seconds before turning to the other hooded figures and giving them a small nod. The greeter moved to the side and the wall behind him split apart, revealing a secret passageway. The greeter calmly pointed to the secret passageway and said 'good luck.' Jessie turned to Louise and shrugged her shoulder before walking forward, the latter following suit as she didn't want to be left behind, not in the hands of the hooded people who she thought were creeps, and she wasn't exactly in the wrong for thinking so; Jessie seemed to agree and she was the woman who's life revolved around eliminating strange-looking demons on a daily basis. The wall behind Jessie and Louise closed and various lanterns lit up, illuminating the way. "My, these folks aren't ones for normalcy."
The faint sound of cheering could be heard from a distance, picked up by Jessie thanks to her above-average hearing. The Nephilim hybrid informed Louise of said cheering and the pair proceeded to walk forward until they came across a wooden door. Louise quickly hid behind Jessie, afraid of what might happen next, leading the brunette to question for a second time why she had decided to tag along, but she threw those thoughts to the side and opened the door. To Jessie and Louise's surprise, they were welcomed with a multitude of Noblemen and Noblewomen, whooping and hollering as if they were at a football game. Centered in front of all the fat cats was a square, wooden stage with blood on it, followed by a worn-out, chain-link fence surrounding the entire thing. What made things more surprising was that there were two people standing in the middle of the stage and they both looked scared. Jessie was quite disturbed and wondered what the hell was going on. Louise, equally disturbed as Jessie, was quick to point out that the spectators were Nobles like her because of the fancy attire they were wearing and the unnecessary amount of gold jewelry that they had around their necks and fingers.
Unexpectedly, a loud and boisterous voice came out of nowhere, temporarily throwing Jessie and Louise off guard. The voice emanated from a man who was wearing a spiffy suit while holding up an old-fashioned microphone crafted out of metal. "Good morning, Noblemen and Noblewomen of Sunfall." Said the man in an enthusiastic tone as the Nobles cheered in pure excitement. "Today in Devil's Pit, we have two macho combatants who are going to show us how manly they really are!" Receiving shouts and cries of eagerness and anticipation, the announcer smirked and continued. "Make sure to hold onto your seats because this is going to be one crazy match you absolutely don't want to miss no matter what!"
Jessie folded her arms and gave the announcer a look of confusion. Devil's Pit? What kind of weird name was that and who was the guy or girl that came up with it? Feeling like she needed to go incognito, Jessie placed her hood over her head and made her way over to the front where the rich folks were with Louise in following her lead. Once they were at the front, the pair get a better look and notice that they were commoners because of the dirty and ragged clothes they were wearing. Commoners? What part did they have to play in the whole shebang? The announcer yelled out for the peasants to fight one another and they did exactly that, much to Jessie and Louise's horror and their dismay; everyone else, on the other hand, was cheering and wanted to see blood. Some Nobles were making bets as to who would win while others were busy shouting out profanities that would make a sailor either cry in happiness or sadness. The match began to heat up as one of them grabbed a rusty pipe that just so happen to be in the ring and clonked his enemy over the head with it. Jessie cringed at the sight and Louise felt had the same react; she was thankful she didn't eat anything otherwise she'd be puking her guts out. The pipe-wielding peasant began to beat down on his opponent until he knocked them out leaving numerous bruises. Just when Jessie and Louise thought it was over, a broken glass bottle gets thrown in the ring, which the victor catches.
Louise's pink eyes widened. "Is he..." She began, trembling in fear. "...is he going to do what I think he's going to do?" Yep, the commoner was going to do exactly what Louise thought he was going to do. With a roar, he jabbed the broken part of the glass bottle into the defeated plebeian's neck, causing blood to spew out. "OH, MY BRIMIR!" Louise covered her mouth in shock as she took a few steps back. Why!? Why would anyone do such a thing!? More importantly, why were the Nobles cheering as if someone dying was something to be happy about!? There was nothing joyful about people dying! "This place...this place makes me sick to my stomach; these people, scratch that, these demons are monstrous savages." The young Valliere had met some unpleasant people before, but none of them, bar none, were as bad as these barbarian beasts in human clothing.
Jessie was fuming with great anger and rage, clenching her fist as she was trying to hold in her emotions. "This place is a horrifying death arena and these sadistic freaks of nature are enjoying every second of it regardless of who dies and who lives; these monsters are laughing at the poor souls fighting for their lives as if they were clowns at the damned circus." It infuriated and saddened Jessie to no end when she would witness human beings acting as cruel and callous as demons and other monsters; she could never understand the reasoning for it and why they found their acts of violence against their own kind to be something worth enjoying, but it was sickening. Jessie turned to Louise and gave her a serious look. "We need to put a stop to this and find the owner of this hellish place. If there's a club of any sort without a leader to keep it strong and steady, it'll crash and burn to the point of no return." That was true; an organization without a powerful leader to lead and back it up would collapse in a matter of minutes, possibly seconds. Fortunately, the spectators got up from their seats and left to either get some refreshments, use the bathroom, or place down a few bets for the next battle. The time to act was now and Jessie was more than ready to stop Devil's Pit! Observing the commoner who got stabbed in the neck, the Demon Slayer frowned sadly as she went up on stage and got down on one knee. "Rest easy up above..."
Suddenly, a bright ray of light beamed down upon Jessie's face, temporarily blinding the woman. All of the rich onlookers returned to their chairs and were ready to watch another brawl go down. Before Winters could even formulate a response let alone a plan, the gate to the chain-link fence closed and the commentator spoke up. "Ladies and gentlemen, I hope you grabbed some refreshments and took that number two because we're back with Devil's Pit!" The audience cheered and shouted. "Today's match is between the old versus the young. On the right, we have Albert the Destroy." An elderly man wearing a butler's uniform walked up to the stage. Oddly enough, his eyes were closed and he wore a warm smile on his face like he wasn't even aware of what was going on. "On the left, we have...some random woman, whose name I don't know of." The crowd cheered again, wanting to see a bloodbath. "Who will win the battle? Will it be the old geezer or will it be the beautiful youngster? This is one fight you don't want to miss out on folks!"
Jessie scowled at the excited announcer with an unwavering amount of hate and malice in her emerald-green eyes. "Are you kidding me?" She questioned. "You psychopaths actually expect me to compete against a senior? What in the world is wrong with you? Do you sick bastards not have an ounce of humanity left within you and get off to the suffering of others?" Jessie received boos and complaints from the now-angry audience, barring Louise since they wanted to see some action happen. "It's a cold day Netherworld before I murder innocent people for the sake of your own twisted amusement. If you want to see entertainment so bad, why don't you do yourself a favor and go visit the theater to see a play."
"Listen, sweetheart, I'm afraid you have no choice whether you want to fight or not; you knew what you signed up for when you entered Devil's Pit." Said the announcer with his arms folded. "If you're not going to fight, then I'm afraid I must punish you." Jessie didn't look surprised in the slightest; in fact, she was more than willing to give these people their just desserts; if they wanted to see combat, then combat was what they were going to get. "I'm sorry it had to come down to this, but just know that you could have avoided this had you not been so stubborn." The announcer reached into his pocket and pulled out a big red button. "Goodbye, my dear." With the push of a button, a hidden trap door underneath Jessie's feet opened up, and the Devil Hunter fell right through the hole before she could process what just happened. Louise looked on in utter shock as her friend was now gone. She wanted to help out and beat the announcer guy to a bloody pulp, but she was surrounded by dozens upon dozens of Nobles, who could potentially kill her; the best she could do was hope that her companion was okay.
Jessie groaned as she rubbed the back of her head. "This place is just unbelievably ridiculous...a trap door, seriously?" Slowly picking herself up, the brunette looked around and was welcomed with a large room that was anything but pleasant and comfortable. For starters, the room was dimly lit with only one lantern hanging from the ceiling being used as a source of light; there were skulls and bones littered everywhere; the walls were stained with dry blood, and it was dangerously cold, though Jessie wasn't bothered it as she had been through worse. "Oh my goodness." Jessie held her nose. "This rancid trash heap smells worse than a public school restroom and there are literally flies buzzing everywhere. I guess this is the place where they dump the dead bodies." Ugly appearance aside, Jessie had to get out of wherever the hell she was. It didn't take very long for the brunette to realize that Louise was all by themselves and it was anyone's guess as to what the bastard Nobles were doing at the moment.
"Welcome to my domain, newcomer...or should I say, fresh meat..." Said a female voice in a low and raspy tone. "Would you care for some refreshments? I have drinks, sweets, and death." Jessie looked up towards the ceiling and faced the source of the feminine voice, which derived from a serpent woman who was somehow resting on the ceiling. The serpent woman had a pale and sickly skin complexion with unruly blackish-green hair and gray eyes that looked lifeless. The bottom half of the serpent woman was forest green and scaly, which was to be expected considering she was a snake and all that. Jessie wasn't fazed by the woman, but she was surprised that the serpent lady managed to stick to the ceiling with no issue, perhaps she was using some kind of sticky liquid.
"Listen up and listen up good, snake woman." Jessie started, not displaying an inch of fear for her life. "I am in no mood to take part in whatever game you currently have going on at the moment; allow me to leave this cesspit of a place, and we won't have an issue on our hands...refuse to let me leave, and this is what'll happen..." Jessie grabbed Sotiras and rammed the sword into the ground. The serpent woman scowled at Jessie, believing her to be an ignorant fool. "I believe you understand where I'm going with this, correct?" To Jessie's surprise, the serpent woman started laughing her head off as if she had just been told a hilarious joke; the former certainly wasn't expecting something like that to happen; most of the time the enemy would end up getting upset and attacking her with all they had. Either way, it was clear that the brunette wasn't being viewed as a threat and she hated that to no end. No matter, that would change soon enough.
The serpent woman smirked sadistically, licking her lips with her overly long tongue. "Sorry, but I'm afraid you won't be leaving this place anytime soon." She said as Jessie frowned; truthfully, she figured the monster would say something along the lines and deny her of her request. "Unfortunate worthless humans who end up in my domain become my food or my personal plaything until I grow bored and decide to kill them." A sadistic monster that feasted upon people? That was something right up Jessie's alley, it was almost scary in a weird way. "Seeing as I'm quite famished, I think I'll do the former. You look absolutely delicious if I do say so myself, so I'm sure you'll be a good meal and tame my wild hunger." The serpent woman dropped down a few feet away from Jessie and smirked at the Devil Hunter, who was all but pleased. "This is going to be spectacular..." For a second time, the vicious woman licked her lips. "Your scent is much different from that of an ordinary human's. You have the scent of archdemon, the scent of an archangel, and the scent of a human radiating off you." The serpent woman grinned in pure excitement as she chuckled softly. "You're no normal person, that's for sure; I don't even know if I can call you a human with what I'm smelling. Oh, I can't take it anymore! Get in my belly, woman!"
The snake woman charged at Jessie, but the latter responded by grabbing Sotiras and jumping over her. "Consuming me? I sincerely apologize, ma'am, but I'm afraid I'm not on today's menu nor will I ever be." Even though Winters took her role as a Devil Hunter seriously, more so than her comrades, she would occasionally crack one or two jokes here and there, if there was a time and place for it, of course. The extremely hungry serpent hybrid turned to Jessie and unleashed a long stream of greenish-yellow fire from her mouth. The Nephilim hybrid reacted quickly by jumping out of the way, and the stream of fire ended up hitting the wall behind her, melting a small portion of it. The opportunity to attack presented itself and she responded by pulling out one of her Desert Eagles and firing several bullets directed at the snake woman's stomach, causing her the scream out in pain and agony. While the she-monster was occupied with screeching like a banshee, Jessie ran forward and roundhouse kicked the latter in the face, knocking her to the cold floor.
Right as Jessie was about to stab the sadistic snake lady with Sotiras and end her life while she was still on the ground, the latter unleashed a hypersonic screech, which was powerful enough to send Jessie crashing into a wall. The snake woman picked herself up and growled at the brunette, glaring at her with pure venom in her eyes. "ARGH! YOU WILL PAY FOR WHAT YOU DID TO ME YOU REVOLTING LITTLE COCKROACH!" She screamed, exposing her sharp teeth. "FIRST, I'LL START OFF BY KILLING YOU IN COLD BLOOD, THEN I'LL RIP OUT YOUR SKULL AND KEEP IT AS A TROPHY FOR ALL TO SEE!!!" The Lamia rammed her hands into the ground and pulled out a large chunk of the floor beneath her feet. "Choke on this you cock-sucking whore!"
With great strength, the villainous serpent woman chucked the large rock at Jessie, who demolished it with a single blow as if it was nothing remarkable. Gripping Sotiras, the brunette charged ahead and jumped before slashing the snake woman's chest twice, creating an X-shaped scar. For a second time, the monster let out a screech of pain as she glared at Jessie and fired various fireballs, which the Devil Hunter smacked away. The serpent hybrid's pride was slowly dwindling with every second that went by and was getting her rear end handed to her on a diamond platter. Never in her life had she ever felt so angry before and felt embarrassed by her poor showing. She was supposed to be the one dominating, not the other way around, so what the hell? She absolutely could not allow this to stand; she had to be the one to kill her opponent and snack on their delicious innards. In a fit of anger, the Lamia tried to attack Jessie with a swift tail swipe, but the Devil Hunter ended up grabbing the Lamia's lower half and proceeded to spin her around before lifting her body up and slamming her to the ground; Jessie did the same thing before and spun her around until she came to a stop and threw her onto a wall, creating a large crack. Jessie grabbed her knives from within her coat and used them to stab the Lamia's shoulders, pinning her to the wall. The brunette stepped on the snake woman's tail and she raised her sword.
The serpent woman was about to let out a hypersonic scream again when Jessie grabbed her by the neck and crushed her windpipe, preventing her from performing her scream attack. "I'm putting an end to this now." The snake woman could barely do anything and inwardly cursed at Jessie as the brunette ended her life by stabbing her in the stomach with Sotiras. The icing on the cake was Jessie beheading her to make sure that she wasn't going to come back to the dead. "Suffer in the Underworld where you belong." Winters grabbed her knives from the Lamia's dead body and she placed them back in her coat pockets. "Now then, where is the exit at? It has to be here somewhere?" Looking around, Jessie found that there were no doors meaning that the only way out had to be where she came in. The Devil Hunter didn't feel like questioning how that worked, instead, she grabbed the Lamia's decapitated head and squatted down before super jumping upwards
The spectators were complaining and shouting while the announcer was trying his best to calm them down before they do something drastic. "The owners of Devil's Pit deeply apologize for the excruciating delay, ladies and gentlemen. We're having a difficult time trying to find opponents." The announcer apologized, sincerely. Louise hated hearing that and wonder how anyone could find this even remotely likable. "Fear not my lovely viewers, there will be a battle for you all to enjoy and blood will be shed." That seemed to calm down the raging Nobles as they stopped their complaining and some even started to cheer. "Please give us a few minutes and we'll finally be able to give you what you came here for."
Suddenly, the hidden trap door that had been used earlier burst open, and Jessie could be seen in the air for a short period of time before gracefully landing back down on the ground and direction her attention to the crowd, who were more than shocked to find out that she survived her encounter with the serpent woman. Louise, on the other hand, was glad to find out that her comrade wasn't killed. "Given the bewildered expressions everyone here is displaying, it could best be assumed that you're all astonished that I lived, correct?" Instead of responding, the Nobles just stared at Jessie like she had something on her face, which she didn't. With the decapitated head of the dead Lamia in her hands, Jessie raised up high for all to see and they were sure as hell shocked by it. "This monster of a woman tried to destroy me, but she didn't do too good and failed to succeed in her goal. Don't think for a second that I'm a creep who fancies collecting body parts, I did this to show you all that I am not one to be trifled; never underestimate the power of commoners." Jessie threw the decapitated Lamia head over to the announcer, who dropped it in disgust and walked out of the battle arena. "As of today, Devil's Pit is finished and it's never coming back...does anyone have a problem with that?"
It was then that the Noblemen and Noblewomen finally reacted, and yeah, they did have a problem with Devil's Pit shutting down. All of them grabbed their magic wands/staff and they circled around Jessie, the dark-skinned woman displaying no type of fear as she had no reason to do so. "You just made the biggest mistake of your life, girly." Said one of the many Nobles. "You're going to see first hand what happens to wretched commoners that choose to mess with the wrong Nobles..." Even after hearing that, Jessie still wasn't bothered by the numerous Nobles ganging up on her because, as previously mentioned before, she had no reason to. In fact, the black-haired woman went as far as to perform the famous 'come and get me' gesture without saying anything, which actually pissed off a lot of Nobles as they felt like she was mocking them, and she kind of was. One Noble, in particular, let out a warcry and rushed to attack Jessie, while the other Nobles followed his lead. Jessie reacted by taking a deep breath and...
Jessie was casually dusting the dirt off her jacket. "Well then..." She began, shifting her attention to dozens and dozens of Nobles lying unconscious and piled against each other. "I must say, that didn't take very long now did it?" It really didn't, to be honest; not one single Noble was able to land a single hit no matter what they tried, no matter how much magic they sent out. Louise couldn't be surprised because as someone who has seen Jessie in action before, she knew exactly what the end result was going to be; believe it or not, part of her actually pitied the unconscious magic users, but not by much as they were still heartless bastards in her eyes. "Louise, I believe it's time to leave this mess of a place." Louise couldn't agree more. The pink-haired mage and Jessie proceeded to walk to the exit when they heard voices, stopping them in their tracks. "Strange, if I'm not mistaken, I took down the spectators, the owners, and the announcer, so there shouldn't be anyone left...unless."
With her curiosity getting the better of her, Jessie explored Hell's pit, checking every room there was and then some. The brunette eventually arrived at the basement, where she was greeted by a large group of peasants locked up in rusty cells. The unfortunate commoners were crying out for a savior to come and rescue, leaving Jessie utterly flabbergasted as a result. Seeing innocent people in a repulsive state like that made her stomach churn, and she was whole-heartedly pleased with herself that she put Devil's Pit to a well-needed end for the sake of plebeians everywhere. With no hesitation, Jessie went to every cell there and freed the prisoners, who thanked her in return before running upstairs. The Devil Hunter was about to join them when she noticed a vault door all the way in the back and out of all the doors she had come across recently, that one was the most secure and there had to be a damn good reason for it. Jessie heard child-like crying and weeping from the other side and kicked the metal door right off its hinges FBI style. Upon entering, the Nephilim hybrid noticed that behind the vault door was a small, cramped, and dark room with only one lantern used for lighting. What really caught her attention, though was a little girl who had to be around the age of ten if her small appearance is anything to go by. The young girl's beige-colored body physique was noticeably skinny, giving off the impression that she hadn't been fed in days and that was probably the case otherwise she wouldn't be looking like that. In addition to that, the girl's hair color was dark brown and it was a disheveled mess, reaching down to her back with a few strands of hair draped over sunken hazel eyes. All in all, the poor girl was in a terrible shape with dirt and scratches covering her body while wearing nothing but rags.
Although Jessie didn't have any children of her own, she did know how to deal with them; it also helped that she occasionally aided Nero and Kyrie back at the orphanage. The brown-haired girl back away from Jessie as if she was a child-eating monster and the latter calmly got down on one knee before sticking her hand out. "Take it easy, sweetheart. I'm not here to hurt you, in fact, I'm actually here to save you." That got the little girl to cease moving backward, but it wasn't enough to get her to move forward, she still didn't trust Jessie. Surprisingly, the young lady to Jessie to go away and leave her be, but the Demon Slayer wasn't about to leave a child by themselves in a harmful environment. "Please work with me here. I have no intentions of harming you; give me a chance and I'll take you away from this horrible place." The young child stared at Jessie with a frightened look on her face, still unsure if she wanted to leave or not. After a mental debate, she made the decision to take the woman up on her offer. Jessie smiled sympathetically and gave the little girl a motherly rub on the head as the latter sobbed softly into her chest.
Time had passed since the incident at the hellhole best known as Devil's Pit; the authorities were informed of the gruesome organization, and it was immediately shut down with the mages that were involved getting sent to prison. Jessie, Louise, and the young child that Jessie had rescued were all at a restaurant having a jolly good time. Louise was having a strawberry shortcake while Jessie was enjoying soup and also feeding the little girl, though she had to deliver her food in really small portions in order to prevent the latter from choking due to her body being damn near skinny to the bone. "I must admit, ladies, this is quite wholesome." Said Jessie. "The ringleader behind Devil's Pit is behind bars where he rightfully belongs and the captives that were once enslaved, forced to fight against their will are now free to live their lives again." Jessie turned to the little girl. "What about you, Vivianne? How are you feeling at the moment?"
"I'm doing pretty well for the most part." Answered the young child, now known as Vivianne. "To be honest, I'm still a bit weak, though. I apologize if I can't partake in a few activities."
Jessie merely smiled and waved it off. "Don't sweat it." She said. "You need all the rest you can get; you shouldn't do things that could potentially damage your body." Now that she was on the subject of recovering, Jessie wondered Vivianne was in a state like that to begin with? She knew it was because the young female was malnourished, but where did her suffering originate from? Or better yet, why was she locked up? "I have a quick question for you, Vivi, and you don't have to answer it if you don't want to, but why did the Nobles lock you up? Did your parents do something to them in the past and you were paying the price in return, or-"
Vivianne cut Jessie off. "My powers...they used me for my powers." She answered with her head down. "Those heartless heathens murdered my family in cold blood, then took me away from my home without an ounce of care or guilt." Jessie felt a scowl creeping up on her face. "They promised me that they would treat me right and even go as far as to release me had I done what they asked, but that was all just a sick lie used to lure me in and place my trust in them. Every day and night the mages abused me in various ways, whether it would be physically or emotionally, and treated me like I was some sort of laborer. If you hadn't come in when you did, I probably would have died." While Jessie was happy that she was able to save a life, she didn't let up on her serious look. "As for my powers, I have the ability to create living creatures." Jessie was quite surprised to hear something like that, creating creatures was nothing she hadn't seen before, but regardless, it was still interesting. "They can be normal animals like cats and dogs or I could take it a step further and create mythical creatures like dragons and minotaurs. You guys might think it's sunshine and rainbows, but in reality, it's not all sunshine and rainbows. I have to focus real hard on what I'm creating otherwise it'll end up being deformed. Alongside that, I have to have knowledge of what I'm bringing to life and some of the creatures don't listen to me and end up doing their own thing, which is very bad depending on the situation."
Jessie was quite intrigued by the information she was just given. The ability to create any animal of your choosing just by thinking it? That was a pretty amazing ability and she would kill to have a power like that, but alas, she didn't live a pitch-perfect world and had to settle for the powers she already had, but it was nothing she would lose sleep over. "Mind giving us a quick demonstration, Vivi? I would love to see how your power works?"
Vivianne nodded her head. "I would normally hide this from other people, but seeing as you saved me and put an end to Devil's Pit, I'll do it just for you." She said as Jessie smiled. The brown-haired girl extended her hand and took a deep breath before closing her eyes. In the span of a few seconds, a multicolored bird appeared in the palm of her hands. "See? There we go." Vivianne used a finger to gently pet the bird as a means to not hurt it. She always had a liking for animals, especially beautiful ones.
"Holy heck, that was amazing, Vivi." Jessie said in amazement, clapping like a mother at their child's piano recital
Louise was equally as amazed as Jessie before. "Magnificent! I've never seen anything like that before." Louise has seen mages summon animals via the Summoning Ritual, but that required a spell. "Is she some sort of mage? I don't see a wand on her. Maybe she's like Jessie and doesn't need a magic wand to perform magic."
The three females eventually finished up their meals, then left the restaurant and sightseeing. After an hour of R&R, the group found themselves in a weapons shop, facing the store owner, who looked like the outcome of a rat and a human if they had intercourse. Louise was the first one to speak up. "What are doing in a place like this?" She questioned with an eyebrow raised. "Is your sword broken or are you here to buy a new one?" The answer had to be the former because Louise doubted Jessie needed another blade; now that she gave it a good look, Jessie's sword was quite different than the ones she had seen before. It had weird markings on and she couldn't tell what type of sword it was, though she was never one for weapons, unlike her mother.
With Vivianne sitting on her shoulders, Jessie turned to Louise. "I overheard a couple of townsfolk talking about this placing saying it was amazing and giving it all types of compliments." Overhearing their conversation, the shop owner smiled proudly. "I came here because I want to see what kind of weapons they sell here; if they say all the best warriors buy then weapon from this shop, then I want to see if for myself." Having said that, Jessie turned to the shop owner. "Good morning, sir, my friends and I are just here to see the weaponry that you sell here. I already have a few weapons of my own, so I don't need anything, but I can't say the same for these two."
"If that's the case, you'll be happy to know that I have a new weapon for sale, and I do believe you'll like it a lot." That caught Jessie's interest. "It may look old, but it'll get the job done." The shopkeeper made his way to the back of the shop and after some seconds, he came back with a rusty sword. "Here it is."
Jessie picked up the sword and just...stared at it. Silence filled the air as she continued to look at it before finally speaking. "This is it?" She said in utter disbelief. "This is the sword you were talking about?" Jessie has seen some pretty bad weapons in the past, but this one takes the cake. The only thing that sword was good for was putting bacteria in people's bodies, but seeing as she was in a world filled with magic, the infection wouldn't last very long. "Sir, where the heck did you find that rusty thing and why do you think you'll be able to sell it to people?" Jessie was having a hard time figuring out if the shopkeeper was a scammer or someone who genuinely thought the sword was good enough to be sold. Either way, she wasn't going to take it, not that she planned to do so anyway. "You don't have anything better?"
"Hey! I don't appreciate the verbal smackdown you're giving me right now." Spoke the sword in an annoyed tone, surprising everyone, even the shopkeeper himself, who had no idea that the sword could even talk. "I am Derflinger, the Legendary Sword created by Sasha and was used by her." If the sword had a face, he'd be wearing a prideful smirk.
A talking sword? Jessie couldn't lie and say she had never seen those before, but she could say that she didn't see them very often. The only talking weapons she'd ever seen were Agni and Rudra; the blades were as kind as could be, but they were quite the talkative fellows, and it could get very annoying at times, it made sense as to why Dante always wanted them to stay silent. Back to that Derflinger fellow, Jessie analyzed him again before placing him on the counter. "Okay, my rusty friend, let's say I do pick you up and decide to wield you, what do I gain besides victory?" Winters had to make sure this sword would provide use to her; an ineffective sword wouldn't be much help in battle, and she needed grade-A weapons; call her picky if you want, but demon-slaying wasn't something any individual could do with no issue, even though some people like Dante or Nero made it look simpler than it actually was.
Derflinger told Jessie that he could answer any question she had about Tristain and the magic that resided within it. He also told her that he was capable of absorbing magic, teleporting, and making funny jokes. It was at that moment, where several voices in Jessie's head told her to buy Derflinger, and she decided to act on that. Louise could tell that Jessie wanted to get Derflinger and sighed; the pinkette felt that her friend could've gotten a better-looking sword, but she obviously wasn't going to listen to her. Sighing, the pinkette reached into her bag and pulled out her purse. "How much for Derflinger or whatever it's called?" Derflinger was offended that Louise couldn't even be bothered to remember his name. The young mage was told Derflinger costed one hundred gold, which was her world's currency, and she paid the price.
The shopkeeper smiled. "Pleasure doing business with you, ladies." He said.
Even though Jessie got Derflinger, she was still looking around before turning to Louise. "While we're here, why don't you pick out something nice for yourself, Louise?" The black-haired woman suggested. "I saw a few magic items around here, you should pick something out and see if you like it or not." Jessie walked over to a bin filled with magical objects and she pulled out a long staff that was slightly longer than her. Said staff was crafted out of mahogany and had a claw at the end that was holding a crystal red ball (4). "Now this I love, I absolutely love." Louise had to admit to it looked pretty nice. "Mr. shopkeeper, how much for this thing over here?"
"Since I'm a nice person, I'll go ahead and give it to you for free, on the house." The shopkeeper said, casually.
Jessie beamed at that. "On the house? Thank you very much, sir?" She said as she handed the magical staff over to Louise before turning to the exit. "Alright, I believe we're done for the day. Come on girls, let's go back home." Jessie, Louise, and Vivianne said their goodbyes before leaving the weapons shop.
The time was now nine o'clock and the three ladies were in Louise's room, doing their own little thing. Louise was brushing her hair, Jessie was resting on Louise's bed, and Vivianne was playing with two kittens she created. Everything was calm and peaceful until Kirche came bursting through the door unannounced and began to ramble about Jessie, passion, and many other things the latter really didn't give a rat's left testicle about. Louise was about to give the busty redhead a piece of her mind when she noticed a golden sword the latter was carrying. "Zerbst, mind explaining to me why there is a sword in your hands?" Questioned Valliere, pointing to the golden weapon. "You don't strike me as someone who has a thing for swords. In all honesty, you're more into guys with swords literally...and..." Louise couldn't help but snicker. "...metaphorically, if you understand where I'm coming from."
Kirche simply ignored Louise's sexual joke and puffed her chest out. "This beautiful thing doesn't belong to me." The busty mage answered. "It belongs to my beloved darling~" Kirche was obviously referring to Jessie, and the black-haired woman mentally groaned as she rolled her eyes in disgust. Kirche moved past a very enraged Louise and handed the sword over to Jessie, who looked on with great disinteresting. "Here, my daring, I bought this lovely thing just for you to show off my love."
Jessie looked at the golden sword, then back to Kirche, who had stars in her eyes. Truthfully, she looked like a fangirl that was meeting her hero for the first time. "This is...err...pleasant and all, but...umm...what about supposed to do with this?" Kirche frowned. "Don't mistake my words, I am a fan of weaponry as much as the next person, who likes it, but when they bring little to no value to me, I just have to decline."
Kirche was taken aback by Jessie's words and felt her rebuilt pride shattering. "Useless?" She said, boastfully, her hand placed over her large bust. "I'll have you know that this is the best weapon ever created by the great people of Germania." Jessie still wasn't convinced and Kirche could tell that by her indifferent facial expression. "You'll never go lose on the battlefield once you wield that sword."
"Is that what you believe?" Jessie asked, not believing Kirche for a single second. "There are several issues with this blade. First things first, it's not sharp enough." That was clear from the get-go, in Jessie's eyes, at least. "It'll take a couple of swings to slice an object or person in half and that's not what I want. Problem number two, the blade's completely made out of gold from top to bottom; the man or woman who designed this must've been crafting it for a special ceremony because nobody in their right mind would use gold when producing a sword unless they're moronic or want to be fancy like everyone else." Seriously, whoever thought crafting a sword out of gold must have really wanted someone or themselves to die in battle. "Finally, the sword won't be of much use when it comes down to defense; one strike is all that is needed to shatter the weapon with ease."
"So...you don't want it?" Kirche said softly causing Louise to facepalm as if the deeply-layered explanation was nonexistent.
"No, child, I do not want to golden sword..." Jessie responded flatly as Kirche pouted. The black-haired woman knew exactly was Kirche was trying to do and it wasn't going to work. The only reason the latter bought the sword in the first place was to gain the Nephilim hybrid's affection and sleep with her, which Jessie wasn't about to let happen. Buying the golden sword wasn't a bright idea, and Kirche was going to have to do a lot better if she wanted to earn her darling's affection.
With her pride as a temptress now shattered to pieces for a second time, Kirche clenched her fist and bid her goodbyes, leaving her sword behind. Jessie sighed in relief as she could finally rest again. Today has been quite unusual for the Devil Hunter, and she honestly didn't know what to make of it. On the bright side, she was able to do some good and she even got herself a nice sword, though it was going to need a lot of maintenance before she could take it onto the battlefield, but something like that wouldn't be much of an issue for her. With the room being calm and peaceful again, Jessie slowly laid down and closed her eyes. What might tomorrow bring for her? Will something good happen or will something bad happen? There was no answer at the moment, but there would be one.
[END]
"Good morning/good evening/good afternoon/good etc, dear readers. TheUnholy3034 reporting here and before we start, I would to take the time out and say rest in peace to Chris Ayres, the voice actor for Frieza from Dragon Ball Z and many other characters in anime; your voice acting was truly amazing and I, as well as many other people, are going to miss you dearly. Having said that, I thank you all for reading the third chapter of this story and I hope you all enjoyed it just as I did making it (I also apologize for it being wonky and a tad bit confusing in the last half, I was sort of rushing, which isn't very wise.). Putting the story to the side, I'd like to inform you all that I am going to be revising some of my old stories like Rosario Vampire: Monsters and Conduits, Familiar of Zero: Heroes of Zero, and many others; it may take a while for them to come, but I just wanted to let you guys know that I have not completely forgotten about them. I'll also be making new stories, and I have a Dragon Ball Z story in the making, so look out for that if you are interested (ironically enough, I posted one up a few weeks ago but I decided to delete it because I did not like the way it looked and thought I could do much better.) Once again, I'd like to thank you all for reading, and I hope you all enjoy the next one once it arrives. Make sure to review and share with friends/family. No flames, please. Let's keep this calm and civilized, why start a war for no reason? Have a great day/night and please stay safe out there." -TheUnholyGem3034.
[Extras, cause why not?]
(1): The knife Jessie was using was a bowie knife and it was an Eagles Talon, you can look it up if you want to.
(2): My mom used to say that for some odd reason.
(3): I'm not a motorcycle expert, so I apologize if didn't get deep into Speed Demon and its mechanics.
(4): If you type in 'dragon claw staff', you'll know what I'm talking about
(Ex): I forgot to add a number for Vivianne when she was first introduced, but if I could have anyone voice her, it'd be Hynden Walch, who voices Starfire from Teen Titans, Princess Bubblegum, and Breach from Generator Rex.