First Person POV – Shintaro Hyoudou
The Devil's Work
"Excuse me, sir, do you have time to talk about our lord and saviour Lucifer?" I asked a random passer-by as I waved one of the fliers I was supposed to be handing out in his face. He duly ignored me, but I managed to slip one into his pocket anyway. "I figured not, but don't worry, he has plenty of time for you!"
This was apparently what pretty much all new Devils started out doing, handing out these fliers that are used for making our contracts. All it takes, apparently, is a human with strong enough desire to wish for what they want, and boom! Instant devilry, fun for the whole family! There's this portable machine Ise-nii and I both got given that shows humans with strong enough greed as little red dots on a map of Kuoh Town. We decided to hand out our fliers in different parts of the city in order to maximise the spread of our contracts.
Ise-nii was out on his bike delivering them to people's mail boxes individually. But me? I march to my own beat. I was down in the seedy part of town handing them out to the little blips on the map in person.
Part of me thought this was a bad idea, but a bigger part of me thought that since I'm the one being seen handing them out, the odds of me being summoned were pretty high, so the only one who would have to deal with the consequences of my actions was me.
I thought back to when Buchou first revealed our new devilish nature to us.
"If you work under me, your new lives could be quite bright, you know," she had said. "This group of servants I have here, of which you two are now part, it's called a Peerage. Devils who are born High Class, such as myself, get one on automatic, but Low Class Devils have grown to High Class and gained them, too. Especially among Reincarnated Devils, everyone starts out as a novice."
"You're starting to sound just a bit like a bad infomercial," I had commented.
"Yeah, are you serious?" Ise-nii had asked. "I'm still have some trouble believing it."
"You know, you two," she had said, coming closer to say it right into our ears. "A lot of male Devils become quite popular with the ladies."
That thought had a definite appeal to it, but I wasn't quite as overly excited by the idea as Ise-nii was. "How!?" he asked loudly immediately after hearing it.
"The majority of Pure Blood Devils were killed off in our war with the Angels and Fallen Angels," Buchou explained. "Because of that, the Peerage system was introduced so that High Class Devils could gather servants and replenish our numbers. We just don't have the strength in numbers we did back at the beginning of the war. Devils can breed and reproduce just like humans can, but we also suffer from extremely low birth rates, so it's just not a practical way of rebuilding our population. So we find humans with strong potential and turn them into Devil servants. But since they're only servants, it doesn't really increase the number of powerful Devils, so it was decided that Reincarnated Devils would be given the chance to gain power and influence by rising through the ranks of Devil society. As long as you reach High Class, you can gain your own Peerage and servants, and the cycle continues. There are actually quite a lot of Devils living among humans these days. You've more than likely passed by Devils in this very town without realising it."
"So Devils have always been around here then?" Ise-nii had asked.
"Yes. Some humans can tell, others can't. People with strong greed and desires who can summon us can usually tell us from normal humans, but not always. It's usually the ones who can distinguish us that successfully summon us through the fliers. There are also people like you, Ise, who can tell us apart but don't believe we exist."
"So, wait …" Ise-nii's mouth had grown into an excited grin. "You're saying that I can get my own servants?"
I had facepalmed, seeing exactly where this was going.
"Yes," Buchou had confirmed. "It's not impossible. It will take a lot of time and effort to achieve, however."
"And just like that, Gremory-senpai," I had said, "you've created a monster."
"Are you serious!?" Ise-nii asked in ever-growing joy. "I can have my own servants!? Can I have a harem!? I can have sex with them and stuff, right!?" It was not lost on me just how bad that sounded, but I held my tongue. I knew he didn't mean like that.
"Yes, it should be fine if it's with your servants," Buchou had confirmed.
From there, Ise-nii had embarrassed himself without ever knowing about it by going on and on about all his perverted fantasies, and had even admitted to his porn stash at one point. Our new master had corrected out ways of addressing her and had insisted on being called "Buchou" since we were now part of the club she was running. We also learned about light's unfortunate effect on Devils, which explained why the sun felt like it was trying to kill me during the day, as well as why the Fallen Angels used weapons made of light.
That was a few days ago now.
I was now out and about, trying to hand out as many of these fliers as possible, still trying to prove my worth. Buchou brought me back even though I wasn't particularly special because Koneko-chan asked her to. If I was reading this Peerage situation correctly, she could only have a certain number of servants, so bringing me back had somehow cost her something. I wanted to make sure she never saw me as a wasted investment. I owed it to her to show that I wasn't going to waste this new life and that she didn't make a mistake in bringing me back.
For some reason, though, as I handed out my fliers for the night … I couldn't help feeling like I was being watched.
Third Person POV
Dohnaseek was angry. He had gone out to make sure the Devils were keeping their noses out of what was happening at the church he and the others had occupied, hoping he might even get a chance to finish off that Hyoudou brat without his master interrupting this time, when he had come across something interesting: a Devil who shouldn't have been a Devil. Thinking back on the circumstances of Issei Hyoudou becoming a Devil, he could only imagine one scenario wherein Shintaro Hyoudou would become one, too, and he was not happy. Not even slightly.
Dohnaseek looked middle-aged by human standards, though he was far older than he appeared. His short black hair was covered up by a black fedora which his dark blue eyes stared out from beneath the brim of. He wore a light grey trench coat over a white dress shirt and matching ascot, black trousers and shoes, and a pair of black gloves. His wings had feathers falling out as he flapped them behind him, making for the church so he could deal with his new problem.
He landed and stormed into the church, shoving the doors open and letting them slam shut behind him, completely ignoring all the Stray Exorcists as he went. He marched his way down into the basement, where his three foolish compatriots were apparently chatting the night away. Dohnaseek stomped right up to Raynare and got in her face. "Explain," he said.
"Explain what?" she asked like she hadn't done anything wrong.
"You know damn well what!" Dohnaseek snarled. "Why the hell is Shintaro Hyoudou a fucking Devil? Weren't you listening to me? He was meant to be kept out of this!"
"H-He snuck up on me and I panicked!" Raynare defended. "We're not supposed to leave witnesses and he came charging at me out of the bushes!"
Dohnaseek clenched his fists. "Stupid bitch," he growled. "You could have ruined everything."
"Ruined what, exactly, Dohnaseek?" Kalawarner asked him, stepping beside Raynare. She was a tall and buxom woman who appeared to be in her early twenties. If anyone present beat Raynare out in terms of sexiness, it would have been her. She had pretty brown eyes and long, navy blue hair that obscured her right eye. She wore a maroon, trench coat-like top with a wide collar – though "wearing" may be an overstatement, she left so much of the thing open at the top that she may as well have just gotten her tits out – and a matching miniskirt, and black heeled shoes. She also had a gold necklace. "What the hell are you up to? We've been talking it over these last few days, and everything about this operation fucking stinks."
"Yeah!" concurred Mittelt. She was a tragically underdeveloped girl in her late teens with blonde hair tied into twintails which had a black bow in it and blue eyes. She was dressed as a typical Gothic Lolita, including a black Lolita dress with white frills, a large black bow on the front, and a green jewel embedded on the collar, with white thigh-high stockings and black shoes. "Watching a Sacred Gear user I could get on board with, but fucking killing him? Have you even met Azazel-sama?"
"I went along with it because I figured, hey, maybe it was orders from someone else up top like Kokabiel-sama or someone," said Raynare, glaring hard at him. "But the more I thought about it, the more I wondered where the little brother came into this."
"I sent a message back to the Grigori and checked," Mittelt revealed. "I got a response while you were out. We were given no such orders regarding anyone in this town."
"So the real question," Kalawarner concluded, "is what the hell are we doing here? What's your game, Dohnaseek?"
Dohnaseek stared at them … then started laughing. "You insubordinate sluts aren't nearly as stupid as I thought," he complimented with a sinister grin. "But now that it's out there, I'm afraid I can't afford to let you fuck things up for me. You asked the Grigori about this, huh? That's just fucking great. You've put me on a time limit."
Raynare scoffed. "As if we'd let you carry on after this," she growled. "You made me kill hurt someone who didn't need hurting, Dohnaseek. I'm going to enjoy dragging you back to Azazel-sama kicking and screaming."
Dohnaseek laughed again. "You may think you three have strength in numbers, but you're wrong," he said. "All those Stray Exorcists up there? Mine. Provided to me by my new boss."
"What asshole would wanna hire you?" Mittelt snarked at him.
"The kind of guy who doesn't like being disappointed." The flesh on Dohnaseek's face started moving grotesquely. "The kind of guy who can give me powers beyond that of a Fallen Angel." He pulled up his sleeves to reveal the flesh of his arms moving around as though it were its very own organism separate from Dohnaseek himself. "The kind of guy who always gets what he wants."
As those words exited his mouth, several globs of flesh just jumped right off of Dohnaseek's arms and writhed on the floor, growing and growing until they were the size of people, and then they stood up.
"W-What the hell …?" Kalawarner muttered in disgust.
"What the fuck have you— ARGH!" Before Mittelt could finish speaking, she had one of Dohnaseek's spears of light lodged in her shoulder, and then one was swung at her head. She went flying across the room and landed on the floor, soon being set upon by the things Dohnaseek had produced from his body, bound there in a flesh mess.
Dohnaseek brought his wings out and hit Raynare and Kalawarner, who were still pretty close, in the face with them, causing them to stumble back. Then he set upon them with his fists. Raynare created a spear of light, and so did Dohnaseek. Their spears clashed against each other in a constant flash of lights that would kill an epileptic in moments. He eventually got the upper hand by kicking her in her stomach, then he grabbed her hair and pulled her head up, holding a knife he made from light against her throat.
"Drop it," he ordered Kalawarner, who was standing with a spear of light aimed at him. She hesitated for a few seconds, looked to Raynare, then reluctantly complied. The fleshy monsters were quickly upon her and had her bound. Some more came over and did the same to Raynare, who he then dropped to the floor.
Dohnaseek leaned down to Raynare and whispered into her ear. "Your little hostile takeover has failed," he said cruelly. "Now I'm gonna stick you in a cell. I could kill you, but if any of the boys needs any … female entertainment, you girls will come in handy." He smirked. "I might even let Freed in with you for a little while."
He went upstairs and called some of the Stray Exorcists down to get the women locked up. He had some work to do.
First Person POV – Shintaro Hyoudou
One day after school, Ise-nii and I were making our way to the clubroom after splitting from Matsuda-san and Motohama-san. It felt a bit weird to have been hanging out with them, to be honest. Ever since I became a Devil, Koneko-chan and I had been … closer, somehow. I can't quite find the words to explain it, but there was something there that wasn't before. I was even getting strangely used to seeing her smile. They were small smiles, but they were there nonetheless. It was nice.
Friendships sprung up fast with all the members of the Occult Research Club, actually. I was now calling Kiba "Kiba-kun" and Himejima "Akeno-san," which was exciting in and of itself. Being allowed to call one of the hottest girls in school by her first name amazing for upsetting the rumour mill. I called her that in the hallway a few times, and the fact that she referred to me as "Shintaro-kun" only got people talking further.
Needless to say, I was really taking the opportunity to amuse myself.
"We're coming in," Ise-nii said as he opened the door of the clubroom.
"'Sup, guys?" I said as we walked in and I closed the door behind us.
Everybody was already there. The room was dark and the windows were blocked out, which I assumed was because of the teleportation circle. I figured that they normally did this when Ise-nii and I had left to deliver our fliers. The only light in the room was from the candles on several surfaces, but there were also a bunch of candles surrounding the teleportation circle in the centre of the room now.
Buchou said something to Akeno-san, and Akeno-san faced us directly. "You two, please stand in the centre of the magic circle," she said.
"Ah, so the ritual dismemberments have begun," I quipped as we both did as we were asked.
"Ise, Shintaro, your work giving out fliers is over," Buchou revealed to us. "Well done. Now it's time for you to do the actual job of a Devil."
"So we get to make contracts now?" Ise-nii enquired.
"That's right," Buchou confirmed. "Since it's your first times, we're going to be gentle with you." She totally did that on purpose. "You'll be teleporting to people with smaller wishes. Koneko was double-booked for the night. Ise will be taking that one. Shintaro, it seems like you're being thought of specifically, so I'm assuming this is one of the ones you gave a flier to – well done. Akeno is currently inserting your carved seals into the magic circle."
We were told about those, albeit briefly. There were smaller versions of the magic circle we were standing in that everyone here had drawn on their bodies, though they were invisible unless they were in use.
"Ise, point your palms towards me," Buchou ordered. Ise-nii obeyed. She started writing something on his palm.
"Give me your hand, Shintaro-kun," Akeno-san said, moving away from whatever she had been doing with the teleportation circle. I pointed my right palm towards her and she started writing on it like Buchou was with Ise-nii. Having physical contact with her, even something small like this, made me heat up. Going by the amused expression on her face, she knew.
She stopped and I looked at my palm. On it, there was the smaller version of the teleportation circle, my carved seal. It was glowing blue and white at the moment. I glanced over at Ise-nii and saw he was in a similar position.
"This allows you to use the magic circle to teleport directly to the client," Buchou explained. "When the contract is done, it will also allow you to return to this room. Akeno, are you ready?"
"Yes, Buchou," Akeno-san confirmed.
"Ise, you first," Buchou urged. "Stand in the centre of the circle."
I stepped out of the circle and allowed Ise-nii to stand in the centre. The circle began glowing blue and white, like the ones on our hands."
"The magic circle is responding to the wish of the client," Buchou explained. "You'll be teleported to them now. You still have the manual about what to do, right?"
"Yes!" Ise-nii confirmed enthusiastically.
"Good. Good luck."
The glow of the magic circle became even stronger. I nearly shielded my eyes from it, but I wanted to see this. The light got stronger and stronger, and I realised just how necessary it was to block out the windows at this time of the day. The light seemed to consume Ise-nii …
… and then died down in about half a second, leaving Ise-nii standing there in the centre. Nothing had changed. Ise-nii had his eyes squinted shut. He opened one of them, then both shot open when he realised he was still here. Buchou put a hand to her forehead, Akeno-san just looked disappointed, Kiba-kun sighed in exasperation, and Koneko-chan … well, she was just being Koneko-chan.
"What's occurring?" I asked.
"It doesn't look as though Ise can use the magic circle for teleportation," Buchou sighed out.
"Huh? Why not?" asked Ise-nii.
"Magic circles, like all Devil-based magic, require a certain amount of demonic power to use," Buchou explained. "They don't need all that much, either. It can usually be done by literally any Devil, even children. Transportation through a magic circle is the first and easiest step when becoming a Devil. In other words, Ise … you have less demonic power than the average child. The magic circle literally can't detect anything to respond to."
…
…
…
"Pft!" I snickered, holding a hand up to my mouth in an attempt to stop myself. "I'm sorry, I-I'm sorry, I j-just— Hahahahaha! No, no, sorry, Ise-nii, I can't— Pft! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! OH MY FUCKING GOD! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" I could no longer stop it. The laughter poured from my mouth so strongly that I doubled over and it started to hurt my stomach. Tears of laughter flowed down my face and I could do nothing to stop them.
"Shut up, you little shit!" Ise-nii cursed at me. "You do it then if it's so damn amusing! Go on!" He stepped out of the magic circle and gestured to it violently.
I waited for the laughter to subside and wiped the tears from my eyes, then stood up. I walked over to the magic circle with a cockiness I didn't know I had. If what Buchou said about "high potential" was true, this shouldn't be too difficult for me. I stood in the centre of the circle, did a mock salute, and said, "Scotty, beam me up!" with a massive grin on my face as the blue and white light of the magic circle consumed my vision entirely.
The light died down and with it so did my smile. I was definitely in a different place, don't get me wrong, but suddenly I severely regretted handing out my fliers in the seedy part of town.
There was blood everywhere in here! On the floors, which were luckily of the wooden plank type rather than carpets, on the walls, even a little bit on the ceiling. The real kicker, however, was the corpse in the middle of the room with the man who I assumed with dread was my client standing over it. The murderer, who was also dripping head to toe with blood, smiled at me pleasantly as I arrived.
"Hey, you're that guy who gave me the flier!" he said happily. "So not only was it legit, but you're an actual Devil? That's awesome! Okay, so how much is it gonna cost me for help hiding this stiff?"
I … couldn't formulate an actual response for several minutes.
When I arrived back at the clubroom, I imagine my expression resembled Koneko-chan's quite a bit. I couldn't bring myself to emote, let alone crack my usual grin. I was about 98% sure I had washed all of the blood off my hands, but I was going to be taking a severely long shower when I got home.
Buchou looked at me as I arrived and noticed my expression. "Did it go okay?" she asked, concerned.
"It went fine," I said. "I did the job and I got paid, no problem. There is something of a personal issue, though."
"What's that?"
"I've been a Devil all of about a week and I'm already an accessory to murder."
I told Ise-nii about my first and hopefully only experience hiding a dead body as we were heading back to the clubroom the next day. I went into vivid detail, truly venting about it, which got me some odd looks but I just told them I'd finally watched the new Saw movie and nobody questioned it again after that. I went right for the nitty-gritty, telling him about sawing the body apart, wrapping it in plastic, dumping it in the lake, cleaning up the client's house afterwards, and all sorts of other shit.
I didn't even really take notice of how white Ise-nii had gone from my description when I was finished. I was about to ask him how his own contract went when we entered the clubroom and I heard about it, anyway.
From the second we entered, the atmosphere was awkward. Buchou stared at Ise-nii with a raised eyebrow. Ise-nii sighed and stepped forward in front of her desk. I sat down next to Koneko-chan, who gave me a small smile, which I returned. She tapped my hand briefly. I had briefly told her about my contract earlier, so I gathered this was a small attempt at comfort.
"Ise," Buchou started.
"Yes," Ise-nii said resignedly.
"You talked with the client about manga, and what happened after that? What about the contract?"
"Th-The contract became invalid … We play-battled as Dragon Ball characters right up until morning …"
… I suddenly feel a lot better about hiding evidence of a murder, I thought. That … that's just fucking sad. Is that why he had to rush in to get ready for school this morning? I just assumed he spent the night at one of his friends' houses.
"I-I know that at my age, I should be embarrassed!" Ise-nii admitted. "A-And as a Devil, I should be more embarrassed! I'm very sorry!"
"… On the back of the fliers we give out, there's a questionnaire the client can fill out about our service," Buchou said. "Your client from last night filled his in." She pushed the flier forward on her desk. Ise-nii read it and his face took on a quality of both joy and confusion. "This is the first time I've received positive feedback from a failed contract," Buchou went on. "I honestly don't know how to react to this. A Devil's job is to make a contract with the humans who summon us and take a sacrifice for our trouble. That's why this is so conflicting – by all accounts, you failed your job as a Devil, but the client is still happy with the service … It's interesting, that's for certain. You're a strange one, Ise, but very interesting. Still, you need to remember the basics. You make a contract with the client, you grant their wish, and you take payment. Okay?"
"Yes!" Ise-nii said, nodding quickly. "I'll do my best!"
"Good. Your next contract is already calling, so you might want to get on your bike." Ise-nii nodded and left. "Shintaro, Yuuto, I need you both on this next one. The next client is asking for two young men."
"Yes, Buchou," Kiba-kun said, moving to the circle.
"Good, it'll be nice to have a partner after last night's … events," I said as I stood up and stood in the circle with him. It started glowing and then we were gone.
Have you ever gone into a room and instantly known what kind of person occupies it? The room Kiba-kun and I found ourselves in after teleporting just screamed "middle-aged woman." Mirrors, family photos, crap furniture. We were one wall with "live, laugh, love" on it away from me just fucking this place off. But seeing as I had a colleague with me this time, I decided I would try to act a tad more professionally. I only hoped this lady didn't have any skeletons in her closet – and by that, I mean actual skeletons.
The client was a woman who looked to be in her late-30s to early-40s, though she wasn't bad-looking in the slightest. She had that curvy, mature figure you usually see on older ladies in perverted art online or in anime. It certainly didn't go unappreciated. A cascade of blonde hair flowed down from her shoulders and framed a lovely face with a hint of mischief behind its expression.
I wondered what a middle-aged woman would want with two young men, then all the time I spent on the internet filled my mind with filth.
The way she spoke didn't exactly help. "Well, well, well," she purred. "I think you two will work just fine."
"Hello there," Kiba-kun said professionally. "We're the Devils you summoned from the House of Gremory. How may we be of service?"
"Oh, I can think of plenty of ways you can service me," she said. "But specifically, I need you two at my arms at a party I'm attending. I may have given people the impression that I spend a lot of time in the company of younger men, and they're expecting me to bring a date tonight. I figured bringing two of you will lend some credibility to my claims as well as giving people some truly scandalous thoughts about what I might be doing with you two later."
"Well, I'm always up for a good scandal," I commented. "And you make it sound so enticing. I mean—"
"We're happy to be of service," Kiba-kun interrupted me. His face and tone were happy enough, but the look he gave me sent shivers down my spine. "Do you have anything for us to wear or will we have to go get changed ourselves?"
"Oh, don't worry, dear, I've got that covered. Here you go …"
It was a very interesting night.
Getting groped by an older woman multiple times throughout the night sounds good, but let me tell you, when it's technically work, it gets old really quickly. So I was actually relieved for the first few seconds when we arrived back in the clubroom, which was completely empty, until I caught the look Kiba-kun was giving me. It was similar to the one he had given me in that woman's house earlier, only more scrutinising.
"What?" I asked. "Do I have something on my face?"
"What are your intentions towards Koneko?" he asked me.
"Sorry?"
"What are your intentions towards Koneko? Back there, with that woman, you were loving very second of it. It's got me concerned. I'm starting to see a lot more of your brother in you than I thought was there. You wanna know what tonight made me think?"
"What?" I asked. It came out as a growl. I didn't like where this was going, but I wasn't going to say anything aggressive until I heard him say it.
"I think you have the same attitude, you're just smarter about it. You're just good at faking your way to those notches on your bedpost."
I didn't just say something aggressive. I surprised myself by stomping forward and picking Kiba-kun up by the collar of his uniform. I glared up at him as I spoke. "Now you listen here, fuckboy," I growled. "I don't like what you're insinuating. About me or about Ise-nii. If anything good came from his date with the Fallen Angel bitch, it's that I saw he really does know how to treat a lady. But that's beside the point. Don't you fucking dare imply that I'd hurt Koneko-chan. She's my best friend and I care about her. If she ever got hurt because of me, hell, I'd want you to fucking gut me. You got that, asshole?"
He stared down at me defiantly … then smiled. "I thought so," he admitted, his friendly tone returning. "Sorry about that, I didn't mean it. I just had to make sure. Koneko is like a little sister to me, and she's really fond of you. I had to make sure she's in good hands."
I looked at him in disbelief, then chuckled as I put him down. "Quick tip, Kiba-kun," I said. "You might wanna practice that routine. Make it sound less confrontational, like. Can you imagine if I'd started hitting you or some shit? Imagine trying to explain to the others why you had to kick the shit out of me over what was basically the 'big brother test.'"
"Sorry," he said sheepishly. "Like I said, just had to be sure. You acted a little too into that client back there. Don't get me wrong, Devils do tend to have harems, it was just that you seemed a little too eager despite showing no interest before now. Just needed to test the waters. We cool?"
"Yeah, we're cool. I get it, trust me. I care about Koneko-chan, too, and I'd hate it if she ever got hurt because of me."
"Good. Though, just to make it clear, if you ever do hurt her … there'll be trouble."
"Kiba-kun, I would be disappointed if there wasn't."
We ended up going to a 24-hour McDonald's for a late night meal before heading our separate ways. It ended up being something of a bonding experience between us.
Morning came, as morning always does. I was the only one in the house to notice Ise-nii's absence since Buchou had made the necessary edits to my parents' brains to make them act like either or both of us being gone for long periods of time was completely normal. I was still a bit conflicted over the way supernatural creatures so casually messed with human minds, but I suppose it was a necessity for keeping our secrets secret. I assumed that Ise-nii wasn't there because he had spent all night at the client's house again. Hopefully, he actually got a contract this time.
That's how I wound up walking to school alone that morning.
My mind kept wandering back to my talk with Kiba-kun last night. I had called Koneko-chan my "best friend" when I was talking to him, but my feelings ran deeper than that. I knew it, and evidently so did Kiba-kun. I wondered if the others knew. The more I thought about it, the more I thought … Should I make a move? Should I confess? I wanted to. I really, really wanted to, but at the same time, the thought that it might somehow ruin the friendship I'd developed with her kept plaguing my mind. It was giving me a headache.
There was a sudden, small yell from a high-pitched voice which snapped me from my thoughts. It came from behind me. I turned around and saw a nun had fallen onto the floor. I contemplated the pros and cons of helping her up, considering I'm a Devil now, but my manners won out and I went over to help her up.
"Are you okay, miss?" I asked as I held out my hand to her.
"Why do I keep tripping over …?" she asked herself. She took my hand and I helped her up. "Thank you very much."
Just then, a gust of wind happened upon us and blew the veil off of her head. I was stunned immediately. This girl … was cute! She had that classic combination of long blonde hair and green eyes that just screamed innocence, and she was so pretty. Her nun attire was dark teal with light blue accents, and the veil, which had just blown off, was white. She also had a silver cross around her neck that was giving me the willies despite everything else about her drawing me in.
Fuck! I thought. Why did it have to be a nun!? THE UNIVERSE SHOULD NOT BE MESSING WITH ME BY DELIVERING A WOMAN WHO CAN'T BE TOUCHED! THE WHOLE "FORBIDDEN FRUIT" THING JUST MAKES THEM SEXIER! It occurred to me that there was some irony to the fact that I, now a Devil, have always had something of a nun fetish. The "untouchable" angle was always kind of arousing, for it just made the thought of them giving in all the sweeter …
… shit, my Ise-nii is showing. Maybe Kiba-kun had a point …
I ran after her veil and grabbed it from the air, then gave it back to her. She thanked me again and I took in her voice. It matched her appearance perfectly – soft and gentle. It made her sound as cute as she looked. I felt myself blushing a bit.
"Are you all right?" she asked me.
I realised I'd been staring. "Fine," I said, clearing my throat. I took note of the bag she was carrying with her. "You travelling?"
"No, not really," she said. "I was appointed to the church in this town."
Isn't that place all decrepit and abandoned? I thought.
"I've been having trouble since I got here since I can't speak Japanese very well," she admitted bashfully. "I got lost and nobody could understand me …"
The reason I could understand her was an ability Devils have that Buchou referred to simply as "Language," which allowed me to hear anything anyone said in my native tongue, which is Japanese. On the flip side, I could speak to anyone and while to me I would be speaking Japanese, to them I would be speaking whatever language they were most familiar with. It was quite useful. I was absolutely acing my English classes now, though the writing part was still confusing to me – unfortunately, the ability didn't extend to the written word.
This is a very bad idea, I thought even as I said, "I know where the church is. I can take you there if you're lost."
"Y-You could?" she asked, a smile growing on her face. "Thank you! God surely is smiling down on me for having delivered you in my time of need."
Every single word she just said made me uncomfortable, but I kept on smiling as I led her through town towards the church. I knew this was a bad idea, but just looking at this girl's face … I couldn't leave her hanging, it would just be too cruel of me. So I walked and talked and tried to make some jokes, which I swear must have parted her hair as they flew over the top of her head. Eventually, I settled for just asking her how she was finding Japan so far, how I felt about living in this town, all that boring conversational stuff. Somehow, however, she even made small talk sound cute.
Yet every now and then, my gaze was drawn back to the cross hanging around her neck. It gave me the shivers. Every time I looked at it, my instincts told me to run away as fast as I could and put as much distance between us as possible. It was hard to believe such a sweet and innocent girl could be prompting such a reaction from me, but there it was. These were the consequences of living as a Devil, I guess.
On the way to the church we went past the park, where a small yell drew our attention. There was a kid with his mother, but it appeared he had fallen over. He was clutching at his knee, which had a very clear scrape on it. Seeing as he was with his mother, I saw no reason for concern, so I was ready to just move on past. To my surprise, however, the nun girl took us off course and started walking towards the child.
"Are you all right, Yoshi-kun?" the mother was asking the son. I was now unable to avoid picturing the child as a green dinosaur.
"Hey," the nun said as we approached the two of them. Up close, I realised the kid was crying. The nun patted him on the head. "Are you okay? Boys shouldn't cry over something small like this." I could see by their faces that neither could understand her, though the mother's face was giving off some real "stranger danger" vibes. They got worse when the nun touched her son on the knee he had scraped.
But then something amazing happened. The nun's hand began to glow a bright green. The light seemed to spread from her hand to the scrape on the boy's knee. It wasn't as bright as the light from the magic circle in the clubroom, so I could see what was happening, and it was amazing. The boy's scrape was disappearing, as though it had never been there in the first place.
Sacred Gear, I thought as the light died down and I saw that the boy's scrape had gone completely. It was the only explanation I could think of, given that she appeared to be human. Unless she was an Angel or something. Which wouldn't have surprised me – she was certainly pretty enough to be an Angel.
"There, the pain should be gone now," the nun said to the boy. She stood up and turned to face me. "Sorry, but I had to."
"No need to apologise," I said in awe.
The boy's mother took her son's hand and walked away at a pace that was, quite frankly, insulting. Though the boy himself turned around as they were walking away. "Thank you, onee-chan!" he shouted.
The nun looked confused, so I told her what he said. She seemed happy.
"So, uh …" I started as we carried on walking. "What you just did there …"
"It's the power to heal," she said. Despite her smile, there was something sad about the way she spoke. "It's a wonderful power gifted to me by God."
Part of me wanted to bring up Ise-nii's Sacred Gear, but that would just raise questions and take this conversation in a direction I really didn't want it going in. If I started talking about that, I probably wouldn't stop, and before you know it, there'll be a church-led lynch mob on the way to Kuoh Academy for my and the others' heads. I didn't think she would be the one to initiate it or anything, she just seemed to sweet, but knowing how gung-ho the church could be about literally anything they weren't a fan of, it wasn't a risk worth taking.
We kept on walking until we reached the church. It looked just as abandoned as I remembered. If the cross around the nun's neck gave me the chills, this place gave me an entire fucking winter's worth of cold. I wanted to run. It was just like Buchou warned Ise-nii and I, the church is enemy territory, owned by the forces of Heaven. I really shouldn't be here.
"Yes, this is the place," the nun said, consulting the map she had in her bag.
"Super," I said. "Then I shall be going. I'll be late to school if I take any longer. Bye, miss."
"No, please wait a moment!" the nun said, stopping me in my tracks as I made to leave. "Please, come in. I'll make you some tea as a thank you for showing me the way here."
"No, that's fine, don't worry about it," I said, backing away. It felt really bad just being near the place, I really didn't want to go inside. "I was happy to help. I need to be getting to school." I saw her face drop as I went to leave again and sighed. This was going to come back to bite me in the ass, I just knew it … "Hey, my name's Shintaro Hyoudou. My friends call me Shin, so I guess you can, too. What's your name?"
"My name is Asia Argento!" she said happily, the smile returning to her face. "Please call me Asia."
"I'll see you around, Asia."
"Yes, I hope to see you again, too!" She bowed her head to me and I waved at her as I left. As I walked away, I got a sudden feeling of paranoia and I could have sworn that I heard movement in the trees around the building. I chalked it up to the feeling of unease the church itself gave off and kept on walking without paying it too much mind.
My predictions were 100% accurate – Buchou was not pleased.
"Don't ever go near the church again," she told me. I missed that kind smile she usually wore, for at the moment the only look on her face was more serious than any I'd seen on her thus far. "To us Devils, the church is enemy territory. Just stepping into it can cause friction between us and the Angels. I think the only reason you got away with it this time was that escorting that nun there was an act of kindness, but the Angels are always on the lookout. If you went there under any other circumstances, they would have killed you the second they saw your approach."
I'm not ashamed to say that I gulped. I knew the church was enemy territory, I'm not an idiot, but I had no idea just how intense the Angels would be about it. I guess I got lucky I'm a nice guy. Oh, God, Shintaro, don't you dare start it with the nice guy syndrome, it's one of the creepiest guys you can be.
"You shouldn't get involved with people of the church," Buchou went on. "But especially not Exorcists. The Exorcists are our biggest enemies in the church. They have the capacity to do us harm, which isn't something a lot of humans can say. It's especially bad if the Exorcist has a Sacred Gear. You'd basically be willingly walking up to the boundary of death."
"I understand," I said.
"Do you?" She raised an eyebrow. "As a human, you managed to avoid death by becoming a Devil, and even if you hadn't, you probably would have wound up in Heaven. But Devils who are Exorcised are just gone, completely. They become literally nothing. You'd see nothing, you'd hear nothing, you'd be nothing. There is nothing left and you feel nothing. Do you understand that?" She paused, and I could no longer meet her eyes. I really didn't understand how serious it was.
"I think you're being a little too rough on him, Buchou," Ise-nii argued in my defence. "I think he gets it."
Buchou sighed. "You're right, I was too harsh," she admitted. "I'm sorry, Shintaro. Just be careful from now on."
"Okay," I agreed.
"Did you finish lecturing the poor boy?" Akeno-san asked. I glanced up and made eye contact with her. "Ara ara, Shintaro-kun, your submissive face is awfully cute."
I blushed and looked away. I went to sit down next to Koneko-chan, who moved closer to me and touched her arm against mine. At this point, I didn't need to look to know she was shooting a glare at Akeno-san. She had gotten more clingy over the past week and things like what Akeno-san had said were met with some hostility.
"Akeno, did something happen?" Buchou asked.
"We received an order for a hunt from the Arch Duke."
The concept of Stray Devils was one of the most dubious things I'd ever heard. They're apparently Reincarnated Devils who have killed or otherwise betrayed their masters and are thereupon hunted down like rabid dogs because Devils, whose powers are based on imagination and desire, tend to twist into homicidal monstrosities when they let their selfish desires run away with them. Though, frankly, since Buchou implied it's completely okay for a Devil to do whatever the hell they like to their servants, I feel like there's probably room for a grey area in there. If my master was an utter psycho who got off on torturing me, for example, I'd probably kill them and run at the first chance I got, too.
I didn't say that as Buchou was explaining it, but it was buzzing around in my head. Another one of those things to contemplate and then bring up later if I got my thoughts fully in order.
The light of our teleportation died down and we arrived outside an abandoned mansion on the outskirts of Kuoh Town. The entire Peerage was here. We were being sent to hunt down one of these Stray Devils. It was luring humans into this mansion to eat. I never thought I'd find myself in a "spider and fly" metaphor before, but here I was.
Because we were outside town at midnight or thereabouts, we were surrounded by real country darkness. No problem for our night vision, naturally, but it was still nice to be away from the artificial light of the city, even if I knew I'd see it if I just turned a corner.
Koneko-chan sniffed softly. "… Smells of blood," she said. She covered her nose with her uniform. I couldn't smell anything.
Another weird thing about being a Devil was that I could literally feel hostility, even when the enemy wasn't in sight yet. "Killing intent," I believe they called it. Even though for the moment we were alone, I could sense killing intent coming towards us from the mansion. My legs were shaking because of the sensation. Whatever was waiting in there, it was out for blood.
"Ise, Shintaro, this should be a good opportunity for you to experience combat," said Buchou.
"Buchou, I'm the one who tells the jokes here," I said nervously.
"I'm positive I won't be of much use!" Ise-nii said, more obviously panicked.
"You're right, it's still impossible right now," Buchou agreed. "But you can still watch and see what a battle with us is like. Today, just concentrate and look at how we fight. I'll explain the traits of each servant as we go."
"The traits of each servant?" Ise-nii asked.
"The Devil who is the master of the Peerage, in this case me, gives certain traits to the servants," Buchou began to explain. "There's a bit of history to this. A long time ago, during the three-sided war between the Devils, the Fallen Angels, and the forces of God, all three sides had massive numbers and fought for almost an eternity. But there was no winner. All three sides lost the majority of their troops and the war just came to an end, several hundred years ago."
"The Devils were no exception," Kiba-kun continued. "It used to be that High Class Devils led groups of twenty or thirty troops at any given time, though they lost most of those numbers during the war. There were nowhere near enough Devils to rebuild the army."
"And even a large number of pure blood Devils died during the war," Akeno-san went on. "Even though the war was officially over, tensions are still running high between the Three Factions. Even though everyone suffered relatively equal losses and were weakened significantly as a result, we Devils can't let our guard down or become weak without risking being attacked again."
"That's when the Devils came up with a solution," said Buchou. "The Evil Pieces."
"Such a warm and inviting name," I commented dryly.
"Devils with Peerages of Reincarnated Devils can give their servants traits based on the game chess," Buchou went on as though I hadn't spoken. "It was meant to be ironic in a way, given that most Reincarnated Devils were once human and chess is a human game. Chess has since become popular among Devils. But I digress. Devils who are masters, such as myself, represent the King piece. From there, five special pieces were created: the Queen, the Knight, the Rook, the Bishop, and the Pawn. Since making an army was impossible, it was decided that special powers should be given to small groups of Reincarnated Devils in order to replenish our numbers as well as add to our strength. Taking the chess metaphor literally became unexpectedly popular among High Class Devils."
"Popular how?" asked Ise-nii.
"They started to compete against each other in a real life game of chess we came to call the Rating Games. They became incredibly popular, not unlike human sports, and there are now tournaments for them and everything. Showing off the strength of oneself and one's Peerage also helps with somebody's social status. It's because of this that most Devils don't settle for reincarnating regular humans and instead try to find exceptional humans with some already latent ability. I'm not allowed to participate in Rating Games yet on account of not really being considered 'matured' by Devil standards."
"One of the drawbacks of nigh-immortality, I suppose," I said. "Everyone is too young eventually."
"Buchou, what are our pieces?" Ise-nii asked. I was curious, too.
"Ise, you are—"
Buchou stopped dead and we all stopped with her. I knew why, I could feel the chills running up and down my body, the killing intent. I could feel the Stray Devil's presence. It was coming.
"I smell something disgusting," came a female voice from the darkness. "But also delicious. Is it sweet? Is it sour? Only a taste will tell."
"Stray Devil Viser," Buchou said clearly and without fear. "We have come to eliminate you."
The laughter that emanated from around the room in response to her words was unnatural in its creepiness. Out of the shadows, a body became visible several feet in the air. The topless body of a woman with long dark hair and a killer body that set my hormones running. But there was more. A hideously loud footstep shook the ground as the rest of Viser's body became visible. She was gigantic and beastly from the waist down, with four legs, each having sharp claws, and a snake's tail. Her front legs had humanoid hands with sharp red claws, which matched her nails the closer I looked, and what I assumed was her stomach had an opening with rows upon rows of sharp teeth. Any and all arousal I felt faded away as I looked upon the beast before me. It looked like an exploitation horror movie directed by David Cronenberg.
Oh hell, I can't believe I was thinking about boning that a few seconds ago, I thought as my mouth hung open. When Buchou said Stray Devils often had their appearances twisted by their demonic power, I hadn't been expecting anything quite like this.
"I see big boobies!" Ise-nii announced oh so elegantly.
"Yes, Ise-nii," I responded. "We all see them."
"Abandoning your master and running off to do as you please is worthy of a thousand deaths," Buchou declared, glaring. "In the name of Duke Gremory, begone or meet your death!"
"Oh, give it a rest, you little slut," said Visor. "You always have had it in for me." She reached up and grabbed her own tits. If this were literally anyone else, I'd probably be aroused by now, but that boner was well and truly killed about a minute ago. "You're just jealous because your breasts will never be as as luscious as these."
"Well this got weird quickly," I said.
"This is your final warning, go back to your master now!" Buchou warned.
Viser just went on laughing. I wasn't looking, believe me, I really wasn't looking, but there's only so much eye averting you can do when somebody's exposed nipples start to glow red like Viser's were in that moment. Then when beams of light started rapid-firing out of her nipples like lethal breast milk, I started to wonder what drugs I was taking and what insane asylum I had been checked into. It took Koneko-chan tackling me to the ground and out of the way of the shots for me to finally snap back to reality.
I looked back and saw that the lasers had burned the wall away, letting in a light breeze from outside.
"This is one porno I don't wanna be in," Ise-nii muttered.
"Laser gun jubblies …" I said, breathing heavily. "How the hell did her master miss those?"
"Don't be a perv," Koneko-chan said as she got off me, ironically giving me more perverted thoughts when I thought about the fact that she was on top of me for a second there.
"Be careful," Buchou warned us. "Yuuto!"
"Yes, Buchou!" Kiba-kun said. Then he seemed to vanish before my eyes. One second he was there, pretty near to us, then he wasn't. I could see a vaguely defined blur darting around the room that I assumed to be him. This guy was fast.
"Now, then, I'll continue on with what I was saying before," Buchou said. "Yuuto's piece is the Knight. Its trait is speed. As you can see for yourselves, those with the Knight piece have their speed enhanced quite a bit."
No shit, I thought as I struggled to keep up with the blur that I now knew was definitely Kiba-kun. He was now going so fast that the blur vanished from my sight.
But just as quickly as he vanished, he appeared again, a sword drawn and bloodied by a slash I hadn't been able to see. A second or so after I saw that, Viser's arms were missing, flopped onto the floor, as blood spurted out of the wounds where they used to be at her shoulders. The screech of pain was almost as disturbing as her laughter.
Then I noticed that there was movement beneath Viser … It was Koneko-chan! I clenched my fists when I saw her so close to that monster, incredibly worried but with the logical part of my brain telling me she was fine and had likely done this before. The emotional side was winning out by a narrow margin, but by digging my nails into the palms of my hands I was keeping it at bay with a little bit of pain.
"Next is Koneko," Buchou went on. "She is a Rook. The trait of the Rook is—"
"Damn inseeeeeeeect!" Viser screeched, raising her front legs and slamming them down on the spot where Koneko-chan was standing.
"Koneko-chan!" I yelled in horror, instinctively going to move only for Akeno-san's hand on my shoulder to stop me. Looking more carefully, I saw that Viser's foot hadn't made contact with the ground and appeared to be hovering. It raised a little … and I saw that it was Koneko-chan pushing it up from beneath, not even looking like it was that big a chore for her to accomplish.
"The trait of the Rook is absolute strength," Buchou continued. "And also incredible defence. There was never any need to worry, Shintaro. No Devil of that calibre has the strength to crush Koneko."
Koneko-chan proceeded to demonstrate this point by lifting Viser up entirely by just the underside of that one foot.
"Fly," she said simply, then pushed Viser up, jumping up after her, and punched her in her gigantic stomach, sending her careening to the other side of the room and colliding into the wall with an almighty smash that sent brick and debris from the wall scattering everywhere. Seeing Koneko-chan kick ass so easily turned me on a bit, I won't even lie about it.
"Lastly, Akeno," said Buchou.
"Yes, Buchou," Akeno-san said. Her voice remained elegant but there was an undercurrent of excitement there, too. "Ara ara, what should I do?" She started laughing as she approached the recovering Stray Devil.
"Akeno is my Queen," Buchou explained. "She is the second strongest of the Peerage, after myself. The Queen piece holds lesser versions of the abilities granted by the Knight, Rook, and Bishop pieces."
Viser looked at Akeno-san as she approached. Akeno-san laughed softly in her face. "Seems like you still have some energy left in you," she said. "Let's see how you handle this." She pointed her hand towards the sky.
With a flash of light, a bolt of lightning shot down through the ceiling and struck Viser head-on. Her entire body convulsed and started to smoke under the onslaught of the electricity. It sounded nothing like those comedy movies where the person being electrocuted makes those really over the top noises. This was raw, this was real, and if the person being electrocuted wasn't such an obvious monster, I would find the sight and sound outright disturbing.
"Still energised?" Akeno-san asked rhetorically. "I think you can take more."
Another lightning bolt hit Viser. The results were the same, but the screams were louder.
Then a third time. It was starting to become gratuitous. The most terrifying yet exciting part of it was Akeno-san's face. She was smiling as usual, but her face was red as a tomato and her breathing was heavy.
"Akeno excels at attacks using her demonic powers," said Buchou. "Lightning, ice, fire, all the basic elements. And she's really into S and M."
I knew it! I said, looking at the flush on her face and feeling one grow on my own. She is getting off on this! And, God help me, I was kind of getting off on watching her. Not for the first time, I wondered just what the hell was wrong with me.
"Usually she's one of the nicest people you could hope to meet," said Buchou. "But when it comes to fighting like this, she won't stop until she's had her fill."
"I am simultaneously scared and aroused," I admitted in a daze. "I am scaroused."
Buchou chuckled. "I'm sure she'd be very happy to hear that," she said. "She said you're cute, you know. If you play your cards right, I'm sure she wouldn't mind showing some affection for her 'cute' kouhai." I didn't take Buchou for a tease, but there it was, clear as day.
Akeno-san herself was now laughing like a certified maniac as she continued to strike Viser with lightning over and over again. "How much more lightning can you take?" she asked gleefully. "Don't die yet, okay? I wanna have as much fun as possible before my King finishes you off." She laughed again.
Up until that moment, I'd been subconsciously thinking of Akeno-san as the "normal" one. Now that idea was so far out the window it may as well have been a baby held by Michael Jackson. I feel like that was the real turning point, the exact moment when I realised no aspect of my life would be "normal" ever again. And you know what? I was oddly okay with that. Maybe it was the image of me being "punished" by the newly-revealed sadist that made the change easier on me, but I didn't really care because I had to save that mental image for later in the night.
Akeno-san eventually backed away from Viser, who was little more than a breathing pile of ash and blood and bone at this point. Buchou stepped forward.
"Any last words?" she said.
"… Just kill me …" the previously cocky Stray Devil said miserably.
"As you wish."
A black mass of demonic power gathered around Buchou's outstretched hand, which, when she shot it off, covered the entire mass of Viser's broken body. When the black energy dissipated, Viser was gone, completely destroyed by the power Buchou had just displayed so casually. She hadn't lifted a finger throughout the entire fight other than then. I wondered, morbidly, what else she was capable of if she was able to destroy a creature like that so easily.
"It's over," she said with finality. "Good work, everyone."
With those words, the atmosphere returned to normal. Koneko-chan was by my side and tugging on my cheek over what I'd said about Akeno-san a moment ago. Kiba-kun was laughing at us. So was Akeno-san, but the last few minutes had given me an all new context to her laughing that made me shudder in both good and bad ways. We all turned and started to make our way out of the building.
"Buchou, there's still something you didn't tell us," said Ise-nii.
"What is it?" asked Buchou.
"Shin and I … What are our pieces?"
I listened carefully to Buchou's response. I wanted to know where I fit into all this.
"Shintaro is a Rook, like Koneko," said Buchou. "You, Ise, are a Pawn."
Yes, I mixed in some of the anime for the Viser fight because it amused me and allowed me to make an Austin Powers reference.
Gotta say, I was not expecting this chapter to hit 10K words when I was planning out the story … well done me, I guess. I'm well aware the scene with the Fallen Angels probably resulted in more questions than answers, but that was kind of the point. What's the point of plotting this all out if I'm going to give it away early on? Dohnaseek's weird new powers are part of that original plot, so don't worry, things will be explained in time.
The harems as they appear with the characters introduced so far:
Shintaro: Koneko Toujou, Akeno Himejima, Kalawarner, Asia Argento,
Issei: Rias Gremory, Raynare, Mittelt,
Now, before I go, let's answer some reviews.
Dis Lexic: Thanks, mate, it's really good to be back. Hey, good to hear! I loved Devils of the Void and I'll be happy if I get to read more of it (I do believe it was the first fic of yours I ever read, in fact).
Clarent excalibur: Akeno is pretty high on my list, as well. I look forward to writing out those particular interactions, too.
weslyschraepen: Well, as you can see, Asia is with Shintaro, but Irina … I make no promises. Like I said, the harem is actually already decided and I have it noted down, I'm just revealing it slowly to make things more interesting.
SonikNaoko: Yep! Yeah, I figured having him be a jokester would give him more of a personality where the original, I felt, was pretty boring when you get right down to it. Thank you!
Nivek Beldo: No, Shintaro was not meant to be a Fallen Angel. Why Raynare got all freaked out over her fuck up … well, there are some hints about it here, but since that's part of the story's overall storyline, I'd rather not spoil it down here.
yogaratw607: Again, the harem is already decided and will be revealed over time, so whether or not people are where you want them to be, you will discover eventually. Shintaro does not have a Sacred Gear, but he does have … something else (I'll say no more on that for spoiler reasons).
Ryujomaru15: Thank you. I did say in the bottom author's note that other characters from other series will show up, though they'll be changed so they can fit into this universe, so I wouldn't really use the word "crossover" in this instance. Well, seeing as demonic power is based around imagination, he can mimic stuff from anime, anyway, but the actual nature of his potential for growth is very plot-specific.
Guest: As you can see, Kalawarner is in there. The others, you'll have to wait and find out.
Guest: You'll find out eventually.
dragonfighter11: I'm afraid to say pretty much every female in the series is up for the harems. I've done my best to keep things equal between the two, though it might not seem so at first due to the way I'm doing the reveals, so I hope you at least take some comfort from that.
MentalForge: I hope "more" didn't disappoint. XD
See you all next time!