A Demon Lord's Hero

by Fahad09

When I sold my soul to the Devil, I thought I was prepared for anything. I wasn't. I didn't expect him to be a her. Or dressed up as a magical girl carrying a pink wand tipped with a cheerful yellow star. Her being a prankster however didn't come as much of a surprise. You know, the Bible would have been a whole lot more interesting if they included stuff like this. Complete AU

13. Chapter 13: This is Serafall - Part 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Fate/Stay Night or High school DxD, just the original concepts and plot in this story. This Crossover is a complete AU

*Story Start*

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This is Serafall (Part 1)

"For the last time Asia," I pinched the bridge of my nose as I spoke, feeling the arrival of the now familiar headache, "the answer is no. You can't take it home with us, now put it back wherever you found it."

"But Shirou!" She pleaded, "I can't send her back. Can't you see how scared and lonely she is?"

I turned to look at the reptile in question, "No." I replied as eyes that shone with more malevolence and hatred than anything I had seen before gazed unblinkingly back into mine. "I can't."

"Oh come on, Shirou. She was trying to follow me home." She tightens her grip on the monstrosity, wrapping her arms around its neck and rubbed her cheek against its own. "The poor little thing has been in the forest all alone for so long, I can't send her back there. I just can't. What if she gets hurt? Didn't you hear what Zatouji said? That forest is not safe, what if she runs into something dangerous?"

"Asia," I pointed at that monstrosity that she's holding, "that is the danger."

The light of the moon reflected off its scales, causing it to gleam like emeralds in the darkness of the clearing. It towered over the trees of the ancient forest, its head easily clearing the even the highest among them as it stared down at me with cruel yellow eyes that held a cunning and predatory intelligence in them. All nine pairs of them.

For all its size it moved in complete silence, slithering along the ground with all the noise of a whisper. Vile green venom dripped from its razor sharp fangs, longer than I am tall, falling to the ground where it splashed upon the earth before it sizzled and hissed as it dissolved through the grass and ate into the very dirt.

As I looked up at Asia, from where she sat upon one of the nine heads of the Hydra while wrapping her arms around the neck of another, I could not help but wonder if the equivalent of this world's Alaya hated me. If it was responsible for all the crap I kept going through then it must utterly loath me. Then again I had no one else to blame but myself, I should have realized something like this would happen when things started to go so well.

After the Fallen attack, or as Kokabiel's Fall as it was sometimes being called among other things, Sona and Gremory had begun to double up on their training. They've been pushing themselves rather harshly actually. Not that I could blame them. After what they've been through their reaction is completely understandable, so I decided to sit back and watch how things will work out for the time being but I may have to step in soon if they go too far.

Consequently, the two Heirs no longer seemed to have any free time to do anything else other than train, unwilling to spare anytime for anything else. I've actually been called in to help fulfill some of their contracts because they didn't want to stop training.

That is the reason we were even here. Neither of the two wanted to waste time searching for familiars despite booking an appointment with a Familiar Master months ago, not when only a single member of either of their Peerage lacked a familiar, prioritizing their training over everything else.

So instead of letting their appointment go to waste, something that even High-Class Devils would have to book months in advance for, they offered it to me and I accepted. It seemed like such a good idea at the time too, seeing as I was lacking a familiar myself.

That was the reason why Asia, Xenovia and myself ended up in the middle of a forest with a Familiar Master named Zatouji looking for beasts to contract with. Ramiel, the leader of my little group of Fallen-Ninjas, and the rest of his group didn't need to tag along as they had already found familiars of their own.

And that was how what had started off as a beautiful day ended up with me standing face to face with an abomination. It was death, devastation given form. With venom so deadly that even the strongest of Devils feared it, combined with a body that is said to be immortal, it was a true nightmare come to life.

A species that has killed its own master more time than any other creature, the nine-headed Hydra was one of the handful of beasts to fall into the category of Evil Familiars in Underworld.

It was also giving me a large puppy eyed stare as Asia continued to plead with me to let her keep it. Or at it least it tried to. Somehow a pair of yellow slitted eyes in a serpent's face staring wide-eyed at me doesn't exactly give me the same warm and fuzzy feeling that it would coming from a puppy.

Well, one of its heads was giving me the puppy eyed look. The other six were glaring down at me imperiously as if daring me to deny Asia's wish. The eighth had its eyes closed while it hissed in contentment as Asia scratched the scales above its right eye, and the last head was chasing a terrified Zatouji in some kind of sadist game as the poor Familiar Master ran in circles around me, yelling in terror all the while.

How did getting something as simple as getting familiars for both my Peerage and myself go so wrong so fast? Releasing my nose I raised a hand and pointed at the monstrosity she was holding onto. "Now go put it back where you found it."

"But Shirou, I already named her!" She called down to me from her perch, still refusing to let go of the serpent. "I can't let Miss Peanut Wigglebutt go back now."

"For the last time Asia, I said no- Wait! What!?" I mentally backtracked as my mind caught up to what I heard. "Asia," I spoke the words slowly, making sure that there is no way she could misunderstand, "did you name the nine-headed monstrosity, a beast so frightening that it's mere sight can make entire armies turn around and run in fear, Miss Peanut Wigglebutt?"

"Yes." She confirmed as she continue to scratch its scales, "Doesn't it suit her?"

I felt my jaw unhinged as I gaped up at her while my mind conjured mental images of the consequences of such a name. Of how grown men will fear the name peanut and will whisper it only in dark corners in the dead of night, never too loud for fear of summoning it. Of how soldiers would yell 'Run its Peanut Wigglebutt' causing entire armies to turn and flee.

What can possibly be more embarrassing than reporting to your superior officer that you ran away from an enemy named Miss Peanut Wigglebutt? To be killed by one, my mind supplied the answer along with a mental image of a gravestone with the epitaph 'Here lies Damion. Soldier, Warrior and Hero of unmatched courage and prowess. Struck down before his time by the wicked Wigglebutt.'

No. Just no. There is no way I could allow her to name it that. The consequences was too dire. I had put a stop to this evil before it was too late. I looked up at Asia and locked eyes with her to convey the seriousness of the situation, and once I was sure she understood the significance about what I was about to say, I opened my mouth to deny her.

"Yes." The word came out of my lips without me willing it to. I tried to resist, I honestly tried but it was no use. It was as if Serafall reached across from the very planes of existence itself and possessed me, forcing my mouth to spill out the words and my head to nod in agreement, "Yes Miss Peanut Wigglebutt is a wonderful name and it suits her perfectly."

"It's settled then." Asia beamed at me before turning to look directly into the eye of the monstrosity, "From now on your name will be Miss Peanut Wigglebutt."

And thus a great evil was committed this day.

I took a moment to send a prayer for the countless of broken pride that name will no doubt cause.

"Asia," and even to my ears my voice sounded resigned. I already knew that anything I said will end in vain and that Asia, as usual, will inevitably get what she wants, but damn it it I had to at least try. "Why can't you get a more reasonable familiar like Xenovia?"

I pointed to the other side of the clearing where Xenovia was patting the neck of her Pegasus.

"Come, oh most worthy steed." She declared as she sat up from her spot on the back of the Pegasus. Its white coat shimmered like silver and its blue mane was the exact same shade as her hair. "From this day forth we shall ride into battle together and our enemies shall learn fear." She drew her sword and pointed it straight ahead. "Now charge! High-ho Silver away!"

Then in a blur of movement she was gone, soaring up to the skies in a streak of blue and white.

"On second thought." I turned back to Asia, fighting the urge to slump in defeat as I did so. "Fine you can keep the monstrosity, but-"

"Thank you Shirou!" She interrupted me.

"But," I repeated, "Only if you burn that shirt."

"Deal!" She readily agreed.

Well, at least that take cares of one of my problems. For on her white shirt was the caption 'People Die When They Are Killed – Emiya Shirou'.

Once! I swear I said it once, and no one ever let me forget it. This is why I know I suck at giving speeches. I gave a bad one once and it still haunts me even in an entirely different dimension.

At the moment I wanted to do nothing more but go home and sleep. Unfortunately I still had to find a familiar of my own before we could leave.

"No! Bad Miss Peanut Wigglebutt." I looked up to find Asia scolding one of the Hydra's heads. It was trying to look inconspicuous but was failing badly, what with the man-sized bulge in its throat and the muffled screams that could still be heard. "Devils are not food! Now spit poor old Zatouji out right this instant."

You know what? Forget the damn familiar, let's go home before something else happens.

---

I pivoted in place, pulling my left side back, barely preventing the sword from skewering me as it thrust through the space my shoulder had just occupied, missing it by mere inches. Using the momentum of my pivot, I thrust the sword in my right hand forward, aiming for my opponent's shoulder in turn.

Like me, he twisted away from the blow, pulling his shoulder back as the momentum of his strike continued to drag him forward. For a moment, just as he was about to pass me by, we ended up mirroring each other. Both of our swords were thrust forward in our right hands while our left sides were pulled back to avoid the other's blow.

Even the swords in our hands were the same, mirror images of the other. A matching pair of steel grey long-swords. Straight, simple and functional, free from any extravagant and unnecessary ornaments. They were perfect copies of each other, down to the smallest detail. I made sure of it. The only things that truly differentiated us from the other was his blond hair compared to my red, and the irritated frown on his face opposed to the amused smirk on mine.

He stomps his foot into the ground, stopping his forward momentum before we got out of each other's range, and redirecting the energy into his left arm, swinging the blade that suddenly appeared in what was his once empty hand at me. It was a complete reversal of his last sword. Where the first was basic and practical in design, this one was ornamental to an extreme.

The sapphires that studded along the flat of the blade were arranged in eye-pleasing swirling patterns, glimmering in the light of the morning dawn. Its hilt was gold plated and where there should have been a pommel was an egg-sized sapphire instead.

He swung it down on me from overhead, as if trying to cleave me in two, putting all of his weight behind the blow. It didn't take him long to learn that holding back in our spars was a bad idea. It did nothing but make him lose that much faster and after I simply overpowered his strikes with my own a couple of dozen times the first few days we practiced, he stopped doing so entirely.

Still, even after he pushed every ounce of strength he had into that strike it never reached me. Didn't even come close. As before it covered half the distance between us a sword, one so similar to his, intercepted it just as it came down.

It took me less than a fraction of a second to analyze the sword and read its history before recreating a perfect replica of it for myself. The moment it fell into my hand I brought the sword down overhead at him, with exactly the same strike and trajectory he was using against me.

The air echoed with the ringing of steel as both swords rebounded off the other, sending a fireworks of sparks into the air, filling the space between us with flickering lights.

The power of the blow sent him stumbling back a step before he regained his balance. Then instead of bringing the sword back down again for another strike, Kiba released his sword, both of them. They quickly disappeared as they left his hands, fading into motes of lights before another pair of swords appeared in his grip to take their place.

While it took him a while, he had finally begun to realize that I could copy his skills with the sword after several hours of sparring together. It took him even longer to discover that I was able to mimic his skill much easier when he kept using the same swords or styles he tended to favor. Since then he's tried to confuse me by switching swords as often and quickly as he could. Sometimes never using the same sword for more than a single strike before switching to a new weapon.

Like he was doing right now.

The air between us continued to be filled with multicolored specks of lights as our swords streaked towards each other, birthing sparks whenever they clashed. Swords made from nothing but living shadow and darkness, blades with crimson flames licking up and down their edge, claymores then daggers, elegant rapiers were followed by serrated blades. Time after time our swords would meet and clash only to be repelled then replaced by another in the next strike, never using the same sword as one used before.

Yet each time he switched swords, I would do so too, matching whatever blade he conjured with one that mirrored his. Dagger with dagger, long sword with long sword, and I would always strike with the same amount of skill and force he would wield his sword with, as if I was some kind of doppelganger.

His idea of a switching swords was a good one in theory but a bad one in practice. He knew it wasn't enough so to overwhelm me, not by a long shot, so he would experiment with his attacks. Strike from left when he would often favor the right during practice, thrust instead of cleaving, go low when he should have went high, always trying something new or different than his usual method of attack.

Unfortunately that wasn't enough. On the rare occasions that he successfully catches me off guard, it's usually when he does something unusual or with a move he has never practiced before. Unsurprisingly this causes his skill and speed to drop significantly, his usual elegance with the blade nowhere to be seen, allowing me to counter him easily even through my surprise.

Still, this was good practice for him. It forced him to try experiment and try to think of knew attack style outside of his usual patterns. In the long run it will only help him developed as a fighter. From what I had observed, Kiba's strength lies in his speed and his versatility granted to him by his swords.

The problem was that Kiba failed to capitalizes on his strengths. Sure, he has no problem using his speed but it was how he used his swords that was the issue. He relies too much on the multitude and flexibility of his swords' abilities while he himself remains rigid.

Kiba clearly favors the European long sword, it was the kind of sword his fighting style was meant to wield. That was the reason why almost all the swords he produced with his Sacred Gear were long swords. But that was just a waste of his Sacred Gears power. Sword Birth can produce almost every kind of sword there is but Kiba limits himself to one.

It was an understandable problem. Learning different sword styles is a difficult and time-consuming process that would take years even for talented swordsmen to accomplish. I was only able to overcome the problem thanks to my ability to use the skills of my swords' previous owners. That was however not a good enough excuse for him not to learn other styles.

That was what I was trying to do. By making him realize that his current way of fighting didn't work against me, I was forcing him to try something new. To adapt and experiment with his Sacred Gear until he found something that worked.

"Damn…jocks." A tired voice wheezed out, dragging me out of my thoughts just as I deflected another blow. I shifted my attention away from the little game I was playing with Kiba and looked to my right, where on the other side of the clearing we were training in, stood an utter exhausted looking Sona

Well, calling what she was doing standing would have been rather a stretch, considering that she was bent over double and just barely staying on her own two feet. I was sure the only reason why she wasn't sprawled out face first on the ground was due to the staff that she was desperately clinging onto.

And even with the staff that she was using to prop herself up she was barely able to remain standing. Her legs kept wobbling in place beneath her and threatened to give out at any second.

She was glaring up at us over the rim of her glasses, her face drenched with so much sweat that drops of it continued to drip down her face and off the tip of her nose. Her sweat soaked hair was plastered onto her face and her breath came out in short wheezing pants. Even the School's sport uniform that she had on was completely soaked through with her sweat.

Yet despite her obvious exhaustion, she didn't lose a hint of her usual ferocity as she attempted to force us into submission with the power of her glare alone. Or tried to anyway. Sona was hardly the most intimating person to me even during the best of times. Now, what with the way her drenched hair was plastered onto her face, she looked as ferocious as an angry kitten that was just taken out of its bath. Her glaring just made her look even more adorable.

"How…"She panted out between breaths, "…is this…supposed to be…fun? Bloody… Jocks… how are you… possibly…enjoying this?"

I was prevented from answering her question when a sword came slashing down at my head, forcing me to lean backwards to avoid the blow. Kiba, not letting his failed attack slow him down in the slightest, spun around and brought his sword back for another strike.

I felt a stirring of satisfaction as I watched his unrelenting attack. It was a far cry from how he acted when we started. Back then he was both chivalrous and honourable, stopping his attacks and waiting for me to face him again instead of continuing whenever my attention was drawn away by the others training with us.

The first time he did it I made sure praised him for behaving in a matter truly befitting a knight. Then when he let his guard down as he was about to thank me for the compliment I slammed the flat of my sword into the side of his skull when he wasn't ready. I made sure to hit him hard enough for him to really feel it too.

I ended up over doing it a bit and my strike wound up giving him a concussion. Asia had to be called in to help fix him up and get him back on his feet again. She also had to come in the second and third this time happened as well. It was only after the third time did it began to dawn on him I was being sarcastic with my complements, and after that he finally learnt to not stop attacking whenever I looked away.

Now don't get me wrong, chivalry and honour are both wonderful things. It's one of the reason why I fell for Saber after all. I just don't believe they should belong on the battlefield. They tend to get you killed more often than not.

And I sure as hell wasn't about to allow anyone I teach die in such a stupid way. Only the strong can afford to show chivalrous in battle. I'm convinced that the only reason why Saber survived for so long acting the way she did was because disadvantaged or not she had more than enough power to overwhelm anyone that challenged her.

I could hear Kiba actually growl in frustration when I didn't even bother looking away from Sona as I continued to dodge and deflect his attacks. He almost snarled as he redoubled his attacked, reinforcing a rather startling truth that I had ended up discovering during my time sparring with him. Kiba, it turns out, had one hell of a temper. Who would have figured that someone as polite as him had Wrath as a personal sin?

"I have no idea what you're talking about Kaichou." He gritted out through clenched teeth as he continued to press his attack, which only seemed to fuel his frustration when he failed to make any real progress. "The only ones that are having fun here are these two."

"Nya-ha-ha, Kiba-chi~." A voice cheered from above me. "It's not our fault you're not having fun. You'd be enjoying yourself too if you could just fight worth a damn. Nya-ha."

Then again, the source of his temper may not have anything to with his Sin, what with the heckler he seemed to have gained.

Kiba paused in his attacks to look up at my little passenger. "As if you can do any better." He pointed his sword up at her, "How am I supposed to take this fight seriously when you're riding on his shoulders Koneko?"

"Kiba-chi~," She drawled out her new pet name for him as she propped an elbow on my head, "it's called a handicap."

I felt Shirone pet me a couple times before she started ruffling my hair. "If you can't beat my little servant here with me in his way, then you'll just end up getting your pretty little ass kicked even worse without me, nya-ha-ha~."

Ok, now that that was a little harsh. That it was also true was completely irrelevant. I lowered my sword and looked up above me with a reprimand ready on my lips, only to pause as I found a pair of golden eyes staring back down into mine. They sparkled in the sunlight, filled with barely concealed mischief and amusement that I knew would only spell trouble for me.

From where she sat on my shoulders, with her legs hooked beneath my arms, Shirone grinned teasingly down at me before giving my head another couple of condescending pats.

"Shirone, how many times must I tell to stop teasing Kiba during our training?" I admonished her, "And when did I ever agree to become your servant?"

A smirk flashed through her face for a heartbeat before she quickly hid it behind a faux serious expression. She removed her hand off the top of my head to tap her chin a couple of times while she cocked her head in thought, "Well, you feed me don't you?"

I didn't hesitate in the slightest to nod adamantly in response. There was no denying that. She invited herself over for almost every meal these days. Not that I minded of course but holy crap could the girl eat!

If Serafall hadn't provided me with what was practically unlimited funding to spend while I was here, I'm sure that Shirone would have eaten me out of house and home three times over by now. She devoured more food in a single meal than the rest of my peerage could eat throughout the entire day. Combined.

"And you take care of me as well, right?" Propping her chin on my head as she asked. I felt a feeling of trepidation wash over me for a moment before I reluctantly nodded my head. I'm not sure why, but I had a bad feeling that I wouldn't like where this was going.

Sure enough, her next words confirmed my fears. "Well since you feed me, take care of me, and do anything I ask you to, then what else could you possibly be but my servant?"

"Wait wait wait! Since when did I ever do anything you ask me?"

I felt her shift around on my shoulders as she moved about and her legs tighten their hold on me before she pushed herself off my head and lean down over in front of me. Her upside-down face ended up suspending before mine, only a few inches separating the two of us, while her hair dangled down towards the ground.

The pair of white-furred cat-ears that she now seemed to continuously have out began to fold flat against her head, making her look ridiculously sad. Her golden eyes grew wide with surprise and they quickly began to turn moist as unshed tears began to gather in them. Her chin wobbled slightly for a moment as she whispered out, "You…you mean you won't?"

"I…no, that's not what…I mean…" I stammered out trying to come up with something to say as her eyes, her wide heartbreaking eyes remained locked onto mine and her chin's trembling continued to grow more pronounced with every passing second.

Ok, now that just wasn't fair! I knew that look. How could I not when Ilya kept using it on me whenever she really wanted something. As if that wasn't bad enough but now Shirone learned how to do it too? Did they have classes specifically for little white haired girls where they go to learn how to do this or was it just genetic?

However, it wouldn't work. Not anymore. Not with my new found Devil Pride to help me resist. My pride will never allow me to bow down and become anyone's servant, even if it was just in name alone. Not even if the person happened to be an adorably sad little girl whose broken hearted face made me want to hug her until all her pain went away and promise the entire world just to make her smile again.

So no, unlike with Ilya I didn't cave into her demand right way. I've changed. This time I was able to resist for a full six seconds before I folded like a stack of cards.

"…Fine." I slumped over slightly as I stopped resisting and gave over to the inevitable. I could feel my broken pride weeping in a dark corner of my soul from the beating it received. "I give, I'm your servant, whatever, just cut the damn puppy eyes out."

At my words her frown disappeared and was instantly replaced with a cheerful smile. "Nya-ha-ha-ha," She laughed as flipped herself back up again. "See? What a good boy you are my little servant."

Then she began to fondly pat the top of my head again as if were a dog as all the while she smirked impishly down at me.

You know, the longer I began to hangout with Shirone the more certain I became of a certain truth. It was official, she was an Evil kitty.

I must that have said that out loud because the next thing I knew Shirone broke out in another string of laughter, "Shirou~. Didn't you know? All cats are Evil. We're just cute enough to get away with it, Nya-ha~."

Before I even got the chance to so much as think of a retort Kiba attacked, trying to take advantage of my distraction and sneak a blow in. It didn't work of course but that was the closest he came to hitting me all day.

With Shirone on my back I couldn't duck the blow as I usually would have, not without her getting hit in my place. So I blocked the blow with the flat of my blade instead. It wasn't an elegant solution but it worked, and with the power advantaged granted to me by my Queen Piece to his Knight, I was able to easily halt him in his tracks using brute strength alone.

We ended up standing face to face, with swords locked in place between us, before I broke the stalemate. Digging my feet into the ground I flexed my legs and pushed forward, forcing Kiba back and trying to knock him off balance. It didn't work as instead of fighting me, Kiba went along with my action. He leapt backwards and used my push to help propel himself away faster and soon he was a fair distance away from the reach of my sword.

He leapt back a couple of more times than he needed to, stopping only when he cleared a wide stretch of open space between us. As he skidded to a halt he immediately held his sword in before him, in the classic two handed grip, in preparation for any counter attack I may attempt. He didn't need to bother as I just held my ground instead and waited for him to come to me and, to my mild surprise, he did the same.

The Kiba in front of me was a far cry from what he was when we first started training. Even as little as a month ago he would have never been content to sit back and wait. The old him would rely completely on his speed and reflexes to get him through a fight, rushing in and trying to overwhelm his opponent at the first opportunity.

And to his credit it would work pretty well most of the time. Even for a Knight Kiba was scary fast and at times even I had trouble keeping up with him without reinforcing myself. He would have been able to finish off most opponents before they even realized that they were being attacked but against someone of a higher caliber than him, his recklessness would doom him.

But now he was already different, all I had to do was watch his eyes for proof. They weren't locked onto me like they used to. They were slowly drifting left and right, scanning the terrain around us in addition to myself.

He had already attempted all of his regular lines of attack over our weeks of sparring and they all failed. Several times in fact. So he had been forced to learn how to use his brain rather than just his skills when fighting me.

To learn how to observe the field of a battle as well as his opponent was a skill that would have been worthless in a regular sword match but utterly invaluable in the battlefield. That is the difference between fighting a single opponent in a sparring match and fighting several opponents in a constantly shifting battlefield.

And that was why I left him to it uninterrupted. That was what I had been trying to teach him all this time so there was no way I'm going to interfere now that he was finally getting it right. So I lowered my sword slightly and took a semi-relaxed stance, waiting for him to finish and see what he came up with.

Kiba didn't really need me to teach him any sword skills. Other than his lack of flexibility it was already near flawless for his age. Not surprising, seeing as he had a first class instructor helping him train. Souji Okita was one of the greatest living swordsmen in the Underworld and, if Kiba was anything to go by, an equally skilled teacher, if a little old fashioned.

So no, I didn't need to bother teaching him any sword skills. What I tried to teach him instead, other than observing the entire battlefield, was something that only I as a fellow crafter of multiple swords could teach. How to fully utilize the advantage that our swords granted us.

Right now he was only the using the direct application of his sword's abilities, which was a complete waste of his true potential. What he needed to realize, just as how I did long ago, is that it was not the abilities of ours swords that made them powerful, but knowing how and when to use them. The pure flexibility and versatility is our fighting styles' greatest asset, and the sooner he figured that out the better.

He was learning of course, if rather slower than I'd have liked but he was progress was progress and he getting a little bit better every single day. But he was still too rigid to my liking, to predictable. I wanted him to do something unexpected, something that I wouldn't see coming-

"I," He intoned, his voice cutting clear across the clearing and dragging me from my thoughts, "am the bone of my sword."

…What the hell?

I felt my jaw drop as I gaped in utter incomprehension at him, almost dropping my sword in my shock. Even Shirone nearly slipped off my shoulder, tilting over in surprise before she regained her wits and righted herself. I felt her then lean forward as far as she could as she joined me in staring in disbelief at the boy.

Well…at least I got my wish. I sure as hell didn't see that coming.

For a moment I almost convinced myself that I must have misheard him, that I did not just hear him chant my Aria, but then the little prick had the audacity to carry on.

"With a body of iron," His face was a mask of utter focus as he chanted the words, his eyes never leaving mine, "and a heart of fire."

This time took a deep breath before charging ahead as he continued the chant, "Utterly alone I forge my-"

The rest of the aria was abruptly cut off when he found the bottom of a shoe slamming into his jaw as I front kicked the little brat in the face.

He stumbled backwards, tumbling head over heels on the ground before he skidded to a stop only a few meters away. I stalked up to him, barely waiting for him to raise him head back up before I pointed the tip of my sword at him his nose.

"Ok…" I stared down incredulously at him. "What the hell was that supposed to do? Other than getting me to kick your ass even faster than usual?" While a part of me was bewildered about the entire thing, the rest of me felt alarmingly jealous. As irrational as it maybe, the thought of someone trying to steal my Aria spiked a wave of possessiveness in me.

Shirone had a completely opposite response to mine if her side splitting laughter was anything to go by. I actually had to reach up and grab onto her just as she was about to roll of my shoulder in her fit of laughter.

"Nya-ha-ha-ha-ha, oh Kiba-chi~! That was the stupidest thing I've ever seen. Ever!" She pushed herself forward and looked down at Kiba. "Not even the pervert Issei has ever done something so stupidly hilarious before."

Kiba, having regain his senses, pushed himself up to a sitting position, gingerly cradling his jaw. "What was so stupid about it? Nothing else was working and if it help Shirou in a fight why wouldn't it help me? It was worth a try at least." His voice was muffled by his hand. Ignoring my sword, he pushed himself up to his feet. "And did you have to kick me so hard?"

"Yes." I nodded without hesitation before pausing as it occurred to me that I may have overreacted just a bit and I quickly added. "It was to teach you the consequence of talking too much in battle." While weak, it was the first excuse I could think of.

Going by the doubtful look Kiba shot me I don't think he quite bought it, but other than staring at me dubiously for a few more seconds he decided to let it go before turning to walk over to where he dropped his sword. He turned around after picking it up and assumed his usual stance.

Seeing that he still wanted to continue I decided to do the same. This time however, I didn't mimic and instead projected my own swords. Kanshou and Bakuya fell into my hands and I assumed Archer's favored wide open stance, all but outright inviting him to attack me.

We both inched closer to each other and just as we bent our knees in preparation to charge, we were interrupted by a dull ringing echoing through the clearing. It took me a couple of seconds, engrossed in our match as I was, to peg the sound as the ringing of the school's bell, which signaled both the opening of the school's gates and the end of the day's training.

"Oh thank everything good and merciful it's finally over." Sona managed to breathe out before she finally surrendered to gravity, releasing her grip on the staff and collapsing into heap of strangled limbs. A thump was heard soon after when her staff joined her on the ground.

Unlike Sona, Kiba was far too well trained to allow himself to collapse in exhaustion no matter how fatigued he was. Instead he took a few slow steps backwards, widening the space between us and careful not to let his guard completely down until he was well out of my range, having learned the hard way I was willing to sneak in a few last minute blows in, before stopping and dismissing both his swords.

He groaned as he placed his hands on his back and stretched. "You know," He began as he ran his metallic grey eyes over me and Shirone, "as grateful as I am for the training, I can't help but find it a little bit unfair how untired you two are compared to me. The two of you barely look like you've worked up a sweat."

"That has as much to do with your own magic supply as it does your physical training." Dismissing my own swords in turn. "Even without training, all Devils instinctively use their magic to fortify their bodies and that allows them to push their endurance to far greater levels then they would be able to otherwise.

"As a Reincarnated Devil with no previous skills in magic before your reincarnation, your magic supply is naturally rather low compared to most Devils. Outside of the Pawn, the Knight piece grants the least amount of magic from all of the Evil Pieces.

"Don't worry though, even if you do nothing at all a Devil's magic will increase naturally as you mature and age. It won't ever stop growing no matter how old you get. There is a reason why the strongest Devils tend to be the oldest ones after all. Just give it time and your stamina will naturally increase on its own, and training will do nothing but help.

"I guessed as much," he nodded while he took deep even breaths to help him recover from the strenuous workout, "but that doesn't explain why you're so much less tired than me. I didn't think being a Queen makes that much of a difference. I've trained with Akeno often enough to know she gets tired almost as quickly as I do."

"That's because Akeno is a magic specialist. While her magic supply is probably more than a match for mine, her physical body is simply too weak to take full advantage of it. You probably never noticed it before, seeing as you haven't fought in a Rating Game yet and the only Queens you interacted with are Ultimate Devils such as Grayfia but for the most parts, Queens tend to fall into one of two categories.

"The first kind are the magic specialist. To put it simply you could more or less call them Bishops rather than Queens. Their entire fighting style consists of them trying to bombard their enemy from afar with overwhelming amount of magical firepower. While their attacks tend to be incredibly destructive, they also have almost no talent in close-range fighting, only using their speed to avoid enemies and their attacks, only relying on their defense to get them through when they can't.

"The second kind of Queens are the close-combat specialists. As you can guess they are the complete opposite of the first. Forgoing most of their magic, they try and get in close to their enemy and fight either hand-to-hand or with weapons. While not as destructive as the magic-specialist, they tend to be far more resilient and flexible in battle.

"Most Queens tend to fall into one or the other category. It's rather rare for Queens to be skilled in both fields. The only one that are tend to be from the older generation like Grayfia, who had centuries to hone their skills."

To say I disapproved of the practice was putting it lightly. While I understood intellectually at least that it was extremely difficult and time consuming for someone to train both their magic and bodies at once, it was such a waste. Queens had the potential to be great in both areas but so few ever reach that potential.

I gave my head a quick shake and got back to the topic at hand. "Anyway, despite Akeno's large supply of magic her body simply lacks the training to channel it all for long periods of time. You'll probably never have this problem seeing as your situation is the opposite of hers, but channeling Mana can exhaust the body just as easily as physical excursion. This causes her body to exhaust itself long before she even gets close of running out of magic.

"Tsubaki on the other hand," I nodded towards Sona, where her unmoving form still laid flat along the ground, "is a close combat specialist. If you ever end up facing her in combat you'll find, that despite having a lower supply of magic, she can physically outlast Akeno by a wide margin. Isn't that right Sona?"

A drawn out groan was the only reply I received. It came out rather muffled, what with the way her face was buried in the grass, so I wasn't quite sure whether it was one of agreement or of pain.

It may have been rather cruel of me, but I couldn't resist sparing a moment to take in and enjoy the rare sight of Sona in such an undignified state. Her usual dignity and rigid formality was nowhere to be seen as she laid prone on the ground, face-first, breathing into the patch of grass her head was resting on.

The Sin of Pride was such an unusual thing.

It was her Pride that demanded for her to grow stronger. To grow strong. To suffer through whatever pain and hardship, to bear any indignity it had to and do it all willingly if it meant removing the stain on her Pride that was caused by her weakness. It would never allow her to relive the helplessness she felt on that day. The shame of being crushed and defeated, only to watch on, helpless as a newborn child, as others decided her fate. Never again.

Yet it was the very same Pride that barred her from training with her Peerage. To her, her Peerage was what lay in the heart of her Pride, and it is for that very reason she didn't want them to see her reduced to such a state. To allow those that she prided herself in, see her in anything less than her best was intolerable.

So she would sneak out every day without them knowing, forgoing time usually spent on extra-curriculum studying to train instead. And did she ever train. Though by far the weakest of us all physically, she refused to allow us to slow our pace down for her sake.

Every morning without fail she appeared bright and early to train alongside us, not stopping until she collapsed as her body gave up on her and even then she wouldn't leave. When her limbs ended up quivering like jello and held just as much strength remaining in them, she still forced herself to remain standing and tried to hobble along after us, only allowing herself rest when we did.

It was then, after the first week that I saw her do this, did I begin to suspect that there may have been something more to her new found effort. That there was something other than her Pride driving her to do this.

Not for the first time I began to wonder, what was it that she saw reflected in the light of that sword?

Whatever it was it couldn't have been as bad as whatever Saji had seen. While his fellow Peerage members were understandably skittish of me for a while, Saji was the complete opposite. The very next time he laid eyes on me he broke down crying, sobbing like a little girl before, with a cry of 'Aniki', he embraced me in a hug and wouldn't stop weeping for a good ten minutes after.

Yeah, that would have been a rather awkward moment under any circumstance, but he had managed to make it even worse by doing it in the middle of Homeroom.

Saji had just barged into my classroom on our very first day back, ignored the teacher and just ran straight at me with arms wide open and tears running down his face.

Ever since. rumors about Kuoh Academy's newest BL couple had begun to circulate, alongside with the Issei/Kiba pairing.

But that wasn't important.

What was important, is that Sona had asked me to both help her train and to keep her Peerage from finding out about it. Since I was beginning to find myself become quite familiar with the folly of Pride, I was more than happy to oblige her.

However, that didn't mean I was above a bit of petty revenge. What with all the losses I suffered by her hand in chess, it's only fair that I use this chance to get back at her. And her asking me to do this to her just made it that much sweeter.

"As for me I'm a mix of both of physical and magical." I continued my explanation. "I may not look it but I used to practice a bit of Magecraft before I became a Devil. I was never very good at it but it was enough to help boost my magical supply to its current level."

"Not very good he says." With her head still face first in the grassy ground, too tired to bother lifting it, Sona grumbled out. "He created an entire bloody world with nothing but his soul and magic, and he say he's not very good. What kind of system do you measure yourself with? Probably the same one he uses to judge that 'yes' is an adequate answer to 'if you have a lot of swords?'"

"I…see." Kiba finally added when Sona's voice continued to diminish in volume until it devolved to a near silent, incoherent grumbling. His eyes shifted upwards until they landed on Shirone. "What about Koneko then?"

I had already opened my mouth to respond before shutting it again when I realized that I did not know the answer. Except for when she had one of her playful streaks like she did today, Shirone usually trained just as hard as the rest of us did during our little get together. Yet she had no trouble keeping pace with me.

Why did she out last Kiba?

I tilted up my head up towards her, only to find her already looking down at me with an answer ready on her lips, "It's because I'm a cat silly."

After a few more seconds of silence, it became clear that she didn't have anything else to add so I turned back to Kiba and told him, "She's a cat."

"A cat?" he cocked an eyebrow.

I nodded "A cat."

"Yup a cat, nya-ha" Shirone finished with cheer.

"What she means is," Sona interrupted, still not bothering to lift her head up from the grass, "that she's a Nekoshou. While as a species they have a rather unimpressive amount of magic supply, rating somewhere near the lower end of the spectrum, they still have a lot more Mana running through their system than your average human."

She lifted her head from the ground and looked up at us. Strands of grass covered her face, tangled up in her hair and hanged off her glasses but she ignored them. "Add in their body's ability to channel extraordinarily amounts of Mana, then what you more or less end up with are a species made up of stamina freaks." And having said her part, she dropped her head back down again with a thud.

Shirone just stared dumbly at her for a few seconds before nodding knowingly. "That's what I said. Cats."

I resisted the urge to shake my head at her. "Kiba, you might want to start heading back soon if you want to squeeze in a shower before class starts." I told him as I took in his sweat drench form. "With all the parents coming today, I doubt any of the teachers would tolerate us looking anything less than our best."

"That's right, that's today isn't it?" He ran a hand though his hair, grimacing when it came back soaked.

"Buchou has been fretting over it for weeks now, trying to make sure her brother doesn't hear about it. She makes such a big deal about it every year." He shrugged. "I don't understand it myself, Sirzechs isn't that bad. And it must be kind of nice, having someone coming." His voice drifted off towards the end, before he visibly gave himself a shake and turned back to me.

"What about you Senpai? Do you have any parents coming?"

"I don't have any parents so no but my sister is definitely coming." Smiling at the thought. It's been almost two months since I've last seen Ilya. I don't think we've ever been separated for this long, not since the first time we met. A small pang of sadness hit me as I realized that this would be the first time that Fuji-nee wouldn't be the one coming but I quickly pushed the thought away. "And unlike your king, I'm actually looking forward to seeing my sibling again."

"That's good then." He flashed me a genuine smile, happy for my own fortune, before looking towards Sona. "How about you Kaichou, do you have anyone coming?"

Sona didn't say anything in reply, either having not heard him in her exhaustion or too tired to answer. Just as Kiba about to ask again he was interrupted by a low ominous chuckle. As quite as it was, it took us a moment to realize that it was coming from Sona.

"Ha…haha…hahahaha…" it started off as a quite thing but it wasn't long before Sona tossed her head back and all but cackled like a demented Disney villain. "Hahahaha! Is anyone coming he asks? Is anyone coming? Well let me tell you." She turned her manic eyes, which seemed to glow with an inner fire, to Kiba while a twisted smile adorned her lips.

"No." She answered him, rolling the word in her tongue as if she could taste it. "No one is coming, and it's going to be positively wonderful!" She flipped herself over onto her back before breaking down into another fit of cackling laughter, one that showed no sign of abating anytime soon.

Kiba shot me a worried glance but I had no better idea to what was wrong with her than he did, so I just shook my head in return. We both looked up to Koneko but see looked just as confused as we were. Feeling our eyes on her, she just gave us a shrug. Looks like she didn't know either.

So for a lack of anything better to do we collectively agreed to stand by and watch as Sona continued to laugh like a maniac. It was only when what felt like the better part of a minute had past did she finally begin to taper off.

"Do you know what it feels like," She pushed herself up into a sitting position, her voice taking an oddly sober tone, "to be have a sister like mine? To have her appear, cosplaying as a magical girl and embarrassing you in front of the entire student population, year after year?

"I am the Student Council President and the top honor student of my school. I had worked hard for that position, spent years cultivating my reputation so that I could earn it, truly earn it rather than use my family's influence to gain it.

"So can you imagine how it feels like to see that reputation ruined, no, not ruined, but utterly demolished over the course of a single afternoon as the entire student population bears witness to you running down the school corridors for all you've got for the better part of an hour while being chased by a magical girl cosplayer who keeps yelling 'yuri-yuri love' all the while?

"Then after suffering though all of that only to spend the reminder of the week using every scrap of free time you have tracking down and erasing the entire student body's memory of the event because the only way you would dare show your face back in school otherwise is with a paper bag over your head?"

"Do you what that feels like, to go through that every single year since freaking Kindergarten? Well, do you? No, no of course you don't. You couldn't possibly know what it feels like. And this year," her smile returned, "neither will I. And it's going to be wonderful." She threw her arms into the air and fell back down onto her back.

"This year we made sure neither one of our siblings knew about the class visits. We gave them the wrong date, telling them that it will take place during next week, which will be a holiday. By then it'll be too late. This year, there is absolutely no way my sister will turn up.

"Rias and I, we have spent months planning for this. Though it's a rather simple plan, we're taking no chances. For almost a year now we've been meticulously going through every detail, looking for each and every possible way of our siblings finding out, no matter how improbable it may be, and taking steps to eliminate it.

"Do you know what this means?" Her eyes shining with joy. "It means that there will be no family to embarrass me, no sister chasing me throughout the school and most especially there will be no one trying to get me dressed up as magical girl only to take a bunch of pictures to fill the family album.

"No, none of that. This day will be nothing special, nothing extraordinary. It will be mundane and, dare I say it, dull. Today will be remembered in our memories as nothing but another completely ordinary school event, one that will not distinguish itself from the countless others like it." She let out a content sigh. "And it will be glorious."

…Oh shit.

Very, very slowly I looked away from Sona, being careful not to look her in the eyes least she notices my nervousness.

How the hell was I supposed to know that she didn't want Serafall here? She didn't tell me, no one did. They never even brought it up. Did they forget whose Queen I was or something?

I had just contacted her last night to make sure that both Ilya and her were coming today, and that's when we realized she had the wrong date. Serafall had all but exploded with excitement when she realize she was going to meet her little 'So-tan' earlier than expected.

And looking at how happy Sona was, what with the occasional manic laughter she kept releasing, I didn't have the heart to tell her how badly her plan had backfired and that Serafall was already on her way. That and I might have been a little scared of what she'd do to me.

"So…" Trying to change the topic I turned back to Kiba quickly searched my mind for something to talk about, anything to distract Sona from the current situation, "What are you going to do for most of the day? If this place is anything like my old school then we won't get any real work done in class and they teachers will end the lesson early."

Students who had their parents coming over would spend their spare time with them but Kiba didn't have anyone coming to see him. It may have a little bit harsh talking like this but I learned long ago that tip toeing around issues did nothing but make the situation more awkward. No one liked to be pitied after all. Plus it wasn't as if I had parents of my own either.

"Ah, well." He scratched the back of his head. For some reason he looked really awkward. "I planned to see what Issei, Matsuda and Motohama were up to."

"The Perverted Trio?" Sona asked, sounding genuinely surprised. "What are you doing hanging around the three of them for? I didn't realize you were friends with them. Well, other than Issei."

Kiba shook his head. "I'm not. Not really. It's just that, well," He indicated to his face, "with my Devil's Trait I'm limited to the amount of people I can hang around with. Normal girls are naturally out, so that only leaves the boys. And well…" He trailed off, looking a bit uncomfortable about the topic but fortunately Sona was more than willing to finish his explanation for him.

"Even interacting with ordinary male humans will end up causing you problems. Any girl they are either dating or planning on asking out will end up ignoring them and start pursing you instead the moment your Charm takes hold of them. That rules them out as well." Sona gained a thoughtful look before beginning to scrutinize Kiba. "Ah, I see. So that's why you're hanging out with those three. I must admit, I'm mildly impressed. I didn't think you had it in you be so calculating."

A displeased expression passed over Kiba's face. "Don't say it like that. I'm genuinely trying to make some new friends yet you're making it sound as if I'm doing something bad."

"Don't misunderstand, I wasn't trying to reprimand you," Sona placated him, a pleased smirk touching her lips, "on the contrary I'm actually praising you. When taking the effects of your Charm into account, those three are the only possible human candidates you can have as friends at school.

"As there is no possible chance that a girl would ever willing get close to them, let alone date them, then there is little chance of the Charm having an adverse effects on interactions you may have with them. Being in the same year group as you means that you'll share at least some of your classes with one of them.

"All in all they're actual a pretty ideal choice. Well," she corrected herself with a scowl, "so long as you discount their personalities that is."

"Ouch," I winced. "That's putting it kind of harshly isn't it Sona?" I haven't really had a chance to interact with any of the three of them, what with them being in a grade lower than me, but they couldn't be that bad. Could they?

She just waved my objections away, "It's the truth. I see no reason why I should sugar coat it." Before turning back to Kiba. "However, there is one flaw with your plan. What are you going to end up doing with them? While having new friends is a good thing, I find it unlikely you'll find anything in common with those three."

"Ah, about that," his smile turned a little awkward as he rubbed the back of his neck, "I was going to ask them to teach me about porn."

Oh so that's why, he's going to ask them about porn- wait, WHAT!?

Around me, the entire clearing became deadly silent as every single one of us gawked at the boy, stunned speechless.

Kiba carried on, not noticing our reaction. "I mean, that's what boys my age do, right? Watch porn." He paused as he finally began to take note of our reaction. He looked around at us rather awkwardly as he tried to carry on, "That's…that's right, isn't it? That's what teen boy are supposed to do…right?"

An awkward silence took hold of the clearing as Kiba's words drifted off to a halt. He looked hesitantly around us, appearing more confused over our reaction than anything else.

"Kiba-chi." Shirone, finally breaking the silence, looked at Kiba with an expression more serious than I've seen on her for a while. "Thank goodness you're so pretty because holy shit you're stupid."

Sona, finally knocked out of her stunned stupor, took off her glasses and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Kiba…Why? No, no wait." She signaled him with her hand to stop, "I don't think I want to know."

"Kiba." I walked up to the boy and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Kiba," I repeated solemnly while looking in his eyes. "Watching porn is…exactly what every teenage boy should do."

Serafall would never forgive me if I let this moment pass, not in a million years, especially when she'll be here to see the fallout herself when it happens.

So instead of whacking him on the back of the head to see if I can knock the stupid out of him, I nodded my head in what I hoped appeared to be a wise manner as I continued, "Ignore the girls, they've always been squeamish when talking about these things in public. Go, hang out with Issei and the other two and ask them to teach you about porn. I'm sure they'll be happy to talk to you once you explain why you're there."

While he still looking a little bit less sure with himself than he did earlier, what with the way his eyes kept jumping between a face-palming Sona, up to the wide-eyed look of surprise of Shirone only to jump back again to my encouraging smiling face. Unsure who he should listen to, he apparently decided to just stick with his original plan.

"Ok then, if you say so." Glancing up once again to the quickly brightening sky, he added. "I'll need to start heading back anyway if I want to have enough time to squeeze in a shower."

Walking over towards the edge of the clearing, he bent down and scooped up his school bag from where he had dumped it at the start of our training. Giving us one final look over his shoulder as he made his way down the path leading back to the school, "I'll be going on ahead, you guys better hurry up if you don't want to be late."

"Don't worry," I told him as I waved him on, "we'll catch up to you in a few minutes."

"Ok then. See you all in class." And then he was out of sight of him as the trees blocked our view of him. I stared at the direction he disappeared to for a moment before letting loose a sigh.

"And there goes the greatest idiot I have ever known." Who would have thought that Kiba was actually rather stupid? Then again, he was a blond.

"Shirou," Sona looked up at me from between the gaps of her finger, still refusing to release her face-palm. "Why didn't you try to stop him?"

"You mean other than it being utterly hilarious when Kiba walks into the middle of a classroom full of students and publicly asks the Perverted Trio if they will teach him about porn?"

"Yes," Sona started to massage her temple, "other than that."

"Because I genuinely think this might be good for him." At her disbelieving look I explained. "Think about it. By the looks of it the boy has never seen porn before. No, while I can't say for sure, it sounded like he has no clear idea what porn is even used for. And that's not normal, I mean even Asia knows what porn is." No matter how much I wish it ain't so.

"I see. Rias told me that she had never seen him show any interests in girls before. For a while we actually entertained the possibility that he might have been gay but neither of us had ever seen him show any interest in men either.

"Yes," She nodded as she slipped her glasses back on, "if you think of it that way the Pervert Trio may actually be good for him." Her eyes widened for an instant before shutting them again with a groan of disbelief. "And I can't believe you got me to admit that those three's perverted antics may actually be beneficial for something."

"There is also the added bonus of this event destroying his perfect image." At Sona's prompting look I elaborated. "His reputation as a flawless prince does him more harm than good in the long run. Other than his Trait, it is perhaps the biggest barrier that separates him from his peers. When we put someone up on a pedestal they stop becoming human in our eyes, making them much harder to interact with."

"True." She nodded, "Though as the Student Council President I find it more of a benefit than a hindrance but I can understand why it may not be that way for Kiba. Still, I hope this won't be the day we remember as the birth of the Perverted Quartet."

A gentle tapping on the top of my head drew my gaze upwards to find Shirone looking down at me with a frightened expression. Her ears were laid flat down against her head and her eyes wide with disbelief.

"Shirou." she whimpered out, sounding genuinely frightened. "Shirou, Kiba-chi…Kiba-chi's not going to end up becoming a pervert…is he?"

I cracked a smile at that, "No Shirone," I assured her. "Kiba's not becoming a pervert. His just going through puberty. Five years later than he should have but other than that it's completely normal."

One of her ears jump up as her expression began to turn hopeful. "So, no pervert?

"No pervert." I confirmed.

"Good." she nodded as both her ears stood straight up. "Perverts are bad."

"Sure they are." Chuckling at her antics. To think that something as little as the possibility of Kiba turning into a pervert could get her that worried.

Still, Kiba had a point about the time and considering who was coming today I didn't want to risk being late. Who knew what Serafall would end up doing if she doesn't find Sona and me when she gets here?

With that in mind I turned to face where Sona had once again decided to lay back down on the ground, "Sona, get up. It's time we start heading back."

While her breath had long since evened out, Sona still appeared entirely exhausted. Her normally immaculate appearance was gone, replaced by a sweating, grass stained girl who, despite her efforts to hide it, still looked as if she'd like nothing more than to fall asleep on the ground right then and there.

And this right here is the crutch of the problem I have with Pure-blooded Devils. For all of their potential, practically the entire lot of them are physically frail. And they had no one to blame it on but themselves.

Unlike with Reincarnated Devils, Pure-blooded Devils are born with a body similar in nature to that of a Queen. And those born to a powerful Clan, such as one of the 72 Pillars, tend to be blessed with an even stronger body in addition to their Clan's famed ability.

With enough training they can develop the raw power and defense of a Rook, the speed of a Knight and the magic of a Bishop. And that's without the help from an Evil Piece. With one, they can become even more powerful. There is a reason why the children of the 72 pillars are so highly prized.

However despite that potential, only a handful among them ever truly achieve it.

It's not that Pure-blooded Devils don't train; on the contrary, nothing could be farther than the truth. I'd be surprised if there was a single one among that that doesn't train.

In a culture where rank and status is determined largely by the power one has, it's only natural that many Devils would do almost anything to gain it. Be it lying, deceiving or cold-blooded murder. To quench their thirst for power, they won't shy away from any act to gain it. They'd even be willing to stoop down and dirty their own hands for power. Even going as far to do something as utterly unappealing and repulsive to them as honest hard work.

The introduction of the Rating Games has only cemented this mindset. A game where the only objective is victory and the reward is a rise in one's status, is it really surprising that Devils have begun to take their training more seriously than ever.

In the Underworld, children begin their training as soon as they turn six. By then, a child's body should have matured to withstand the strain of casting spells, enabling them the ability to properly wield their Clan's magic without harming themselves.

So no, lack of training isn't the issue. The real problem lies in the general bias that magical strength is superior to physical strength.

Though calling it a bias is rather unfair of me, seeing as there is some logic behind the belief. Throughout history, the most powerful Devils that have emerged from the Underworld have always gained their reputation of strength through the might of their magic alone.

Even today the most influential Devils in the Underworld are primarily magic users. All four Maous prefer fighting with magic over hand-to-hand combat or with weapons. Even among the Reincarnated Devil the situation is the same.

Until my arrival the strongest Reincarnated Devil was Rudiger Rosenkreutz. Without even having the benefit of a Sacred Gear he was among of the first humans to achieve the rank of Ultimate-Class Devil and is ranked 7th in the rating games. He also happens to be a stereotypical mage that relied entirely on his magic and tactics to win his fights.

With so much evidence to feed their bias it was only natural that Pure-blooded Devils, who have always disdained physical labor of all kinds, tend to neglect the physical aspects of their training. There was also the small stigma that Devils that train their body over magic only do so because they lack the skill and intelligence to wield magic.

This brings us back to our current situation and the reason why Sona has turned into the quivering pile of limbs before me. At my prompting, Sona tried to push herself up, only to collapse before she was even halfway up to her feet. She ended up planting her face on the ground before falling onto her side.

Sona here is a perfect example of a typical Pure-blooded Devil. No, scratch that, she's even worse. I guess I shouldn't be surprised what with her sitting behind a desk all day but still, this horrible. Sure, she's not as weak as a pawn would be but that's not saying much.

I began to poke her with the end of my shoe a couple of times, trying to prod her into motion when it became apparent that she wouldn't be getting up again anytime soon.

"Come on Sona. You can't lie there all day, you've got classes to attend."

"…Shirou…I…can't feel my legs…just…go on without me."

If there was one thing that I truly loved about training Sona was watching how she acted after the training was over. I don't know if it was the exhaustion or the agonizing pain that she was in that did it, but she actually loosens up quite a bit. She's so relaxed that she actually acts, well, normal.

While I wasn't too surprised by how she acted, as I had seen her mask drop from time to time, the others found the entire situation surreal. While I knew that Sona never really let her guard down to anyone outside her Peerage, family or a handful of close friends, I had no idea that the image she projected to others was so harsh. Hell, the first time Sona cracked a joke Kiba was convinced that she was high on something.

If Serafall had ever found out that extreme physical exercise was what it took to make Sona gain a sense of humor she would have whipped her ass into shape years ago. Unfortunately she didn't, and since I'm not cruel enough to tell her, it looks like it'll be my job to do it instead.

By the looks of things Sona has over exerted herself. Again. I swear if it wasn't for Asia regularly checking up on her and fixing any real damage I would have put a stop to her training long ago. As it was it looks like I'm going to have to carry her back again aren't I?

With that plan in mind I turned to look up at my little passenger.

"Sorry Shirone, but I'm going to carry Sona back to school. You're going to need to get off."

"No." She scowled angrily down at me, which just made her more adorable than anything, before possessively patting my head. "This is my seat, nya, tell her to get her own."

I restrained a sigh when Shirone's territorial tendencies propped up again. While it was rather cute at first, and to be completely honest still is, it can become rather problematic at times. Fortunately I have long ago learned how to deal with stubborn and possessive white-haired little girls.

Bribery.

"I packed three extra lunch boxes today and placed them in my locker." I noted how her ears perked up before swerving around towards me at the mention of food. "If you hurry back to school, you should have enough time to eat them before the start of morning classes."

Shirone watched me dubiously before turning to look at the direction where the school stood behind the trees only to look back down at me again, or more precisely the spot that she claimed as 'her' seat. Her eyes continued to leap between the school and me, her features twisting into a mask of indecision as she was apparently torn over her two choices.

Sensing weakness I decided to pounce, "I even packed some yokan for dessert today."

At the sound of her favorite food, Shirone perked up. "Really?"

"Yes, really." I laughed at her, "Now get going."

"Kaaay~~" she chirped back with a grin.

Placing both of her hands on top of my head for balance, Shirone pushed downwards and lifted her body with the strength of her arms alone. I felt her legs release their hold on me as she twisted and raised them into the air above her, basically using my head to hold a handstand, before, with quick shove of her hands, she launched herself forward.

She folded her knees to her chest and spun in small circles a couple of times before landing gracefully on her feet, her knees bending to absorb the impact.

Rising from her crouch she flashed me one final smile over her shoulders, "See yeah later Shirou~, nya-ha," before darting away.

I watched her as she scurried away back to school, ignoring the path that Kiba used and instead taking a more direct route through the trees. I made sure to keep my eyes on her as she made her way back, which was why I was able to see it when it happened.

Her ears folded flat against her head before they disappeared, almost as if they fused with her hair. Her cat-like tail, which swung left and right with her every step, slowly started to retract until it was hidden from view beneath her skirt.

But the most worrying was her smile.

That juvenile and mischievous smile, the like of which I would have never imaged coming from that scared lonely girl I met on the rooftop not too long ago. I watched as that smile of hers disappeared, slowly slipping off her face, only to be replaced by that far too familiar stoic mask of hers.

No, calling it a mask was not quite right. Sona wore a mask and this didn't feel anything like that. What Shirone did was something different. It almost looked like she was more…subdued? Like if she was submersing herself in water until only her head remained above the surface.

And it hurt to watch.

To see her so lively and spirited one moment only to become so detached and cold the instant she leave my sight just feel wrong. I know she's getting better but still…children aren't supposed to behave like that.

"There you go with that worried look on your face again. First with Issei and now Koneko. To think my sister would choose such a worrywart for a Queen." Sona's voice cut through my thoughts. "If you keep letting every little thing get to you, my sister's antics will have your hair turning completely white before you're thirty."

I quirked a smile as her words conjured up an image of Archer in my mind. At least I no longer had to worry about that anymore. Other that one streak of white, my hair had long stopped losing its colour since my Reincarnation.

I turned around to find Sona had pushed herself back to a seated position, her arms propped up behind her. "She'll be fine. I don't know what you and Kiba having been doing to help her but it's working wonders."

"Kiba?" I asked in surprise, "I thought she only acted like that around me."

Sona shook her head, "No, she acts just as spirited with Kiba as she does with you. Well, maybe not quite as mischievous but she's definitely more open around him as well. Though it's understandable that you didn't notice since she brightens up the moment you appear"

"I see." I nodded, pleased. "That's good, at least she's doing better than I thought." I couldn't help but frown though as a troubling thought occurred to me. "But why doesn't she behave that way with Gremory? If anyone I would have guessed she'd be more comfortable around her."

"No. It's quite the opposite." Sona's voice took on a now familiar tone, one I had mentally dubbed as her lecturing voice. "It would be more surprising if she did act that way in front of Rias. After all, it wouldn't be much of a stretch to call Rias something like a parent to Koneko. And no matter how kind they act, parents will always be an authority figure to their children. Something to respect and obey, never an equal. It's only natural for a child to be on their best behavior in front of them."

"But that doesn't explain why she acts that way around me." I pointed out the flaw in her theory. "In term of authority, I arguably outrank Rias and definitely outrank her."

"That may be so but that isn't how Koneko sees it. To her, Rias has far more authority over her than you do. She said it herself didn't she? To her Rias is her master, while you on the other hand, how did she put it again?" A smirk grew on her face, "Ah yes, her little servant I believe she called you."

I nodded, conceding the point. "So because she doesn't see me as an authority figure, she feels like she can misbehave in front of me without being punished?"

I thought back to all the times she stole my food and broke into my house and suddenly I had no trouble believing Sona's theory. I would never dare pull half the stunts she did if I thought I'd get in trouble for it.

"Something like that." She nodded before her smirk grew even wider. "Though it could simply be her way of showing affection. They do say that kids tend to tease the ones they like the most." But the next instant her smirk disappeared as she took a more solemn look. "Then there is Koneko's fear of abandonment to consider."

"Abandonment? She thinks that Gremory would abandon her? Impossible." That was completely ridiculous even to me. There has never once been a case where a Gremory had allowed members of their Peerage leave, willingly or otherwise. Their Greed will never allow it. The chance of that happening to Koneko is so close to zero it's not even worth considering.

"I agree, but just because we know that doesn't mean Koneko does." Sona sighed while adjusting her frames. "Remember Shirou, that Koneko was already abandoned by her family once before. You don't go through something like that and expect to emerge unscathed.

"I've read that foster or adopted children tend to behave in one of two extremes when their first taken in by a new family. They either misbehave whenever they can or religiously follow every rule down to the letter. Both reactions are caused by their fear of abandonment.

"The first group are so certain that they're going to be thrown away that they'd cause trouble to hasten the process, believing that it's better to be abandoned now rather than later, after they had gotten attached to the new family. It's supposed to hurt them less that way.

"Then there is the second group, who are so terrified of being abandoned again that they would do anything for that not to happen. They follow all the rules, obey every command given to them eagerly, just hoping and praying that they pleased their new family enough that they would want to keep them instead of throwing them away."

A silent and obedient Shirone, so eager to please, leaping to fulfill even at the smallest sign of a request, all the while utterly terrified that she'd be thrown away, returned back to that hellish prison where they found her.

Rage flooded my veins, forcing me to grit my teeth so hard they I could practically feel them bleed as I bit back my anger. Why was it that I could so easily picture it happening?

"Shirou, calm down." Even through my rage I could hear the exasperation in her voice. "Didn't I just tell you she'll be fine? That was a long time ago, things are not like that anymore. Look, she's not afraid of misbehaving in front of you is she?" Sona pointed out.

That actually gave me pause. "No." I answered, hesitantly shaking my head after thinking it through. "No, she's not."

Sona smiled up at me. "And that's why she'll be fine. If she's willing to act that way around you that means she feels safe. That no matter how badly she misbehaves or how much trouble she cause you that you'll never abandon her."

"Damn straight I won't." As if I'll ever let that happen.

"Then that's all you'll ever need to do to help her. She's healing Shirou, anyone that looks at her can see that. Just give her time. Wounds like that needs time to properly heal, try to rush it and you'll just end up making things worse. So let her heal, just be nearby to help her when she need it, and I'm sure Koneko will end up just fine."

Reluctantly, I nodded in agreement. I knew she was right of course, still, sitting back and just doing nothing but wait was never my strong point. Even if I knew that was the best thing I could do for her right now.

"Speaking of Koneko." Sona carried on. "I noticed you've been calling her Shirone. Why is that?"

I shrugged in reply, "She asked me to." Which was the truth.

After our talk on the rooftop I thought she'd have wanted everyone to start calling her Shirone. That, however, wasn't the case. Turns out she just wanted me to call her that. I had discovered, to my surprise, that she actually liked being called Koneko. It's just that she wanted to be called by her old name as well.

To her, both of those names were important. They were proof that she was loved. One gifted to her the day she was born, the other given the day she begun a new life. She treasures the both of them and refuses to give either away.

"Now then," I looked back down at Sona, "if you're done stalling, it's time for us to get going."

She tried glaring up at me over her glasses, but it had no more effect on me than it did the other times she had tried. "Did I mention how much I hate jocks?"

"Repeatedly." I cheerfully smiled back.

Bending down over her, I reached out and scooped Sona up around the waist. As I did so, I made sure to pick up her staff from where she had discarded it on the ground beside her.

Even without my Devil enhanced strength to aid me, I would have had no trouble carrying Sona. She barely weighed a hundred pounds, if that. Now this means that there are several ways I could have gone about carrying her.

I could carry her on my back like a child, slung her over both of my shoulders in a fireman's carry or even scooped her up in a bridal carry. As hilarious as the last one would have been, I choose an entire different method instead.

Scooping Sona up by her waist I carried her under my arm, tucking her to my side and under my shoulder. It reminds of how I once saw a parent carrying a misbehaving child, and with the height difference between us we probably ended up looking like that from afar.

"I would like to reiterate." Sona's face remained completely blank as I carried her down the path Shirone took towards school. "I don't hate jocks, I simply loath you so much that my hatred spills over to them by association."

"Sure you do." I grinned back as I made my way around a tree.

She twisted herself around in my grip so that she could glare up at me from where she hung off my side. "You're totally enjoying this aren't you?"

"Yup."

"Still sore about the whole chess thing?"

"Chess?" I repeated, trying to sound oblivious. "Now why would I be sore about that? I only lost to you 127 times in row? Not that I was keeping count anything. Why would I ever need to keep count when I have that giant sign in the Council Room to keep track of it for me?"

"I'll take that as yes then." She grumbled out as I ducked under a low hanging branch.

"Come on Sona. Don't be like that. Remember, you were the one who came to me asking for help."

"The biggest mistake of my life."

"If you feel that strongly about it, I could always ask Serafall to train you instead." The instant the words left my mouth, I felt something clamp around my waist. I looked to find Sona staring up at me in terror with her arms wrapped tightly around me.

"Please, promise you'll never leave me Sensei." Her violet eyes were wide with dread as she desperately pleaded.

I raised a brow at their melodramatics. "Oh come on, she can't be that bad."

"Did she ever try to train you before?"

"Yes," I nodded as I walked around a tree, being careful to make sure Sona didn't bump into anything, "she taught me how to fly."

"And how did that go?"

I barely held myself back from flinching from the memory of that day. When Serafall told me we were going to a place to practice flying I expected for her to take me to a clear empty field or even over a lake, or if she was going to take a more sink or swim approach, to the rooftops at worse.

What happened instead was that I found myself standing on the edge of a cliff with my hands and feet bound tight together. Serafall, called this the 'Toad-Sage' training method. She then proceeded to boot me off the cliff.

The only thing I could remember afterwards was screaming my lungs off as the ground kept steadily getting closer and closer. Then the next thing I know I find myself buried six feet deep in a small crater. Fun-fact, turns out you don't actually end up making a man shaped hole when you crash into the ground.

Since then I made sure to avoid training with Serafall whenever I could. Her explanation, 'but it worked in the Manga' was not enough to convince me to try again.

"And how did that end up?" Sona asked.

"Brilliant," I lied through my teeth as I pushed another branch out of our way, "best teacher I ever had."

"She tossed you off the cliff didn't she?"

"Yes, yes she did." I replied, "There is a reason why I can't fly worth a damn. I take it she's done something like this before?"

"She did the same thing to Tsubasa and Tsubaki. It took me a while to figure out why, but I believe she wanted to teach them how strong a Queen's and Rook's defense can be."

I…never really thought of like that. Putting it that way, it did make a bit more sense. When I dragged myself out of the crater, only to find I hadn't so much as broken a single bone, I was more than a little stunned to say the least.

"Ok, I could see that. But why didn't she just say so?"

"Tell me, by any chance did my sister happen to have a camera on her?"

"Yes...she did." Now that I think about it, I do remember seeing a few flashes of light on my way down. At the time I thought it was the light at the end of the tunnel I keep hearing about so I ignored it.

"That's why. Don't be surprised if you find a few embarrassing pictures of yourself in the family photo album. Why do you think I refuse to even consider letting her train me or my Peerage? Maou knows that I have too many photo of my own in there. I'd even prefer training with that accursed staff than train with her." She then proceeded to glare at said staff. "How are you even carrying that thing so easily?"

"This?" I twirled the staff in my right hand a couple of times, "It's not that hard Sona, it's actually pretty light."

She shot me a deadpanned look, "Shirou, with the amount of magic I poured into it, that thing must weigh at least 200 pounds."

"And for any athletic Devil, that's light." I brought the staff around and whacked her gently on the head. "Not that you would know anything about being athletic, now would you?"

Sona rubbed the top of her head while glaring at me. "This, this right here is why I hate jocks. Muscle brained idiots, the lot of you."

I laughed at her antics as I continued carrying her back to school.

As our conversation died down, I decided to use the opportunity to examine the staff. Raising it up before me, I eyed the runes that was carved into its wood. There were hundreds of them, all linking together to form rings around the staff. Unlike the other runes I've seen before, these were tiny. The largest was barely half the size of my finger nail if that.

Despite how it looked like, these runes weren't there to help channel any spells. Not that Sona needed any help with her spells. While human magicians needed magical foci such staffs or wands to help them channel their magic, Devils could do it entirely with their mind. Any Devil that carried a wand or anything like it did it for purely cosmetic reasons.

But that was fine, the staff wasn't there to help Sona with her spell casting. Its purpose was to serve as a weapon. When Mana is channeled into the runes, they significantly increase the weight and density of the staff turning it into a potentially deadly weapon.

There was a reason why I taught Sona how to fight with a staff instead of a sword when she came to me for training all those weeks ago.

Sona's forte has always been magic, and nothing is ever going to change that. The amount of training she needed to turn into a truly competent swordsman would simply take too much time and be better spent elsewhere. So instead of trying to turn into something she's not, I decided to go with something that would complement her strengths instead.

The reason I gave Sona the staff was twofold. The first was to give her an alternative method to defend herself when her magic is not available to her. One that will not hinder her when she casts her spells. The second was to help her improve her physical condition.

Being a mage is not a good enough reason to slack off from her physical training. Due to her heritage, she has the potential to become truly physically powerful one day. And there is no way I'm going to let that potential go to waste. Swinging around a 200 pound staff an hour or two a day will make sure of that.

And the staff, unlike the sword, can be used in tandem with her spell casting. While it's true that the staff will not strength her spells in anyway, neither will it weaken it. Allowing her to cast as many spells as she want without having to discard or put away her weapon.

All in all, I think it suited Sona quite well.

The sound of fluttering wings filled my ears just as a shadow was cast over me, only for the both to disappear as I felt a familiar weight appear on my shoulder. I turned to find a black crow with a single blue feather over one eye perching on my shoulder.

It was Ingrid, one of the familiars to the Devil guards stationed around the city. Or more precisely, former familiar to the guards. The poor girl lost her partner recently, one of the few Devils that died when the Fallen attacked.

Thankfully for both her and my sake, she and the other crows that lost their partners have already found new ones, my new pawns. Turns out that those four had some kind of affinity to the birds and all of the crows took an instant liking to them.

"So," I began to scratch the top of her head as I spoke, "if you're here I guess that means that those four are here too."

Her nod was all the confirmation I needed. I swear ever since I recruited those guys into my Peerage they haven't left me alone in public for an instant. Every time we step out of the house I could feel them following me.

The only reason why I was able to notice was thanks to the bond between me and Evil Pieces inside of them, even then it was subdued compared to Asia and Xenovia that I had to strain to sense them.

And seeing that Ingrid is here, that means they've followed me to school, again. Who knew that ninja's could be so paranoid? Sometimes it felt that instead of bodyguards they were more like overprotective stalkers.

"I still can't believe you have Fallen in your Peerage."

"What's so hard to believe about it?" I asked Sona as we approached the school. I was starting to catch glimpses of the school's white wall between the trees. "You do know that Akeno used to be a Fallen too right?"

"Half-fallen." She corrected. "There is a big difference between someone who was born and raised as a human, and someone who was created and stood by the side of God before falling from Heaven."

"Point. I take it they're rare then?"

"While I'm not certain it wouldn't surprise me if they turned out to be the first of their kind to be reincarnated. Remember it's only been 200 years since the Evil Piece system was introduced. Considering how little time has passed since its creation, it's not surprising that no one had tried to reincarnate a Fallen into their Peerage before."

It's easy to forget what Sona is at times. There are instances like these, where we chat with each other on our way to school that I feel like she's nothing but another ordinary student. But then she goes and talks about centuries as if they were nothing but a couple a years , and like a bucket of cold water tossed on my face I remember, that she is anything but human.

"Speaking of Peerage, have you reconsidered admitting your newest Knight to the school?"

"No, Xenovia has no interest in attending school. And before you ask, Asia doesn't want or need any schooling either. Don't let her appearance fool you. While she make act like an airhead at times, that girl is scary smart. I wouldn't be surprised if she can sit a medical school graduating exam today and pass with flying colors."

"I see." Though she sounded rather cross, Sona decided to let the issue be. For now at least. I have no doubt that she'll bring it up again.

This has been a small sticking point between us for the last couple of weeks. Sona has always been a strong advocate for formal education. It was probably one of the key reasons why she allowed me to attend here despite the admittedly flimsy excuse I had when I first arrived.

So it didn't come as much of a surprise that she had been trying to get Asia and Xenovia to attend Kuoh Academy ever since she realized that both of them had never been to, let alone graduated from High school. That those two had no interest in attending was irrelevant to her eyes.

While I didn't lie about Asia being capable passing med-school, I neglected to mention that she was unlikely to pass the high school exams. While Asia was highly educated, her education has been a little…specialized. Anything outside of the sciences or medical subjects and she's more than a little bit behind her age group.

However when I asked her if she wanted to attend school, Asia outright refused. As she put it, she's had enough of being trapped in a small room all the time and forced to listen to the commands of old fuddy-duddies who didn't want to be there anymore than their students do.

Xenovia on the other hand was another matter. While she had no particular objection to going to school, she felt that her time was better spent training her swordsmanship and learning about being a Devil than studying mundane subjects like modern literature and calculus. That she was still having a lot of trouble getting a handle on her new sword didn't help either.

And if there had ever been any real chance of convincing Xenovia to go to school, it was gone the moment she found out that Asia wouldn't be attending. To say those two became fast friends would be an understatement. They've been practically joined at the hips since the moment they met.

While Xenovia getting along with Asia didn't come as much of surprise, that she got along with Gasper as well did. Well, sort of. When they first met Xenovia was rather unimpressed by his girly appearance to say the least, and promised to whip him into shape and turn him into a real man.

Gasper was rather enthusiastic with the idea…at least at first. Last time I saw the two of them together, he was running around the house screaming his head off while Xenovia chased after him swinging her sword every time he slowed down. She called this the 'Griselda training method'.

"We're here. Shirou you can put me down now."

Blinking, I looked around to find that we had arrived to the woods' edge.

"Ah, right. Sorry got a little lost in my thoughts there." I turned to look down at Sona. "Are you sure you can make it the rest of the way on your own? You couldn't even stand a minute ago."

"I'm sure I can manage. We're almost to the back entrance, and I'd rather not risk anyone seeing us, no matter how unlikely anyone being here this early."

"Well, if you're sure." I shrugged before gently placing her back down on her feet. She wobbled for a couple of seconds before steadying as she found her balance. Taking a moment to clean herself up, Sona straightened her clothes and whip over the grass that still clung to her, before she adjusted her glasses and began to confidently stride forward.

Only to end up falling flat on her face as her legs gave up beneath her.

I did not even bother trying to hide my smile as I knelt down next to her. "You look like you're having a little trouble there Sona. Are you sure you wouldn't want me to carry you the rest of the way?"

"Just shut up and help me you jerk."

---

It was there but for an instant, a flash of colour that was gone just as quickly as it had appeared, disappearing back again into the shifting tides of the crowd. The glimpse I caught of it was too short for me to identify the source. But it was enough, I didn't need a second glance to know who it was. There was only one person I knew who had that particular shade of red.

It had barely been a couple of minutes since the first of the morning classes had ended and already the hallways were jam-packed, filled with the bodies of both students and parents alike. Their footsteps filled the background with a never ending beat, intermixing with the sound of their chatter as they created a symphony of noise that could be found anywhere that large groups of people gathered.

Normally the corridors would have been empty at this time as everyone rushed to get to their next class but in consideration to all the families visiting today, the school decided to shorten the lessons to half their usual time, allowing the parents a chance to interact with their children and their teachers.

I had been walking through the crowds looking for Ilya, my height advantage allowing me to look over the heads of both the students and parents with ease as I searched for her. It was then that I had caught sight of that familiar crimson-red hair.

I didn't bother to confirm my suspicion, there was no way it could have been anyone else, not with my luck. So instead of continuing down the corridor, and closer to him, I turned back around and frantically started to look for a place to hide in.

I knew I had to get away now before he saw me, so when I finally spotted a possible hiding place, I did not hesitate. I lunged for door of the janitor closet, leaping towards it like a hero from some action movie diving for cover, moving as fast as I could without breaking human limits. The moment my hand touched the handle, I yanked it down and pulled the door open before quickly slamming it shut behind me when I slipped in an instant later.

Turning around, I backed away from the door until I hit a wall, making sure to keep both eyes on it, looking for any sign of him coming in after me. However, the door remained motionless, and other than the noise of the crowds spilling into the room and the rhythmic pounding of my heart racing in my chest, I could hear nothing else.

After a tense minute passed, followed by a second minute and still nothing happened, I finally allowed myself to believe I've gotten away. Releasing a breath I didn't even realize I was holding, I relaxed, my whole body slouching in relief.

Still, even though it looked like I got away without being spotted I decided to stay put for the time being. While it was only a small chance, it was better to safely wait here for a little while longer just in case he was still wandering around out there. And it was then, just as I was settling in for the wait, that I noticed that I wasn't the only one in here.

"Yamato-Sensei?" I gaped at my balding chemistry teacher. He was pressing his back flat along one of the walls of the room, squeezing his eyes shut in some apparent childish attempt to remain hidden from view. "What are you doing in here?"

"Emiya?" He opened his eyes and blinked in surprise a couple of times before pushing himself off from the wall and peering blindly around him. "Emiya, is that you?" It took me a moment to realize he was having trouble seeing me in the darkness of the closet.

"Yes, it's me Sensei." I made sure to raise my voice as I answered so that he could tell where I was.

"Oh, thank god." I watched as the normally jolly teacher slumped forward in relief. "Don't scare me like that Emiya. My heart isn't as young as it used to be anymore."

"Sorry Sensei, I didn't know anyone else was in here." And wasn't that the truth. Yamato-sensei was a rather eccentric teacher compare to most but he a good one and well like among the student body. But for all of his oddities I never thought I'd ever find him cowering in a janitor closet. Even for him that was more than a little unusual. "Sensei, if you don't mind asking, what are you doing here?"

"Isn't it obvious?" he pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket and used it to wipe the sweat off his brow. "I'm hiding from Shitori-san."

"Shitori?" That name sounded oddly familiar but I had trouble placing it, and it took me a second to recognize where I heard it before. "Wait, you mean Sona?" I question and the teacher nodded in return.

Shitori was apparently the Japanese version of Sitri. Sona believed it would help her blend in better if she had a native sounding name and altered her clan name so that is both sounded Japanese and can be spelled with Japanese characters.

Still, even though I figured who he was taking about his answer did nothing but confused me even more than I already was. What does Sona have to do with all of this?

"Why are you hiding from – oh!" Catching sight of a brown stain on the front side of his shirt, I started putting the pieces together in my head. "You spilled some coffee on your shirt again didn't you?"

Now things are beginning to make more sense. Sona has always been a stickler for the rules and tended to enforce them with an iron fist. And if what I had seen was anything to go by, she was even stricter with the teachers than students as I had quickly discovered since my arrival. Almost from the very first day I was here I could tell that the teachers were absolutely terrified of her. Now that I think about it, this isn't the first time I've seen a teacher leap in terror into a janitor closet when they see her walking in their direction.

Really though, aren't they taking things a little bit too far? I never understood why they were so scared of Sona. If they wanted to meet a teenage girl they can rightfully feel terrified of I could just introduce them to an angry Rin. Or Ilya for that matter. Sona was a teddy bear compared to Ilya when she has one of her temper tantrums.

"Yes, yes I did. Sitri-san's reprimands are rather harsh on a normal school day. If she spots me like this when there are parents about she'll be furious." He froze for a second, blinking a couple of times before he peered intently up at me. "Hmmm, you must have remarkably good eyes Emiya. It's so dark in here that I can barely even tell you're there but you had no trouble spotting a stain on my shirt. Remarkably good eyes indeed."

This was one of the reasons why Yamato was so well liked. Other than his amiable personality, he was also ridiculously sharp at times. "Chalk it up to good genetics, Sensei. I've always had good eyesight for as long as I could remember."

Fortunately he decided to drop the topic, as he backed off and looked around. "And you? What are you doing in here Emiya? I don't believe it's normal for students to hide in closets, unless it's some kind of new trend that I've yet to hear about."

"Hiding from a family member of one the students. I have a, I guess you can call it an unusual relationship with him and would rather avoid making a scene."

"Say no more my boy, I understand." He nodded knowingly. "I have seen my share of fights break out between students during my time as a teacher, and there is no shame in hiding if it means avoiding trouble."

"Like you're doing right now Sensei?" I pointed out.

Instead of taking offence, Yamato just cheerfully laughed. "Exactly Emiya, exactly. Now, I'll tell you what." He leaned forward and motioned me to the same.

"I'll make a deal with you," he whispered in a quiet voice, even though there was no one in here that could overhear us, "how about we keep this little incident between you and me. You don't tell anyone you found me in here and I'll do the same for you. Deal?"

"Deal." I nodded back, more out of amusement than any real need to keep my presence here a secret.

"Good, good." He cheered out while leaning back. "Now how about we take a look outside and see if our pursuers have left, shall we?"

Yamato then walked up to the door and slowly cracked it open, just an inch, before peeking out through the gap. Apparently finding nothing to be concerned about, he widened the gap and stuck is head out. A moment later he pulled his head back in and turned to me, "Looks like the coast is clear Emiya. I'll be heading on now. I expect I'll to see you in class later on. And remember, keep this just between the two of us."

"I will Sensei. See you in class."

Then with a cheerful wink goodbye he was gone, slipping through the door and blending seamlessly with the crowds outside.

The moment I was sure he was gone and out of hearing range I broke down laughing. Really, it was amazing how many bizarre situations I kept on finding myself in. Sometimes I wonder whether this whole universe had always been this insane or was there just something about me that made the world go crazy the moment I had arrived.

Then again, I don't recall anything like this happening to me before Serafall brought me into this world, so I guess there was just something about this universe that made all of it's inhabitants act crazy.

After the fire, except for my studies in Magecraft, I had a completely normal life until the start of the Holy Grail War, with nothing particularly odd or unusual occurring. Not like my life has been since I got here.

I mean here I have a school filled with Devils and teachers hiding from their students in closets, while back home my old school was completely run of the mill ordinary. It was made up of completely normal teachers and student.

Well, expect for my social studies teacher who turned out to be an emotionless assassin that was trained from childhood to become the ultimate killing machine in human form and had the raw skills to match Servants in combat. And then there was Rin who was the heir for one of the oldest family of magus in Japan and a skilled genius in the art of magecraft to boot, talented enough become one of the greatest magi of her generation.

And there was Shinji of course. And…and…and holy crap it was me! It was me wasn't it? This world isn't crazy, it just happens to go crazy around me. Does this mean that all the insane stuff that's been happening around me is my fault? That normal people don't have to go through all the crap I have to do all time?

I…I don't know how should I feel about that. Does this mean I am some kind of trouble magnet? Or am I just the source of all chaos and madness in the world the same way that Angra Mainyu is the source of all evil? Is that why magical girl Devils and cross-dressing vampires keep popping up, because of me?

Stunned by that revelation, I blankly walked out of the open door of the janitor closet, shutting the door behind as I left the room in pure reflex, and joined the crowds of wandering students. And it was then, lost in my thoughts as I pondered this possibility, that I made my mistake.

If I hadn't been so engrossed in my own thoughts, I might have noticed the footsteps that were quickly approaching me from behind. If only I hadn't been so amused by Yamato-Sensei's behavior I might have realized that he didn't know who I was hiding from and thus could not have possibly known if he was still lurking outside.

But I didn't, and by the time I realized what was happening it was already too late. I was caught.

A pair of arms encircled me from behind, far stronger than limbs had any right to be, trapping my arms to my side as they closed around me before lifting me straight off my feet.

"Queenie!" The owner of the arms called out from behind.

It was a rather cheerful voice, one filled with genuine warmth and joy as it spoke to me. It was also a voice that I learned to utterly loathe over the last several months.

Damn it all to hell. "Hello, Sirzechs." I muttered out in a completely emotionless tone, knowing better than to try and fight his hold. I was so close to getting away too. "Could you please put me down?"

"No," Instead the arms hugged me even tighter, "it's been so long since we've last seen each other and I missed you."

I resisted the urge to sigh, knowing it will just encourage him, and tilted my head back so I could get a better look at him. "I'd tell you to go to Hell Sirzechs but I fear you'd feel right at home there."

"Oh come on," The fully-grown man pouted like a petulant child, but I didn't buy it for second, not with the way his aqua-blue eyes glimmered with amusement, "don't be like that. I know you missed me too."

"Like a heart attack." I deadpanned and, to my growing ire, the Devil just laughed.

This time I did sigh as I resigned myself to my fate. There was no getting away from him now, not when he was in this mood. So instead of fruitlessly continuing my efforts to try and escape, I took a moment to examine the man that was lifting me off the ground in an over enthusiastic hug.

He was tall, topping even my height by at least a few inches. The crimson hair his clan was famed for fell down from his head, ending at his shoulders, giving him a rather noble appearance. Blue eyes shone out from a handsome face, filled with such joy and open kindness that, along with his cheerful smile, made you instinctively want to trust him and smile right back. A thin scar ran down one side of his chin but instead of blemishing his appearance it added to it, giving him a sense of character.

It was hard to believe that this was the face of a Devil. Not when he laughed so openly, but I knew better than anyone what he was. This was Sirzechs, the Lucifer himself. This was the Lord of the Demons and the strongest living Devil, one of the true rulers of the–

"Sirzechs stop pinching my cheek." I muttered out, as my line of thinking was derailed by Sirzechs reaching out and pulling on my right cheek. He stretched it out as if I was a baby, causing my words to come out slightly slurred.

Oh and there is one thing I had forgotten to mention. Despite how much I loathed him, and I made it no secret that I did, Sirzechs absolutely adores me.

"But Shirou," he snickered, "you so look cute when you're thinking like that I couldn't help it."

…I'll kill the bastard.

"There are no words Sirzechs," I calmly began, "not in all the spoken languages of man, nor in heaven or hell, that can adequately describe how much I despise you."

"Ohh~," The bastard cooed, actually cooed at me as he began poking my cheek, "I love you too you little tsun-tsun you."

"…For that Sirzechs, for that, I shall entice your people to rebel against you. Flaming their hatred of the status qua and the injustice of the Underworld, filling their ears with sweet promises of a better future. Once the fires of rebellion has spread far and wide I shall then gather the uprising populace and arm them with weapons out of legends, blades and spears that can topple entire armies. I will then lead them to your castle and there we will tear down its walls, sending them crashing down around you, while marching over the corpses of every man, women and child that stand between you and us when we do. Then as you stand surrounded by the fallen remnants of your broken army, I will topple you from your throne and ascend as the new Maou, the new Lord of all Demons. And then as I look upon your defeated and broken form, after I had taken everything you know and love from you, you will ask me 'why, why did I do this' and I will answer, 'tsun-tsun', before stomping on your balls. Hard."

And instead of cowering in fear and terror from my coming vengeance like he rightly should have, the bastard laughed, breaking down in a fit of laughter instead.

Wrapping his arms around his waist he bent double in laughter, releasing me as he did so. I landed lightly on my feet, and before I had so much as a chance to contemplate escaping I felt Sirzechs drape an arm around my shoulder and pull me in a one-armed hug.

"See, this is why I missed you so much." He wiped a tear from his eyes as his laughter finally began to taper off. "Now, speaking of being missed, I better hurry and get you back to your king. Who knows what she'd do to me if she finds out I've been hogging you to myself."

"You've seen Serafall?"

He nodded, "Of course, we arrived here together after all. As a matter of fact I was just with her until we split up a couple of minutes earlier. Oh, which reminds me." He gave me a friendly pat on the back. "Thanks for telling on us that the class visits were today. While I knew Rias was rather embarrassed having her family visit her in school but I never suspected she'd go as far as lying to us about it. If you hadn't told Serafall the real dates I wouldn't be here today, so thanks for that."

…I really shot myself in the foot with that one didn't I?

"Anyway we need to get going." Giving me a glance over his shoulder as he started walking away. "Knowing Serafall she's not likely to stick to one place for long, so we need to hurry before she disappears."

Giving one last longing look at the janitor closet, crushing my urge to dive back there and hide now that he had his back turned to me, I reluctantly began to follow Sirzechs through the crowd.

Despite how packed the corridor was, we had no trouble navigating through the mass of people. Whether it was due to his exotic appearance, his large build that towered over the average Japanese adult or some deep buried instinct that warned them what he was, the crowd parted before Sirzechs, people instinctively making way as he approached.

However the same could not be said about me. The moment Sirzechs passed by, the crowds surged back together, hindering my progress as I tried to follow him. It was as if I was the Egyptians trying to chase Mosses into the sea only to have the waters close back up around me. I had to stick close to his back if I wanted to avoid being swept up with the crowds.

"You know, I've been meaning to thank you." Sirzechs kept looking ahead as he spoke. It took me a moment to recognize that he had switched speaking from Japanese to Latin of all things, the magic in me seamlessly granting me a native understanding for the language.

"For?" I asked, switching to Latin as well.

"Rias." He answered. "I want to thank you for helping her."

"There is no need to thank me for doing my job Sirzechs. Protecting her was one of the reason you and Serafall sent me here for."

"No, that's not what I meant." He shook his head, still not turning around. "Rias, she's well, she's not like me. Not just her but her entire generation is completely different than mine. Or any generation for that matter.

"We Devils, we have always been living in a time of unending war. We were raised in a world were death and violence was common place. Where we were taught to never get too attached to anyone, so that it wouldn't it hurt so much when the time came to bury them. And the few times that we were not fighting were spent preparing for the next war, so they couldn't rightfully be called peace.

"When I was Rias's age, I was already knew I was going to end up fighting in a war. Knew that I might see all my friends get cut down in the battlefield long before their time. Be it the Civil War or Great War, war was unavoidable reality to me. I had been prepared for it since I could learn how to walk, just as my parents were and their parents before them as well. And that was how it was for everyone. Since the dawn of time itself Devils have always lived either in a state of war or with the threat of it hanging over their heads.

"I remember when I was a child I asked my father how long could a Devil live for. Do you know what he told me Shirou?"

I thought back to my lessons before answering. "If I remember correctly, the oldest recorded age of a Devil is approximately 14,000 years. Add or take a few centuries."

"That's correct, though it's closer to thirteen thousand than fourteen but that wasn't the answer I was looking for. What I wanted to know was our natural lifespans. How long could we live before succumbing to old age?" He shook his head, "My father did not know. He told me that no one did. There is a limit to our natural life-span that much is certain, but no one knows exactly how long it is. That's because there had never been a Devil who got to live out the entirety of their natural life. We were always killed long before our time. Be it on the battlefield or off it, our lives always found their end on the edge of a blade.

"But things are different now. For the first time in our history we are living in an era of peace. For the first time, entire generations of children are born not knowing or living under the constant fear of war. These last 200 hundred years are by far the longest period of time Devils have lived in peace. And it was wonderful.

"Our children are living a carefree and happy childhood, something that was denied to me and all that came before me. Never before could parents love their children so unconditionally and not fear their hearts being broken when the time came to bury them. We were finally allowed to shower them with all the love and affection that our parents could not afford to give us.

"And in the end it made them kinder. The happiness of their innocent childhood has made this generation far more caring and compassionate than any that came before it. And I believe that to be a good thing. While some say it had made them soft, too soft, perhaps that is exactly what our race sorely needs. Our lot has always been a cruel species. Too harsh and uncaring for the fates of others, and look where it has gotten us. Nothing but endless war after endless war. So maybe it is time to try something different.

"Yes, it was good thing, maybe even something wonderful…but it came at a price. One no one had seen coming. Even I could not see it at first, so tiny was the change but with every passing years the truth had only continued to become more apparent. Each passing decade made it a little harder to ignore, until it reach the point that it was impossible for me to deny anymore.

"There was something wrong with our children. Something that is supposed to be there that was missing. A certain fire, a burning hunger that had always been a part of Devil kind as surely as the wings on our back, was gone. Burned out like it was never there. It was then that I truly began to comprehend our folly. That in our efforts to give our children the happiness that was denied us, we took something away from them, something essential.

"Ambition. The new generation of Devils are…content.

"They do not hunger for anything, they do not long for anything, and most importantly they do not strive for a better world or even a better future for themselves. They are simply satisfied with their lot in life and content with what they have.

"Without it, it has made me realize that we Devils do not know how to raise our children in a time of peace.

"During the Young Devil's Gathering, the participating Devils are expected to publicly declare their future goal, a single target that is to become their ambition in life. Do you know what Rias answered when I asked her what she planned to say in this year's Gathering?"

I shook my head, before realizing that he couldn't see me, "No idea."

The next thing I know I found my face bouncing off Sirzechs back as he abruptly stops walking.

"She told me she wanted to become the next Gremory Head." He turns around to face me. "She basically admitted that her greatest ambition is life to become something that was already promised to her from the moment she was born.

"And the others her age are no different. Every year we hold Young Devil's Gathering I hear the same thing over and over again. Become the Clan Head, uphold the clans' honor or even something equally asinine such as winning all of their Rating Games." He snorted, "Not sure which is worse, wishing to achieve something that is already given to them or treating the Rating Games, which is supposed to be a simulation for war, as a children's game.

"When the Rating Games was first introduced, people treated it as if their very lives depended on the outcome. Today? They newest generation treats it like a national hobby. They cannot seem to understand what they learn during the Rating Games can save their lives one day.

"Perhaps it is because they have never seen the realities of war that they think this way. Perhaps we protected them too well, sheltered them from too many of life's hardships that they can no longer believe that anything bad can happen to them. Even when we try explaining it to them they fail to truly grasp what we're saying. Intellectually they know that the world is a dangerous place, but emotionally they cannot bring themselves to truly believe it.

"And you can see result of our folly simply by looking at the waning strength of the newly born children. There are less Ultimate-class or candidates with the potential to become Ultimate-Class among the Pure-Blood Devils born over these last 200 years."

"Sirzechs aren't you overstating things a bit?" I interrupted him. "You say Devils are getting weaker then what about Sairaorg? You yourself have said that you never even heard of a Devil become so powerful at such a young age, not since you and Ajuka were kids yourselves."

"Exactly, look at Sairaorg." He nodded triumphantly, as if I had proved his point. "Deprived the happiness the rest of his peers were showered with. Rejected by his father, his birth right stripped away from him and even a mother's loved was denied to him with lady Misla's passing. And what happens? He becomes the strongest Devil in his generation, perhaps the strongest since the birth of the Maous.

"And what is it that separates Sairaorg from the rest of his Peers? Ambition. What was freely given to others he had to fight for? Power that was granted to other children at their birth he had to claw tooth and nail for even the smallest of scraps. The difference between them Shirou, is that he was hungry for it while the others weren't.

"And that is why I want to thank you."

"Come again?" I blinked back in confusion, not even remotely understanding how the topic we were talking led to him thanking me.

"Rias used to be the same as the others, content with her lot in life. But after Kokabiel's attack something's changed."

I snorted. "That had nothing to do with me Sirzechs. Anyone who comes that close to dying would naturally change."

"No, that's not what I meant." He shook his head. "A few days after the attack, Rias came to me and asked me a rather peculiar question."

"And what did she ask?" I prompted him when he paused.

"What it means to be a King."

For a heartbeat I was no longer standing there in that school, the walls of the hallway fading away along noise of the crowds, replaced by fields of never ending green, stretching far father than the eye could see.

She was there, standing right before me. Clad in blue and silver armour, she gazed resolutely ahead, teal eyes locked onto the distant horizon. Hair swaying gently in the breeze, a sword held down before her.

Standing tall and proud, she was the perfect image of a King.

Then the moment was gone, the scenery fading away and I was back into the crowed hallway, the chatter and footsteps of people filling my ears.

"…I see." So that's what she saw in the light of that sword. To think, that out of all things she could have seen, she saw her.

"She's growing Shirou. She finally understands that she is lacking something. That there's something that she needs to gain before she can truly call herself a king. And I have you to thank for that." He held his hand out for me to shake.

I hesitated for a moment, reluctant to even do that much, before I grudgingly reached out and grasped his hand with my own.

He was sincere in his thanks, this I knew for certain. His words held no lies, no deception, just honest gratitude. In fact, I don't think I had ever seen Sirzechs lie, to me or to others. Even the brotherly affection that he treats me with was no act, but genuine.

And maybe, had circumstance been different, I could have learned to like him. With his friendly demeanor and natural charisma it would have been hard not to. Maybe if I hadn't known what he really was, if I hadn't seen him in his true form I would have not hated him so.

But I did.

I saw who he really was, what he really was. I know what lays hidden under that thin veneer of humanity that he wears like a second skin.

And that is why, not matter how kind his smiles are or how friendly his laughs, I never allowed myself to forget that I was shaking hands with a monster.

---

"Eh? Aniki! Is that you?" Saji called out in surprise from somewhere behind me. I ignored him, hoping he'd leave me alone in my shame and misery. Unfortunately he didn't. I heard him tentatively approaching me, his footstep echoing off the tiled floor, before halting only a couple of meters away. When he spoke again he sounded more than a little confused, "Umm, Aniki…what exactly are you doing?"

"Face-walling." I answered him, the words coming out more muffled than I would have liked. Though that was only to be expected, seeing as I had my face pressed flat against a wall.

"Oh…Ok." He sounded even more baffled by my response than my actions. "Umm…Aniki, if you don't mind me asking, why exactly are you face-walling?"

"Because sometimes a face-palm just isn't enough." Truer words have never been spoken.

"…Sorry Aniki, but I have no idea what you're talking about."

Lifting my face off the wall from where I had slammed it a minute earlier, I turned around, resisting the urge to kick a snickering Sirzechs as I did so, and pointed straight down the corridor to where a large group of people had gathered. Flashes of light and clicking of shutters made it clear that they were all snapping pictures.

Quickly, before I could catch sight of what they were photographing, I slammed my face back onto the wall. While it did nothing to block out the sounds of what was happening, at the very least it prevented me from witness the event. And by the dead God did I not want to see it happening. My battered Pride can't take the shame of it all.

After another round of a shutters going off, one of the nearby photographers whooped for joy before yelling out, "Yes! I think I just got a panty shot!"

Without command my body reacted. Reinforcing my limbs to the limit, I spun around, projecting a throwing knife into my hand as I did so. Then, with a flicker of movement too fast for the human eye to follow, I threw the knife straight at the pervert's camera.

Needless to say it was a perfect strike, the tip of the blade piercing all the way through the digital and rather expensive looking camera, knocking it out of its owners hand and onto the floor in a shower of sparks and twisted wires.

By the time the camera hit the floor the knife was already gone, dispelled now that its job was complete, leaving no evidence behind on what just occurred.

All this happened in what was less than a tenth of a second.

"Hey! What the hell!" The owner of the now ruined camera dropped to his knees, staring with uncomprehending eyes at what remained of his camera. Gingerly he picked it up, cradling it like a baby, only for it fall apart in his hands, "What happened to it?"

Sweet satisfaction filled me as I watched the pervert morn the destruction of his beloved camera. However any satisfaction I felt quickly disappeared, replaced with regret. Not that I regret destroying the camera, because I certainly didn't, just the consequences of doing so.

By tossing the dagger, I had been forced to look at the direction of where the cameraman stood within the crowd and by doing so I had been giving an unobstructed view of what had captivated the crowd's attention.

And how I wish I didn't.

Twirling the pink wand like a baton, she spun in place, sending her equally pink and white clothing trailing after her. She laughed with utter glee as the flashes of camera erupted like stars about her. Black and pink stripped socks reached up to her thigh where it was met by an indecently short skirt. Her shirt to was too small, ending several inches before her waist, revealing her toned stomach freely to the world.

Her violet eyes glimmered with joy as she continued to pose for her audience. Her long raven locks were tied into twin ponytails, held in place by pink ribbons, and on top of her head rested a pink and yellow hat.

I felt my legs give way beneath me, sending falling down onto my knees in despair, while I continued to watch on. I wanted to look away, I really did, but I could not tear my eyes from the sight. It was like gawking at a scene of an accident or a dead body. Even though you don't want to, there is something so horrible about it that leaves you with no choice but to watch.

This was my King, lord and master. The one who I had willingly surrendered my soul to and by doing so had given her both my eternal loyalty and servitude. Only she had the authority to command my sword. And not for the first time, I had to wonder if Archer ended up getting the better bargain by contracting with Alaya instead. What was an eternity of misery and suffering compared to this?

How can I ever show my face in public again? Maybe Gasper had the right idea all along? I wonder if he still has that paper bag of his and if he was willing to lend it to me?

"Aniki?" Saji walk up to stand next to my kneeling form as he too goggled in disbelief at the sight. "Is that who I think it is?"

"Yes." There was no mistaking Serafall for an ordinary human, not with the amount of power pouring out of her. Even suppressed Saji should have no trouble sensing it. And there is only one person in the entire of the supernatural world that would willingly dress up like that in public. "That is who you think it is."

"You and the others weren't kidding. All this time I just thought you were pulling my leg all those times you said Kaichou's sister was a magical girl." His eyes widened with shock before her cried out. "Holy shit! The Devil really is a magical girl! How did that happen?"

"Believe me Saji," even as I pushed myself back onto my feet my eyes remained riveted on the scene before me, "I've been asking myself the very same thing every day since I became a Devil."

"Saji, what's going on? Why haven't you done anything about this disturbance yet?" A stern and familiar voice called out.

Sona, appearing from just around the corner, quickly began walking towards us with quick effect steps, and unlike the last time I had seen her she had cleaned up considerably. Her hair was straightened out from the tangled bird's nest it had been this morning, free from the grass that had plagued it. Her uniform was even more immaculate than it usually was, so straight and crease free that even a drill sergeant would have trouble finding fault in it.

As soon as she came with easy talking distance Sona began speaking. "Saji, I thought I-"

"So-tan~, found you!" And that was all the warning we had before a pink blur streaked right towards her.

Sona barely had time to widen her eyes in disbelief before she was tackled from behind. She staggered forward for a couple of paces as two arms latched around her, embracing her in a hug. "Hahahaha, at last, at long last I'm back with my So-tan!" Serafall cheered as she rubbed her face on the back of Sona's head, her face filled with nothing but pure bliss.

Sona on the other hand looked anything but happy. Her face had paled, turning stark white, while her eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. She stared straight ahead in horror, unwilling to look around, as her mouth kept closing and opening but no words came out. Finally she swallowed before mechanically turning her head to look around behind her, sweat pouring down her face all the while, "O-O-Onee-san?"

"Mou~, So-tan." Serafall pouted at her sister, "How many times must I tell you to call me Onee-chan. Or Onee-sama. Oh or better yet, call me Onee-chama. Yes, Onee-chama would be best." She squealed before burring her face back into Sona's hair.

"O-Onee-sama." Sona flushing, tried to break out of the hold she was trapped in but Serafall was clinging to her tighter than a limpet and wouldn't let go. "What are you doing here? I thought you said you were coming next week."

"I know! Isn't it great that I get to see you so early?" Serafall pulled back a little so she can get a better look at Sona, "And to think I almost missed it thanks to a mistake. Luckily, Shi-chan called me last night to tell me the class visits were today. Isn't that great?"

Sona whipped her head around to me so fast that I wouldn't be surprised if she had gotten whiplash. She shoot me a looked that was filled with complete betrayal, before her eyes narrowed as she began glaring at me. "Yes, great. I'll be sure to properly thank him for it later."

Now why didn't I believe her? Maybe it was the way she was subtly trying to grind my toes into dust with the heel of her shoe. A part of me felt that I kind of deserved it so I let her. Not like it was hurting me.

"Oh, speaking of which, Shi-chan." Serafall, with her hands still loosely wrapped around Sona, turned to me. "By any chances, are they yours?"

"Mine?" I furrowed my brow in confusion as I tried to think of what she was talking about. "Are what mine?"

"These." She cheerfully answered.

Her eyes never left mine as her hand shot out from her side, so fast that it caught all of us by surprise, streaking towards the shadows created by the space between the lockers beside us. A muffled scream could be heard coming from the shadows as her hand latched onto something. She slowly began to reel her hand back, pulling her unwilling victim along with it.

I watched as one of my Fallen-Ninjas was dragged out from the shadow. Serafall's hand was clamped around his mouth, muffling his screams even as he tried to pull away. It was clear he didn't come willingly, struggling and fighting every inch of the way as he was dragged out. He frantically clawed at the hand that held him while he dug his heel into the ground and desperately tried to fight free.

But it was useless, as no matter how much he hard he thrashed or franticly he struggled, he wasn't able to so much as budge Serafall's hand. It was as if he was a child caught in a hand of iron. In fact, she hadn't even bothered to look at him as her eyes remained locked onto mine the entire time.

"So Shi-chan, are they yours?" She asked with an upbeat smile.

How…how did she-! I mean I didn't even realize they were there and she just-!

I brought a hand up to my brow and started rubbing it as I felt my brain threaten to shut down. You know what? Never mind. I had seen Serafall do far crazier things that I deemed impossible so what's one more to the list?

"Yes they're mine." I watched as my pawn continued to ineffectually struggle in her grip, his muffled screams not abating in the lightest. Going by his eyes I believe it was Ramiel but with his face mask in place who can tell. "Now can you please let him go?"

"Sure." She cheerfully replied with a happy smile. But instead of releasing the Fallen turned Devil like I had expected, she turned to look at him before lifting him up until his eyes was level with hers.

"Hush little rabbit." She cooed, the smile she was giving him showed a bit too many teeth to be entirely sincere. Ramiel made the mistake of looking up at her, and the instant his eyes met hers he froze. The Fallen ceased all sign of struggling, his body falling absolutely still, as he stared up at Serafall with wide terrified eyes. He even held his breath, too scared to even breathe.

It was like a prey staring into the eyes of a snake, hypnotic, freezing them still with fear.

"There's a good rabbit." She chucked softly, her smile still in place. Ramiel not taking his eyes off of her for second, not is daring to look away. "Now, I don't like it when someone intrudes in the personal time with what's mine. So be sure to be far, far away whenever I'm around. Understand?"

Ramiel nodded his eyes up and down frantically, unable to move his head while it remained trapped in her grip.

"Good. Now run away little rabbit, run away." She cooed at him as she finally released her hold on him.

Ramiel didn't need to be told twice. As soon as he was freed he scurried away, tripping over his own feet in his haste and panic to reach a nearby open window down the hall. He leapt through it, not even bothering to open his wings in his desperation to get away. I heard a faint distant thump as he crashed onto the ground followed by the sounds of hurried footsteps as he continued to run away.

Turning away from the window, I gave Serafall an exasperated glare who, all in all, looked entirely too pleased with herself.

"Did you have to do that?"

"Mou~ Shirou," she pouted, trying to sound stern, though the effect was entirely ruined by the way her eyes glittered in amusement, "you're far too soft for your own good sometimes. You need to learn how to become a little strict with your peerage. Just like my So-tan here."

Sona just sighed when Serafall reattached herself to her side, not even trying to fight her off as she resigned herself to her fate. She began rubbing her forehead in an effort to stave off a headache, a gesture that I was becoming intimately familiar with myself. "Onee-sama, please don't compare my disciplinary methods to yours. I don't send people fleeing in terror at the mere sight of me after all."

It took everything I had to keep a straight face when she said that. Not five minutes ago I had run into a teacher who had literally leapt into a closet at the mere sight of her. If that's not the pot calling the kettle black then I don't know what is. Like I've been saying, for all of their differences these two are remarkable alike.

"And at least be careful where you do things like that next time. What happens if someone catches you? I don't want to spend all my free time tracking down humans and erasing their memories just because you wanted to have a bit of fun." Sona glanced to where a group of people were gathered at the other end of the corridor. "We were fortunate that no one was watching this time, but next time you might not be so lucky to have such a convenient distraction."

Now that I think about it, she does have a point. Taking a look around us, I found that the entire half of the corridor we were standing in was suspiciously deserted. Other than us Devils, there was no one here. Even the people that were surrounding Serafall moments ago were gone, joining up with the other group in the opposite end of the hall instead of badgering her for more pictures. I could see a several flashes of light as they continued to photograph something in the middle of the group but I couldn't tell what.

"So-tan, you're wrong." Serafall released her sister to twirl her wand. "It's was not luck that saved me but the power of my fellow magical girl and student."

"Student?" Shooting her a wary look, I never heard anything about this. One Serafall is bad enough, I did not want to think about the consequence of her bringing about another one to the world, "Since when did you get a student?"

Serafall didn't get the chance to answer me, she didn't need to, as I ended up discovering the answer for myself. For at that very moment, the crowd began to shift then part slightly, leaving a wide enough gap in their numbers to grant me a clear view of what had captured their attention.

It was a sight that will haunt my dreams for many years to come.

She was dressed up in a pink and white costume, just a shade brighter than Serafall's. She twirled a yellow star-tipped red wand in her hand as the flashes from the cameras erupted all around her like fireworks.

She danced around in thigh high pink boots while her silver hair, adorned with two pink and white feathers, trailed after her. White gloves covered her hands, reaching to her elbows, while on her back rested a silk pink cape stylized to look like wings.

I watched in disbelief as Ilya, my lovable cheerful and only occasionally homicidal little Ilya, danced around in a magical girl costume while her audience cheered her on. Her red eyes gleamed like ruby under the light of the flashing camera as she laughed like a child that she appeared to be.

Oh no. Oh by the dead god no, please don't let it be true. Please don't tell me that...that...

Ilya had become a magical girl!

---

*Story End*

Author's Notes:

Yes, yes I did it. I turned Ilya into a magical girl. Honestly, what did you expect after leaving her alone with Serafall for two months.

Now, after receiving a PM that suggest I get one, I decided to start up a Forum, one than I'll open after I post this. Why a forum? Well partly because I believe it will help me in my writing, partly because it will allow me to answer some of the question people have about the mechanics of the world, and mostly because it sounded like a lot of fun to do. So be sure to pop in. (link on profile page)

Oh, and the official mascot of this story is the dreaded Wigglebut. All hail Miss Peanut Wigglebut. Somehow I know that she's going to end up as crowd-pleaser. And poor Shirou, will Asia ever stop giving him headaches?

And what did you think of Shirone's new personality. When I looked through the future volumes of DxD (I've read up to volume 4 btw before I simply couldn't read any more), I was disappointing by how badly her character development. After her arc her personalty got completely ruined, everything about her character got changed and not for the better. Silent Kuudere characters like her need to having something going under the hood for them to be truly interesting (think Yuki Nagato) and so I decided to revamp her character into what I thought was her true personality. Did you like it?

Oh, about how Canon states that Devils don't train, I call BS on that. It literally makes no sense. For a culture were power equal rank there is no excuse for everyone not to train. They could just order their Peerage to train while they sit back and do nothing if they wanted to. I think that the author needed an excuse for why the main characters could win fights that they had no right winning so he just made this up as an excuse.

And...that's about it. I'll leave the rest of what I have to say in the next chapter.

So tell me what you thought of the chapter (Did you laugh? How did all the new characters like Sirzechs turn out?) and be sure to check out the forums.