Life: 07
"The people live in Maine, of course. There's nowhere else to live. With the writer, the alcoholic, too. The adulterer and his whore. Some dumb rednecks, a disappointing resolution. Here in Stephen King's Maine!" I found myself singing the Nostalgia Critic's parody of the Gillgain's Island theme.
"We get it we're in Maine." Koneko monotone no doubt tired of me singing the same little tune over and over again.
"Oh relax Kitten, I'm just having a bit of fun is all." I say but she stares at me with the smallest signs of a glare on her face.
"Alright I'll stop." I cave almost immediately.
Currently it was winter in the human world so with the drop in temperature came the falling of snow. Koneko looked at the white flakes with curiosity, if I had to guess I'd bet this is her first time seeing snow given how we usually only visit the human world during the summer and we don't get snow in the underworld.
"Why did we have to come here again? It's so cold?" Ravel complained despite being bundled up in four extra layers of clothes.
"Because I want to investigate this missing stray that Ajuka lost and this is the last place said stray was known to be at." I say before wrapping an arm around Ravel and pulling her close to my side.
"There, hopefully you'll warm up like this." I receive a quiet thank you and a smile as an indication that she appreciates my actions and while I'm a little saddened to not see her all flustered this is fine to.
Koneko, however looks over at us and glares daggers at Ravel before walking over and latching onto my other arm.
"You cold as well? No problem." I wrap my other arm around the white haired nekoshou and pull her in close.
"Sairaorg you need to stay warm to old pal?" I call out to my first Rook who seemed to be enjoying himself while traversing the deep snow.
"No, I'm good, I find this to be quite the invigorating workout." Sairaorg said before falling flat on his face into a larger pile of snow.
"Damn ice." We heard him grumble out which earned a good laugh from everyone.
A few minutes pass before we reach the exact location that the stray was last known to be at. There was already a group of devils sent to investigate and they seemed to be working with a group of exorcists that originally were hunting the stray.
"You must be Barisol, lord Beelzebub informed me that you'd be arriving, although I imagined someone older." One of the devils said approaching me.
"That I am." I answer ignoring the second half of his statement.
"This is my Bishop Ravel Phenex and my two Rooks Sairaorg Bael and Koneko Toujou." I introduced the party minus Killer Queen as I found out that only my Peerage and I could see him.
"Well it's an honor to have one of the clan heirs here to help us in our investigation." The older devil said with one of the fakest smiles I've ever seen.
"Glad to be of assistance, Mr. Baxter." I say reading hsi badge and giving an equally fake smile.
"Here's the testimony of the exorcists that were hunting the stray before it disappeared." Baxter handed me a written document.
Going over the contents I couldn't help but notice a name that I was familiar with listed under the exorcists that were on the hunt that day. A name I didn't think I'd be seeing for a couple of years to come.
Irina Shidou.
The thought of meeting one of the church duo before the events of the Excalibur arc never really occurred to me until now. I wonder if that means she's here too? If so I should try to make a good impression. Actually I should probably try to do that regardless if Xenovia is here or not, but still I'm so nervous right now that I just don't know what to do.
"Great more devils." I hear someone grumble out only to look and see Irina.
She doesn't seem too thrilled by my arrival but I don't let it get to me. Instead I approach her and extend a hand.
"Hi, I'm Barisol, Barisol Sallos let's work together to find this stray devil." I say and she gives me a perplexed look.
"Well I'm Irina Shidou, and I don't need help from a devil like you." She stuck her tongue out.
This earned her ire from everyone in my peerage as they all glared at her exuding killing intent. This caused the girl to flinch in place.
"Hey church girl you should be nice." I heard Sairaorg say in a tone of voice so calm and even that it sent shivers down my spine.
"Okay enough of that." I say discharging a bit of my demonic power into the atmosphere making everyone chill.
"My apologies for that, my Peerage can be a little protective at times, they meant no harm I assure you." I give a friendly smile to try and appear nice as I spoke.
"Irina, there you are." Another voice spoke out and upon seeing the owner I have to keep the smile off of my face.
"Xenovia! Hey!" The pigtailed girl turned to the blue haired exorcist.
"Great more exorcists." I heard Sairaorg give a snide remark.
"You must be the heir of Sallos I heard that was arriving." Xenovia said facing Sairaorg.
"Actually…" I started gaining the girl's attention.
"I'm Barisol Sallos, that's my Rook Sairaorg Bael." I pointed out and she just looked between the two of us.
"My apologies." She said with a simple nod.
"Its fine." I waved my hand away to show that there was no harm done.
"Xenovia, you shouldn't apologies to some devil." I hear Irina whisper into her friend's ear.
"That's not just some devil, he was sent here by the maou Beelzebub. He has to be good at this sort of thing." Xenovia whispered back which made me sweatdrop, somehow the reality of what happened got morphed...oh well.
"So what can you tell me about what we have here so far?" I ask and both exorcists look at each other before turning back to me.
"Not a whole lot unfortunately. We found traces of blood belonging to the stray but otherwise we haven't found much of anything." Xenovia revealed.
"Blood? That'll be enough. If you two would be so kind as to show us the blood?" I requested with the friendliest smile on my face.
"Come this way." They both said in unison.
They brought us to a patch of snow that was dyed red.
"Koneko, think you can follow the scent?" I asked and she gave a few quick sniffs.
"There is a trail but its faint." She said before walking forward, we followed of course.
We walked for a solid hour into the woods before Koneko stopped in her tracks.
"This is where the trail ends." Koneko says stopping in the middle of a clearing.
Hmm...something isn't right. I take a look around and search for any tracks I could see but there was nothing.
"Irina, in the report it said you fought against the stray, what exactly happened?" I asked the pigtailed girl and she put a finger to her chin as she recalled the event.
"Well, I tried getting her with my holy sword but she was so fast that I only managed to nick her. But in the midst of battle there was a flash of light that nearly blinded me, when my sight came back the stray was already long gone." She informed and I started to scratch my chin.
"Do you have an idea?" Ravel asked and I shook my head.
"Nothing concrete. Although I suspect magic is at play." I speak with narrowed eyes as I look at the spot that Koneko said the trail ended.
"But how? The stray was a Knight and wasn't that adept at magic." Ravel was the one to say what was on everyone's mind.
"Two there should be. No more, no less. One to embody power, the other to crave it." I recited earning a strange look from everyone.
"What does that mean?" Xenovia asked.
"There was a second one here. An accomplice maybe even the mastermind." I inform looking at the ground intensely.
"How can you be so sure." Irina tilted her head.
Because I just got a notification that I successfully deduced that there are two.
"Sometimes the simplest of solutions is the correct one." I say before standing up.
"Can I trust that if anything new surfaces that someone will inform me later?" I asked the two exorcists.
"You would be correct in assuming so." Xenovia answered.
"Alright, I think I'll stay here and search the area some more." I say and she nods.
"In that case Irina and I will return to our people while you and your group continue to search here." She proposed and I agreed with the idea.
I'm not sure how much time passed but I do know I'm no closer to figuring this out. Damn it all I'm no detective.
"So what are you thinking?" Sairaorg asked.
"I'm thinking I might have bitten off more than I can chew." I say putting down a few of the documents I was given from Baxter.
"Well there's a great antidote for that." He said getting real close to me.
"And that would be wha-" I was cut off by a snowball being slammed into my face.
Immediately he took off running. I took a moment to process what just had happened before standing up and chasing after him. From just beyond the treeline I was greeted by a volley of snowballs being thrown at me.
Side Quest Unlocked!
Snowball, Snowball, Snowball Fight!
Snow day! School's closed! And somewhere out there, a snowball fight is waiting to happen!
Objective!
Take a break from work and have some fun! Just be careful nobody stuffs snow down the back of your coat!
Accept?
Y/N?
I blink the snow out of my eyes and look at them with.
"Is my hair alright?" I ask making everyone give me a confused look.
This gave me ample time to have Killer Queen make a bunch of snowballs and launching them at the others.
"Hey, no fair you can't use Killer Queen!" I heard Ravel shout at me.
"Well, its three on one so I thought I should even out the odds." I retort taking cover in preparation of the following volley.
What ensued was pure chaos as I ducked and weaved out of the way in an attempt to dodge the snowballs, of course I was nailed a few times but I'm pretty sure Killer Queen and I got them back. In the midst of battle I was able to get Koneko alone.
Try as she might to run I was always hot on her heels. With a well aim strike I managed to hit her in the abdomen but she also got me in the face. She ran towards me tackling me down to the ground and the two of us rolled down a hill. When we came to the end of the fall we were both laughing with me lying on my back and Koneko snuggled up into my chest.
I looked down at her and I can't lie, she was extraordinarily cute in that moment. No she was always this cute. She was my cute little kitten, mine and mine alone. We both leaned towards each other only to slam snowballs into the other's face.
"Ugh, guys! I can't find Ravel!" I hear Sairaorg shout out.
"What?" I asked standing up.
"I turned around for a moment and she was just gone." Sairaorg explained, my heart was pounding in my chest, a thousand thoughts going through my head.
What if she was hurt? Or taken? Or worse?
"Koneko, can you track her?" I turn to the nekoshou who nods before standing up herself and started running in one direction.
"Follow her." I tell Sairaorg and we both take off after her.
Shit! The snow is starting to come down heavier than before. I can barely see anything in front of me.
"Barisol!" I heard Koneko yell.
"Koneko what is it?" I shout out in reply.
No response.
"Killer Queen deploy second bomb!" I order the stand and Sheer Heart Attack is unleashed and starts moving.
The hope is that Sheer Heart Attack will follow Koneko. At least I hope it follows her. I follow the tank tracks through the snow only for it to end at another clearing different from the one I had been observing.
"Barisol! Barisol!" I didn't even register when Sairaorg appeared at my side and started shaking me.
Nor did I register the fact that tears had been streaming down my face.
"I lost both of them." The words came out tasting bitter and despair welled up inside of me.
"It'll be alright." He said trying to reassure me.
"We'll find them." Sairaorg said hugging me tightly.
"I promise you, we'll find them."
AN: Cliffhanger time, hope you all enjoyed the last two chapters. This'll probably be the last update of the week for me, maybe maybe not.
Jacksonion Democracy: Don't worry he won't cuck Sirzechs I put that there for comedic effect more than anything.
FinalKingdomHearts: Here you go!
Anyway that'll have to be enough from me, thank you for reading and pleases leave a review letting me know what you like, what you didn't and anything you'd like to see.