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FICTION

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Chapter 17: Chit-chat with the Phoenix

Baraqiel didn't look much surprised to learn that I did manage to open the box, praising only the fact I ended up making a pact with Apophis.

His only surprise was the fact that, of all deceased Dragons with their souls still wandering around, an Evil Dragon had to be picked out from this 'lottery'. Before training a full explanation was given about the 'Gauntlet'.

The Mystic Hand of Power was a unique object created by Azazel's and Ajuka's combined efforts in researching a new mean to counter the existing Sacred Gears and Artificial Sacred gears, capable of storing the soul of a powerful being and filter its regenerating power within the minuscule seals that were engraved within the corners of the rhomboidal crystal.

I had to squint my eyes very hard to spot those signs and I quickly asked to the man why I hadn't been able to feel those while wearing it.

The answer was simple but… incredibly difficult in practice. While Azazel was a master in creating magical seals, one of the main issues he would always found in creating new things related to runes and seals was the limited space available.

Ajuka found a way to overcome this issue by creating special machines that were able to carefully cut the crystal without making any dangerous mistakes in the process.

Another issue was how to avoid the 'corruption' of the user's soul. While gaining Dragonic traits was regarded as something mostly positive, the dangerous flaws a Dragon had were not something many wanted to have around.

Greed, Pride, Wrath. These three things were bolstered within a Dragon's soul and it was one of the reasons why there were very few Artificial Sacred Gears that were connected to Dragons (Vritra's ones having dilutes aspects of the Dragon's soul), the users being unable to properly adapt to the hefty requirements of slowly assimilating the more dangerous parts of a Dragon's personality.

Issei and Vali were blessed by the fact their Sacred Gears were created with the capacity of removing such influence from the User and only giving out the worst traits only when the Juggernaut Drive was activated.

The Power Gauntlet has a completely different system compared to the Sacred Gears, Apophis being mostly detached and deterred from trying to create a magical/physical connection with me as the seals prevented him to act upon this.

While he was stored within the crystal without any of his former power, he was starting to generate energy from his soul, an attempt to regenerate his core's full capacity that was slowed down by two factors both created by the seals: A quarter of his power was being constantly filtered to my core, encouraging it to grow faster and expand even more than previously expected; A small fraction of what was left by this initial drain was then used to sustain the entire array of seals, making the Gauntlet a self-sufficient system.

Further questions about the potential of the Gauntlet were answered curtly as Baraqiel was mostly unaware of the full potential of this unique thing.

He knew that things like Balance Breaker were not integrated within it and that one of the functions described allowed the possibility to actually summon Apophis in its full dragonic form.

Of course said function could be activated only by me and, even through I was in amiable terms with the Serpentine Dragon, I was unsure that deploying him now without his strengths would have been a hindering factor or even a good way to get backstabbed.

Paranoia, take the wheel~!

As our chat continued, the topic started to change to some others that were particularly important for me.

"What is the situation about Kokabiel's rebellion?" I asked to the Fallen Angel. "It's been a while since I heard the last news about what Azazel was doing about it."

The man sighed. "There had been some quiet moving of some groups of the various cadres in less important bases, but the process is still going to take few more months before we are fairly sure that we are ready."

And that was bad. Kokabiel wasn't going to offer 'few months' and will be attacking Kuoh in more or less two months from now, which means that the quicker he is defeated the better the chances of avoiding open rebellion will be.

The rogue elements will still be dealt with after Kokabiel was removed, knowing that they will try to flock at the Khaos Brigade and cause some serious damage at the Coalition in the upcoming war.

Hopefully the KR will be weak enough to be fully stopped by the time they will 'reveal themselves' in three-four months from now.

Anyway, after thinking about this little planning I decided to inquiry about the training for that day and I was replied with a fist slamming on my face.

Falling on the ground, I felt still dizzy from the sudden punch, narrowing my eyes at the smug look on Baraqiel's face.

"Today we will pick up the pace as the next few weeks will be quite the interesting ones."

'Is he usually this serious?'

I blinked at Apophis' words. I think he is a little more serious than usual, now that you point it out.

And indeed the Fallen Angel proceeded to go several steps beyond his usual pacing, ending up to draw the training session up to two hours longer than usual.

The man smiled eagerly at pummeling the shit out of me, but I was glad to see that my attempt to survive that onslaught weren't as meek as I had initially thought those would be.

Nodding at his praising and slowly walking away from that demolished training ground, I made my way back to my bedroom and, few minutes later, I found myself cuddling close with Kunou. The fluffy tails and her warm, soft body were enough to bring some comfort to my sore body and the girl seemed glad to get some long sleep compared to the one of the day before.

Monday was going to be quite normal, hopefully.

Yawning at the growing stack of paperwork I had to deal today, I glanced at the clock attached to the wall with a tired look.

Monday was as uneventful as I had hoped, the day passing without any major issue or problem regarding the supernatural world and leaving me some time to enjoy this period of normalcy in peace as I prepared for the approaching Arcs.

The interesting detail about this whole situation was the fact that the ORC had yet to make another appearance, keeping quite neutral and quiet about the whole 'arranged marriage' thing and staying away from me most of the time.

Akeno and Koneko confirmed their interest in joining Kunou and I for lunch, something I was already sure of and merely nodded absently.

Trying to finish the white mountain of paper with the use of my shining pen, I ended up alone in the Student Council's classroom, part of the Council have gone to deal with some issues with the Swimming Club regarding the pool being vandalized, while the section made by the assistants and other younger members like Saji went back home as usual of this time.

Another yawning left my lips as I finished another group of this endless madness of paper and ink, but this time my little monotony was interrupted by someone knocking politely and softly by the door.

I glanced up at the already open door and stared at the young man waiting there, smiling a little and nodding my direction.

With blond locks covering his head and partially hiding his dark-blue eyes, I blinked at the curious individual wearing old-style noble clothes. It wasn't the 'ancient' kind of old-style, more like the early 20th century kind of style some aristocrats would have when donning their clothes, a little militaristic but still sober enough to not get annoyed by it.

"I'm sorry to disturb your activity, sir." The blond started, sounding quite apologetic. "But I wished to ask if I could request some assistance in finding a club in this school."

I nodded slowly. "Sure… but may I ask you first which club are we talking about?"

"The Occult Research Club..." He blinked thoughtfully. "I think that is it's name, my only interest is to have a chance to speak with the club president-"

"Rias Gremory?" I interrupted quietly, my mind slowly connecting the dots and forming a name out of the individual in now looking partially surprised at my reply.

Ruval Phenex nodded with a smaller smile. "Yes, that's her name. I can only suppose that you know about her thanks to your job in the Student Council."

"Initially yes, but then one of my Kohais decided to join her club and thus I had the opportunity to speak with her on some limited basis."

The Devil blinked. "Interesting. Then I suppose you could lead me to the classroom that hosts the club as the matter I wish to discuss with her is quite urgent and important."

I nodded once more, my mind losing some time as I was still trying to understand the mere fact that this polite individual was the brother of the birdbrain that wanted to marry Rias.

I know that some siblings have different personalities and sometimes even opposite ones to each other, but this was turning out to be quite… confusing.

To think that a bastard could be related to this prim and proper nobleman was mind-boggling even more now that I was dealing with Ruval.

It was by the time that I closed the classroom's door behind me that the blond remembered to introduce himself.

"I almost forgot-" He bowed once more, a regal smile in his place as if an act done and redone. "I am Ruval Phenex."

I nodded. "Hoitsu Sakakibara." I stretched my hand towards him and I waited, noticing almost quickly a lack of reaction at my sudden attempt to interact with the man.

He blinked at the hand and then nodded in realization. "Oh, forgive me, I wasn't expecting to find someone polite and-"

"You could say that prejudice is quite overrated, Phenex-san." We shook hands. "But I think I should start to lead you to the club-room. You did say it was quite an urgent matter."

He nodded and soon I started to walk through the Academy's hallways with the blond on tow.

The walk was brief but the resulting closed door with small sign saying 'Closed' left us both particularly confused. "Generally the clubs end a little later than now… I suppose they had something important to skip it and-"

"It's fine, sir Hoitsu." The heir to the Phenex family nodded, his expression filled with some dismay but he still looked calm. "I guess I will try another day and-"

If Ruval ended up missing the chances of talking with Rias, whatever the motivations driving them and whom he wanted to support, the redhead would end up missing the opportunity to gain some ally for her current plight.

I sighed, knowing that this will surely come to bite my ass and then spoke. "I know that I shouldn't be meddling about private affairs, but I do find myself inquiring the possibility those private affairs are somehow related to the 'arranged marriage' situation she is dealing with."

The Phenex paused a moment, frowned and nodded slowly. "That is..." He didn't finish this first sentence. "Did she tell you this?"

I nodded. "She wanted to know how to deal with the situation since she didn't want to go ahead with it all."

He smiled. "Interesting. Then I can only guess you know about the importance of the marriage's contract."

"I do." I replied quickly. "But I think that there are some details that I find… strange. Same with your brother, I have to admit."

He raised an elegant eyebrow at that last comment but still nodded. "Truly? Would you mind if I wanted to further address this matter on a more private location?"

I nodded and soon I took him by the former teachers' lounge, a place that was still taken care of even after decades of being left untouched by the staff.

The place had a working fridge, a coffee machine and the water bottles there were refurnished weekly. It was a strange expense, but some of the older students appreciated this place to spend some time to study.

I opened the door and invited the Devil inside so we could spend some time about Raiser.

We sat on two of the four couches, one at the opposite of the other, and soon the interrogation started.

"Before we begin I would like to ask the utmost secrecy about this encounter." The heir to the Phenex clan stated. "I don't want my intervention to be known to anyone unpleasant."

I nodded. "I can accept that but only if the same courtesy is extended to me. I don't wish for people to know about my knowledge about… the 72 families and much more."

He looked surprised. "So you know more than just the marriage?"

I merely nodded and that seemed to calm him a little.

"Then I guess you know even more about why this is truly important for the family. The Phenex clan require some powerful blood to bind the Gremory and our family together."

"I know that pure-blooded Devils are still suffering from some issues about procreation, but I don't think there is the need to promote an arranged marriage with both clans having seconds in their respective lines." I replied, gaining a nod towards me.

"That is indeed correct, the 'emergency' that was repeated to motivate this marriage is actually a smokescreen for anyone plotting against us. An attempt to not be called out while we tried to form a strong alliance." He explained with an empty smile. "I did ask father to be more subtle about this in the contract…"

"But the problem isn't the writing style used by Lord Phenex. I think the issue is that one of the clauses was breached by your brother prior to its creation.

He frowned, his smile disappearing. "Could you elaborate?"

I nodded, a small smile forming. "I had the chance of glancing at said contract and I found, just as I expected, that the 'Virginity' clause is not directed only to Rias, but also to your brother."

There was some tense air now within the room as I knew the man was trying to remember the content of the contract.

'I thought you didn't read any contract. You did say that when explaining to me the situation' Apophis butted in and I found myself smiling even more.

And that is the thing, I didn't actually read any contract, but by the end of this discussion, Ruval will have a 'nice chat' with his youngest brother.

'Oh? How exactly are you planning to do that without evidence-'

"But I think that was unavoidable with the little harem he got." I mentioned loudly enough for the Phenex to break out from his thinking.

"Did you just say 'Harem', sir Hoitsu?" His jaws were dropping as I nodded.

"Why, his peerage. Of course that would explain why he never trained them properly and… why they are all women with an affectionate loyalty to your brother." More nails for Raiser's coffin? More nails, indeed!

"H-He is just a loving Master trying his best to keep everyone in his peerage happy-" His tone was hesitant, possibly because he knew he was climbing on some mirrors there.

"But training? Isn't that also important?" He didn't protest this questions. "What about the fact he has 14 females in his own team?!"

There was no reply, Ruval looked particularly distracted because of what I had just told him, but I knew that my work was only half-way completed. There was something missing, something that would easily close Raiser's chances of not getting some beating by his older brother.

"And I find it curious that the Phenex family would accept something even close to incest."

The mere mentioning of that word caused the entire room to become the chilliest place on Earth, the blond staring right back at me with a furious look. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm not referring to everyone of your family, Ruval, but rather I was referring to Raiser." I was putting quite the effort to not tremble at the Killing Intent I was being washed with. "I mean, what kind of rumors would come out from the fact that from his harem/peerage his bishop is actually Ravel Phenex?"

… "C-Could you repeat that?" The pressure disappeared altogether, the man looked shocked and paler than before. "I- What do you mean my little sister is in his peerage, Sir Hoitsu?"

"That she is currently his Bishop in his peerage. She is something of the strategist of the team… considering that Raiser is busy with something else-"

He lifted his open palm up for me to stop. "E-Enough." He seemed particularly shaken, just like I wanted him to be. "I- This will require some investigation."

"Please do, Ruval. I think it's time for someone as honest as you are to do something about this indecorous attitude." He nodded, getting up from the small couch as I followed him to the door.

"Could you please escort me back to the entrance? I think this visit could be concluded there."

I nodded. "Of course." My tone was smooth and comforting as I led the young man back to the Academy's entrance. Just as we arrived to the glass doors, I spotted from afar a large car with obscured windows waiting by the gates.

I waved at the retreating Phenex, my smile widening at the idea I had purposely destroyed a bastard's life as it was fit and-

An-And-

'Hoitsu?'

I was shivering a little, eyes wide open as I continued to stare at the car.

'What is going on? An enemy or-'

My heart started to beat faster, unmerciful as I felt it, a monster lurking and waiting for my death, for my annihilation and-

'Ohi! Why are your eyes red?!'

It was instantaneous, I felt my feverish state vanish instantly at the sudden yell from deep in my mind. I blinked at the comment and… I turned around, walking inside the school.

What was that?!

'You are asking me? I am the one trying to make sense what got over you for few moments.'

Maybe the seals are… a little loose?

'That wasn't something from me, Hoitsu. Just go and ask Baraqiel for help, there is something… familiar with what you did there but… I don't know.'

Gulping nervously, I went on my way back to the Council's classroom, ready to finish the paperwork, go back home and then get some rest.

Whatever just happened…

It felt like I was a completely different person!

Ruval sighed as the door of the car closed, the driver starting to move the vehicle away from Kuoh Academy as the Phenex tried to sort out the thoughts after what had just happened there.

Hoitsu looked like a trustworthy, down-to-earth kind of person that wanted to achieve great heights. Someone that looked similar but also different from the man sitting right on the opposite row of seats, having some trouble with the roof's height and his own.

Sairaorg Bael huffed while trying and failing to find some balance in that uncomfortable suffering he was dealing with by being there.

"You know you could have asked for a 'taller' car, Scion Bael." The blond mentioned, his mood still damp after the talk he had ended that visit.

"Maybe I like the challenge this situation is offering." The bulky individual stated readily, getting a dry glance from the Phenex.

"Or maybe you are too prideful to accept you can be dumb." Ruval stated quietly, getting another huff from the Strongest Youth.

The reason this visit had happened was mostly because of Sairaorg himself. Having heard from his aunt about the situation, the Imperial Purpure decided to see if the words about Rias' marriage were true.

Out of curiosity, the heir to the Phenex clan decided to join in with this little research and, while he got quite the harsh news that he was still digesting, he now knew that the concern from the bigger man was justified.

"By the way, Ruv." The fighter started, giving a serious look. "Who was the dude by the entrance, the young man that led you out?"

Ruval frowned and blinked. "That was Hoitsu Sakakibara. I would say he is a knowing bystander of these grounds that has quite the knowledge over the political landscape of Hell."

Sairaorg nodded at the brief description, yet he looked still interested. "But do you know what race he is? Is he a Devil, a Dragon or-"

"What are you talking about? Sir Hoitsu is a mere human and I can assure you of that having been able to study his energy pattern." It was ridiculous to consider that student to be something different than human, he was far too weak to be-

"I think you were distracted but, his power spiked briefly and… I admit I am impressed at how close he was to my current level."

… "I think I didn't hear you correctly, did you just say that his power 'spiked' close to your own?"

"That is correct, Ruv." The bulky man continued. "Few moments ago I wanted to jump out of the car and fight that impressive individual but..."

There was a strange pause, then the Strongest Youth explained. "But it all vanished the moment he glanced at me. It was a strange occurrence but… I think my mere sight did threaten him away from revealing his power." Now Ruval gave him a serious look, those comments starting to leave him concerned.

"Do you think he wanted to attack me?" The legitimate question was met with a negative shake of the man's head.

"There was something happening for his power to unfold, he looked wicked for a moment, then he looked confused and mortified."

"Mortified?" The Phenex pressed for more details.

"He looked like he didn't want to 'flex', but he did it all the same. It was like he was lost in a sick daydream and then woke up from it the moment he felt me."

"So you don't think he is a possible enemy?"

"Dunno." Sairaorg replied quickly. "From what I saw I can say very little about his overall attitude. Did he seem anytime trying to harm you or something?"

"Actually… no. He seemed quite courteous and helpful. Until you said that I couldn't spot anything unnatural about him." Ruval stared once more at the Bael and the man nodded.

"I guess I will have to see him personally to draw a proper judgment but… not now. It is far too early and… there is still much to do."

The Phenex nodded, closing his eyes as he decided to get some rest.

His future encounter with his family will be…

Fiery.

AN

Something is indeed wrong with Hoitsu but… what could it be?

There is an original plot that will replace some bits of the story, after Kokabiel, and nobody will expect the antagonist for that arc. (P.S. It's not Hoitsu!)

Expect deceptions from everyone and everything, expect novelties and old stuff resurfacing and… expect something unfair but smooth.

Future milestone 1: 626 Followers and Favorites.

Future milestone 2: 696 Followers and Favorites.

P a treon . com (slash) socialistbukharin

REVIEW Q&A!

RoachVit: Yes.

Flameclawsxx: The fact that 'Big G is dead' isn't a completely unknown fact to the higher sections of Mythology. Yasaka is connected to Amaterasu and the knowledge of 'His' death is known by Kunou already via her mother. She actually rushed to help Hoitsu while he was in pain and I don't know what you were thinking about the plot there. I'm sorry if I… left you confused?

EvilDemon00: Yes and it will be super-crucial in the near future.

EstarossaTheBasilisk: I never said that he was devoid of attention, only that he wanted to have some peace from what he would get if everyone associated the feats committed by Hekishoku to his name. The 'Spiderman' case in its full glory, only fact being that the acquisition of power, the change of his state to something different from human or even showing something 'weird' will lead him to lose any semblance of a safe house. The reason why Akeno and Koneko are 'interested' to him is away from the idea he is 'something unique' but rather, he is normal but very good with people like them. He is actually training physically, I did write twice that he has been training his body, not just his magic, to keep up with the whole power growth. The reason he is acquiring power but presenting a neutral attitude is because he doesn't know if Fate could come in to screw him up. What if a different character, an unknown element from the show decided to appear and target him directly? Then you mentioned Dulio (Human with powerful Sacred Gear- then Reincarnated Angel) and Cao Cao (descendant of the legendary hero Cao Cao and owner of the True Longinus) which I don't need to explain how the comparison is quite unfair. Those two aren't humans that had vast potential of growth because of some BS powerup they had since birth.

Evyplayz121: I know, I like my chapters long too but I've yet to break the 10k wall and… it's difficult. Still thank you for your kind words!

Ruberforumfree: It's more the fact that the MC is trying to get less attention by splitting it via secret identity (which works partially). If he became a Dragon, a Devil etc etc. his whole cover would blow up massively and have his house invaded by unpleasant people. He will get stronger, the Gauntlet being the first of the many things that will elevate his power to massive levels.

StoryReiter: I aim to surprise… always… even myself.

Topimalaya: The Gauntlet nullify the weaknesses via seals.