(Disclaimer: I own neither Highschool DxD nor Ben 10. Both of these belong to their respective owners who own all rights to them.)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
As if on cue as he stared at everyone's bat-like wings, a similar pair of wings suddenly sprouted out of Ben's back too, startling him as he looked over his shoulder to see them.
"So it's true," he realised, reaching back and feeling his wings, finding them to be soft and leathery to the touch. "I'm really a Devil?"
"Yes, you really are, and the man who attacked you last night was a Fallen Angel," Rias explained as she retracted her wings again and took a seat in the chair behind the desk. The others also retracted their wings and took a seat on the vacant couches while Ben remained standing.
"As was the woman who murdered you," Rias added tactfully, unsure how Ben would respond.
"Julie was a Fallen Angel?" Ben muttered as he sat on the arm of the couch on his left as he processed things.
"I highly doubt that was her real name. No doubt she used a fake name while she infiltrated the school in order to get close to you and bewitch you. Once they've got what they wanted from a human, Fallen Angels usually erase themselves from the memory of anyone who might know about them. With you, though, as she kept you separate from everyone else, taking advantage of you being a new student, and fully intending to kill, I'm guessing that your Fallen Angel murderer believed she didn't need to bother with that."
"I'm guessing she also wasn't a member of the student council, either," Ben grunted sourly, frustrated with himself at how easily he had been entranced by Julie…or whatever her real name was.
"No, she definitely wasn't," Rias told him firmly, making a mental note to let Sona know about that little fact. She already knew that Sona was not going to like learning that a Fallen Angel had impersonated a member of her peerage.
Ben sat in silence for a moment as he came to terms with being tricked so callously before asking his next question.
"So, what are Fallen Angels, exactly, or is that a stupid question?" he asked, looking over to Rias as he asked his question.
Rias shook her head in a non-judgemental way. "It's not a stupid question at all, Ben. As their name implies, Fallen Angels are former Angels who have fallen from Heaven and have fallen from God's Grace."
"Isn't that the same as Devils?" Ben wondered as he recalled what he knew about the Bible.
"Not quite. While Fallen Angels have been banished from Heaven like Devils, they haven't been 'abandoned' as we have and still retain their ability to use Light weapons and enter religious buildings without repercussions," Rias clarified for him.
"There are some who even strive to find a way to be forgiven by God and be allowed to return to the Silver City," Akeno added from where she sat. "Though most are spiteful at their situation and hold a grudge against God."
"So which group did those two fall into?" Ben inquired, referring to the Fallen Angels who tried to kill him twice.
"From what we can tell, neither," Rias revealed with concern in her voice. "It appears that the group we're dealing with have abandoned the Fallen Angel faction and have found another master to serve, a master who seems determined to kill you."
"Why me, though?" Ben exclaimed throwing his arms up in the air in disbelief. "There's nothing special about me."
"That's where you're very wrong, Ben," Rias interjected, causing him to look at her. "There is definitely something special about you; I just haven't figured out what it is yet."
"What makes you so sure that I'm special?"
"Two reasons at the moment. The first is that Fallen Angels wouldn't risk infiltrating territory controlled by a member of the Gremory family unless they had adequate cause to take such a risk. The second is that it was so difficult to resurrect you after you were killed. You need to understand, Ben that that is something that has never happened in the history of Human-to-Devil reincarnation. There has never been a wielder of a Sacred Gear, not even a Longinus wielder, whose body has simply rejected the reincarnation ritual."
"wait, wait, back up a bit," Ben cut in, trying to slow the pace down a bit. "There's so much stuff I need to remember. So what are Sacred Gears and what's a 'Longinus'?"
"Sacred Gears are incredibly powerful tools that are only found in a select few. As their other name, God's Artifacts, suggests, they were created by God and bestowed upon humanity to help protect them from the evils of the supernatural world," Akeno explained for him.
"And the Longinus take this to a whole new level entirely," Rias added with a serious tone to implore on Ben how serious she was being. "The thirteen Longinus are so powerful that, in the right, or wrong, hands, they have the power to slay gods."
Ben blinked at their words before realising what they were leading towards.
"And I've got something in me that nearly made it impossible for you from saving me?"
"Yes," Rias nodded in confirmation.
"So…what is it?"
"That…is something I'm very interested in finding out," the red-haired beauty declared openly.
"What do I have to do then?"
Rias pushed back her chair stood up and move around to stand in front of her desk again.
"Firstly, I need you need to hold your arms up in front of you." Ben did as she asked, holding his arms up to chest height.
"Okay, what now?"
Now, I want you to gather together as much strength and concentration as you can and channel it into your arms, focus it into a stream and use it to draw out your true power. Release everything you have at once."
"Alright, I'll give it a go," Ben murmured as he closed his eyes and did as he was told, he ignored everything going on around him and solely concentrated on nothing else but finding the 'power' deep inside himself. He didn't know what to expect but he was surprised when he felt…something stirring in his core. Excited at his discovery, Ben zoned in on it and took a firm hold of it in his mind. Once he had successfully grappled with the swirling energy and had a firm hold of it, he then dragged it out of his core in a single, powerful burst of power.
A bright light lit up around Ben though he kept his eyes closed until it passed. When it did, Ben opened his eyes and gasped in shock at what he saw.
A similar gasp was released from the other gathered Devils.
Ben's left forearm was now encased in what looked like a metallic emerald-green gauntlet which ended just below his elbow. His fingers had also been completely encased with what appeared to be razor-sharp emerald claws. Fitted into the back of his hand was a deep emerald-green coloured gem and below that, fitted around his wrist-area, was a small disc-like dial embedded in the gauntlet itself. On the disc itself was a white background and a green pattern design that looked very similar to an hourglass with a thin black border around it.
And his right arm had been encased by a gauntlet, this time a deep crimson colour which had a very similar overall design to the other one bar a few differences including the absence of a disc-like object embedded around his wrist and the large gem embedded in the back of his hand being a deep crimson-red in colour. Another notable difference with the gauntlet on his right arm included the two large golden spikes protruded out near his elbow and pointed away from the rest of the gauntlet.
"Woah!" Ben exclaimed as he examined his arms excitedly.
"Impossible," Rias breathed as she slowly walked towards Ben, her eyes glued to his arms.
The other gathered Devils also showed their amazement at Ben's new look…even that is except for Koneko who merely glanced at Ben's gauntlets, raised her eyebrow at them then returned her attention back to her bag of sweets.
"Wow! I've never heard of anyone ever possessing two Sacred Gears before!" Kiba gaped with wonder in his eyes.
"Not just any Sacred Gears," Rias gasped as she got a closer look at the two devices attached to Ben's arms, holding up his right arm gently and examining the red gauntlet particularly, her eyes widening as her theory proved true. "This is the Boosted Gear, the Longinus which holds the spirit of the Red Dragon Emperor!"
Akeno joined Rias' side and shared her friend's shocked expression though she was able to recover quicker than Rias, looking back at Ben with a smirk.
"Well, it seems we now know why those Fallen Angels were so bent on killing you. An uncontrolled human with that much power would be a dangerous force to be reckoned with."
"What's the story with this one then?" Ben asked, gesturing towards his left arm which was encased by the green gauntlet which Rias had also switched her attention to.
She looked over it for several seconds, moving Ben's arm gently as she examined it.
"I don't know," she relented, finally giving up after a while. "I've never seen this Sacred Gear before nor do I recognise anything familiar about from the Gears documented in the Gremory library. I can sense an extreme amount of power coming from it though. You need to be careful with these, Ben. They can be deadly if not controlled properly."
"Okay, uh, how do I get rid of them?" Ben asked, not looking forward to the possibility of having to walk around with two gauntlets attached to his arms forever.
"That's easy," Rias declared, happy at being asked something she could answer easily. "Not that you've activated your Gear, all it takes is a simple mental command to switch them on and off."
Ben nodded in understanding and gave it a go, glancing down at his Gears and sending the mental command, smiling to himself with relief when the gauntlets vanished without a trace.
"Until you learn to use your Gears you need to avoid getting into fights on your own, understand?" Rias stated firmly, leaving no room for discussion with her order. "We don't know who these Fallen Angels are working for but we need to be certain that they have completely split from the Grigori before doing anything."
"I understand," Ben nodded in agreement, wondering who the 'Grigori' were exactly. He was under no illusion that he would be able to hold himself in a fight against experienced enemies.
"I hope you do." Rias clapped her hands together to signal a change in subject. "Now, before we move on to discuss what work you'll be doing as a Devil, and before I forget, there's something that I think belongs to you that I've been holding onto for the last week. I believe now is the time it is returned to you at last."
"Huh?" Ben grunted in confusion.
Rias walked back behind her desk, opened a drawer and pulled out a folded-up piece of paper and placed it on her desktop.
Still confused as to what Rias was talking about, Ben moved around the couches towards Rias and picked up the paper lying on the desk as she gestured to it, motioning for him to take it. Curiosity getting the better of him, Ben opened up the paper and gasped in shock when he saw the familiar image etched onto it. Even as the strange aura surrounding it began affecting him, Ben was filled with memories of him drawing the image days ago after having the vivid dream.
"How could I forget about this?" he muttered to himself out loud. Each drawing was crucial in helping him cope with the dreams and each one was always held close to him. It concerned him greatly that he had lost one for so long without even realising it.
"I've been holding onto it for you, waiting for you to come to us in search of it. I suspected you held an attachment to your drawings but I started to doubt myself when you failed to turn up. Of course, now we know it was of the Fallen Angel messing with your mind."
"Why did you keep hold of it?" Ben couldn't help but ask her. "Why not throw it away?"
"It didn't belong to me so why would I do that? Besides, I sensed the magic coming from it and hoped you could give me some answers as to why considering how, until recently, you had no connection to the supernatural world," Rias retorted with a slight shrug.
"You can sense it too?" Ben inquired as he quickly folded the drawing again to hide the image etched onto it and stop its effects.
"Yes. It's hard to explain what I felt when I looked at it. The only thing that came to mind was that it felt wrong somehow."
"That's what I feel when I look at it too! I never felt that way with any of my other dreams, though," Ben blurted out without thinking. His eyes widened when he realised his mistake.
"Why do you draw your dreams?" Rias asked curiously.
Ben went silent for a while as he stared down at the folded piece of paper in his hands before sticking it in the breast pocket of his school shirt.
"Do you mind if don't say?" he mumbled quietly; his head hung low. "It's for a personal reason."
Rias tilted her head slightly as she looked at Ben as he refused to answer here question. Technically, as his master she could order him to tell her, but that wasn't the sort of master Rias strove to be. She wanted to be a master who held the respect she had earned from her servants.
"Okay, Ben. You don't have to tell us if you don't want to," Rias relented with a small incline of her head. "After all, you've already answered a lot of my most burning questions already. Just remember though, I'm always here if you want to talk."
"Thanks," Ben mumbled in thanks.
Deciding to break the awkward silence that threatened to descend on the clubroom, Rias decide to quickly change the subject again to more relevant things.
"Now let's talk about the sort of work you'll be doing as a new member of the club," she announced as she created a medium-sized cardboard box on top of the table in front of Ben. "I would like to you to start by handing these out around town."
"Hand what out?" Ben asked, leaning forward and opening the box lid and finding several stacks of papers that had a strange circular pattern drawn on it.
As he picked one up, though, something seemed to click in his head.
"Hang on, I think I've seen one of these before. Yeah, one of these flew into my face that day I was killed by that Fallen Angel. I thought it was a scam and nearly threw it away."
"Your lucky that you didn't," Rias stated as she came to stand next to him and place a hand on his shoulder. "That was the only reason I found you, after all. As you were dying, you touched your flyer as you made your wish for somebody to save you. I heard your wish, teleported to where you were, and fulfilled your wish."
Ben simply nodded his head to indicate he had heard her as he continued to stare at the paper in his hands for a moment longer.
"So, you want me to hand all of these out?"
"Yes please. This sort of thing is usually carried out by familiars but you're new to things and I believe that all members of my peerage, when they start out, should start with this so they can learn about all aspects involved in being a Devil."
"I can follow that logic," Ben nodded as he put the paper in his hands back in the box before closing it up again. "So, you want me to hand out every flyer in this box?"
"Oh no, it's not just one box you need to empty for me," Rias retorted with a playful smirk forming on her face.
Before he could ask what she meant by that, Rias answered Ben's question by creating another magic circle beside Ben where six similar-sized cardboard boxes suddenly materialised.
"I would like you to hand out these ones too, if you would," Rias chortled, enjoying the surprised look on Ben's face. She patted his arm gently before returning to her seat behind the large desk.
"Once you've done that, we'll see about moving you on to handling other Devil duties."
"Yay," Ben drawled as he continued to stare at the mountain of boxes before him, ignoring the light chuckles coming from the rest of the group.
. . . . .
(Several days later)
"Oh god, this is sooooo tedious," Ben moaned as he stood in the new spot in town he'd found to continue handing out the stack of flyers he'd brought with him as he worked on conquering the mountain he still had left to do
"Gah!" he gasped, clutching his head as his brain was zapped again for mentioning God again.
'Fuck! I keep forgetting about that!' he thought as the pain quickly subsided.
He held out a flyer to a passing young woman who looked at him apprehensively before completely ignoring the flyer he was offering to her.
Ben sighed as he looked at the woman's retreating figure. He would have been nearly finished with handing out his quota of flyers with the number of people who spotted him handing them out and did their best to avoid him and reject him when he stopped in front of them to offer them one.
Since being given this assignment from Rias, Ben's subsequent days had fallen into a regular, if not extremely boring, rhythm. There was no notable change for him for the morning or school day. No, the change occurred when school was over where, nowadays, Ben walk now head out the back of the school and make his way to the old school building and the ORC clubroom where he would be handed the next stack of papers that he needed to hand out for that day and heading off again to find a spot in town to offer them out. Only once he was completely finished and out of flyers would he then head back home.
While his parents noted how late he was coming back home in recent days, it was greatly outweighed by their happiness at Ben joining a club at school (even if it was a strange one) and was making new friends.
"Shit! This is going to take forever!" he moaned as he leant against the wall behind him and looked out across the low rooftops opposite him, beyond which he could see the numerous apartment complexes in the distance.
It annoyed him greatly afterwards at how long it took him to come up with the simple plan but, nevertheless, he did have a profound 'lightbulb moment'.
'Hang on a sec, that's it! Why wait for them to come to me when I can come to them?' Ben realised, face-palming himself for his own stupidity. He quickly shoved the stack of flyers back into his schoolbag, closed it up, and hurried off to carry out his ingenious scheme.
. . . . .
(Later)
"That was so easy! Why didn't I think of doing that before?!" Ben exclaimed as he slung his schoolbag, now completely void of flyers over his back and start making his journey back home.
Behind him was a large, lone-standing apartment complex that housed over one hundred and fifty apartments, one hundred and thirty-seven of which now had a new mysterious flyer shoved through their letter boxes and waiting to be found.
'Getting rid of the others will be so much easier now,' he thought as he noted the other large looming buildings around him. All he had to do now was return to that spot tomorrow and do the same thing in the other complexes.
The sun had fully set behind the dark clouds by this point now and darkness had fallen on Kuoh as Ben made his way back home. Not that Ben really notice it though thanks to his Devil night vision.
"Hmm, I wonder what other things Devils do," Ben wondered to himself. Aside from his introduction to the ORC, Ben hadn't spent too much time in there yet, always leaving to hand out flyers before they began discussing what other duties they had to do.
Whatever other duties they had to do, though, they couldn't be worse than handing out flyers!
*WHOOSH!*
Ben abruptly stopped as a wave of unease suddenly washed over him. He looked around himself but saw nothing out of the ordinary, unable to note the very subtle change in the darkness around him.
The reason he couldn't see the small change was that, even though he was slowly adapting to the drastic changes that happened to him, he had still only been a Devil for just a few days.
Even though he couldn't see anything out of the ordinary, he couldn't miss the quietness that had abruptly fallen around him, nor could he ignore his enhanced senses warning him that something was going on nor the strong feeling that something was watching him with malicious intent.
As Ben continued to look around himself in search of where the intense feeling was coming from, he failed to see a patch of darkness detach itself from the shadows and move towards him through the floor, quickly reaching Ben's shadow which it attached itself to. Ensuring it was completely undetected by its target, the shadow then began to crawl up around his body, masking its presence masterfully.
It never liked to get its hands dirty with tasks like this, it's not what it was created for. However, once those Fallen Angels had proven themselves completely incapable of handling a mere human child, the shadow decided it needed to get involved and deal with the child while it still could. Once the child was dead, the shadow would return to its master triumphantly and prove that all things created by God are nothing compared to His creations.
Once it covered the entirety of Ben's chest, making sure to stay hidden in the darkness of the target's shadow, the malicious force then spread out to cover Ben's arms before delivering the killing blow.
It snaked around Ben's left arm, but when it reached the back of his left hand….
*KACHIIING!*
Unexpecting it to happen, Ben was taken by complete surprise by the bright green light that suddenly illuminated his surroundings, chasing back the shadows and throwing the malicious force off of Ben's body and launching it over a brick wall and back into the darkness in which it thrived.
The light died down to reveal to Ben that the strange emerald Sacred Gear had reappeared, covering his left arm with the green gauntlet.
At the exact same time as this, the unnatural darkness abruptly vanished as the distant sound of life suddenly entered Ben's ears.
"What the fuck is going on?!" he gaped as he looked down at his arm and all around him though was still unable to see anything amiss.
'I'd best get out of here,' he thought anxiously as he hid his Gear again and picked up the pace and ran down the street that led back to his house.
As he disappeared from view, the malevolent force picked itself up from where it was violently thrown and positioned itself in the darkness on top of the roof of a nearby house. From where it rested, it glared daggers in the direction Ben had gone down as it struggled to contain the unbridled fury building up in it that was fighting to break out.
The air around the street vibrated intensely to such a degree that, one by one, the lights began going out as the bulbs exploded violently, plunging the entire street into total darkness, not that it even noticed.
Cursing itself for its failure and cursing the Fallen Angels for failing their master's command, the shadow departed the scene.
. . . . .
(A few days later)
Ben quickly forgot about the strange occurrence that night and went on with his activities, deciding not to bother Rias nor any of the others with what happened, thinking nothing of it except that it was a little strange.
As according to his plan, Ben very quickly went through the rest of his quota of flyers. Once he'd discovered the untapped potential of the apartment complexes, Ben doubled the number of flyers he took with him before leaving the clubroom and, before he knew it, three days later he had completed his task.
An achievement he took pride in announcing when he entered the clubroom once school was finished. Rias was busy talking to Akeno about something while Koneko was sat down on a couch with another bag of sweets in her lap.
"Congratulations," Rias praised him with a smile. "You managed to get through those flyers a lot quicker than I thought you would."
"I aim to impress," Ben replied with a similar smile as he took a seat on the vacant couch, sitting opposite Koneko who barely acknowledged his presence, preferring to concentrate on her sweets.
"That's good to hear. I think you're ready to move on to what one of our main duties as Devils are: making pacts with humans."
Ben did his best to contain his excitement at moving on to the next level. Whatever it involved, it had to be better than 'flyer duty'.
"It's quite fortunate actually. Koneko found herself double-booked with appointments tonight so I'm sure she'd appreciate it if you could take one of them for her," Rias explained as she leant against the back of the couch Koneko was sat on.
Ben glanced at the white-haired Devil who actually looked at him for the first time since he entered the clubroom. As he looked into her eyes he noticed for the first time since meeting her that she had really pretty gold-coloured eyes.
She inclined her head ever so slightly.
"I'd appreciate it," she muttered emotionlessly.
"Sure, no problem," Ben replied with an encouraging smile.
"Akeno," Rias signalled to her queen. Nodding in understanding, the raven-haired Devil created a large crimson magic circle in the large empty space area of the clubroom that was kept clear for this precise reason.
Ben got the message when she looked back at him and pushed himself up off the couch, joining her by the bright teleportation circle.
"Before you go, give me your hand," Rias said, holding her hand out. Obeying her wish, he did as she asked, holding out his left hand. She took his hand and held it so his palm was facing the ceiling before tracing her finger across his palm. As her finger passed along his skin, a miniature circle was etched into his palm with the same colour and pattern as every image on the flyers and the magic circle before him.
"What's that?" Ben asked when she was finished.
"It's a seal that serves as proof that you are a member of my household. It will allow you to use magic circles that use my family's crest," Rias revealed as he examined the mark in his palm as it faded away.
"Cool."
"Now, go out there and make your first pact!"
"No pressure."
"Just do your best. I know you'll make me proud."
"Thanks," Ben replied as he stepped forward into the centre of the circle. Once he'd found his mark, he felt something deep inside him start to stir. Deducing this must be the magic used to teleport to clients, Ben reached into himself and took hold of the magic. As he did this, the circle lit up brightly as the magic took effect and he felt himself be pulled away.
The light in the clubroom disappeared to reveal the circle had vanished along with Ben.
As she stared at the spot where Ben had just been standing, a thought crossed Rias' mind and she turned to Akeno.
"Did I warn Ben how teleportation magic can affect someone the first time they use it?"
"Ufufufu. No, I don't believe you did," Akeno giggled behind her hand and shook her head.
"Oh dear. Well, he'll figure it out on his own, I'm sure."
. . . . .
"Oh fuck!" Ben moaned as he leant forward and rested his hands on his thighs as he dry-heaved heavily as the red light died away.
'Shit! Nobody mentioned how bad teleporting was.'
"Who are you? You're not what I asked for," a deeply masculine voice called out from behind him.
Ben took several deep breaths and swallowed the bile in his throat before forcing himself upright.
"Yeah, sorry about that. Koneko was double-booked so I was sent…," Ben explained as he turned around to face the client, his voice quickly dying in his mouth as he found himself looking up at the largest and most muscular man he'd ever seen in his entire life.
"…here instead," he finished quietly as he locked eyes with the behemoth of a man, fighting every instinct to step back from him.
The only thing that made the situation he was in any stranger was the fact that the huge man had somehow managed to find and squeeze himself into a magical girl costume he vaguely recognised from an anime.
"Uh, hello, sir," Ben gulped with a small nod in greeting, remembering the very brief tutorial he received about a Devil summoning ritual. "I understand you summoned a Devil to grant your wish, so what is it you desire most?"
"It's Milton; and I wanted someone cute to grant my wish, not some big lug like you," the large man declared in as best a high-pitched tone he could physically muster. Even then, though, it was still distinctly deep and masculine.
"Sorry about that, Milton. The Devil who should have come is kinda busy tonight so I'm here as her replacement. I know it's not what you wanted but still, there must be something I can for you instead."
Milton stared down at him in silence for a few seconds and Ben couldn't help but gulp at the intense stare he was getting.
"Alright, I guess it's okay. Okay, sweet tits, here's what I want you to do. This stunning beauty wants you to turn her into a real-life magical fairy princess!" Milton exclaimed leaning forward, well into Ben's personal space.
"Uh, okay," Ben recoiled at how close the huge man suddenly was.
"If you do, I'll let you lick my lollipop!"
"Uh, the thing is, Milton. I only became a Devil a few days ago and I'm learning the ropes. I can't do that, sorry. I don't even know if its even possible to do that."
Milton started bawling theatrically at the world-shattering he just received and his face behind his massive hands.
"Uh, I'd understand if you'd want to cancel the pact, but if there's anything else I can do for you, please tell me," Ben offered, hoping that there was something he could so that he wouldn't end up going back to the clubroom empty-handed.
Milton seemed to calm down a bit at Ben's words. He seemed to have an idea as the twinkle returned to his eyes.
"Actually, there is something else I want to do. You do it for me and I'll sign a pact with you, bitch!"
"Great! What can I do?" Ben wondered, not liking the look in Milton's eyes.
"I'll show you. Follow me!" Milton ordered, taking hold of Ben's entire forearm in his hand as he dragged him like a doll through a door.
'Shit! What did I just agree to?'
. . . . .
ORC clubroom, Kuoh Academy
(Four hours later)
Rias was sat behind her desk, working her way through the mound of paperwork that never seemed to diminish with Akeno stood beside her, helping her through it, when a teleportation circle suddenly appeared and Ben reappeared as the light died down.
"Oh, Ben! You're finally back," Rias exclaimed happily and, appreciating the distraction from her paperwork, stood up from her seat and walked over to Ben. As she approached him though, she noted the strange look in Ben's eyes.
"What's wrong? Did something go wrong? Weren't you able to get the pact?" she asked with concern in her voice.
Ben merely shook his head slowly at her question.
"No, no, I got the pact," he murmured as he pulled out the signed pact from his shirt pocket and handed it to her.
"Congratulations," Akeno beamed with a broad smile.
"That's wonderful, Ben! You got your first pact!" Rias cheered happily. She knew that Ben wouldn't disappoint her, but she was still really proud of him for succeeding at getting his first contract. "What was the problem? What did the client want you to do?"
"Um, where to start? Firstly, thanks for the heads up on the effects of teleportation!"
Rias couldn't help but join in with Akeno and giggle at the indignant look on Ben's face.
"Besides that, after complaining that I wasn't a cute Devil, the client initially asked for me to give him magical girl powers. When I told him I couldn't do that he started to cry. I asked if there was anything else I could do for him, even offering to cancel the pact if I couldn't."
"Well done for using your initiative," Rias praised him proudly.
"Uh-huh. After what he wanted next, I wish I didn't make that offer now."
"Why? What did you have to do?" Rias asked curiously, wondering just what Ben had to do that made him like this.
"Well, he decided that, if he couldn't have the powers of a magical fairy princess then he wanted somebody to help him act out his favourite scenes in the anime. This involved watching the entire first season of the anime for four hours and acting out certain scenes over and over again until he was satisfied."
That doesn't sound too bad," Rias encouraged weakly, doing her best to hide the chuckle trying to escape.
"Have you ever been held in the arms of a 6ft 7in, 280lb muscular man who believes he is a magical princess and have to thank him from the bottom of your heart for saving you from the despicable forces of evil that are trying to take over the world? No? didn't think so."
Akeno crumbled at this and giggled uncontrollably at Ben's tale while Rias was forced to bite the bottom of her lip in a desperate bid to contain her laughter.
Ben realised what Rias was trying to do and grumble indignantly.
"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up," he muttered, placing the signed pact on the table. "Can I go home now? I need a shower."
"Yes, you can go," Rias forced herself to say as she slowly beat down the strong urge to laugh. As he turned to go, she finally noticed the object in Ben's hand.
"What's that?"
"Oh, this?" Ben responded, holding up the object which Rias and Akeno could now see was a magical princess doll. "The client was so grateful for what I did for him that, as well as agreeing to be my first regular client, he also gave me one of his limited-edition magical fairy princess dolls to celebrate the momentous occasion."
Rias very nearly lost it here and it was only because Ben was almost daring her to laugh at him that she found the strength to contain it.
"Make sure to look after it. I believe those are valuable collector's items," she told him, unable to look him directly in the eye.
Ben simply groaned in response and continued to head towards the clubroom doors.
"Good night!" Rias called after him as the door closed behind him.
Turning awa from the doors and facing Akeno, Rias finally lost it at the humorous expression on her face. The two of them laughing about Ben's ordeal even after Kiba and Koneko returned from their own clients. When asked why they were laughing, the two of them simply had to tell someone else and, before long, all four of them were chuckling; even Koneko couldn't resist the smallest of smiles forming on her otherwise stoic face.
. . . . .
Abandoned church, Kuoh outskirts
"For fuck's sake, Raynare! How much longer do we have to wait?!" the beautiful, tall, blue-haired buxom woman demanded angrily as she lay stretched out on one of the few undamaged pews left in the crumbling church. She wore a maroon-coloured trenchcoat-like top with a wide collar which was accompanied by a very skimpy matching miniskirt and black heeled shoes. The top half buttons of her top were undone to allow her very large breasts to breathe easier while giving anyone who looked her way a view of her impressive cleavage. Around her neck she wore a simple gold necklace.
When they first infiltrated Kuoh without attracting the attention of Devil's, the small group of Fallen Angels had quickly taken up temporary residence in the only church in town. It was the perfect hiding place as, even if the Devils suspected they were in town, they couldn't come close to the place without it causing severe diplomatic issues with the Angels, Fallen Angels and the Church.
And the fact that Kuoh was known and accepted as territory controlled by the Gremory family, they wouldn't be interrupted by Angels or misguided Fallen Angels dropping by to interrupt their plans, and as it had been in a ruinous state for a long time, there was no reason to suggest Church members would come either.
It was literally the best hiding place.
"However long it takes, Kalawarner," Raynare retorted testily from her seat high above her comrades in the hole where a small stained-glass once occupied many years ago.
"I'm so bored, though! Can't we do something?"
"What did you have in mind?" Dohnaseek inquired from his spot on the church altar where he sat, his fedora in hand as he dusted it off again before returning it to his head.
"I don't know," Kalawarner grumbled with a frustrated sigh. "Something. Anything. Ooh, we could hunt down one of that Gremory girl's servants.
"You have a strange sense of humour, Kal," Dohnaseek responded dryly with a disappointing shake of his head.
"Don't call me that! You know how much I hate being called that!" Kalawarner growled, pushing herself off the pew and glaring at the male Fallen Angel.
"Well, when you start coming up with good ideas, I'll stop calling you it, okay?" Dohnaseek returned offhandedly. Kalawarner continued to glare at him but he was no longer interested in amusing her and turned to look up at Raynare and ask his own question.
"Do we have any news about the target?"
Raynare looked back inside and down at Dohnaseek.
"My contacts in the Church told me that she's arriving in town the day after tomorrow."
"Is she being escorted?"
Raynare scoffed.
"Of course not! The Church doesn't care about what happens to her anymore. She'll be completely alone when she comes to us."
"Ooh boy, I can't wait!" another female voice called out, directing everyone's attention to the fourth member of their group. She was an attractive girl with bright blue eyes and blonde hair which she kept styled in twintails with a large black bow completing the look. Her outfit consisted of a Gothic Lolita dress with white frills along its edges, a large bow in the front, and a green jewel embedded on the collar while her lower half was made up of a pair of white thigh-high socks and black shoes.
"I'm going to enjoy the anguished look on her face as we rip her Gear out of her body," the Fallen Angel exclaimed gleefully, a cruel smile forming on her face.
"Now, now, Mittelt," Raynare placated the small Fallen Angel. "The priests inform me that we still need two or three days to prepare for the ritual. We need to keep her alive until then."
"Aww," Mittelt groaned in disappointment, crossing her arms across her chest. "What are we supposed to do with her until then?"
"Keep her busy and unaware of our plans," Raynare replied with a faint shrug. "Maybe Freed could do with an assistant for a day or two."
"Freed?" Mittelt retorted as she pictured their exorcist ally. "You sure about that? He's crazy! Who knows what he'll do to her."
"As long as she's alive for the ritual, I don't give a fuck what happens to her," Raynare waved off dismissively.
"And once we finally have her Gear, we can leave this fuck-awful place," Dohnaseek remarked with a smile at the notion that they're mission was nearly over.
"The master will be so pleased with us," Kalawarner beamed happily as she absentmindedly raised her right arm up above her to reach for the ceiling.
"Don't be so sure of that!"
The interior of the church was suddenly cast into darkness, surprising all four Fallen Angels as a large shadow entered through one of the many broken windows scattered around the damaged building. Before any of them could react, the dark shadow zoomed past Mittelt and Dohnaseek as it headed towards Kalawarner's prone form.
The blue-haired Fallen Angel barely managed to sit up before the shadow altered its form as it reached her, passing by her defences with ease, crashing into her and knocking her backwards through several wooden pews which broke apart from the impact.
The other three Fallen Angels finally reacted to the sudden attack, summoning their Light spears and pointing them at the newcomer.
The shadow's form had now fully altered so, now, the Fallen Angels found themselves looking at a creature with a gray-purple body with lines trailing across its wispy body, a grey-brown, upside-down head where its mouth was situated above its one eye. The creature's lower body ended in a long trailing tail which seemed to fuse with the darkness, unable to allow the link to break. Its hands also consisted of long, razor-sharp claws, one set of which was tightly wrapped around Kalawarner's throat.
Dohnaseek and Mittelt pointed their weapons at it with anticipation.
"Put those toys away pups! They won't do anything to me," the creature hissed in a deep, raspy voice.
Raynare, having flown down from her perch to engage the enemy, quickly recognised the intruder and lowered her weapon.
"What are you doing here, Zs'Skayr?" she demanded, gesturing for the other two to do the same.
The single, solitary eye of the creature moved away from its face and arced along the lines across its body and came to a stop where it could look at Raynare.
"I'm here to find out why you think you'll be greeted with such praise on your return when you failed the Dark Lord's order to kill that human child."
"I believed I had succeeded," Raynare explained, hiding the frustration in her voice after she learned of her failure. "I left him for dead in a pool of his own blood. There was no possible way the Gremory bitch could've figured out my plan and saved him."
"And why didn't you ambush him once you learned your mistake?"
"Because he is now under the protection of the House of Gremory," Raynare seethed in response. "If we did anything, we would've exposed ourselves."
Zs'Skayr hissed deeply at her poor excuse.
"That shouldn't have stopped you! It's too late now; his Sacred Gears have been activated. He now has…his protection."
"We'll deal with him once we have the Twilight Healing," Raynare retorted, her temper running thin with the dark creature.
"Y-Yeah," Kalawarner choked out from beneath the spectral creature. "W-Why does He want that kid dead so–."
"IT'S NOT YOUR PLACE TO QUESTION HIS DECISIONS!" Zs'Skayr screeched with such ferocity that the thole building shook from it. His glaring eye flicked between each of the gathered Fallen Angels before speaking again. "Your ONLY duty is to carry out His commands without question!"
"I've said what I've come to say," he continued, releasing his tight grip from around the throat of the blue-haired Fallen Angel below him and hovered above them all. "The only way you can hope to redeem yourself now is to bring us the Twilight Healing. This is your LAST chance! If you fail to get the Gear, you'd better end your own lives quickly because your fate will be so much worse when we find you."
His piece said, Zs'Skayr's form shifted again as he merged back with the shadows where he then shot back to the way it entered and disappeared into the night.
Silence filled the church, only broken when Kalawarner picked herself up off the floor, coughing heavily from the tight grip Zs'Skayr had on her throat.
"Shit!" Dohnaseek cursed as he sheathed his Light spear. "What do we do now?"
"Nothing," Raynare declared firmly as she also sheathed her Light blade and turned back to face the others. "We stick with the plan. Even if I have to tear that nun apart with my bare hands to get what we need, I'll do it. We'll get that fucking Gear, no matter what. Understood?"
"Understood," three voices responded in near unison.
. . . . .
ORC clubroom, Kuoh Academy
(One day later)
Ben was sat on one of the couches minding his own business during the current meeting. It was a particularly quiet evening today as nobody had been summoned by a client. Rias had explained that this wasn't unheard of and it does sometimes happen every now and then. This gave her the opportunity to get a head start on her paperwork and the others to just chat about stuff, from recent client summons to mundane stuff like discussing things that happened in school that day.
Normally, Ben would have gotten involved in such conversation, if only to get to know everyone else a little better.
This evening, however, Ben had decided to examine the strange gauntlet attached to his left arm. The fact that Rias had never seen or heard of anything like it before was enough for him to be determined to unlock its secrets.
So, it was for that reason that Ben found himself looking over the gauntlet closely in search of anything he could learn about it. He was suspicious of the dial on the back of his hand so he decided to focus around that tonight. He examined and fiddled with it for a good thirty minutes when his fingers brushed against something and the dial suddenly sprang up and a four-inch tall holographic image appeared just above the dial where it slowly began to spin around.
"Woah," Ben gasped, standing up abruptly at the sudden development.
"What's up, Ben?" Kiba asked turning back at Ben's sudden movement to see what was going on.
"I don't know," Ben mumbled as he examined the image now hovering the dial.
"What did you do?" Rias asked with intrigue, forgetting her work and heading over to see what had happened. She was insanely curious about the Sacred Gear she'd never heard of before and ensured she was alert for any new information she could gain from it.
"I was just messing around with the dial here and it suddenly sprang up and this image appeared," Ben revealed stepping away from the seating area a little so everyone could get a better view.
"What is it anyway?" he added, looking closer at the rotating hologram.
"It looks like a Pyronite," Rias muttered as she leaned in to also get a better look at it.
"A what?" Ben responded with confusion at the unfamiliar name.
"A fire demon," Akeno explained for him. "They live in Pyros, a scorched land in the Underworld full of hundreds of active volcanoes and a land that's rumoured to be so hot that parts of it are hotter than the surface of the Sun."
"Rumoured?" Ben repeated with a raised eyebrow.
Akeno simply shrugged in response.
"Nobody's been able to get close enough to test the theory."
"Ah, ok. Why do I have an image of one on this thing, then?" Ben wondered, gesturing to his gauntlet.
"I've got no idea," Rias answered with an excited smile.
"Does it have something to do with this Gear's power?" Ben mused, knowing none of them could give him an answer.
"I mean, will something happen if I do this…," he continued pressing his finger down on the dial and forcing it back into the gauntlet.
[Transform: Pyronite!]
Ben cried out in shock as he was completely engulfed by a bright green light that forced Rias and Akeno to avert their eyes and step back a bit.
"What was that?" Kiba exclaimed, quickly coming over to stand with them in case something had gone wrong.
"I don't know," Rias replied before looking back at the green light that was slowly fading away. "Ben! Are you alright?"
"I-I think so," Ben's voice called back as the green light disappeared, revealing a sight that took everyone by surprise.
Where Ben had once stood, a humanoid creature now stood in his place. It stood slightly taller than Ben was and it body appeared to be composed of dark red rocks instead of flesh and bone. The rocks that composed its body was held together by thin seams of blazing hot magma. The head of the creature differed from its body in that, while it was still made of the same dark red rock, it wasn't actually attached to its body by normal means. Instead, it appeared as though it was connected by the fire which raged from between its shoulders. In addition to this, it seemed to lack eyes in the sense most creatures knew, instead two round sockets in its head could be seen. Its feet had an oval design that comprised of two toes in the front and a single back toe. Fused onto its chest was the dial with the strange 'hourglass' symbol.
"The fuck?!" Ben cried out in shock as he looked down at his strange new body. His mind wanted him to freak the fuck out when it saw he was on fire, but another part of his body pushed this urge down as it pointed out how he was completely unharmed by the intense heat from his burning body.
"This is so freaky," he gasped as he examined his hands. As he concentrated on the flames dancing between his fingers, the flames suddenly grouped together into a single flame that quickly swelled in size until it was the size of a tennis ball.
With another mental command, the ball of fire split apart as the flames re-joined the rest of his body again.
"But it's also kinda cool!"
As everyone watched Ben examine his new body and play about with it by making small fireballs in his hands, a thought entered Kiba's mind.
"So, uh, how do you turn back?"
Ben froze at the blond-haired Devil's question as he realised he had no idea how to turn back to normal.
"That's a good question," Akeno noted.
"Maybe it has something to do with that dial on your chest," Rias suggested, gesturing to Ben's magma-lined chest.
Ben looked down at the dial Rias was referring to and tried twisting the dial like it was a switch which could 'turn off' the transformation. When nothing happened when he did that, Ben then tried to pull the dial off his chest, somehow believing that it would achieve the result he wanted.
This wasn't what happened.
All that happened when he tried ripping it off was a great deal of pain on his part.
"Ow!" he grunted, surprised by the pain he experienced. Grumbling at his lack of success so far, Ben sighed and did the last thing he thought might work and placed his finger down in the centre of the dial pattern and pressed it down.
Relief filled him as the dial sunk into his body a little and he was engulfed in crimson-red light which, when it faded away, revealed him back in his normal body.
"Ah, that's a relief. I was beginning to think that…," Ben started to say but stopped when he was hit by a wave of fatigue that took him by surprise and forced him to lean on the back of the couch to steady himself.
"Are you alright, Ben?" Rias asked with concern in her voice as she came to stand by Ben's side and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Whew. Yeah, I'm okay, I just felt a little light-headed then for some reason."
[Not surprising. You've only just unlocked my power.]
"Who said that?" Ben demanded looking around the room.
"Nobody said anything?" Kiba replied with a weird look on his face.
"Not you guys. Didn't you hear that voice just then?"
"We didn't hear anything," Rias replied with a look of concern.
"But…I just heard."
[You fool. I'm speaking to you in your mind. I reside in your left arm and, for now, you are the only one who can hear me,] the deep, powerful voice explained from deep within Ben's mind.
"So I'm not going crazy then," Ben realised with a relieved sigh, not noting the expression on the faces on Rias and the others' faces.
"Ben?"
Oh, sorry," Ben mumbled with slight embarrassment. "There's a voice in my head saying that it's inside my left arm and only I can hear it."
"Really?" Rias asked dubiously, staring at Ben to see if he was trying to make some kind of joke. When she looked into his eyes, though, she could plainly see the seriousness of his statement. Once she was convinced he was telling the truth, she crossed her arms and held her chin with her left thumb and index finger as she thought of an explanation.
"Interesting. It's not unheard of for wielders to communicate with the creature that was sealed within their Gears. I've never heard of one able to be heard so soon after unlocking the Gear though."
[The red-haired hatchling is correct. It seems I've found myself an interesting vessel.]
"If it can communicate with Ben, it must be a powerful being sealed in the Gear," Akeno announced as she came to stand by Rias.
"You're right." Rias turned back to face Ben who already guessed what she was going to say next and beat her to it.
"Um, so, what should I call you?" he asked the powerful voice, not realising how weird he must have looked, talking to thin air.
[In this dimension, I believe the name I went by was…Azmuth,] the powerful answered, its voice causing a faint ripple through Ben's very being.
"Azmuth?" Ben mumbled, unfamiliar with the name. As he repeated the name out loud, everyone else in the room had similar expressions as him on their face.
Everyone, that is, except Rias and Akeno.
"What?!" she exclaimed, surprising everyone by the intensity of her outburst.
"Are you sure that's what they said, Ben?!" she probed, taking hold of Ben's shoulders and holing him in place as she waited for his response.
"Uh, that's what he said. What is it, Rias? Do you recognise that name?"
"There's only mention of a single being who was ever known by that name! A being who completely vanished centuries ago and was never heard from again."
"So, who is Azmuth then?"
"Azmuth was an incredibly powerful dragon," Akeno clarified for everyone listening before Rias cut in.
"Not just any dragon though. Azmuth was one of the three Dragon Gods; the Dragon God of Life! He is also the founder of the Dragon Race, acknowledged as the Allfather by all Dragonkind!"
"So, he's a big deal then?" Ben surmised as Rias release her hold on him and started pacing the room in thought. He realised he probably should have reacted a lot more like Rias when he discovered he had the Azmuth – whoever that was – living inside him, but he was more occupied with the fact that Sacred Gears could have beings living inside them.
"You could say so," Akeno replied with a soft giggle, answering Ben's question. "The Dragon Gods keep to themselves and avoid getting involved in the affairs of other races in any sense. Azmuth was the only one who ever went against that decision and got involved in 'mortal' affairs on several different moments throughout history, even if those times were extremely few and very far between."
[And I still debate whether or not I was mistaken to do so.]
"Legend says that Azmuth even helped God in creating the Sacre Gears," Akeno continued, unaware of what the dragon God in question had just spoken.
[Only in concept ideas and assisting in designing the initial prototypes. He was the true talent behind the Gears. Truly, He was a master of creation.]
"Azmuth seems to believe God did most of the work," Ben noted, casting another glance down at his left arm.
"Of course he does," Rias mumbled as she sat back down in her chair and leant back in it.
"Azmuth…and Ddraig. Two legendary dragons and Ben holds both their Gears," she added, mumbling to herself as she thought about what this meant for Ben, for her, for her family, and for the natural and supernatural world in general.
'At least it finally explains why it was so hard to resurrect him.'
"One thing I'm curious about…," Akeno began as a thought struck her.
"Hah, just the one?" Rias laughed humourlessly, pausing her train of thought and looking over at her friend.
"How did Azmuth end up being sealed inside a Sacred Gear? The stories were right in that he disappeared centuries ago, but we don't know what led to him being sealed."
"I'll ask him," Ben volunteered before concentrating his mind inward to speak to the dragon.
"Azmuth?"
[Later, kid. You're still too weak for us to communicate properly. Work on getting stronger,] Azmuth responded deeply before Ben felt the dragon's presence retreat back into his left arm.
"He's says I'm not strong enough to continue talking to him," Ben explained to everyone. It was only as he said this that Ben noted that his breathing had gotten heavier and more laboured, and his body had gotten surprisingly heavy, forcing him to lean on the couch more to support himself.
Rias noted this and nodded her head slightly in agreement with the departed dragon.
"It looks like he makes a good point. You should head home and get some rest, Ben."
"Are you sure?"
"I am. There haven't been any summon requests tonight so I'll allow it."
"Uh, okay then. I'll see you guys tomorrow then," Ben said, waving goodbye to everyone before leaving the clubroom and heading home.
"So, are you going to let your brother know about this surprising development?" Akeno asked once she was sure Ben was out of earshot.
Rias didn't respond initially as she was too caught up in her thoughts.
A small smile formed in the corner of her mouth as she came to her decision.
"No, I don't think I will. I think I'll leave it a surprise for him and my family. Once we help Ben learn his potential, I believe he'll bring about a lot of changes in the Underworld."
. . . . .
(The next day)
Ben leant back on the bench he was occupying and stared up at the beautiful, cloudless sky and took a deep breath as he admired the view.
Even though this wasn't what he had planned for today, it wasn't all that bad really.
His plan for this Saturday had been a simple one. He had planned to enjoy what little spare time he had that wasn't composed of either school or Devil work and just relax for a bit. Don't get the wrong idea, Ben really enjoyed learning all there was to know about being a Devil – there was always so much more to know – but there was still quite a bit of work he had to do more so when more people started summoning him for pacts.
Because of this, Ben had planned to stay in his room and do whatever it was he felt like doing, be it playing his guitar, playing some of his video games, or even doing nothing at all and simply play on his phone a bit. It wasn't glamourous or particularly riveting but it was something he was looking forward to….
…until his mother put a stop to it.
As if sensing when he was at his most content, she had called him down and ordered him – technically, she asked him to help but Ben read between the lines – to do a few little jobs for her while he wasn't doing anything 'important'.
The last job she'd given him had been a combination of dropping off a letter for her and stopping off at a local store to return something that she had bought there.
This was the series of events that culminated with Ben admiring the clear sky while sitting on a bench beside a community area with a large dirt patch that was used for football games between local children. Across from him were two children currently having said game against each other while their mother sat on the other side of the area and fixed on something fascinating on her phone screen.
His eyes slowly turned away from the sky and fell down to look at his left arm.
He'd tried to speak to Azmuth again last night once he'd recovered most of his strength again but it didn't matter; Azmuth remained silent and unresponsive.
'Why won't you talk to me?' he mentally wondered as he gently clenched and unclenched his fist. 'Are you waiting for me to do something?'
"Hawauh! *THUD* Ouch!" a cute, female voice cried out from his left.
Ben glanced up and over at the sound to see a prone blonde-haired figure sprawled out on the floor a few feet from him, a large brown suitcase beside her open with several of its contents having fallen out. As his eyes fell on her, he averted them quickly when he noted that, in the young woman's fall, her dress had ridden up and now left a white pair of panties exposed to the open air.
Deliberately looking at everywhere except her exposed panties, Ben quickly took in the rest of her clothing and blanched when he realised what he was looking at lying on her face and groaning in pain.
She wore a dark teal habit with light blue accents, a white veil with light blue accents, a light brown satchel which was slung over her left shoulder and leaning against her right hip, and a pair of brown boots with straps that crossed over each other in an X-shaped pattern.
It didn't take a genius to recognise what she was.
'A nun? What's a nun doing here?'
As she began picking herself up off the floor, Ben returned to the present and leapt to his feet.
"Shi-shoot! Are you alright?" he asked as he rushed over to help her up, catching himself before he cursed in front of a nun. He took hold of her right hand and shoulder and gently helped her up.
"Oh, thank you very much!" she thanked him, taking hold of his hand proper as she returned to her feet and looked up at her helper.
Her face which, until that very moment, had been covered by her veil when she tripped fell away and Ben couldn't help but take a sharp intake of breath when he saw her face. She was an extremely pretty young woman with strikingly beautiful green eyes that transfixed him when he looked into them. Her blonde hair cascaded down her back until it reached her waist, split bangs exposed her forehead and, oddly enough, a single strand that stuck out from the top and sloped backwards.
He realised he was staring too much when her face started turning red in embarrassment.
"Ah, sorry about that!" he apologised, averting his eyes which landed on her partially open suitcase. "Let me help you with that."
"Ooh, please don't worry about that!" she squeaked in embarrassment as he knelt down and began putting things back in. "I can handle it myself!"
"It's fine. I don't mind helping."
"No, please. You don't have to….Wait, you can understand me?"
"Uh, yeah," Ben replied, confused by the weird question, as he continued to help her return her belongings back into her suitcase.
Before long, everything had been returned and the case had been closed again.
"Thank so you much for your help!" she babbled timidly.
'So cute,' Ben thought before gesturing to her luggage.
"You visiting Kuoh?"
"Ah, not exactly. I'm actually here to start working in this town's church but I got a little lost while looking for it. I've also been having trouble because nobody understands what I'm saying."
It dawned on Ben at that moment that she was speaking English.
'Why didn't I notice that?' he thought before recalling Rias explaining some of the things he could do now he was a Devil; one such thing being an ability to translate any language he heard into something he could understand, an ability which worked both ways and anybody talking to him would hear whatever language they can understand.
"Sorry to hear that. Luckily for me, though, I can speak both English and Japanese."
"Really? That's a relief!"
"Would you like me to escort you to the church?" he asked, suddenly feeling the urge to help her.
From the torn look on her face, Ben could tell she was the sort of person who wouldn't ask for help because she didn't want to bother anyone, yet she was also anxious due to the fact she was still lost and would struggle to get to where she needs to go.
"I-If it isn't too much trouble," she mumbled cutely, hiding her embarrassed face from him.
"Not at all. Glad to help," Ben smiled, feeling butterflies swirl around inside him when she returned her own bright smile.
The blonde-haired nun took hold of the silver cross necklace hanging around her neck and held it close to her chest, an innocent yet captivating twinkle in her eyes.
"You must have been sent to me from the Lord. Thank you God for helping me on my journey."
*ZAP*
"Gah!" Ben exclaimed as he felt the familiar knives returning in his head and clutched it before he knew it.
'Not again!'
The nun noticed this and her expression immediately turned to one of concern for him.
"Oh no! Are you alright? Do you need help?" she asked sweetly, still holding the small cross in her hands.
Ben cleared his throat before answering. "It's fine. I'm alright."
He stifled another cough before continuing. "Well, shall we get going then?"
"Yes, lets!" she replied cutely, her bright smile returning to her face for a moment before it quickly vanished when Ben bent down and picked up her suitcase, throwing it on his left shoulder.
"Please! You don't have to do that! It's my luggage. Let me do it!"
'Is there anything she does that isn't cute?'
"It's fine really. You must have been struggling with this before, right?"
The look on her face told him that he was correct in his assessment of her previous struggle yet she was still overcome by him helping her so much.
"By the way, my name's Ben Tennyson. What's yours?"
"My name's Asia. Asia Argento. It's a pleasure to meet you Ben."
"The pleasure's all mine. Come on, let's get going," Ben stated with a nod of his head before he started to head where she needed to go.
They made it a full five steps before….
*THUD!*
"Waaah!"
The two of them looked over to see one of the boys playing on the football pitch had tripped over and had landed on his knee which left a scuffed knee which was bleeding slightly.
Within the blink of an eye, the young nun was already rushing over to the injured boy and knelt down in front of him and looking at him kindly.
"Come on now, boys shouldn't cry over little scrapes like this. Here, let me help you," she told him sweetly before raising her hands and placing them just above the boy's bloody knee.
Ben's eyes widened when Asia's hands started glowing bright green, the pale impressions of rings appearing on her middle fingers.
The light lasted a few more seconds before fading away to reveal the boy's knee had been completely healed, causing Ben's eyes to widen further.
'Woah, what was that?'
[Hmm, interesting,] Azmuth's voice rippled through Ben's head before quickly retreating back into his Sacred Gear before Ben could try and speak to him; not that he could currently when there were normal humans nearby.
"There we go. All better," the blonde-haired beauty announced sweetly.
"Kaito! What happened?!" the boy's mother demanded, the other boy following close behind her.
"I fell over. This lady: she made her hand go all glowy and made the pain go away," the boy, Kaito, responded, gesturing to the nun.
"It was just a simple healing spell," Asia dismissed shyly.
The boy's mother stared at her for a moment before taking the boy's arm forcefully and dragging him back to his feet.
"Kaito! You shouldn't get involved with strange people. Come on, we're leaving!" she announced sternly before dragging both children away at a brisk pace.
Ben scowled at the woman's rudeness and started walking after her.
"Hey lady! How about a 'thank you'? She was helping your kid!"
"No, it's fine!" Asia told him, holding onto his free arm with both hands in a bid to stop him going after the rude woman.
"No, it's not. She should be thanking you, not treating you like a freak."
"I'm used to it," Asia replied sadly, a dejected look on her face as Ben looked back at her.
"Did you understand what she was saying?"
She shook her head slightly. "Not her words, but those eyes…I've seen them before."
'It seems things aren't so different from before, even in this town,' she thought with a sad sigh.
"Thank you, lady!"
The two of them looked across the clearing to see the boy, still being dragged away by his mother, waving back at them with a smile on his face.
"There you go. It's not all bad," Ben smiled as he placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.
Asia couldn't help but smile broadly at this and waved back at the retreating boy.
"Hehe. I guess you're right."
"Of course I am, now let's get going and find your church. I think I know the way there."
"Okay. Let's go!" Asia smiled happily as she walked beside him as they set off.
. . . . .
A few minutes of silence passed before Ben asked his question.
"So, uh, what was that back there? That power?"
"Oh, that? It's a healing power."
"How did you get it?"
"I've had it since birth." Her expression then turned distant and forlorn.
"I am truly lucky to have been given such a wonderful gift from God," she added, a detectable hint of sadness in her voice.
"It certainly is a unique gift," he mused as he recalled the feeling he felt when Asia used the power on the injured boy.
'Does she have a Sacred Gear too? It certainly felt like one.'
They continued on their journey for a few more streets before they came into sight of their destination.
"There it is!" Asia exclaimed excitedly.
"That's where your working?" Ben wondered with confusion as he looked up the hill at the church resting on top of it. "It looks like nobody's been in there for years."
He was suddenly caught short by the chill that ran up his spine as he looked up at the damaged building.
'Shit! Am I too close? Is it because it's a church and I'm a Devil?'
"They did say it needed a bit of work done, but it's still a house of God. I don't mind where I go, I'll do whatever it takes to help those in need."
'How can such an innocent soul exist?' Ben wondered, perplexed.
"Would you like to come in for a cup of tea?"
"No!" Ben replied, perhaps too quickly, as he placed Asia's suitcase on the ground beside him. He immediately felt really bad at the dejected look on Asia's face at his rejection.
"Sorry, I didn't mean it like that," he quickly added apologetically. "It's just that there's somewhere else I have to be and I don't want to be late."
"Oh, okay. I understand. Thank you for showing me the way."
"It was my pleasure, Asia. I hope we can meet again sometime," Ben called out as he backed away from the church and waved goodbye to Asia.
"Yes! I would like that very much! Until next time!" Asia shouted back with reddened cheeks and a wide smile as she waved goodbye.
As he turned the corner, Ben glanced down at his watch and blanched when he saw how late he was. He was at the completely wrong side of Kuoh from where he needed to be.
"Shit!" he exclaimed as he took off at a sprint.
"Rias is going to kill me!"
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .