Draconian Fate Works - Volume 1

by Kratos1989

Honestly, I should have expected it. After all, my line of work would always be screwing with me when I don't need to. What I did not expect was getting myself into a world where Gods are alive and around, Angels and Demons are real, and the residents are really weird. I blame Zelretch for this. Rated T for the time being. (Yes, the title has been changed / Sporadic Updates)

10. Observations

Disclaimer:

High School DxD is a Japanese light novel series written by Ichiei Ishibumi and illustrated by Miyama-Zero. The Fate series is owned by Type-Moon. I do not own any of the characters mentioned from both series. The only things I own are the ideas that popped into my head for this story and whatever original characters I would create for the story.

My main muses come from Gabriel Blessing and Marcus Galen Sands, authors of great works themselves. This story is meant to be a work of pure fiction made solely for fun, constructive reviews will be welcomed, flames will be ignored. Any references to characters in real-life are purely coincidental and should not be taken seriously. If I could make money out of my ideas, it would be nice...

Root Damn It!

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Published: December 19th 2017

Chapter 9: Observations

Part 1

The halls of the Vatican were filled with the sounds of soft footsteps echoing in the wide open space as Pope Francis slowly walked to the room where he was to have an important meeting with the Seraphims of Heaven. There was still a fair amount of time before that began, so he took the chance to take the scenic route and pass some of the gardens to clear his thoughts.

And he needed that after the major discussion he had to oversee with the council.

It was quite a monumental occasion when the announcement came regarding the conference of the Three Factions. It was easy to tell that many believed it to be a pipe dream, that there was no possible resolution to the warring factions. The Pope held back a smirk remembering the faces of the old clergies as the letter came that they were now under a Truce. They looked as though the devils were selected for candidacy for a position in the Vatican Halls itself.

Of course, there was the issue of the conference being attacked by hardliners, those who felt too much rage and hatred for one another after so many years and could not settle their differences. From the report he got, these people were part of a larger and more organized faction called the Chaos Brigade, consisting of several groups of supernatural beings from various mythologies and practices. Perhaps the most notable groups were the Old Satan Faction that held the old bloodlines from the old Maous, the Hero Faction that was perhaps considered the most dangerous of the faction because of the all human fighters who were either Holy Swords, Demon Swords, Sacred Gears, and the worse part, a few of the Longinus, and finally the Magician Faction which held all the magicians that were expelled from the council.

While the attack had failed, they were successful in announcing their intentions to them that they would be against the truce.

Another thing that came up was regarding a certain Japanese magician that had taken residence in the territory under the Gremory's and Sitri's supervision. Based on accounts by Griselda and some of the staff nearby, the boy in question displayed even more capabilities than expected, and was apparently able to take on the wielder of [Divine Dividing] alongside the devil wielding [Boosted Gear].

But there were a few points on Shirou Emiya that grabbed the council's attention. As his hidden agent Lyle Wallner had predicted, the news of him combining and wielding the Excalibur Shards spread like wildfire in the Vatican and everyone was reaching into their resources to find out who the boy was. To much of their consternation and a fair amount of guilty amusement on his part, there was no information about him prior to his appearance in Kuoh Town; it was as though he just popped out of nowhere and took up residence. There was also the bit from the latest report of him using some unusual spell that was named after the Jewish interpretation of the pillars of life and weapons named after the archangels. It was with those items that allowed him to go against the Hakuryuu and drive him away.

And it was with those items that set the stage for what appeared to be the most intensive argument he had ever laid his ears upon.

As one would expect, the council went into a huge discussion that devolved into a huge argument that was ready to burst into a brawl. The cabinet got split into three groups, each with enough hard-heads to prove their point, much to his exasperation.

The first group consisted of those from the older factions, major power players who wanted to either bring Shirou Emiya into the church or to eliminate with extreme prejudice, by any means necessary. And unfortunately for the Pope, these included the hardliners who wanted to consolidate the power and support they could get with the Excalibur on their side. There were also those who felt that as a magician, he was a heretic and needed to be put down in order to, he quote, 'preserve the integrity of the Excalibur Shards from the corruption of his pagan magic'.

What a bunch of daft morons.

The second group comprised of the younger generation, and in accordance to their age, they were more open-minded to Shirou Emiya retaining the Excalibur and allowed to operate on his own terms provided he does not attack the church. They were also a group interested in having a working relationship with him after hearing about his supposed ability to create and wield holy weapons. In their minds, learning how to create them has been a lost art, and having someone with the knowledge can be beneficial for the church in the long run.

The third group was neutral and to the Pope's mind, possibly the most dangerous of the lot as he had no idea what went through their minds. The only thing he could understand was them wanting to ensure the wizard in question was truly a protector. They seemed open to the idea of a peaceful union of the Three Factions, but they were perhaps a little more crafty than the group of purists, and those fellows were the craftiest of the lot.

But at the least they did not need to know about the other points that only he knew, something that was to be discussed in private with the Seraphims.

The pope got to the room where the meeting was to be held, with two guards standing at attention by the doors. They were certainly giving it their all being the chosen guards for both the Pope and the Seraphims of Heaven, given how one was shaking from the effort while the other looked ready to faint on the spot. The pope held back a chuckle as he walked up to them and assured them that they were doing okay and that they should not stress themselves out. After a quick chat, the Pope took a deep breath and nodded to the guards, who saluted and opened the doors for him to enter.

"I hope I did not keep you waiting too long?" The pope spoke as the door closed behind him.

"Actually, we are early." Michael smiled lightly as he turned away from the window to look at him. "You are the one who's on time."

"Still, it is not right for me to have you waiting for little old me." The pope chuckled as he came to the table. He paused while looking to the other visitors. "Lady Gabriel, Lord Uriel, Lord Raphael. It is an honor to meet you again."

"It is nice to meet you again, young Francis." The sole female of the group smiled brightly at him, reminding the pope of the first time he laid eyes on her when he was ordained. He would admit wholeheartedly that she was by far and none, the most beautiful woman he had the honor to meet, and he was not flattering her because of her status as an one of the top Seraphims. She truly was someone who could make many of the artworks and statues look mundane in comparison, and he could almost imagine the reactions of artists and sculptors like Michelangelo, Pietro and Da Vinci should they ever lay their eyes on her.

The Vatican city would probably have a lot more statues and paintings featuring her beauty as opposed to detailed depictions of the male anatomy.

For himself, he would also admit that were he younger and perhaps less pious, he would likely have thought of Gabriel in less than appropriate thoughts. But now with his age and her general behavior, he could not help feeling like a grandfather entertaining a little girl.

Albeit one who was very mature looking, a few millenniums older and had big white wings.

"Hey there, still kicking huh?" Uriel waved his hand with that smirk present on his face while his hair was lit with holy flames and wavering in the room, giving off a small wave of heat that was comforting. Raphael on the other hand just nodded in silence with his arms crossed.

"Shall we begin our little meeting?" The pope and the Seraphims sat around the table while he poured some tea for them.

"How did your council react to the news?" Michael asked as he sipped the tea and hummed in appreciation.

"Mixed results, my lord. As you can imagine, there are a number of groups who oppose the truce. Some of the hardliners are threatening to leave the Vatican if we were to push for it." The pope shook his head. "And unfortunately, there are some who have left earlier."

"That will be a problem for us I presume?" Michael asked noting his expression.

"That is putting it mildly, Lord Michael. You see, those people who left were confirmed by my agents to be members of Chaos Brigade." The pope answered in a heavy tone. "And these are the power movers if you would, they had access to some of the most secured archives in the Vatican and some of the churches. Thankfully they cannot access the vault containing the Holy Swords or the Vatican Library, but it does not change the fact that they had turned traitors to the Church."

"That is a problem." Uriel sighed heavily with small flicks of fire out of his mouth. "We already have enough issues as they are."

"We cannot do anything about them leaving, the only thing we can do is to determine how much they know of our secrets and how we can mitigate the damage." Michael spoke while turning to the pope. "How about the others, are they okay with this truce?"

"Most of them are quite open to the idea of an alliance. A few of them had considered the possible exchanging of the war weapons. If you recall, we do have a stock of demonic relics that we could not destroy while they have ours. It is a stretch but it would be nice if they can hand us back those relics."

"Yeah, I remembered those." Uriel nodded. "Nasty little buggers they are."

"I am looking forward to asking Ajuka Beelzebub regarding the Chess System they are using to reincarnate the people." Michael spoke as he tapped his fingers on the table. "It might be a bit odd and somewhat sacrilegious to use this type of system, but we do need new blood to aid us with our mission and goals."

"I heard that a few of the angels had fallen as a result of this conference?" The pope asked with a weary tone.

"More likely they fell because they aided with the attack." Raphael spoke for the first time with a raspy tone. "They were able to stay in Heaven while supplying information to our enemies by utilizing a loophole in the system. But when the attack failed, they ended up leaving Heaven, falling in the process. Azazel has confirmed that none of them have arrived at their headquarters, so it is likely they had returned to Chaos Brigade."

"This is a dreadful mess to be in." The pope shook his head in sadness.

"In a way, this is our fault, and I do mean us alongside The Grigori and The Devils. In the time it took to heal our wounds in that uneasy truce, we have gotten somewhat complacent. We overlooked the possibility of disgruntled individuals who would not be pleased getting together to oppose us all, and I doubt any one, except Azazel perhaps, to consider the idea of those disgruntled sheep from all the factions to band together for this."

"Be that as it may, we might as well do what we can to stop the terrorists from attracting others to their cause." Uriel spoke firmly.

"Agreed, but enough of that." Michael placed a finger to his forehead and closed his eyes. The tip of the finger glowed briefly as he slowly drew his hand back, a strand of silver light caught on it. With a light tug, the strand snapped from his head and lightly dangled in the air. He moved it to ta crystal ball installed into the table and lowered it inside, making it glow brightly. Before long the group found themselves in a mind-landscape detailing his memories.

"Time to begin this meeting."

And so for the next hour, the pope viewed the memories of the top angel regarding the findings of the terrorist group, Kokabiel's violation of the treaty, the theft of the Excalibur Shards, and the attack at the conference. He noted the appearance of the current hosts of the twin dragons, feeling slightly apprehensive at the wielder of Albion due to his lust for fights, while shaking his head in shame at the wielder of Draig.

This generation was so messed up.

But there was one that got his full attention. The pope looked to the still image of the one teen that had generated quite a fuss amongst the Three Factions, noting how unusually mature he looked for a young teen with a hair color that stood out in the Land of the Rising Sun. And looking at his eyes, the pope now understood why some reports from Griselda commented that he was similar to Lyle Wallner. Looking at the manner he fought, his stance, even the look in his eyes, all of that reminded him of the young exorcist he took in.

Too similar, it was scary. What would drive a young man to such lengths?

"And that is how it ended." Michael spoke as the projection ended and they were back in their seats, with the setting afternoon sun by the windows being the indicator of how much time had passed since the meeting started.

"So it is true, the Excalibur has been reforged, or at least mostly." Uriel spoke with a slight reverent tone. "Its form is different from the last time."

"Based on reports by Griselda and the musings of Azazel, the magician seemed to have created a template to have the shards reside in, followed shortly by one European broad-sword of supposedly Holy Origins. From what Griselda had described, it was a blade that made her feel that she was being rallied for war." Michael stated clearly. "There is also the odd Fey writing on it that made me think that the blade in question was created with the Faeries of Old in question."

"That is rather unusual, but it does tie in with what we have about the magician thus far." The pope spoke as he tapped his finger. "Perhaps that is the reason the shards seek him out."

"They wanted to be reforged, but lack the means, thus going to the young man?" Gabriel asked with a light tilt of her head.

"That is what I am thinking. Perhaps the original intent for the shards reacting to Shirou Emiya was not due to his compatibility, rather they may have sensed his ability to create any type of weaponry and sought him out to be brought together. The fact he could wield it so well may have been a side benefit if you would."

"That could be the case." Raphael placed a hand to his chin with a thoughtful expression. "If so, then this may be the thing that would make the hard-liners go after the boy with extreme prejudice." The others nodded at that comment. It was bad enough that the shards actually responded to someone not of the church, but to a supposed 'pagan'. Add in the fact that they actively seek him out to be made back into one would be telling the other mythologies that the church was not good enough for the famed sword of King Arthur.

"Well, that might explain the bit on the Excalibur, but then how do we explain the bit of him having weapons named after the archangels? Unless I am much mistaken, the power that was in the two weapons he used were close to ours, not to mention the feeling that is a lot stronger than them." Uriel said with a bit if heat evident in his words.

"About that, there is something I believe you should know of." Michael said to get their attention. "Recently the system governing the power of prayers and Sacred Gears started to act up abnormally. When I checked the timing, it actually lined up roughly the time something significant happened which involves Shirou Emiya."

"Now the first time cannot be properly determined, but based on the reports given to me, it is safe to assume that it acted up around the time the young man made his appearance in the hospital at the town. The second time occurred when Kokabiel attacked the academy and the Excalibur was reforged. The third time occurred during the invasion of the academy and based on the readings, it was just as Shirou Emiya called forth the supposed [Tree of Life]."

The other Seraphims and the pope stayed silent as they processed what he said. It was Gabriel who first broke the silence, and her voice was hesitant and soft as she tried to convey her thoughts.

"I don't know what to think of, but…" She hesitated before continuing with a slightly hopeful tone. "Is it possible that our [Father] may be reincarnated or at least some form of his spirit resides in the boy?"

Her brothers could only looked to her with complicated expressions. There was some merit to her words, and while the logical side of their minds disputed her words, their hearts ached at the possibility of their [Father] returning to them. They missed him greatly and each held a heavy heart from his passing. Micheal in particular felt the most guilt for being unable to save him at his time of need; the anguished yells of Kokabiel as he glared at him with rage were still fresh in his mind.

"It is wishful thinking, dear sister." Uriel spoke with a light sigh. "It is possible, but for now I think it is best to hold off on such expectations and just observe the young man. Perhaps there is something else that is going on that is hidden from our eyes."

"Indeed." Raphael spoke with a sad frown. "For all we know, perhaps he is just a regular Saint or someone who has a large amount of Holy Energy in him. We won't know if he is carrying a portion of [Father]'s spirit unless we meet him in person. After all, he does have an odd affinity for divine weaponry."

Michael nodded with a slightly grim expression. To say he was shocked at the sight of a person calling forth weapons named after his comrades was an understatement; seeing the weapons first hand, he could feel the torrent of power that issued from them, how they seemed to be held back by the dam that was Shirou Emiya, waiting to be unleashed upon the enemy.

And then there were the illusions he saw during that fight. When he called upon the Tree of Life, he could have sworn that he saw ten figures hovering around him, with the image of his [Father] on top of them all. Then when he called out the two different weapons, the illusionary figures that took up the side of the boy seemed to reflect the type of user involved.

A giant in knight's armor riddled with Holy Runes when he called upon [Sandalphon].

A brown-haired man with golden wings and a toga with a book in hand when he called upon [Metatron].

Powers of the angels, and if he was not wrong, the power of 'God' himself.

Who was the boy?

"Lord Michael?" The pope's voice broke his thoughts and brought his attention back to the group staring at him. "Is everything well?"

"My apologies, I was caught up in my thoughts." Michael shook his head to clear his mind.

"It is fine, I think we all have something to think about regarding the boy." Uriel spoke. "But we won't know for certain until we meet him in person."

"Indeed. This might be an opportunity for us to extend our hand to other groups of the magic nation." Gabriel said while raising a finger. "The magic cabals have not been very receptive of our religion, and it has been hard to get in touch with some of the more reclusive. Perhaps by meeting with Shirou Emiya, we can have a chance in talking with the other groups?"

"That is a bit of a stretch, but it can be done I suppose." Michael nodded his agreement. "But that is if they don't decide to cut their losses and go after the young man himself."

"Oh, why is that?"

"The few contacts I have in the magic nation said the same thing. Every group is searching for Shirou Emiya. His magic style is too unique and there is no known school that practices it." The pope spoke gravely. "They feel that his magic is too precious to be left alone and they desire to have him into the groups, especially for the more esoteric schools who believe that his magic could be the key to unlocking the supposed source of all magic of the world."

"This is a right mess to be in." Uriel placed a hand to his face. "You would think that we should be working together to save one another, yet we are playing 'catch the mysterious magician' game."

"Well, we can't deal with that too much." Raphael spoke with a definite tone. "As much of an enigma the boy is, he is but a small part in this story. Right now we should focus on the alliance formation. On that note." He turned to his leader while removing a memory of his own to deposit into the crystal. "Let us continue with our meeting."

And so they continued discussing on other matters like possible trading and diplomats visiting the other groups of the supernatural world. It would be around early evening that they would break off and have the pope announce to the council of the Seraphims' decisions. But while the others were content, both the pope and Michael had troubled thoughts regarding the one magician.

A boy who could create and wield both holy and demonic weaponry.

A boy who could claim Sacred Gears for his own.

And a boy who currently possessed the Holy Sword Excalibur.

And no one knows what were his intentions.

Part 2

Shemhazai let out a light grumble as he made his way to the building which was reserved for Azazel's more outlandish and volatile experiments. He cared a lot for his leader, make no mistake on that, and he certainly respected him a great deal, but the governor has quite a few bad tendencies, one which was him getting sidetracked with his work that he tends to overshoot his timing by a fair amount. And currently they were supposed to be in a meeting with the others to discuss about the conference and the changes that needed to be done.

It took him a good ten minutes to get past the front door and to his lab, not because of the distance, rather due to the questionable sanity of a man who saw fit to retrofit the doors and corridors with multiple traps that he keeps forgetting to deactivate, creating a hassle for anyone trying to get to him and not kill him.

That last part, Shemhazai might add, was likely going to be hard due to the crap they would need to endure from Azazel's traps.

Taking a deep breath to control his desire to throttle the neck of the governor, he paused to erect a barrier in front of him before opening the door, an action which triggered another mechanism to fire a flaming axe at his face, only to be shattered by the barrier. Shaking his head, Shemhazai pushed the door back fully and made his way into the lab, which could only be described as chaos at the eye of the storm, with paper strewn all over the tables and floors, equipment stacked haphazardly and the occasional Bunsen Burner going on high with the possibility of a fire being the most likely.

"Azazel! Get your ass over here this instance!"

The sounds of glass breaking, metal clashing and the colorful words that Azazel used was all Shemhazai needed to pinpoint his location. He walked around the giant glass dome that housed some of the samples from different Sacred Gears and past the shelves holding his collection of brains, to find his leader on the ground with cables wrapped around his limbs and some odd smelling chemicals spilled on him.

"Shemhazai, what are you doing here?" Azazel tried to untangle himself only for the cables to wrap him tighter.

"You forgot about our meeting, it has started ten minutes ago." Shemhazai's eyebrow twitched in irritation.

"Oh, is that already the time?" Azazel paused in his attempts to be free to look at the nearby clock. "Darn it, need to replace the batteries."

"You can do that after the meeting." Shemhazai snapped his fingers to vanish the cables and chemicals, leaving him dry if not a little dusty. "Come on now." He grabbed Azazel by the collar and started to drag him away while ignoring his protests. The few Fallen Angels whom they past merely gave them a glance before continuing on their tasks, obviously used to the antics of the higher-ups. It did not take them long to get back to the room where they were to have their meeting, and Shemhazai portrayed his thoughts by unceremoniously dumping Azazel into a chair before going to his.

"Hey, I'm your boss!" Azazel whined as he straightened himself up.

"You may be the boss, but I am the guy who has to clean up your mess at times." Shemhazai countered with a minor glare. "Remember the last time we tied negotiating with the White Council?"

"Hey, that was so~ not my fault! Those vampires don't know a damn thing on restraint!" Azazel tried to argue his part.

"Yeah, but it could have been lessened if you did not egg them on." Shemhazai snapped.

"He has a point there." A big fellow with a beard and dark clothing gave his opinion. "You were certainly tempting our luck with the whole 'bet you can't take on this handsome stud' silliness."

"Hmph~ you guys suck." The governor crossed his arms and gave a childish frown.

"As much I would enjoy the humiliation of Azazel here, can we proceed with the meeting? We are wasting enough time as it is." The sole female of the room spoke with a smile that promised pain to anyone who disagreed. With a quick glance at one another, the remaining members settled themselves into their chairs like obedient children.

"Right then." Azazel coughed into his hand before pressing a button on the table to reveal a small orb in the center. With another button, the orb glowed to project an image before them, the images getting sharper until they could see different 'windows' featuring people, names and stats.

"Here is the current list of people to watch out for based on the Church's blacklist, The Devil's Bingo Book and our hit-list. Thanks to this truce, we are now able to coordinate our agents to deal with the rogue deserters and we don't end up having to waste resources on those who are already in our custody or dead." Shemhazai started speaking while using his hand to move the images around. "This also includes the names that are supposedly the agents for the Chaos Brigade."

"There is quite a few names that I recognized." The man with the beard hummed as he shifted through the names. "Quote a few were our old comrades. And the ones on this list are from the other factions we clashed in the past."

"Quite a number of them are major hitters of their groups." The female commented on her side.

"Indeed, Penemue." Azazel answered. "Quite a few of them are rather eager to join hands with the group for a chance to fight the other factions without any repercussions."

"That alongside the chance to get into places they would not normally be allowed to enter and the opportunity to grab items they want their hands on." Shemhazai frowned as some of the names, each one bringing back a memory of his encounters with them, most of them being unpleasant.

"Well at least we do not need to waste too much time finding out their allegiance, they are all in one spot." Azazel shrugged with the type of smile that the others were sorely tempted to wipe off his face.

"Moving on." Shemhazai decided to be the better Fallen Angel and changed the topic. "With the truce at hand, we can now do some proper trading of information and items. This will definitely help us out more since we really need new equipment to replace the machinery."

"Indeed, hard to believe we are still holding onto some of the old relics from the Great War." The man with the beard shook his head in amusement. "Damn I feel old."

"Hang in there, Barakiel. You can't kick the bucket just yet." Azazel called out to him. "We still got some ways to go, and you do want to reconnect with Akeno-chan, right?"

"Yes~" Barakiel answered sadly thinking about his daughter. As much as he tried to reconnect with Akeno, she kept rebuffing his attempts, at one point shouting that she did not want anything to do with him who 'abandoned their family'.

And the sad part, she was correct in some way. He failed to keep his promise to protect his wife, her mother.

He could not be her father until he can make amends.

"Hey, Barakiel." His thoughts got broken as Azazel called out with a slightly somber tone. "Need to take a few minutes off?"

"No, I am fine." Barakiel shook his head to answer and to rid his mind of those depressing thoughts. "We can continue."

"Okay. Well as stated, we can now trade information and other necessities with the other factions. Of note, Michael approached us with a rather interesting request." Azazel said while lifting a folder. "He was thinking about the Devils' Evil Pieces, and thought if it could be applied for the angels as well."

"That is food for thought. If it can be applied successfully for the angels, we may get a chance ourselves to increase our numbers." Shemhazai said with a hint of interest. "Currently we can only increase our numbers by mating with the humans, but this might be a quicker way to do so."

"Let's take it slow. For the time being, Michael can try out the idea, and who knows? Maybe we can make a few angels fall and join us." Azazel shrugged.

"Good luck with that." Penemue let out a dignified snort. "So what is next on the agenda?"

"There are a few other matters like the meeting with the Maous during their Rating Game Tournament. But for now" Azazel pressed a button that made all the images smaller and stacked to leave room for a series of documents and one big photo of a Japanese teen with brownish-red hair and yellow eyes. "We discuss about him."

"The mysterious magician, huh?" Shemhazai leaned forward to look at the few documents and other photos he brought out to view. "How much do we know about him?"

"Very little. He just popped out of nowhere a few months back in a hospital, and has been in the town since then. Based on my discussion with the heiresses and the host of [Boosted Gear], he had gained some serious injuries that forced him to remain in town." Azazel manipulated the controls to bring forth a photo from the conference, featuring the young man without his shirt and sporting his scars. "From the looks of it, they were understating it."

"By the gods!" Barakiel's eyes bulged at the sight of some of the scars. "Those are some deep wounds on him."

"Indeed, and considering some of the older scars, makes you wonder how long he has been fighting to gain them?" Shemhazai spoke while looking at the star-shaped scar above the young man's heart. "And how on earth did he survive that one?"

"What do you think, Penemue?" Azazel turned to the female before pausing at her expression. "Oh Penemue~"

"Huh? What?" The woman blinked owlishly and looked at the others.

"You are blushing." Azazel said with a smirk.

"You are panting." Barakiel spoke next while looking at her warily.

"You are drooling a bit." That flat remark by Shemhazai was the final straw as she raised her hand to wipe her mouth to remove any possible saliva while blushing heavily.

"My dear, you might want to control yourself. The young man is dashing and all, but he is only sixteen to seventeen while you are…" Azazel started to tease her only to get a spear inches from his face.

"Continue that statement and this spear will be between your legs." Penemue spoke with a tone filled with honeyed sweetness that made everyone in the room sweat while Barakiel and Shemhazai covered their jewels with their hands and moved away from the female.

"Okay~ Point taken." Azazel laughed nervously as he backed away. The woman nodded lightly before putting the spear away. "Right, let's move on. Shemhazai?"

"The young man has demonstrated quite a fair bit of abilities that are not recorded in any of the books we have regarding the magic arts or any of the other esoteric scrolls. He has also shown a mindset of dealing with creatures stronger than him." The spectacle wearing man spoke as he sorted through his notes. "What is stranger is his lack of origin."

"I don't think any of our agents are this good in hiding their tracks." Barakiel spoke as he looked through his own notes. "It is as if he did not exist until a few months ago."

"That and the fact that other schools and organizations have no idea who he is." Azazel answered. "Much of what we know is the same as everyone else, a wizard who practices close-quarters combat and an odd spell that allows him to create weapons and shields that comes from different religions and with different powers, some with a combination of holy and demonic attributes."

"About that Azazel." Penemue spoke out with a troubled expression. "Is it true, what you said about the feeling you got from him?" At this, the others paused to look at their leader, each with an expression of varying grief, guilt and a hint of hope.

"... Honestly speaking, I do not know if what I can believe what I said at that time." Azazel spoke slowly as he looked at the footage. "I have spoken to the boy prior to the meeting to gauge him, and the impression I have of him is one who seems oddly mature for his age, almost as though there is an old man residing in a young body. The mentality displayed for his fights suggest one who has experienced loss and fought from a young age, and one that is pushed to an unhealthy degree of self sacrifice."

"That time, when Shirou Emiya used that spell to go against Vali, I could feel the aura issuing from him. I would have mistaken it if not for Michael feeling the same thing, and we all know that of the lot, Michael is the closest to God."

"For crying out loud…" Shemhazai removed his spectacles to massage his eyes, more for the headaches than actual stress. "I do not know how to make of this."

"Indeed." Barakiel clasped both of his hands together. "I myself am having a hard time believing it."

"What do you think Azazel?" Penemue turned to her leader.

"That he is an individual who for the past few months seemingly works well with other factions but is adamant to stay human, yet at the same time keeps his cards to his chest." The leader said as he leaned back on his chair. "He knows how to play the game, how to back up his words like that moment when he used that chain on us, and more importantly, he is seeking something."

"Something?"

"Before Vali left us, he followed the boy when he was on some date with one of the devils from the Sitri Peerage. They went about buying some items from the local ingredient stores and tome artifact stores which upon closer examination showed that he has been going around getting some very interesting products."

"How so?" Shemhazai asked as he placed his spectacles back on.

"Rare metals, Sulphur, pure crystals, basically all ingredients that could be used to create something. That is in line with some of the books he bought regarding creation of certain metals, some I might add is quite selective in nature." Azazel hummed in slight appreciation, his scientific curiosity aroused as he looked through the list. "In some ways, he is trying to create elements similar to those used in my experiments used for creating Sacred Gears."

"Seriously?" Penemue blinked as she looked at the resident scientist.

"Indeed, and I might also add that what he is searching for has actually helped me in getting some idea to fixing issues found in my work. Oh I would love to pick his brain~"

'Oh boy.'

All the fallen angels in the room mentally groaned as they watched their leader start to chuckle like the mad scientist he was. It was rare to find him this interested in someone who seemingly possessed some intellect to gain his attention, but when that does happen, they could only pray for the person.

The boy was doomed.

Barakiel distracted himself by looking through the items bought and had to raise an eyebrow. "That is odd, some of the tomes he got seems to be varied."

"Magic customs related to astrology, works on the faes, the Art of Ether." Penemue looked down before pausing. "The String Theory of Dimensional Planes?"

"Why does that title sound familiar?" Shemhazai paused in his readings to look up with a frown.

"It was a book written by an alchemist during the late 16th century. One of the few who had travelled to the Dimensional Gap by accident, he wrote out theories about it, like the possibility of crossing it and seemingly come to a different world." Azazel spoke as he tapped his chin. "He did have one rather outlandish idea that everyone was considered a 'template' for themselves in other worlds, and that one could either summon the other as a pseudo spirit or into oneself to gain whatever strengths and abilities."

"I get the feeling it did not go too well." Barakiel raised an eyebrow.

"No it did not. He basically got ridiculed and shamed for the good portion of his life before he attempted to prove his theory by creating an experiment that would allow him to cross over." Azazel snorted slightly. "Poor bastard blew himself to kingdom-come."

"You sure he may not have got it working?" Shemhazai asked with a teasing smile.

"I believe a two mile crater justifies that claim." Azazel answered with a slight deadpan tone.

"Okay we are getting sidetracked again." Penemue interrupted their talk, making them chuckle nervously. "So as I understand, the young magician has procured materials and tomes for something to make?"

"That or to repair." Azazel held up a paper listing some items circled. "I recognized some of the materials and at least one book that are normally meant to repair items of significant power and requires some fine-tuning to control them."

"Maybe it is meant for his magic style?" Barakiel gave his thought. "After all, some of the weapons he creates are divine and powerful. It might explain something about his ability to create weapons."

"Perhaps, but we will need more observations." Azazel smirked at this point. "Luckily as the teacher at Kuoh Academy, I should have a few chances to interact with the boy. And I also know where he and young Mitelt works so that would help greatly."

"At least we can have a direct contact with the boy, but where does that leave us?" Shemhazai placed his hands together as he looked to his comrades. "How do we classify Shirou Emiya?" Once more, they all turned to their leader for his verdict.

And honestly speaking, he was slightly stumped in trying to describe the boy. It was clear that the boy was a veteran in a young body and one who had a mission of his own. He was friendly and helpful to others, but could become a killer at the drop of the hat. And there were those eyes when they were having their tests of one another. He was not a stranger to dealing out the hard cards to make sure he can achieve his goals, and there was the feeling that even in the face of defeat, he would make sure to take his enemies with him ina glorious blaze of death.

"I believe that he is mostly neutral to us all." Azazel started to place his thoughts into words. "He can be an ally to us, provided our goals align with one another. He would also be likely to side with the church or the devils if he believes it to be the right thing to do for the sake of protecting the innocent."

"He can also be an enemy to any group that dares to cross his path. That much is clear with Kokabiel, the Chaos Brigade and to some extent, the Three Factions. If he believes that we are breaking our pact or doing something that offends him in any way, he will make sure that we get the point."

"But more importantly, he also knows that he is an enigma to everyone around him. No one knows his intentions, no one understands his modus operandi, and lastly, who he truly is." Azazel looked at his fellow Fallen Angels in the eye.

"My final verdict is this. Shirou Emiya is a possible asset to keep watch on and possible recruitment to the Grigori, but at the same time to be considered a possible threat should he go against us."

The others all looked to each other before giving their own confirmations to his verdict and getting up from the table to deal with their separate operations. As Azazel stayed in his seat while watching them, one thought kept going through his head.

Did he made the right verdict for the young magician?

Part 3

"And that is how the truce came to be." Sirzechs leaned back on his chair after talking with the other leaders of the Underworld. Ajuka Beelzebub crossed his arms and looked at the report on the table while Fabium Asmodeus was actually making the effort to stay awake and read the information. By Sirzech's left, Serafall was lightly humming as she read through the notes taken during the conference to make sure they were in order, nodding occasionally at certain portions as they jogged her memory.

"Well, I must admit, I did not expect to see the day we would have a Truce with the Grigori and Heaven Factions." Ajuka commented as he looked up. "I know we have some uneasy dealings with Grigori, and our relations with the angels are strained at best. But if you had told me we would be able to get into an alliance with those two, I would have honestly asked if you were smoking weed."

"Miracles do happen." Sirzechs shrugged with a tilt of his head.

"But I must say, this is rather concerning. The Hakuryuukou is now with the Chaos Brigade, and from your reports, so is the descendant of Sun Wukong and the current Pendragon." Ajuka frowned as he tapped his fingers.

"There is also the bit of Kuroka, the Stray Devil that killed her master." Asmodeus commented as he flipped a page. "The fact she is allied with them is quite troubling." He looked up to Sirzechs, "Isn't her younger sister in Rias's Peerage?"

"She is, and as expected she did not take her reappearance well." Sirzechs gave a light sigh. "Rias told me that Koneko went into a bit of shock seeing her elder sister at Vali's side, and she has not been responding well for the past few days now. She is doing what she can with the others but it is a bit of touch and go. She goes into a panic attack for a couple of times."

"Poor Koneko." Serafall shook her head in sympathy. "Honestly speaking, I would rather they take the time off from the coming tournament, if only to make sure little Koneko does not get hurt from a distracted mind."

"If they are lucky, they won't get called up so early in the qualifying rounds." Sirzechs assured her. "But we are digressing. Shall we continue?"

"Yes." Ajuka pressed a button which activated a crystal in the middle of the table, projecting a three dimensional image of the incident. He then pressed another button to fast forward to the point where the creatures attacked the group. "Care to explain about these ugly fellows?"

"According to our teenage wizard, these are creatures from Judaism that focused on complete regeneration and resurrection from death. With the few bouts, it was clear that normal styles of combat would not be enough, as they are quite tough to begin with and would keep coming back with twice the numbers." Sirzechs pressed a button to freeze a frame that showed the remains of one creature reforming itself to create two bodies. "You would need to destroy the entire body to make sure that one does not come back."

"I would guess the original attackers tried to eliminate it only to feed its numbers." Ajuka snorted. "Big mess up there."

"No kidding, we nearly became chow ourselves." Serafall grimaced as Sirzechs recalled the experience they went through. "I don't think I will ever look at calamari the same way again."

"I won't be eating that for any time soon!" Serafall spoke on her end while shaking her head.

"But at least you were able to get rid of it." Asmodeus said as the clip showed the creatures being sucked into the black-hole of darkness.

"Yes, thankfully the young magician had an idea to use one of his spears to absorb the Power of Destruction into it and detonate it like some bomb." Sirzechs spoke as he leaned back. "Good thing Rias was there."

"Right, Mister 'Rias has more firepower, use her instead of me!'" Asmodeus looked to Sirzechs with a flat expression and a raised eyebrow. "You did that on purpose." To that Sirzechs let out a chuckle that was mirthful with a hint of something darker, not helped by that mischievous light in his eyes.

"What can I say? I do want Rias to contribute more rather than rely on her big brother all the time, and I will admit, I had other motives at that time."

"Like watching a certain magician at work…" Ajuka smirked.

"Guilty as charged." Sirzechs waved his hand. "But you have to admit it worked."

"Indeed." Ajuka looked back to the projection and replayed the video to see the fight. "The young man is quite unusual to say the least. In all my years, I have not once met a magician who has such a peculiar magic style that requires him to fight close combat, or for that matter, the ability to create weapons of different natures and possibly from different mythologies."

"Not mention someone who can utilize both holy and demonic weapons easily without consequences." Asomodeus hummed as he watched the clip of Shirou calling forth different weapons.

"He also managed to gain a Balance Breaker, or at least as close to it as possible." Ajuka paused the footage to show [Hell's Trident] splitting into seven different versions of it. "I know there are records of some gears going into stages before it, but something tells me that this may be a different reaction."

"Meaning?"

"As you know, Balance Breakers behave differently for each user. Most go into the default state while some go into Sub-Species. But something about this feels different." Ajuka paused to mull over his thoughts. "What little you have told me about Shirou Emiya and his magecraft, I get the feeling that this may fall more into Sub-Species, but it is actually in stages."

"When you mean stages, you are not talking about the Sacred Gear progressing before entering Balance Breaker, are you?" Sirzechs asked.

"That's right. Unless I am much mistaken, our young friend here may have pushed the gear into a Sub-Species Balance Breaker, but at the same time, it is not complete. This may be the first case of a user having a Balance Breaker that allows for different versions of it and progression." Ajuka gave his thoughts.

"By the Maou, this kid is getting more outrageous." Asomodeus groaned as he massaged his head.

"Hehe~ I think you mean he is getting more interesting!" Serafall wiggled in her seat as she looked at them with a smile. "I can't wait for So-tan to get him into her Peerage! She will be unstoppable!"

"Hey, he might still join Rias's Peerage! The Red Dragon Emperor and The Steel Swordsman!" Sirzechs argued back.

"Nuh-Uh! He will be with So-tan!" Serafall fired back with a pout.

"Ria-tan!"

"So-tan!"

"Ria-tan!"

"So-tan!"

"That's enough from you two."

'WRAFP!

"OW!" The two devils grabbed their head that was sporting a small bump courtesy of Grayfia who has a paper fan in her hand.

"We are wasting valuable time for your petty rivalry. Please focus on our meeting." The maid stated with a flat tone. The two leaders grumbled in agreement while the other two moved their chairs away slowly while chuckling nervously.

"Right, so as you can see, Shirou Emiya is showing unusual talent to pick up a Sacred Gear and able to utilize it to the point of achieving a Pseudo Balance Breaker, has some weird magic style that allows him to create weapons, and has some knowledge in ancient rune-craft and some odd spell-casting to fight." Sirzechs gave his answer.

"You know, this is weird…" Everyone turned to Asmodeus who looked at the freeze-frame "but I get the odd feeling his fighting style is meant to fight something else entirely."

"What do you mean?" Sirzechs asked.

"His choice of weaponry, his type of spells, and the manner of fighting…" Asomodeus scratched his chin while looking at the image. "I think it is designed to go against those who are stronger than him, specifically Gods."

"Come again?" All the others straightened their postures and listened closely. Even Grayfia had lowered her tea kettle to give her attention.

"All of the reports on him suggest that he is used to fighting a lot of supernatural creatures, and that he has some questionable tactics that are nevertheless extremely effective against some of the stronger creatures. And considering some of the moves, it is safe to say he is holding himself back a lot." The devil lightly tapped his finger on the table. "You said he had a chain to restrain you guys?"

"Yup, Grayfia was pissed that she could not move." Sirzechs remarked before getting another smack in the head by Grayfia who now had an annoyed expression at the reminder.

"Still though, a fair number of his creations fall under the realm of other religions…" Ajuka looked to Serafall. "Sona spoke of him using concepts for his creations."

"So-tan and Ria-tan believe it to be the case. Much of what he creates seemed to be based on a fair amount of imagination and the understanding of certain concepts that would be impossible to replicate even with a creation-type Sacred Gear." Serafall answered his unsaid query. "If I have to take a guess, his abilities seemed closer to those of mythologies involving gods who specialized in creation."

"More than that…" Ajuka replayed a particular scene that featured Shirou Emiya using some spell to heal his arm, changed his skin and hair color and gained a few feet in height, and more importantly, the words uttered by the Twin Dragons, Michael and Azazel. "One might consider that Shirou Emiya is related to the Christian God in some ways."

"If that is so, then that might actually explain some bits." Asmodeus commented. "Like how other Sacred Gears seemed to react to his presence or how the Excalibur Shards merged to become one weapon."

"But that in itself is a question mark." Sirzechs lightly tapped his arm in thought. "I am not sure about Azazel, but I can certainly see Michael thinking that the young magician can be related to the God in some ways, and I don't have to guess that the followers or priests would likely think of the boy as the second coming."

"But that is the thing. Is he per chance housing the Will of the Christian God or others? Does he have some unknown Sacred Gear? Does he practice some unusual magic style? Or worse, is he per chance some unknown demi-god or a reincarnation of a God?" Ajuka listed out all the options.

"There is hardly any information on this young man. It is as if he popped out of the earth without any prior notice." Asmodeus commented.

"Whatever the case, it does not change the fact that he is quite an a powerful enigma, and it would seem that he has also attracted someone else's attention." Sirzechs said as he pushed a folder. "If you recalled the incident with Kokabiel, someone actually broadcasted the entire fight to all the factions and groups out there. Everyone wants to know who is he, and unfortunately…" The devil placed a hand on the bridge of his nose. "Chaos Brigade may be the least of our worries."

"What do you mean?"

"The Greek Pantheon, the Yokai Faction, the Deva and Devis. Every major religion besides Christianity and other cultures have gotten footage of our friend." Serafall shook her head briefly as she mentally counted all the different groups that had tried to reach out to her. "Vishnu is demanding, in his words I quote, 'the head of the faker who took his weapon for a mere Fallen Angel' Real nice guy he is."

"There is also the issue of the vampires hearing about this." Sirzechs's words brought a pit of fear to both Ajuka's and Asmodeus's stomachs. The vampires were notoriously isolated in both their placement and thinking, believing they were superior to all other groups and not without good reason, what with a few that could compete with some of the stronger devils and angels out there. Very rarely would they communicate with the outside world and that was usually by taking in fresh victims from their travels. So the fact they heard of Shirou Emiya was really bad.

"Yes, it is that bad." Sirzechs answered their unspoken query. "Evidently that same person who leaked the videos made sure they got it as well, and you can imagine their reactions as a regular human taking on Kokabiel with a reforged Excalibur."

"This is getting out of hand." Asmoedues groaned in exasperation, wishing to be in his bed to sleep it off. "There is so much to deal with."

"I think the best course of action for now is to focus on getting ties to the other groups, both as a way to promote peace and to limit the choices for Chaos Brigade to aim for. Try to keep the number of people they can recruit for now." Grayfia took her turn at the conversation. "What we know thus far suggests that the early members have their own separate agendas, but they will attempt to recruit new blood by focusing on those who have grievances from the old war or the current state of affairs. For the supposed 'Hero Faction', it is highly probable that they will aim for humans with Sacred Gears."

"That is true." Asmodeus agreed. "While we do that, I would suggest we keep a close eye on both the Red Dragon Emperor and the magician. Those two will be magnets for trouble, you can count on that."

"Hehe~ maybe I can get them on my show while we are protecting them." Serafall hummed as she thought about it. Sirzechs chuckled as he thought of the idea he had hatched with Azazel.

A television show featuring Issei as the main character and perhaps a wandering wizard based on Shirou? That could work.

Wonder what are Rias and the others thinking of?

Part 4

Sona let out a tired but content sigh as she slipped into the bathtub, the warm water easing her tired muscles and the rose scents lightly relaxing her senses. She and her Peerage had just finished a grueling training session with Shirou, and with Tsubaki having taken her bath earlier and gone to sleep, Sona used the opportunity to enjoy hers and to let her thoughts wander.

It was just as well, with the upcoming Rating Games tournament coming around and with all the training, she barely had time to gather her thoughts silently. This may be her only chance to do so while relaxing in a hot tub. With that in mind, Sona let her thoughts drift to the conference when the truce was made.

It was quite a hassle dealing with the fallout of the conference, one of which involved trying to convince the residents and a fair number of the students that their campus had to cordon off some portions of the buildings and the field to finish off some of the remaining renovations. At least that was easy.

The ramifications of the conference and the attempted assault by Chaos Brigade were more problematic. The part of the White Dragon Emperor joining the Chaos Brigade was certainly a grave concern for a large number of people, alongside the fact that his companions included the descendant of the Great Monkey King, the Stray Devil Nekomata who happened to be Koneko's elder sister and the descendant of King Arthur himself with both the last Excalibur Shard and the strongest Holy Sword of them all, Caliburn.

There was also the information shared by the higher-ups regarding the nature of Chaos Brigade. Made up of several groups that came from the different factions from all types of religions and power houses, many of these people were evidently disgruntled with the current state and just wanted to hit back. There were also those who joined the group for their own personal agendas, and much to Michael's consternation, there were a few from Heaven who were able to use a loophole in the system to pass information to their enemies while maintaining their heavenly status, only falling once their roles were discovered.

There were a few other matters, but one stuck out more for her group and Rias's.

The ever so mysterious Shirou Emiya.

One of the things that happened after the attack was the apparent changes in his physical stature that he obtained after using the unusual technique on himself to go against Vali. His arm was healed due to that technique and some partial healing from Asia, alongside some of his old scars evidently, but he retained his increased height and a very light tanning of his skin alongside some graying hair at his sideburns. It was certainly a bit of a surprise for the ones from his class when he returned to the academy and having to bend down slightly to enter the door. Shirou later admitted that he had a tough time trying to write it off as him working long hours in the sun and getting a sudden growth spurt, not to mention his slight embarrassment at the females looking hungrily at him with increased intensity.

She should consider drafting some type of restriction form to help Shirou like that time at the reopening of the academy. Less likely for him to end up in some unused classroom with some group of girls in heat.

Roughly a week after the meeting, Shirou finally got his chance to train her group with a modified version used with Rias's Peerage for her match with Raizer. Sona had mentally prepared herself for the training, but clearly he knew about that and seemingly designed the lessons to push her and the others to their absolute limits in all aspects, be it physical, mental or emotional. Shirou seemed to obtain some sadistic glee as he made them go through hours of weight training, endurance training, spell drills and some sort of meditation session that supposedly helps to tap into their inner core. And they would go headfirst into it for a few hours on end, then at the end of every odd day, he would make them perform mock-battles against him to see if they can

And the sad part about all of that craziness, he was right about them being soft.

Shirou seemed to have an instinctive grasp on what was lacking in all of them and adjusted their individual lessons to help boost their strengths while eliminating their weaknesses. On her part, Shirou had noted that Sona was one who placed intellect before brawn, as shown with her choice of fighters in her Peerage. They were mostly meant for quick and precise attacks as opposed to Rias's Peerage that focused on power attacks. This in turn allowed her to survey the situation and manipulate the battlefield to her advantage, very much like the chess pieces that made up their peerages.

But there laid the problem. Sona was evidently overly dependent on gathering information to take down her opponents and would likely panic with the loss of her team. Shirou demonstrated this during one of his battle sessions where he took them out one by one in a dark forest, forcing her to face him without any prior knowledge. Idly she recalled the manner he went about replicating some of those horror flicks in the forest, taking them out slowly and making them fear for their lives, at one point having Saji scream hysterically as he got dragged into the dark canopy by his legs, until she was the last one standing. She recalled shivering in fear as he came out of the shadows of the trees, his swords glittering in the moonlight while his eyes wielded a cold light that promised pain and suffering. Certainly not helped with that odd illusion of some figure with a skull mask looking over his shoulder and holding a dagger in its hand.

If ever being a mercenary type magician does not work out for Shirou, he may have a second calling in the film industry for acting as the slasher in those killer flicks.

Still it was thanks to his training that they were able to get stronger and better at tactics, and it made Rias a little concerned to the point she requested Shirou's training again. So he ended up mixing it up with both of their groups, sometimes pairing the Rooks with the Bishops to simulate a situation if the Bishops were alone and whether they could take on the fighting strength, sometimes pitting either Akeno or Tsubaki against the entirety of the two teams to see if they can overcome them on their own. At one time, Rias and herself got into a match against their own teams, where they were to defend an item while the others did everything in their power to steal it from them, with the reward being a few dishes from Shirou's special recipes.

The battle that ensued was the most epic of their training, worthy for the history books. It was a hard victory, but Rias and Sona were able to protect their items with their lives and thus earning some sample dishes, which to her absolute embarrassment and to Rias's amusement, made her give out very unladylike sounds upon taking the first few bites.

Sona chuckled lightly as she leaned back against the sloping surface of her bathtub and continued with her thoughts.

One type of lesson that came along for the training was Shirou actually teaching and demonstrating some of his own brand of magic. This came out when Meguri asked about his method to take hits and increase his speed dramatically after their recent hunting. After hearing about the skill, she asked if they, or at least the Bishops, could learn it. Shirou took a moment before giving his consent, believing that they could benefit greatly from it. Interestingly enough, this skill 'Reinforcement' was what he considered to be a third-rate beginner's spell, yet it was quite arguably one of the more complex spells they had encountered once they started to try it out. In theory, it was easy to enough to analyze the structure of an object and strengthen its properties since it was a little similar to one of their own abilities. But that only applied to small and simple objects, the amount of control required for applying the skill to the body itself was almost ridiculous. The only reason they knew it could be done was Shirou pointing out what he did at the conference attack.

It took about a week of testing and lots of broken chinaware to get their basic understanding and control before moving to the part that was supposed to be more helpful, application of the skill to the body itself.

In a way, she was very grateful that they had Shirou to supervise, Issei to demonstrate some of the lessons given to him earlier, and Asia to heal, because everyone had some issues to using his skill.

Asia showed that she was the best of the lot, something Shirou theorized was due to her clear mind brought about from hours of praying. Tsubaki, Akeno, Momo and Reya had arguably better success with their innate control, but has issues trying to understand the more complex aspects of the spell. Ruruko had accidentally burst the veins on her legs on her first attempt, Tsubasa and Koneko somehow cracked their ribs without meaning to, Kiba fainted from overheating of his body while Rias and herself had almost broken every bone in their hands.

Saji was the worst off; on his first attempt, he was only able to get a finger barely strong enough to punch a small hole into a tree. On his second attempt, with some power from Issei's Boosted Gear, Saji overdid it and managed to break a lot of his bones and burst a fair amount of his blood vessels. Poor Asia was traumatized trying to heal him while the other boys held on to him to keep him still as he screamed in agony. Because of that, Shirou decided to call off the practical lessons and told them to focus on objects instead.

It was frightening, but Saji was able to get back to his feet and with more supervision from Shirou for a few days, he was able to reinforce his arms just enough for a few minutes of close combat. Soon enough, the rest of them got some control to apply to their bodies.

But as Shirou stated, it would be a long time before they can apply it in actual combat. That only begged the question how long he had to deal with this skill, especially when he described his feeling of activating the spell as a hot rod going down his spine slowly while his body would heat up to abnormally high temperatures.

She shuddered at the rather horrifying description and quickly switched her thoughts to another thing.

Another thing that came out of their training was them given the chance to call Shirou by his first name, since he felt that it would be easier in the long run of their training and the fact of him being able to call Reya and Meguri by their given names should also be repaid the same way. Much to her amusement, the two girls jumped at the chance, followed shortly by Saji who basically treats him, in his words, like a 'bro' for saving their asses and helping out.

Boys~

Strangely enough, it would seem that Tsubasa, Tsubaki and Momo also welcomed the chance and unless she was much mistaken, the three of them seemed oddly closer and more expressive to Shirou than before. Sure they may have worked on some hunts, but it seemed they were genuinely wanting to be near him in their own way.

Tsubasa was an easy one since she already claimed to have some interest before when Shirou started attending some of their hunts and dealt with Kokabiel back then. Her admission was the sight of watching guys get down and dirty to get the job done, which Shirou fitted to a T, and she did get an eyeful of him without his shirt during the conference attack (something Sona admitted guiltily to dreaming of a couple of times). And in terms of personality, she preferred that Shirou was a bit more blunt as opposed to Kiba's politeness, and that Shirou honestly does not care too much for the fact that she acts like a tomboy, and that to him she was just a young girl with a likable personality that he could get along with.

Tsubaki was someone Sona did not expect but had entertained the idea of getting the two together. When they were talking about him in private, Tsubaki had confessed to Sona once that she was glad someone else was as tall as her in the academy, and that Shirou was someone she could relate to some level, especially when he shared with her some of his history as some agent for some group called the 'Clock Tower', about how he was normally ignored at best and wanted headless at worse after he heard of Tsubaki's childhood. Then with an amused raised eyebrow from Sona at a blushing Tsubaki, she told her about the one time when Shirou had unwittingly complemented her eyes and did not understand why people from her clan would hate them over the superstition of her having evil eyes that attracted demons.

Momo was also a surprise candidate and one Sona did not quite expect as she was previously interested in Kiba like Reya before, and then considered Saji for a brief moment if her interactions and light competition with Ruriko with him were of any indications. Momo seemed to be gunning for Shirou due to his behavior and how he seems stubborn enough to do what would normally be too difficult or considered impossible to accomplish, like that one time where she and the others recalled during his first week watching Shirou attempting to jump a high bar that was too high for even some athletes, yet he pushed on and succeeded at sunset. And then the few times Sona had seen them interact, it seemed Momo appreciated the odd snarking battle they shared, and the occasional reactions she got from him when she teased him.

So it would seem that in her group, two were definitely going for Shirou, with a possible three others now gunning for him, while at least the female pawn was going for her senior pawn. Sona could swear that a miniature Serafall was currently over her shoulder and whispering ideas to get them all in a trapped room and watch the fireworks go off with the possibility of seeing Shirou embarrassed.

She really needed to get some downtime, she was now imagining her sister trying to ship them.

There was however something else that she kept to herself. She was somewhat grateful for Shirou giving his permission to call him by his first name, and was amused at her Peerage's attempts to get closer, but there was an odd feeling she had each time she watched the others interact with Shirou. She was mostly fine with Tsubaki chatting with him, alongside Reya and Meguri, but she did feel something ugly in her stomach when she watched Tsubasa and Momo being rather forward with their actions, and for some odd reason, she actually imagined herself in all their places when they interact.

Sona groaned as she sunk deeper into the warm water of the bathtub. She was mostly raised to be logical, but she was still a girl at heart and she did have a few moments alone with Shirou during their training to know that she was starting to feel something else for the magician. She suspected as much after that time with Creed Disketh during Kokabiel's attack and that little moment at the conference when he was given the choice to join either the Grigori or the Heaven Faction. She was just not sure about it, and her brain was not helping matters.

To her, Shirou Emiya was an odd enigma, a puzzle box which comprised of different stages to reveal a different side of him. When they first met, Shirou Emiya was a polite and mature young man with a penchant for fixing equipment, working odd jobs and unknowingly attracting girls without meaning to. After his identity as some mercenary magician was out, Sona started to see some of his lesser known traits like his snarky wit for some situations and a rather cold and analytic perspective towards hunts and fights. At times, he also displayed an odd mentality that was similar to her way of thinking, one that involved sacrificing some pawns for victory, but with an edge that showed that for all her experience in strategy and Stray Hunting, this was someone who had actual kills under his belt and would not hesitate to do whatever was necessary.

He had demonstrated that type of thinking one time when Sona invited him to a chess game as a way for her to understand him better, to which he claimed that he was not very good at chess. And yet they ended the day with two wins each, with her learning a bit more of her course-mate's thinking patterns. A part of her was impressed with his analytic skills, while another part could not help but note the manner he would sacrifice some pieces for the highest assurance of victory, some of which was done in a risky manner that she would not consider without some form of assurance.

And it was those varying facets that made Sona confused about the magician. She was pleased with his mature mindset that helped him at both his work and hunts. She was confused at the unusual switching of his personalities in between his ordinary life and that of a magician. She was pissed at the way he can be unusually cold and blunt during some of their hunts. She was worried at how he seemed to throw himself without any regard to his own life, or how his actions would affect others.

Add to her own turmoil of emotions, and she was feeling major headaches.

In a way, Sona envied Rias a little for being an old-school romantic. As part of her trait, Rias was able to express her affections so easily, while she had to be careful with what she showed outside. Having an elder sister who was one of the Maous meant there were plenty of people who wanted to go after her either for power, the chance to take down Serafall, or even the bragging rights of bedding a Sitri. She had to make sure no one could take her without a fight, thus her challenge to her ex-suitor to beat her in chess.

There were very few whom she would open the doors to her life, with only Rias, her sister and her parents being the closest ones she could relate to. Among her peerage, only Tsubaki had that honor since she found her at her family home and took her away from the life of loneliness.

But Shirou was an unusual case. It seemed without meaning to, she was actually letting him in more into her life than she meant to, and letting him see portions of the real her. It was weird but nice, and she could not help the thought that they were a little similar in that regard. He was extremely mature for someone of his age, and he was clearly knowledgeable with languages given the few times he helped with old translations. And there was something else, an odd sadness. The few times she caught him alone after their training when he definitely thought no one was around, there was an expression of deep sorrow and thoughtfulness as he gazed at the late evening sky, looking more like a broken soul who had gone through some great wars and losses than a young man who could take on the world.

She did not read too much on romance, but she did feel the need to want to comfort him at those times, and perhaps to get him to open up. That did seemed to be a good idea, and perhaps she could get to know him better as they got closer and…

The water splashed violently out of the tub as Sona submerged herself fully in the bathtub, her face growing red at the image of her and Shirou doing the sort of things that would be forbidden in the academy and likely shock her peerage if they could read her thoughts. Where did that thought come from?! She was just wanting to help Shirou, that was it! She could not be thinking of Shirou in that manner, right?!

Right?!

…

That was it, she needed a cold bath now to calm her body and mind down. After that, she needed a long talk with her mother.

Part 5

Ise was lying on his newly upgraded bed while watching the moon out of his enlarged window, letting his mind wander about all that had happened thus far. The girls were not sleeping with him tonight as his mother wanted to have a chat with them, but that was okay; for as much as he loved sleeping in the pillows of his master's generous bust, that night was not something he wanted to get distracted by. Thankfully it was the weekend so he could afford to stay up a little later.

In a way, he did not really take the time to gone through all that had happened since his resurrection, and now that he was doing that, a part of him was wondering if he was perhaps hallucinating or still stuck some limbo after Raynare had stabbed him. All of this felt like he was part of a story, and that he would wake up in his bed alone and not be involved with the supernatural.

'Pinch~'

Nope, still not dreaming.

["Hard time sleeping, partner?"]

"Yeah…" Ise sighed while the image of the red dragon appeared in his mind. "I can't help thinking all that has happened since my incarnation. A part of me is still on the mindset that it is just one big fantasy trip of my mind and I will be waking up in my old bed. It is weird to say the least."

["That is understandable. Most would take even longer to process it. If anything, you seem to be taking your change a lot better than most."] The dragon commented.

"Well, I hate to admit, but I am a little dumb when it comes to this type of things. I am still coming to grips with the fact that I am an actual Devil living among humans." Ise chuckled while lifting his left arm, the Sacred Gear forming on it so that he could look at it. "And the bit about me having a weapon made by the Big Guy upstairs that houses an ancient and powerful dragon that could kill other gods."

["Haha! Yup, that is a lot to think of."] Ddraig laughed as the jewels on the gear glowed lightly with his mood. ["Honestly speaking, I too am having some moments to retrospect my current situation. After all, it is not everyday I would find myself a host that was recently reincarnated as a devil."]

"I was the first one, right?" Ise asked.

["Correct. You are also the first host to give me a lot of headaches for your obsession with breasts."] Ddraig commented with a bit of grief mixed in his words. ["None of my previous hosts were this bad. Even the one with a fetish for pantyhose was still bearable to some extent."]

"Err~ Sorry?" Ise scratched the back of his head.

["Just control yourself."] The dragon retorted to which Ise could only chuckle nervously. That might be a tall order to fulfill.

["Enough of that. Since you are awakeand your master is not around to distract you, there is something I wish to ask."]

"What is it?" Ise raised an eyebrow at the gauntlet while noting the odd tone the dragon used.

["This is regarding your friend, that magician."]

"Shirou?" Ise blinked at the query.

["I have been meaning to ask about him for some time, but you were busy with the backlash of the attack and I needed the time to consider my thoughts. But now that you are not training or with your master, this might be a good time to have a talk with you my host."]

"I see…" Ise paused as he considered about the dragon's interest. "Okay, what do you want to know about Shirou?"

["If it is not too much trouble, could you start with how you met him the first time?"] The red dragon asked. ["And by that, I mean in both the normal and abnormal way."]

"Okay~ Just so you know, I might get a bit bias towards him." Ise spoke.

["I will keep that in mind."]

With that, Ise started to tell Ddraig everything he knew about Shirou Emiya, even giving his initial thoughts about him as a normal teenager and later as a magician. A part of his mind had privately noted that he was actually being oddly articulate and a bit more respective than he used to be towards Shirou, likely due to all the help the red-haired teen had given to him and the others in the past.

For Ddraig's part, he was mostly silent, occasionally humming in agreement or to ask Ise to repeat a certain portion with greater detail. Despite the lack of words, Ise could sense through his connection with the Sacred Gear that the dragon was being very thoughtful and curious about the subject.

["This has been quite informative."] Ddraig finally spoke after an hour's worth of discussion. ["Granted, there are still some holes in his back-story, but this might be enough to get a rough idea."]

"What do you mean?" Ise asked with a huge frown on his face.

["Something about the lad has been troubling me for some time. Unless I am much mistaken, he was the one who woke me up briefly around the time you were reincarnated."] The dragon spoke slowly. ["His presence has been an oddity to me."]

"An oddity?" Something about those words brought Ise back to the conference. "You and Albion commented that Shirou reminded you of the one who sealed you two into the Gears."

["Yes."] The biggest jewel on his gauntlet shone brightly as Ddraig answered. ["The feeling that we got from him is an unusual mix of power from different entities. One of which reminded me of the Christian God who alongside the Four Maous and the Grigori tore us apart and trapped us in these infernal creations of his."] Ise cringed at the tone filled with bitterness and a hint of anger mixed in it. They did not really speak much about his time stuck in the gear, but he got the feeling that it would not be a happy one despite Ddraig's occasional dismissal of the matter.

"So we got a bit of God in Shirou, what else is there?" Ise tried to distract Ddraig with his question. Whether the dragon understood his intentions was up for guessing, but he did answer calmly.

["The other aspect that intrigued me and Albion was the scent of dragons. It was faint, but I could almost taste the flavor of it."] The dragon responded with a light tone of nostalgia. ["I am not sure why, but it feels familiar to me."]

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

["… Perhaps both, but not in a harmful manner. It is a nice feeling because we have not felt the presence of another dragon for quite a while. But it is sad because it only enforces the fact that we have fallen deeply from our status as the Heavenly Dragons."] Ddraig spoke with a tinge of regret. ["We may still have our powers, but it is certain we only hold a small fraction of our power and are no longer feared as much as before. It is rather humbling in an odd way."]

"Huh, that is an odd way of putting it." Ise said while thinking about his words. "What are the other scents?"

["There were several minor ones, but perhaps the one that stood out the most among the whole lot was…"] Ddraig paused for a moment before answering. ["The odd scent of steel blades."]

"Steel blades?" Ise asked with a slight tone of confusion.

["Steel in general, but the scent makes me think of the metal normally used on weapons from time long past, like swords and spears. There was an unusually pure scent of it that stood out alongside that of God and the Dragons."] Ddraig explained. ["It was primarily that scent that had made me question whether he is human to begin with."]

"Really?" Ise thought back to the time when Rias was telling him about their first meeting with Shirou to ask him to join their Peerages and how Koneko had commented on his scent that confused them.

["Do you recall that brief talk we had during your training camp, about how Shirou Emiya made me think the gear was reacting towards him?"]

"Yeah I do remember, and I must thank you again for telling me that tidbit, it saved our butts when Kiba was under that mind control." Ise said as he recalled his conversation with Ddraig and that time with Kokabiel's attack. The dragon chuckled lightly while the jewels on the gauntlet glowed with a cheerful light.

["No problem on that part, but that is one of the reasons I suspect the young man to be more than just a regular magician. The way the gears react to him thus far suggest he has a deeper connection with them than expected. They react like he is their long lost father of sorts."]

"Long lost father huh?" Ise hummed before pausing at a thought. "But wait a minute, the Sacred Gears were created by the Christian God?"

["Precisely, and considering his unusual abilities to create any type of weapons and the odd attraction the Sacred Gears have towards him, one must wonder if the boy has some connection to the God."]

"Oh man, this is heavy." Ise groaned as he used his other hand to massage his forehead, the waves of a headache coming to him with all of the knowledge swimming in his head. This was too much for him to understand. Not to mention the possibility of Shirou being connected to the 'Big G' was making Ise entertain the thought that the guy was becoming some Gary Stu person.

["Perhaps in the near future, we can have a chat with him. I would like to understand the young man more."] The dragon spoke as the Sacred Gear vanished from his arm. ["In an odd sense, it is rather refreshing to listen to one that speaks of encounters beyond his age."]

"Well, I guess we would need to talk with the ones staying with him currently." Ise spoke thinking about the Fallen Angel, two exorcist apprentices and most recently, the very voluptuous senior exorcist.

'Lucky Bastard.' Ise could not help but curse at Shirou automatically at the thought of him staying with the attractive women at that rental building. How many 'accidents' can happen in that apartment of his?!

["Perhaps."] The dragon conceded to his point. ["Well, best to get some sleep. Tomorrow you are having another training session and you would need the energy."]

"You are right, Ddraig. I am going to give it my all tomorrow so that we can win the Rating Games and make Buchou the champion. And in that process, I will be one step closer to getting a harem!" Ise gripped his fists and made that declaration.

["… God, I hate you for that motivation of harems."]

Part 6

'WHPEK!'

"Again!" Griselda called out to Xenovia who got struck to the floor and was now panting deeply to get air into her lungs. She turned her head lightly to Irina who looked ready to kneel over in pain. "Do not slack up now, we are almost done."

"Yes, Lady Griselda!" Irina let out a light groan. Xenovia herself groaned as she pushed herself off the ground and lifted Durandal in her arms, feeling the weight of the weapon.

Since Griselda's announcement of her staying in Kuoh Town, they had been training vigorously to make up for some of their missed lessons. During which she revealed that she was to be one of the liaisons of the Church to be in the town and would either be taking up the position of the supervisor of the new church that was being built to replace the old one used by Raynare, or to take up a teaching post in the academy.

Privately, both Xenovia and Irina were praying with all of their souls that she took up the former. They were already having enough attention as it was from their regular training, and did not want to get more traumatic experience in the academy. It certainly did not help when she met Kawako and got along with the elderly woman.

Oh the horrors.

Part of the reason they were training so hard was the desires of Xenovia and Irina to get stronger. Irina's motivation was to stand alongside her childhood friend, while Xenovia wanted to fight alongside Shirou Emiya. It was odd for her, but to her eyes, the young man was someone she strive to emulate, and she knew she needed all the help she could get. So they approached Griselda and asked to restart their training at a higher intensity. It only took a moment for the elder exorcist to agree and so they worked their bodies to the point of breaking to get stronger.

"And time!" Griselda shouted as she finished handing the both of them their asses and sent them hurtling into the protective barriers set up for their fight in one of Shirou's safe houses. "We can take a break now."

"Thank goodness that is over." Irina groaned as she rubbed her arm. "I am feeling sore at muscles I did not know I have at all."

"Tell me about it." Xenovia winced as one of her bones popped loudly and sent a short burst of pain through her spine. "I wish we have Asia to help us out."

"Learn to work through the pain girls." Griselda placed her weapon against one of the boxes and removed her headdress to let down her hair. "You won't always have young Asia around."

"Nah, they are just getting lazy." The three turned to find Mitelt entering the compound with a small picnic basket. "They are too used to her healing when she happens to be around during our training sessions."

"I see." Griselda slowly turned to the two apprentices who hugged each other in fear. "It would seem that my absence has caused you two to fall behind in standards. I would need to rectify that." Irina could only whimper while Xenovia directed her glare at a gleeful Fallen Angel who had a shit-eating grin at their despair.

Damn that girl.

"Anyway, here are your lunch boxes for the day." Mitelt placed the picnic basket on the makeshift table made with an old wooden crate and some planks of wood. With a snap of her fingers, the lid opened to reveal small boxes of rice, meat and vegetables, alongside some sandwiches wrapped neatly in plastic wrapping.

"Perfect timing." Griselda let out a pleased hum as she helped Mitelt to take out the items and disposable plates. Xenovia and Irina went to wash up, all of their pains momentarily forgotten in the face of obtaining the bounty in the form of Shirou's home-cooked food. After cleaning themselves off, they made their way back and proceeded to enjoy the food.

"MHH~ this is so good!" Irina let out a light moan as she munched on the sandwiches.

"Indeed, this is quite a spread for such simple treats." Griselda agreed as she sampled some of the dishes. "I must admit, when I heard about his cooking, I was a little skeptical as to whether they were biased."

"Well to be fair, unless you have actually seen him cooking, some would find it difficult." Mitelt spoke as she munched on some sandwiches. "I know that some of the students at the academy were skeptics themselves until he cooked for that open house festival, now they are firm believers." She snorted at a random thought. "Honestly speaking, the way they were looking at him after eating some of his food, made me think that he accidentally started a cult that worships his food." Xenovia and Irina chuckled at that remark, recalling how utterly smitten the people had become for Shirou's food. It did seem that the young magician was creating a cult with his food.

Maybe one they might follow humorously.

"And speaking of the young man, where is he?" Griselda asked.

"Currently dealing with the afternoon shift." Mitelt answered with a light frown of annoyance. "One of the idiots decided to skip out without prior warning, so Shirou has to deal with the extra workload until the next guy comes in. I am supposed to return within the hour to help out at the shop."

"Is it that guy with the damn ear piercings?" Xenovia frowned at the memory of her first meeting with the employee, his blatant disregard for rules and his obvious leering at her and Irina on their first day.

"Yup." Mitelt growled her answer. "I believe Kano is about ready to send him packing. He is just waiting for the opportune moment."

"Good." Xenovia nodded with a slightly vicious smile before remembering that her mentor was sitting next to them with a raised eyebrow. "That man has been a pain to say the least. He has been dumping his workload on Shirou for quite some time now and his work ethics are so bad that the owner is planning to just sack him. Not to mention his attitude to Shirou and us."

"I see. Perhaps I should visit Kawako and helped a little in case this soon-to-be fired employee gets a little offensive." Griselda said with a smile that promised pain and suffering which was mirrored by Mitelt. Xenovia and Irina shuddered lightly while mentally grieving at the revelation that Griselda got along well with Mitelt to the point they seemingly work in tandem when it came to their punishments, made even worse with Kawako when she happened to be around.

They were utterly doomed.

"But that said, this might be a good time to ask you something, young Mitelt." Griselda spoke while the fallen angel raised her eyebrow at the woman calling her a young girl despite being centuries older. "Could you tell me more about our host?"

"Why?" The other eyebrow went up as the blonde girl asked.

"I want to know from someone who has been with him from the beginning if you would. Xenovia and Irina have given me some idea about his behaviour, and I only got a brief idea from the devils since we don't interact that much." Griselda spoke while taking a sip of water. "But you were taken under his care, so I would like to know your thoughts on him."

"Hmm~" Mitelt gave her a wary glance as she slowly placed her meal down and crossed her arm, clearly thinking what she should tell them. Xenovia and Irina placed their meals down on the table and gave their attention to the conversation. They would not deny that they were curious about their host and his careful nature only fueled their desire to know more.

After a few seconds the fallen angel seemed to have come to a decision as she let out a light sigh and looked at the woman in the eye. "All right, I will tell you what I can. But note that I will only give you certain portions of what I know."

"That is fine." Griselda nodded in agreement.

With that, Mitelt started to relay what she knew about the magician starting from the time she came under his protection and what they had done up to that point. It was clear for the exorcists that she was both blunt and critical about his style of thinking and the way he just shrugs off certain rudeness or compliments like they were nothing. And on Griselda's part, she noted that despite her criticism, there were notables tones of anxiety mixed in her words when describing some of his more dangerous activities.

"Well, this has been informative." The senior exorcist spoke after Mitelt ended her retelling of her part during the last week of events after the conference. "It also confirms some of the ideas I had about Shirou Emiya."

"What do you mean, Lady Griselda?" Irina asked while Xenovia continued to look contemplative about the young host.

"That the young man is someone who we need to keep a close eye on due to his questionable mindset and seemingly lack of motives." Griselda answered while crossing her arms.

"That's a little harsh." Mitelt commented lightly but Irina could see her hands twitching lightly while her eyes narrowed slightly in wariness at the woman.

"You were not with the Sitri Peerage when we were attacked at the academy by Creed. At that time I had expressed concerns regarding his similarities with the one named Lyle Wallner, a Stray Exorcist who has an unusual behaviour pattern." Griselda started to explain while maintaining a firm eye on Mitelt. "The two have similar fighting styles, methodology, mindset, and perhaps the most defining point, the suicidal manner in which they rushed into battles with seemingly no regard to their own lives or the way they dealt with opponents."

"I have no doubts that their methods are effective, but one must wonder how did they develop those skills, not to mention their lack of motives. It would seemed that they want to save lives, but their methods are questionable at best and downright insanity. They both have traits of being a mercenary and they switch between being a regular person and a cold-hearted killer. So I can't help questioning whether they are really trustworthy in their own right."

The silence that came fell upon the others like a big blanket smoldering them. Irina was certainly torn about her thoughts on whether to continue under Shirou's care or not, while Mitelt seemed to be giving Griselda's opinion the bare benefit of doubt and taking it with a grain of salt.

The one who broke the silence was the one that took her time to answer.

"Is that wrong?" Everyone else turned to Xenovia who looked up from her thoughtful pose. "We knew that he would not be a normal person to begin with, after all him being a magician who uses some odd spells to create weaponry and to reforge the Excalibur is not someone considered normal in our line of work."

"Not to mention him being so close to the devils, fighting off Strays and other creatures, and yet remaining human all this time, that is weird on its own."

"True, but how about his motives?" Griselda looked to her adopted daughter and apprentice.

"Well for that part." Xenovia took a deep breath as though she was preparing to admit something. "Now granted, I am not very smart when it comes to reading people among other things…"

'That is an understatement.' Mitelt and Irina thought in both their heads.

"But what I do get from Shirou is that he is honest in wanting to save lives. He is also someone who has been fighting for a lot longer than one would think, so he has seen things that would likely make more seasoned fighters balk." Xenovia continued without knowing the others' thoughts. "He has also been open regarding his plans and ideas, and let's face it, he could have easily thrown Irina and I out of the apartment when he returned from the hospital and left us hanging for the devils to come and grab us for their peerages. Instead he took us in, gave us food and shelter, and gave us an alternative path to live by." Irina nodded and looked at her teacher.

"He told us that God may be dead, but we can still choose his teachings and to save lives." Irina spoke her bit. "We may not like the fact that we were likely used by some of the higher ups to clear out those who may have found out the truth or were not as guilty as we were made to believe, but at the very least, we can make up for that by helping as many people as we can from now on."

Griselda looked at her two apprentices with a steady gaze as she considered their words. The logical side that was tempered with years of fighting monsters and back-room politics was telling her to still be wary of the magician and create counter measures for him, but the side that was slightly maternal was telling her to listen to them for the moment and watch the situation.

"Personally, I don't think too much." The exorcists turned to the fallen angel who shrugged with a bored expression. "The dude has his own agenda, but he also helps others out. For my part, I am just to make sure that no one attacks him so that he can fulfill his end of the bargain of protecting me. He does not demand anything else so we are okay."

Griselda looked at all of them before letting out a tired sigh. "Very well, it would seem that you are willingly to trust him, so I shall do the same." Her eyes narrowed lightly at this point. "But understand this. I am currently under orders to keep an eye on him alongside my duties for this truce, the church wants to know more about Mister Emiya since he literally popped out of nowhere and there is no information on him. He is an unknown player and his only saving grace with them is him protecting the innocent and holding on to the Excalibur. And quite I do not know how long that would last. And I suspect he knows this too."

"Well good luck for them, that guy ain't budging any time soon." Mitelt snorted lightly. "I can tell you he will be giving your church buddies enough headaches before he goes somewhere else. The only thing I do get from him is that he is trying to get something before he can leave. What it is, I have no clue, but what little I know about magicians, he will take his time to get it."

"So it would seem." Griselda nodded before pausing. "On an unrelated note, this is a moot point, but you have been staying with him at the same apartment building before I came for a few weeks now, right?"

"Yes." Xenovia answered as the three girls took a sip of their drinks.

"I see." The older woman then proceeded to throw a bomb into their conversation. "So when should I be expecting some babies?"

"PPFFTT!"

The girls spit out their drinks as one and sputtered while the woman merely raised a handkerchief and wiped off some of the water on her face with an air of negligence.

"MOM!" Xenovia dropped her tight-lipped attitude and unconsciously addressed her adoptive mother with a red face.

"What? It is a legitimate question." The woman remarked with a raised eyebrow and what looked to be a smirk just waiting to be let loose. Irina was not able to speak as she was too busy covering her face while sputtering out out words, her mind likely broken from that question.

"Okay~ I am so out of here." Mitelt raised her arms in protest while maintaining that blush on her face. "I am not sticking around to hear this awkward talk coming around."

Griselda started getting up while chuckling lightly. "That is enough fun for now. I believe I have taken up enough of your time, you should be heading back now."

"Right then, I will be going, otherwise Kawako is going to use that spatula on me." Mitelt shivered at the reminder as she collected the boxes and plates before making her way out. "Good luck with your lessons."

"Thank you for delivering the meal to us." Griselda spoke before turning to her apprentices. "Shall we continue?" The two nodded before raising their respective weapons and charging at her at once. But as they clashed, one thought went through Griselda's mind.

Were they in the right to place their faith on a magician with unknown goals?

Part 7

"Well, this is quite a development." Georg remarked with a shrug.

"That is putting it lightly." Siegfried snorted. "This is going to set us back by a couple of months at best."

"At least we got the necessary preparations set up." Cao Cao leaned back in the chair he was seating on while Leonardo was drawing out ideas for his next creation. "Ninety percent of Kyoto is now under our control. All we need is to capture the Leader of the Yokai Faction and we will be able to summon Great Red to our dimension."

"That may be true, but our recruitment rate has dropped severely. We won't have enough numbers to subdue the leader unless we consider finding more fighters with Sacred Gears and bring them to our side, with force if necessary." Siegfried warned Cao Cao.

"Yeah, I don't get much of this myself, but even I know that we are really needing some manpower for this." Hercules spoke from his chair while drinking some cola. "It is because of those arrogant fighters who went against the conference that we have lost our primary source of talent hunting."

"That cannot be helped. There will be repercussions if the truce were to go ahead. Thankfully we did not send in any of our fighters, so out of the lot we are still one of the bigger factions in the brigade." Cao Cao answered.

"Well, no point dwelling on it. We would proceed as planned, even if it would take longer to accomplish." Siegfried shook his head before looking around. "By the way, where is Jeanne? We are supposed to be discussing some of the items today."

"Yeah… about that. She won't be coming for the time being." Georg coughed roughly into his hand while carrying a heavy blush and a slightly odd expression that made the others think he witnessed something horrible. "For that matter, majority of the females won't be seen in the hideout today. They have erm… something on."

"Something?" The rest of the males raised any eyebrow at his choice of words.

"Remember the footage and shots of Shirou Emiya going against Kokabiel and fighting off those monsters and Vali at the conference?" Georg watched the others nodding before continuing. "The simplest way of putting it is that they are currently in heat from watching that latest footage and they are getting really disturbing with their panting."

"Err…" Leonardo let out a sound while tilting his head.

"For the time being, I will suggest avoiding the girl dormitories for the whole of today, just to protect your sanity." Georg shuddered at the memory of the women looking extremely hungry as they watched the footage, with Jeanne at the forefront. When he left, he distinctly heard one of the female recruits asking her friend to borrow her 'toy' for some 'extracurricular activities'.

By the Oath of Merlin, he never felt so violated in his life, and he was not even the target of their decidedly sick fantasies.

That expression was seemingly shared by the other males who understood his meaning and seemingly in the middle of erasing that particular tidbit with extreme prejudice; Hercules looked like he was contemplating bashing his head against the wall to see if it would work.

"Erm, what does Georg mean? What is Jeanne doing?" All except the young boy Leonardo who was looking to his team for answers.

"Something that you should only know when you are older." Cao Cao answered as he cupped his face to control the blush on his face. It was times likes this that reminded people that they were still teenagers.

Albeit ones with very active hormones.

"Cough~ all right then." The magician coughed before talking. "So what is currently on the agenda?"

"There are some things we would need to consider, like our plan with Ophis and the Rating Game tournament." Cao Cao spoke with a light tone that suggested that he was happy for the change in topic.

"Are you sure we should be approaching Hades for this?" Siegfried asked with a frown, a sentiment shared with Leonardo and Hercules. "I know we are going to be needing some ace in the hole against the dragons, especially with Ophis's overwhelming power, but should we honestly be depending on Hades obtaining Samael? That god has a habit of going about on his whims, and he seems to be aiming for something else."

"That is true, but currently he is willing to work with us." Cao Cao spoke while lightly handling his Sacred Gear, "And if normal negotiations fail, we can move to more aggressive styles."

"I do not mean to rain on your parade, but even the threat of the Longinus may be insufficient. His domain is Death, and who is to say he does not have a back up plan to get back to shape? Furthermore there is his guards led by Pluto." Siegfried pressed on. "I understand if we are still going forward, but I would prefer some backup plans that would ideally not get us in too much trouble."

"Hmm~ very well, I will think of other methods to deal with Ophis and the other dragons." Cao Cao gave his knight a nod before looking to the rest. "There is other matters to talk about, but I think we need to discuss one matter in particular." Georg could see the serious expression on Cao Cao's face, and thus far there was only one matter that has been on his mind.

Or rather, one person.

"Shirou Emiya."

Cao Cao nodded at the wizard. "We have been watching him and the footage for the past few weeks now, and it is clear he has great strengths. Now I need to bring up the question again."

"Do we recruit the magician named Shirou Emiya into the Hero Faction?"

The others remained silent as they contemplated in their own heads. Hercules for one was actually staying still and quiet in his chair while lightly rolling some steel ball bearings in his hand, his way of maintaining focus when he needed to think. Georg himself was considering all the information he had gathered personally on the weird magician, and strangely enough for him, he was drawing a blank. He did not know if he wanted to have Shirou Emiya on their side.

Ultimately, one came to a quick decision.

"No." Georg turned to look at Siegfried who had a notable expression, mainly a blank slate that honestly unnerved the others a little. "I vote against his recruitment."

"May I ask why?" Cao Cao crossed his legs and interlinked his hands while resting his elbows on the arm rests.

"Thus far, he has been a wild card that cannot be controlled. His motives have not been determined, despite claims of him wanting to protect humanity. His allegiance is also questionable at best." Siegfried answered.

"How so?"

"Based on Vali's testimony and some reports from our spies, he only arrived at Kuoh Town due to injuries from some mission that had forced him out in the open, and he has been staying there to recover while attempting to lay low, but when the devils found him out, he apparently made his intentions clear that he would not join their peerages or to be swayed to their world. He only desires to be left alone."

"That is reinforced during the Kokabiel incident. He has shown that he does not care for either side, but merely got into the fight because of their lack of competence to handle the situation. This is in turn led to him obtaining the Excalibur Shards." Siegfried ended it off with a light growl that only Georg and Cao Cao caught due to their close proximity with the knight.

"What do the rest think?" Cao Cao turned to the others to hear their opinions.

"I think we might have a good chance to actually bring him into the organization." Leonardo started with his bit after Hercules gave the go-ahead to skip himself. "Siegfried failed to mention this, but Shioru Emiya does look after the humans that are in the town. He is active in hunting down Stray Devils and he can be rather persuasive in his methods to get results. And perhaps the biggest factors is him insisting to stay human no matter what the devils have been trying to pull him to their side"

"I agree with him." Hercules spoke at this point. "For us, we have you to thank for bringing us in and making sure we don't get dragged into any of the factions, but that guy is one of the examples of those who had to deal with those trying to convert him to get his strengths. And…" Hercules shrugged at this point. "Considering he has that Holy Sword with him, I guess it would make him the good guy."

"Just because of the Excalibur Shards reacting to him and combining into one form, does not mean he should be trusted." Siegfried said with a hint of heat, something which the others picked up on and Hercules to target.

"Right~ and that we should consider your opinion because you did not get those shards?" That certainly got a response as Siegfried activated his Sacred Gear and drew out three of his swords with quick movements, his eyes now showing a great deal of rage in his eyes. Hercules responded by prepping his own gear, making his skin glow as he prepared to fire off his missiles. Georg and Leonardo were on their feet, waiting to see if they should intervene or to get out for safety.

"CLANK!"

"ENOUGH!" A bright flash of light and a burst of Holy Energy filled the room as Cao Cao slammed [True Longinus] onto the ground with a serious expression. "The both of you will stand down this instance." The two fighters looked ready to argue, but the glare given by Cao Cao was able to cow them into submission and with great reluctance, deactivated their gears.

"Hercules, that was somewhat uncalled for. You know that this is a sensitive subject for him." Cao Cao admonished the big fellow who at least looked sheepish while scratching his head. The leader then turned to Siegfried who still had an angry expression. "But there is a hint of truth in his words. Siegfried, I understand that you have mixed feelings about the Excalibur Shards and the whole exorcist program, but you got to keep that under control and not influence your thoughts." In a rare moment of defiance, Siegfried snarled at Cao Cao only to back off to a corner and crossed his arms.

"Now that we are settled…" Cao Cao paused to look at them both before turning to Georg. "What about you? I think for Jeanne's part, she would likely support the vote, so it would be down to you. As a fellow magician, do you wish to bring him in?"

Georg looked at everyone with a pensive expression while considering his options. Truth be told, both sides have good points to consider. Shirou Emiya had the talent, the power and perhaps the most obvious, the will to back up his words of wanting to protect the humans. But he worded it as protecting the innocent, and what little he had seen, he did not discriminate between the species, something that would be a big problem in their faction since they only prefer humans.

And there was the bit on Sacred Gears and the Excalibur reacting and going to him. They would not know if he would steal them all away if and when he felt that the faction was not a good option.

'What to do?' Georg thought privately as he looked at Siegfried who now had a troubled expression.

"..."

Maybe there was an idea.

"I believe…" Georg paused to gather his thoughts before continuing. "That both sides have good points and the best thing we should do is to test Shirou Emiya himself."

"Don't we always test new recruits?" Hercules asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I think he has something else in mind." Cao Cao spoke while tapping his chin. "Please elaborate."

"Leonardo and Siegfried have pointed out that Shirou Emiya does care for the innocent, but it also alienates him to a certain extent with the others, since no one knows what would constitute as an attack on the 'innocent' people. Not to mention his secrecy of his magic style and the odd manner he employs it makes him a rather dangerous opponent to have. That much was proven with Kokabiel and Vali." Georg gave his explanation while using his finger to give out his points. "When you add in the fact he can create weapons of any sort and his odd attraction of the Excalibur, one might actually compare you with him, Cao Cao."

"Oh?" Cao Cao let out an amused hum.

"Taking on Kokabiel is an achievement many would have boasted, but to actually fight and kill one of the original Fallen Angels of the Bible is a feat none can say, especially for a human, even with powers. And then to handle Vali Lucifer with [Divine Dividing] is also one that would be difficult." Georg spoke while maintaining eye contact with his leader. "Some would compare the both of you since of the whole lot of us, you are one with the most appropriate weapon to take on a god."

Cao Cao lightly tapped his weapon as he looked at the wizard and considered his words. "What do you suggest?"

"We will approach Shirou Emiya and get him into a situation that would ideally show his true side to us." The wizard looked at everyone, lingering a little longer on Siegfried. "This way we can see once and for all whether he is ideal to join us. I am sure that upon proving his worth, his entry to our faction can be arranged with or without his expressed permission."

"There is merit to that idea I suppose." Cao Cao looked to the others. "What say you lot?"

"I am fine with that." Leonardo gave a nod.

"Why not? I get to test him at least." Hercules said as he smashed his fists together.

"I believe Jeanne would agree to this." Georg spoke before they turned to the last member who looked down with his hair covering his hair, his posture being the most telling that he had to give thought to this proposition while restraining his emotions.

"Very well." Siegfried finally gave his answer after letting out a frustrated sigh. "Let's bring him in and see whether he is worthy to come to us."

"Excellent, then…"

"However." Siegfried cut Cao Cao's words with a glare. "Like Hercules said, I want a crack at him. I need to fight him for myself."

"Understood." Cao Cao smoothly gave his consent, likely knowing that the knight would not stop until he could go against the wizard. "Then it is decided, we will approach Shirou Emiya with an invitation and see for ourselves if he is Hero material." The leader turned to Georg with a twinkle in his eye. "Since you have met him before, you shall extend the invitation."

"I intend to, but thank you for the offer." Georg lightly bowed his head while thinking privately in his mind of this opportunity. It has been a long time since his professional curiosity was peaked by something out of his understanding, and to have a fellow magician practicing an unusual art was certainly going to be educational.

Time to make some plans.

Part 8

"This is a right mess to be in." The long-haired devil snorted as he dumped his documents on the table.

"No shit." A dirty-blond devil with multiple piercings agreed as he placed himself onto the chair next to it. "This tournament is already hard enough to set up as it is, and because of the whole truce, the organizers wanted to bring in the other mythologies to showcase our culture."

"This is a mistake, both their decisions and this truce." A third devil sneered as he threw his legs on the table and crossed them. "We should not have to bow our heads to those damn Angels and Grigori. We are better than them, especially those 'reincarnated' spawns." He spat with a hint of venom in his tone. "Those Maous are getting too soft."

"Well, we can bitch about it all we want, but that won't change anytime soon." A fourth devil, this time a female, remarked with a lopsided smile. "Right now we just do our jobs and let them worry about the whole charade with the other mythologies."

"Hmph~ fine." The third devil put his feet back on the ground and looked to them. "Okay, so what is on the agenda for the tournament?"

"The heirs will be meeting in the next couple of weeks for their speech of goals, after which we would have the ceremony to start off the Rating Games." The first devil spoke while looking through some papers. "But it would seem we have more clans coming in, some of the lesser groups of the Seventy-Two are wishing to participate."

"Well we will get more popularity to the game." The second shrugged. "But that means we need to expand on the number of stages for them to fight, not to mention allocating the different slots for their battles."

"Not to mention the type of battlefield simulations would need to be more varied. Majority was meant for the powerhouses, but with other clans of varying strengths, we need to tweak them more with varying environments."

"Let's decide that after the first allotment." The rude devil took up a folder and looked through the list before snorting. "Well that is just perfect. A lot of the clans here are just fodder, and perhaps the few decent ones would only go past the third bout. Most of the newer contestants are those groups consisting solely of reincarnated devils."

"Well, they are failing." The female flipped through some of the papers on her side. "No matter how you slice it, many of the clans are failing, and arguably speaking, the ones who were lost during the Great War or banished to the human world were the better clans. And with the recent increase of reincarnations, this was going to happen sooner or later."

"We can complain all we want, but that won't help us with our process. Let's start drawing some lots." The devils started to put together the names for the groups attending the tournament and grouped them together. A majority of them were placed in the lesser categories that involved more strategy and other type of genres that would be less appealing; the more visually captivating battlegrounds were given to the powerhouse Peerages to bring in the viewers.

"Okay, now that we have consolidated that lot, it is time for the hot-shots." The rude devil picked out two folders and looked at the names before snorting in amusement. "Well look at that, we got our two favorite teams."

"Gremory and Sitri from the start huh?" The devil with the ear piercings looked over his shoulder. "Well this will be a bit fun. Where should we place them?"

"Actually, I got a crazy idea." The female spoke with a somewhat mischievous grin. "How about we put them together in the first bout, let them fight it out with each other?"

"Oh the two heirs to their clans fighting each other like rats on a sinking ship, that would be fun!" The long-hair devil laughed with a slight malicious tone mixed in it. "Oh those two would be very desperate indeed, considering both their numbers and their overall fighting strength."

The others nodded in agreement. It was no secret to the other groups that while the heirs were strong in their own right, their Peerages were perhaps the most odd compared to the others. One group held powerhouses of different species or talents, while the other focused solely on quick execution of tactics. One held advantages over the other and that was not taking into account the recent acquisition of the Legendary Red Dragon Emperor by Rias Gremory or the recent attacks they participated in.

"Well, this should be interesting. Let's put them together in either one of the zones, let's see how that would work out." The rude devil crackled as he looked through his options to see which would be most ideal for his personal entertainment.

"Speaking of those two groups, have you heard the rumors of the human magician?" The female devil asked as they drew lots for the battlegrounds.

"Supposedly the one who trained the Gremory Group to fight Raizer, went up against Regeis and fought off Kokabiel?" The rude devil blew a raspberry. "A bunch of hogwash if you ask me. There is no way a mere human can go against Kokabiel of all people. I might believe the training bit no matter how ineffective it is, and perhaps the bit on Regeis if he has magic or a Sacred Gear, but against one of the strongest Fallen Angels of the Grigori? No way in hell."

"Good point." The other devils shrugged and looked at the board. "So how should we place the two?"

"How about the shopping mall simulation? It is something they both have some experience with, and it would be interesting to see how they will fight in that type of environment." The female proposed.

"Okay then, let's do that." The rude devil sneered as he wrote the names in. "It will be good fun to see those two wretches fight it out with their groups."

"Actually, let's delay that."

A voice broke their thoughts and drew their attention to an individual who appeared silently in their room without their notice. The figure merely looked at them with a smile that sent chills down their spines, making them feel insignificant before a great force.

"Who are you, what are you doing here?!" The rude devil regained his senses and stepped forward with a fireball in hand. The others got their head in gear and started to charge their own attacks, but the figure merely tilted his head in amusement. The female paused and frowned at the person before her eyes widened in recognition.

"Wait a minute, you are!"

"Ah, I cannot have that." The figure raised a finger lazily that stopped their movements and stopped their attacks, taking his time to walk towards them as they clearly struggled to move in their immobilized state, their eyes clearly showing fear and from the smell of it, at least one of them relieved himself badly.

"Apologies for the treatment, but I can't afford you to remember about this and you do need to deal with some important matters." The figure playfully placed a hand on his chin as he looked at them with cold eyes. With a gesture, all of them stopped their struggles before slowly standing upright with eyes glazed over and blank expressions.

"What are your orders, my lord?" The rude devil asked in a slow and monotonous tone. The figure widened his smile as he took a brief look at the allotments before turning back to them.

"First and foremost, you will not put the Gremory Peerage and Sitri Peerage together in the competition so early. You will let them advance further for the 'expressed' purpose of building up tension for the audience, leave them guessing for who would win in their fights." The figure stated his words clearly. "You may bring them together around the middle or towards the end of the tournament if you wish, but for now you will let them fight it out with the other teams in the beginning. If you desire conflict for the two, you may bring in the clans who are opposed to them or their elder siblings. Perhaps those who have some deep-seeded grudges?"

"It will be done." The devils echoed their compliance in a monotone voice.

"Good. Secondly, make sure the barriers for the battlegrounds are restricted to a certain point that would allow for some… 'intervention' in case someone needs to come through." The figure paused to think of a word before continuing. "It would be helpful to have a spot for people to enter in the event something goes wrong, but make sure it takes a certain 'threshold' to actually breach it."

"It will be done." The devils spoke again with a flat tone and blank eyes.

"One more thing." The figure took out a piece of paper to check the contents before continuing with his instructions. "For this tournament, you can allow the teams to bring in one outsider for the expressed purpose of uniting under the banner of the truce, but the main reason would be to have potential targets or enemies to watch out for. Among the teams, emphasize for the desire to bring someone important to encourage unilateral ties. They can be from the other factions if need be and doable. As for the Gremory Peerage and Sitri Peerage…" The figure paused for effect and in anticipation of his plan coming together.

"Make sure either one of them brings along the magician named Shirou Emiya. Throw in whatever reasons you want, just make sure he attends this tournament."

"It will be done." The devils gave their consent.

"Good." The figure gave a smirk. "Right then, I will be leaving. Once I am gone, you will forget this conversation but will carry out my orders. Make sure they are done." With that, the figure left the room, cast an invisibility ward on him and dropped his control spell, letting the devils regain their consciousness. He watched behind his veil the devils looked around briefly in confusion before resuming their tasks, with one of them having to change his pants.

"The dice has been cast. Now then…." The figure let loose a dark chuckle of anticipation as he moved on while lightly touching a scar that was stretched from the top of his head to the other side of his neck. "Let's see if you are ready for my trials, Shirou Emiya. Let me see if you are the one I seek to fight again."

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=()=

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=====Author's Notes=====

Hello, I have returned with a new chapter for this story. Phew, I finally managed to get this done before the end of the year. I was thinking of releasing this for Christmas, but my schedule is a bit tight so this is an early Christmas present for you guys.

Yeah, I have been reading up on the reviews and I hoped to have answered some of that with this chapter. For those worrying Shirou is forgetting about Saber or giving up on trying to go back home, nope! He is still trying to accomplish both, he is just having a lot of trouble getting the items needed to repair. If you recall from the previous chapters, he has started to collect items and books to repair the amulet. I might consider an interlude in the future that would demonstrate the type of issues he would face in the form of his home world.

Now onto reviews.

To frisbeeg70: The crest is important, I am just going ~real~ slowly. I am however going to mention very soon.

To Darksire64: Thank you for liking my story. I honestly feel quite happy that you and others enjoy this since I did not originally plan to write this far.

To Kuroshinobi 13: Those are some pretty good ideas for Noble Phantasms there. Thanks for the samples.

To AznPuffyHair, ahsoei (and the guest reader whose comment got removed without me getting a chance to write the proper response):

As written here, the physical changes are mostly temporary but there are some that can't be removed so easily like his height or hair. I am using the basis of him overusing his Tracing to push his physical body to the absolute limit, thus making it one possible way he ends up looking like Archer in the future.

To Shade (Guest): You are not the only one. Quite a few wrote through the PM about Momo, since she is rarely used in the DxD fics aside from the typical quick attraction as opposed to slow development. I am trying to get flesh out the Sitri Peerage and some of the other characters as much as I can since they are not mentioned often aside from Sona and Saji when they are needed in the novels.

To TJG (Guest): Those are some decent ideas, and you guessed one that I had considered briefly. I will see if I can incorporate them. I thank you for your suggestions.

To VermillionFox: Be patient my dear reader, for Unlimited Blade Works will be arriving soon, and with it, the GAR of Shirou! 'Cue crickets in the background'

To Thunder Dragon: That is really odd. Do you guys have smartphones though? You can do review and messaging on the phone, it would just be a bit of a pain to do that but you can login with that. Aside from that, the Inheritance Cycle sounds interesting but I have not read any of the books before and I only saw bits of the film in question. That might take a while.

To Kartikey: Well I will admit I might have gone a tad overboard with the attacks and Noble Phantasms, but I wanted to branch out a little from the somewhat overused versions of UBW / Heaven's Feel Shirou and Archer, and since we know little of Fate Shirou and my version worked with Zelretch for some of his dimensional trips, I thought I could use the excuse that he learned some skills and procured some Noble Phantasms from some of his templates, alongside some possible physical versions unique to him.

To everyone else:

While I will be explaining it in the supplementary notes, [Tree of Eden] and the 12 weapons is one of the few rare physical Noble Phantasms Shirou has by getting it from one of his Dimensional Templates. [Sandalphon] was inspired by several sources: Ascalon of Majutsu Index, the Fusion Sword from FF VII and the namesake from Date A Live. [Metatron] is an original blade with some references to Bleach and Gundam, with the power from Data A Live.

As stated before and my comment to Shade, I have a few discussing about the girls of Sitri and there is a surprising number of readers suggesting the idea of having Momo going slowly to Shirou. I know I have teased the possibility in this chapter and the older ones by having her talk to / tease Shirou a few times, but this tells me that she is becoming quite popular. So far the girls most discussed for Sitri are Reya, Sona and Momo in the lead, with Meguri and Tsusbasa a close second, and Tsubaki herself coming in fast. By the Root, this is becoming like those shipping wars in RWBY, and I have not touched on the exorcists/church side yet O.o

Unlimited Blade Works will appear, do not fret my friends.

Now that the reviews are done, just a few short notes.

It has been close to three years since I started this story, and I will be honest, I did not expect so many people liking it. I was trying my hand at fanfiction, wanting to try a new angle on Shirou's character, and I believe this applies to many others, wanting to get away from the harshness of reality. I just felt free in writing and the fact there are people out there enjoying my work and willing to give me pointers, and vice versa, makes me very happy.

I will be a little busy with my work since I just got a new job and I am in desperate need to get some cash to help out with the family. It is hard trying to earn much these days. T.T But fret not, I will still be working on this, especially with the mystery chapter I have going on on the side. In the meantime, I will be touching on my secret account, my FES Series and maybe something special before the end of the year. Fingers crossed to get that out quickly.

Side note: Apparently, I got a fanfic recommendation link on TV Tropes. How do you like them apples?! That is really something I did not expect, now I wonder if I might get an actual TV Tropes page in the future. That would be one hell of a Christmas wish if I could get that, though it might be wishful thinking on my part.

And i put my pen down for now.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New year to you all!