Life 2. In the name of Grigori!
Part 1
I skipped school this morning. I don't want to get close to that Phenex girl for the moment. I know Grigori isn't something amazing to Devils, but if they know I'm a part of it, I might be on danger.
"Normally, I wouldn't support my children skipping school, but if that Phenex girl knows about you being part of Grigori, then you better stay here. If a Devil knows you're part of Grigori, you might be on danger."
Just like I thought!
"Penemue-sama, I can understand why Rito is here, but what about us?"
Akai asks that, and taking into count Yami's expression, it's clear they don't want to be here.
"You're Rito's only friends and members of Grigori, so if he needs support from someone, it is from you two."
"Sigh, at least tell us we'll do some exercises…"
"If you want, you can fight with me."
"What?!"
The tree of us said that at the same time. Penemue-sama never told us to fight her before, so this might be a good opportunity to show her our abilities.
"Ok, we need to show Penemue-sama that all the time we spent here hasn't been in vain."
"Yes!"
Akai is showing his senpai look, so we might win!
"I'll give you the first attack."
Penemue-sama says that being full with confidence. She clearly thinks she can win.
"Yami, take [Number V: The Hierophant]. Akai, take [Number IV: The Emperor]."
While [Number V] increases the magic of the wielder, [Number IV] increases the power of long range attacks. On my hand, I will take [Number VII: The Chariot] to increase my speed.
Now we're ready to fight!
Akai's shadow becomes multiple tentacles that reach towards Penemue-sama, but she creates a light spear and easily destroys them.
Yami moves to the side and launches multiple towards Penemue-sama, but those are blocked with her spear.
I use my new speed to get close to her and land a hit, but she blocks my punch with her spear.
"Between the Fallen Angels, my spears are said to be one of the bests."
Not only that, but she is really agile with using that weapon. A Cadre of Grigori is not an opponent you cannot look down on.
Ugh! She created another spear with her other hand and pierced me. It hurts more than I thought!
"Rito!"
Akai creates blades made of shadows to attack her, while at the same time Yami launches her arrows from behind.
"You need to learn to fight non-humans."
She uses her 10 beautiful black wings to fly and dodges the attacks. I'm being held by her spear, but she just moves it and throws me to the ground.
I just lay on the ground with a huge pain. Akai looks pretty angry, and makes a signal to Yami. Right after this, she launches more arrows to where Penemue-sama is.
"Predictable move."
She just flies higher and the arrows start to fall. However, she wasn't her target. That signal was created to indicate when Yami should launch her arrows to the ceiling so they could be absorbed by [Night Reflection] and to be redirected from the opponent's shadow.
The arrows are absorbed, and from Penemue-sama's shadow, multiple light arrows appear.
However, she was fast enough to block it with her spears…
"That was a good move, but just leaving Rito on the ground will cause more harm than good in a real battle."
She is right. After being hit by her spear, my comrades just left me on the ground.
"I want to declare this first round as finished. Checkmate."
As she says that, my wounds start to heal. This [Twilight Healing] based recovery system feels so warm, I heard they even use a real [Twilight Healing] on it.
"There's one thing I always wanted to ask."
Akai says that while returning to his normal look.
"Why the keyword to finish a battle here is [Checkmate]?"
"That is something we took from the Devils. They have special battles that end when declaring Checkmate, so the Governor General decided that it was a good keyword."
So it was chosen by the Governor General himself… come to think of it, special battles?
"What special battles are you talking about?"
I really wanted to know, so Akai soon answers to me.
"They are called [Rating Games]. You're going to learn about them in school soon, just be patient."
[Rating Games], special battles organized by the Devils. It truly sounded interesting.
"So, who's ready for round 2?"
"Always ready!"
As the three of us declared at the same time, we decided to start the second round with Penemue-sama.
Part 2
I'm going back home after that training session with Penemue-sama. We won 2 out of 5, all thanks to Akai-senpai. He is known as an elite member of Grigori for a reason!
As I walk down the street, I start to feel uncomfortable. It's like someone is looking at me. I look back to clarify my doubts and…
It's her. That's the Phenex girl. She is following me!
I start running, but she does the same. I run through different streets and she follows me.
I cannot lose her this way, I need to hide!
I get into a crowd of people and go inside a bakery. She isn't going to find me here.
"You seem hurried."
I look in front of me, and there's a boy sitting on a chair. He looks foreign, but if I had to guess, he would be around my age.
"Since my master has some business with you, I feel the need to retain you."
He says that in an extremely calm way while drinking tea. However, I feel something dangerous coming out of him, so I won't be careless.
I take [Number XVI: The Tower] and [Number VIII: Strength]. [Number XVI] will increase my defences, while [Number VIII] will increase my attack.
As I active my cards, he finishes his tea, and stands up.
"Well, I'm ready."
In a flash, he appears right in front of me! Such speed!
"1."
He punches my stomach, and even with the effect of [Number XVI], his blow felt extremely heavy. Just what kind of strength is that?
"2."
Second blow and I feel a huge pain in my arm. Ugh! What is he?
"And 3."
I fall to the floor after receiving a kick to the leg. Not even Penemue-sama's attacks feel like this.
"It looks like my 3 blows technique was more effective in you than expected."
"What… Who are you?"
"My name is Abraham Hawkthorn, and I'm Ram Phenex's Knight."
A Knight… those pieces have an incredible speed. But then, how is he so strong?
I don't need to know! My opponent is a Devil, so I need to fight back! Just like my stepfather showed me, I extend my index and middle fingers, and focus my energy.
"So you're a Devil… you won't like what I'm going to do."
"Show me."
"Holy Lightning!"
I shoot the lightning which hits him without mercy! There's some kind of smoke coming out of his body, since it appears he isn't going to move, I can run out of here!
I run out of the bakery, but soon after that, a lightning almost hits me!
"Oh, my bad. I was meant to hit you, but it looks like I missed."
"Who are you, another Devil?"
"I'm Rina Kushihashi, Ram Phenex's Queen."
So her Queen, huh. She isn't going easy on me-
"Take this!"
Ah! I almost didn't dodge it. A Chinese girl tried to attack me.
"I'm Xie Xie, Ram Phenex's Rook."
A Rook and the Queen at the same time? This may be worse than the Knight!
"Take this, Holy Lightning!"
I shoot lightning bolts on them, but the Queen dodges it and Rook just endures it.
"That trick worked on me because you attacked me on surprise, but it isn't going to work against Rina."
The Knight is here too! The universe seems to hate me today.
"You're surrounded from all directions, give up."
All directions? But there's one left-
A kid with bat wings is flying on that direction.
"Since everybody is introducing without reason, I'm going to do it too. Mint Borrow, Ram Phenex's Bishop."
He soon launches multiple energy balls. I endure them, but I can feel the power they had.
I cannot win this. I need to find another way. I push the Grigori emergency button, so Penemue-sama and company appear in an instant. That was way faster than last time.
"4 Devils… in what kind of problem are you now?"
"Make them 6."
I turn to the sky, and I see Silverage with Ram flying above us. While Silverage has bat wings, Ram has fire-made ones.
"We need to take this away from the city; it is going to be a mess if a human gets hurt."
As Ram says so, Penemue-sama takes us with her magic circle.
Part 3
We appear on the outskirts of the city, and the Phenex Devils appear after us.
"Why we didn't run away?"
I mean, it is 4 vs. 6, it seems unfair.
"Doing that would be offensive to both us and the Devils before us."
"A Cadre of Grigori, Penemue, is right in front of me. Now then, let me fight against such a beautiful woman like you."
"I'm going with you."
"Why honey? I want to fight her on my own!"
"She possess the light of the Angels, it would be deadly if it hits you."
"Fine, but don't interfere that much."
As the couple of fiancés decide to fight against my master, I seem forced to fight her pieces. At least I have Yami and Akai on my side this time.
As soon as the Phenex girl shots a ball of fire to the Cadre, we start moving.
I keep [Number XVI] and [Number VIII], Yami has [Number V: The Hierophant] and [Number XIX: The Sun] to increase her magic and holy power, while Akai has [Number VII: The Chariot] and [Number IV: The Emperor] to boost his speed and long-ranged attacks.
The Devil kid starts flying, and launches multiple demonic energy balls. Akai-senpai catches them with his shadow, and redirects them at the Chinese girl.
"Xie Xie! You're going to pay for that!"
The blue-haired girl creates multiple earth pillars, all of which expand to our direction. Yami uses her arrows to destroy them, while Akai-senpai uses his shadows to attack.
"Not happening."
The boy with the eye patch endures Akai's shadows. Meanwhile, the blue-haired girl launches a huge water ball towards us.
Akai-senpai soon uses his shadow to absorb the attack, but he is attacked by the guy with the eye patch from behind.
"1."
Akai falls to the ground after just one hit, but the boy hits him two more times while saying "2" and "3". So he used that 3 blows technique again.
"Good luck standing."
Soon after he says that and turns back, Akai-senpai stands up.
"Don't underestimate humans, you dirty Devil."
Multiple shadow-made blades hit the boy, but he just endures it. Soon after, he uses his god-speed to move behind Yami.
"Do it Mint."
Just as he holds Yami, the kid launches a massive amount of demonic energy balls! I was attacked by one of them and felt pain, but there are over a hundred now!
"Let's destroy them Rito!"
"Sure!"
Akai creates dozens of shadow-made blades while I launch a Holy Lightning with each hand. The balls were soon destroyed!
"You two are better than we thought, so we must get rid of the girl."
The blue-haired girl says that before creating a hurricane! Her elemental magic is amazing.
"Let's finish the red-haired Mint."
"Sure Ham."
The kid and the boy direct their attacks towards us, with the boy hitting Akai-senpai again while the kid launches dozens of energy balls to me.
"Finish this off!"
Suddenly, the Chinese girl came out of nowhere and attacked Yami.
"Weak points!"
While is being hit by a punch barrage from the boy, the Chinese girl launches a series of towards Akai-senpai. Soon after, both Akai and Yami fall to the ground.
"Akai-senpai! Yami!"
"Our job is done our King, now let's take this Rito to the Underworld."
Underworld? Why do they want to take me there?
When I look up to see their King, Penemue-sama is injured! Some of her clothes were blown off and she's bleeding! While her opponent, the Phenex's fiancé, only looks a little bit tired.
"How are you so strong? Who are you?"
"As a Cadre of Grigori, my name should be known to you. I'm Silverage Lucifuge."
Penemue-sama seems shocked after hearing the Devil's name. Just what is going on here?
"You… You are one of the gifted by-"
"I would like to hear your speech, but we're done here. Honey, take the kid and let's report our success."
I look at the Phenex girl, and she is missing her head! No, wait a second, it is back.
"I told you fighting her would be dangerous."
"Sweetie, don't lose your head and finish our mission."
She seems somewhat angry, but if I'm involved, I need to ask.
"What's your mission?"
"We were ordered by Lucifer-sama to protect Rito Yuma, and to accomplish that goal, we have to take you away from Grigori."
Away from Grigori? No, more importantly, Lucifer-sama?! They were ordered by the leader of the Devils himself?!
"Protect me from what?"
"From me."
We all look to the source of that voice. A new person appeared, and is wearing red armour. However, the design of that armour looks oddly familiar…
"That armour is… Scale Mail. You're the Red Dragon Emperor?!"
Yami says that while being filled with fear. The Red Dragon Emperor, a name feared by many, it is the title given to the user of the Sacred Gear [Boosted Gear]. But, why is he here?
"I'm glad that even a group of puny humans can recognize the power of my armour. I'm Pride, the Red Dragon Emperor and leader of The Seven Deadly Sins."
After that declaration, everybody trembled with fear.
