Disclaimer: First Chapter
Story Start!
"So what kinds of powers should we be worried about from this Stray Devil, like who was the Devil that they abandoned?" Naruto asked as he and Xenovia walked through the rain, swords already out and ready to be used the second they came across the devil that they were being charged with killing. They had arrived in the city that they were at a few hours ago, and the two of them had been walking around after dropping off Naruto's bike at one of the local churches, and the Nuns there promised to take reall good care of his bike, even promising to take it to go get refueled while they hunt down and kill the Stray Devil that had been murdering people around here the last few days.
"I don't know, but the murdered bodies have all been close to the water. Maybe it is a demon that has power over water, so possibly a servant of the Sitri family." Xenovia muttered just loud enough over the rain so that Naruto could hear her, before he groaned loudly. If that was true, then they were dealing with somebody possibly proficient in Water Magic while in the middle of a RAIN storm, that was a huge disadvantage right there, one that would make this a lot harder than it had to be, and honestly, he would rather had a devil as weak as possible in terms of fighting ability before slaying it. Leave NOTHING to chance, give them nothing to make into an advantage.
Though, Devils, Fallen Angels, and Angels had a treaty going on saying that they wouldn't attack each other, Naruto knew that the ones at this point with the biggest chance of igniting a war were the Fallen Angels and the Stray Devils. Both of those factions needed to be killed off as soon as possible before another war started, or the Angels would be wiped out unless God interfered with them. At this time, the Church/Angel faction was the technical weakest of the three factions, technical from numbers and the average strength of each Angel. They had the advantage though because they could use Light, a weakness of Devils, the faction with the strongest advantage would have to be the Devils, so Naruto and Xenovia were wary around either of the other factions.
Two natural Holy Sword users, they were members of the Church, making Devils and Fallen Angels their enemies as well, but they didn't have the same advantages that the supernatural factions had... well Naruto kind of did with his extremeley strong life force and Chakra, but Xenovia didn't, and they were a team. If one went down, then both of them could go down rather quickly. They both knew that in a war between the factions, the Holy Sword wielders like them would be targted first before the others of their group were targted. Holy Swords could wipe a devil out with a single well placed cut, being both enchanted by Light and given super powers, a Holy Sword user could take down many devils being before taken down. The fact they each used two of the strongest Holy Swords forged by God himself... well they were big targets.
"So we are fighting a water demon... in the rain... when we can barely see?" Naruto asked with a raised eyebrow, his sunglassed having turned into a short sword made for one hand to hold, and a two foot long blade.
"... I never said it would be an easy fight, just a fight." Xenovia commented, having realized the error in her plan of rushing to the city, despite being in a rain storm, lighting striking every once and awhile, while harsh winds blew their wet hair around their heads, though these facts were ignored in favor of they were sensing around for the aura of a devil. Being Exorcists, they were well trained in trying to sense out where Devils and Fallen Angels were, because this was not the first time they had been sent out to slay a Devil or Fallen Angels, and this wouldn't be the last time either.
"What about the last time, New York ring a bell?" Naruto asked sarcastically, remembering the last time that Xenovia had rushed them into going to the target location, forgetting that sometimes rushing things was a bad thing. Xenovia herself remembered that time and almost blushed when she remembered how they almost failed their mission because the target had sensed them coming, and ran as far away as possible, before the two of them... borrowed... a car from a dealer and chased down the devil, before slaying it after they had been chased around by police for two hours, with the devil getting out of the city and almost escaping.
It took a LOT of mind erasing to get the cops off their asses, and Naruto hadn't let Xenovia live down the fact that they had been called 'Two Dumb Teenage Thiefs with a Bondage Fetish'... though the word bondage was a bit confusing until Naruto asked somebody what it meant, and he found it hilarious that they had been called somthing like that... and insulted that the cops had figured out they were stupid just by looking at them. Sure neither of them were geniuses, but they weren't completely dumb... until now it was.
"That was also a fight, but we had to chase it down in a borrowed car first. The car was returned, and the devil slain, mission complete." Xenovia argued back, while Naruto shrugged it off as they continued walking around. They would find the target when they found it, and then they would take it out. There were no resident devils in the area that they knew of, so they didn't need to warn anyone of what they were doing, so all was good right now, besdides the fact that they were dealing with a bloodthirsty monster hell bent on murder and madness... Devils took on mostly human form, while Stray Devils became monsterous creatures that were controlled by their sins.
"You totalled the car before returning it." Naruto said back moments later, and Xenovia looked away, she knew she should have let Naruto drive, but she had been in a rush to catch the devil before it escaped.
"Remember the China incident?" Xenovia questioned right back at Naruto, who looked up at the sky while whistling an innocent tune. He remembered the China incident where he was out a huge chunk of the Great Wall of China, and then the higher ups had to repair it before anyone noticed a large chunk of wall missing from one of the wonders of the world. All because they had been tasked with capturing an excommunited Nun that had been selling the secret locations of the other Excalibur fragments to spite the churches that had kicked her out of their religion, sadly, she had already sold the locations to a Fallen Angel that got away with the locations before they could capture the nun and bring her back. Since then they had to move the fragments to other Churches, and to keep one of the even safer it had been given to a girl that was not a natural Holy Sword user Irina Shidou, who worked with them on occasion.
She had been given Excalibur Nightmare if memory served correctly, after she had her body modified to be able to use a true Holy Sword.
"Yeah, that nun's Sacred Gear should have been ripped from her the second she tried to sell out secret to the enemy. Stalemate or not, we can't trust Devils or Fallen Angels with the locations of the Holy Swords. Anyone who betrays God should not be allowed to keep their Sacred Gear, a gift from God." Naruto said with a frown, and Xenovia agreed fully with that sentiment. Those blessed by God should not turn their backs on their duties to God, it was spitting in God's face, and as a devote christian she would rather had them be killed in the name of God so that their sins will be forgiven, than let them live and shame God's blessing even further than they already have. She blinked, before she grabbed Naruto's shoulder and turned him to her.
"Naruto, how has the hunt been going?" Xenovia asked witrh curiousity, while Naruto sighed and looked at the ground.
"The higher ups say that the last Excalibur Fragment is still lost to us, but I know it has to be out there somewhere... you know, I always wondered why the reforged Excalibur into seven fragment swords, when they could have just reforged it back into the original sword." Naruto commented dryly. If they had all of the fragments in one place to turn them into new swords with Excalibur's powers, then why not just reforge them into their original form while they had the chance, why turn them into seven weaker swords?
"... Humans aren't perfect." Xenovia said after a moment, thinking the exact same thing as Naruto now that it was pointed out to them. They both had a chill go down their spines when they felt the aura of a devil enter their sensing range. Xenovia looked towards Naruto, while he looked back at her with a nod. The two of them jumped up to the top of the nearest building, a one story building, which while amazing and almost impossible by human standards, they were better than the normal human, having trained to wield swords that each weigh enough to make a grown man buckle without being able to pick it up. The fact they could move normally while holding these large swords showed that they were more than able to do inhuman feats of strength and speed.
They raced towards the area they could still feel the aura coming from, and in the distance they could see the Arno River, though they couldn't see the devil due to the rain, the closer they got though the more they were able to see large outline of the devil terrorizing the area, and when they dropped from the air and landed, while skidding, on the ground nearby the devil they could see it's shape with their own eyes.
It was large, eaisly thirty feet or more tall and sticking from the edge of the water. On top of the main body of the creature was the torso of a young woman, maybe in her early teens, possibly 12 or 13 years old, but her eyes were glowing a demonic red, and her hands was a teenage boy's head that she was devouring with her sharpened shark teeth. Her skin had turned into scales, and her lower body was a mix between a shark and an octopus or squid. The main body was that of a shark, but twenty octopus tentacles fifty feet long were waving around, with sharp looking stingers from the tips of them. The front of her main body even hard a shark mouth, but no eyes on it.
The two of them readied their swords, with Naruto holding his in a reverse grip, while Xenovia took a two handed stand with hers being held in front of her body.
"How strong do you think?" Naruto asked Xenovia quickly and quietly, using the sounds of the rain to mask his voice while the devil ate the remains of the boy, with the rest of the body parts resting on top of the shark body in front of where her girl's torso was sticking out... the boy was dead already, so as morbid as it was, they were sure that his parents or relatives wouldn't want him to be returned to them like this, so they would use her eating the boy's corpse as time they could make a plan against her so that the boy could be avenged for his loss... they had seen similar scenes to this one before, though some more bloody and gruesome than others.
"Chimera-Type mutated body, mix between two sea creatures. Favors large body, so I would say... not very strong, but in this rain while it is floating in the river we will have trouble getting to it." Xenovia broke down. Stray Devils fit four different classes.
Large Body - Those that are the weakest and have to eat humans and other creatures to mainatin an increased state of power, but they aren't very fast and normally they lose a large amount of brain power with their mutation.
Medium Body - Various parts of their body mutate, but they only grow to maybe twice human size, showing that they were a stronger than the weakling that grew huge powers to overcompensate for lack of natural power. These were stronger and smarter, but they normally had really obvious weak points.
Small Body - Stray Devils that only went through a form change, but didn't grow taller or larger, their own power being increased while they kept their ability to think completely intact. Harder to defeat and kill, but they all had the same weak point being that they had softer skin or easily enraged.
Clear Body - Those that completely stay the same as when they were a normal Devil, having a large amount of power and thinking power, the most dangerous out of them all.
"Large Body it is... the problem though is getting close. We don't know the tentacle speed, and with that length hitting it will be a problem. Not to mention that she can submerge herself in the water most likely... wanna go fishing?" Naruto asked as he jerked his sword hand out and Excalibur Mimic transformed into a long golden fishing rod with silver fishging wire, a golden hook on the end of the wire. Naruto started to swing the rod around and around, building up momentum as he waited for the girl to open her mouth again.. With narrow eyes, he cast his holy fishing pole and the hook went zooming towards the beast's now open mouth, before hooking on both her tongue and cheek. Naruto grinned, before the girl was startled and started to sink down below the surface of the water.
"Gotcha!" Xenovia said as she circled her around Naruto and placed her hands on his pole, before they both started to get dragged forward when the girl trying to go under the water deeper, so Naruto started to reel her in as soon as possible while Xenovia helped him keep himself on almost dry land, it was still raining so the ground was still getting wet.
"It's a big on, time for that fishing practice the pay off!" Naruto shouted as he and Xenovia forced themselves to take a step back while he reeled her in, her head now stickinhg out from the water, her cheek being stretched more than a little bit as she looked back at them with not a small amount of panic in her eyes. It would seem that her personality was more like an octopus, run when you see even a small amount of trouble, the water around her turning deep black in response to the Stray Devil trying to escape in anyway possible.
"You haver been fishing before in your life!" Xenovia yelled towards him, and he grit his teeth as the two of them hit their backs against a nearby wall, not being able to go any further than they were. The girls head and upper body was plainly visible, but she was starting to gain the upper hand and go lower into the water again. Naruto using chakra to keep his grip on the holy sword, in fishing pole form, strong enough.
"I am now, and that is all that matters. Boy, will this be a story to tell my fishing buddies!" Naruto shouted playfully, knowing that they were well outside of the tentacle range at the moment, while Xenovia scoffed at Naruto, before they both got completely serious when they started to yank and reel in their biggest catch of the day, and hopefully only catch of the day. Xenovia took a hand off the pole before she reached and held Excalibur Destruction at the ready with a single hand, just in time too when she had to cut down a few tentacles that tried to slice at them, the devil girl screaming in pain at the holy sword inflicted wound, causing way more pain than a normal wound, her demonic energy being forced out through the wound with her blood, the tentacles that were cut off faded away into gold dust that faded into nothing.
When a Devil was killed like this, their souls were completely destroyed, no hopes of returning for him.
"Stop playing around already, you should have killed her the second you had her hooked." Xenovia muttered, and Naruto stopped thinking for a moment when he realized that he could have just done that intsead of this entire tug-a-war that they had going on. Naruto jerked the rod again, before the hook inside of the girl's mouth transformed and the devil child was surprised and jerked back when the sword came back to Naruto's hands and turned into the form of a normal sword. Naruto and Xenovia both started to charge towards the devil, a small race between them.
Jumping through the air, Naruto slashed her across the small chest and her entire body started to turn into golden dust from the deep cut being given to the relativally weak devil girl, and Xenovia grabbed Naruto by the hand and brought him back onto the ground before he could take a swim in the rapidly moving river, which could have taken him for bad ride. The body of the devil soon completely vanished, leaving no proof that she had ever even existed here in the first place.
"Sorry, but we still needed to pull her in before she could escape, unless you can swim and fight underwater at the same time. If that was a skill you mastered, then please let me know in the future." Naruto joked with a smile, while Xenovia sighed and shivered lightly when the cold water of the river shot up and splashed the two of them. Xenovia punshed Naruto in the arm second later for his comment, and since both of them were wet already they began to walk back to the church they left his bike at, and hopefully stay there for the night. Waterproof clothes for the win, but his pants were soaked.
"You know, this might sound weird, but I kind of like the rain right now. Nobody saw us killing a stray, so no need to erase any memories of this incident. Nothing went wrong either like the last time we killed a devil near the coast of Florida... I have never had as much sand in my suit as that day." Xenovia said with an uncomfy rub of her butt, the crack of which was showing from the back cut out part of the unitard that was there to let their skin breath. Sadly, Naruto remembered that as well, and sand in her crack was NOT something this unitard protected you from.
"I still remember the rash." Naruto agreed with a groan, never before had he been so humiliated over such a simple problem. Getting a sand rash was something you didn't jsut admit, not unless the person you are admitting it to also got a rash.
"I remember the plane ride with the rash." Xenovia commented back at him, and Naruto groaned at that.
"I remember throwing up in the bathroom after eating bad peanuts on a plane with a rush." Naruto said with a slight smirk, knowing that Xenovia was going to try and one-up him and lengthen what he just said by adding onto it.
"I remember when the rest of the people on the plans threw up from the bad peanuts after you threw up on the plane ride with a rash." Xenovia said, and Naruto raised his hands in defeat. That was pretty much all that happened after that mission had been finished, and the kill had been a sand loving crab-like Stray Devil that had dragged them through the sand for awhile before they cut it to pieces. The monster had been covered in crabs as well that it had attracted to them, so they had crabs for dinner that night when they got back home.
"Have to admit that the crabs were good tasting. Real fresh." Naruto licked his lips at the memory of the good meal, and Xenovia nodded. She had to admit that she really liked the taste of crabs after a hard mission, though the rash kind of sucked for the few days that it stayed. The two of them continued to talk as they walked towards the church, and when they got to the church they were surprised to see that the lights of the church were on, showing shadows in the windows. When the walked through the unlocked doors, they were both surprised when they saw that the nuns of the church were waiting for them with smiles on their faces, seeing that Naruto and Xenovia came back so soon could only mean that they had taken care of the problem.
Honestly, large bodies Stray Devils were the easiest to take care of because had had to overcompensate for their lack of power with larger bodies.
"Welcome back Father, Sister." The oldest nun of the church said as she came forward and gently guided the two of them towards the front of the church where a small table was sitting, a few plates of bread and a bowl of soup waiting for them after a job well gone. Naruto and Xenovia both thanked the sister for the food, before they silently started to fill their empty stomachs with their reward, using the soup to add flavor to the bread by dipping it into the soup before eating each bite, after saying their prayers for the meal that is. Naruto enjoyed the meal, even if it wasn't his favorite food that he hadn't had in a few years since that messed up mission to Japan that ended with them having to eat on the run when they learned the person feeding them the food WAS the Stray Devil... who had lured them into a trap and started to chase them, before they finished eating and killed the tricky bastard.
"If it would not be to much of a bother, would we be allowed to stay the night here before returning home tomorrow?" Xenovia asked politely, and the nun nodded her head with a smile on her face.
"I assure you Sister, it is no trouble. Both yourself and the Father have done this city a wonderful thing by killing the beast that has been killing our young ones, stay as long as you like." The nun assured them, and the two of them thanked the woman, before they returned to filling their stomachs. They would be waking up early tomorrow so that they could get home by lunch, then they would rest for a day or two before going on their next mission to another place. They liked going on missions, so they were constantly being given missions so that they could gain more experience, experience they would need in the situation that a war broke out again.
If that happened they would be sent to the frontlines, though they were being sent to the frontlines on missions anyway.
"The job is far from other, there are tons of beasts in this world that need to be slain. So long as Devils exist, then the world will still have a need for people to fight against them." Naruto whispered to himself, with Xenovia nodding lightly next to him. They were trained for this sort of situation, and even after all was said and done they would still be loyal followers of God, but being Exorcists was what they were trained for. Naruto transformed his sword into sunglasses, before putting them over his eyes with a smile on his face. Xenovia was smiling as well when she caught onto his hidden meaning.
With the Churches Two Strongest Idiots around, the Stray Devils had something to be frightened of.
Chapter End!
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