SailorStar9: After getting Chapter 38 out, this is Chapter 39 of this fic. (Sighs) Guys and girls, is it too hard for you to leave a review other than just simply putting this fic up on your favorited list and story alerts?
Disclaimers: I own nothing, except for the plot and pairing.
Chapter 39: The Pink Spider
"Mephisto!" Rin exclaimed, the Principal of the Japanese branch having stopped him, Suguro and Miwa from pummeling Shima any further.
"Long time no see, everyone." Mephisto winked. "Have you been dying to see me?"
"You..." Rin hissed.
"Stop." Mephisto hushed his younger half-brother. "If I don't return with you immediately, I'll make a troublesome guest from the Vatican wait. There we go." with a snap of his fingers, he materialize clothes on Shima.
"What are you talking about?" Rin asked.
"Eins...Zwei... Drei!" with another snap of his fingers, he teleported the group to his office.
"Where are we?" Kamiki looked around.
"We're in my office." Mephisto replied. "Johann Faust's mansion."
"Holy shit!" Lightning exclaimed at the door. "Sir Pheles' abilities are always so dramatic. It's just like magic. Hi. I'm Lewin Light. Nice to meet you all."
"Lightning!?" Suguro and Kamiki exclaimed.
"What?" Rin blinked. "Is he someone famous?"
"He's an Arc Knight like me." Ami informed from her spot against the wall. "And Angel's right-hand man. The reason he's called 'Lightning' is because of his expertise in chants and summoning ceremonies."
"Still so cold, Himura-chan..." Lightning whined. "Is this how you greet your peers after so long?"
"Not long enough, apparently." Ami fired back.
"You wound me oh-so-deeply, Himura-hime." Lightning complained.
"Is he really that amazing?" Rin wondered.
"You flatter me." Lightning stated.
"So, Angel and the Gregory are faring well." Mephisto noted.
"Yeah, thanks for your concern." Lightning nodded. "In another two or three days, Angel will come back. Thanks to Angel, the Gregory went practically unscathed as well. Are you Okumura Rin?" he was immediately in front of Rin. "The one who inherited the blood of Satan? I've always wanted to meet you. That's amazing. You have no aura at all. Just like an ordinary teen. Himura-chan..." he whined, finding himself rooted to the ground via Ami's stasis rune.
"Can we please get back to the reason why we are here, Lightning?" Ami shook her head and removed her rune.
"That's right." Lightning remembered. "Sorry, sorry. Well then, everyone, take a seat." he pulled out the sofa set in Mephisto's office. "You're Shima Renzou, the one who succeeded in becoming the spy for the Illuminati, right?" he addressed Shima. "I must hand it to you and Sir Pheles. Well done."
"The Order of the Knights had always wanted to get inside information about the Illuminati." Ami added. "But since Mephisto isn't trusted by the higher-ups..."
"That's truly regrettable." said Demon King sighed.
"So, Himura-chan and I came here to determine whether or not Shima can be trusted." Lightning revealed.
"If we can't trust him, what will happen to Shima?" Miwa asked.
"I'll have to use the 'Legilimens' spell to delve into his mind and simply extract the information we need." Ami shrugged. "But I'd rather not do that; free will and what not."
"That's why we had you guys come here." Lightning added. "To verify this from as many sides as we can, you see? Then first, Shima, a question for you." he turned to Shima. "How were you able to come back to the Order of the Knights?"
"You see..." Shima started, revealing that he had been ordered by the Illuminati to return.
"In short, that means that you've been recognized as a spy by both the True Cross Order of the Knights and the Illuminati?" Lightning mused.
"But in truth, I'm not sure whether I'm trusted by the Illuminati or not." Shima admitted.
"It's all right." Lightning assured. "I tell you, it'll work. They haven't tried to kill you yet. You must be a great asset to them, believe me."
"Then, how we'll use him is what we're here to discuss." Mephisto remarked. "If we use him well, we may be able to take the advantage over the Illuminati."
"Right." Lightning agreed. "But as we said, whether we can trust Shima is the first and foremost thing."
"Indeed, if Shima were to betray us, there's a possibility we could be misled by the information he is giving us." Yukio concurred. "We must make it clear."
"That's why we want to ask, from your point of view, is he a man you can trust?" Lightning posted the question. "You guys are close to him, right?" he reminded when silence filled the room.
"There's no way we can trust him, obviously." Rin stated.
"Well, that's not like you." Mephisto teased. "You would usually shout 'Shima is our comrade', or something like that."
"You're wrong!" Rin snapped. "That's you!"
"Me?" Mephisto echoed.
"It's because you're not trusted that Renzou is suspected in the first place!" Rin accused. "He's your spy after all! Don't come and say that he's a traitor or whatnot! Everyone, maybe you don't know about this guys, but he's called Samuel! He's one of the Demon Kings!"
"And?" Ami was not amused.
"He may be an ally of Lucifer or Satan, you know." Rin argued.
"Nii-san." Yukio sighed. "He is Samuel, the King of Time. Everyone knows that. "His identity is common knowledge among Exorcists. He's even listed in the Illustrated Guide to Demons."
"But he has a point." Kamiki admitted. "I'm thankful to Sir Pheles for keeping my little sister safe. But why wasn't I informed? If I knew when I was enrolled in this school, I would have..."
"So, this argument has completely shifted to me." Mephisto whined.
"That's not all." Kamiki snapped. "This guys said he was enrolled by Todo!" she pointed to Shima. "If that's true, then he must have known that Todo was a traitor before the 'Left Eye' of the 'Impure King' was stolen!"
"You're right." Mephisto admitted. "I know that as well. In the end, it somehow wronged the Kyoto branch and the people who died, I'll admit."
"Then what was that fight for?" Suguro demanded.
"From the start, Sir Pheles has been suspicious in every way." Yukio stated. "The possibility that Amaimon's and Neuhau -sensei's attacks were set up by Sir Pheles. I can only tell you this now, but during our first class, the appearance of the hobgoblins was something I caused under Sir Pheles' orders to test nii-san's skills."
"What?" Rin exclaimed.
"And moreover, the biggest mystery is," Yukio glared at Mephisto. "Why did you spare the life or raise the bastard son of Satan?"
"Everyone," Mephisto chuckled. "It seems you've finally started to warp your heads around things. But why are you me this only now? Indeed as you said, I was influential in each of your trials. For the plan I set up for each of you, I won't let a single move to fail. To me, you are all my precious pieces that I can't afford to be missing. And I'm the player who moves the pieces."
"So, what do you mean?" Rin demanded. "That we are your toys?"
"It means, no matter what, I am not your enemy." Mephisto corrected. "Isn't that fact alone more than enough?"
"Like hell that's enough!" Rin snapped, his flames igniting. "What do you think people are?"
"Nii-san..." Yukio chided.
"You have no idea how foolish it is to bare your fangs at me." Mephisto warned, twitching. "Step back."
"Shut up." Rin glared. "Why should I do as you say?"
"That's obvious." Mephisto stated. "To win against Lucifer, being at the mercy of greater beings is just fine," he blasted Rin into the wall with a mere glance. "For worm-like beings such has yourselves. If you don't like it, you can try and show me how much you've grown."
"All right, let's not go any further than this." Lightning stepped in. "This is beside the point. Though I truly understand why Sir Pheles isn't trusted at all, even here. So you're telling us that you have zero trust in Shima too. Is that right?"
"Wait, please!" Shima wailed. "Give me a chance to defend myself too."
"I trust him." Suguro stated.
"Me too." Miwa agreed. "The Shima that I know, I believe him."
"Miwa isn't wrong." Shiemi concurred. "He's a very good judge in character."
"He's worthless." Kamiki snorted. "But I suppose he's not a bad guy. Even though he's worthless."
"Shima is our comrade." Rin added. "We're not letting you take his memories."
"I see." Lightning was appeased. "Well then, I suppose it's about time for me to leave."
"It's been your intention along, isn't it?" Ami deathpanned.
"Yup." Lightning grinned. "And for a while, at least. Compared to Angel and the other higher-ups, I'm a little different." with that, he exited the room. "So that this matter with Shima doesn't spread any further, I'll send a confidentiality agreement to everyone later. So, look forward to that."
"So Shima is..." Rin blinked.
"He seems to have escaped my interrogation for now." Ami nodded.
"That's a relief." everyone else sighed.
"Going back to what I am saying," Rin turned back to Mephisto. "That guy may have been satisfied and left, but I'm not done with you."
"Yeah, yeah, let's continue this conversation another time." Mephisto waved and teleported the group, minus Yukio, Shima and Ami, outside with a snap of his fingers. "Seems like we got through that somehow." he sighed, ignoring Rin's enraged scream. "You know, I'm pretty bad with this Lightning guy."
"It's kinda of obvious." Ami joked.
"What about us?" Yukio asked.
"I still have things to discuss with the three of you." Mephisto informed. "However... to keep a distance like that, they hit it where it hurts. These kinds of people are hard to come by. Don't you think so?" he glanced over at Shima.
"Yes, they are." Shima agreed. "That's one thing I know best."
"Well then, Okumura-sensei," Mephisto turned to Yukio. "Can I leave you with the task of informing Kirigakure-sensei of the matter we just discussed?"
"Yes." Yukio replied.
"It feels like the absolution went down all right, but that drained me." Shima stretched as the three teen left the building.
"Thanks for your hard work." Yukio voiced. "Then, we'll be going now."
"I almost forgot." Shima started. "Okumura-sensei, you met the Commander, right? I'm sure I heard that you met him. Am I wrong? You know he's whitish, he looks weak and gentle, but he's the King of Light, Lucifer."
SailorStar9: Now that's done, read and review.