New horizon
-XxXxXxX-
My trip to Japan was probably the first 'gritty' mission in my long line of church work as the lack of cover and fluidity of my mission showed even the professionals could have a ragged day in the office but I simply ruled out the events as an informative one.
The 'excuse' that I lined up to my commanding officer, archbishop Arndell, was for the matter of my cover being blown albeit lightly, I did care that the heathen freed Sellzen had mentioned my first name as oppose to my full name, it was a rather large sum of information given but in doing so I discovered the location of a large VIP, that being Rias Gremory
These targets weren't necessary 'hit' targets but more of the kind one should know of, if matters were to take a more drastic turn then the church would have key targets to go after if the world would step "behind the fan".
Dirty yes, but when is warfare clean?
This however, didn't seem to effect the archbishops opinion as I instead got a lecture on keeping everything that I do confidential, to which it went in one ear... And out the other
An archbishop was the kind to remain in the shadows and behind a comfy desk with an ass ton of paper work to kill all the time they had while the ones bellow them do all the dirty/wet work for them, sure they were fundamental in the church and the baby face for the public but they would never understand the workings of off the record battle fields, shadow wars if you will
Archbishop Arndell was promoted through a... less gritty way, so my respect for him was limited but like any other solider, command was the law, so I had no choice but to place my biggest "shit-eating grin" and acknowledge his "advice" with absolutely no dignity what so ever
Once all the matters of my missions were discussed and all of my details filed into the Vatican's Archive's I was dismissed.
-XxXxXxX-
*sigh*
For the first time in about three months I've had a decent amount of time to relax, with my almost endless job requests I felt outta whack with the time off.
Maybe I'm a workaholic?
I doubt it; I guess the life threatening jobs I take on are far more entertaining than the churches almost limitless variety of fun things to do; I am, of course being sarcastic, churches aren't known for their fun activities but their consolation of those in need of guidance
Unfortunately I wasn't in need of guidance so...
"How on earth does she handle being here all day?" I questioned to myself "You wouldn't happen to be talking about me would you?" question a female voice
"Guess I am now..." I retorted smoothly while remaining in my position, I knew Griselda was standing by the door frame to my room, I did leave the door open for her after all
"May I come in?" she asked politely, a small smile to add to her kindness "yes you may" I answered; she nodded before stepping into my moderately sized room
"It seems you have returned in well condition" she said while dropping her 'sister act', she now sounded more relaxed and friendly then the hollow voice of politeness that no one noticed but myself
"I'm glad to see you're still as lucky as ever" she continued while walking over and sitting in the bed side chair
"Luck isn't in my dictionary Griselda... didn't you know that?" I asked while opening an eye towards her, her response was a simple grin and a head tilt at my obvious smartass comment
"Yes of course I knew, I was just checking" she replied calmly, "speaking of 'just checking' did your two students return yet" I asked calmly
At my question the room suddenly grew deadly serious and I think the room began to drop a couple degrees; I wasn't exactly affected by it as I knew this atmosphere better than anyone and it was enough to answer my question
Griselda's sisterly side had just activated...
"Yes they did..." she said but she looked... frustrated? Dishevelled? I don't really know what a sister feels when it comes to having a loved one but I knew who would cause it
Xenovia...
I didn't need years of perception training to noticed the two held a sibling like bond as the two of them seemed to get along albeit one was scarier than the other but they did show a form of family like vibe.
Griselda took great care in raising the little "blueberry badass" named Xenovia, it was a nickname I gave here some time ago, she got it when I first met her at the age of 14 when she ran into me and then used me as a form of protection from the "grey haired ghoul", the reason she's known as the "blueberry badass" by yours truly is because I only know one person that would even dare an insult towards the grey haired women so to say she had balls was an understatement
Ballsy indeed
I never really expected Griselda to pick up being a sister as she herself was similar to me in both reputation and status so seeing her adopt the girl was like seeing a body build psychopath take on a weak hippie persona, horrific yet hilarious
"Ya gonna tell me their story of should I go and fined out myself?" I asked while smirking to her
"There's no need, her side would probably be "oh the vampire got a lucky break" or something along those lines" she said with a twitching eye brow
"What happened?" I asked with a raised brow of my own, sighing before she spoke Griselda began her story
"Before you left, both Xenovia and her partner, Irina Shidou, went on a vampire hunt in the east, by the order of their reports they had to dispose their cover in favor of chasing down their spooked target-"
"Not a very good start to an operation if you ask me" I added my two cents
"I don't recall asking for it" she snapped back calmly, "ooooh, touchy, touchy" I replied sarcastically but it seemed to only press her negative emotions further
"Isaac?" she asked with 'that smile'
Seeing as though the room started to smell like ozone I withheld my tongue "continue" I said politely terrified
"As they chased down their target they had run into an ambush, a vampire nest is a better way of saying it..." she stopped when I cringed at their brashness, once she had snapped me a look that promised some kind of discomfort I let go of my inner nag in favor of hearing the rest of the tale
"The good news is that with my training as well as your advice on dealing with violent Youkai, the two managed to survive with little injury..." before I could comment she glared at me before continuing
"However, most of the nest was filled with just recently turned humans, so all that inhabited the nest was a few ghouls and rookie vampires who barely classified as novice fighters, so their victory was based on pure luck" feeling safe that her story was finished I placed a question into her mind
"Why the Doom and gloom then? I can imagine some form of scolding for acting brash but to see you this strung up makes me feel your eluding a curtain part in the story" at my words my old friend quickly pick up a rather cute expression of embarrassment, I knew she was forgetting something
"Well... all that remained was the nests patriarch, who was miles ahead in skill then the other vampires"
"So let me finish for you, both Xenovia and Irina had their asses handed to them?" I answered but Griselda brushed that guess off like a bag of leaves "no, he was easy"
Wait what?
"Do you remember the lesson on personal hygiene as well as proper combat preparation?" she asked suddenly, feeling a little confused at were this was going I nodded anyway
"Well Xenovia failed to understand the lesson" again I'm at an impasse, where was this going?
"Last time I check the two prepared just fine in the drills, I honestly think your over analysing this 'Grisy'" I said while tossing in the nickname I had given her
"What was that?" she asked dangerously causing me to pale slightly though I tried to hid my growing fear at my mistake
She hated that nickname;
I hate being to over relaxed sometimes, sh_t just flows out
"Nothing at all ma'am" I replied quickly all the while playing off my last comment... smoothly
"Her preparation is fine but it's the choice of hair she went with" she revealed
"Yes that needs to be worked on... wait what?" I hadn't expected a reasoning like that, for all purposes the lesson on hair was almost completely lost on me, when did we have that lecture? I don't know, all I know is that this wasn't what I had expected at all
"I told her to get it cut before leaving but she insisted it wouldn't be a problem, and sure enough it had almost cost her life... That brash child" for a while she ranted on about why it was important to be weary of hair length all the while I remained on my bed completely confused all the while thinking...
Huh?
After she calmed down she and I sprung up a much more mature conversation about my previous mission in kouh city, I had mention freed Sellzen and his appearance on my mission and she didn't seem to happy at all to hear about him, she was glad I sent him to his creator as I did and thanked me for ending a dark part of the churches history
Then came the part where I had my cover blown, scolding's from Arndell were painful but she took the cake, my ear was throbbing for minutes after her lesson of fluidity and that "a professional should set an example for the younger breed", to bad she was the only one who knew I was 'old breed', everyone else thought I was just a young prodigy exorcist
Soon after the conversation had died Griselda had been requested to her department for sister matters leaving me to my thoughts, about twenty minutes passed before I remembered something I had promised myself to do when I had returned to the Vatican
"Maybe this time off will help me learn about that blonde knight in the Gremory heir's peerage" lifting myself up I jumped off the bed and walked out my quarters fully dressing in my priest attire with a goal in mind
I guess time off isn't so bad after all...
-XxXxXxX-
Sometime later I found myself outside the Vatican's "library" which was actually the "Archive" for all past operations the Vatican had taken part in were stored here, it was obviously kept from public eye as the knowledge of the supernatural was still kept from civilians, so in order to get in one needs a clearance code to enter
I just so happened to have a code
Tapping in the code a small camera opened up above the doors frame, lifting my left hand up I took of my grey fingerless gloves and presented a tattoo crucifix, a second later and the door 'clicked' confirming my entry was accepted
Placing my glove back on I walked through the slide doors and into the Archive's reception office, across from me was a desk and a women who seemed to be caught up in paper work, since this place was the pinnacle of knowledge for the Vatican most of the work here was relaxed but extremely complex
"Hello Isaac, whet brings you here?" the women asked without even looking to me
"Good to see you're as busy as ever Claire" I replied, Claire was a rather young women with light brown hair, green eyes and rimmed glasses similar in color as her eyes, she was mostly known for her powerful mind. She was stationed in the Archive because of her near picture perfect memory on files of over thousands of Youkai worldwide, though I don't understand why she's at reception,
Stopping in her work the women stopped to look to me with a slightly annoyed expression, "Well when one works with a lazy topper like Darin, one needs to multitask to compensate loose ends"
Oh, did I forget to mention she's British?
"what is it this time Isaac, lifting of 'black inc'? Access to classified details on previous operations? shadow cell locations" she asked while listing off many options I had asked her for in the past
"I'm pretty sure those first two are the same thing" I mentioned lamely
"Either way it has to be high stake order... so what is it?" she asked while looking at me with curiosity, Claire had a thing with learning things and so when I stroll in she would clear her schedule just to learn what I'm learning
"nothing to high staked, I just want to search the system for a name" I informed, in a second a holographic screen appeared to my right, search systems were fired up and ready and everything was cleared for the search
This was the Nexus, a system of high grade elements both human and nonhuman combine together to create a technological advancement capable for searching otherwise unsearchable people and items, it could hack and do many other things I still find confusing, all I know is that it's better than any other computer, its search drive acted purely on divine energy, as long as heaven remained in existence then this would as well
"name?" Claire asked with no change in tone
"Yuuto Kiba" I replied while keeping my eye on the holoscreen, a second later and a dozen names popped up but known where what I was looking for
"try the list in the casualty section" I suggested but like before the name didn't show
"do you have any details of the person you are looking for other than just his name? I can run a much more accurate search if I have a physical description" recommended Claire
"Sure... he has blonde hair, blue eyes and a white completion... maybe European?" as I listed his physical features Claire's list sprang to life but for the third time in a row Yuuto's name didn't show up
"Something's not right... are you sure that's the full extent of the search options?" I asked, Claire searched her options while I thought of a possible mistake in my search
"the Nexus search option isn't suppose to be wrong, though I do remind myself to never trust a battery, but this isn't a battery, the nexus is a wide network of connections that flows all throughout the country as well as heaven, its core is updated by the hour and its security is updated at the same rate not to mention its divine protection helps as well, so why doesn't this work?" I remained silent as Claire continued to tap furiously on her keyboard
"maybe were looking in the wrong direction... Claire, what are the categories in the search process? more specifically what fractions are listed?" with my string of questions Claire's brain snapped into overdrive
"once this thing was commissioned a while back its core search functions had all three factions, heaven, hell, the fallen angel's, the rest of the worlds inhuman anomalies were added soon after the three were place in the Archive, every single one is baseline accessible except..." Claire drawled out while I smirked
"The casualties of the church" I finished for her, a soon as I said that a new list was brought up
"let's see here... ahh! Still isn't here! Are you sure this person isn't a delusion Isaac, four times four times we've search for this guy yet the nexus doesn't have a trace of him, he doesn't exist" Claire's patience was high, she put allot of faith in the nexus's functionality as it transcended all other computer but for it to come up dry four times in a row had most likely put a damper on her mood
I was surprised she wasn't as informed as I was
"no he's real, here" I said while walking to her desk, reaching down I pushed a few buttons before a audio entry page snapped up
"God our Father, Your power brings us to birth, Your providence guides our lives, and by Your command we return to dust. Amen" once the small partial prayer was complete the screen blink green before it opened up a new search key function
"Now search the name and detail of Yuuto Kiba" for a second Claire remained silent as she probably never knew I was technologically inclined, couple years ago she would be right but I was much more inclined now, I may even know a few things she doesn't
The copy and paste short cut doesn't count Isaac...
"Ok, I have his file... seems like he is real" Claire reviewed
"Pull up the page on the holoscreen Claire; I want to see where exactly I remember him from" a tap later and the file pulled up, if this was a physical file I'd have to blow off the dust cause this was blatantly in need of an update
The name was confirmed as well as Claire's previously established comment on his connection to the church but what I read in his overview didn't seem ethnical, and now I remembered why I didn't remember, the name rang a bell but his connection to the church wasn't an official member but a temporary one
"These records date back around 6 years ago, and why is his status temporary? In all my time I've never seen a position closely related to 'part-time'" Claire sounded confused which I for one understood completely,
"the reason we were never able to find him initially was due to the confidential nature of his connection to the church... have you ever heard of the "holy sword project" Claire?" I asked, Claire, for the first time, look nervous with both the information as well as the grim face I was holding
"No, I haven't heard of any project by that name" she answered, shifting slightly I indulged her curiosity "This was one of the darkest days the Vatican had been related to" by my words Claire remained silent due to my continued explanation
"6 years ago, a corrupt archbishop named Valper Galilei coordinated a top secret experiment that promised synthetic holy sword wielders. However, the project didn't go as planned, his experiments proved far too dangerous for normal humans to go through as before our knowledge of the projects existence 4-5 children were killed during the project's testing phase, it wasn't until later that we found out about his work, the order of his heresy followed after he disposed of the children" as I finished Claire looked to me with shock
"he disposed of them?" she asked clearing not believing what I had said
"Yes, to this day I don't understand why he did it, he was close to capture when he ordered them to be eliminated, the only reason why he escaped was due to a fallen angel's sudden appearance" I said, Claire seemed to be both angry and sad
"To think someone like him exists..." she said with a distant tone
Pulling up my phone I handed it to Claire whom had looked to me with confusion "load up all files related to this one onto my phone" receiving my phone Claire looked to me with still evident confusion
"Sorry Claire I've revealed to much already, I'll handle the field work while you make sure the intelligence stays intelligent" she looked disappointed but she otherwise relented
"It doesn't matter, you did show me a new portion of the nexus as well as reveal the audio code to get in to it, I haven't lost anything here..." I could see a small smirk on Claire's face grow as she handed me my fully stocked phone
"thanks and your welcome Claire, and I'll see you around" I said while smirking to here, she waved goodbye before getting back to her 'boring' side of her work
-XxXxXxX-
So Yuuto Kiba was a survivor of the holy sword project... no wonder he hates exorcists or anyone related to the church, it was us who put him through that hell, well it wasn't us, it was that disgusting man named Valper who did... sick bastard practically breath's heresy
With all that information about the Gremory heir's knight I stuffed it away for later study and instead decided to pick on a curtain 'blueberry long stocking' for obvious reasons, I may even teach them a little bit on proper mission execution
The Archive wasn't that far off from the training facility so my walk to it was a short one and I was luckily greeted by the two students of Griselda and myself training in the gym
Seems Xenovia had learned her lesson, she cut her hair, now it was short and messy. Aw, her sister would be proud
Sarcasm Isaac, keep it down!
I remained in the shadows as I watched the two spar, Irina's skills with the katana class weapon was as skill full as I remembered but like always it could be improved, out of the two of them Irina had taken after my style of weaponry, she didn't use the Iaido like I did as she believed it wasn't her thing, so instead she focused on a more basic style, ambidextrous sword play, two hand to one hand cycles, the kind of style used to deceive and expose the less then observant kind of target, she was currently working on the speed of her transitions as it would help her out wit the more observant kind of foe
Xenovia on the other hand focused on larger coat of arms, broad swords, great swords, claymores etc,
currently she was training with one handed use of her large swords, she was even able to dual wield the heavy training swords with ease, but her speed lacked to a skilled vampires favor so she needed to come to grips of using just one and not going over compensating on us, instead she used the same tactic as Irina, fast transitions between number of limbs used to swing and which hand she'd use to swing one handed
All in all, the both of them were skilled, not skilled enough to be the top five but they were up there in skill
I watched the two spar for 15 more minutes before the two finally stopped to regroup, they were about to go back at it but Irina noticed me before they could
"Isaac! Hey Isaac!" she yelled while flagging me down, waving back in return I decided to approach the two 'rookies' this was my objective so I didn't see why I'd ignore them
I chuckled lightly when I noticed Xenovia didn't turn to greet me and instead began a staring contest with her heavy training sword, I knew she wasn't absolutely happy to see me right now, since she didn't know of my long history with Griselda she classified me as Griselda's lap dog then an advisor and whenever I came by to greet them or they ran into me she'd always seem like she hated it when I called her out
Keep in mind I don't always "call her out" my reputation here was the kind but deadly exorcist and I was known to be the rowdy kind of 'kid' whenever I felt the situation demanded it, so I don't always nag as oppose to tease the odd hiccup here and there
And since I was mature inside and slightly immature outside I knew when to play it dense or ignorant
Smiling to Irina kindly I turned to Xenovia "No hello for me Xenovia?" I asked slightly offended, jumping slightly at having her named called out the blue haired female turned begrudgingly towards me, it wasn't much but she usually looked stoic
To see her sporting a new look while remaining stoic made me imagine a unimpressed cat dressed in something it doesn't find amusing in the least and I had to admit, the immature though actually made me chuckle internally a little
"I see you changed your hair style... looks nice, though why the sudden change?" I asked suddenly, an unnoticed look of relief passed over Xenovia as my question passed over the two exorcist partners, Irina giggled lightly at my question but remained silent so to let her partner answer
"I felt the need to, the long hair hindered my movement" she replied calmly
Pointing to my bangs I also pointed out her new color style it took a few seconds for her to realize what I was emulating but when she did all she did was look at me impassively and answer
"It's for style... do you like it?" she asked with her "un-amused" look
I took a moment to delve into my fashion designer instinct and came up with... nothing
My style was a simple taste, considered to some I may as well be a cut out from those old movies in black and white, though I may have more white then black I still lacked a curtain "ump" when it came to style so my true honest opinion was more or less neutral, the only "style" I had was my sword skills
So like any person who favors the positive aspect of relationships I went with the more obvious approach
"It fits the short style well... what do you think Irina?" I said kindly while asking Irina's opinion, I could see Xenovia visibly cringe at my question because unlike herself Irina acted more her age then she did
One may say even younger than her age
Without skipping a beat Irina quickly hugged the bluenette from behind while smiling over her shoulder at me
"I think she looks cute in this style" she said flamboyantly all the while Xenovia looked like she wanted to disappear
"Irina..." Xenovia said in a low embarrassed tone, Irina however remained ignorant to her embarrassment and only looked to her in adorable confusion
"Um?" she asked innocently
"You're clinging..." said the embarrassed bluenette; Irina and Xenovia must have a mutual understanding to personal borders or something as the simple line Xenovia had uttered had stopped Irina's actions cold
'Seems they've grown closer since the last time I saw them' I thought as I watched them bicker a little, the reason I hadn't seen them In a month or so was the resent incline in events involving the three fractions, mostly fallen activity, but usually if one moved the other two would follow
So like any other exorcist I was commissioned to work until we had as much order as possible, It wasn't until now that I had found a decent time to just wonder the halls of the Vatican's secret section that being the Archive, training section and the baptism cathedral
It's been so hectic that I've seen more hotel beds then my own
Then again the recent incline in operations has also brought a positive outcome to the ranks of the exorcists, after Irina and Xenovia graduated their scholars test in the Vatican's library both had been recommended to be partners, however, they showed to be incapable of getting along for very long
To say they were incompatible would be an understatement and even a handful of archbishops had questioned their partnership, I however defused their doubts by simply saying that in order for an incompatible team to become a team they need to find their comfort zones in order to collaborate like a unit
And by the looks of things, my choice in partnering them had proven to be a spot on decision, Irina always expressed an energetic attitude but when things grew serious she'd drop it the minute things broke loose
Xenovia was however different to her partners more flamboyant persona, instead of being an energetic spunk like Irina, Xenovia kept to herself most of the time, she showed more interest in church work then show any desire to embrace her own self, that being a young women
Her past was spotty, fellow exorcists with troubled pasts are usually kept in the dark for personal reasons; the skeletons should remain in the closet after all, however, in order for teams to be chosen correctly one must delve into the closet to see just who that person is
Back in the day such actions were frowned upon but after the events in Europe involving a curtain nutty priest things had become far more lenient in terms of recruiting, the church didn't want to have that mistake happen a second time
All I could say about the bluenette was that she had gone through a tough life and it seemed the church was a good way for her to drown out her past
Somehow I find her relating to Asia in a way... I wonder how she's doing right now.
Shrugging lightly at my thoughts I looked to the two teens in front of me and invited them to a training session to which they quickly adopted a scared and nervous expression
Heheh, think you'd get away from me did ya?
-XxXxXxX-
Kouh academy/ old school building/ with Rias
After the events involving the fallen angels things had died down for the Gremory peerage, though things remained interesting they were far from life threatening to any of the members of the devil house hold
All that remained was unfinished business, currently the time in Japan was past mid night and almost all of the devils in the kouh territory were either home or somewhere else doing personal matters, however, the only one that remained active was a red haired devil named Rias Gremory whom at first sight showed a elegant women with a high sense of pride
But like any first inspection, observation's never revealed the true emotions completely
Rias couldn't understand her nervousness; just over a day ago she had been fronted with a fallen angel problem, not her first rodeo but her training with 'terrorists' lacked severely, she had been trained to deal with a problem yes but she was never warned of other involved parties
That one point being the mysterious priest that had shown up at her door step, uninvited and unwanted, he did show a level head and a complete understanding to the importance devils had to territories but she still sensed of level of carelessness from the platinum haired man
His message was the first sign of that
She knew of experienced individuals but he showed her that she had yet to see true experience; she gritted her teeth slightly at having her pride stepped on inadvertently
The man's words and actions before leaving had left her both humiliated and scared, scared at his power and humiliated at how much his words had proven correct
How so?
Not an hour after leaving the park she had felt a true instinct to make Asia her new bishop, the offer was far too good to just turn down, and the fact the girl had accepted albeit hesitantly made her grit her teeth even more, that mans knowing smirk irked her greatly
It was almost like he just knew her personally...
Then again, experienced exorcist's were known to understand devil desires far more then rookies and this man read her like a book, he knew her family was kind and she herself fully agreed that harming Asia was not theGremory way so he was right, she hated to admit it but he was spot on with that common knowledge
What bugged her more was his identity, she was trained by her brother that knowledge and Intel was a far better weapon then any gun or sword
This was the full reason she had remained awake, her best friend and rival Sona had been tasked with finding as much information on any exorcists by the name "Isaac"
She had been waiting some time for her reply from Sona but it seemed to be delayed, she ruled it out as Sona trying to get as much information as possible to present to her, she was known to be peculiar in her research so the delay was understandable
All she had to do was wait until...
"Rias" called out a male voice; however it sounded like a transmission
To Rias, the male voice lined in static interference sounded all too familiar to her, her response to the voice however didn't show she had expected it
"Eep!" she yelped in surprise while quickly turning in her chair to see a young man about 20-25 years of age with crimson red hair completely identical to her own, his attire consisted of red and gold Pauldron's lined in three layers while his entire body was cloaked in a black cape
This man was Sirzechs Lucifer and apparently Rias Gremory's older brother, normally the red headed female would be greeted with an abundance of affection but right now the normally flamboyant man looked serious as his bluish green eyes looked blank
The Gremory heir quickly calmed herself at her brother's appearance and addressed him normally "hello brother what can I do for you this evening?" she asked as if his visit was just as it was perceived "a simple visit"
The red haired man didn't seem to acknowledge her question as he instead cut to the chase
"I hear you are researching someone?" he question with a calm tone but it carried a knowing edge to his otherwise polite tone, Rias nodded to him in response "I am, I normally wouldn't ask this of you as you have more important matters then simple research but I require your assistance" Sirzechs closed his eyes calmly at her requested
"If this matter is so unimportant then why am I hearing about it? More importantly, if this wasn't as 'important' as you say it is then I wouldn't be the one calling as someone else would answer your call in my place... But here I stand" the man's words rang out dryly leaving the room in utter silence
Rias was left in silent shock, she knew her brother was never the kind to speak to her so condescendingly, she had seen it before when he relayed orders to his follows but to see him speak to her in such manner only suggested one thing
This wasn't her brother calling... it was "Lucifer"
To put it simply, his tone carried a commanding edge, a tone that carried a full load of business that she had not been the receiver of; this however left her confused
"What are you saying?" she asked, the man before her suddenly turned and began to walk around her desk, a flicker in the demonic hologram made her brothers image shimmer slightly before a holographic desk came into view a few inches from her brother, on the desk laid a single piece of paper
"Does this answer you confusion a little" he asked while lifting the paper up to her view, a look of realization passed over her as the Sitri family symbol could be seen on the pages top right corner as well as a signature was seen located at the bottom of the page, the name Sirzechs Lucifer clearly seen as the aforementioned signature
"A couple days ago in underworld time a curtain maou by the name of Serafall leviathan received a reclusive identity request from her sister personally, upon reading said request Serafall saw to it to address me in the matter which leads me to this point in time... so I ask for confirmation, is this description correct?" he asked while looking her square in the eyes
For a good minute Rias remained confused, however, the simplistic reasoning on why her brother had contacted her personally rang a bell within her mind
It was extremely rare for the devil kings to contact outside sources on requested pieces of Intel as they were usually handed down to the underlings due to them having more time to look into them
But when those selected moments were a maou contacts the outside source personally it usually means one of two things, 1) you had just uncovered a devil kings personal crisis and now they are here to either silence you or ask you to "forget" and 2) the matter of the topic is way too far up the chain and they are here to grind your search to a halt
Putting two and two together Rias realized he was here for the latter
"This is to far up the top isn't it?" she asked, instead of keeping his serious expression the man named Sirzechs smiled lightly at his sister's intuition as his hinting must have confirmed his earlier question
"As far as you are concerned, yes it is but I'm willing to relent you a small amount of Intel... for safety reasons of course" he informed making Rias's slightly down casted expression shot up to her brothers eyes with surprise but a look of confusion followed after it
"Wouldn't that be a sign of treason?" she asked with still evident confusion, Sirzechs on the other hand just smiled to her simply
"that would normally be the case but exceptions can be made, you are my sister after all so I don't see why I can't" most of the time Rias didn't truly enjoy being around her brother as he could be known as a little too attached to showing affection to her but he had his moments of inadvertent affection
The Gremory hair remained patient as her brother lifted another sheet of paper and examined it, Rias's eyes grew large when she noticed the sheer level of black Inc on the papers contents and immediately grew curious as to what information she would learn from her brother
"As per warning I would like to ask that what we speak of never leave this room, under any circumstance should this information be leak it must be kept with those you trust most... this is classified information Rias, guard it well" warned Lucifer as he looked to the now ready Rias Gremory
Placing the paper down, Lucifer informed his sister what she wanted to know "to be honest the man you know as Isaac has only been known as a simple ghost, it wasn't until Sona's identity request did we actually connect the dots..." he informed, Rias however quickly interjected with a question
"You knew of him even before today?" she asked, Sirzechs seemed hesitant before answering
"...Yes" he replied, seeing his sister's eyes widen slightly he chose to explain
"The information we have on him is limited, as of now you and Sona Sitri are the only ones to contribute information on him in over a year and that's only his name, but we see it as better than nothing as all we've been able to do is track his movement's, even if we are lagging behind a good day or so" explained Sirzechs as Rias grew more and more interested
"So you're saying you're searching for him... what for? War crimes?
Shaking his head Sirzechs clarified his sisters guesses "none of the sort, actively hunting a member of the church would strain the trust bonds we have with heaven" the words of Sirzechs eased the seriousness that had started to take hold of the young women's thoughts, before she could ask another question he continued
"Since we didn't have much data on him Ajuka Beelzebub had started to connect the dots" finishing his story Sirzechs looked to his sister as if waiting for the inevitable question
"What we're the connections?" she asked to confirm
"Just speculation of course but we made one big find some time ago" pausing for a moment to read over the paper Sirzechs continued
"This may come as a surprise but would you be willing to believe this?" he asked suddenly, steeling herself Rias nodded strongly
"Shoot"
"The data that had accumulated the most information on Isaac was located in Europe, decrypted from a church broadcast comm's channel during an incursion" after the devil king had muttered those lines Rias froze
"We didn't pick up much as the interference with our magic had only gotten spotty Intel but what we found had satisfied the upper echelon of the council... I myself had been satisfied" pausing for a moment Sirzechs noticed Rias look extremely shaken
"W-was this at the same church Yuuto-
"Yes" he answered quickly, Rias's eyes widened considerably at the revelation Sirzechs words had caused, ignoring the information Rias quickly sealed away her shock and pressed on with the more important information... Yuuto's past could wait
"What did the transmission withdraw?" she asked, Sirzechs eyed her for a second to see if she was anymore troubled then she already was before continuing
"The paladin of the church has arrived, may _ have mercy... Any other bits were far to spotty to decrypt" he revealed while leaving out the obvious pain inducing name
"A-a paladin?" asked the red head
"At first we were confused but by the tone, we guess it was either rank or a reputational title given to him for act's that coordinate with the word "paladin" but we are more leaning towards the former, a title like that isn't given to everybody" explained Lucifer, Rias placed her hand on her chin in contemplation
"How did you know it was him? For all we know that could have been someone else, the church is very secretive so I wouldn't be surprised if there were other people like Isaac" Rias's reasoning drew a brisk nod from her brother
"A good assumption but we had already made the connections that it was him, and to make it even easier, the incursion on the church in Europe had involved heretic's of the church that had the decency to withdraw some Intel during the raid, all in all the heretic's wanted to release as much Intel they knew about him... but judging by how pathetic that was I guess they knew nothing of him to begin with" shaking his head slightly to rid himself of the cringe worthy comm's interception Sirzechs looked to his sister regretfully, but before he could speak his sister`s expression drew close to a look of revelation
"What is it Rias?" he asked with confusion
Steeling away her emotions Rias looked to her brother with slightly shaken eyes
"That incident at that church happened six years ago... Isaac looked like he was only seventeen" the words of his younger sister forced Sirzechs to reel in his desire to divulge all information accumulated of Isaac to his sister as know he felt he had gone too far
"Before you ask any more questions, I'm gonna haft to stop you here, I have already gone over the boundary of classified Intel, any further would be irresponsible on my part" with that done the red Satan place the paper back onto the table before the table vanished from sight
Rias for the most part steeled away her thoughts but she suddenly put two and two together
"You look trouble Rias, mind if I ask why?" asked the worried Satan, shifty slightly in her seat Rias answered
"With the Intel you've given me I've become worried about my night Yuuto..." she replied
"You fear he may act on this if he learned of it...? If I recall correctly the boy doesn't take anyone related to the church kindly" he paused to think for a moment before continuing "Rias, I highly recommend keeping this information away from him at all cost, if Yuuto Kiba were to learn of Isaac's relations to his past... then he's as good as dead" Sirzechs warned seriously
"you make it sound as if he's stronger then all of us..." muttered the young women
"He is, and I'm not gonna sugar coat it, during the many investigations we had done on our search for Isaac we had come across many different Youkai species, many of whom seemed ultimate class in nature" revealed Sirzechs
"What kind of level would he be? Among us devils I mean" Rias asked though Sirzechs only smirked before his image began to fade
"I'm sure you can guess, anyway, I believe you have more important matters to worry about" after the words left his lips did the demonic hologram vanish with a soft crack leaving a silent Rias Gremory in her own depressing thoughts
He was right... she did have other things to worry about, but she still had too many question left unanswered
-XxXxXxX-
"My, My, I didn't know you two could move so slowly" I taunted as I swiftly "slapped" away a downward strike from Irina and side stepped a strike to my right from Xenovia
For the last two hours I had been, for lack of a better term, dancing around the two younger exorcists like a professional dancer straight from dancing school, normally this would have ended a while ago but due to my sensei like attributes I had opted to stretch the drill longer as a form of punishment for their previous blunder on their operation
I'm sure they realized this after the hour mark as their fatigue was becoming evident but I wasn't about to let this lesson end just yet
*Huff* *Huff*
The sound of lagging breathe echoed through the empty training room as both Irina and Xenovia both fought to capture their breathe, tried but failed
Two hours of constant battle would take it out of almost everyone; I guess this just showed how far they had yet to go to reach me in skill
"What is the *huff* Meaning of this father Isaac...? We've been going *huff* at this for hours, why the long *huff* *huff* long training?" questioned Irina as the confusion didn't leave her, Xenovia on the other hand seemed to understand why however.
"I think your partner knows why, why not ask her" I replied cryptically, turning to Xenovia, Irina asked the pending question
"What does he mean Xenovia?" she asked as she noticed the bluenette start to shake slightly in comedic fashion
"She told you, didn't she?" Xenovia looked slightly fearful at the revelation of the past events
"Maybe...maybe not" I teased as I leapt from my position, my sudden burst in speed must have shocked the two as I had yet to move since we started this little session but when I finally did the two didn't even get their weapons up fast enough
WOOOSSHH!
At speeds un-traceable by the human senses the two Vatican operatives found themselves both pinned, Irina found the scabbard of my sword lying comfortably behind her neck and Xenovia found the blunt side of my Zetsurin sword to her throat
"Let's take a look at this in retrospect" I started while keeping the two in the locked position "from what I remember, you two were tasked with neutralizing a vampire...A simple task for two exorcists but it's a different story when its executed with... brash action"
The two ceased in their struggle to escape my trap when my tone became that of a teacher, the two could be rebellious at times but even then they understood the concept of learning from a senior as the words from a person with experience can prepare those with none
"Mistakes happen, its life really anything can happen at any given time and sometimes it happens at the worst possible situation imaginable" the two grew down casted expression's by my pity speech but that was dashed when I released them from my lock and proceeded to bonk them in the head lightly with my scabbard
"Ow, what was that for?" whined Irina as she and Xenovia rubbed their heads in mild discomfort
Sheathing my blade I replied with a simple shrug before continuing my little lesson
"Anyways, what I was trying to teach you in our little sparring match was a simple lesson I myself learned a while ago, it's a meager concept but its long lasting effects can help you progress to a professional skill set" at my words the two fell into line so to listen
"Normally, a person put in a dangerous situation can act on pure instinct alone but that can sometimes lead them into even more dangerous situations... my training will help in keeping brash decisions from arousing" after I finished the two looked to each other before Xenovia responded
"So, this will be like adrenaline training" she said as if it was as clear as day, clapping my hands I smiled at her words
"Precisely, its true adrenaline helps in neutralizing high amounts of pain but it also causes you to act on pure base instinct and some choices made appear unreasonable" for a moment the two processed the training concept before it dawned on them
However, before I could continue with the training we were interrupted
From the training room entrance stood archbishop Arndell whom looked both solemn and slightly desperate, his middle age showed his urgency as being visited personally was a massive red alert in my mind
"Archbishop Arndell!?" the two behind me said in urgent surprise as they quickly kneeled in respect, I however looked more confused by his sudden appearance outside his office
Something big was up
"You may rise children" he said with only small amounts of politeness, his gruff tone sounded far too quick in pass to warrant an at ease persona
"What seems to be the problem, archbishop?" I asked in a calmer tone
"Father Blackburn, I need you in my office immediately" he said while looking to me with urgent eyes, he then quickly looked to the two other exorcists in the room
"If you two aren't already assigned to a task consider yourselves reassigned to mine, come with me" after his words left his mouth both my eyes as well as Xenovia's and Irina's widened considerably
Archbishop Arndell was the overseer for only a select few that including me, and his operations usually went over everyone else's as they were the far more important ones, the fact Arndell had asked both Irina and Xenovia to tag alone, keep in mind the two were both unqualified to reach his command yet was a direct sign that he was strung out for man power
Or this was something else completely
Nodding to the man's words, I looked to the two behind me and gestured them to follow, for some reason the two looked shell shocked but when I looked to them, they looked to me for advice to which my aforementioned gesture caused them to fall in line behind me as I followed the urgent archbishop to his office
-XxXxXxX-
For some reason the walk to the Archbishops office took longer than normal but that was because my mind was rolling a mile a minute and judging by the small whispers from the two behind me guessed that they were probably asking themselves what was going on as well
For an archbishop to personally summon you... well... some sh_t was going down, nuff said
But what could do this, or what was up
All I knew was that my questions will be answered soon...
A couple minutes later and we found ourselves in the office of the archbishop, whom wasted no time to getting down to business; however I couldn't help but criticize his actions up to this point
For a hardass he really needed to steel away his nerves so to keep that reputation, his actions just reminded me that I wasn't working for a black ops unit in a military but a church that had a public reputation of being the peace keepers and most of the churches staff were actually civilian, Arndell included
"What is the problem archbishop?" I asked so to catch the man's attention
For a minute he quickly skimmed through his papers before finding a letter, wordlessly he handed it to me, taking the letter I skimmed over it
The letter read like this:
To archbishop Arndell,
For speed prepossess I'll make this quick—the heretic's have attack our noble cathedral in London! We don't know the circumstances on the attack but we have suffered loses, we have been cleared by the royal embassy that assistance would be greatly appreciated.
Send your best
Regards, st. Paul's cathedral, London, England
After skimming the contents of the short but informative letter I looked to Arndell
"When did this occur?" I asked
"An hour ago, the letter was the only form of awareness we've received" he replied while sifting through his papers
Handing the letter over to Xenovia I kept my slew of questions rolling "I take that we are the only form of response you have?" I asked, archbishop took a solemn nod before replying "Yes, every other operative is over sea's dealing with other operation's to deep to abandon so you three will be my response unit" pausing a moment he looked to the two other exorcist's
"I'm handing you a large responsibility, are you up for the task?" his question carried more meaning to the two then he realized as not a second after did the two kneel down low
"We are at your command, archbishop"
"That's good to hear, rise" after the two rose from their kneeling positions I smiled to them for a quick second before turning back to the archbishop seriously
"London, England, st. Paul's cathedral" I said to which he just nodded, without anymore words the three of us turned and left the bright office each of us determined to complete our new joint task
-XxXxXxX-
A couple hours earlier/ London, England/ st. Paul's cathedral/ time 12:34 Pm
Standing at a height of 6' 1" was a man whom looked to be a young boy with black hair, his attire looked to be mostly all black in color as well, his long over coat was draped over his black dress shirt and grey vest underneath while he wore dark colored dress pants and dress shoes.
His pace was brisk and carried a commanding edge to it that caused a few people to stare to which he returned it with a smile
His destination was obvious; st Paul's massive structure loomed over the teens head like a monolith
"Such a fine building" he muttered while walking into the structures interior
To say the building was massive would've been the biggest understatement, the interior was massive, and in the middle of the cathedral was a huge open space filled with various paintings located on the roof and candles
For the most part the teen ignored the attractions and continue towards the main alter in the room far from him
Walking through the massive dome in the middle of the cathedral the black haired man passed the unlit candles near a table; however every single one of them became ignited when he passed them by
As the teen grew closer to the alter the dark cathedral began to become even darker by the teens every growing proximity to the alter however his pace was halted by a voice from behind him
"Hello?" called out a soft voice, turning towards the voice the young man saw a young brunette women whom seemed too shy to describe
"Hello" he replied politely
"Um... the cathedral is closed right now so, would you kindly follow me?" she asked, however she nearly jumped when the teen she was speaking to was directly in front of her, a soft smile adoring his expression all the while
"Mister?" she asked in confusion
"That's too bad, I was hoping to enjoy the wonderful art, perhaps you could make an exception" he replied while looking into her eyes, the women seemed to become lost in them before all light in her eyes was drained and empty eyes remained
"I'll take that as a yes" he said with a darker tone as the emotionless women wordlessly walked past the man and towards the alter from across the room, the teen smiled at her when she stopped at the altar and place her hands together in prayer form
After mumbling a phrase a secret alter opened from the floor to the man's right
"Good girl" he said as he patted the girls head affectionately before the two walked into the passage way all the while leaving the door open
From within the secret alter door lead a stair case that spiraled cloak wise, for a good moment the emotionless sister led the black haired teen down the stairs before they finally reached a room with various symbols on the doors framed as well as the door itself
At the sight of the door the black haired teen stopped along with his accomplice whom remained emotionless and numb
"Now that's trouble some... if only I had a sister to help me, oh wait, I do Hehehe" the teen said with a dark tone of comedic fashion, leaning to the girls level he whispered a single phrase into her ear before the sister stepped towards the door and opened it with only minor effort, however the girls hands sizzled when she made contact but judging by the lack of pain acknowledgement she didn't seem to be affected
Once the door was opened the girl stopped to look to her hands emotionlessly, however her level of care ceased as she simply dropped her hands to her side and remained in place
"This may sting a little bit" said the teen before his entire form transformed into that of a black cloud of smoke not a second later did the black smoke mold directly with the girl's body
For a second she remained immobile but after a while she smiled with a dark expression, eyes blazing with orange fury
Keeping the expression on his/her features the sister walked into the room with her entire form smoking with a black substance however the smoking effect faded when the symbols in the room faded away leaving the runes effects useless
For a few minutes the girl searched the room's contents before her eyes fell on a second door with glass walls, luckily for him/her the door didn't have any runes etched into the foundation but what was worse was the five priest's inside of the glass room but that didn't seem to detour the man who was possessing the women as he instead smiled with savage glee
Walking up to the entrance of the glass cube the possessed girl took notice of a capsule directly in the middle of the room, and each priest was doing various research duties on it
With a loud whine the metal door hissed open alerting those within the glass cube, and for some reason they were unhappy with the disturbance
"This room is off limits, leave immediately or be branded a heretic!" ordered the man two the girls left, the others also looked like they wanted to word their displeasure but they froze at the cold laugh that escaped the girls lips
"HEHEHEHE!" the laugh sounded distorted as the echoic tone etched with the girls innocent tone made an ominous aura fall upon her features
The black smoke around the girl sprung to life as its black inky form left the innocent girl to fall to the floor with a look akin to pain; the rooms occupants noticed this and looked to the girl before they looked to the black smoke that took over the other haft of the glass room's interior
All sound ceased as the five priests's looked to the black smoke with fear, after a minute of staring a single priest reached into his collar and pulled out a crucifix but his action stopped when his throat clenched up as if he was being choked
"Now now, let's not get hasty here—the parties only just starting" the black smoke began to twist and condense until the man from before finally took shape, but this time his eyes were burning embers of orange
"Now would all you kindly...DIE!"
-XxXxXxX-
A/N: hello
Now I'm gonna start by quickly apologizing with the long wait, things are getting hectic here as I've become busy but before that I'll address a few things about the stories next path
I've gone to great lengths to create a unique character and story as the resurrection ones have grown like weeds in this story section and so I'll be including many things that will spicen this universe up considerably (the rant builds up...) anyways
Qweenashleyfox: you called it, since Isaac left the Gremory territory I've been cooking up an original arc that connects the Kokabiel arc together... they never really did delve into that in the anime (rant intensifies) so I saw to it as a wide open net to shoot myself a unique arc... I'm even adding in a substitute OC for ol freed as, well, he's dead (good riddance) hope you like the arc anyway ;)
"Vegeta what does the scanner say about Derek's rant level?"
"It's over 9000!"
-Rant levels exceeding baseline parameters-
High school DxD Born has literally taken WTF to a whole other level I mean they transcended from it to a level similar to "I was gonna clean my room... until I got high"
Yeah high as f_ck is more like it!
Ok this is when I start tearing sh_t up
So episode eight came along and I was like "huh? Should I? Ah screw it, I started this I'm gonna see it through"
During the episode Diodora Astaroth starts doing sh_t that would normally cause everyone on this planet to turn his face into a bubbling paste if we got our hands on him
What does issei do you ask? Well after punching him a few times he decides to spare the little sheet like any other cliché character we see in anime these days
I'm sick and tired of these devils acting more human than we are I mean his ass should have been castrated with a broken beer bottle but nooooo, its more human to leave a piece of shieeet like Diodora alive cause we're good devils
Are-are you serious?
Every fucking anime character always follows that dumbass way of ideals—lawful good, which I'm sick of and I know you guys are too, and to add to that every female character always falls for it like it's some god send, seriously its getting extremely old Japan
The balance between good and evil in anime is so off balance that every villain makes you want to beat their mothers to death with their family dog but the protagonist's, the ones who SHOULD be conveying our anger always go
"Nah, I'm gonna let you live" and then leave our anger to boil over like an unanswered boner
No, just no, fairy tale is painful enough with all the "spare your enemies and they become friends" bullsh_t (Glares at Minerva with great levels of malice)
Juggernaut drive was hawt though I'll give them props for that... f_ck you Shalba
Then episode 10 comes along and meh its ok, a little bit of dialogue to grind out the confusion and then WHAT DA FUCK RIAS?!
Honestly...wat
Does that happen in the light novels? If it doesn't then High school DxD smoke weed every day
Ok so after Rias or as I caller know "pair of tits #1" goes down the "damsel in distress routine" we're left with issei being more confused than a drunk man after a night at the stripper club
No anger Bruh? Come on pair of tits #1 just went rouge and you want to be harem king, here are some tips: when they step outta line... YOU GOTTA SLAP SOME HOES!
I know I sound like I'm coming across as the wife beater kind but I'm just trying to explain what it takes to be a pimp king
Anyways episode 12 helped me learn why pair of tits #1 went all dumbasses on me in the first place,
She wanted issei to put her on a first name basses
(Brain erupts)
I was so pissed that I just dropped all my sympathy for pair of tits #1, its just gone
I mean seriously? After that every time she pulled the longing expression I could help but roll my eyes and proceed to give zero F_ck's about her feelings
Get back in the line women, we all know Rosswiess is taking the stage next couple episodes so get your ass to the back of the harem bus
And another thing, it's the third season issei get laid already
Anyone else on the planet would've gotten it on the fifth episode yet your ass still rolls the dense idiot like it's some kind of ongoing comedy that doesn't seem to get old
News flash, I've been sick of it since pair of tits #1 popped into your bed in the first season, after that it's just been f_cking routine
I'm waiting to the point where ever time issei wakes he whips out an attendance paper and proceeds to call out the girls names in order of their debut... that would be funny
(Rant end)
Ok, I feel good now, other than my total disregard for the girl's safety (Akeno and Rosswiess excluded) as well as my psychotic hatred towards issei increasing I'm fine now
Anyways, I'm gonna have to inform you guys that the next chapter will be delayed, as I'm moving provinces, so that's gonna chew up an ass tone of time so I hope this chapter keeps you reeled in as I hope the long wait doesn't detour you guys from continuing
R&R mates
And in the mean time I'm watching cowboy bebop... peace