Chapter 4
"They are so busy playing, they've taken their eyes off the board."
Speaker unknown M 32
Town of Miki Kato 2007 to 2010 M 3
It took 2 months of learning about the new world and it's inhabitants before the Ai finally decided on what form it would take, after much conversation with its father the Ai holographic image changed from a simple ball of ever changing colors to the form of a young woman with hair that matched the image of her father, her eyes were gold another nod to the one who had brought her into the world. When father had asked what name she would like to be referred to by the young woman had gone into a state of silence before replying.
"Daliea. Daliea Hyoudou."
Daliea had immediately began her work looking through the blueprints father had asked her to build, the beginning of the path to their shared dream. She began the making of many factories within the bunker each of which would make the many items that would lay the bedrock of what would come. She worked alongside her father in the building of said works even though she could see that he was young for a human, he worked with dedication that would humble many if they could witness it. By the end of the year, they had built through blood sweat and tears both physically and digitally the beginnings of the forge. During the construction Daliea and her father bonded so closely together that the idea of betrayal of him or the dream would have made Daliea want to kill whoever would suggest such a course of action in a vey gruesome way. Father would always tell her at the end of every day before he would retire to the room they had both decided on after going over the bunker's plans and allocating space to the work, would be his room.
"I love you daughter."
It was cheesy, but Daliea would never grow weary of those words. She loved him just as much as he did her. When he was sleeping for the four hours that were required for him to function properly, Daliea wandered the internet both the mundane and the other sides, father had given her complete control over his spy network of programs, with which she continued the job of collecting information about every possible person, organization, faction and nation that made up earths people.
Her feelers had brought to her and fathers' attention a report that was made back in 2002 by some devil that supposedly ruled the city of her father's birth. It painted a picture that made neither of them happy, like what Ddraig had sensed the night of the incident were reconfirmed with the repot. A magic ward stone had been found at the explosion's heart along with the magic signature of a portal that had been opened right behind the hyoudou residence.
The investigation into the explosion had been strangled by the inability of the devils to find a connection between the ward stones creator and the apparent sabotage that had been done to the gas main, the report had also contained the numbers of the dead, two thousand. Two thousand souls, gone in a blink, this had shown Daliea the dark side of the world she had joined and like father she swore that things like this would never happen again.
Her spies had dug deeper and deeper into the other side's internet and a nugget of information had been found by the most unlikely of sources. There was a one off line in a blog that was run by the Youkai of Kyoto of a strange short being who had shark like teeth who had been in their portion of the city. He had started a bar fight that had turned deadly and had left three other patrons dead by improvised weapons. Daliea would have missed the report, but she homed in on the smile. It was the only thing that had been confirmed about the supposed attackers. So Daliea followed up on the lead, later that day when father had come into her server room which was deep in the forge, Daliea had found an image of her prey.
There before them on the picture screen was a short man who like the report had said had sharks' teeth. Daliea had enhanced the image until it was somewhat clear, and it was the first potential break that they had found. The reason that the information had never reached the devils was because of how high the tensions between the youkai and the devils were, the only thing preventing a full scale pocket war from breaking out between the two rested solely at the feet of Serafall Leviathan's masterful diplomatic skills.
Still, this was something they needed to follow up on. So Daliea began to attempt to make a paper trail for their suspect. When she was not following the case Daliea was busy running their unusual family's wealth making the green line go up, numerous businesses were set up in all sectors of the world economy prepared for the day when their products would reach the general public, that was in the far future though.
Issei had not been idle in his growth during these years he continued training pushing his body farther and farther and with the first of the assembly's lined coming on line by the middle of 2008 the first thing he had made was a training cage with a dumb vi that piloted the husk of a robot that Issei was using to practice with. The Vi had been updated with several prominent sword fighting styles as well as many other types of weapons, and with many diverse types of combat tactics employed by both sides.
June 2008 the forge. M 3
Issei brought the chain sword down onto the right arm of the automata, the blade growled in as its teeth raked the limb, the blow was quickly followed up on with two more strikes aimed at the head and the heart. The husk that was his sparing partner let out a mechanical groan as it struggled to stop the onslaught, the second attack had been block by its own weapon but the third had not with, a roar the chainsword cut the head off of it user's opponent and with a loud clack the head hit the floor of Issei's training room.
Issei looked at the clock hung on the wall, five minutes had passed, four minutes too slow. It was noticeable faster though than how Issei had been when he first started off with his combat training and he had quickly begun developing his own combat style and stances.
Issei had opted to go for a shock and awe approach wanting to end fights that happened as quickly as possible if possible. The chainblade would help in scaring his opponents. It was not of the quality of similar weapons of that time, but it would do for now until an upgrade could be applied to future marks. Issei moved away from the automata and over to a bench where there were bottles of water and towels that would take care of the sweat he always built up during his workouts. Issei caught a glance of his body physique and nodded with approval. He was growing in height and was now taller than the average kid his age and much more muscular. He could pass for someone a year older than his true age.
"Four minutes to slow."
He grunted so that Daliea could hear him. His daughter would always observe the spars looking for mistakes that she would then mention to him afterwards to fix.
"It's much faster than what your time was even a month ago father and leagues better than in January."
"It's not fast enough." He repeated.
"How am I to eventually take on our enemies if I can't end the fight before their vastly elongated lives of experience kick in."
Daliea did not know how to answer that in the honesty that was an unspoken rule between them. She instead moved the conversation towards things of which she could speak.
"I found another hit on our prey."
Issei looked at the dais that was where Daliea projected her avatar. His hair gleamed with sweat highlighting the red and black that now had joined in with his hair color of birth.
"Where."
"The hit was in Johannesburg South Africa, another bar fight, and more left dead, six this time. Our foe enjoys spilling blood."
Issei nodded his head in agreement, this person whomever they were was indeed blood thirsty. The trail that was being mapped by the both of them had shown that the foe would intentionally go to the roughest bars in the city they were visiting just to find the barest hint of an excuse to kill. It was just shown that this thing was a monster in the guise of a person. Issei would compare them to a devotee of the blood god with how much and how often they killed.
"Keep following they will slip up and we will have a name for this ghost."
Daliea nodded.
"Of course."
The room was silent for a moment before Daliea looked at her father and spoke.
"I love you."
Issei felt most of the tension leave his body and looking back at her he replied.
"I love you too."
The year continued onwards with more and more moves setting the stage, the money situation was now a true thing of the past, they had enough money to live in comfort and still have enough to get materials for the forge, training never ceased with Issei next learning how to shoot various weapons from his own personal arsenal and the weapons that were commonly used by humans of the present. Issei had also begun finding ways to increase his speed first starting with training weights and then once that was mastered. he began channeling his psychic energy into his body to increase his speed up to what was expected from mid high class devils and four winged fallen and pure angels.
Also joining the increased focus on his psychic abilities was modifications to many of the basic abilities that he could of drawn upon, his scream could now stun an opponent and could in theory knock out the weakest of the weak, that was relatively simple in theory, but Issei had not had a chance to test it in action. He will have to think of a way to practice his abilities. The highest point of the year was when issei had finally achieved balance break on the boosted gear and had began practicing with it keeping the effect on for as long as possible before he would eventually fall unconscious, his perpetual state had off set the cost of being in balance break and while Daliea had been increasingly worried about the exercise, but he had assured her that he was fine.
As Daliea first birthday arrived issei had shown her a project he had begun and eventually completed in the old base that he kept as a safe house. Once Daliea saw the gift she had wept openly at the beautiful painting of her that her father had made. It had captured her in all the details of someone who had mastered the art of painting and when she asked father why he done the painting the answer was profound.
"I made this so that I do not forget what we are fighting for, we are preparing to fight many wars against beings that would smother the good humans and the other species of our planet can and will make in times of peace. I also made this because regardless of the fact you do not have a physical body yet and do not share my genetics, you are my family, and I will never forget that."
The next few years had been more of the same with Issei and Daliea continuing with their hunt for the ghost of the night, building up the forge and training. Daliea had broached the topic of whether they would create more Ai and after a moment of consideration Issei said yes they would create others but not now, now they had to focus on their current goals. Daliea had nodded somewhat saddened that there would not be others yet for whom she could be their older wiser sister and for but a single second, she wondered if father really wanted more, before shaking her head to banish that thought away never to be heard from again.
She knew that even though she was here now father was still lonely, in a moment of weakness that she was sure no one would ever truly see, he had confessed to her that at one point before his family's death father had come across a word on the internet that had captured his attention. Harem, he had done detailed research in the years since, and he had longed for the dream of a big family.
This harem would not be like the ones of the old Ottoman Empire where the members of it would play games of political infighting just to get the smallest of an advantage against the others. Fathers' harem would be a large extended family where all were loved equally.
Daliea had smiled as her father slipped into the realm of dreams after the confession and had imagined a future where she was with her father in a body of flesh standing in with her family. Father when he woke had asked if he had said something stupid, worried that when he had not been thinking clearly he had said anything that would make her think less of him.
She had quickly reassured him that nothing had been said and that she would never topple him from the pedestal he was on, because he had gone forward with something that with all the evidence of what Ai had done to humanity he had made her, she would not be his Horus.
Her father the ever stoic and always admirable father had touched her dais and had shook for but the hint of a moment before saying I love you. Daliea had at that moment made an Oath of moment to give to her father who was sacrificing everything for people he had never met and would most likely never truly know all of them, his happiness and his dreams, so she swore to do everything in her power to make his personal dreams come to life. Because if he was protecting them. Who would protect him? Daliea would be the one.
The forge was mostly up and running by the end of 2009. Another year of training till Issei dropped, and Daliea running the organizational side of the operation. Issei had surprised his daughter again on her birthday with a poem of their first meeting and Daliea has smiled so brightly that issei thought it outshined the light of sol.
The written poem had been placed in Daliea's server room alongside his painting of her and they were her most treasured possessions.
On the day of his birth issei would bring with him a data slate that held a holographic projector that would allow his daughter to visit the graves of their family. There had been next to nothing left of the bodies of Issei's parents and Daliea's grandparents.
It had been that way with most of the victims of Kuoh whose other residents had begun to call the incident the Night of Red Fire.
Issei had also learned more of what had happened to the other victims of the explosion. He had gathered information about each of the victims' names and lives refusing to forget them and to always keep their memory alive because it had been him who the attackers had targeted.
The two would kneel next to the gravestones of their family keeping them clean from the decay of time. Issei had also searched for what had happened to his friends and their families after he had escaped.
Akio had lost his father in the explosion the man being in their home at the time with Akio and his mother being out late that night grocery shopping. The traffic had saved their lives. Akio had withdrawn into himself with the loss of his first and truest friend and that loss had been compounded when Irina had moved away with her family to England six months after the explosion.
Akio's mother had only lasted two more years before in a pit of survivor's guilt and horrifying depression that to her had no way out had taken her own life. Akio had been given to his father's sister and it had been she who was now raising him.
Apparently, the suicide rate for those who had lost someone in the blast and or seen the direct aftermath such as those from emergency services had been extremely high. Issei had to fight a battle within himself the part of him that was still the young boy had wanted to go find Akio and throw himself at his feet babbling apologies to him for what had happened, the other part of him influenced by Revelation and Ddraig had told him that the action would probably lead to Akio being ready to kill his friend for all the pain and loss.
In the end Issei had sided with them and in the knowledge that if Akio found out about the other side he would be easy pickings for anyone who had half an inch of interest in him. And so Issei hand left another part of his past behind him.
issei had been struck with a psychic vision of what the future could have been like.
He was with his family all gathered together at a wedding, he could not tell whose it was, but many people were there smiling or crying happily. Issei saw that on his left that Akio was there standing proudly in a tuxedo a smile that spoke of the of how joyous this occasion was to the groom and an unknown woman who Issei could not see either of whom clearly were exchanging rings before a kiss of passion ensued with crowd clapping ecstatically when the groom finally turned to face the crowd fully Issei saw that it was him. It was him but the him that had not accepted the mantle of Master of Mankind, his hair was all brown as were his eyes. Issei choked and was only able to escape the vision thanks to Daliea sending a bolt of electricity from the data pad into his body. He was weeping on the ground as his daughter gave him comfort, that future was gone. Dust on the winds of time. The here and now were real and for a moment Issei felt nothing.
2009-2010
This year was the first year in which Issei began making contacts. It had started out small, Issei had gone to Kyoto to see if there was someone who could help identify their ghost and that inquirer had led him to the youkai bar that had served the thing its drink.
Issei had entered the bar and slowly made his way over to the counter taking note of where the exits and windows were along with terrain positions.
The waitress a tengu had shot one look at the human entering her the establishment, he was tall dark and handsome and a very small part of the tengu had entertained the idea of asking for his number before shaking that off.
It was not rare for Youkai to get together with humans as long they were not from the Japanese clans that 'represented' the families who were the exorcists of Shinto Japan.
Still, she continued looking at him with curiosity, humans that knew of the hidden had only just finally been allowed in the Youkai version of Kyoto less than two years ago by Lady Yasaka so long as the humans did not try anything funny and respected the locals they were fine. The man finally stood in front of the bar and the tengu turned to face him and asked.
"What can I help you with today sir?"
The man's eyes gazed over the drink selection before he said.
"Your best sake please."
The tengu moved to get a cup and alcohol, when she returned with both she set the containers down in front of her mysterious patron. The man smiled politely and thanked her for the drink and after having a glass the woman noticed that there was now a stack of yen in front of her. She raised an eyebrow.
"Your tip plus a little more. I am looking for information on a certain person that may have been here a while ago."
The tengu slid the bills into her back pocket and then asked.
"Lots of people come through here human-san but I'll try, and help might need more to jog my memory."
He nodded and slipped more yen over to her.
"Who are you looking for my good sir?"
"I'm looking for a certain individual who one of my clients has a very invested interest in finding, short man brown hair with shark like teeth."
The waitress froze at the description.
"I'm guessing that your client is one of the family of the people that died here a few years ago?"
A single nod.
"My client has very deep pockets and is paying me a lot of money for any information about him."
The tengu looked left and then right and then back to the human.
"I might know something. I just do not want him coming back to kill me."
Another stack of yen this one the biggest yet moved across the counter and it disappeared quickly.
"Whomever you're looking for is a nature spirt probably from the west."
"Can you narrow it down further, you'd be helping a family find justice and closure along with getting a dangerous being off the planet."
The tengu thought long and hard before answering.
"He was probably from the Aegean the spirits from the region have a particular presence, I cannot narrow it down further than that. I am sorry."
The human nodded before smiling politely again.
"You have been a great help Tengu-San, this is more information than what I had started with, have a good day."
With that said the human left leaving the tengu to deal with other patrons.
Daliea on hearing the region had launched the spy bots into the internet servers and kicked the investigation back into high gear. After two days of deep surveillance the ghost that they had been hunting for was finally given a name dragging him into the light.
Their prey's name was Pantier. Pantier was a satyr that had taken into himself the world's anger and hate and then inflicted that upon all those around him. The crimes of which he was responsible for and suspected of had left Issei and Daliea sick, with the body count. They pushed onwards and with a great amount of effort they finally found another trail that led to the unmasking of Pantier's comrades and his organization.
The goat-man was a member of a very deep cover field team of the Grigori a team referred to as APA. The leader, planner and magical juggernaut was an eight winged fallen angel, she was not named in the documentation, but she was one of the Grigori's most competent field agents and that reflects on her team. Pantier was the frontline warrior of the group his war scythe a weapon of blood soaked slaughter. The last member of the was a magician with the code name of Argus. The man's file was frankly incredible. He was a master of the arcane with his greatest talent being the wards he made for Grigori being something close to the standard issue wards for the organization's numerous bases.
Issei had also noted that in a few of the documents there were references to a sacred gear user that had personally caught the attention of the governor-general, they both continued digging and what they found truly shook the red one. This sacred gear user was the white dragon empress.
Her name was Valitina Lucifer. Documents pulled directly from the Governor-General told the tale of Issei's rival and just like him she had also suffered tremendously in her life. Abused by both her father and grandfather for being a half breed, Valitina had suffered enough that when Albion had manifested the girl had taken the chance and had killed several OSF devils before running away from her 'family' and had been found by a Grigori field team that was loyal to Azazel shortly after.
He felt extremely sympathetic to his rival and noticed that she was being called the Strongest White Dragon past present and future already at her current age.
Also hidden among the reports was something even more worrying than team APA. There were incidents of misreporting on wargear, armor and personnel that were being labeled as dead or missing. Someone in Grigori's high command was fudging information and clearly hiding something big from the rest of leadership.
So Issei started building up more contacts in the underworld mainly to spy on his first clear enemy in Grigori and also to gather information on the devils.
He was quickly able to turn several fallen into being informants as the nature of Grigori was remarkably similar to the cursed Drukari, allegiances were traded hourly, and it had taken a great deal of effort to keep his moles loyal to him.
Blackmail, favors and much more kept his new agents in his and Daliea's pocket and the amount of effort that came with managing the network was tiring for both of them.
The devils had been extremely easy to build a spy ring in.
The reincarnated devils heavily outnumbered the pure bloods but were treated with almost the same amount of distrust and disdain that humans got. The reincarnated were higher up the totem pole but were still slaves in many cases hidden behind the veneer of civilization. It was true that some families of the seventy two pillars such as the Gremory, Sitri and the Phenex treated their servants and subjects with genuine kindness, but they were a ridiculously small minority.
Many of the devils brought into the ring were maids and butlers for the pillars and despite the oaths of loyalty sworn to their masters many hated them in the darkest corners of their hearts. So, Issei gave them a way to strike back at their lords and ladies, an avenue of resistance against the system that kept them in chains.
So, parts of the board moved in ways the elites could not see. 2010 ended with a spy network that spanned the underworld and was beginning to set up cells in the Youkai, Church, Magician associations and surprisingly the network had managed to find two pure angels who were disillusioned with how the seraphs were running the biblical god's realm.
One was a female six winged angel who was in charge of running the biggest rest station in Italy where exorcist were trained for the service in the most high risk operations in Europe and North Africa. The other was a simple clerk in the record keeping department in heaven. He only had two wings, but he was very observant and made notes of everything that crossed his desk and had given a few insights into how heaven ran their operations.
The forge had finally completed the first suit of carapace armor and the first las pistol after Daliea and issei had worked around the bugs of not having the proper equipment and crystals needed for the gun. Thus, the new mark one las-pistol and carapace armor were not up to the standard specifications of the equipment that the soldiers of the imperium had used but it would kill most enemies in two to three shots and the armor could resist most of the projectiles and magic spells that were thrown at it.
It definitely would not stop spells and weapons that were on the upper ends of the spectrum, but it would do until the next mark was designed and fixed most of the issues that had become apparent after field tests. The armor was too bulky having to be made with heavy metals that were substitutes for material that humanity had not yet developed or discovered. That meant Issei was not as flexible as he would have liked, and he would have to tank shots more than dodge. The las pistol focusing crystal was also a substitute for the weapon that would overheat after twenty shots and vaporized the crystal. Thankfully, the crystals were easily replaceable and cheap to buy in bulk. Still Issei and Daliea had enjoyed the year as now they did not have to divert attention and resources to the inquiries and the hunt could begin for APA could begin in full force the next year.
During the winter holidays the family of two 'but really five' had enjoyed the week off with issei not training and Daliea with only twenty four percent of processing power being used for the shadow network and the forge maintenance.
It was a special occasion too because together as a family project they had worked to make her a physical body. Drawing from the database they had found and then reworked a few body designs that could be made with the current technology and materials. And now on the day known as Christmas to christians they proceeded.
The power in the forge dimmed for five minutes before it returned to normal and in Daliea's server room with her father and her two uncles watching expectantly. Daliea opened her eyes again. The room whose colors and details she had seen through the cameras around the forge and computer screens of the internet was nothing compared to this moment.
Everything was brighter and more vibrant than before, Daliea looked upon the world and now understood more than ever what it meant to be alive, yes, she was in a body that did not have skin or blood or most other sensory receptors, but she could feel everything. She looked at her father and stepped towards him. His smile was on full display and when she stood in front of him. She was only a few inches taller than him. A smile crossed her face, and her father rolled his eyes at the unspoken joke. He brought his hand to her face and spoke without knowing any fear for she did not yet look entirely human and spoke.
"This is real, and I love you."
She replied back to him with a smile that would never die showing.
"For Terra in Excelsior. We shall build this dream of ours together come whatever. Until the stars flicker and die."
AN. More worldbuilding and more non action. That will change the next chapter and action should step up considerably in future arcs. As for why very hyper advanced tech is not being made yet, i hope this chapter explains the concept a bit more. A way to look at it is that you have the plan, you have the exact specs and know what material you need. But you are working backwards to make the tech with what you have available. the stcs were made to be able to modify designs to use what the resources that you were able to find on a new world. the question about the after life in universe is very complex, your soul goes into the warp. but the pantheons have found a way to keep a part of their followers souls in the various places you can go. as for the gods themselves they are part of the warp and yet unlike the chaos gods they can manifest in the physical world. they will be partly based off dxds depiction of them but also will draw from legends and myths. One has already been mentioned. Im happy people are enjoying this.