It always came to this. He always lost something when it started mattering.
"Don't just stand there!" The silver haired girl, Yuzu-san, evaded the first stream of fire when the floor broke. Bouncing off the floor and getting to Genshirou just in time to block Olivia-san's stream when it was pointed their way.
"Guh!"
Genshirou felt the heat lick his skin, forcing his clothes tighter around his body. Miyuzuin used her demonic power to the best of her ability. But she had been weakened enough that the sheer force pushed her back against Genshirou, and him against the wall in turn.
The painful lines that traced his body made him scream as they seemingly came to life on impact. His vision swam and his ears rang painfully as he momentarily lost his orientation. Taking the girl's shoulders to right himself as she struggled against Olivia-san's magic.
She wouldn't last.
"More!" Yuzu-san screamed "Boy! Give me more power!"
Genshirou got his bearings back, forcing his power forward as he felt something slither below his skin. Very much alive and giving the illusion of disrupting muscles and veins in its path. His body hadn't changed, but the movement felt as though that thing actually existed.
One of the tattoos peeled off his arm. A pitch-black snake-like thing that coiled around Yuzu-san's left shoulder and started giving up power as he pushed through the disorientation.
He grabbed her tighter, adding another snake-tattoo from his opposite arm. Trying to double the exchange.
"Die! Die! Die!" Olivia-san chanted, creating a bigger explosion as her voice broke even more "You cretins! Homewrecking-cats!"
Genshirou had no idea what she was talking about, but the heat was unbearable. Few seconds had passed, yet he could almost see his sweat boil instantly against Olivia-san's magic. Some strands of hair from Yuzu-san's head started hissing and let out a bit of smoke at the ends. Slowly catching fire.
"Grab me tight!" Yuzu-san instructed, her whole body tensing as she changed her demonic power in shape.
Yuzu-san pushed her arms down, as if trying to slam the very air around her. And they both got launched in the air and went through the ceiling with little effort. Breaking through floor after floor until they pierced a huge bathtub with hot water that instantly vaporized upon contact. Finally, they got to the sky.
Yuzu-san spread her bat-like wings, letting them both hover and get used to the now-too-cold air.
"Where's Diodora-san?!" Genshirou shouted, heart drumming in his chest and making the pain worse. But all he could think of was about the devil that took the initial assault.
"The monster covered for him! Don't think about it!" Yuzu-san snarled, looking around the place without a hint of her usual self-assured attitude "Where's that Queen?!"
As if to answer the question, a huge explosion blew up the rest of the roof.
Olivia-san gained altitude like a rocket, eyes burning with hatred as she drew a straight line toward the two.
"Ngh!" Yuzu-san tilted to the side, letting them both escape the trajectory unscathered. She turned around, and magic circles appeared around her hands. Blasting bolts of demonic power.
Olivia-san took them head on, firing balls of fire that grew bigger as they traveled. Slower than Yuzu-san's bolts, but big enough that the half-devil had to fall back to not get caught in them.
"Help me!" Yuzu-san turned her head a bit, talking to Genshirou in turn.
"I… I don't know what to do!" He confessed, still worried sick about the raven haired devil.
"What piece are you?!" Yuzu-san insisted.
"Diodora-san said I was a Bishop!"
That made Yuzu-san pause.
"Damn it. He min-maxed it so you'd be able to handle more power…" She cursed under her breath. With Genshirou only being able to hear her due to her devil body "Can you cast…?"
Yuzu-san changed trajectories again. Evading Olivia-san once more and exchanging magic attacks in the air.
Yuzu-san knew what she was doing. She did not hesitate and made split-second calls every single time. But Olivia-san could fly better, and Yuzu-san seemed hesitant to do more daring acrobatics. Probably because she had Genshirou on her back.
"I… I can't do it without my hands!"
"Yes, you can! You just…!" Yuzu-san evaded again, letting out a stream of demonic power as Olivia-san created a pulse that almost got them to start falling "You're in the way! Get off!"
Olivia-san surged, a scream in her lips and power trailing behind her.
Yuzu-san created a shield from a magic circle, but the impact propelled them in the air. With Yuzu-san firing demonic power wildly as she tried to get her bearings and stabilize their flight.
"Get off!" She insisted as she used another stream to keep Olivia-san at bay, flying lower until a rooftop was only meters away.
Genshirou looked down, still a good two or three stores of distance and a few tears in his eyes.
Every time that something important came to his life, he lost it. His parents, his grandfather. Now Diodora-san could be gone, and all Genshirou did was get in the way of the person defending him. He couldn't bear it.
He remembered his training, steeling his nerves as his Sacred Gear disengaged Miyuzuin.
He jumped, demonic power filling his bones and muscles. His feelings covered up the vertigo, and he spread his wings to break the fall.
He landed without grace, like a sack of potatoes. But he had no injuries. And, more importantly, he released Yuzu-san to fight.
His eyes caught her silver hair when she charged. Both hands grasping at lances of demonic power as she rushed the Queen.
Yuzu-san spun around like an angry top. Taking on Olivia-san in close combat, firing spells through her lance or out of thin air as both girls tried to tear each other out.
Olivia-san needed some distance, and covered herself in flames. But Yuzu-san canceled most of them somehow and kept on her assault. Keeping pressure on.
Genshirou had his mouth agape as Yuzu-san fought. Eye bags were still on her face, but some light had returned to her eyes. Struggling, but very much in her element.
Genshirou looked down, then to the apartment. It still had flames all over it, and some people were leaving in a hurry.
His mind returned to Diodora-san. The last thing Genshirou saw of him was the surprise, moments before the flames engulfed him. And that… Thing. Before that thing engulfed the devil.
That monster, Yuzu-san had called it.
Genshirou took to the air. Now, without Olivia-san after him, Genshirou could fly by himself. He had no idea why their Queen started attacking them so suddenly. Or what she meant when she spoke, but that didn't matter. Genshirou needed to know what happened to Diodora-san. He couldn't lose anyone else like this!
He blasted the fire out of the way when he landed. Apparently, he didn't have a lot of talent to handle demonic power. But simple things like this weren't much of a problem after diligently practicing… Under Olivia-san's tutelage.
What's going on… What's going on…
Genshirou re-entered the apartment. Fire had eaten away most of the floor and furniture, but he still distinguished every shape through it. His devil eyes scanned the room and found no one there. He blasted the fire away again, and found his way to the room they used to keep Yuzu-san safe.
Nothing. No trace of anyone there. Just the hole in the floor that led to the apartment below. Equally as vacant.
Genshirou was beyond nervous at this point.
"Relax. That thing left. Yes, that's why! I just gotta find it and Diodora-san will be with it!" He tried to cheer himself up, slapping his cheeks as he blasted a way out of the apartment.
There were people trapped within their homes.
"No! I… Damn!" Genshirou tried to summon water to little avail. He used the wind instead, opening a path after breaking through the door and letting a woman and a child escape uninjured.
"Now…!" He stopped. More people trapped. More things to do.
He didn't hesitate.
"Out! Get out!" Genshirou used what remained of his demonic power to blast the fire out of the way. Wind strong enough to completely dissipate it. With no chance of propagation.
Regular fire might not work that way, but neither did regular wind. As Genshirou understood it, willing it so mattered more than the laws of nature. So he forgot how things worked for the sake of his mission. Opening up paths for people to run when the structure started collapsing.
"Run…!" Genshirou yelled for a while, but his lungs felt empty. He toppled a jar once he lost his balance. Placing a hand against the red-hot frame of a door. Burning it but being unable to stand by himself.
Too much. He gave Yuzu-san too much power, and used it up liberally while helping people. He had no idea how much time had passed, but he hit his limit. His training only got him so far.
"No…!" He doubted he'd die from the fire. But something within him refused to give up. So he pushed further. He stared at the flames, remembering the dream that assaulted him the night after he got his second Sacred Gear.
Gray sands and pitch-black fire greeted him. Rising as pillars of flame so tall that even skyscrapers looked tiny in comparison. A barren land with no life in it but the continuous burning of the pillars and a pitch-black sun.
Genshirou blinked. The overlap lasted for only a moment, but the memory became clearer. He remembered the anguish, the despair. He forgot about it once he woke up, but Diodora-san's explanation pushed it back into his mind. Somehow, Genshirou could imagine those feelings didn't belong to him. But to the dragon that was trapped in his Sacred Gears instead.
Vritra! Vritra! Give me more! Give me strength! You won't die here either!
Genshirou got back to his feet, scavenging for what little power remained within him.
Above, the two women continued fighting. He wanted to think that the power given to Yuzu-san was being used wisely. Yet he still ignored why Olivia-san turned on them. He felt so tired, the heat too much, the pain too insistent…
"...Eh?" Genshirou felt wet on his face, then his whole body. It took him a moment to realize that rain had enveloped him. And the fire stopped cracking to instead hiss as the water subdued it at an impossible rate.
Genshirou looked out of the window, Sona Sitri standing on a magic circle and channeling her power through it to the top of the building.
Help.
"Saji-kun!" Kiba Yuuto greeted him once he left the building, having people on both hands and letting them down as he did "You're okay!"
"I… Yes. But the people…"
"On it." Kiba disappeared in a flash, his insane speed covering the distance in seconds. Other devils arrived and started working on the people. Some used powers on them, some heading inside to help.
Genshirou sighed, relief washing over his whole body.
It lasted for very little, as Sona Sitri approached him. An insanely strong frown on her face.
"Explain." She stated, and Genshirou almost wanted to protest her attitude.
"I… I don't know." Genshirou really didn't. Nothing made sense to him "Diodora-san was talking to us and…"
"That child!" Sona Sitri hissed but stopped talking, covering her eyes below her glasses as she gathered her thoughts "You, Saji… You did well. We'll be taking over now."
Gremory-senpai joined the fray up in the air, followed by Himejima-senpai.
They both flanked Yuzu-san, using their own magic to attack Olivia-san one after the other.
Olivia-san disengaged before Himejima-san could throw lightning at her, hitting Yuzu-san so hard that she was propelled like a missile towards the other Queen. Forcing her to not attack.
"Yuzu-san!"
Little Koneko jumped off the building, a whole bunch of people around her. Like an oversized backpack that she shouldn't be able to carry. Kiba followed, with more people out. They looked fine, but at least the pretty boy had a very worried expression on his face.
"Good job, you two. There doesn't seem to be anyone else inside." Sona Sitri stated, looking back to the sky as the three ladies descended.
Yuzu-san looked okay enough, but rather pissed off.
"You scared her off."
"Mind your tone, child." Sona Sitri replied "Is that the attitude someone who got help should have?"
"She knows she can't win against either Rias Gremory, her Queen, you, or your Queen. You only made things more complicated." Yuzu-san argued, keeping her breathing as even as she could. But not managing that well.
"That might be true." Gremory-senpai interjected "I'm sorry. But you have to understand we didn't know, and still don't, and it's uncertain whether this problem is…"
"What happened?" Her Queen interrupted "Isn't that Diodora-sama's Queen?"
"That crazy woman attacked him first." Yuzu-san spat, making the devils flinch "I don't know what set her off."
"It happened so fast…" Genshirou added "I… We don't even know where Diodora-san is."
"You think he's alive?" Shitori-san crossed her arms.
Genshirou didn't have the heart to say.
"Yes." Yuzu-san did instead "His Pawn protected him. He might be in critical condition, but he's most certainly alive."
"Good." Shitori-san didn't seem too worried "We'll find him. Hopefully we won't need to tell the Astaroth they'll have to make a grave without a body to bury."
"Shitori-san!" Genshirou protested.
"She's right, you know?" Yuzu-san punched Genshirou on the shoulder. More of an affectionate motion than a real attack "Worry about yourself right now."
"But I…" Genshirou wanted to keep protesting, but the girl took him away from the other devils.
"Excuse us."
"You should rest!" Gremory-san raised her voice as they left "We'll take care of the rest! Don't worry about anything, okay? We'll tell you when…!"
"Not a word about anything, understood?" Yuzu-san growled with a low tone as they put a good distance between themselves and the devil ladies "I'm sure your master didn't want his little plan to be revealed too early. There's more at stake here than our lives."
"I… Yes, I understand." Genshirou nodded after a moment.
"Good. You still have a brain between the ears." Yuzu-san huffed, hands on her waist.
"We should find Diodora-san. Do you really think he's alive?"
"Probably."
"I…" Genshirou stopped himself. Something told him the girl wouldn't elaborate on this "I… I wanted to thank you, Yuzu-san."
She looked surprised, even going as far as to look him up and down as if something wrong had happened.
"Why?"
"You stayed, you protected me. You could've left the moment I gave you power, but you didn't. Thanks."
She clicked her tongue, crossing her arms and frowning.
"Don't be ridiculous, I wasn't protecting you. In fact, I could barely think. That was all instinct on my part."
"That makes you a very nice person." Genshirou chuckled.
"Don't be ridiculous…" She repeated "You're way too naive for your own good. You have guts, I'll give you that. But you fell on the clutches of the devil way too easily. You'll get taken advantage of."
"Maybe." Genshirou accepted "But Diodora-san is the reason I can have a normal life with my siblings now. I have nothing left, and all he asked of me was to train and get strong. It's not so easy, it's very scary. Almost as scary as… This. I can't turn my back on someone that offered a hand when I needed it."
Yuzu-san shook her head.
"There you go again. You're way too earnest."
Genshirou smiled.
"I'm not very smart like you, Yuzu-san. All I can do is do my best and follow instructions."
The girl tilted her head.
"What's your name?"
"Saji Genshirou." He replied.
"That's a mouthful… Well," She chuckled "Not like I'm one to talk."
Genshirou chuckled with her.
"Then, Gen. I can't leave you alone. Your master will take you for a fool. Follow my lead, and we just might get out of this mess." She offered a hand, still frowning somewhat.
Genshirou couldn't help thinking about her words.
So earnest…
"Please take care of me, Yuzu-san."
"Don't go dying on me." She replied "Your power is a rare one, I understand why you were chosen."
That made Genshirou feel a bit better. Thinking that he had something that would help, something special.
Genshirou would do his best.