Disclaimer :
I do not own High School DxD.
High School DxD is owned by Ishibumi Ichiei.
Warning: Bad Grammar
Dialog Tags:
「Spells/ Skills/ Abilities」
thoughts
[long-range communication]
SFX
Chapter 07: Youth Devil Gathering
The Judgement Hall. That was the name of the hall where the Four Satans and the elders gathered the young devil heirs and heiresses so they could announce their goal to the government body of devil society. It was an enormous hall with the seats of 32 elders in a high place, like the VIP seats in the opera, with the seats of Four Great Satans situated on the highest level.
The elders gathered here were from the Elder Council which consisted of former head clans of the remaining 32 Pillars. And on Satan's podium, the Four Great Satans had made themselves comfortable on their respective throne.
At the Satans' podium, sitting on the left side was a bald man in his thirties who had a face that showed he doesn't want to be here. He let out groans often like he was bored and ready to fall asleep at any time. He was Falbium Asmodeus. He was the one responsible for the devil's military welfare.
On Falbium's right side was a handsome man with green spiky hair. He was Ajuka Beelzebub. He possessed responsibility for the technology and domestic affairs of the Devils. He was also the creator of Evil Pieces.
Next was a handsome man in his twenties with long crimson hair who was listening to the woman calmly. He wore a majestic cape with metal pads on his shoulder. And his posture was like a real king with his charisma leaking out from his entire body. He was Sirzechs Lucifer. The strongest devil and the leader of Four Great Satans who oversaw every affair of the devil's government.
The last was the only female Satan. She had a cute face with a quite small body, yet her bust was in favorable size. Her adorable figure wrapped in a green blouse was opposite to the power she held like it was there to deceive her enemies. She was Serafall Leviathan.
The young devils stood with their Peerage lined up behind them, waiting for being called by the Satans to have grace in talking with them.
And finally, one of the elders spoke,
"It is good that you have gathered. For the sake of seeing all of you who will bear the burden of the next generation, that is the reason for this Youth Devil Gathering."
"It seems there was a fight between them," said another elder who had a beard hanging on his chin as he stared at one of the young devils whose face was swollen.
"Well, it is normal for young blood to show their superiority through their fighting power," commented another.
Just then, Sirzechs Lucifer raised his hand which made the elders went into silent. After that, he spoke,
"The six of you, young devil heirs and heiresses, are the hope for the next generation who possess talent and ability. To find your determination of bearing the burden in the future and to increase your strength, we would like to have you compete against each other before you officially make your debut."
Small gasps could be heard from the young devils before Sairaorg stepped up and asked,
"If it is like that, then is there a chance that we will be sent out to fight Khaos Brigade?"
"It is a possibility, though we do not wish it to happen," answered Sirzechs with a smile on his face.
Sairaorg rose an eyebrow as he asked again,
"Why? Just like you said, Lucifer-sama, we will bear the burden as the next generation. As such, we have the same responsibilities as the older devils."
This time, it was Ajuka Beelzebub who spoke,
"That may be true, but you, young devils, are our future asset. We can't let you waste your life on the battlefield when you are still green and still in the middle of your growth. If we lose all of you right now, it will be a huge blow to our race's future. Know that, Sairarog Bael."
No one knew, but Kenji inwardly scoffed at the words for he knew that leaders would dispatch Rias and Sona to fight Loki of all people because they feared losing the experienced devils.
As Sairarog backed off, Sirzechs said,
"Before we begin discussing the competition between all of you, we would like you to declare your dreams before us in order to assess your quality as the pillars of the future. First, Sairarog Bael. Step up and declare your dreams!"
Sairarog stepped up to the front and boldly declared,
"My dream is to become a Satan."
A collective sound of approval could be heard from the elders and the Satans themselves with one of them saying that it was natural for someone from the Bael Clan to aim for a Satan position.
"Of course, it is merely a dream of mine, not an ambition. I will only step up to a Satan position if the devils of the Underworld deem me worthy," added Sairaorg which satisfied the Satans once more.
The next young devil who stepped up was Rias Gremory. She declared,
"My dream is to live as a worthy head of Gremory Clan and win every Rating Game match in the future."
At this, Issei's eyes filled with a glint of admiration while Kenji held back a snort from coming out of his mouth.
What a selfish dream, unlike what Sona has, he thought.
Diodora Astaroth then stepped up after Rias and told his dream,
"Mine is simple. I only wish for the devils within Astaroth's territory to deem me worthy of being the clan head in the future."
An approval nod was given by the elders and the Satans without knowing that it was a blatant lie from his mouth.
The next devil was Zephyndor Glasya-Labolas. He was the devil whose face was swollen after being punched by Sairaorg Bael because he caused a commotion.
"I want to be respected by everyone as the next clan head. I may only a spare, but I can prove to them that I'm worthy enough."
After him, Seekvaira Agares walked up to the front. Her eyes took a glance at the green-haired Satan before she said,
"My dream is to become an inventor just like Beelzebub-sama. I wish to help the devils in Underworld with my inventions in the future."
Her dream received approval from everyone in the room, including Kenji who was quite surprised by her goal in the future since he didn't know anything about her dream. The part where she told her dream was skipped in the light novel, after all. Kenji had found respect for the young Heiress of Agares.
Finally, the last young devil, Sona Sitri, stepped up and declared,
"My goal is to build a Rating Game School in the Underworld."
Confusion was plastered on the elders' and Satans' faces. On the other hand, her Peerage was looking at her in awe and admiration.
"If it's for learning about Rating Game, isn't there already a school for that?" Asked one of the elders.
Kenji readied himself to unseal some of his reserves after that question came up.
Sona answered firmly,
"Yes, there is. But it's only for pure-blood high-class devils or those who come from noble families. What I wish is to establish is the school for reincarnated devils and lower classes devils can attend without any distinction."
The hall went silent after that. The Four Great Satans, especially Serafall Leviathan, looked at Sona with pride and approval. But from the elders,
"Hahahaha! What a nice joke, young Sitri!"
"I can't believe that Sitri raised such a dreamer!"
"Youth is nice and all, but if the next clan head of Sitri turns out to be such a little girl like this, I can't help but worry for their future."
At the mocking waves of laughter from the elders, Sona calmly stated,
"I'm serious."
The laughter came to a stop and the hall filled with silence until one of the elders spoke,
"Sona Sitri, the lower classes, and reincarnated devils merely work for their high-class devil masters and are only chosen for their strength, talent, and potential for their masters' benefits. Even if our government and some policies had changed, some of the old ways can't be cast away for the sake of our race's political balance. Give up on your dream right now. It is for your own sake, as well as the devil race as a whole."
Rias and her Peerage stared worriedly at Sona while Sona's Peerage looked upset except for Kenji who appeared calm. Genshirou himself was growling in anger. Before the blond could lash out, the atmosphere got heavier than before.
The young devils suddenly went to their knees, except Sairaorg who could still barely stand while breathing heavily and sweat poured down on his face. Most elders furrowed their brows with their bodies shaking as they felt an aura on the level of the ultimate-class devil being released. Only the Four Great Satans and a few elders looked unaffected.
The Satans then widened their eyes as they found a young male standing amongst the kneeling young devils.
Who is he?! Sirzechs, Ajuka, and Falbium questioned in their mind as they felt the oppressing aura leaking out from the black-haired youngster.
Ken-tan, how can you be this strong when you are still newly turned? That question was on Serafall's mind as she gazed upon Kenji who stared at the elders coldly.
Without erasing his aura, Kenji spoke,
"It is quite vexing that my King is being ridiculed in front of me. I held myself to not go on a rampage out of respect, but I can't stand it anymore. As one of the elders said, reincarnated devils and lower classes merely work for their masters. As such, you can't blame me or my mistress for what I'm doing right now. After all, I only defend my mistress' honor."
Such words gained approval from the Satans and a few elders. But most of those old devils didn't like being intimidated by a reincarnated devil, a young one too at that.
"S-Stop what you're doing right now, y-you low-class! I-If not you will f-face the consequences!"
Kenji put his attention to the elder who said that and calmly responded,
"Why must I stop? Like I just said, right now I'm just doing my job by defending my mistress' honor. Or are those words you said not true? Are reincarnated devils and lower classes not allowed to defend their King when that is one of their jobs? Do they not need to work for their master? If so, then why do you disagree with Sona-sama's goal?"
The elders gritted their teeth and glared at Kenji without knowing that one of them was smirking in amusement.
Quite a smart play of words. No wonder the Heiress of Sitri chose him as her servant. Besides, his power was outstanding for a low-class devil, thought that elder with black hair and violet eyes.
He was one of the first-generation devils who were still alive today. The First Great King, as well as a veteran of two wars. He was Zekram Bael.
Now normally, Zekram wouldn't forgive such disrespect shown by a reincarnated devil to his colleagues. If not killing him on the spot, he most likely would make their life miserable so they wished for death to come to them.
However, there was an exception when the reincarnated devil turned out to be strong or really talented. And in this case, it was the former. The reincarnated devil from Sona Sitri's Peerage showed an amount of demonic power comparable to the ultimate-class devil. If his magic was on par with his reserve, then he most likely was a low-class in rank only.
As such, he was interested in that young devil.
While Zekram eyed Kenji with interest, Sirzechs decided to speak up,
"Young devil, I understand that you are doing this to defend your King's honor. But can you please tone down your demonic power so we can proceed with the event?"
Kenji gazed upon Sirzechs before he bowed his head and said,
"If that's the order from Satan, then I will happily oblige."
With that, Kenji sealed off his reserve and the repressing aura dissipated from the hall. Most of the elders sighed in relief while the young devils who were still conscious stared at him with awe and amazement.
Sona herself looked at him with admiration, thankful, and anger mixed at the same time. She admired his power, grateful for standing up for her sake, but upset at him for disrespecting the elders which could cause a big problem for her and her house.
And just as she predicted, one of the elders shouted in anger,
"I want that low-class trash to be locked up in prison for life!"
A shout of approval rang through the hall while Sona was fearing for Kenji's life. But then, Zekram Bael flared his aura to make his colleagues shut their mouths with their bodies shivering. As his violet eyes gazed upon the other elders, he spoke,
"Do not embarrass yourself further! That youngster just defended his King's honor, something I can approve of."
"B-But, Zekram-sama, t-that trash–"
"ENOUGH!"
The elders flinched as Sirzechs raised his voice while Zekram gave him an approving smile.
"Like Zekram-dono said, that young devil only doing his job as a servant. You, advisors, do not have the right to label him as the guilty party. Now, I want all of you to be silent or I will personally kick you out of this hall!"
The elders shut their mouths after that. They knew better than to argue against the strongest devil in Underworld. Sirzechs then stared at Sona and said,
"Rest assured, Sona Sitri. Your house and your servant won't be having any problem with his action. However, I still advise you to tell him to hold himself in a formal event like this."
"Thank you, Lucifer-sama. And I will reprimand him for his action earlier," responded Sona with a bow.
The current Lucifer gave her an approval nod.
"Umu. Just don't be too harsh on him. He was just doing his job, after all. Alright. Next, we will be planning out for the Youth Rating Game Tournament that you all will be participating in."
Then, Falbium created a barrier so the young devils couldn't hear their discussion. Meanwhile, Sona spun and walked up to Kenji.
"You must not do that, Kenji-san. While I'm thankful for what you did, I can't have you be punished by the elders for that stunt. It will also potentially affect the standing of the Sitri Clan in society. So please, do not repeat that in the future."
Kenji gave the firm Sona a soft smile which made her heart unconsciously skip a bit which she ignored. Kenji bowed to his King and responded,
"Apologize, Sona-sama. I just couldn't hold myself from lashing out seeing you were being ridiculed by them. Though I promise that I won't do the same mistake."
Sona unintentionally let out a beautiful smile and said,
"Raise your head. I do not find you guilty, so there is nothing to apologize for."
"Understood. And thank you for your generosity, Sona-sama"
After that, most of the young devils indulged themselves in conversation. Genshirou walked up to Kenji and lightly shouted,
"Dude! What the hell was that?! Your aura is even stronger than Kaichou!"
Kenji let out a chuckle before he took a glance at Momo who stared at him with a questioning look. He furrowed his eyebrows as he found that there was no affection or adoration in her eyes. He sighed in defeat, knowing his plan failed, then proceed to ignore Genshirou by approaching Ruruko.
He ruffled the girl who stared at him with amazement and said,
"Sorry to make you uncomfortable, Shorty."
Ruruko shook her head and then spoke excitedly,
"It's fine, Aniki. How can you be that strong though?! You're just recently reincarnated, right?!"
Every ear put their attention, waiting for the explanation from Kenji who shrugged his shoulders and responded,
"It is true that I just recently became a devil, but I already know of supernatural since I was thirteen. I have a lot of time to prepare myself before entering the supernatural life."
Everyone who heard his so-called secret didn't buy that. But some of them could understand that Kenji didn't wish to share any information about himself. It was a logical thing to do because even if the devils didn't like to hide their power, they still wanted to hide the way of gaining such power.
Then, Kenji turned his attention toward Momo and gave her an apologetic smile as he said,
"I'm sorry for what I did earlier, Hanakai-san. I hope I didn't hurt you."
Momo gave him a blank stare in return and responded,
"It is fine. Rather than worrying about me, it will be better if you are more worried about Gen-chan since he is the newest member before you joined."
Kenji held his breath as he felt like he was being stabbed by her tone and the way she called Genshirou. He hid the expression on his face by covering his eyes and brows with his palm while chuckling lightly. Meanwhile, Genshirou looked at Momo with confusion showing on his face because of the way she addressed him.
"You are right. I'm sorry..." said Kenji weakly before he spoke to Genshirou and apologized for what he did earlier.
He tried his best not to waver while speaking with the guy who Momo liked. And after that, Kenji chose to have a conversation with Ruruko about any subject he could think of to ease his mental wound.
Five minutes later, the barrier surrounding the Satans and the elders went down and the young devils went back to their position. Sirzechs spoke up,
"Sorry to make you wait for long. We have decided on the regulation as well as the schedule of the matches. It will be using a knock-out system so you only have one chance in this tournament. The first phase will be including all of you, then the second phase will be the match between two winners of the first phase, but before that, the winners will pull out a lottery to automatically book their place in the final. Do you have any questions so far?"
The young devils shook their heads before Serafall spoke with a frown on her face,
"We will announce the match schedule and the arena. First is Zepyhndor Glasya-Labolas against Diodora Astaroth which will be held on August 19th at Lucifaad Stadium. Followed by Rias Gremory against Seekvaira Agares on August 20th at Levithas Colloseum. Then, the last match of the first phase is Sona Sitri against Sairarog Bael on August 21st at Granmodeus Arena. We hope you train and prepare yourselves for the match. The winner of the tournament will be having their reasonable wish granted by us, the Four Great Satans."
Sona was flabbergasted by the decision. She held herself to not spit when she found the elders smirking at her.
I see. By having me go against the strongest young devil, they hope to stop me from reaching my dream. What a bunch of nuances!
Sona cursed them and her fate before she stared at Kenji and realized that she still had a chance in the upcoming match. She smiled bravely with eyes filled with determination that seemed to affect the elders.
Meanwhile, Sairaorg was grinning in excitement as he wanted to test himself fighting against the Rook of Sona Sitri. On the other hand, Kenji was in a dilemma. He didn't know whether to be happy as he could fight against Sairarog this early or cursed his luck as he couldn't prevent Hyoudou Issei from being famous in the Underworld as the Oppai Dragon.
Finally, he decided that he should be happy with this setup.
Well, if we are straying from canon, then there is a chance that Hyoudou won't raise his fame, he thought while having a smirk on his face.
With the match decided, the Youth Devil Gathering was officially over.
In an unknown location, there was a female nekoshou who had black hair with a black tail and ears laying on the couch like a cat. Her eyes scanned the empty white wall as her mind lingered on something. It was a picture of a cute white nekoshou who smiled at her innocently without knowing anything about the world.
Her name was Kuroka although she was more known as the Stray Cat because of her sin of killing her devil King years ago. Whether the devils didn't know or didn't want to know, the action she took was to protect her sister from a malicious experiment of her former master. And because her master was from one of the Pillar Clans, she was labeled as SS-rank stray devil.
She had watched over her sister from afar as she didn't trust the devil easily in taking care of her sister. And just as she predicted, Rias Gremory, the one who took her sister into her Peerage, did a horrible job of taking care of her.
Rias didn't do anything to heal her trauma after the event of Kuroka said betrayal. Because of that, her sister didn't dare to use her heritage and rendered her growth because of the constant blocking of nature's energy.
Thus, she had enough. She had determined that Rias Gremory couldn't take care of her younger sister.
She immediately cast a magic and a face of a young man with silver hair appeared on top of the magic circle.
[Kuroka, what do you need?] Asked the man.
Kuroka responded,
"I need permission to take Bikou to the Underworld on a later date-nya. I wish to take my little sister from the Gremory-nya. Will you help me with this one, Vali-nya?"
The man called Vali immediately nodded and said,
[Of course. There will be a party held by the Satans on August 16th. It will be the best time for you to sneak in since the security of the border will be quite lacking in numbers in order to secure the venue. And don't worry about your little sister. I will give her protection if you manage to bring her here.]
The nekoshou smiled and bowed to her leader.
"Thank you-nya. I owe you a favor-nya."
[You owe nothing. It is a part of our deal, after all. Now, I will be off.]
Vali cut off his connection, leaving Kuroka smiling in tears. She really was glad that she met Vali. Underneath his cold demeanor and battle junkie persona, he was a very kind person. He cared about his subordinates as if they were his own siblings.
Maybe that was why Kuroka wanted to bear his children so badly. Not only he was powerful, but he also possessed a heart of gold inside the silver outer. Sadly, Vali didn't accept her invitation yet.
Now that Vali had promised to give protection to her little sister, she had no worries about bringing her here. And no matter what would happen, she swore to make up for everything she had done to her.
But right now, Kuroka just needed to be patient.
To be Continued
