The Pawn of Grisaia

by Curse of Whimsy

He wanted to try being normal. He might still be able to get his wish, but he'll have to settle for being a normal Devil with a normal amount of memories from dead people he's never met... Kazami Yuuji has begun to wonder if maybe he isn't very good at this. Now has a TV-Tropes page, covering characters and events up to Chapter 35

11. A Curse with No Name

This chapter gets pretty brutal at times, but it also contains a Disney reference.

Balance, maybe?

Read on, and decided for yourself.

---

"It is unfortunate that we can't lend you any direct assistance, but I'll need everyone to maintain the barrier. A stray shot in a fight like this could be devastating to the surroundings."

"That's quite alright Sona, even if you could lend me some of your peerage, I'm not equipped to give the proper orders to them to begin with. Besides, we only need to hold them for an hour, and as much as it frustrates me to admit, we have the advantage of our enemy underestimating us."

"It's vexing to admit that 'don't anger the enemy' is a valid strategy."

"Indeed, but I have every intention of one day reaching the level where we can fight beings such as Kokabiel on even ground, I have nothing but faith in my darling servants." Rias offered a proud smile, the very picture of confidence.

"Ambitious as always, I see."

"As if you're aiming any lower, Sona."

Rias gave a small chuckle and winked towards her oldest friend, and Sona's slight upwards tugging of the lips was just as good as laughter, if you knew her well enough.

The Gremory Peerage, with the inclusion of their two Fallen Angel companions, and the Exorcist duo Xenovia and Irina, were gathered at the front gate of Kuoh Academy.

Sona Sitri's peerage, the Student Council, had made preparations to seal in them, along with Kokabiel and his several dozen Fallen Angels.

Where was Kokabiel? Patiently lounging on a floating, black and steel throne that hovered over the school field.

Meanwhile, his forces idled on the roof of the gymnasium.

No Fallen had made any attempt to interfere, or even interact with the Student Council, instead waiting peacefully for the appointed time, and their appointed opponents.

To both of the young Devils, it was frustrating to say the least, but they weren't so vain as to not take what time they could get.

A Cadre, like Kokabiel, was nothing short of a small calamity should he feel the urge to indulge any violent urges.

Patience in his case, was not so much a virtue as it was a blessing to those around him.

Rias turned to address her peerage one last time, joined by Ruth, slipping out of Yuuji's shadow, and Suu, flowing out of the water-proofed backpack that Akeno had enchanted for Asia.

The Exorcist duo had been easily brought on board by the prospect of being able to pursue their intended mission, with not quite as lopsided odds as they'd expected.

The Excalibur Fragments hadn't yet been seen, but radiating from somewhere within the campus was enough Holy energy to make a Devil's skin crawl.

So the presence of one or more Holy Swords was, unfortunately, a safe bet to make.

"Is everyone ready? Once we enter school grounds, there's no turning back."

Rias slowly swept her lovely gaze over her forces as she spoke, taking her time to look each of them in the eyes.

Seeing them nervous, but resolved, Rias closed her eyes, forcing herself, with sheer willpower, not to make any inappropriate noises because of how adorable her family looked.

A true Gremory indeed.

"Excellent. I've said all I needed to say, we have one hour to make Kokabiel regret threatening our home. Let's win this, and return to our peaceful lives… Together."

[Together!]

As the ORC echoed her call, they stepped onto the school grounds. Sona's preparations completed, and the school was engulfed by a water shimmer.

Their strides were firm and resolute, walking side-by-side to an uncertain fate.

Together, as always.

---

"Ahh, there you are Miss Gremory, I was hoping you'd arrive soon."

Kokabiel's voice was pleasant and welcoming as he looked down on the Devils and their allies from above.

He lounged indolently on a massive, floating throne of stone and steel, which bottomed out in a cruel spire that pointed towards the earth like a spear.

Despite being almost 50 feet off the ground, his deep voice carried easily, dominating the open space of the school field.

Despite that, Rias stood unfazed, and for a moment, Yuuji could imagine that they were in fact standing as equals.

The beautiful heiress offered a polite curtsy in response.

"I hope we didn't keep you waiting long, Cadre-san. I hope you have made your preparations? We're students, so I'd like to make sure we conclude this in a timely fashion."

Rias gave a fearless smirk, hands on her hips.

"After all, today is supposed to be a school day, and it wouldn't do to neglect our education any further."

It had spoken volumes of Sona Sitri that, despite the gravity of the situation, she had been the most irritated by the fact that she'd had to arrange for the entire school to be closed for 'emergency renovations'.

On a Monday.

Cadre?

Please, what value did a Cadre hold over a proper education?

Kokabiel chuckled warmly, offering an apologetic bow of his head.

"Forgive me, if I'd realized that today was supposed to be a school day, I would have moved my plans along with greater haste. Far be it for me to interfere with the education of our youths."

Rias chuckled.

Kokabiel chuckled.

The Devils and their allies fanned out on the ground, as the Stray Fallen took to the skies.

Kokabiel remained on his throne, watching with the air of an aloof, but kindly, father waiting for his children's ball-game to start.

Rias remained where she stood, matching his gaze.

"Ah, on the note of education, I hope you don't mind that I brought a few of the young ones with me. They aren't an official part of my forces, so this is being used as a trial by fire of sorts."

Kokabiel gave an apologetic shrug.

"If 'death' is considered a failing grade, I hope you're prepared for no small amount of disappointment, Kokabiel."

"Hahaha! Ah, well, that is the risk we run. As much as I'd prefer to, coddling them would do them no favors."

Kokabiel snapped his fingers, eyes alight as if in sudden recollection.

"Oh my, I nearly forgot."

Kokabiel's fatherly smile turned venomous, finally turning his attention to Raynare and Kalawarner.

"It was such a sad tale to hear that the two of you went rogue, turning on your own people like that after disobeying Azazel! Such a shame, you girls showed such promise! So ruthless, so willing to get your hands dirty, but far, far too eager. Poor Azazel was quite distraught to discover how many innocents you'd butchered in his name!"

Raynare wilted, swaying in place with violet eyes downcast.

As she held out one arm to steady her friend, Kalawarner lifted her gaze skywards once more, and she let out a sharp exhale when she connected the dots.

"How many times... how many times did he give the order?"

Kokabiel grinned.

"Not even once."

"What… N-n-no... that can't be true… i-it-"

Raynare stumbled over her words, shaking her head frantically in denial.

"Oh, but it can! 'Observe and report'? How dreadfully boring! 'Eliminate before they can become a threat' just seems so much more meaningful, does it not? You should be thanking me, so imagine my surprise when you threw it all away to whore yourselves out to your captors! Truly a shame!"

There was a soft thud as Raynare's legs gave way, Kalawarner too distracted to maintain her grip.

The air seethed with power as Kalawarner summoned her Light with a sharp hiss, wings slashing the air as they unfurled and lifted her from the ground.

"You… you BASTARD! All the misery, all of Ray's- just because you wanted to make our jobs more interesting!? You monster, I'LL KILL YOU!"

Several of the Devils were about to yell out in a vain effort to stop her, when a cool voice cut through the tension like a blade.

"Kala."

Kalawarner whipped her snarling visage towards the source of the voice, who had wrapped a hand around her wrist.

The woman faltered, horrified, as the scent of burning flesh filled the air.

She was giving off so much Light that Yuuji's hand was sizzling.

"Y-Yuuji-sama!? Let me go, you're burning!"

She tried to tug away, to no avail.

"Not until you listen to what I have to say."

The Light died, as Kalawarner dropped back to the ground, nauseous from the scent of the boy's still sizzling hand, still encircling her wrist.

"Two things. One, you have something better now, don't you? Don't get reckless."

Kalawarner paled, but nodded weakly after a moment.

"Second, and more importantly, the top of Koka-whatevers chair is pointy."

"Pointy…?"

Kalawarner parroted, clearly having no idea how to respond.

"Yep, it's the perfect shape."

With his free hand, Yuuji swept one hand towards the ominously hanging throne, where the Cadre watched their exchange with eager anticipation.

"Imagine the sense of vindication you'll feel when we ram it up his ass."

The field went dead.

Kokabiel was the first to break the incredulous silence, throwing his head back to howl with mirth.

Struck dumb, Kalawarner gaped open-mouthed at Yuuji, until Akeno's muffled snicker snapped her out of her daze.

Her free hand went up to smother the sound, but a girlish giggle slipped out before his blushing Sensei could muffle it.

Soon, she was forced to abandon the tactic, and Yuuji released her wrist, to allow her to better clutch her sides, doubling over as she laughed and laughed.

A teary-eyed Raynare, still sitting on the ground, joined in a moment later, wiping away her tears.

With great effort, she managed to squeeze a few words out in between her laughter.

"'Koka-whatever'? You forgot his name, didn't you Yuuji-kun?"

"Meh, there's only two Fallen I care about, and they're way prettier than that pasty crow."

Blushing, Raynare giggled.

Kalawarner, laughing still, pulled the smaller girl up onto her feet.

Then, she stepped over to Yuuji, and before he knew what was happening, planted a soft kiss on his cheek.

Before he could offer a response, she whipped her flushed face away with impressive speed, taking a large and rigid step away.

The cat-call that followed certainly hadn't come from Akeno.

Kokabiel, having recovered from his mirth, smirked down at Yuuji.

"Ah, leave it to the Soldier to rally the troops! How heart-warming! Oh, speaking of troops, that reminds me!"

Kokabiel snapped his fingers.

In response, a trio of massive, sparking circles blazed to life on the ground below him, spitting a sulfurous smoke into the air.

"I needed to walk my dogs, fortunately, there is plenty of room to spare. I do hope you don't mind, you can play with them first."

The circling Fallen Angels settled back down onto the gymnasium roof, eagerly crowding about to watch.

As he spoke, torrents of fire and ash erupted out of the circles, and a trio of massive, four-legged figures appeared within the flames.

Slavering, massive sets of canine jaws broke through the flames first… In sets of three.

"Buchou, those are Cerberus aren't they?"

Yuuji's dull voice rang out.

"Yes Yuuji, you are correct."

Rias kept her tone light and conversational.

"Shouldn't there only be one?"

"Ah, a common misunderstanding. The Greek Cerberus is where they get their name from, but these are an advanced variant of the Hell-hound. They can't breathe fire, but they make up for it by being twice the size, and having three times the teeth."

Deeply ingrained instinct taking over, Rias slipped into a lecturing tone as Yuuji watched the beasts with curiosity.

The three-headed canines before them were somewhat similar in appearance to bulky Doberman Pinschers, with vicious, blazing red eyes and pitch-black fur.

Dog owners the world over were probably grateful that their Dobermans were neither three-headed, nor drooling boiling liquid, nor slightly larger than the average house.

'Not a bad trade-off, I suppose, but… yeah, Ruth definitely wears those colors better."

{"I'm also house-trained, and can fit through the front door. Really, I think it's our win no matter how you look at it."}

"Yep, I sure was lucky Buchou's 'murder her Pawn' plan failed."

"Now!? Even now you're teasing me!? This is supposed to be serious! YUUJI!"

Forgetting, for a moment, that she was about to fight for her life, Rias stamped her foot indignantly.

Slightly strained, but still genuine laughter rang out once more from the rest of the ORC. Rias relaxed in spite of herself and let a small chuckle slip out.

The Exorcists just stared at the Devil's as if they had grown second heads.

"It's true, if tension was our only foe, we would only ever have to send out Yuuji."

Smiling whimsically, Kiba joined in, even as he advanced without falter against the snarling beasts, twirling a summoned blade in one hand.

"I wish I'd met you Gremory's sooner, you guys are way too much fun."

Kiba's smile evaporated as the white masked Stray Exorcist stepped out from behind one of the sheds, twirling Excalibur Nightmare.

Hands folded behind his back, a smiling Valper Galilei emerged a few paces behind.

"Buchou, mind if I step off? Some unfinished business reared its head."

Concern flashed across her blue eyes for a brief instant, but Rias nodded firmly.

"Go ahead, Yuuto."

Rias swept her gaze over the group, deciding who to send with him when Xenovia cut in, moving forward with Irina at her side.

"Valper Galilei and an Excalibur Fragment? Mind if we join in, Kiba-san?"

"I wouldn't mind some company."

Kiba offered a slight nod, not taking his eyes off his foes.

"Ah, dear Isaiah and the finished products? A fine opportunity, do show me how far the Church has managed to fumble along without me."

Valper rubbed his hands together, looking for all the world like a paunchy, wizened child at Christmas.

"My wounds still sting from that gross sword of yours, Devil. Be a little more gentle when you play with me, would you?"

Despite the flippant words, the white-masked boys tone remained dull and monotone.

"No promises."

Kiba was met head-on by the masked boy, Xenovia moving in support while Irina's weaving, darting Excalibur Mimic was bared to keep Valper at bay, lashing and coiling in a fashion more akin to a viper than a sword.

Rias turned her attention back to the looming Cerberus, who despite the burning drool dripping from their jaws, hadn't advanced more than a single step.

Well-trained, she supposed?

Kokabiel was looking down on them far too much.

"Yuuji, Ruth, can I trust you to handle the one on the left?"

"Yeah, no problem."

Yuuji gave a firm nod, Ruth padding slowly ahead with hackles raised.

"Koneko, Kala, Ray, take the center."

"Roger."

Koneko stepped forward as the two Fallen took to the air on either side of her.

"Akeno, you'll be supporting me with the one on the right, but your main concern is keeping an eye on our audience. I don't trust them not to interfere, but I can lock one of the mutts down on my own while the others finish up, if need be."

"Yes, Buchou."

Akeno took flight, the air crackling around her

. Rias felt a chill go down her spine as Kokabiel's eyes lit up with curiosity, and he leaned forward in his seat to get a better view of her Queen.

"Asia, you're on standby for any injuries, Suu, keep her safe."

"U-understood!"

"Kay!"

The ORC moved into position, and Kokabiel snapped his fingers once more.

In eerie unison, nine sets of jaws howled their hunger to the heavens.

The ground smoking and cracking in their wake, the Cerberus charged.

---

Gaping jaws swept down from three different angles, dwarfing the sleek, lupine form that charged towards them.

The snapping maws of the Cerberus caught nothing but air, their prey slipping into the shadow they cast with a watery ripple.

Understandably, the left-most head reacted the most violently, Ruth having immediately burst back out of said shadow to bury his jaws in its eye.

There was a wet squishing sound as the Grim's sharp teeth destroyed the burning orb, and then it howled and reared as his fangs found purchase in its eyelid.

Ruth dug his claws in as the head thrashed, but before the center head could reach over its stricken fellow to attack, Ruth kicked off, sailing through the air.

The Cerberus made to follow, and that's when a sleek, dull gray shape careened into it and exploded violently, engulfing its upper body in fire and smoke.

Ruth took the opportunity to gain extra distance, waiting for the smoke to clear.

Dispersing it by flinging its huge body about, the Cerberus whined and reeled, revealing that its center head was a mangled, limply dangling mass of smoking meat, having taken the brunt of the assault.

The other two heads were scarred and scorched on their inner sides, the left head having been now rendered entirely blind.

Yuuji dropped the now empty Stinger, the missile launcher dispersing into dull grey smoke an instant before it hit the ground.

"Not as effective as I would have hoped, but it's not like I'm short on munitions. [Promotion: Rook]."

Yuuji flared his power and drew on the Arsenal Memoir again, and this time the weapon that appeared was even larger than the launcher he'd summoned before,

Whereas the Stinger was shoulder mounted, this was slung low, almost dragging on the ground, despite the shoulder-strap that didn't really belong there.

Nor did the leg thick tripod attached to its base, or the stock that dug into the ground behind Yuuji, but Yuuji certainly hadn't been experimenting with the Arsenal, or brainstorming on how to kill giant monsters.

"Hey, Buchou, this is fine, right? This is justified, right?"

Yuuji's voice was dull, but his eyes were aflame as the smirking Pawn took full advantage of the powerful Rook trait to hoist a gun with six barrels, all longer than he was tall.

The General Dynamics M61A1 Vulcan. A six-barreled, hydraulically powered rotary gun, with a fire-rate of somewhere around six thousand rounds per-minute. In use by the American military since the 1950's.

Typically on fighter jets.

This certainly was not a gross misuse of the power of the Rook trait.

Kazami Yuuji was certainly not enjoying his most solemn duty.

Ruth dipped into the shadows to get well clear of the gunfire that shrieked across the field in not so much a hail, but a storm of demonically-powered iron.

Rias took a split second break from her battle to sigh into her free hand, hiding her smile.

One Cerberus down.

---

The center-most head, plunging forward with jaws open wide, was most shocked to have said jaws caught by the tiny morsel it had set its eyes on.

Of course, this was no set-back to a beast with three heads, and two more sets of jaws came sweeping in from either side, aiming to swallow Koneko whole.

Of course, that had been expected as well.

The Cerberus yelped and reared as each side head abruptly sprouted a light-spear from the side of its neck.

The middle head yanked Koneko right off the ground, as it shared in its fellows pain, and rather than try to hold on, the little Rook allowed herself to hurtle into the sky.

Twisting as gravity reversed her path, Koneko landed behind the middle head, grabbing onto a fistful of fur to keep herself in place.

The enraged Cerberus jumped and bucked, trying to shake her loose.

The outer heads snapped at her in vain, lacking the flexibility to reach the tiny Devil.

Then she reared one fist back and slammed it down on the vertebra of the neck, and the entirety of the middle head vibrated from the force of the blow.

The beast staggered from side to side as Koneko continued hammering down on it, leaving it completely flat-footed for what came next.

Plummeting from the sky like a comet, Kalawarner flipped end over end and dropped her golden axe on the left neck like a guillotine.

Burning Light met thick bone, and bone gave way like hot butter.

Hanging by mere strands of flesh, the heavy head tore away and hit the ground with a meaty thump.

At the same time, Raynare dropped onto the right head with a light-spear in either hand, plunging them into either eye and extending them. The spears crossed, and erupted from either side of the head, just below the jaw.

Raynare went airborne again as her ride flopped like a puppet with its strings cut.

Looking a little awed at what she'd just pulled off, the young Fallen blinked once, then grinned over at Kalawarner.

The older Fallen smiled proudly at her friend, while Koneko finished the job.

Reeling and bewildered by the deaths of the other two heads, and the constant hammering blows of its ride-along, the last head was helpless to respond as Koneko lifted both fists at once.

It threw its head back and howled its pain as Koneko slammed both fists down, swung her lower body up into a handstand, and launched herself upwards with arm strength alone.

Whirling through a complete end over end spin, Koneko came back down heel first.

Right on the base of the head.

A crack like a gunshot, followed by a heavy thud.

Koneko flipped once more, nailing a two-point landing in front of the corpse.

Meanwhile, the last Cerberus was getting dismantled piece by piece.

Keeping one wary eye trained on the 'audience' up above, Akeno had mostly restricted herself to keeping the Cerberus off-balance, aiming for the legs.

A stalagmite under a stepping paw here, a slick of ice there, and the Cerberus was forced to constantly second-guess its footing.

Something that it really, really didn't have time for.

Already, one head was a dangling, smoldering husk, cooked from within when Rias hurled a small orb of Destruction right down its open jaws.

It was limping now, Rias also having sent a thin wave right at the joint of its right leg.

A month or two earlier, and perhaps Rias would have tried to overwhelm it with as much force as possible.

But she'd learned her lessons, and was going to kill her foe with the minimum effort possible.

After all, such tactics would be much, much more difficult against the real opponent.

Though, it seemed it was time to wrap things up, as her foe was the only one left.

Her darling servants had gotten so strong.

"Akeno, if you would. Flash, no substance, please."

"Yes, Buchou."

Lightning crackled as the Priestess of Thunder called on her namesake, while the Crimson-haired Ruin Princess gained a little distance to call on hers.

'Flash, no substance' was a simple code phrase for Akeno to focus on one particular aspect of her lightning, with no regard for the others.

Namely, light.

The Cerberus howled as a blinding flash seared its remaining eyes, rearing away from the source of its agony.

Rias, with one hand over her eyes, took a deep breath, and dropped that hand in time to send the contents of her other hand screaming through the air.

Hissing red and black skewered the rearing Cerberus center mass, the lance of Destruction burning its way out of the hounds back, right where its spine should have been.

The last Cerberus toppled before the smirking King, pleased to know that not only had her precious family grown, but she had as well.

The moment was spoiled by a slow, echoing clap.

Kokabiel leered down at them from his lofty perch, a patronizing smile on his lips.

"Now that the opening act is out of the way, what say we have some fun?"

As his Fallen troops rose into the air with cruel smiles pasted on their faces, Kokabiel casually lifted one hand into the air.

Something caught his attention out of the corner of his eyes, and with a dismissive wave, the Fallen settled back down as the throne rotated to give him a better view.

A better view of Yuuto's battle.

"Perhaps an intermission is in order. It goes without saying, of course, that I'll kill anyone boorish enough to interfere."

Damn that Cadre and his love of theatrics.

Rias grit her teeth, waiting and hoping that her Knight would prevail.

If need be, she'd intervene, and damn the consequences.

Her life for any one of her family's was a trade she'd make a thousand times if asked.

---

Lean back to avoid a blade to the neck.

Shift stance to avoid knee being kicked in.

Slash to the body, turn with it and swing overhead.

Leap back to reset, gust from the wings to hamper pursuit.

Perhaps it was the mechanical method with which his opponent fought, or the maddening sense of deja vu those tactics brought, but Kiba was already sick and tired of this masked swordsman.

He'd been looking forward to the rematch, too.

One didn't just let someone get away with throwing all your trauma in your face like that.

What really got to him was how the fight just wasn't going anywhere.

Xenovia had broken off to aid Irina against Galilei, Irina's Excalibur Mimic lacking the power to penetrate the barriers the Archbishop could cast.

Apparently, he wasn't the only one disappointed.

"Boring. So boring. Who do I have to stab to get you to bring out a real sword? What was it, Angelic Howl?"

His opponent sounded bored, too.

"Sorry, but there's a time and a place for weapons like that, and that's certainly not here."

"Oh, afraid to bring that out where your precious little friends can see? Afraid they'll look at you differently when they see your true face?"

"If I was worried about them seeing me differently, it would be because of this."

'This' was Kiba using his free hand to punch his opponent in the face.

To his eternal shame, Rias was in fact watching, an uneasy truce having fallen over the field as the last of the Cerberus fell.

... He wouldn't be able to look her in the eye for a week.

"What kind of Knight uses a left hook? I take back everything bad I said about you, you are fun."

That bland white mask, clearly more durable than Kiba gave it credit for, was cracked around where the mouth would be, making it look like it had a jagged, lopsided smile.

Fitting really.

"We're having a fight to the death, not a sparring match. Don't expect a Devil to play fair."

"Ah, such ill manners, truly a shame. Mind if I cut in, boy? I'm most curious to see how dear Isaiah has grown without my influence."

Valper Galilei was standing some distance away, hands tucked calmly behind his back and that damned fake smile on his face.

The Exorcist duo were struggling and trying to bring their swords (Xenovia, anyways, Excalibur Mimic had been ripped from Irina's grasp) to bear against chains of light, emerging from the ground to bind them in place.

"Huh, those Exorcists didn't amount to much. Throwaways maybe?"

"The poor girls. Why don't you go keep them company, hmm?"

"Sure, why not."

The white masked swordsman wandered away, and Kiba would have pursued, if Galilei hadn't summoned those lanterns of his to open fire on him.

"Come now, Isaiah, show me how you've grown! After all, I made you what you are! Show me the results of your independence!"

Galilei's fatherly smile twisted into a sneer, dripping with an eager malice.

Like he was plucking the wings off a butterfly.

"Like hell you did! You treated us like toys and then threw us away! You poisoned us in our beds, what kind of monster gasses children when his little science experiment gets shut down!?"

Furious, Kiba ducked under a beam of light and sent a wave of blades streaking through the air, unable to close the distance to employ his preferred tactics.

"Ah, but didn't you benefit in the end?"

Kiba stumbled, got completely off guard by the outlandish remark.

Scenting blood in the water, Valper Galilei immediately stopped firing as the Gremory Knight ground to a wide-eyed, dazed halt.

"...Benefit?... Are you insane?"

"Is it truly so difficult to fathom? You have a master that provides for your every need, and all three Factions know just how much the Gremory's love to dote on their little pets. Isn't your life better, now that you're a Devil?"

The Archbishop grinned widely and spread his arms as Kiba shook his head in denial.

"... Better? You murder everyone I ever cared for… and you call that better? Where's their better!? How did they benefit in the end!?"

It was precisely the wrong question to ask.

With the air of a king granting his favor upon a worthy subject, the Genocide Archbishop casually lobbed something towards the Devil.

Kiba blinked dumbly at the small, shimmering blue crystal that rolled to his feet.

"How did they benefit? By becoming part of something so much greater than they could ever be! And there, dear Isaiah, is the result. All that remains of your precious friends, the successful completion of the Holy Sword Project!"

Trembling, the Gremory knight could only stare down in disbelief.

"Ask them, Isaiah. Ask those Exorcists. The process has been refined, but those are the crystals they take in, in order to use the Holy Swords. That, dear Isaiah, is a crystal made of the extracted Light of your comrades. If memory serves, that prototype only claimed the lives of 12 of your precious little friends."

There was a soft thud as Kiba fell to his knees, gingerly scooping up the crystal.

"T-that can't be! There's no way the Church would allow that!"

Irina had ceased her struggling long enough to yell her denial.

The masked boy hadn't made any move against them yet, seeming content to watch them strain against their bonds.

"Oh, that soft-hearted Michael found a way to extract the Light element without killing the subject, but it was my research that allowed it! The gall of them, to cast me out and then claim my work for themselves!"

Unheeding of the conversation, Kiba Yuuto stared deeply into the small crystal, watching the light ebb and swirl beneath its surface.

Disturbed only by the raindrops that fell from the cloudless sky above.

---

"Man, I wish I was as good at breaking people as the old man was-"

The Stray Exorcist had been loitering nearby, callously watching Xenovia and Irina struggle with their glowing bonds, when he suddenly straightened and snapped his fingers.

"Oh wait, I can just cheat."

The masked boy drew out Excalibur Nightmare and pointed it at Xenovia.

Then Irina.

Back to Xenovia, and in spite of herself, the blue-haired girl relaxed. Better her than-

He'd noticed.

Oh God, please no, anything but-

"Eeny Meeny Miny-"

"NO!"

Xenovia screamed as the air rippled, Excalibur Nightmare claiming the last person she wanted targeted.

Irina's eyes dimmed and her body stiffened woodenly, like some lifeless doll.

Caught in Excalibur Nightmare's cruel grasp.

Xenovia screamed and struggled in a blind panic, trying to get to her friend. She ground to stricken halt when a trembling query slipped out of her friend's lips.

"... Issei?"

Caught in the cruel, cruel clutches of memory.

---

"EEK! Mama Hyoudou help! Issei-kun is trying to eat me!"

Her pink socks sliding along the hardwood floor, little Irina Shidou swung herself around behind Mrs. Hyoudou, hiding behind the powerful protection of her apron.

"Rawr! Issei isn't here, just a big hungry dragon looking for little girrrls to eat! Rawr!"

Issei came running around the corner, swaying from side to side as he waved his hands over his head in a threatening manner that was only partially marred by his missing front teeth.

Irina had cried for hours when his first tooth fell out, terrified that her best friend was very, very sick.

"Oh my, I hope my little Dragon isn't bullying his dear little friend. And I certainly hope that wasn't running in the kitchen I just saw."

"No Mama!"

Issei grinned widely up at his mother.

"We're just playing, Rin-chan is my best friend so I'd never make her cry!"

"That's good dear, now why don't you go play in the yard-"

Mrs. Hyoudou turned her head towards the front of the house, where a faint knocking could be heard.

"Dear, could you get that?"

"Already on it, Honey."

The warm voice of Papa Hyoudou drifted out from the living room.

She hoped it wasn't Mom and Dad! They were away on Church work again, and they never knew how long that would take.

But she didn't get lonely, because when Mom and Dad were gone she got to have sleepovers with Issei-kun!

Sleepovers were great practice for when they were old enough to get married!

"Why don't you two go play in the yard until supper is ready, hmm?"

Mama Hyoudou shooed them along, smiling gently.

Pausing just long enough to slip on the shoes they'd left by the backdoor, the two children trudged out into the backyard together.

Mama Hyoudou began to untie her apron, curious about their unexpected visitor.

As they stepped out into the small backyard, Irina rushed ahead, only to twirl back around to Issei.

Hands tucked behind her back, she ducked her head shyly and scuffed the ground with one shoe.

"Hey, Issei-kun, if I'm gonna play the princess, can you be my knight?"

"Sure, Rin-chan!"

Grinning hugely, Issei gave her a thumbs up.

Just then the back-door opened, and the smiling children turned their head to see-

Mama Hyoudou, leaning heavily against the door.

Her face was pale and she was shaking, was she sick?

She didn't look so good, she was awfully pale and clutching her stomach and-

They could see right through it.

"Y-y-you remember what we always… told you?"

Mama Hyoudou coughed, and the sound was so very, very wet.

"Issei, take Rin and... run along to the... Church. You'll be safe there, you'll-"

"Yes, listen to your mother, children."

The voice was rich, and dark, and utterly foreign.

Mama Hyoudou tripped abruptly, pushed down by something from behind.

Standing in the doorway was a tall, pretty woman, with long, dark hair, and red lipstick and she'd really put too much on because it was running down her face and-

Her body was long, and sleek, and dark, on all fours like an animal.

Not understanding what they were seeing, the children gaped at her in disbelief.

She slowly made her way out of the house, smiling softly, and rising up and up and up-

"Hmm, I thought I could smell Dragon and what is this? Hardly even a lizard, such a waste."

They were running, then, why were they running why was Issei pulling her and why was he looking back with-

Unblinking, golden eyes.

"Come on Rin we gotta run! Mama said the Church is safe we're almost there!"

Ah, Issei was so calm, Issei was so brave, what was happening where was Mama and Papa Hyoudou where was-

Why did it hurt so much?

She fell hard, jerking Issei to a halt as something bumped into her side and it hurt it hurt it hurt-

Something pale and curved was sticking out of her side.

It made a wet squishing noise as it vanished, and Irina went numb.

It was cold.

It was so cold and it hurt why did it hurt?

Slowly she looked back to see that pretty lady with a body that was all wrong licking something red and wet off of those scary claws.

Ah, she wasn't a pretty lady.

She was a monster.

Issei stepped in front of her, trembling like a leaf.

Her brave Issei, her brave knight coming to rescue the princess from the scary-

A teary-eyed, runny-nosed Issei grinned his toothless grin at her and then those reassuring, golden eyes disappeared behind those red-painted lips.

Everything went red, and then everything went dark.

---

"ISSEEEEIIIII!"

The world trembled in time with Irina's agonized, despairing scream.

Slumping like a broken toy, cruelly suspended by the shimmering chains, Irina clutched both hands to her head and screamed and screamed and screamed.

"Irina no! Stay with me, it's not real, stay with me!"

Desperate to reach her wailing friend, Xenovia stretched out a hand only to find that she couldn't take even one step.

With a choked sob, she slumped, helpless, silvery tears streaming down her face.

Looming over them was the white mask with its broken grin.

Having had enough, Kalawarner and Raynare both went to step forward, but were stopped cold as Rias held out her hand.

"Wait."

It was the breathless, hushed quality of her voice that stopped them, and it took only a moment to see what she could see.

Valper Galilei watched the sobbing Exorcists eagerly, rubbing his hand together gleefully.

Without sound or ceremony, Kiba Yuuto rose to his feet.

Seeping between the fingers of his clenched fist was a soft, blue glow.

---

It was always like this.

Why?

Why did good people have to suffer while scum like that watched, and laughed at their pain?

Why did Valper Galilei get to live when so many of his friends died?

Why was he allowed to live, when he had neither been the bravest, or the smartest, or the kindest of their number?

Why?

"It was never about that, Isaiah."

He let out a sharp exhale as a warm, tiny little hand gripped onto his free one.

"We were so happy when you escaped."

This voice was different, but he didn't need to look to know who it belonged to.

"It hurt so much, but you being alive made it all seem okay."

The tallest of their number barely reached his chest.

That seemed wrong for some reason.

... He'd never really outgrown them, after all.

"Hey, Zaiah?"

Hehe... she never did manage to get his name right.

The big words were still difficult for her.

"Maybe it's time you stopped blaming yourself?"

Ah, her... always the first to come running when their smiles faltered.

"Yeah, we were happy that you survived, so maybe it's time you tried actually living a little?"

He had always been the bravest and the strongest.

Isaiah had idolized him.

"Why…? Why was I the only one to live? Why did you all have to die for something so pointless?"

"Dunno. The adults never made much sense."

A bitter laugh slipped free.

"Sometimes I think the world doesn't make sense. Bad people smile, good people cry, the strong prosper and the weak suffer. Despite our prayers, no Angel ever flew down to save us, but a Devil saved me, and me alone. What kind of messed up world do we live in?"

"We don't know, Isaiah. Maybe things don't have to make sense?"

"Yeah… maybe… I miss you all so, so much."

"We know. We've always known."

"You know, I'm tired of trying to make sense of things."

"And that's okay, Isaiah."

"So, I think I'm going to do something just a little crazy."

"Go ahead, Isaiah. We're with you."

"Together?"

"Always."

"Thanks, everyone."

"Now, how about your old family…"

"Helps you fight for your new one?"

---

Hand covering her mouth, Rias watched with bated breath and glistening eyes as Yuuto, her precious Yuuto, was surrounded by the forms of glowing, child-like figures.

She had never imagined a blue so warm.

She was too taken aback to muster a response when one of the taller girls turned to look directly into her eyes.

Despite the distance Rias could clearly see her wink.

Then, Rias gaped as Kiba lifted the glowing crystal high above his head…

And slammed it into his chest.

The air rippled in a breeze that was both frightfully cold and stiflingly hot.

Then, her Knight stood up straight and began to speak, surrounded by his glowing, youthful honor-guard who winked out, one by one, in glowing strands that swirled into the sky.

The world stopped its spinning, to better hear his voice.

Let the embrace of the Angel condemn you

A cacophony of fiendish, otherworldly howls joined by serene, celestial chorus.

Let the jaws of the Demon grant you peace

Blood and stardust, spitting venom and liquid gold danced and intertwined on the palm of his hand.

[Balance Breaker]

They slammed together in an explosion of blinding light and smothering shadows, stretching its way to Heaven, and piercing down to Hell.

Rakshasa Divine!

… It took the shape of the European longsword that Yuuto favored above all else.

It's elegant blade was a regal, softly glowing gold.

Running up along its length were spidery veins of inky black, and bloody crimson that throbbed and pulsed as if alive.

A simple cruciform hilt, bound and constricted by weeping vines of jagged iron.

The pommel?

A crude, jagged crystal of warm, languidly swirling blue.

It offered the serene, welcoming light of salvation, even as unspeakable, unending malice lashed out in defiance of the world itself.

Beautiful and hideous.

Sacred and profane.

Holy and Demonic.

Her Knight stood proudly against that which had haunted him all his life, and that's when it happened.

He spread his wings in challenge, the leathery, spiked wings of a Devil.

... As pale and white as fresh-fallen snow.

Her desperate, breathless wish, that even she couldn't hear the words to, somehow reached his ears.

Her Knight, her darling, precious little brother, turned his head her way, with a radiant smile and a question in his soft blue eyes.

Rias rose to her full height and returned a smile with all the love and pride she had to offer, and offered a simple nod.

Beside her, Akeno stepped a little closer, watery eyes alight with a silent, unspoken joy.

He lifted his sword for the last time against the ghosts of his past.

This time, with a blade that could reach them.

---

Deep in the darkness of a young man's heart sat a sword, piercing the unseen earth below it.

Twisted and jagged, bleeding and rusting and weeping and-

Angelic Howl crumbled, and was swept away on a whispering breeze.

Sighing softly, gently, as it vanished forever.

Wings flaring, Kiba Yuuto, Knight of Rias Gremory, charged into the fray once more.

---

She watched as the top half of that wretched sword went flying, the Gremory Knight accomplishing the first step towards his goal with frightening ease.

One half of Excalibur Nightmare dissolved into shimmering light and drifted away, while the half remaining in its wielders hands?

Hastily discarded, as it liquefied before the the unholy aspect of Rakshasa Divine.

Rather than press the attack, the Gremory Knight smiled patiently, and leaned against his sword as his white-masked foe fell back to that excitedly watching old heretic.

One Fragment down, and yet here she was, in chains, just like her brokenly sobbing friend.

Dammit!

She knew better, she knew she had to keep that sword away from Irina and she blew it!

No more.

She had tried to rely on Excalibur Destruction, because it was easier to control.

She was sure Irina was appreciating the easier method right about now.

The chains of light that bound her bit deeply as she grit her teeth and forced her arm up, and soon blood was running down the chains.

"Hear me Saint Peter! Saint Basil! Saint Denis! Holy-mother Mary, heed my voice!"

A golden portal opened in the air before her hand, all eyes falling to her as a divine wind scoured the field.

Unheeding, uncaring, she continued her chant.

"In the name of the saints who reside within this blade, I will release it! Come forth, DURANDAL!"

A sword hilt, bound by golden chains slid from the portal and into her waiting hands, and when those chains shattered, the chains binding her and Irina shredded like paper.

Irina fell to her knees, but she remained standing, but Xenovia remained standing, eyes narrowed and teeth bared.

The sword, almost as long as she was tall, had a single-edged blade of blue, lined in gold. A semi-circular guard on a grip meant for two hands.

Xenovia Quarta rose to her full height, finally wielding the sword she was always meant to wield.

"This is Durandal. This unruly child doesn't like to listen most of the time, and will ravage everything if I don't keep it locked away."

If the Excalibur Fragments leaked Holy aura, Durandal was a flood.

"That's impossible! All attempts to create a wielder for Durandal met with failure. How!? How do you wield that sword!?"

Valper Galilei gaped at her, and Xenovia allowed herself to savor his shock with a thin smile.

"No one created me. I was born a wielder of Durandal."

She shifted her gaze to the Gremory Knight who watched her, and her sword, with faint curiosity.

"Mind if I cut in, Kiba-san? It's a rare chance to bring my Durandal up against Excalibur."

The Devil just smiled at her.

"You've lived up to your end of the bargain, so I don't mind sharing. Now, Valper, where are you hiding the other Fragments. Don't tell me all of your precious little plans have fallen apart already?"

The old man glared spitefully, and reached his hand into a glowing portal, similar to the one Xenovia had pulled Durandal from, and pulled forth a new weapon.

The sword bled Holy energy into the air, looking something like a rapier fused with a curved blade of some kind.

Xenovia gaped at it in shock.

'You… fused them? What have you done?"

Valper Galilei gave a mocking, triumphant laugh as he presented the sword to the white-masked boy.

"Indeed, I have combined Excalibur Rapidly and Excalibur Transparency, lending the power of both to a single blade! Just imagine how much more impressive it will be when I get my hands on the more of the Fragments! A shame you destroyed Nightmare, but a minor setback at-"

"Pathetic."

Kiba Yuuto's sigh was heavy with disappointment, almost as if he was embarrassed on Valper's behalf.

"That's your hidden trump card? That toy? I almost feel ashamed to have hated someone like you for so long. Sorry, Quarta-san, but would you give me another moment? I have a point to make."

Xenovia gave a small nod and grinned, the Archbishop of Genocide gaping and spluttering, turning purple with rage.

Shrugging, the masked swordsman gave the fused Excalibur an experimental swing and charged the Gremory Knight, the power of Excalibur Rapidly granting him speed far beyond what he had been capable of before.

A pale blur, trailing warm gold and bloody red, slammed into him and rebounded, before he had even crossed half the distance.

He bounced and skidded across the ground, trailing metal shards that flew off in every direction.

The light dropped back down from the sky like a bolt from the heavens, and Valper Galilei found his barrier struggling to keep that impossible sword at bay.

The light that protected him seeming to recoil and tremble before the blade that burned into it.

"Is that it?"

Holding that sword was a Devil, his firm glare giving way to a weary disappointment.

"Is that- no, it can't be… such a thing shouldn't be possible, unless…"

Earlier rage forgotten, Valper Galilei stared up at Rakshasa Divine in spellbound fascination, as behind him, the masked boy slowly got to his feet and brushed himself off.

"It has to be! It must! To think Michael was keeping such a secret! To think, that all this time, not only the Satans but God-"

SHINK!

Whatever Valper Galilei was going to say was cut off as a thin line of gold streaked across his neck. The light-spear that had struck him embedded itself into the dirt as his head, frozen in an expression of sudden epiphany, rolled off back off his with a muted thump.

His once mighty barrier, with nothing to maintain it, shattered like glass.

"Now now, Valper Galilei. One shouldn't simply blurt out such revelations, a certain level of… theatrics are necessary."

Kokabiel, one hand still outstretched in the dead man's direction, rose from his seat with a proud smile and swept his hands out, as if standing upon a podium rather than a floating throne.

Movement caught Kiba's gaze as, the masked boy slipped away, and as he did, his mask finally crumbled and gave way.

Kiba blinked in shock, but was forced to shake his head as Kokabiel began to speak once more.

The Fallen were watching their leader in breathless anticipation, some shooting knowing, mocking grins towards the Devils below.

"The lie that Michael and the Seraphs have so desperately tried to conceal! The truth of the Great War! Yes! Not only did that mighty struggle, that greatest and most glorious of wars drag the Satan's themselves from their thrones and into the grave, it…!"

The Cadre paused, head raised to the skies as if overwhelmed by his own sweeping oration.

Then he lowered his head to offer those below a vicious smile.

"It even claimed the life of God himself."

A chill swept through the field.

The sudden silence was so thick you could almost taste it.

A soft thud broke through the hushed air first, Xenovia digging her sword into the earth to support her shaking knees.

"Lies… a lie, it has to be-"

She cut herself off and snapped her head to the side, where Irina was huddled over on herself.

The fact that a continuous, stuttering flow of the word 'Issei' was the only sound she made, suggested she hadn't heard.

Xenovia couldn't quite bring herself to feel relief.

Kokabiel shook his head slowly with a helpless shrug, before pointing down towards Kiba.

"Ah, but couldn't it be the truth? After all, in what sane, intact world would allow two exact, irreconcilable forces to exist in harmony? That sword, that impossible contradiction would never be allowed by God! The system he put in place would never allow its birth!"

"T-then… if God didn't cast us out, then who?"

Raynare's question slipped out before she could stop it, and Kokabiel's excited visage snapped down to her.

"Michael, of course. He maintains the tenuous hold on God's Throne, and he must be oh so strict if he is to keep it from crumbling any faster."

Then his eyes fell on Asia.

"After all, what merciful God would discard a Holy Maiden for offering kindness to her enemies?"

Asia swayed in place, and would have fallen if Suu hadn't caught her.

The Slime's naive, blank half-smile gave way to a glare, dripping in malice.

Kokabiel stepped to the edge of his floating throne.

Silently, the Fallen behind him rose eagerly into the air.

The Devils and their allies below tensed in readiness.

"Now, with that little detail out of the way, you all still seem a tad too hopeful for those about to die. Do you honestly believe that this battle would ever end any other way?"

Kokabiel let all ten of his wings unfurl, stepped forward off his throne-

"High time I shattered those illusions of yours."

Yuuji's body went flying through one of the storage sheds.

Then another.

His companions could only gawk in stricken disbelief when the crashing and the splintering of wood halted, and not another sound was heard.

Kokabiel rose into the air once more with a smug smile, and his forces descended.

---

The Power of Destruction bisected a pair of Fallen, the pieces trailing ash as they fell limply from the sky.

"Asia! Get to Yuuji! Suu, cover her!"

"Y-yes!"

Asia dashed away, Suu flowing along at her side.

Almost a dozen Fallen broke away to pursue, but lightning vaporized the middle of their formation as a seething Akeno opened fire.

Half went one direction and white wings heralded Kiba's re-entry to the fray as he soared forth, Rakshasa Divine hissing and singing as it fell upon them.

The first Fallen was skewered through the ribs, falling screaming as the edges of his wounds began to burn away.

Another plummeted without a sound as the Holy-Demonic sword claimed her head.

The other half of the group struggled to defend themselves as dozens of small pink light spears swept through them like a cloud.

The survivors of Raynare's assault would never get the chance to recover.

Kalawarner fell upon them with a furious cry, blood and limbs flying in every direction as her golden axe hacked them to pieces.

Asia, trusting in her friends and in Suu, didn't even spare a glance for her pursuers, vibrant green eyes locked on her target.

She had almost reached the wreckage, where Yuuji had disappeared, when the ambush struck.

Another group of over a dozen Fallen had been lying in wait atop the school building itself, and several had been lurking in the trees surrounding the athletic field.

Asia barely had time to scream before they let fly with their spears.

A transparent, serpentine shape wound through its way through the air around her, catching each and every spear before snapping to place back in front of her.

Suu, with her rain-jacket lying at her feet, looking at Asia with clear concern.

Even though she was the one skewered from every angle like some gooey pin-cushion.

"Asia, okay?"

"S-Suu! Y-you're-"

She bit back what she was going to say.

The light-spears were slowly starting to dissolve.

... Had Suu gotten taller?

Suu had gotten taller.

Hips widened and breasts swelled, even as soft blue faded to black, and warm green hair became an equally warm pink.

Suu smiled down at her master, now almost identical to Kalawarner in height and proportion.

"Shh… it's okay, Asia-chan. It will take more than a few naughty Fallen to stop me, so why don't you focus on Yuuji?"

Suu patted her on the cheek gently, before her body reversed itself to face the Fallen watching her warily.

"Trying to hurt my sweet little Asia? I think you little crows need punishment."

Suu winked up at them, and raised one hand, her index finger pointed and thumb raised.

"Bang~."

A faint splash, and three bodies fell from the sky with small, sizzling holes in their skulls.

Several more were smashed from the sky, Koneko having caught up with the duo and hurled half a shed at their attackers.

There was a howl and a scream as Ruth pounced out of nowhere, having ridden along with the shadow of the shed chunk, opposite the rising sun.

He tore the throat out of his victim and leaped off, long tail catching another two by the throat and pulling them into his descent.

His landing was graceful, their landing left them completely defenseless as the enraged Grim rounded on them.

"T-thank you!"

Asia recovered from her shock and took off once more, nearly to where Yuuji must have been lying.

She had just spied an arm amidst the wreckage, and was nearly an arms length away, when Rias screamed a warning.

"Tsk Tsk. You'll only prolong things needlessly if you go around healing people."

Then Kokabiel was beside her and swinging one arm, and something dark was surging up around her.

"ASIA!"

Cratered into the crumbling wall of the main building was the limp little Bishop.

Something dark and gooey was splattered across the crater, struggling weakly to pull itself together.

"A… Sia… Sia-a…"

Ruth leapt for Kokabiel and was batted out of the air with a yelp, tumbling and bouncing until he struck the wall just beneath the unconscious Bishop, and something gave way with a muffled crack.

Struggling, he dragged himself to his three remaining feet and stood trembling guard in front of the two girls, fangs bared with a snarl that sounded more like a cough.

One of his front legs was jutting white bone like a spear, and that wasn't the only place that bone had broken skin.

The Cadre stared at the Grim calmly for a moment, and then the Grim's legs gave way as he hit the dirt.

This time, Ruth did not rise.

The other half of the shed that Koneko had hurled slammed into the silent Cadre like a battering ram, and Kokabiel staggered a single step as it broke against him.

A huge pale hand reached through it to grasp the startled little Rook, but before he could reach, Rias struck.

A cascade of seething Destruction washed over Kokabiel but he flicked his right set of wings and it slicked off of him like oil.

Koneko had been snatched away by a panicked Raynare in that thin gap, and the mob of Fallen that pounced on her found their route cut off by a wave of steel from one direction, and a spinning axe of golden light from the other.

Kokabiel turned calmly to look at the Gremory heiress, even as the seething girl gathered enough Power of Destruction to form what looked like a miniature star.

Kiba and Akeno protected her, the Knight flashing through the air at dreadful speed to vivisect any Fallen that approached.

A cold-eyed Akeno brought lightning infused death with one hand, and shielded her King with the other.

Without so much as a word, Kokabiel chuckled and raised his arms, inviting Rias to fire with a mocking grin.

Rias screamed her rage, and Destruction screamed with her.

That star became a crackling comet as it burned the air itself on the way to the Cadre.

The comet slammed into a shield of wings,slowly forcing the Cadre to give ground.

Then those smoking wings spread apart, and the comet dispersed amidst dark feathers swirling in the air.

"A very good try, Rias Gremory. I shall confess, my wings are just aching. I dare say they'll need a thorough grooming once I'm done."

The Cadre snapped his fingers.

"Speaking of done…"

A roar of wind accompanied the Cadre's charge as he descended upon Rias, one hand outstretched.

Rias hit the dirt with a low cry as something struck her, knocking her from the Cadre's path.

Bewildered and disoriented, Rias cast her vision around wildly as Kiba yelled, pressured by over half a dozen Fallen attacking from every angle.

She raised her vision skywards, and saw him once more.

Or rather, saw them.

Casually standing atop the floating dais that held his throne aloft, Kokabiel cast his dread shadow once more over the field of battle.

With one hand around the neck of a desperately thrashing Akeno.

With an agonizing slowness, the Cadre turned his head towards the dangling Queen.

He was rewarded with a face full of lightning.

When the smoke cleared, Kokabiel had a thin, narrow burn on one cheek from when he'd tilted his head to the side.

His grip hadn't even loosened.

"I had my suspicions, but weak as it was, that confirms it."

Kokabiel sneered contemptuously, looking truly angry for the first time.

"You're Baraqiel's daughter, aren't you? The filthy little half-breed he left behind!"

Akeno's eyes went wide, and then she bared her teeth and hissed her answer.

"I'm nothing like that-"

A thin stream of Destruction, aimed at Kokabiel, cut off what she was going to say, but the Cadre casually stopped it with his free hand.

"No, you're not. But, you know…"

Kokabiel offered a knowing, almost mischievous smirk towards Rias, even as he shook Akeno violently to make her lightning fizzle.

"The poor man broke a little, the day he lost his family."

He winked down at the horrified King-

"So I'm sure you'll understand him better… if I break you as well."

Lifted Akeno above his head, and grabbed onto her leg-

A scream tore the air as Akeno's spine bent and snapped over his knee.

"AKENO!"

Rias cried out as the resounding crack silenced the sounds of battle, pounding its way through her skull.

Casually, carelessly, the Cadre let the twitching, gasping Queen fall to earth, watching without interfering as the Gremory heiress desperately hurled herself to meet the tumbling body.

Caught in Rias' embrace, Akeno screamed anew as something within her shifted and popped within her King's arms.

Sobbing and crying, Rias drifted slowly back to the ground, with her broken Queen convulsing and whimpering in her embrace.

---

Rubble slipped loose with a clatter.

Something rose from the wreckage, streaming blood and dull gray smoke.

---

Bodies fell from the sky like rain as the remaining members of the ORC hurled themselves against their foes with murderous abandon, and Kokabiel calmly sent his throne in retreat, before descending from the sky, on the opposite end of the sports field from her.

"AKENO, AKENO STAY WITH ME! Please, no no no! ASIA! WHERE ARE YOU-!"

Her words died in her throat as cold reality hit her like a hammer.

Her peerage, her family were falling to pieces around her…

And there was nothing she could do.

"None of you understand what a real fight is."

Now, she understood, and it was far too late.

Kokabiel had been toying with them from the start.

Only now, like some unruly child, he'd decided start breaking his toys.

As the battle raged around her, Rias huddled over her crippled Queen and cried and cried-

The distinctive rattle of a chain-link fence, so out of place amidst the sounds of combat, snapped her out of her grief for the briefest of moments.

"... Yuuji?"

A dark-haired figure slowly made his way forward, half limping, half dragging himself against the chain-link fence that framed the school grounds.

His one visible eye painted shut by the blood running down his face, various bits of the wreckage were sticking out of him at odd angles.

As if hearing her whisper, his head snapped towards her, and Rias nearly fainted from what she saw.

Yuuji's other eye was no less visible.

Not from blood, but from the dull grey smoke that poured from it.

As if they had all noticed in the same instant, the fighting ground to an abrupt halt, everyone, without fail, finding their eyes drawn to the bizarre sight.

Facing forward once more, Yuuji reached a hand to grasp the fence and pull himself farther, but what snapped down with a dull groan was a battered iron gauntlet, ending in cruel hooked claws.

A leg dragged forward, and it was covered too.

He stumbled and fell, and then the iron engulfed him up to the neck.

He hauled himself to his feet, engulfed in battered, ancient iron, like the armor of some long-forgotten knight, weathered but unbroken.

Smoke poured from the joints of the armor as Yuuji swayed in place, releasing his grasp on the fence.

The voices seemed to come from every direction at once. Male, female, dozens upon dozens.

[Balance Breaker]

He tilted his unseeing eyes towards Rias, and a featureless iron face-plate snapped into place, leaving barely enough room for his eyes.

Unknown Soldier.

When the mask fell into place, all memory of the man behind it fell away.

---

The mask it wore covered its face from chin to hairline, allowing dark hair to frame it, but not a single identifying feature beyond that.

Iron wreathed everything below the Soldier head completely in plate after plate of battered, interlocking metal.

Rias tried, and failed, to suppress a shudder as the horrid thing made its advance.

Calling it armor wasn't quite right.

Something about it seemed too constricting, too confining.

Like a cage, perfectly fitted to its captives body.

A prison of iron, struggling to contain the countless curses that seethed within.

Failing, as a bitter hatred wreathed it in a ruinous curtain.

It walked upon the trembling earth, and resentment poisoned the air in its wake.

Violent, jerking strides that made the metal screech and groan, even as that hateful smoke sputtered from the thin joint-gaps like the dying breaths of some ancient, overworked engine.

A last, sputtering puff, and the smoke that poured from the twin chasms in its mask wafted away on a tainted breeze.

She called them 'chasms' because the narrow eye-holes of the mask revealed nothing, empty fissures of a deep, oppressive darkness.

The longer she stared, the more the gloom seemed to deepen, until a trembling Rias tore her gaze away from an endless darkness that stared right back at her.

Those watching held their breath, as the grim specter slowly made its way onto the now still field of battle, unconcerned or uncaring that every eye was fixed its way.

The shriek and grind of metal ground to a halt, allowing a silence that seethed with barely restrained malice, nothing but their pounding heartbeats to challenge the stillness that followed.

They held their breath as the soft groan of iron echoed through their bones, a single armored digit rising into the sky.

The Fallen quailed before the wordless beckons of the thing below.

Rias and her peerage looked on nervously, waiting for the violence that they could feel in the air to pour forth.

A brief movement snapped all eyes towards a pair of Fallen, hovering side by side.

With dawning horror in their eyes, they offered a dazed nod to one another.

The Soldier lowered its outstretched hand, and crossed its arms impatiently.

The violence began.

---

Roaring in challenge, the Fallen pair plunged from the sky to attack, as if by some unspoken signal.

Their pale-faced fellows made no move to cease their assault, nor join it.

As if such ideas never crossed their mind.

The first vanished amidst a hail of gunfire, so thick you could almost see it.

Feathers of the darkest black fluttered slowly to earth in the crimson rain.

From the side, the second Fallen let out a garbled cry as the empty weapon was hurled into his face, and his remaining momentum carried him right into the Soldier's embrace.

He screamed himself hoarse as spiked thumbs slipped into either eye, and he had just grasped onto the Soldiers armored wrists when it pulled.

He fell twitching, skull wrenched violently apart.

It was as if an order had been quietly determined, a sentence passed in silence.

They would descend from the sky, in pairs, in groups, sometimes alone.

The Fallen Angels would descend from the skies to attack, and the Soldier would kill them.

As if to acknowledge all that made them unique, the Soldier offered them each a death that was theirs and theirs alone.

As if to deny what courage, what fleeting dignity resided in each of those lives, the Soldier escorted them screaming into the silence beyond.

A Fallen was blown to pieces by buckshot, the gun carelessly discarded in an instant for a new tactic as his comrade swooped in.

That one was plucked screaming from the skies as the Soldier pounced on her like some iron-wrought tiger, dragging her to the earth and pinning her beneath its armored form.

Cruel gauntlets ripped, tore, gouged, and she flailed, screamed, begged.

Blood poured off the Soldiers hands in crimson rivers, as it rose from the bloody wreckage of a once living thing.

Meanwhile, the remaining Devils, along with Raynare and Kalawarner, gathered around a kneeling Rias, watching with sick, mute fascination.

"Buchou… Rias… w-who… is that?"

Kiba stared at the Soldier with a faint air of nausea, as a Fallen spiraled lazily past it with one less wing than he'd started with.

Ghostly pale and shivering, Raynare and Kalawarner locked their eyes onto the battling Soldier, wallowing in an inexplicable feeling of shame, and the gut-churning sense they'd been left behind once more.

Silent, liquid trails intermingled with the blood and the dirt on their faces.

They weren't the only ones feeling inexplicably abandoned.

A trembling, bewildered Koneko strained her senses to the fullest, trying to remember something, anything, beyond the scent of iron and blood.

"I… don't know... why can't I…!?"

Rias' watery eyes bored into the Soldier, trying desperately to recall.

Who was he!?

Why couldn't she remember, he was hers, he was one of her precious-

… She could barely, just barely sense all eight of her Pawns, buried within that iron-bound executioner, but she couldn't catch even the faintest clue as to who she'd given them to.

Or why.

Akeno, lying limply in Rias' arms, twisted her head slowly, painfully.

She'd lost all feeling, so now, she could see just dimly past the pain.

Past it to him, past it to the one she-

An old, familiar ache caused her to shudder anew.

That familiar feeling of inescapable loneliness.

Loneliness, and loss.

---

He watched, enthralled, as his forces desperately hurled themselves into the arms of their executioner in macabre procession.

Kokabiel couldn't for the life of him understand, but the Soldier below had established an order of events with but a single glance.

In the end, only one remained, and this one didn't fight.

Slowly, he made his way to the ground and prostrated himself on his knees, with eyes closed and head bowed.

Perversely, when the Soldier reached him, it was he who screamed the longest, he who screamed the loudest.

The air was still thick with blood and feathers when inspiration struck.

The Gremory and her pets could remember the Soldiers identity no better than he could…

But could it remember them, or had it lost itself already?

With a casual sort of cruelty, he slung a spear of light at the Gremory's back.

The Unknown Soldier shot it out of the air before it had made it even halfway, only bewildering its 'companions' further.

Heedless of their distress, the Soldier turned its gore-streaked visage upon the fascinated Cadre.

It cocked its head to one side, then the other, inspecting him with a faint air of curiosity.

The lifeless smog that drifted from it renewed in intensity, as the blood of his people poured from its ironclad form.

This time, the smoke wasn't empty.

This time, there were faces within.

They laughed.

They screamed.

They begged.

They cursed.

And without heeding a single one, he had killed them… he had killed them all.

Hadn't he?

Eons of conflict.

Even before he Fell from Heaven, Kokabiel had stood proudly at the forefront of every battle, and his enemies had fallen around him like rain.

There was no possible way he could remember all those he had killed, when he couldn't even begin to guess at how many he'd killed.

For the first time, in what felt like an eternity, an icy sliver of fear crept up his spine.

For the first time, he had realized the simple, awful truth.

That they remembered him.

---

Blink and you'd miss it.

Was it the hurled spear of light, or the staccato assault of the Soldier's rifle that had started the hostilities anew?

Rias couldn't have said.

Kokabiel hid his fleshly form from a hail of gunfire with the mighty wings of a Cadre.

The ricochets made the sound of metal on metal.

With a joyous shout, Kokabiel spread his wings once more, but this time, a hurled light-spear accompanied the motion.

The Soldier ducked under the hurtling projectile, and the Cadre charged in his spears wake with a single powerful beat of his wings, a sword of light at the ready.

The Soldier met him with a round, heavy iron shield, and the sword punched right through, scorching an armored shoulder as it passed over.

He pulled it back just in time to parry the Soldier as it plunged a long iron spear over the top of its shield, aiming for his neck with uncanny accuracy.

He tore the shield from the Soldiers grasp and staggered when he found no resistance at all.

The straps that kept it anchored had vanished like mist.

The Soldier swiped with its spear, and the Cadre hopped back, grinning, before beating his wings to engage once more.

Only to meet an attack from an unexpected quarter, as the Holy Demonic sword came howling and singing for his neck.

Kokabiel parried the blow with a grunt, but before he could round on Kiba, he was forced to cross two swords of light overhead as a golden axe came crashing down from above.

He flexed his muscles to force back Kalawarner, and that's when the Soldiers axe came arcing in from below.

A wing clap resounded like thunder, and sent the attackers flying.

Even the Soldier with its keen-edged, bloody axe.

One hand to the thin gash in his chest, Kokabiel directed his attention towards Kalawarner, who had been flipped end over end through the air-

He was forced to pull his gaze back from the pink light-spear that tried to claim it from the side.

With a frustrated snarl, he set his sights on the frightened Raynare and-

Batted aside the Rook whose fist was careening towards his face.

Clearing his view just in time to see the roaring, red and black wave of Destruction that Rias slammed into him.

It washed over him as he roared in pain, the attack not being anything of the magnitude she had used earlier, but the Power of Destruction leaving its mark by its very nature.

The smoking, burning Cadre lowered a smoking, hastily raised hand that had barely covered his face, and glared murder at the Gremory girl.

She met his gaze with equal hostility, still standing protectively over the broken half-breed that lay behind her, Baraqiel's spawn having slipped into unconsciousness.

The last, fleeting mercy she would ever see.

Without looking, he caught the dull grey object the Soldier swung at him, clenched in its fist, his much larger hand engulfed both the object and the Soldiers hand.

Iron, and bone slowly gave way beneath the Cadre's powerful grip.

A blade of light in his hands, Kokabiel spun his leering visage towards the trapped Soldier, and skewered it one smooth motion.

… That had been the plan, but right as his golden light touched the ancient iron, the contents of their interlocked hands exploded.

A roar of heat and metal blew the two away from each other, the other combatants just far enough away to avoid the blow-back if they back-pedaled.

Two figures came flying from the smoke, one that trailed smoke from it wings, the other that bounced and crashed noisily.

Kokabiel flicked the smoke from hims wings, his body scorched and covered in numerous, tiny cuts.

Then he heard the soft noise of blood dripping and raised his arm.

What was left of it.

A ruined stump, a jagged, cooked, shapeless lump that ended halfway from his elbow.

Even the body of a Cadre could only take so much.

Ironically, his covering hand had saved him from far worse damage.

Saved him and-

Cracked iron groaned and bled, as the Soldier struggled to its feet.

Unlike the Cadre, its destroyed right arm was unexposed, a smooth cuff of metal concealing the stump as if its metallic prison had been designed without a full arm in mind.

It swayed and wobbled as a spider web of cracks leaked crimson.

Bloody, but still standing.

Broken, but unbowed.

Kokabiel tilted his head back and howled and howled, spittle flying from a rage greater than the pain.

Eons of war, and crippled for the first time.

By a child in armor.

He had set his sights on the barely upright Soldier, when the noose drew tight.

Destruction sang its song to bring an end to all things.

Howling crimson and midnight black devoured the space between him and the Gremory.

Accompanied by a rain of swords.

Light of twin colors and many, many edges.

The last intact storage shed, hurled like a missile.

And from afar, a pressurized stream of water, as an awakened Slime held a slowly waking Bishop in one arm.

Lastly, Durandal's Holy light tore the ground as Xenovia finally regained her feet.

Kokabiel vanished under the onslaught, as smoke and light blinded everything.

.

.

.

.

The Devils and their allies watched in tense, nervous silence, not daring to hope that-

"GGRRRRREEMORRRRYYY!"

Several things happened at once.

Something stirred within the smoke, and streaming blood, smoke, and ash, a ragged shape bore down on Rias before she could even begin to respond.

The sky above her shattered, the barrier keeping their battle contained, punctured in a single breath.

At the same time, dull grey blur sent her tumbling end over end, and dark blood sprayed high, like a waterfall in reverse.

---

It took him a second to realize that his good arm was missing, and that the blood painting the Soldier's iron was his own.

Another second allowed him a glimpse of his missing appendage, lying beside the thin sheet of crimson-streaked ice embedded in the dirt.

Then soft, delicate hands to grip his head from behind, and there were no more seconds to be had.

The battle ended with neither the cheers of the victors, nor the wails of the defeated.

Just a single, awful crack.

Kokabiel found his perspective dizzyingly wrenched about, his last sight the furious crimson orbs of one Grayfia Lucifuge.

Without a word, the Gremory maid let the body fall.

---

Warily, she watched the blood-drenched specter in front of her, not willing to take her eyes off of it, not as its one good hand flexed in readiness.

It was not an enemy, she could assume, for it had saved Rias not moments before, and was currently shielding an unconscious Akeno from her.

She had no guarantee that it knew she wasn't an enemy, however.

"G-Grayfia… you… came? Did… Onii-sama?"

As much as she'd like to answer, more pressing concerns existed.

"Rias-sama, who is this?"

Out of the corner of her eyes, she could see the dazed girl prop herself up on her hands, dirty and bruised from her tumble.

The Gremory maid cringed inwardly when the question seemed to hit the young lady with physical force.

"I… I don't know, Grayfia… that's… the Pawn Pieces, I can feel them, but…"

Her silence left only anguish in its wake.

She couldn't remember?

How was that even…

She swept her senses about the field, catching the magical auras of everyone within the school with little effort.

Rias, Akeno, Koneko, Yuuto, Miss Argento, two familiar Fallen, a pair of familiars, the Student Council, and…

An emptiness.

Nothing moved, nothing lived.

As if a hole had been torn from the world, right where that armored specter swayed in a sickly breeze.

"Rias… where is Kazami-san?"

He was the only one missing, and it was hard to imagine that one such as he would-

"K-Kazami…? Kazami…?"

Breathlessly, the young lady repeated the word herself, struggling with a thought just out of reach.

"...Yuuji?"

Her head snapped up, and the fear in the young lady's eyes struck Grayfia in the chest like a hammer.

"YUUJI! YUUJI WHERE ARE YOU!?"

For the first time, Grayfia's focus was torn from the armored figure in front of her as Rias began to panic, casting her eyes desperately about for her missing servant.

That seemed to break the spell for the others, and they too began looking about wildly, frantically searching for their missing comrade and-

Ignoring the armored figure entirely, even as its swaying intensified.

Grayfia was already stepping over the Cadre's corpse when it fell.

It fell, and Grayfia caught it, caught him, the shattered iron giving way beneath her grasp like smoke.

Leaving one Kazami Yuuji to bleed all over her chest.

Rias whipped her head towards them, and burst into tears, scrambling to her feet in desperation.

Grayfia didn't notice, swiftly bringing the passed out boy to lie on the ground, as the dispersal of his armor had promptly drenched her side in blood.

The boy's right arm had squished against her in a way that nothing to do with her, and everything to do with him.

A soft moan, and Akeno twisted in her pained sleep, reaching out towards the prone boy.

His one good hand caught hers, and they both went still once more.

---

Damn it was bright in here.

Smelled… sterile?

Ah, guess they managed to drag him out of the trench after the mortars hit.

… Looking under the blankets was a bad idea, he was pretty sure he'd seen a leg flying and it might have been-

Huh? Mortar?

What in Olympus was that?

Must have hit her head when the arrow unhorsed her.

Seems her sisters had rescued her, oh and look!

One of them was sitting with her head resting on the bed, she must have passed out while staying at her bedside, holding her-

That wasn't his hand.

Where had her hand gone?

Where was it, what was this, it felt wrong it felt wrong it felt wrong-

Mmm, Yuuji, don't be so rough…

Yuuji?

Twin flowers of the richest violet bloomed to life in front of his vision.

"...Akeno?"

Her smile was like daybreak.

A dawn he'd never dreamed of seeing.

"Yuuji!"

She called his name, and Kazami Yuuji fell back in place.

He shook his pounding head with a low groan, offering a small smile towards the water-eyed ravenette at his bedside.

"... Sorry to worry you."

She shook her head and wiped away a tear, her smile only growing.

Yuuji felt a hot flash of shame at the worry and fear he caught slipping back beneath the surface.

"No, it's fine… I'm so, so glad you're awake. It's been two days."

"Two days? What happened? Where are we, what happened to…"

A cruel snap echoed through his mind, bringing with it a dark surge of rage.

Akeno recoiled from him, wide-eyed.

"Are… are you okay, Akeno? Is… everyone?"

Something unpleasant flickered once more across those beautiful violet orbs, but when Akeno's smile returned, it vanished.

"Yeah, I'm okay. We're all okay. We made it, Yuuji. We made it."

"... Good. That's good… so… where's my arm?"

Slowly, Yuuji had let his gaze fall to the hand that held Akeno's.

From just below the elbow of his right hand, there was nothing but dull grey iron.

It didn't quite look like armor.

More like the arm of a well-articulated puppet, carved from metal rather than wood.

Yuuji cursed under his breath when that radiant smile dimmed once more.

"You, don't remember? I… wasn't awake for it… s-so Rias can tell you more."

Yuuji's eyes narrowed searchingly as the girl trailed off and averted her gaze.

Something was wrong… but pushing the matter might be a bad idea.

He'd give her time.

"... Alright then."

Akeno seemed grateful he wasn't going to pry.

"So then, what happened to Kokabiel, and the other Fallen? I don't remember much past when we killed those Cerberus or whatever."

There it was again.

That tiny glimmer of hurt across Akeno's eyes.

... It was really pissing him off.

"I… Rias can tell you better than I can, and we promised that whoever was there when you woke up would tell the others. Besides… I think someone else is starting to wake up."

Akeno gave a meaningful nod past him, and he turned his head to see-

A warm cascade of gold, the wavy blond hair of-

"Morning, JB."

"Mmm… morning, Yuuji."

She blinked once.

Yuuji stared at her patiently.

She blinked again.

Yuuji offered a tiny smile.

"YUUJI!"

He winced as arms threw themselves around him.

"I kept my promise."

Sniffles from either side of him.

"Yeah, yeah you did."

For a moment, that was all that mattered.

A yawn from the foot of his bed, and a sleepy, shaggy head rose into view.

{"Good nap?"}

"Yeah, you?"

{"Not bad at all. Feeling better?"}

"Yeah… I think we're okay."

He hoped they were okay.

---

"I'll leave you two to catch up a bit while I fetch Rias, hm?"

"Yeah, okay, thanks Akeno."

"Ara, don't think it's that simple Yuu-"

Having already anticipated what the mischievous Queen was going to suggest, Yuuji cut her off by slipping his tongue between her open lips and mashing his lips against hers.

When she released his iron hand, it swept up and caught the back of her head, trapping her.

Akeno's eyes went wide and then drifted slowly shut, returning the kiss with equal passion.

She had just begun to moan into him when JB cleared her throat.

Loudly.

Akeno went red as Rias' hair and broke the kiss.

JB looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Do you want a kiss too?"

"I'm not a voyeur, at least wait until I leave the room."

"Sorry JB, but with all the nonsense that's been happening, this has actually been the longest dry spell since our first date."

Akeno, with an air of absolute seriousness, straightened in her seat and said.

"Rias can wait, the bed has enough space."

Then she winked salaciously at JB.

"Care to join us?"

JB stared at her in dumbfounded shock for a moment, and then sighed the sigh of the damned.

"There are two of them. Why are there two of them?"

"Ufufu, sorry, sorry, I'll leave you alone."

Laughing merrily, Akeno rose gracefully from her seat and turned away, sauntering from the room with a playful sway of her hips.

Yuuji shamelessly watched her go, and that's when it happened.

Akeno had just reached the door, and pulled it open, when her entire body seemed to shudder, forcing her to catch herself against the door-frame, panting heavily.

Ruth's head shot up once more, as an alarmed Yuuji shot a quick glance towards JB, who…

Watched with clear concern, but didn't seem all that surprised.

"... Akeno?"

The girl went rigid at his soft call, but lowered her head to take long, deep breaths.

Yuuji watched her in silence, until Akeno pushed herself off the door and twirled back around to smile winningly at him.

"Teehee, guess my legs fell asleep on that hard, hard stool. Hope I didn't scare you, Yuuji-kun!"

She playfully knocked a fist against her head and stuck her tongue out to the side.

"... Okay then. Be careful."

Akeno grinned and nodded, before sweeping out of sight.

"Like hell I believe that."

He gave a nod, and Ruth followed after her, slipping into the shadows without a sound.

The door closed.

"She's not a very good liar, is she? Well, that would be Ria-tan's place to tell you, not mine."

"Fair point, I suppose…"

Yuuji's head slowly turned back to JB's.

"Ria-tan?"

The smiling blonde tilted her head.

"Isn't that the nickname she prefers? Her Onii-sama told me that."

"Sirzechs? You met Rias' older brother?"

"Sure did, the Gremory's own this hospital, after all."

"... Explain."

"Explain what? Rias called me over the phone to let me know what was happening, and I was able to speak with her mother."

"Which led to them bringing you over here?"

"Yep, they flew me over, right after I explained that I'm basically your mom."

Yuuji paused for a moment, and was nodding in agreement, when the implication hit him, and all that slipped out was a wear sigh.

"... All the Gremory's are just like Rias, aren't they?"

JB nodded empathetically.

"Okay, I understand the situation, I think. Now, before Rias gets here?"

JB smiled and nodded once more.

Yuuji nodded in return, and angled his head slightly away from her.

A Devil like Yuuji hardly felt the slap, but he didn't need physical pain for it to hurt.

Wordlessly, he reached up his free hand -JB had once more claimed the other- and pulled her head down to rest against his chest.

"Sorry for scaring you… I'm still here, Julia."

The growing spots of wetness were answer enough.

---

With a last sniffle, JB pushed her head off Yuuji's chest and wiped a hand over her eyes, composing herself as the door swung open once more.

Standing there was a crimson-haired young woman, beautiful even with the exhaustion that hung over her like a curtain.

Yuuji offered a small salute.

"Kazami Yuuji, reporting in."

Rias smiled her tender smile, and some of the tension seemed to drift away.

"Welcome back, Yuuji."

Rias walked slowly into the room, taking the free stool offering a nod and smile towards JB, as his King primly folded her hands on her lap.

JB winked at him and planted a soft kiss on his cheek.

"I'll be outside, kay?"

"Yeah, thanks JB."

Rias waited until the door was closed before she turned to him, and Yuuji asked his first of many questions.

"Am I the last one to wake? How is everyone?"

Rias closed her eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath.

"Shaken. No one's injured anymore, but that was the closest most of us have come to death."

"That's understandable. Making it through with no casualties is frankly a miracle."

Rias shivered, but offered a mute nod.

"What happened, Rias? After the Cerberus, and Kiba's fancy new sword, everything gets kinda hazy."

"That's… that's the part when Kokabiel put you through a shed. Two of them, actually."

Yuuji watched as Rias wrapped her arms around herself, hugging herself tightly.

"That's not all, is it?"

Rias shook her head, but bit her lip rather than continue.

"Buchou."

Yuuji reached across for her, using his still flesh-and-blood hand.

Ignoring, for now, how stiff it seemed to be.

"He… h-he…all that time he'd just been toying with us. One after another he tore through us and I couldn't stop him and I-I've never felt so helpless, so useless."

Rias hunched over in her seat, getting louder and louder, and hugging herself tighter and tighter.

Yuuji looked on, the only sound her made the muted groan as his iron fist clenched.

"I… Akeno, he…"

She lifted her tear-stricken face to stare helplessly into Yuuji's dark eyes.

"He broke her back over his knee, and all I could do was watch."

Yuuji grit his teeth, and a low snarl slipped through.

"And then he, and then you… you rose out of the wreckage, and there was iron, and smoke, and then you just vanished-"

"Rias."

A comforting squeeze, a paltry attempt to keep her grounded.

She took a long, quavering breath and closed her eyes.

"There was, something there with us. A warrior, a soldier masked in iron that tore through the Fallen like paper. It fought Kokabiel, fought and bled and it destroyed its own arm to take one of his, and…"

When her eyes slid open once more, it was a gaze of one lost and plagued by memories they couldn't seem to grasp.

"The next thing we knew, Grayfia had torn open the barrier to save us, and she finished off Kokabiel before he could kill that… that soldier protecting us. Kokabiel's body had barely hit the ground when I realized that somewhere along the way, you'd vanished. Grayfia caught it, and suddenly you were bleeding out in her arms."

Yuuji finally recognized the emotion she'd been trying to conceal.

Guilt.

"It was you, Yuuji. That… it was you. It was all you, the memories came back the second the mask vanished, but the whole time you were wearing, it we couldn't even remember your name! That damn armor stole you from existence and we could barely even tell something was wrong! What kind of sick Sacred Gear erases an entire person like that!?"

Breathless she halted, all ragged gasps and wild eyes.

"That's what happened to your arm, Yuuji. You… destroyed it to take one of Kokabiel's, and after you'd passed out, before Grayfia could even stop the bleeding it... it just grew out of you like some iron weed..."

"That's enough, Rias."

Rias shook her head in denial, a frantic air about her.

"No… I need to say this. I have to say this."

Another deep breath, and the cloud of guilt around her grew heavier.

"You're not the first one to use the Arsenal Memoir, but not a single name is ever recorded. I-I... Akeno and I both knew, but we were afraid and we kept it from you and I'm sorry... but it… it must be the armor. It's your Balance Breaker, the mature form of your Sacred Gear."

She met his eyes firmly.

Or perhaps she thought she did.

Yuuji had never seen Rias Gremory looking quite so desperate.

"It's called the Unknown Soldier, and it must be the reason there has never been a past wielder whose name made it into the history books. Yuuji, please."

Her nerves failed, and she closed her eyes once more.

Her next words, scarcely more than a whisper.

"Please, I beg you… don't ever use your Balance Breaker again."

---

Kiba took the news more quietly than most, sighing in relief as Akeno brought the news.

Yuuji had awoken.

They were somewhat less than whole, but they were together.

His relief vanished, and he turned away quickly to conceal an expression he wasn't even sure of.

Should he tell him?

If so, when?

And how?

How could he tell Yuuji, how could he ask him for answers?

He alone had seen behind that plain white mask.

Seen that if you ignored the snow-white hair, and the blood red eyes, Valper Galilei's mysterious young companion…

Had worn the same face as Kazami Yuuji.

---

Dun Dun Dun…

Nah, it's probably not important.

Well, that was fun, and also a total bitch to write.

Yes, I'd been planning to do that to Akeno for a very long time. Her struggles will be a little different, just as every character will be just a little different.

Kiba gets his Balance Breaker (and it all started because I forgot the name of his canon Balance Breaker), and snowy wings.

Because a young Devil gaining the ability to make HOLY objects without any physiological change seems a waste. More on that later.

Yuuji's Balance Breaker is finally revealed, somewhat, you can expect more details later. There really wasn't a good time for an exposition dump. He's also been begged not to use it, and since Yuuji is a cautious lad, don't expect to-

Okay, you'll probably see it sooner than any of the sensible characters would like.

Here, you all received the long-awaited answer as to how Yuuji would beat Kokabiel.

Which is; Not really.

This was always going to be gory and messy and they were just going to barely make it out, because they were just a little too strong to not piss off Kokabiel.

They were lucky that Kokabiel settled on humiliation first.

And Grayfia was always the nuclear option, because why wouldn't Sirzechs use his nightmarishly powerful maid in an emergency?

Kokabiel has ten wings, and is thus among the second strongest category of Fallen.

Grayfia is an Ultimate-Class Devil whose power is acknowledged to be Satan-class, a class that breaks Devil power scaling. She should be able to hold Kokabiel at bay as the minimum, provided the barrier remains in place.

A wounded, one-armed Kokabiel, against a pissed off Grayfia with no interest in fucking around?

Well, you probably know if you made it this far.

Oh, and I was not, under any circumstances, enjoying all the theories on what Issei was like and what he was doing.

Because that would be mean, and I knew that lad was very dead. Poor, poor Irina.

I really do like her, I swear.

Anyways, feel free to share your thoughts, and I'll see you all next time.

Thanks for reading.

PS: Yuuji's Balance Breaker gets its name from the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Might offer some insight into it's true nature.