This chapter was a bitch to write for some reason; I had plenty of scenes planned out, but the connecting thread eluded me, and so I basically ended up writing the beginning and the end of the chapter and filling out the middle.
"Kala, I'm kind of nervous for some reason." Raynare admitted quietly.
"Don't feel too bad, Raynare." Kalawarner gently replied. "I am as well, something about this is strangely nerve-wracking."
A knock on the door halted any further back and forth.
"Yuuji, is that you?" Kalawarner called out.
"Yep." Came the muffled voice from the other side of the door.
"Come on in!" Raynare hoped her voice didn't sound too too nervous.
With a soft 'excuse me', Yuuji slipped into the bedroom shared by the two Fallen Angels (and Asia) and closed the door behind him.
"So, what did you two want to talk about?" He asked the two, making his way over to the bed and sitting down beside them.
Sharing a quick glance with Raynare, Kalawarner leaned around her and spoke up.
"Now that the training camp has finished, we wanted to show you the results, before we all meet in the evening to go over our progress as a group."
"Yep, we wanted you to be the first to know!" Raynare confirmed cheerfully.
The odd sort of self-consciousness was still there, for both of them, but it was quickly faltering before Yuuji's calm demeanor that made most things not seem like a big deal.
Yuuji didn't really react to the announcement one way or another, but they'd been picking up the little clues the more time they spent with him; and could tell that he was both interested and a little flattered.
The key with Yuuji was that unless it was a strong emotion, he only really gave hints to his emotional state through body language.
The two Fallen hopped off the bed, and into the center of the bedroom.
Privately, they felt like it was a little too big, even for the three of them sharing when they didn't have to, but now it was coming in handy.
Raynare and Kalawarner flared their wings, and the results of their training were revealed in rather showy fashion as black feathers swirled about;
Raynare had gained her second pair of wings, excitedly displaying four wings of soft, glossy black.
Kalawarner had shot all the way up to six wings; the color of her own was more subdued than Raynare, the deep black of a peaceful, starless night.
Just as dark as their wings, Yuuji's eyes were gleaming proudly as he looked them both in the eyes and smiled, really smiled.
"You girls really are beautiful, aren't you?" Yuuji praised softly as he rose to his feet. "Well done, both of you."
There was a quiet rustle as ten wings shivered, mirroring the curvy forms that they were attached to.
Slowly those wings drew in, forming a dark cocoon around the women as they drew in against the young man who had hooked an arm around both of them and drew them in.
Slowly, they pressed their faces against either side of his neck to hide the luminous blushes on their cheeks, knowing full well that Yuuji would be able to see them just fine, otherwise.
Their thoughts perfectly in tune, as they often were, Raynare and Kalawarner both realized the same thing at the same time; they had doubted themselves, but never each other, and Yuuji was much the same.
From the moment they had begun to open their hearts to him, Yuuji had never doubted them, not even once.
Within the tender, intimate embrace of black feathered wings, two voices whispered as one.
"Thank you."
Yuuto was sitting in the garden when she stumbled across him on her midafternoon stroll, not something entirely unusual, Yuuto had always had a bit of a green thumb.
What was unusual was her daughter's first Knight ignoring all the beautiful greenery around him in favor of staring aimlessly off into space. He also had yet to take notice of her presence, despite her clearly being in his peripheral vision, and her knowing full well how sharp his eyes were.
She was just about to call out to her absent-minded adopted son when Yuuto sighed, sighed without any sort of preamble, and revelation struck like lightning from the sky.
Wistfully.
Yuuto was not staring aimlessly at nothing in particular, he was staring wistfully at nothing in particular.
Could it be? Dare she hope? Oh she simply must know!
Venelana Gremory gave a delicate cough to get Yuuto's attention, and it took him a full two seconds to register the sound.
She simply had to know; both if her suspicions were right, and if there was any possible way, no matter how small, that she could help her boy through what troubled him.
Kiba blinked himself out of his daze to find the Lady Gremory smiling at him.
She giggled, and he chuckled.
One of those sounds was definitely more nervous than the other.
"I feel like I just dodged a bullet." Yuuji said, without any sort of preamble.
He hadn't really directed it at anyone in particular, but the hallway he was wandering did have a maid in it.
"Well done, Yuu-kun." She congratulated him, lowering the feather duster in her hand. "But… what bullet?"
"If I'd been in the wrong place I would have stumbled across something bothersome, I'm pretty sure." Yuuji replied back, stopping his feet.
"I see, I see. The scales have fallen from my eyes." A happy smile dimpled her slightly round cheeks as the maid smiled and gave a cute little curtsey in gratitude. "Thank you very much, Yuu-kun!"
"No problem Sachi." Yuuji waved back, and continued walking.
He made it about three steps before he ground to a sudden halt, and whipped around to face the young, pink-haired maid so fast his neck cracked.
For a moment there was silence as the two stared at each other, one shocked and the other confused.
"... Sachi?"
Komine Sachi, the childhood friend that vanished from Yuuji's life over half a decade ago, tilted her head with a puzzled, but polite smile and asked;
"Yes, Yuu-kun?"
It had been so nice to see Yuu-kun after so long!
Hopefully they'd be able to catch up a little, she'd been told that Rias-sama would be here with her peerage for most of the summer, and if Yuu-kun was here, that meant he was probably one of her peerage…
Oh, that also meant Yuu-kun was a Devil, which might explain why he seemed less gloomy…
She wasn't sure how she felt about him being taller than her, though, and-
Oh no, she'd gotten distracted!
She could worry about personal things like long-lost childhood friends later, she had work to do!
But first… she needed to find the source of that sound, and see if something needed fixing.
… Really, it was an odd sound.
Like sharp metal grinding against a hard surface.
Perhaps if the halls of the great mansion had less of an echo, she would have pinpointed the source, and realized it was stalking away from her with eyes that were cruel and dark.
"I'll admit, while it is a touch concerning for you to have stumbled across a pretty woman out in the deep of the woods like that, it seems she left quite the impression on you, did she not?"
"... I don't remember saying anything about a girl." Kiba replied.
"No, I don't believe you did." Venelana nodded sagely. "Now tell me. What was she like? Did you have a chance to speak, or did you simply spy her from afar? No, silly me, of course you must have had some chance to spend time with one another, otherwise you wouldn't be nearly this taken with her."
Still more than a little taken aback, Kiba blinked rapidly and opened his mouth to say… what, he wasn't quite sure, because Venelana cut him off.
"Oh, don't tell me!" Venelana burst out, eyes brightening. "She wasn't just a beautiful woman, she was a beautiful swordswoman!"
… He was pretty confident that he hadn't been spied on, if Gremory's wanted to sneakily learn about someone they cared for, subtle was the last thing they could pull off successfully.
That, and despite having led with the phrase 'don't tell me', the Gremory matriarch was hanging on his next words rather intently.
"... Am I that easy to see through?" Kiba replied helplessly back, after a moment, a rueful smile spreading across his lips.
"No, but among all the potential girlfriends we've vetted for you, the ones at the top of the list are all swordswomen." Venelana explained casually.
"... Tell you what, I'll tell you what happened, and in exchange, you don't elaborate on a single thing you just told me." Kiba said slowly, his expression carefully, stubbornly neutral and his mind not at all attempting to decipher who the 'we' she was referring to might be.
Venelana giggled like a naughty schoolgirl and agreed.
… That grinding sound, just like on the night they'd first met.
Someone had made Yuuji very, very angry, and she'd best go see what it was before-
"Oi, Grayfia." Yuuji rounded the corner, his expression empty and cold, but his low voice had a subtle, menacing tension.
"Yes, Yuuji-sama?"
"Why the hell is Sachi here?"
"Sachi?" Grayfia repeated, taken aback but recovering quickly. "... No, that is not something a question I'm willing to answer unless you've given your reason for asking."
Yuuji glared at her for a moment, and that distant shriek of iron grew steadily louder, until.
"... Sorry." Yuuji relented with a deep, somewhat shaky breath. "If you're looking after her then I have no reason to be angry at you."
The shriek of iron faded into the background, and Grayfia relaxed her expression minutely, realizing that they'd both been defensive for similar reasons.
"She was my childhood friend… my only one, actually… Things happened and we lost contact, it's been almost eight years… I think."
"Ah, no need to apologize, then, Yuuji." Grayfia shook her head, smiling gently. "It is understandable to be concerned when a long-lost friend suddenly resurfaces in the Underworld, and as a member of a different species at that."
"So she was Reincarnated then…"
"Indeed, Sachi is my Pawn." Grayfia allowed herself a tiny smirk as Yuuji blinked in confusion. "I may be a maid, but do remember that I am also an Ultimate Class Devil. I am qualified to possess my own Evil Pieces."
"No, I get that part, it's just kind of surprising to see a girl from small-town Japan in a High-class Devil mansion."
Had it been anyone else, she would have demanded to know why they were asking after Sachi, but-
Even had she wished to, Yuuji took the choice from her hands, and removed the necessity of asking in a single sentence.
"I wouldn't have made it this far if it wasn't for her, Grayfia."
"... Very well then." She sighed. "Come, walk with me."
"... And then Musashi-chan vanished, just like that?" Venelana asked softly, her voice little more than a whisper.
"Yeah… just like that." Kiba sighed back, his gaze distant. His vision tilted and twisted rather suddenly, then, and before he knew what was happening, his cheek was resting against Venelana's chest as the Gremory matriarch wrapped her arms around him.
"You will see her again, I am certain." She stated, and when she said it like that, Kiba found that believing it wasn't all that hard. "A meeting as fortunate as that was one surely meant to be, and if it happened once, it can happen again."
Kiba sighed again, but it was a less bitter sound, at least, and he relaxed into his adoptive mother's arms, slowly lifting his own to return the hug.
"I hope so." He quietly admitted.
"Perhaps sooner that you might think, in fact." Venelana began suddenly, and the slight shift in her tone had him hanging on her every word. "After all, we Devils have a long history of being involved in summoning, though usually as the summon rather than the summoner. But if she has your crystal, there may be a way to use that as a catalyst. After all, that is what Musashi-chan wished it to be, was it not?"
Kiba pulled away so that he could look at her properly, eyes wide and hands on Venelana's shoulders.
"There might be a way to summon Musashi on purpose!?" He hoped he didn't sound too excited, but the way his mother giggled suggested he'd failed.
"Well of course, ufufu~" Venelana tittered happily, eyes twinkling. "I'm not sure if it's ever been attempted, but if it hasn't, there's someone who would take that as a challenge that I happened to have bounced on my knee when he was a baby."
… That didn't narrow things down as much as she might have thought…
"... You don't mean Beelzebub-sama, do you?"
"Mhm, it's been a while since I've paid dear Juka-kun a visit, anyways, so I would be happy to make inquiries as to when his schedule is free."
"That's…" He wanted to say that she didn't need to. He wanted to say that he was fine, that she didn't need to go out of her way for his sake.
But perhaps he'd changed for the better, because in the end, what Kiba Yuuto actually said was;
"Then please do."
"Of course, Yuuto."
"Thank you, Haha-ue." this time, he was the one that hugged her, and though he couldn't see it anymore, he could practically hear the smile in her voice when his mother whispered back;
"You're most welcome, my dear Yuuto."
"What happened to Sachi, Grayfia?" Yuuji asked neutrally. "We're a long way from Japan."
"I took her in as my Pawn, and had her work here, at the Gremory estate for her own safety."
"Safety?" Yuuji repeated. "What happened to her?"
"Her parents died in an accident on her tenth birthday, right in front of her."
"..."
"Sachi is adamant that she had simply been a 'good girl' and listened to her parents, they would still be alive." Grayfia whispered tiredly. "Sachi will do anything, and I do mean anything in order to be a 'good girl'. It is why she burned down an entire middle school to help a classmate avoid a test."
Grayfia sighed.
"It is also why I found her, having walked a highway until she was ready to collapse from exhaustion in an attempt to obey her guardian's wish for her to 'get out of his sight."
Sachi had 'fixated' upon a certain idea, and based her entire identity around it. Everything else was secondary, and failure to follow through would simply cause Sachi to break down, in one way or another.
It wasn't the first time he'd encountered something, or someone like that.
"The only solution available that could offer results in a timely enough fashion was to give her 'orders' that override all others, so I was told. In this case, those orders, or perhaps you could say 'limiters' are the ones I've given her as her King." Grayfia explained. "It is far from a perfect solution and there is still much to be done, but we've at least been able to protect her from attempting to follow any drastic instructions."
"How long has it been?" Yuuji asked, and it took her a moment to answer; Yuuji's mild tone gave not the slightest hint as to what he was thinking.
"Almost four years, now." Grayfia recounted. "Fortunately, a sizable number of the household staff are of a similar age, Sachi is well-loved and in good company, I am pleased to say."
"So you've protected her that long, huh?" Yuuji murmured.
Before she knew what was happening, Grayfia was looking at the top of Yuuji's head and not into his eyes, he had bowed to her, and bowed low at that.
"I can't thank you enough, Grayfia." Yuuji lifted his head in the shocked silence that followed, and reminded her instantly of why the girls insisted that Yuuji's real smile was completely unfair. "Really, I owe you one."
Grayfia did not reply verbally to the heartfelt gratitude.
Even she did not know what sort of expression she was making right now, and so the voice she would have to use to answer with was an equal mystery.
… It was a blunder, to have had their private discussion in such a small room, she had not accounted for how hot and stuffy it would be, Grayfia concluded idly.
Truly, there was hardly any airflow at all, and it was rather cramped, the more she looked around.
As the definitely not flustered Grayfia looked at anything but him, Yuuji's heartfelt smile twisted slowly into a heartfelt smirk.
Grayfia had seized upon a task she didn't need to do herself in order to get over the awkwardness she most certainly was not feeling, but she'd also invited Yuuji along before her sense could outpace her good manners.
Thus they were walking side-by-side through the local market, Yuuji carrying the lion's share of the groceries despite likely being the physically weakest of the two.
Grayfia appreciated the gesture nonetheless; she had received offers such as that from unfamiliar men more than a few times, it was nice to have a man who was aware of her ability be a gentleman regardless.
Now that the silence had grown comfortable, and they were in a less busy stretch of town she decided to interject, the talk of peerage had reminded her of a concern she was carrying.
"Yuuji, if I may, do you have any plans to work towards a promotion?" She asked. "Through the ranks of Devil-kind, that is?"
"Not particularly. Sounds kind of like a pain, to be honest."
Which was as she feared.
"Is that so? I believe one of the common draws is the right to form a peerage of your own, and I imagine at least two of the Fallen in your life would leap at the chance to join you." Grayfia tried.
"You mean Ray and Kala?" Grayfia nodded at his words. "You think they would? They didn't seem too keen on the idea of becoming Devils when Rias asked."
Grayfia stopped walking, and Yuuji made it a step or two past before he turned back to find her staring at him flatly.
"What?"
"So this is what the girls meant when they said that you're dense about the strangest things." Grayfia sighed, the fingers of her free hand clutching the bridge of her nose.
Yuuji quirked an eyebrow, but didn't argue or ask for clarification. Past experience suggested that both those would only have the opposite of their intended effect.
"I don't really think I'm the sort of person who should be responsible for others." Yuuji admitted instead as they began to walk once more.
"Then form a peerage of people you can trust to take care of themselves." Grayfia suggested. "After all, you'll have hundred, if not thousands of years to grow alongside-
Yuuji stopped moving, and suddenly at that, this time, it was Grayfia that found herself a few paces ahead.
"... Wait, what did you just say?"
A small frown forming upon her lips, Grayfia turned to look at the young man staring stiffly in her direction.
"... That you would have plenty of time with your peerage?"
"That's right… we're supposed to live a long time, aren't we?" Yuuji muttered in a wondering tone that suggested he didn't quite believe it.
"... Yuuji?"
"That doesn't make any sense." Yuuji mumbled, and Grayfia's eyes widened slightly a something foreign and incomprehensible in the young man's tone.
"Yuuji!?"
Yuuji stumbled away from her outstretched hand, the bags in his arms dropping to the ground as he blinked rapidly.
A convulsive shiver shook his frame, and when Yuuji spoke, it wasn't her he was speaking to.
"She'd be fine without me, wouldn't she? I mean she's gotta know, I was never going to last long… no, wait, what is she gonna do without me anyways? She works too hard and has no luck with men at all. But it's the… it's the other way around? Huh? What's with that? No, face it, you'd already be dead if you were human, and you're actually trying to stay alive now…? I am? I don't want to… I'm? She's going to...?"
Her senses were spinning. A flood of words assaulted her ears, each word trembling with tension, fraught with a quietly mounting panic.
Yuuji's wide black eyes, so empty and so lost, snapped up to meet hers, but it was when he chose to speak to her once more that set the world in motion once again.
"Grayfia… JB is going to die before me, isn't she?"
Yuuji swayed, and Grayfia had her arms around him long before she could think of moving towards him.
… What had she done to him? Was this… did she?
Something broke, and she couldn't quite say if it was her or him.
Yuuji's eyes snapped open, and a spike of pain lanced through his head, grimacing, he-
Stopped dead.
Cool fingers were wound into his hair, gently massaging his scalp, and the warm summer air was filled with the sound of gentle singing…
Both within his head and without.
Past Lamb's quiet, wordless harmony drifting softly through his mind, Yuuji was just barely able to hear a relieved sigh from who he was pretty sure was Juno.
The one soothingly singing outside of his mindscape, the one tenderly caring for him even now, was Grayfia.
Slowly, Yuuji let his head turn the direction she was staring off into, noting that his head was in fact in her lap, and that the peaceful murmur of the sparkling river made for quite the touching accompaniment.
He turned back to look up at her as the tune drifted off to a close- both hers and Lamb's- to find Grayfia's lovely red eyes gazing back at his, a warm, elegant smile upon her red lips.
… He decided he didn't like it very much when that smile vanished, and cut her off before she could give voice to the new emotion written across her face.
Guilt.
"Don't apologize." Yuuji rasped past his dry throat. "I was just avoiding something painful, rather, I should be the one-" A slender finger pressed down onto his lips, and Grayfia shook her head with a small, contrite smile.
"If I am not allowed to apologize, then neither are you." She whispered. "Rather, I'll ask if you're feeling a little better now, instead?"
"Hmm? Yeah, your singing voice is very pretty, and your lap is nice and soft, if you were wondering, so thanks for that."
With a thought, he offered quiet thanks to Lamb as well, and felt her approval and relief echoing through his mental darkness.
"While I am happy for the compliments, I do wonder how it is that you can regain that teasing spirit of yours so quickly?"
"I like to think it's a special talent."
Grayfia's free hand snapped up to cover her mouth and muffle her giggle, but Yuuji didn't bother to conceal his own chuckles.
"Hey, I was meaning to ask." Yuuji suddenly spoke up. "That tune you were singing earlier was really nice. Where'd you learn it?"
Grayfia blinked and smiled down at him.
"Hmm, I believe it was-" Grayfia flinched abruptly and went rigid as the temperature around them plummeted.
Yuuji's eyes had just enough time to widen before he was shoved from the maid's lap with enough force to go briefly airborne.
His back hit a fluffy snowbank that certainly hadn't been there a second ago, and he twisted to sit up, more than a little confused, but there was no harm done so-
Grayfia was turned away from him and bent over double on her knees, the red painted nails of one hand were digging furrows in the dirt. The other hand was clamped tightly over her mouth, and her eyes were wide, her whole body shivering in the sudden cold.
"... Grayfia?"
Her dilated eyes jerked his direction for the barest of instants, and then another shudder, more violent than the ones before, wracked her body.
Yuuji was on his feet and almost to her side when she gagged, and he brushed aside her half-hearted attempt to push her away and gathered up her hair to get it out of the way.
He had no idea where the sudden illness had come from, and didn't really care why the sudden, violent illness was making Grayfia vomit ice and snow.
Because the jagged slush was tinged with red.
Yuuji's eyes snapped up and scanned their surroundings, there was no one around but them, of course.
His phone leapt from his pocket and into his hand.
"Yuuji? What is it?" Rias' voice came through from the other end after a single ring. "Wait, what's that sound!?"
"I need Asia at my location right now." Yuuji flatly demanded. "Can you pinpoint us?" Grayfia tried to interrupt, panic in her eyes, but the words turned to slush and never made it out.
"Of course I can, I'm with her now, what's-"
"Grayfia needs help."
"W-wait, Yuuji don't-!" Grayfia's words were cut off again, this time by a crimson portal flaring urgently into existence with Rias pulling Asia through it, blue eyes widened with alarm as they zeroed in on the slushy mess beneath Grayfia's head.
"Grayfia!? Asia help her!" Rias barely needed to give the order as an emerald glowing Asia slipped past her, sliding onto her knees to the trembling maid's side just as another bout of sickness hit.
"Yuuji, explain what happened!" Rias snapped out, her voice coming in more sternly than intended in her bewilderment.
"We were taking a break by the river, Buchou." Yuuji reported back, the iron in her tone actually helping center his thoughts. "I don't know what triggered it, but Grayfia was hit by a sudden wave of nausea, and the results were as you can see. I have no idea what to make of this so I called you immediately."
"No, you made the right decision." Rias returned, relaxing slightly as she made her way over to the huddled trio. "My connection to the Evil Pieces is the fastest way to bring members of the peerage together, and bringing Asia here was the fastest solution.
Yuuji shuffled aside as she came over, Rias knelt quietly in the half-frozen dirt, taking over keeping Grayfia's hair out of the way as Asia's silver-ringed hands rubbed the maid's back.
Grayfia coughed a few times, and it came out as wet puffs of frozen air.
Before anyone could get a word in edgewise, her eyes rolled back in her head, and those holding her managed to keep her from collapsing face-first into the cold wet ground.
When Grayfia opened her eyes, rather than open sky it was the familiar, reassuringly dark wooden ceilings of the Gremory manor.
She supposed she must have passed out after her little episode, that explained why she was tucked into bed in the infirmary, and still exhausted and cold in spite of it.
Come to think of it, she could have done that when Yuuji had passed out from his own episode, and perhaps she should have.
No, it was the correct choice, she was certain, Yuuji had been in a much better way after he'd awoken.
Perhaps singing for him hadn't been the greatest of ideas though… no, it was simply that the song she'd chosen on had been a foolish choice.
After all, that song was one she'd learned during the war, long before the modest wish it represented had been shattered into tiny frozen pieces.
The song had comforted her, once upon a time, and so it had simply returned unbidden when she had wished to comfort someone else.
Poor boy, she hoped he wasn't blaming himself.
"Since you've said as much, I guess I won't." Yuuji offered from her bedside.
Grayfia, who hadn't the faintest idea that she was neither alone in the room, nor that she had been speaking out loud for at least some of her little monologue, responded with a surprisingly girlish shriek that echoed through the halls.
Past the ringing in his ears, Yuuji winced and said "Okay, but I'm gonna blame myself for that one a little."
A furiously blushing Grayfia pulled the covers up over her eyes.
After a while, bashful red eyes peeked out from beneath the covers, and in a muffled voice, Grayfia murmured "How much did you hear?"
"Just the part where you didn't want me blaming myself."
Grayfia tried not to sigh as relief flooded through her, it seemed her secret was safe… is what she wanted to think, but it was unfair of her to deny answering any of the many questions Yuuji must have had, as well as Rias, Asia and whoever else might have discovered her little episode.
A tiny part of her wanted to lie, or at least offer as little details as possible.
But once again, those dark eyes were piercing right through her; deception was pointless at best.
Perhaps he wouldn't ask, Yuuji was rarely the sort to pry.
"Sirzechs told us" -and even that was enough to cause a flash of panic for her-" you were inflicted with something called a 'death curse' during the civil war, and that that sort of curse is almost completely unbreakable and triggers without warning."
"... Correct." Is what she settled on, trying to keep her voice neutral. The explanation was believable, at least, some death curses truly were random, hers just triggered in a manner that caught her off-guard, from time to time.
Yuuji scrutinized her carefully for a moment, and Grayfia did her best to meet his eyes as unfalteringly as possible.
"Is that so?" Yuuji asked softly. "Well okay then."
His eyes drifted towards the window as his posture relaxed, and the tension left her own shoulders.
Slowly, she pushed the blankets down and sat up, taking the offered water and thoroughly rinsing out her mouth, more of habit than necessity since she'd only puked up water in various states of freezing.
Yuuji took the glass and put it back at the bedside table, and, like a true assassin, struck the second her guard was at its lowest.
The piercing eyes returned and pinned her in place with a single glance, but before she knew it, that eerily feeling exposure vanished behind the barest hint of a smile.
But somehow he made it clear without saying a word;
That she could tell him.
That she could trust him.
Just as it was for Yuuji when the realization that JB's lifespan was now a tiny fraction of his own, the words that suddenly tumbled forth couldn't be stopped, even if she tried.
Even if she could have tried, Grayfia Lucifuge was just so very tired, and for the life of her, she couldn't figure out why she kept her secrets anymore.
And so she told him.
Told him that she had betrayed her family to protect an Underworld being marched towards destruction, that it led to the moment where she had slaughtered her brother with her own hands.
Told Yuuji how some nights she could still feel her brother's blood dripping down her face, could still see the fury etched upon his face that would never fade.
Of how her brother's future wife, the last daughter of House Nebiros had sought vengeance, and how Grayfia had killed her too.
She told him of the curse upon her lips as she died, pouring her very soul into one last attempt to bring ruin to the rebellious daughter of house Lucifuge.
That the death curse had succeeded, and 'punished' Grayfia by robbing her of the very first wish she'd ever made for herself, the tiny little dream of what she could attain when the Underworld was finally at peace.
Of how the bloodline of Lucifuge would die with her.
Grayfia had confessed that her modest little wish had been to one day have a family, to one day have children of her own to raise and love with all her heart, and how even that small, mundane wish had been denied to her.
Because no matter how dearly Grayfia wished to one day be a mother, the fact would remain that having children of her own would forever be out of reach.
The curse of House Nebiros had rendered her womb a frozen, empty waste where no life could bloom.
Despite the best efforts of the greatest healers and the brightest minds the Underworld had ever seen, Grayfia Lucifuge was barren.
"Don't you see, Yuuji?" Grayfia smiled past the stinging in her eyes and the ache in her heart. "It was the first time I'd ever wanted anything for myself, the first time I'd tried to be anything more than a good little daughter of House Lucifuge, and look where it got me!"
Grayfia laughed, and it was an awful, tragic sound.
"The best part is that the feelings are still the same, I still want more than anything the chance to be a mother! But anything that reminds me of that feeling, anything that makes me act in a way that could be viewed as even the slightest bit maternal, can trigger what you've seen." Grayfia cried out. "Isn't that great!? Isn't that just too funny!? The curse that ruined my only dream uses my very own power, in some frozen imitation of the worst cases of morning sickness!"
Exhausted, breathless and so very cold, Grayfia slumped as her last words echoed throughout the room.
Yuuji had stayed quiet throughout it all, not a word spoken, not the slightest shift in his expression.
He'd just listened, without judgement or pity, and for that she was grateful.
She was aware she was being more than a little absurd; the majority of humans (former in this case) weren't nearly as fixated as Devils were on the idea of passing down power, of growing the bloodline through the marriage of two powerful, Pure-blooded Devils to birth a child with potential greater than any of their ancestors.
A Reincarnated Devil might sympathize, but they wouldn't view her as someone too pitiful to acknowledge, might not understand that the only reason Grayfia wasn't a total outcast from Devil society was that her curse was a secret.
Oh, it wasn't as if the Gremory's would condemn her, Rias was the only one who didn't know, and the idea of Rias scorning her for something beyond her control was laughable at best.
She didn't even know why she'd told Yuuji.
… No, that wasn't true.
She knew precisely why she'd told Yuuji; she'd seen just the faintest shadow of her own wish in him. She'd seen through his reckless, desperate defense of the people he cared for, and recognized that the family he'd found was the centerpiece of Yuuji's entire existence.
She'd wanted him to be aware that if he did not bring JB into the fold in some manner that he would lose her hundreds, thousands of years before anyone else no matter how hard he fought, and that a solution was at hand.
That JB would refuse reincarnation as a Devil had never even crossed Grayfia's mind, one good conversation with the woman had revealed how central Yuuji was to her life, even if JB hadn't actually said anything of the sort.
Perhaps it was selfish and overbearing, but Grayfia did not want Yuuji to wait a single second longer than necessary.
Because she was a living testament to the fragile nature of a simple wish.
… It was a soothing sound, was it not?
Who needed a lullaby, when the rhythm of a strongly beating heart sounded so reassuring?
Grayfia hadn't even realized that she was in Yuuji's arms until it dawned on her that, if only in that moment, that awful chill was a distant memory.
The chill was gone, but the aching still remained, and so Grayfia latched onto the one desperate idea that her tired mind could dreg up.
Wriggling in the warm arms around her, she peered up at Yuuji with moist eyes, pressing her breasts more tightly against his muscular chest as if she could push past everything that differentiated 'her' from 'him'.
"Please, Yuuji… I can't take it anymore." She whispered. "Please, help me forget, even for just a moment."
She closed the distance between her lips and his before she could stop and think about anything at all, but what her lips pressed against was nothing more than a pair of fingers.
She shrank back, keenly aware of how pitiful she was being and just as keenly feeling the pain of a completely reasonable rejection.
But those warm dark eyes weren't averting themselves at all from her wretched display, and the cold grew a little more distant as he smiled down at her.
"It's going to be awkward later if we do that." Yuuji blandly predicted. "So why don't we start with you asking what it is you actually want from me?"
She wanted to ask if she was really that easy to see through, but instead what came out was;
"Please, if only for this one moment." She begged him. "Please don't leave me alone."
Yuuji smiled, really smiled, and things like cold and pain were, even if only for just that one moment, a distant memory.
She was worried about Grayfia.
Well, everyone was worried about Grayfia, they hadn't exactly been quiet when Yuuji carried her home, and reassuring her younger servants had been part of what had kept her away so long.
Even if she was confident that Grayfia would be just fine with Yuuji watching over her, Rias still wanted to see for herself.
Even if she still felt awful for not knowing that Grayfia had been suffering in silence all this time, Rias still wanted to be there for her in any way she could.
But she hadn't been prepared for this.
No… no one could have been prepared for this, as Akeno and her mother were proving by her side.
It was just so… adorable!
The only occupied bed in their modest-sized infirmary (barely bigger than her own bedroom) was looking rather… cramped.
… No, that didn't sound right, what was a cute way of saying cramped?
Grayfia was lying just where they'd left her, with two notable exceptions; the expression on her face and the pillow she was using.
Gone was the pale, disheartening grimace, gone was the pain and resignation, and in its place was a tiny, blissful little smile that made the heart quicken just by looking at it.
The pillow Grayfia was using once again proved that her adoptive sister had impeccable taste; because the pillow that the cutely snoring Gremory maid was using was Yuuji's chest.
It took her giddily trembling hand several long minutes to close the door without disturbing the sleeping duo, and it was an act of heroic willpower that kept her from losing control of her rapidly growing excitement when she met the helplessly joyful grins of Akeno and her mother that surely mirrored her own.
In the comfortable silence left undisturbed in their wake, a cheerful smirk spread across Yuuji's lips.
Grayfia awoke that time with the feeling that several hours had passed, but that seemed a minor concern; she was far more preoccupied with the delightfully warm and cozy nature of her resting place, and it took her far longer than she would ever admit to bring about even the slightest changes to her circumstances.
When she did, the temperature in the room spiked sharply and the blood rushed to her cheeks; beneath her and still slumbering peacefully was Yuuji.
Memories came flooding back no matter now her thoroughly embarrassed mind attempted to keep them at bay; she'd tried to sleep with Yuuji in an attempt to numb her pain, and gotten her wish in a far less sexual and far more literal manner than intended.
Yuuji had quietly kicked off his footwear, opened up the covers and slid into bed beside her.
He'd wrapped an arm around her and pressed her head against his chest and pulled the covers back over them both.
She'd barely had time to process what was happening before blissful oblivion had claimed her, and apparently had spent the last several hours cuddling in her sleep.
Giddy with both joy and embarrassment, that she managed to slip from the bed without disturbing Yuuji's peaceful slumber was nothing short of a miracle, inappropriateness of a Devil using the term aside.
As she straightened up and began to quietly straighten out her ruffled clothes,
This time it was a far more purposeful thing; not a spur-of-the-moment attempt to ease her own pain, just an honest expression of heartfelt gratitude.
Grayfia Lucifuge brushed a lock of hair back behind her ear as she leaned down and gently pressed her lips against Yuuji's cheek.
"Thank you for keeping your promise." She murmured against his cheek as she withdrew.
The door of the infirmary opened and shut with nary a sound, and the sleeping Yuuji was left alone.
The silence that followed was broken by a quiet murmur of 'you're welcome'.
"Yuuji, can we talk?" Xenovia asked him one morning, as he sat beneath the tree he always seemed to end up beneath when he took time to himself to read.
"Sure, what do you need?" Yuuji asked, bookmarking his page and placing the book on his lap.
He wasn't sure if it said more about himself or Xenovia that when she hesitated, he immediately suspected an imposter.
… Maybe it was just the book he was reading.
"... Do you mind if I sit down?" Xenovia settled on eventually.
"Plenty of space."
Despite that, the blue-haired girl sat close enough that their hips were touching, folding up long legs that her little cotton shorts left bare and leaning her arms against them.
She looked… pensive?
"Are you sick?"
"I don't get sick."
"That explains a lot."
Xenovia didn't seem to understand what he was getting at, which made even more sense to Yuuji, but at least the serious expression that she made as she pondered his words seemed more like her.
Just as serious, Xenovia turned to him and said "I want to apologize."
"Apology accepted." Yuuji nodded.
…
…
Xenovia's serious expression seemed to cramp a little bit, and Yuuji blankly stared at her. Then her expression twitched, and Yuuji blankly stared at her.
Then she blinked, slowly, and Yuuji said "It looks like it's my win. By my right as victor, you have to explain what the hell you're talking about."
Xenovia blinked several more times, and then gave a firm nod.
"I see, it can't be helped then."
Couldn't it? He was just bullshitting his way through whatever… this was.
… But at least she was acting like Xenovia again.
They hadn't really talked all that much, but that wasn't to say anything against Xenovia.
A lot of their time together had been either training, or sitting comfortably side by side, hardly a word shared between them.
It was just neither of them felt all that compelled to fill the silence between one person and another.
"I shouldn't have asked you to add me to the list." Xenovia 'explained'. "While it's true that I wanted to, actually that I still want to 'succeed' as a woman, I didn't consider your feelings at all. That was wrong of me, and I apologize."
"I don't mind." Yuuji told her honestly. "While it was a little out of the blue, having a pretty girl casually announce her desire to sleep with me was pretty flattering."
And he had no idea why that of all things made Xenovia blush.
"... You do know that's part of making babies, right?" She did come across as rather… unworldly, despite how blunt she was.
"O-of course I know!" Xenovia stammered, which woke Yuuji's inner sadist (which was most of him) up immediately.
"Just checking. Wouldn't want to make any assumptions." Yuuji blandly admitted, one side of his mouth definitely not curling upwards in a half-smirk.
"I'm being serious about this! I said I want to be a mother, but first I want to be a girl! I want to go on dates with cute boys and wear cute clothes and do couple things!"
There was a moment of silence, following the outburst.
Yuuji said a prayer in his heart for Xenovia's composure and self-respect, taking the headache with good grace.
When she started making incoherent noises and odd sort of grabby gestures as if to recapture that flood of words, Yuuji decided he should probably take mercy now, while there wasn't anyone to witness him doing something so out-of-character.
"I'm free Saturday?"
"G-good! Saturday is good!" Xenovia blurted out, her voice cracking and her blush deepening to a rather unhealthy shade of red, her head swaying in lopsided circles.
"Listen, if you pass out on me suddenly like that it's gonna look like a crime scene."
Yuuji decided that the takeaway there was that he wasn't very good at mercy, just yet.
That, and Xenovia was cute when she was flustered.
The next person to find him by his favorite tree was Akeno, but this time, not a word was shared.
Akeno gave him a loving smile, and he smiled back with a smile that wasn't nearly as pretty, he imagined.
Akeno sat down daintily by his side and leaned in, resting her head against his lap in a manner that wouldn't make it hard for him to read.
Yuuji chuckled quietly as her long lashes fluttered shut, and the delightedly smiling Akeno cuddled in a little closer and promptly fell asleep.
Yeah… this 'summer break' they were having wasn't bad at all, Yuuji reaffirmed in his heart.
… So he'd thought, but even on summer vacation, there were some duties as a Devil that simply couldn't wait.
No one really minded all that much, though, it was hard to be bitter about a postponed summer vacation when lives were at stake.
"We have work to do." Rias declared, standing at the head of the long table. She'd seated them in a small meeting room in the Gremory manor, Akeno dutifully standing at her King's side.
"Almost a peerage worth of Stray Devils are lurking near the edge of Gremory lands, and the family responsible for the area has entreated us for help. We've had a few days to rest up after our training, and now it's time to demonstrate our results."
"The northern edge of Gremory lands, to be more specific." Akeno took over, directing their attention to the map on the board behind the two of them. "The Agiel Barons are predominantly scholars by nature, they don't have the means to deal with that many Strays at once. From our most recent report the Strays have taken over the Agiel's summer manor as their lair, and it's only a matter of time before they start prowling."
"The nearest settlement is on Gremory lands, isn't it?" Yuuji began, dark eyes scanning the map. "Have there been any casualties yet? Was anyone present at the manor?"
Rias shook her head slowly.
"None have been reported on our side, but there's little guarantee that will remain true." She informed them. "The Agiel family themselves were delayed due to a sudden illness from their youngest, but there's been no sign of the servants that went ahead to prepare the manor."
No one needed to ask her what that meant.
"Time is of the essence, we're already prepped to transfer to the edge of the manor grounds. We have little information on the Strays, but we're expecting at least one High-Class Rook, one Middle-class Knight, Rook, and Bishop, a Low-class Knight and somewhere between four and eight Low-class Pawns. There's little to fear compared to foes we've faced in the past, but there's no place for overconfidence."
She met the eyes of Raynare and Kalawarner, and to little surprise, asking their intentions was unnecessary.
Instead, Rias directed her attention to Irina and asked "Do you wish to join us on our little outing?"
"Count me in!" Irina declared, her voice cheerful but her expression firm. "Strays are everyone's problem, whether they're Devils or not!"
"Be nice to get to beat up someone other than each other, won't it?" Xenovia claimed, sitting at her side.
"Yep yep! It's time for a smiting!" Irina exclaimed. "Wait… are Devils allowed to smite?"
"... Better to ask forgiveness than permission?" Kiba suggested.
"Good call, Kiba-kun!"
"Good to have you on board." Rias smiled politely, just a hint of a playful twinkle in her shimmering blue eyes. "Everyone, remember your training and watch each other's backs. Let's crush these annoyances before they cause anymore trouble."
""Yes, Buchou!""
The summer manor wasn't especially large, by Gremory standards, that was, and so it was four stories, with an enclosed courtyard and basement.
They'd divided into three groups, two to enter and clear the building floor by floor, the other on standby, both to waylay any fleeing Strays, and to reinforce the entry teams if necessary.
Their feral nature meant they could expect a territorial response from the Strays, at least until the odds turned against them, and so they'd gone right through the torn off double doors at the front of the building.
This netted them a pair of Pawns, and the Mid-class Rook who'd been lounging about the main staircase; a furious salvo of Destruction, Holy Lightning and good old 5.56 mm bullets loaded with demonic power and dead memories.
The Rook, having been partially covered by the wreckage upon the staircase and being far tougher than it's shredded companions, managed to stagger free of the assault and face first into Durandal.
From there, the two teams, led by Rias and Akeno respectively split up, each sweeping a designated portion of the building going floor by floor.
Rias' group was the next to make contact, but Akeno's was the first to get involved with something that could be called an actual fight.
Rias, for her part had blown several sets of hooves off a horse built in mimicry of a centipede and far larger and uglier than either, but even without the handicap, the Stray would have been ill-suited to outrun Kiba, and more importantly Kiba's sword.
Akeno's group though found themselves in an exercise room just a tiny bit smaller than their school's gymnasium, and found a quartet of Strays, the leader of which they assumed was the Middle-class Knight from the reports.
A towering hybrid of woman and mantis, a woman who had likely once been beautiful from the waist up, but insectoid from below the waist, both the bladed forelimbs of a mantis and the four legs ending in actual sword blades.
Perhaps the quartet had been close before they'd strayed, the other three were insect in nature as well- asymmetrical, haphazard fusions of woman and ant.
Yuuji had kicked off the fight without any sort of preamble, a 12-gauge slug with an unreasonable effective range leaving one of the ants headless and flailing. The second shot finished her, the third was just to take the danger out of her twitching.
Xenovia had taken point, meanwhile, Knight against former Knight.
Durandal's heavy strikes served a good match for bladed forelimbs equal to Xenovia in height, Irina on support, hurling pointed light whenever the opportunity presented itself.
Seeing no reason to interfere with the duo, Akeno busied herself with making the other two ants pop and trying not to enjoy it too blatantly. Her lack of success with the latter came as little surprise to her boyfriend.
"Okay Gasper, I want you to freeze that Stray, and that Stray only." Rias instructed softly, arms draped around her little Bishop's shoulders from behind. "I won't let it get near us no matter what, so just do your best, okay?"
"O-okay." Gasper nodded.
As if on cue, the Stray recovered from being booted across the hall by Koneko, shaking its head, setting all five legs and charging.
Gasper flinched into Rias as it roared, but all she did was offer him a reassuring squeeze.
"You can't just be protected forever Gasper, focus!" He hissed to himself beneath his breath.
Teeth grit and fists clenched, Gasper took one step forward, Rias smoothly letting him slip from her grasp until only her hands retained a firm, supporting grip on his shoulders.
The eyes of Balor gleamed, and stole away both time and color from the snarling Stray, leaving it's cold grey shape frozen in mid stride.
Gasper gave a little grunt of effort, but Balor held for one second, and then two.
"Well done Gasper, I knew you could do it." Rias raised a hand and pointed it towards the Stray, just as Balor released its grasp.
The Stray rejoined the flow of time, only to discover its own had run out.
Destruction howled, and in its wake only the barest traces of ash remained.
Gasper gave a shaky sigh as a proud Rias reeled him back in, and further ahead, Kiba turned away from a thoroughly pincushioned Stray to shoot the little Bishop a thumbs up.
The shy young boy returned the gesture, and Koneko came around and gripped both of his hands with a tiny smile.
"Good job, Gaspie."
Twin sword-claws slammed down on top of Durandal as the Stray Knight shrieked aggressively, only to shriek for another reason entirely as from behind Xenovia, Irina flared her wings and halo, bathing the hall in pale gold light.
The Stray screamed as Holy light struck her sensitive eyes, staggering away from Xenovia with limbs flailing blindly to ward off pursuit.
Unfortunately for it, Xenovia didn't need to get any closer with Durandal in her hands.
The first wave of roaring golden light sent the mantis-woman's bladed arms clattering to the floor, and Xenovia spun with the strike, whirling her blade right back around for another sweep.
The mantis displayed a faint echo of her Knightly speed as she ducked beneath the second sword wave, and it was the last misstep of her life.
Durandal not ceasing its vicious dance for a second, Xenovia stepped into the Stray's now absent guard and brought her sword up from below as the Stray's head went down.
Sword met chin in a brtual head on collision, and to no one's surprise the sword came out the victor.
Xenovia gave the flailing corpse an appraising look as it toppled, and lifted Durandal above her head.
With graceful, gliding steps Akeno slipped up to Yuuji's side as he stood guard.
"I've just finished relaying with Buchou." She told him. "With this, there should be only the High-class Rook remaining, and the likely places are either the banquet hall or the basement."
"Which one are we taking?" He asked back as Xenovia and Irina made their way over.
"We're closest to the basement." Akeno replied. "Guess we'll see which of us pulled the lucky straw."
The answer very nearly ended up being no one.
Having taken point, Yuuji held up his hand to call a halt as he peered around the corner, past where a pair of heavy doors should have been.
… He didn't need to be a Devil to recognize that smell.
The girls quietly slipped up behind him as Yuuji half-turned to them, keeping one ear trained ahead.
"Last chance to back out." He murmured, a blank expression giving nothing away.
Akeno's own expression softened, she could recognize his consideration for what it was, even if perhaps he himself couldn't.
"... That bad, huh?"
Yuuji nodded. "Now we know where the rest of the staff is."
"Some of them could still be alive!" Irina whispered loudly. "Come on, we've got to-!"
She pushed past Yuuji before anyone could get a word in edgewise.
Xenovia had one hand outstretched in her direction when Irina rounded the corner and slammed to a halt in mid stride, as if running face first into an invisible wall.
The long basement hallway was… decorated, perhaps was the best (and worst) way to describe it.
As if preparing for some ghoulish celebration, the Strays had painted the walls and hung them from the chandeliers, connected by lumpy red streamers.
'Them' being what the entry team could only assume had been servants of Agiel, at one point.
No one but Yuuji was willing to look too closely at how the chandeliers were connected.
"Irina-!?" Xenovia was forced to recoil as the hallway flooded with sacred light and searing celestial heat.
Yuuji yanked her back around the corner- and to safety- and, as the 'decorations' began to burn away, Irina's hand shot to her side, just above the hip.
Metal arm shielding his eyes, Yuuji watched as her fingers began to dig and scratch at the form-fitting black leather.
"... This isn't going to be good, is it?" He whispered softly.
Perhaps she'd heard him, because the Holy light flickered and faded away, and Irina spun on her heel to look back at them from the empty hall.
"... Err, are you guys coming or not?"
Yuuji and Akeno shared a concerned glance as Xenovia all but rushed to her friend's side, only to be greeted by a curiously raised eyebrow and a little chuckle from the Reincarnated Angel.
Their footprints left little smears behind in the ashes that remained.
High above the clouds, a resplendent figure lounged casually across the seat of a great golden throne.
A faint breeze drifted by, gently stirring the dark hair of the great being, black like a moonless night. As the wind came and went, dark red eyes cracked slowly open, and the great being stretched himself with a slow, languid yawn.
"... Does anyone else smell something burning?"
No one answered, for the being was alone, and thus he decided to ignore it for another hour or four in favor of further napping.
After all, just as he had declared for countless eons, his great golden throne was far comfier than any could have anticipated.
It hurt.
Her side hurt.
Her scar hurt.
Nothing good ever happened to her when her scar hurt.
But if she made a big deal out of it then Xen-chan would totally worry, and so she hid the ache in her side and the lump in her throat behind an enthusiastic smile-
Oops no, it would be weird if she smiled now, smiling when bad things were happening was weird.
So she settled on serious, but not too serious, because being too serious would also be weird for her and also make Xen-chan worry.
She didn't like making Xen-chan worry.
Her companions said something that she totally listened to, and she nodded when it seemed appropriate.
Yuuji-kun stepped up beside her, and she gave him a brief nod and a grin.
As much of one as she could pull off while looking away as quickly as possible.
Yuuji-kun was kind of reassuring to be around, even if he sucked at smiling.
Yuuji-kun was dark, that was why.
But it was a kind sort of darkness, the sort of darkness that let you close your eyes and drift off to sleep without being afraid of what lurked in the shadows.
It was complicated and she didn't really get it, but Yuuji-kun felt 'kind' without quite needing to seem 'good'.
Anyways, it was pretty reassuring to have him up front because Xen-chan was a little distracted about… something and you didn't want distracted people up front where they could get into trouble and what was that smell and who were-
… Oh, so that was where the rest of the mansion staff had gone.
Wait… that shape over there was way too small to be a full grown-
Something rose from the pile of -don't look don't look- she met the gaze of a pretty lady with long, dark hair and red lipstick.
Really, she hadn't done a very good job of putting on her lipstick, because it was smeared all over her chin and-
The rest of her wasn't a pretty lady at all. It was long, and sleek, and dark, on all fours like a-
… Just like an animal.
Hey, where did Issei go?
Her side hurt.
What do you mean, he's not coming back?
Someone was screaming off in the distance, and her side hurt.
Well, I'll just wait for him until he does.
Something was burning off in the distance, and her head hurt.
Don't make me wait too long, silly.
Then it was dark, and cold, and nothing at all hurt.
Please, Issei, come back soon.
The last thing she heard was "Dammit Rin, you've always been a handful."
And then she didn't hear much of anything.
Yuuji didn't even look at the Holy Sword leveled his way as he pulled away the dull grey cloth from Irina's face and lowered the unconcious girl to the floor.
He didn't pay any attention at all to the ashes that remained of the Stray and her victims, his eyes locked on one thing alone.
He didn't even let the pain of his burns register until the wings of the limp figure in his arm stopped flickering, settling back to pure white.
There was a distant clatter as Durandal hit the floor, and then Irina was pulled from his grasp and into the panicked embrace of Xenovia.
He stood up, and backed away, and then the room began to tilt.
Luckily, instead of a hard burnt floor he fell against soft and curvy Akeno.
"Yuuji? Yuuji!"
Damn he was tired.
Rin was always so much work.
… Who was Rin, anyways?
A sense of wrongness flooded his every sense, and Michael held out his hand to find the source of it.
It was a card.
The Ace of Spades, beginning to blacken and burn around the edges.
He had already flung aside his desk and smashed right through the wooden doors foolish enough to bar his path outside, had already spread his wings when-
A shadow from above caught his attention, bringing his gaze towards the last person he'd expected to see.
He descended from the skies on wings of blazing golden flame.
He, who was known as the Flame of God.
He was known as Uriel, one of the last Seraphs of Heaven.
He, would had come to declare in a voice as righteous and burning as the sun itself;
"Dibs."
Michael blinked slowly, tilting his head in confusion.
His attention was stolen once more by the card in his hand returning to its usual, pristine condition, and Michael breathed a sigh of utter relief.
Only then did the single word his brother had spoken dawned upon him.
"... Huh?"
Uriel grinned back at him.
The Flame of God is also a shit-disturber, guess that never made it into the Bible.
Heavy on the character development this chapter, Grayfia and Irina especially took big steps into their respective plotlines. The nature of Grayfia's curse is finally revealed, now you know why the whole thing pisses off Sirzechs so much (chapter 19 was the first instance of her curse being displayed, if you don't remember). If you look back in other chapters you'll see a few more instances that make more sense with the added context. But she revealed her deep dark secret to the boy she's interested in, and the end result was mofucking cuddles so it turned out alright.
Grayfia might have tried to turn things sexual there, but Yuuji rightly ascertained that it wasn't really a decision he should be helping her make. Don't worry though, if you haven't figured it out, I like maids, and I also like hot devil maids, so there's definitely gonna be sexy times on the way.
Speaking of maids; Sachi. Sachi is cute as fuck and more than a little messed up, but this time she has Grayfia to take care of her so things will go a little bit easier for her.
Irina's Light is heating up to the point where the Flame of God himself is taking note, the direction I'm taking her is going to differ in some key ways from canon.
And Yuuji at last has a goal he can work towards; having JB a part of his life for more than the tiniest fraction of it. The promotion to High-class Devil that requires really is background details.
Oh, and updates for were messed up for a while, so be sure to check for updates you might have missed for all the stories you enjoy, mine or otherwise.