Resting after the invasion to one of the Khaos Brigade's hideouts didn't result in nightmares or insomnia. It would seem like L****s had indeed gotten something broken in his mind, something that wasn't like that before. And he couldn't decide whether that was a net positive or not, so he put it aside for the moment to concentrate on the matters at hand.
He couldn't just doubt himself like that, it'd turn into a spiral too difficult to fight to let him do what he needed. So he went back to his roots and worried about his safety.
"Any news from Azazel?" He asked while pouring five coffee mugs with recently made hot chocolate, while the girls gave everyone some portions of the big breakfast that he cooked.
"Saji Genshirou is healthy, albeit weakened." Sin Devourer kept his hood, but his clothes were lighter. Less layered. It looked like he wore a black robe now, kind of like those night ones that L****s had seen people in movies use, with long gloves that obscured any skin that he could show them.
Everyone else still had the clothes they slept with on, with the exception of Miyuzuin. A*****l had a t-shirt and pajamas pants, both with bunnies on them, while Star Seeker wore an actual bathrobe into the living room. Why? L****s didn't know, but at least she hadn't got anything wet. Kuroka wore a white tank top and pink hotpants, neither of which L****s knew where she got them from, and he himself wore a bit t-shirt and pajama pants.
Miyuzuin, on the other hand, was fully dressed. Black formal pants, a white blouse, and her hair completely combed unlike everyone else.
L****s gave Sin Devourer one of the mugs while he glanced at her.
"Though it seems like Azazel is far more concerned in the little 'present' that Freed Sellzen had with him." Added the Miracle Child.
The Sacred Gear.
"It's not real?" Miyuzuin asked, sitting to the left of what would be L****s' seat once he finished giving them all their mugs.
"It is. More than he'd like." Sin Devourer brought his mug closer to the darkness that clung to the hood, and it disappeared within as some sipping noise left the unknown region of his face "Although not a natural one."
L****s stopped in his tracks.
"An artificial Sacred Gear not made by him?"
"That seems to be the case."
"Hmmm…" He couldn't remember anyone being capable of that. But then again, L****s hardly kept the whole picture in mind. Something always turned out to be different from his memories, so he wasn't wholly surprised by the revelation.
Still, someone else creating artificial Sacred Gears… It scared him a bit.
"What's the difference?" A*****l asked between munches, already having started eating before L****s even sat down.
"I don't know." He admitted "I thought only he could."
"Well, these things are far more complex than anything I've seen. So it makes sense." His sister nodded.
"How complex?" Miyuzuin asked, lifting her arm to summon the Twice Critical that she stole from Siegfried.
"More than I can explain." A*****l pointed at Miyuzuin's arm "That thing on your is the tip of the iceberg. There's a FAT. CHUNK. Of magical B.S. behind it, and a lot of it is twisted space connected to Heaven."
She smiled, tapping Star Seeker's arm. The Miracle Child sat to her right, on the opposite side to L****s. And hadn't even reacted to the mug that he gave her. She blinked, and her lost expression turned into a cheeky smile instead.
"They're perfect in every way. A flawless work, like me!"
"It's very interesting what the chalice allows me to see." A*****l took it from there "This world is weird, but so interesting! I feel like I could spend all of my life just looking at the strings that make this cloth."
L****s nodded, finally sitting down.
"Magic is pretty interesting too."
"Hey, and my tea?"
"Bel didn't go back on her word, meow." Kuroka interrupted while taking her seat to L****s' right "I don't think the fallen wholly believe our story, but she's in the clear for now. She might get moody, but we can trust her in this."
Kuroka, Miyuzuin, Sin Devourer, Star Seeker, and L****s had a mug with chocolate. But A*****l didn't have anything.
"I told you I'd make chocolate. If you want something else, make it yourself."
"So unfair!"
Kuroka and Star Seeker grinned at each other as A*****l stood up. Miyuzuin shook her head and Sin Devourer didn't react at all.
"Nasu's still trying to charm the devil ladies and his teammates, but being given a mission by someone important should make him behave." Star Seeker spoke up before A*****l came back "I believe they all left Miyu's resort, so you'll have to catch up to them in the Underworld. I can't follow you there, but as long as you keep in contact with the fake-me, it should be alright!"
"It's unlikely that the Messiah will find the creature." Sin Devourer crossed his arms "That thing is an ambush predator, a being designed to stalk its prey and go unnoticed until it's too late. He lacks the necessary survival instincts to hunt it down."
"Yes, thank you. I do know what Stain is." L****s frowned. There really was no need to be that dramatic, especially not when it only made everyone more nervous.
"Miyuki should've talked to the guys that helped us keep it compliant by now." Miyuzuin added "We'll find it. We can take it down."
"The Miyus are so competent…" Star Seeker smiled cheekily.
"Don't call us that." Miyuzuin glared at her.
"Eh? Why not?"
"It's refreshing to see people that know what they're doing work." A*****l got back to her seat with a hot mug of some water with herbs "People rarely ever come close to being competent. Let alone being good at what they do."
"...Thank you?" Miyuzuin didn't look very sure about A*****l's words.
"You're welcome, sweetheart." She smiled back at the Belial girl in that sardonic way she only used with L****s and their parents.
L****s put his hands on the table, looking at the steam his mug released as he gathered his thoughts.
"Sis, we need to get Stain back quickly."
"Yeah, I know." Said the vampire princess while she ate "I still have that fragment with me. I'm ready when you are."
L****s nodded.
"We'll focus on this before going back to the Underworld, then." He glanced at all of them to see if they were all on the same page.
"That's a couple of days at most." Star Seeker pointed at L****s with her fork.
"Yep. I need to talk with the Grigori… Stain should be everywhere, but the only ones that should be able to tell what is and isn't a Stain-body are…"
"The Tiebreaker, you, and me." Sin Devourer shook his head "That's not a very wide catalog of options."
"What about Rias' Knight?" Star Seeker asked her cousin like he had been talking to her all along.
"The half-reaper? Out of the question. She's with Gremory." Miyuzuin scoffed "Is there any tells outside of the aura of death around it?"
"I can tell, in theory, because I should be able to see the effects of Stain's shapeshifting with Ajuka's gift." L****s scratched the bridge of his nose with his thumb, staring out into the window as he saw a bird pass. That could've been Stain, but it left too fast for him to notice "Maybe someone else you know can do something similar?"
Miyuzuin gave it a thought.
"No."
L****s took a sip of his chocolate to hide his smirk. Of course no one else would be able to.
"Then, Sin Devourer."
"Yes?"
"Can you pull Ajuka out of the Underworld?" L****s moved his hand, using his Kankara Formula to create a wave of light over it. To illustrate his point "He should be able to 'see' in a bigger space. That could help us make it in time."
"Why only a couple of days, though?" Kuroka leaned over the table, getting a bit closer to L****s "What happens in the Underworld, meow?"
"Our red princess will probably be mad at Luci cuz she was next to useless in the last battle." A*****l sighed "And he didn't show up at the resort, or made any attempt at all to talk to her. He's been all over the place, and she's had some very nasty cocktail of emotions years in the making about what's been going on."
L****s shook his head.
"Rias is not important. What matters is that I'm expected to play the role of Diodora the Accursed, and that'll require time. I'm also pretty sure that Stain knows the Underworld better than I do, and that's not counting on what the Khaos Brigade will do next." He projected the silhouettes of the Hero Faction over his hand, with Cao Cao's miniature lifting his spear to project the Truth Idea "I don't want a repeat, we've been caught off guard one too many times and Stain will both help us prevent that from happening again, and getting it out of the way will be a huge help by itself."
"Careful with saying that people do not matter." His sister made a 'no-no' motion with her index finger "It'll bite you in the ass, Cricket. I know that we don't really need her, but you're walking our bro's path right now."
L****s grunted and threw his projections at his sister.
"Rude!"
"Shut it." He hissed "Not now, Abby."
"Ew, that sounds so weird coming out of your mouth." She showed him her tongue, motioning like she wanted to puke to get her point across.
"Lovely. I can feel the siblings' energy in the air." Star Seeker shook her head.
"So, right now, it's about Stain." Miyuzuin ignored them all and faced L****s with a serious expression "Are you sure you want to do this without Gen?"
L****s leaned back on his chair.
"It's not ideal." He accepted.
"No, it isn't."
"Should I make an appointment so you can meet the Grigori?" Sin Devourer lifted a hand.
"He can do that?" Star Seeker asked.
"No. Let's go with safety first." L****s sighed "Get my sister to Azazel. She can probably fix Genshirou just fine."
"I'd love to exchange pointers about the Heavenly System." She lifted her mug.
"Miyuzuin, can we count on your teammates right now?"
"I'll ask." She nodded.
"Okay. Then, Star Seeker goes with Fate Weaver so he doesn't freaking make things worse. Sin Devourer, please the two things."
"Understood."
"And Kuroka." L****s looked at the catgirl as he lifted his arms, showing her the messed up skin "We may as well start now."
"Okay, yeah. I thought you'd bail on me, meow."
"Can we focus on healing? If at all possible."
"No, meow."
"Hey, quick question." Star Seeker mimicked Sin Devourer and lifted her hand while speaking.
"Hm?"
"What did she mean by your brother's path? Nasu has never called someone useless."
L****s almost started hearing a static noise behind his ears before his sister spoke up.
"Make no mistake. We were raised under the same rules, by the same parents, during the same period of time." She spoke softly, almost in a whisper. But she had everyone paying attention. So everyone flinched when she stabbed her left hand with the fork, pulling it back just as violently to let the wounds close with her immortality. She sighed "And he is NOT any different from us. No matter what he'd like you to believe."
"An idiot, perhaps. But he will still lie, take, and make himself look better by pushing everyone else down." L****s added "It's not that he's always virtue signaling, what makes me so mad. It's the fact that he's not doing it on purpose."
"That he can't see himself being the awful person that he is." A*****l sighed again, hands turned into fists "That he has the gall to be an asshole about it, when we do the exact same thing as he does."
"That we'd do better, all of us combined, but he thinks we're bad and that he is good." L****s bit his finger.
A*****l smiled.
"An angel in a den of demons."
"Stupid." L****s hissed.
"Useless." A*****l added.
"Pathetic."
"Insufferable."
"Blindfolded idiot."
"Die."
"Die, die, die…!"
"Fucking kill yourself—." His name made everyone recoil when A*****l failed to pronounce it.