Fate: Bonds Beyond Humanity

by Apprentice of Life

In a world where all can be real, what does it mean to be human? What is the meaning of humanity? A meeting between a human and a devil will have them discovering the truth while chasing their dreams. My take on the combined worlds of Fate and DxD with characters from other franchises if they can be adapted to it. Harem.

18. Chapter 18

Fate/Bonds Beyond Humanity

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18- Second Incident: Siblings And Kings

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A month and half passed since the 'Dance Club Disaster' as the majority of those in the know are calling it. After that nothing happened, everyone was expecting an attack, another action or anything similar to the last incident but nothing else of note occurred and that only made those who knew more worried.

Since the culprit was not caught everyone is on guard. The teachers that know and are connected to the moonlit world patrolled the school in case of something that normally wouldn't be detected was occurring while the student council, with the help of the other devils and their allies, made inspections in many clubs and asked many questions in the search of something wrong.

One positive of the situation is that the yokais in college that were involved began to volunteer in both get lessons in youjutsu to avoid the same thing from happening and to keep an eye on the institution.

The efforts are being coordinated by Seekvaira who has more free time than the other heiresses since she is planning to return to the Underworld after her final school year and could sacrifice her school time to take care of such matters.

Meetings, investigations, reinforcements, everything was used to try to find the responsible party only for nothing to be found, much to the frustrations of many, Sona being the most furious of them all.

And a cup of tea appears in front of her in the student council room that is being used as a base of operation. "You need to calm down, Sona-sama." Akeno says with respect while the Gremory group enters the room, surprising all present, only the devils of the council.

"What is going on?" Asked Tsubasa until Liz gave her some snacks.

"Buchou said you are working too much and need some rest." Kiba comments, helping Koneko and Rin to clear the table from the papers around it, organizing it neatly as Sona likes.

"Looks like you are in need of a break, Sona." Rias enters the office with a smile, many refreshments and bentos on hers, Shirou's and Setsuna's hands while Yoruichi also enters the room with a smug attitude, not that Sona can say anything since one of her subordinates did show up to help Jaken, giving credence to the cat's previous claims. "So we decided that you could use some rest and good food."

The others members of the council present consisted off Shirou's classmates in the Bishops Hanakai Momo and Kusaka Reya, the Rook Yura Tsubasa which he met a couple of times, the Knight Megure Tomoe, once part of a family of exorcists but to be free from a curse had to be reincarnated into a devil, she has a beautiful face and a beautiful girl with shoulder-length, reddish-brown hair and brown eyes. Her hair features swept bangs and a single strand of hair sticking out from the top and was one of the few members that Shirou hadn't known previously.

There is also the Queen Shinra Tsubaki and of course Sona herself who is looking at Rias with confusion on her face. "I don't know what you are playing here Rias but I have work to do."

"And you have been doing an excellent job." Rias approaches her friend with a smile, placing both her hands on the vice-president's shoulders and massaging them. "But you also need your rest. You have been running around for a month now."

"If you think I will free you from your obligations-"

"Perish the thought." Rias interrupts Sona with a smile. "I just want you to rest a little for today. Even Seek is worried and if she could she would be here today."

In return for the help with Gilgamesh, Rias gave Sona a boon which she used to have the ORC and their associates to help with the school security. Either way Rias would help but since she is obligated the redhead can't stop the investigations until Sona deems them as concluded or useless to maintain pursuit.

And if she is helping, her club is also helping. Even Setsuna felt obligated to assist considering the events that happened in her club hunting. Because of that even if Rias didn't help she would be investigating. But so far there is nothing on who they want with many false alarms happening left and right.

Thanks to the size of Kuoh there are many blinds spots where things that shouldn't be happening end up happening. From the most simple and common offenses as students skipping classes or vandalizing school property to more serious offenses like drugs and booze.

Suffice to say that once Sona found one of the dens with students smoking she was extremely upset, especially since some there were high school students. Expelling people is one of her rights as the owner of the territory and she felt the need to enforce it even if Rias and Seekvaira insisted in a little restraint and limit such punishments to just the grounds of normal students and let the police handle the mundane illegal activities.

There weren't that many of those incidents but the Sitri heiress didn't like the ones she saw. She made sure that the police had tons of evidence to work with and to get the real responsable ones with magic while giving a chance to the most influenciable students.

On the more uncommon side there were some people using magic at wrong hours, yokais that were using certain rooms to relax with a barrier to keep people out and one of them started a relationship with a mundane girl. She now has a notion of the moonlit world with a contract that will stop her from spreading the knowledge, just in case of a bad break up.

And that was essentially Sona's last month of work, not accounting for the reports she has to write, her work as the owner of a territory and the contracts that both her and her peerage got during it.

"Woah! This is delicious!" Tsubasa says with a smile as she is eating some dumplings.

"Uhum~" Momo nods in happiness. "I think I have never tasted anything so good in my life. Where did you buy them?"

Akeno smiles at the compliments, pride filling her chest. "Shirou-kun and I made them. There are lots of flavors for you all to taste." She picks one of the boxes and starts to show her handwork. "There is pork, chicken, cheese and some others that we were experimenting on making."

"This is so good." Tsubasa takes another one. "Oh my Satan~ So good~ I will have to train more tomorrow or I will end up fat." Momo agrees with a nod, not willing to stop eating herself. "Kinda makes me wish more members of the council were here today, too bad we have to use this place as our HQ or we could let them stay more."

"More for us, that is what." Momo has no shame in just taking another. "I don't know why you are spoiling us so much."

"Oh, buchou wants to remind Sona-sama of something and she thought that food would help." Before the two girls before her could think too much about it, Akeno brushes the topic off. "Ignore my rambling. What do you two prefer? Tea or soda?"

The two decide to accept her offer, the food too good to think of anything else.

"Here you go senpai." Says Setsuna as she distributes drinks, one which Tsubaki just accepted.

"Thank you." The older girl takes a sip of her beverage, tea as is her preference, letting out a 'hum' of satisfaction. Setsuna nods in acknowledgment but before she departs Tsubaki calls her. "Excuse me Higurashi-san but could I ask you a question?"

"Of course senpai." Setsuna replies with respect. She ends up sitting down at the council member's side as the older girl offers a chair.

"I heard from Rias-sama and would like to clarify; are you also a naginata user?" The question came as a surprise for the hanyou.

"Indeed I am. I suppose you are one as well?" Tsubaki offers a nod in reply. "Then we should mark a day for a spar."

"I agree. I also heard that Emiya-san is also skilled with similar weapons. Rias brags how he can pretty much fight with anything." At the mention of Shirou, Setsuna freezes for a moment but then nods.

"He can but he is better with swords." She says, a little nervous. The Queen doesn't catch the difference since she doesn't know Setsuna enough to tell.

"Then Tomoe-chan probably will want to spar with him. She tried many times with Kiba but he always refuses on the grounds of being a gentleman.

Hearing her blonde friend's attitude Setsuna says. "She just needs to press him to fight, challenge him directly. Kiba will start to accept her challenges after the first one. I only got my first fight with him because Rias wanted a three way match but when he was about to refuse one of my requests for another spar I just demanded it and he accepted easily. If he thinks something different for your friend you can also ask Rias to make the fight happen but I believe he will accept if she demands instead of asking to show she is serious about it." Tsubaki nods at the advice and both start talking about their weapons.

Without knowing about the advice that is being requested for her, Tomoe is trying to get a spar with Kiba. "Come on Kiba-kun, let's have a fight already. It can be even with wood swords."

"I am sorry but fighting like that is a little against my principles." It is a rehearsed answer.

"Ah, man. Let's have one match. Please~" She asks, trying to use doe like eyes. "What if we bet something?"

"Not going to be enough to change my mind." Kiba replied. The girl keeps insisting but the point is not about sparing with her, it's sparing without having no reason for it.

When having a fight with Shirou or Setsuna, Kiba can tell he is testing his limits. The same can't be said about Tomoe, she is still not completely dedicated to her training like they are. It is not for a lack of will, she just didn't find ways to grow strong enough to be a challenge for him if he employs his sacred gear.

Fighting with people that can keep up and counter his trump card has him a little spoiled. Maybe she has enough technique to keep up but he isn't willing to accept it if she doesn't show she is serious about the spar.

Rin has her arms on the table and is using them as a pillow to take a nap. Reya looks at the human, an expression of concern on her face. "Something wrong, Rin-chan?" The twin tailed girl looks at the devil with shorter but similar hair and thinks for a moment.

In reality she is exhausted, Rias didn't pull any punches at her punishment because of her blunder from the month before and she is still reaping the consequences of it. In all fairness she is doing a job that needs to be done, the paperwork.

After explaining how Rin and Luvia shouldn't have got detention in the first place she placed a mountain of paperwork in front of Rin and told her that this would be her job until Sona released her from the favor, all paperwork of the ORC is to be filled by her with Rias just revising to make sure all was done properly.

There will be hell to pay if it isn't.

And Rin also has her own work to do with her family's finances. She doesn't even have time for her own research since Sona hasn't freed Rias from the work and the Gremory heiress herself spends a good amount of time checking the school before her household goes to make their deals around the town.

"Sorry...Reya-chan. I am just exhausted." While not completely in the same circles, both girls get along well enough to be friends. Between the two groups they are the closest pair between each other. "Buchou still hasn't lifted my punishment."

"I'm sorry to hear that." And she really is sorry for her friend. Most of Rin's freetime is dedicated to Rias' whims if the devil so desires and everyone else knows it. That is what means have to owe a soul to a devil and that is with Rias being relatively nice. "It could be worse."

"I know. Believe me, I know." The head of the Tohsaka family mumbles, still loud enough for her friend to hear. "Doesn't mean Rias-buchou can be a slave driver when she wants. And she holds back no punches."

Reya places a hand on her classmate's shoulder and consoles her in a show of support while Rin gladly accepts the gesture, her eyes closing and the girl with aqua colored eyes and almost falling asleep regardless of the noise being made by the party. "Huu...What happened to Luvia-san? Did she leave earlier today?"

Rin's eyes open with a certain annoyance but there is no fire in her to fuel anything else. "Try one of the dumplings."

"Huh?" The devil tilts her head in confusion.

"Try one. I will explain after you do." Knowing Rin well enough that there is no way of making her change her mind is a fruitless endeavor, Reya got one of the dumplings.

For a second the devil just looks at the white food trying to take note if there was something different. She found traces of magic that were there but not in any negative way, from what she can tell it was used to enrich the ingredients and make them better, more nutritious and improve the taste.

For another second she tries to think if she could do something similar with devil magic but fails to realize how. Her imagination wouldn't be able to make the procedure work, too many moving parts, she just can't see it happening and the result would be her magic failing and so it would fail even if it is possible.

After a couple of seconds Reya decides to bite the dumpling and almost falls to the ground. "Delicious~" The Bishop says and Rin smiles.

"Shirou and Akeno made them and Shirou cooks for us everyday." The magus explains. "Our bentos, our dinner, we basically have a world class chef that has everyone else beat."

"Incredible. And you guys eat things like this everyday?" She finishes the dumpling and goes for another one. "This is so good~ Can I go eat with you guys from time to time?" Reya is sure that she isn't the only one asking from her peerage.

"You will have to ask buchou about that~" Reya almost stopped eating at the observation. That also meant that Sona may veto the idea, either by pride or to not owe Rias anything.

"Wait! What does this have to do with Luvia not being here?" The question managed to make Rin chuckle, it was a small thing at first but soon the girl is covering her mouth to not show she is laughing which actually gave her a suspicious appearance with a sinister aura. 'Is she a witch?' Reya can't help but think and when she blinks there is almost a dark aura in the form of a pointy hat on Tohsaka's head and the way she is still curved on the table makes it look like she is getting ready to drop ingredients in a cauldron. 'And not a nice one like grandma.'

"Luvia's punishment." Rin says with a smile.

"Huh?" Reya took a moment to process what was said. "'Luvia's punishment'? There was really one? Is she in the same situation as you?" The Bishop is confused about the statement on many levels.

In her memory she goes to the times that Rias shows up to play chess with Sona, there weren't many in the last month but even after the incident with the dance club the two purebloods still made some time to talk and play games with each other. They have been best friends for years, there was no way they wouldn't spend some time together even if they have to coordinate searches and security.

Reya has been there in a lot of those times, not all of them but she is sure she was there when they talked about Luvia, enough that the devil can make a small profile of who Luvia is from both seeing her in the classroom and also with what Rias said about the blonde.

Proud, elegant, a bit arrogant. That is how the Bishop would describe Luvia if asked and she isn't the only one. The Edelfelt heiress has a strong attitude and skill to match, quickly showing her that she is one of the best in class and a rival to Rin.

After the almost explosive event that landed them in detention the two now just trade barbs and not much more, still competing in even the most simple assignments but that is it. "Can't you just tell me what this punishment was?" Rin pauses her 'giggling' at the question and turns to the devil.

"The food is good right?" Reya nods. "Best you ever had?" No point in denying, the Bishop nods again. "Can you imagine eating this everyday?"

"That sounds too good to be true." Food like the dumplings she ate but everyday in lots of different types, just the thought was enough to water her mouth but she takes another dumpling and begins to eat it to hold the flavor forever on her mind.

"But you can imagine right? You can see yourself sitting there, eating a delicious bento or even dinner with food that some can say came from the heavens." Rin made sure to look Reya in the eyes to make her point clear and once the devil nodded again, the image vivid on her mind the magus went for the kill. "And if I took it away?" The devil freezes mid bite, much to Rin's pleasure. "If suddenly, instead of having a slice of heaven everyday you had nothing?"

If Reya was a mirror that would be the moment she would crack. The very idea of finding a piece of heaven and suddenly getting banished from it too much for her to avoid a reaction. "That sounds evil."

"And that...is Luvia's punishment." Rin says with a joy reserved for someone that just learned they won a lottery.

The magus remember that day, the day after the detention when both of them learned what transpired in their abstinence. Rias was furious that their rivalry had put Shirou in danger, unexpected events or not.

So the pureblood devil made her ancestors proud and hit where it hurt. Rias Gremory doesn't play around with the security of her friends and the fact was that if the two girls hadn't fought and were there to help him, Shirou wouldn't have been hurt as much as he was. Maybe they would have stopped the tengu and figured out the method of the hypnoses applied to him.

While everything was theoretical and there was no way of making sure that their presence would have made any difference, it may have and they shouldn't have almost blown the secrecy of magic to the world and that needed some kind of punishment.

Since Luvia has no pacts or obligations to any of the owners of Fuyuki, she has no protection for her and her family in the town. At the same time, if one of the owners decides they want Luvia out, she is out, no questions or arguments unless she herself manages to convince them to let her stay.

But Rias offered a compromise since Waver didn't expel the students. Unlike Rin who needs Rias' resources, Luvia has no need for them, but she has a goal, to further the interests of her family and Rias can make it really hard for any of her goals to be accomplished in various ways.

The only way to avoid that was to submit to whatever punishments Rias decided and Luvia accepted with the promises that it wouldn't humiliate her family or be something against her principles. Gremory accepted the first but rejected the second since the magus could have attempted to dodge any punishment by just reciting that it was something offensive.

There was a discussion about if it was just a loophole or not that Rias ended by basically saying either 'accept the terms or get out of my property', Luvia relented. There was no winning for the blonde in that confrontation.

And Rin took a certain sadistic joy in remembering that. "The punishments buchou decided are thus: Luvia can't eat Shirou's food until the culprit is cautch or Sona releases buchou from the job," again, not that Rias would stop but it is the principle of the thing, "she must be present during lunch when everyone else is eating the food," Shirou isn't allowed to give her any and Kiba is under strict orders to remind him that Luvia is grounded, "she can't eat dinner in the clubhouse, she can enter but not eat the food from there or anything that Shirou makes," Reya already noticed the pattern there and looking at the dumpling she almost finished on her hand made her debate if Rias isn't being a bit too much cruel, "finally, she must help with the patrols."

The last part surprised Reya. "I was almost expecting something else with food."

"There wasn't anything else." Rin informed Reya with a smile. "Besides that, the rest of the orders are for both of us. Not fight each other, 'play nice' and once that everything is settled Rias is going to allow us to spar. She decided that not coming today was better than to just watch everyone eating, again." Rin picks up a dumpling and takes a bite. "Wanna know something funny? Even with all the work I still have, I think I got better off than her."

Finishing her dumpling and getting another, Reya couldn't necessarily disagree.

Sitting down on one of the tables and not knowing what to do with himself is Shirou. With him are Liz, Koneko and Yoruichi, all of them have their own food and are enjoying the fruits of his and Akeno's labor.

"A little nervous Shirou?" Yoruichi asks between bites, using two paws to hold a dumpling.

"Not really. I just don't know what to do here." Shirou replies, scratching the back of her head much to her pleasure and Koneko's frustration.

"Just eat and relax." The little Rook advised, doing exactly that. Or pretending to do it since her eyes don't leave Yoruichi, much to the cat's amusement.

Liz doesn't make a comment, she just eats a dumpling in silence, staying at Shirou's side and keeping an eye out for the members of the Sitri's household. She knows them all, her position as a teacher making her interact with pretty much all the students.

However Leystritt can't remember all of them, it is impossible for her or any normal teacher without an eidetic memory to remember every student they teached on their carriers, much less the hundreds of faces they may see each day.

But she knows and remembers every devil in the school because of Shirou's association. None is a threat and she could just relax and watch people interacting. She chooses not to, staying on guard because the last sudden incident made her a little paranoid.

Shrugging his shoulders, Shirou picks one soda can and opens it. He doesn't know what to do in these gatherings but he can still enjoy himself with his friends, especially since the whole point of this is to help Sona calm down a little since she is working too much these days.

'Soon enough we are going to check clubs again.' Something that was once done for fun became a job and Shirou is worried that they are missing something.

"Relax." Yoruichi says as he now notices that he had stopped scratching her. Even as he began again she continued. "You are thinking about the search aren't you?"

"Are I that easy to read?" She chuckles.

"Kinda. But there is nothing that we can do." She turns towards him and jumps on his lap, something that gains Koneko's glare. "Think of it in the same way you did the investigation before. Once we have a clue, something conclusive or a way to proceed, we shall do it. Until then, a little patience can be really helpful."

"I just…" Shirou stops for a moment to think on his words before he says. "If we hadn't found that party that day, lots of people would have died. And that was luck."

""Bad luck."" Both Liz and Koneko speak at the same time.

"We managed to show up before anyone died." Shirou says in reply to their comment. "I would call it good luck."

"No reinforcements." Liz says with a frown.

"You found it on the wrong day." Koneko says, taking a bite of a snack before continuing. "If those two hadn't fought, you would have had help." She says, tilting her head in Rin's direction, making it clear she is also annoyed with that particular incident.

"Any other day would have been too late." Shirou is sure of that and they know he is right, there were plenty of people that were on their last legs, about to die of exhaustion.

"It was good luck." Yoruichi decides to interject. "It was luck that nobody died, luck that your opponent," she made a point to glare a little at Shirou, "wasn't 'all there' and you managed to pull out a win. In those circumstances you should have retreated." They already had this conversation and Shirou choses to keep his mouth shut. "But that is the thing about luck," she then lays down on Shirou's lap, if no one knew better they would confuse her with a real cat, "it's unreliable, unpredictable but it's part of life. Cherish the good, lament the bad and this time we should celebrate for the luck was good, since everyone made it out alive." Shirou nods and Koneko has nothing to say, Liz scratches Yoruichi between the ears. "Oh yeah, that is the spot. Purr~"

Chuckling a bit, Shirou takes another sip of his drink, noticing that Koneko is still glaring at Yoruichi. He is getting quite annoyed about it these days, mostly because he has been told, repeatedly, that there is nothing he can do.

To be fair to Yoruichi, she is trying. There are few days that she isn't in town that she doesn't try to interact with Koneko. He could see the anxiety in the nekomata's eyes everytime she failed in making a connection with the little devil.

When Shirou asked how he could help, she said to him that he couldn't and when he tried to insist, Yoruichi just shook her head and asked him if he wanted to jump over Koneko and talk to Rias directly.

With the option of either invading someone's privacy or being patient, Shirou chose, once again, patience. Didn't mean that he liked to just wait and do nothing.

Once Liz stopped petting Yoruichi, Shirou decided to do the same for Koneko, hoping that even if she found it weird, she wouldn't notice that he is doing it to try and take away her negativity.

For a moment Koneko freezes but that lasts only a second as she relaxes, the distances between them enough that she can lean on her chair and let go of anything else but the feeling of his touch.

He smiles a little, knowing that even if Koneko hadn't opened herself to him yet, he is still able to help her find some peace.

On a small table with a chess set, Rias and Sona are having a match.

Neither of them holds back their maneuvers and strategies when facing each other, both already knowing themselves well enough that even the first few moves are rehearsed in a way, they know each other for so many years that they know how the other is going to start by the pieces that they start with.

In chess the white pieces always have the initial move and the two have completely opposite styles; Rias is more aggressive while Sona prefers to play defensively.

It was decided by luck that Rias would begin, her initial move is to try to focus on the center, a move reflected by the advance of her first pawn.

At that point the game became familiar for both on the next few turns, the two sides playing the most efficient maneuvers to try and break the others defenses. It can be argued that, because of the type of game that chess is, that the winner is not determined by the number of correct moves that one makes but by the mistakes that the opponent makes in turn.

The board, the number of pieces, their types and moves, all of it makes that there are limits in how everyone can play. Depending on a person's favorite piece they may find themselves unable to use it because of its position on the board.

But the two have no such preferences on pieces, only on play styles. Rias doesn't hesitate to advance and takes the first piece on the board. "Are you going to tell me why this 'party' is happening?" Sona asks, her bishop taking the now exposed pawn.

"Oh, it is nothing. I was just worried you were going to burn yourself out." Rias moves a knight to one of the corners, threatening a pawn and blocking the route of the other knight..

"I believe that." Sona moves a pawn to protect the threatened pawn. "But I doubt that this is just charity on your part." Rias moves her bishop, smiling without a care. "If you want a break, I can give it to you. There was no need to try and bribe me."

The redhead watches as her bishop is taken only for her to take the knight with her queen, unleashing her on the field. "I delegated a lot of my responsibilities to Rin and the contracts of my peerage are actually fine, a little later in the night, but fine. Only training time is being lost but I never used it much and the others don't care considering the situation."

"If you say so." Sona sounds incredulous as she moves her rook and king. "I still think you have some other reason in mind."

"And what would that reason be?" Rias moves a knight to push forward with her advance and Sona replies by moving a pawn.

"I don't know yet." Rias moves another pawn, seeing a future gap in the center and the opportunity for a promotion, the act of making a pawn into another, better, piece. "But I will figure it out. So you could just tell me and spare the headache."

"Oh~ Maybe I have some nefarious reason." Rias doesn't say anything else until Sona makes a move, taking another pawn with hers and baiting Rias to get said pawn. If the redhead ignores it then Sona will be able to get another for free. "Or maybe you are just being a little paranoid here. Have I never done something just because we are friends?"

"You have done it plenty of times." Sona admits, losing her pawn but getting Rias bishop in turn. "But not when we are already working together on something else. We are basically 'hanging out' every day at this point."

Now Sona is on the offensive and Rias is forced to play defensive, it isn't something unusual in the council member style. In any game just being defensive can't bring out victory since victory is a condition attained when by the execution of an action that concludes fulfills the condition of said game.

There are ways and opportunities that a passive player can win a game but for the most part they are completely out of their control, only by being active can someone reach victory.

Between the two heiresses, the two friends, Rias is more active but Sona is the more certain and by letting the redhead dictate the first few paces of their game, now Sona found an opening for a counter attack.

"If I had to guess what you want we will be here all day." Sona begins, her rook assuming an offensive position, threatening the king's pawn. "But taking a shot in the dark I would say it is something you know I won't like."

"Or maybe I have no bad intentions at all and you are just looking too much on what isn't there." Rias moves her king and rook, having to watch her defenses.

"I never said it was something bad." Sona advances with her rook, taking the paw and opening it for Rias' rook. "I just said it is something I won't like."

"Have you tried the dumplings?" The Gremory heiress tries to deflect, her rook taking Sona's only for it to be taken by a bishop, king in check.

"Not yet. I am more worried by your intentions." Sona says, knowing that Rias has to give her something.

"I swear that there is nothing new, Sona." Rias tries to think of an exit strategy but she knows that her best friend already figured out that there is something. "I just wanted you to taste Shirou's food. It is the best thing I ever ate and Akeno is struggling to catch up."

The short haired girl gives her a nod and continues playing, pressuring Rias more and forcing more of her efforts to change from her offensive approach to a more defensive one.

The game continues at a fast pace, their pieces dwindling more and more with Sona waiting for the right opportunity to act. It finally arrived.

Two of her pieces are in a position to corner Rias' king, making the Sitri heiress feel a bit smug. "I think I figured out what you want here."

"You did?" Rias fights to keep the panic out of her voice. She is successful. "Then tell me Sona, what do I want? Because I will admit that I myself may not know."

"You are trying to get me ready for bad news." Sona sounds confident in her conclusion.

"'Bad news'? Are you sure of that?" The petite beauty nods.

"I am sure that you are trying to hide something from me. It has nothing to do with the case for you weren't going to beat around the bush if it was anything urgent." Placing a hand on her chin, Sona makes a move on the board before continuing. "But there is something, something that you are afraid of just outright telling me or that you feel that I won't like it one bit."

'That was both on and off the mark.' Rias thinks to herself, sweating a bit. "Well, I think that I can confirm that I am not here to give you any new bad news. I swear that I am only trying to be a good friend."

Sona raises an eyebrow and tries to break apart everything that Rias just said. Word for word her mind worked as Gremory made her move and waited for Sona to react. Unlike an official or more formal chess match there is no clock to time both players turn and they just sit there as Sona tries to figure out what Rias was saying.

"It is your turn Sona." But there is no reaction from blackhaired devil, she maintains her posture, looking at Rias eyes and trying to break apart the motive for everything. "Sona?"

The Sitri King is taking her time to think, the board disappears and only Rias is standing in front of her. Her long hair was well kept as usual, her posture straight and a face of worry with her blue eyes not holding back her concern.

'Is she worried about me or what I am trying to uncover?' There is no doubt in her mind that something fishy is going on and Sona is taking her time, moving one of her pieces to stop Rias' concern from disrupting her thoughts. After her friend makes a move Sona decides to talk out loud. "If you just wanted to distract me you could have come yourself and we would be playing anyway. Instead you went for this approach. Why?"

"Well, considering all the work our peerages did over the last month, I thought everyone could use a break." Rias smiles and Sona smiles as well.

"And Seek isn't here because?"

"Someone needs to cover the time before the patrols. She also said she didn't mind." The answer came out quick but was reasonable to Sona's tastes.

"Did she talk to Shirou yet?" Fixing her glasses, Sona asks for a change of approach and tries to go for a subject with a high probability of unbalancing her friend.

It fails. "Seek hasn't made an attempt yet. Not that I am worried. I already know what Shirou is going to say."

Sona takes a good look at Rias, paying close attention to her friend. She really isn't unbalanced or really worried about her fellow redhead's decision. "And why is that? Is it because you have more to offer?"

While both the Gremory and Agares clans are pillars there is a clear distinction of who is the superior one. With one of their former members as a Maou, the fact that the Bael bloodline mixed well with their descendents and also Rias' own potential, the Gremory clan is winning by a landslide.

There are only two things that gave Seekvaira an advantage, the previous contract with the know father of Emiya Kiritsugu, the Magus Killer, Emiya Norikata, Shirou's adoptive grandfather and a magus of great skill that met an untimely end once he committed some atrocities and the fact that she also has more freedom than Rias in one aspect that neither would dare to mention.

She may have two advantages by odds are that she will only employ one of them but Shirou may not care about his grandfather's old pact.

"Why are you so sure of Shirou's answer already?" Sona can't help but ask. "Did you talk to him?" If she did already talk with him about their other oldest friend's intentions, Sona will be disappointed with her.

"No, I just trust him." Rias replied with a smile and after looking at her for a few seconds, Sona determined that she wasn't lying.

But it was an opening for the bob cut haired girl. "Have you told him about Riser?" Rias' hand stops just before she touches her king.

"What makes you think I haven't?" Even for Rias, the reply especially sounded weak.

"You haven't mentioned his progress in the mass production of his, EM if I recall correctly, in a good while." Sona can remember vividly when Rias talked to her about Shirou for the first time. "Rias, when he started working on your club you were so full of joy and were bragging how you were going to show the Phenex clan that they shouldn't mess with you."

Silently Rias turns her head to look at Shirou who was talking to Tsubaki and Koneko with Liz at his side. For a moment the redhead has a sad look on her eyes but that disappears and she turns to Sona once again.

"He doesn't need to know that." Said the redhead defensively. "It is true that he has hit a little of a roadblock but he will succeed. I am sure of it."

"Believe as you will, you know him better than I do." Sona's reply is full of skepticism. "But I should remind you that your time is not unlimited. One way or another the clock is ticking."

"I have until graduation." Rias keeps her defensive attitude, crossing her arms. "He will do it."

"Maybe he will, maybe he won't. You should tell him." Before Rias says anything else Sona raises a hand. "Maybe he would have already succeeded if you had told him why you need EM so much he would work harder in it."

"He already works hard enough." Rias' posture changes to a little more aggressive. "He already tested most of the materials that I offered and is already after an alternative solution which relies on him improving his skill as a smith."

"But that is all he is focusing on?" Sona moves another piece.

"He has his own things to work on and I am sure that he will succeed." Rias moves her king.

"It is not a matter of 'if' it is a matter of 'when'." Sona points out and Rias chuckles.

"Everything is going to be fine, Sona. I trust Shirou's capabilities, Noble Phantasms or not." Instead of just nodding and accepting Rias' train of thought, Sona just moves her piece one last time.

"Checkmate." The redhead eyes grow wide as she looks at the board, a pout on her lips. "You trust his capabilities, you don't trust him."

Sona's words scare Rias. "Of course I do." She fights with herself so as not to scream her protest. "But I don't want to force him to just focus on my things. You should see him when he is determined Sona. Shirou has a drive, a will that carries him to his goals and I don't want to block his interests and take away some of that drive."

"Maybe he wouldn't lose the drive, but be more focused with it." Sona replies with a smile before it turns to a frown. "You have a habit of procrastinating Rias. Prepare yourself better, if Shirou fails-"

"He won't." Rias interrupts her but Sona just shrugs.

"Or something else goes wrong, you won't be prepared for what can happen." The actual council vice president said. "I already investigated my 'fiance', have a plan of action and other ideas that I can apply today. Can you say the same?"

Instead acting negatively, Rias let her king fall to show she admits defeat and says. "And if something goes wrong with your plan?" Sona places both her hands on the small desk they are using but says nothing. "Having a plan for everything is good and all but sometimes you have to do things on the fly."

"You don't plan enough." Sona decides to say as she turns to look at a clock at the wall. "Club activities must be in full swing now. We should go." Rias nods and both get up to start gathering their peerages. "You still have not told me the reason for this small get together."

"Oh, it is about something tomorrow, a pre apology if you will." Rias says mysteriously. "You have been working so much you forgot." Before Sona can question her best friend some more she shouts. "Come on everyone! We have work to do!"

The two sides say the goodbyes while Sona stays planted in place for a moment, trying to wonder what her friend wanted to say. "An apology?" She mumbles to herself, mind racing in trying to remember what Rias should be apologizing about.

Sona is a smart young woman, a noble devil and a capable chess player. But like anyone else she has weakness and trauma, stuff that if she can help herself and forget she does it for the simple fact that she just doesn't want to remember certain things.

And so she remains there as a memory she didn't like starts to return to her mind. "Sona?" Tsubaki calls for her, worried about her friend as Sona's face becomes red with rage.

…

"Did you remind her, Rias-buchou?" Akeno asks a little coyle as the group is walking the hallways together for now but getting ready to separate. The redhead devil stops, prompting everyone to do the same, and raises a hand counting down from five to zero.

"RIIIIIIIIIIIIIAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSS!" A huge scream ran through the halls as Sona remembered what Rias wanted to remind her about exactly when the redhead had reached zero with her hand.

"Buchou...what was that about?" Kiba asked in wonder, a little fear in his voice.

"Oh, Sona just remembered something after I gave her a clue. Nothing much." Rias says with an angelic smile as she starts to walk again.

"Do I want to know?" Rin asks with a little mirth in her voice. "I honestly don't know what can't be so traumatic for someone.

"Tomorrow is family visit day." Akeno points out. "It is the day that many parents have the chance to come and watch how their children are doing in school."

Hearing that actually got Rin a little nervous, even if she is the head of the family a little bit of anxiety enters her being as her father is probably going to show up. "Wait a moment! Is that the same with the middle school division?"

"Yes, it is." Rias replied, making Rin think a little more about it and the possibility that her parents go see Sakura instead if they decided to show up at all. "And both my brother and Sona's sister are coming tomorrow."

The information is dropped without fanfare and while thinking about her family situation, Rin barely notices what Rias said. The others actually don't care much, not having family around or at all. Nobody else but Rin thinks about it while ignoring the rest around her.

That night a new humor spread around the school, about a banshee filled with hatred.

…..

Later on at the Tohsaka manor, Rin is getting ready for bed. She had talked with her parents about the events of the day and what will happen on the next to see what they would do. In a turnaround that surprised her, Tohsaka Tokiomi asked what he should do since she is the head of the Tohsaka family and Kuoh is similar to an embassy, he can't enter without her permission.

Deciding that he needs to spend some time with Sakura, and because she doesn't want him to meet Luvia and see how she loses her composure around her, Rin told her parents to go to Sakura's school for the visit.

With that she brushed her teeth, put on her pijama and went to bed, a happy smile on her face knowing that the day tomorrow would bring no problems.

When Rin finally laid on her bed, put up her covers and closed her eyes, a stray thought popped up in her mind, now no longer busy worrying about her family. "Wait a minute...aren't their siblings the Maou?"

Took some time but Rin's mind began to work again as she reminded herself that Rias' brother is Sirzechs Lucifer, Hero of the Underworld Rebellion and Serafall Leviathan, the Strongest Ice User.

Instead of just screaming the fact and waking up the rest of the house, Rin shoves her face on her pillow. "Father must never know!" She shouts once she is sure that no one else can hear with the pillow buffing her voice.

She is not going to tell him that he forgot such important dignitaries and potential business partners are coming to the mundane world or that she sent him to another direction, she is never going to hear the end of it if he does.

…..

The day didn't start normally, after Shirou arrived in Kuoh he could feel a cold wind running around and making him shiver for a moment.

Yoruichi leaves first, she is anxious to see the new people that are going to be around, mostly because she wants to see some students embarrassed by their parents. For the moment she feels that Shirou doesn't need her to keep an eye on him but the moment he leaves his classroom she will be there waiting.

Thoughts about his own family enter Shirou's mind. Liz is his only family present, even if not on paper, and she could go with him to class if not for the fact that she has her own classes to teach and they are the ones that most parents are going to be waiting to watch their children in. If any teacher is going to have a field day today it is probably her.

If Shirou was going to see his parents first it would have been on the house, unless his mother decided that they should pop up right before classes start or in the middle of them but even she must consider that his reaction for something like that will probably be punching his old man on the face if he was present. Even his mother knows he really wants to talk to him.

He makes his way to his classroom and finds himself the second there, Setsuna was the first and she is reading a book. "Good morning." He calls for her with a smile.

"Good morning!" Her reaction almost makes him sigh. "Nice weather we are having today!"

"A little cold." Shirou sits on his chair while Setsuna turns back to read his book, a little nervous still. "How are you?"

"Great. Just great." Setsuna replies with a blush, her stoicism returning to her slowly.

"Do you have anyone visiting from Kyoto?" Shirou asks, already used to her first reactions to him during the day. Ever since the events of the dance club, the first time Setsuna sees him for the first time everyday she enters in a type of 'fight or flight' mode.

"No. I believe not." After a little interaction she settles down and her normal attitude takes control. "My sister has her studies, my father is not as fast as Yoruichi-sama and my mother rarely leaves our mansion for certain reasons."

Shirou gives a nod and the two continue their small talk. Setsuna blushes a few other times during their conversation but in general her feelings are in control and she can suppress her embarrassment once she gets used to his presence again.

In general the girl is having difficulties determining how to act around him. They were not lovers but they almost had an extremely intimate moment in a way that she wasn't comfortable with or ready yet and that is throwing her head in a loop over the last month. They can still interact without problems but she is still nervous when the two are alone most of the time.

"Good morning Shero." Luvia arrives, a little worse for her like she had run the way there.

And right behind her is Rin which receives a smug smile from the blonde. "Tch." Instead of acknowledging Luvia, Rin pushes just enough to enter. "Good morning."

""Morning."" Shirou and Setsuna reply as the two new arrivals move to their seats, glaring at each other the whole way.

At that point with more of their circle of friends around, Setsuna is more comfortable than it was with just him. She is completely normal as far as Shirou can see and he smiles a little at that.

Their relationship is not strained or anything like that, she is just a little shy with him now. 'Not that much different from how I get when Akeno teases me.' Even if he knows it is for different reasons, he is happy that Setsuna is fine after that mess.

"Hey, Flat. Wake up." Shirou's attention is directed to two of his fellow classmates, Svin and Flat. Now he can see that there are more students around but Flat is the only one practically sleeping on his table. "Did you not sleep at night again?"

"Noooooo." Flat says with a groan. "I was getting my deck ready for the club again. I will win thiszzzzzz."

"Oi! Wake up!" Svin tries to shake his friend awake but Flat is out like a light. "I hope you get ready for another teacher's scolding cause I won't cover for you."

Shirou smiles a bit hearing that because that is not the first time he has seen that interaction and he knows Svin will try to cover for his friend. But speaking of clubs that reminded Shirou of something. "Setsuna, I know that we are mostly patrolling clubs now," he says just loud enough for the hanyou to hear, "but have you decided something about extra activities?"

"Not yet…I just know that I don't want anything to do with dancing." Setsuna says with a small blush. Shirou doesn't blame her for it. "But the idea of using music for combat, I admit I find that an interesting endeavor to pursue."

Shirou was surprised by the statement, he can absolutely say that he didn't see that coming. "I didn't see that coming." Rin decides to say it for him. "But are you sure? I mean, what can you do with a musical instrument in a fight?"

"Maybe not much." Admits Setsuna with a shrug. "But there is a lot you can do with it after a fight. Besides, my element is wind and if I practice youjutsu I will be able to use it properly."

"I thought you were bad at it." Kiba comments, arriving in the middle of the conversation. "Why practice that now?"

"She wants to use a musical instrument." Shirou tells his male blonde friend.

"Ah." Immediately Kiba's face turns into a guilty expression. "Please tell me you don't want to do something similar to what happened last month."

"Of course not." Setsuna answers, grinding her teeth. "But think about it; what if instead of being used to attract people it can be used to take away their will to fight or to lift morale."

"Like normal music?" Rin points out in a teasing tone when Shirou snaps his fingers.

"Like a bard!" When nobody else reacted to what he said he looked around to the confused faces of his friends. "What? None of you ever played a RPG in your lives?" The eyes of confusion continue. "A video game?" They still look at Shirou like he grew a second head even as half of them nod in some comprehension. "I...basically a bard is a person that uses music to make the par- I mean, their friends stronger...Like what Setsuna was describing."

"What is a video game?" Rin asks and everyone with the exception of Kiba looks at her in confusion.

"It is a game that you play with a TV and a console." Kiba tries to explain. When everyone is looking at him with expectatives he starts to sweat. "That is all I know. I never had much interest in them myself."

"Arcades are also a form of video games." Shirou tried one more time and he can see that Setsuna understood while Rin and Luvia were still drawing blanks. "We...can check one of those over the weekend."

"As a date?" Luvia asks with a huge smile.

"Is it a date when we are there as well?" Rin doesn't hesitate to say it.

"I am sure we can go with you all at a later date." Unflappable, Luvia replies with her usual aristocratic attitude.

"And you really think you two could go on a date without Shirou cooking for you?" Rin mentions almost in passing and Luvia feels that she took the equivalent of a kick in the stomach. "You still have no permission~"

"Rin, lay off the teasing." Shirou tries to help, only for him to become the target.

"But wouldn't you cook for a girl on your date?" Considering his previous experience Shirou can only give one reply.

"Yes, especially if I don't know that there is good food where we are going." Setsuna approved his decision.

"Good morning class!" Waver Velvet enters the classroom with a skip on his step, surprising everyone. After the class replied 'good morning' he looked around with a smile. "Do you all want to know the advantage of giving classes for only moonlit citizens?" Almost all the students shake their heads. "It is the fact that most parents don't bother showing up and bothering me."

Everyone looks at each other, now noticing that not a single parental figure had come with anyone. The europeans had the excuse that their parents are not in the country and the same can be said about Shirou. Rin is the only magus that could have her parents present but she didn't want that.

Since most yokais come from Kyoto and their parents are in general not able to make the trip leaving away their responsibilities for days at a time. If Kuoh didn't offer dorms then there was a good chance that not many would be able to afford giving the school a chance.

Only the devils of the Stri peerage have family that could be called for such an event but they didn't because their parents are normal people without a history of magic and their presence would disrupt their class.

"Well, let's get started shall we? Today we are going to talk about the development and growth of the Americas. I know plenty of you don't want to drop there but trust me, if you ever do you don't want to say the wrong thing."

…

For the occasion he decided to go with a simple black suit and shirt with a red tie to match his hair. Actually it was his wife's idea but he is just happy to be out of the office. For a few minutes he thought about tying his hair up but he knows that his sister doesn't like that and he likes to use the same hair style as her so his hair stayed free.

"Is this the class?" A small woman, no taller than a child, is running around. She is one of his best friends who also came to Kuoh looking for her younger sister. She opens a door with a cheerful smile, dressed in a really short pink skirt skirt with a black 'belt' with white accessories on the corners that shows her long legs and white panties when she is running around, a big pink hat with a golden 'x' to its side, a pink shirt with a huge ribbon in a darker shade of pink above her chest and that shows her belly button and is unable to stop her huge breasts from 'jumping' when she opens the door to a random classroom with her black fingerless gloves that passes her elbow with some white highlights and cuff with an 'x' on them. "So-tan! Nope." She closes the door after checking for her sister and just moves to the next, her long hair in two tails with pink ribbons waving around as she keeps looking for her sister while her blue eyes showing her excitement.

In many ways she is the image of innocence, the kind of woman people would offer their souls and lives to save and protect just to earn a bit of favor from her and even if all they got was a smile they would be satisfied.

"Serafall-sama, please slow down." At his side is his wife and one of his most important people that he would die for. She is a beautiful young woman who shows how an adult can be elegant with back-length silver hair that features a long braid on each side with small blue bows at the ends, while the rest is let down which ends in twin braids and red eyes that he finds the most beautiful pair on the planet.

She is the person he would fight the world for and those that knew their story would agree that Sirzechs Gremory did fight the world for her and they love him for it, their story becoming a modern fairy tail to the devils of the Underworld.

She is also dressed as a maid in blue with white, including the hat of the profession. "But Grayfia-chan! I want to see my So-tan!" She rushes for another door, the students startled while some admired her. "So-tan?" She goes for another as Grayfia closes the door with a sigh. "So-tan?" The process repeats itself two more times before the only male of the group manages to hold Serafall by her shoulder. "Let me go, Sirzechs-chan! I need to find my So-tan!"

"I know, I can feel your pain." Once the redhead said that, Serafall calmed down as the man considered the strongest devil, the Crimson-Haired Prince of Destruction as he is called in some circles even after his ascension as ruler of hell, gave her a gentle smile. "But you are disturbing the education of their peers and you know that Sona considers education important."

Serafall gives him a pout but nods, while most of the classes are not really working anything regular, a great number of teachers are trying to impress the parents, some still are having their normal schedule. "Fineeeeeeeee~" She accepts with a bit of a groan. "By the way, where is papa Gremory? Couldn't make it this time?"

"He and Rias are having some...arguments." Sirzechs chooses to say.

"Still the engagement thing?" Serafall realizes immediately what is wrong.

"Still the engagement thing." Affirms Lucifer with a chuckle as the two walk a moderate pace in the hallways. They arrived late because of the bane of their existence, paperwork, but the two of them managed to persevere and teleport to Fuyuki as fast as possible. "He is not giving up."

"It is his right as the head of the family, Sirzechs-sama." Grayfia says with an air of professionalism, anything that looked at the silver haired woman wouldn't be able to tell she is his wife by the way she acts on the job. "Regardless of personal opinions, you are a member of the Gremory no longer and we must allow the nobles to run their clans as they wish."

'Or else things go bad.' Their conversation distracted them enough that Serafall had sneaked another door open.

"So-tan! I found you!"

"Onee-sama?!" The other two older devils could hear the panic on her voice but it just impressed Grayfia that the heiress could control herself to both answer with proper decorum and not scream in fear at her sister's sudden appearance.

Both enter the classroom and can see an extremely confused teacher and collection of parents and students that was having some difficulty to react while a minority took pictures of Serafall smothering Sona between her breasts.

Seeing the happy reunion and feeling a great desire to reunite with his own sister, Sirzechs approaches one of the students that are watching the scene. "Excuse me miss?"

"Ah, yes." The little girl with green hair looks at Sirzechs and blushes at his smile.

"Currently I am looking for my sister, Rias Gremory." He says with a small smile, the kind of smile that had the girl and those around paying close attention to his words. "I would like to know if you could inform me of her location, the class will suffice."

Immediately after he stopped talking, many of the students jumped to try and give him directions or tell him the class number, anything to help him on his quest.

Sirzechs smiles and nods, his mind keeping up with most of the words and formulating a map on his mind of where he must go to find his precious sister. "Thank you for the information." He gives small nods in the general direction of all who talked, looking each and every one in the eye. "I must depart now. Sera!"

His friend turns to him, her sister in her grasp as Tsubaki doesn't know how to react to the actual situation while Sona is almost passing out, either from the lack of air or the shame was anyone's guess. "Yes?"

"I am going to look for my sister." He announced to everyone with a certain grandiosity, almost as if he really is going on a journey to find her. Then his eyes looked a little mischievous. "I leave you to your fun!"

"Wait! Luci- I mean, Sirzechs-sama!" Sona tries to call his attention but it was in vain, the long haired man is completely focused on his mission. At least his faithful maid gave a small bow in apology before she departed, getting some people's noses to bleed and some wives upset at the small jiggle of her breasts in such a tempting uniform.

Watching one of the most intelligent students being half smothered to death didn't detain the teacher who just accepts what is happening and decides to continue his lesson, Kuoh paying him enough to not let distractions take control of his classroom, his breathing perfect as he returns to his work.

The students weren't that interested either way, they just watched as the older sibling, even if she only looked like it in a certain area, kept hugging the younger with a face full of bliss.

Sirzechs can hear his wife's footsteps behind him but he pays no mind to them, he knows that she will follow him anywhere he wishes and their actual journey is almost at an end. The last door is on sight.

The long haired redhead's strides get longer as he approaches his target, excitement is practically pouring around him as his hand reaches the door and he opens. "Ria-"

The bell rings and many students and teachers notice the man entering.

"-tan! I am late but I have arrived!" Rias sees her brother at the door and many turn to look at her reaction, Akeno looks at her with a teasing smile.

'Well, at least I won't have to wait for the end of the class to talk to him.' She gets up and gives a small bow to her brother. "Onii-sama, it is good to see you. I am happy you managed to arrive in time."

While Sirzechs wants to jump at his sister and give a strong hug, maybe even replicate Serafall's own demonstration of love he holds himself back. For five whole seconds.

But before he could take another step forward, his wife pinched his arm to give him a warning, the only one that he will receive on this visit. She is telling him with that small pinch and her stern gaze that he better behave or there are going to be consequences.

"Rias, it is good to see you." He says with all the charm that one would expect of the devil himself. Offering a small bow to the other students and the teacher he compliments them. "It is a pleasure to meet you all. I am Sirzechs Gremory, Rias' older brother and I am visiting Japan just for today to see my beloved sibling."

Rias is happy that she managed to convince Grayfia to tame some of her brother's more eccentric tendences by appealing to the facts that Kuoh is in a perilous situation and that this also can be considered work while Akeno pouts as she notices that her King plan had worked but ends up shrugging and accepting that Rias managed to avoid an embarrassed situation.

Many exclamations of surprise followed his declaration, impressing lots of students and families presents since they can deduce that he is from the exterior and came for a visit on an important day for families in Kuoh. Lots of students look at the siblings one after the other to make sure their eyes weren't not playing jokes since the two look like twins. There is a student or two who doesn't hold back and pulls out their cell phones to take a picture for appreciation and comparison.

"Sensei, I need to speak with my sister. Do you mind?" Sirzechs asks politely and the teacher, a little frustrated and blushing, Fujimura Taiga fights off the confusion and replies.

"Ah...my class is already over...now it is up for the next teacher..." Sirzechs nods, accepting the commentary.

"Then I shall just watch with the rest." He moves to stand with the parents and other families with Grayfia, who also gets a huge amount of attention by both her beauty and the fact that she is dressed as a maid.

He stands there and Rias starts to regret her decision when he broughts out a camera and Grayfia does nothing about it and just stands there, a small smile spreading on Akeno's face as she knows that Sirzechs is not going to miss a single angle of his precious sister.

…

She felt it, something powerful entered Kuoh, similar to the power that she wanted, that she tried to acquire and failed but many times bigger to the point that her mind 'woke up' for a moment to try and comprehend what it was.

For that reason alone her body began to move automatically to investigate, her existence getting suppressed once again by things beyond her control.

For months she had grown attuned to it, to the point that she can tell instinctively when that person is close but her power was not enough for the goals of the first year student.

She joined Kuoh, expanded her projects and then she fell for the trap of a worm. Now her conscience is mostly devoted to certain orders and commands, things that she can agree to an extent but are not to her benefit.

One of these commands, a recent one, is to find a source of mana that will help to empower her creations. In her mind that source could only come from a devil and it has a name: Power Of Destruction.

It has been long thought by the young woman's family that the best way to access the Root is by using pure mana in the most destructive form possible and there is none better than the Power Of Destruction of the Bael clan.

The girl stalks the hallways, looking for her new opportunity. Dressed in the school uniform of Kuoh she has her orange hair in a rat's tail while she looks around.

While she can't be called beautiful neither she can't be called ugly, it is only that the competition that surrounds her is and those with the most appealing visage are those with great genes or with ethereal beauties like devils.

She is rather tall, taller than most boys with a slim figure and medium sized breasts. Her black eyes have an insanity behind them, something that is not really her fault and is beyond her control since the command is reinforcing her notions desire for glory and for something she has obsessed for most of her residence on Kuoh.

Her steps are firm and she manages to stop herself once she sees her target, a tall man with long crimson hair.

If she was more aware she would know who he was and that she shouldn't mess with him for he is the leader of the Underworld, the Lucifer himself and he is not someone that she can reasonably challenge without risking her life or at all for she is not even close to strong enough to even hold a candle against his existence.

But the same command that forced her to abandon any semblance of normality to find the potential answer to both past and present problems also compels her to figure out how to acquire the best mana in the best condition even if her odds are close to zero.

She is about to charge the back of the man, to catch him and drag him to one of the empty rooms so she can extract his mana to use it for 'his' purposes, the person that implanted the hypnosis on her blocking his name and face every time she tries to recall.

It is lucky for her that the second command that she was given activates to stop her attempt to capture the devil: "Do so in the best way possible." Those were his words and they are law, something that her unconcious can't deny is the best approach for something.

Once she saw the man enter a classroom, followed by a maid she hadn't realized was there until now, she keeps walking to make preparations with the goal of securing the source of mana in the 'best way possible'.

Normally such means would be beyond the reach of anyone, even those with more uncommon methods. However Fuan Nadita has been working on plans and possibilities to acquire the Power Of Destruction by force for a long time.

In her normal state of mind, morality and a rational fear for the consequences of her actions stopped her from attempting to do what she is about to do, even logic would tell her that her plan has no way of succeeding.

Nadita is not on the driving seat, the insect is on the driving seat, enforcing the commands already given and it has no sense of danger when it comes to executing the orders that it received even if they lead her to failure and death.

So Nadita starts to walk until she is away from anyone seeing her, she gets her shoes and runs to her home to get her equipment. It was stuff she made to deal with Rias Gremory and by that logic it must be able to deal with whatever the other mass of Power Of Destruction is even if only temporarily.

…

"Nice to meet you all. I am Sirzechs Lucifer." He introduces himself with a smile, ignoring the reactions of panic and shock from some of the people he just met. The small group is on a hallway after they joined with the second year members of the ORC and while their presence attracts much attention, a boundary field stops any nosy attempt to hear them. "First I would like to thank you all for taking care of my sister while she resides here."

"My name is Grayfia Luciefirge, Queen of the Peerage of my King Sirzechs. It is a pleasure to meet you." The silver haired woman does a curtsey by lifting her skirt a little and lowering her head by the exact same amount.

"They are also happily married." Akeno felt the need to mention for those present, it is something openly known in the Underworld but anyone that is not from there wouldn't know that. "Grayfia-sama, it isn't fair you don't mention that to them."

"That information is not necessary at the moment." The older Queen replies, her expression unflinching. "I am not here as my husband's wife but as the Queen of Lucifer."

The majority of people would be intimidated or confused by the situation. "Emiya Shirou, nice to meet you." Complements with his own bow the magus, much to the surprise of others present. "You don't need to be thankful for watching over Rias. She takes care of us more than we do of her." Shirou's reply earned him a small smile from the woman in question.

"Inutai Setsuna." Was the follow up as she also gives a small bow in complement. "And I agree with Shirou. Buchou has been very kind to us."

'Do these two even care who is before them?' Rin questions herself before trying to do a courtesy in an attempt to imitate the maid but she is not used to it so she goes for the traditional japanese bow instead. "Tohsaka Rin. Is an honor to meet you, Lucifer-sama."

Luvia manages to replicate the maid's moviments without trouble, taking care to not show too much with her short skirt. "Luviagelita Edelfelt and it is truly an honour to meet you, oh honorable Sirzechs Lucifer-sama, Hero of the Underworld."

"You don't need to say that much." Rias says with a chuckle. Besides her are Akeno and Kiba who also find the attitude of their friends amusing. "Well, here they are Onii-sama. I wanted to introduce you all during lunch. I asked Shirou to make extra bentos today so we could all enjoy his food."

"You shouldn't have bothered the poor boy Rias." Sirzechs isn't chastising his sister, he is unable to do it. But the sentiment is sincere that he didn't want Shirou to work on his behalf. "Although I did hear from one of the temporary guardians of Fuyuki that apparently his cooking is off the charts, having a ranking of its own." Shirou and Rin immediately know who he must be talking about and the redhead would have scratched his head if his hands weren't full. "I would like to talk more with you about such things later, even taste your food but we have more pressing matters. In fact I actually want to ask Shirou here some questions before I talk with Gilgamesh."

That sobered everyone up and reminded them of the reality of the situation. Gilgamesh is still a dangerous person and the leader of the Underworld himself decided he needed to evaluate the situation at hand. Shirou nods in resignation, understanding that this is necessary. "I have no problem answering some questions but can I ask something first?"

"That sounds fair to me." Sirzechs replies jovially, like they are about to talk about his favorite sports team or something similar. "Just don't ask any state secrets." He said clearly as a joke. "Unless my sister needs you to know state secrets, then ask away."

Rias takes a moment to massage her eyes as everyone that didn't know Sirzechs until today looks at him with a strange feeling he would tell them anything they wanted for his sister's sake and no one that doesn't know him well enough can tell that he is 100% serious and that Grayfia hand is already on position to stop him of saying something he shouldn't, with magic if necessary.

"Okay…?" Even Shirou is confused since he believed that nobody should offer state secrets that easily. "I just want to ask, do you have any intention of fighting him?"

"Not really." Sirzechs replies with a smile. "If we can settle any problems he has peacefully then I won't raise a hand against him unless I have a reason." And that worries Shirou a bit.

While Shirou can say he made a friend in Gilgamesh after months of interactions he has no delusions of the kind of person the descendant of the King of Heroes is.

On the surface Angelo is just a talented nice guy that likes to talk philosophy and debate one thing or another. He also hates to do anything that doesn't catch his interest, getting bored extremely easily to the point of not even lifting a finger when he doesn't like what he is supposed to do. The majority of the time he is someone pleasing to talk to, who stands firm on his convictions but is not afraid of having them challenged on any level.

The problem is when he is acting more like a descendent of a hero, as someone with experience on the battlefield that things are different.

Shirou observed more than once how Gilgamesh threatens those he considers beneath him, usually with a special distaste for those that were once human, Kiba being more often than not the example of the argument.

The redhead magus doesn't know what were the conditions of Kiba's reincarnation and he is sure that Gilgamesh himself doesn't know but it felt like he hardly care, just the fact that Kiba is a devil that was once human is enough that their first real meeting earned the Knight a small scowl before he was ignored entirely.

For those reasons Shirou doesn't know exactly how the blonde will react to Sirzechs, who is one of the people that greenlit the Evil Piece system in the first place, a system that Gilgamesh still doesn't like one bit.

So Shirou can't help but feel a little nervous about when these two finally meet. For the moment the magus can't tell from the mana leaving Sirzechs how strong he is but if his control is good enough, and it must be since he is the leader of a race who values strength, that is not uncommon.

If a fight breaks out he doesn't know who would win, neither does he care. Shirou is more worried about anyone that can be caught in the middle of it and if Sirzechs is as strong as Gilgamesh there is a very real chance that the town of Fuyuki becomes a warzone before one of the sides can be really defeated if they aren't careful.

"Shirou? Anything else you want to ask him?" Rias snaps Shirou out of his thoughts and he shakes his head.

"Excellent. Then tell me something," Sirzechs keeps his calm demeanor and a smile, "is Gilgamesh a threat to the citizens of Fuyuki?"

"That...is a hard question to answer." Shirou thinks for a moment and decides to just be blunt. "I think he doesn't care much about anyone here. He is dangerous, that is undeniable, but he has no intention of being aggressive." 'For now.' Shirou thinks but doesn't say.

It wasn't the question that Shirou was expecting but after he finished replying and noticed that Lucifer looked satisfied he didn't know if he answered correctly or was just something already on the expectatives of the man.

"You saw one of his Noble Phantasms correct? How did he make it appear? Any details will help." That was a question Shirou was expecting.

"I don't know exactly since he hid his hand with his back and a light showed up before the blade appeared." It wasn't something anyone had bothered to ask so everyone is paying attention to Shirou's words. "Then, when I finished analysing it, he just made Caladbolg disappear."

"Hmm." Sirzechs is thinking about the possibilities, there are still quite a few so he can't be certain of anything with that information. 'A pocket dimension or a portal are still valid and if the Gate of Babylon is active...depends on the treasures he has...' And the devil knows that many went missing over the centuries. "One last question: what do you think of him?"

"He is confident, really confident." Was the first thing Shirou said and it jumped out of his mind before he could properly process it. "He may not like you but if he is going to attack you he is going to do it up front, maybe even give some kind of warning before anything happens." After a pause and breathing for a moment, Shirou adds. "I also think he respects people who don't back down from him."

"Thank you." SIrzechs smile and Shirou can see how he and Rias are siblings, the two of them are extremely similar while his face is just more masculine however making him see that if they were the same age they would be twins. " That is all I needed to know."

"Really?" Shirou doesn't hide the confusion in his voice.

"Really." Sirzechs says back, still smiling. "I didn't come here to fight but to talk and I wanted to grasp that person's personality before we started any talks, at least superficially. I also don't want to hear what you and he talked about for now since I need to know him by myself to form my opinions, including how he will talk to me."

"Are you going to go look for him?" Rias asks once she saw her brother was satisfied with his questions and she looks ready to follow him.

"Unless you can tell me where he is now I will wait for him to show up at lunch." They have already talked about where Gilgamesh's descendant liked to spend some of his free time, with whom to be more exact.

"For the record he doesn't show up everyday." Shirou felt he should mention. "Some days he joins us when we go around checking the clubs."

"But he has been less interested in that than in eating with us." Rin quickly intervened. "We see him around more often but with him we can never be sure." Luvia's eyebrow was twitching as she was about to say that but missed her shot.

"I believe he will show up today." Sirzechs said with confidence. "He must have felt my arrival if he is aware enough and from what Rias told me he has to be." Then he gave a huge smile and started to look around. "Say Shirou, where are your parents? It has been a long time since I have talked with Kiri in person."

Shirou is shocked by the question and he is not the only one as everyone else looks at Sirzechs in confusion. "You know my parents?" Immediately after the question Sirzechs' smile diminished a little.

"They haven't returned yet?" A frown made its way to his face as he turned to Grayfia. "Didn't he tell us he was going back to Japan the last time we talked?"

The maid shakes her head. "He said and I quote: 'Once the job is done.'"

"I told him he didn't need to keep that up." The Maou said with a sigh.

"Wait a minute, please." Shirou gathers the attention of the older devils. "My father...he works for you."

At that moment Sirzechs' looks at Shirou with pity. "I thought you two would have already talked about it. I know it is not safe to say such things by phone but it is still better than silence." The former Gremory places a hand on Shirou's shoulder. "We will talk in private later in the day after I talked with Gilgamesh and before I return to the Underworld."

For a moment Shirou feels trepidation. Last time he got such an offer it was from his mother and he refused it, wanting to talk with his father and hear his side of the story. That was months ago and he can't deny that from the time that had passed to the present day he is already losing his patience.

Worse even is that both his father and mother haven't contacted him for a long time, not to mention his sister has her own thing going. "I...would like that." More than once he thought about asking Liz but he avoided doing it since she wouldn't know the details and that is what he wants the most, the 'why' he can only really get from his father but now, before him is someone that knows 'how' his father does things.

Everyone else didn't know how to react to the new piece of information, only Rias' mind wasn't running in circles faster than a train. Her brother had told her that he was associated with the Magus Killer long ago.

Luvia on the other hand gained another perspective. In the last few years Kiritsugu Emiya's movements had changed completely from his usual MO and built a company of 'security' that could be called a small army and a question left her lips impulsively. "Is the Magus Killer your magician?"

Sirzechs gives a small smile. "Yes." He admitted easily, once again shocking many in his audience. The devil ruler squeezed Shirou's shoulder and gave him a last nod. "Now, all of you should go back to class. As one of the owners of this institution it would be bad form for me to hold you all here."

Grayfia avoids commenting how dropping a bombshell like his association with Kiritsugu and then telling everyone to just leave was something really reprehensible. But the students obeyed, Shirou just turning around to leave and then being followed by his friends, the Edelfelft heiress stopping to look at them for a moment before the boundary field is undone.

"Why didn't you tell me you had a pact with Shirou's father?" Rias questions with doubt in her voice.

"You asked me about him, not my association with him." A frown appears on Rias' face but her brother just smiles since both of them know he is technically right. "Don't worry about it, Ria-tan." He pats her head like if she was still a child. "Now, let's go before you two get late to class."

The older King and Queen pair march ahead leaving their younger counterparts behind and take a second before Rias starts to follow, her thoughts disturbed by the reveal. 'Shirou is having problems reconciling with his father's profession.' She reminecens when they arrived at his home and the reveal of Kiritsugu's job had him deeply disturbed. 'Just because he doesn't talk about it doesn't mean that he is just fine with it.'

And once she considered how many incidents have happened since the first time she met his family it is clear that Shirou is growing frustrated with everything. If anything else her brother's presence is a blessing since he can offer something to the magus to stop him from doing something reckless.

"We should be going too, don't you think buchou?" Akeno is patiently waiting at her side for her to take a single step forward. Once Rias does it, she is not far behind. "I am also worried about Shirou."

At her Queen's words Rias nods. "I think my brother here is a good thing to help him with that. Even if he appears to have forgotten Beowulf's sword."

"You can't blame them. Beowulf-san is a really busy man, he probably needs it for a job." Akeno offers the explanation to Rias with her failing to find any means to disagree.

Most of Sirzechs Lucifer pieces are extremely powerful and important for the Underworld, it is not strange for the Maou to send them on mission or jobs to help with their prosperity or to control some of the more untame parts of their realm, Beowulf being one of the Top 5 pawns on means that both his presence and his words carry a lot of weight around.

'While the idea of giving Shirou another Noble Phantasm to study is appealing and I hardly can blame him for not wanting to depart from his ancestor's sword.' Rias decides after some thought and comments to Akeno. "Maybe giving Shirou another project is unnecessary when he already has so much work to do."

"A good point." Akeno's agreement however didn't come for free. "He would be more if you were more specific in what you need."

"Akeno…" Rias replies in a low voice with some annoyance.

"I know, I know. Just giving you my daily reminder." The redhead rolled her eyes at the Queen's coy response. "By the way, do you think Sirzechs-sama would share some of the pictures?"

Rias chooses to not dignify that with an answer.

…

When lunchtime came everyone reunited on the rooftop and Sirzechs started to let out some more mana to make sure that Gilgamesh was going to find him there. An open invitation since the mana is just around and not being really used. Probably it also scared half of the moonlit world population in Kuoh all things considered.

It was also a good thing that Sirzechs didn't need to keep it going for long before Gilgamesh appeared just a few seconds after Yoruichi made her presence known. "You do realize you are probably giving someone a heart attack right?" The nekomata says as she lands on the rooftop.

"I know but it worked." Sirzechs is still standing when Gilgamesh appears and turns to the blonde while everyone else sat down on the floor with the exception of his Queen. "It is a pleasure to meet you, I am-"

"Sirzechs Lucifer, yes I am aware." There is a lot of anger in Gilgamesh's tone. "So you end up coming to this little charade of parents day after all. And I suppose you wish to talk with me?"

"That is correct." If the attitude of the new arrival bothered the redhead adult he didn't show it.

"Then spare me the pleasantries. You are here for a reason." The blond has his hands on his pockets and while the posture left him open it also indicated he isn't worried. "Speak your peace, devil, then leave my sight."

"That is extremely rude, you know? I didn't come here for a fight." The devil smiled while everyone else felt the tension in the air. "Come on now, let's eat and have a conversation like normal people."

"Feh. Didn't I tell you to spare me the pleasantries? Say what you want to say already before I lose what is left of my patience."

"Then you don't have much of it." Yoruichi comments and Shirou quickly pushes her bento to her face, the message clear.

"Watch it, cat. I am not in the mood." Gilgamesh says, glaring at Sirzechs.

"I understand that is my presence that is making you nervous-"

"Not nervous." Gilgamesh interrupts Sirzechs. "Just pissed. I don't like you." He practically spat the declaration.

Sirzechs took everything in stride. "I believe that I have the right to ask; why?"

A moment of silence takes hold and Rias tries to get up only for Grayfia to place a hand on her shoulder and shake her head, pushing the heiress to sit down again while Gilgamesh just glared at Sirzechs.

"There is no way you didn't know I would come." The devil begins the conversation properly. "If you didn't then you would be here ready for a fight."

"Do you think I ain't?" Gilgamesh replies with a raised eyebrow.

Nodding, Sirzechs says. "More ready then."

"If we fought there is a high possibility everyone in the vicinity would die." And by his tone of voice the blonde didn't want that. "I have no interest in shedding blood for nothing."

"Then there is no reason for us to fight." Sirzechs offers a smile but Gilgamesh isn't done.

"Doesn't mean I want you close to me. You are responsible for the Evil Piece system." Before the devil could say anything Gilgamesh continued. "Not the creator but the endorser."

"Do you have something particularly wrong with the actual system?" While the answer is obvious, the 'why' is more important.

"Not personally, but I have seen some of your victims." Gilgamesh starts to walk around, circling the devil like a lion watching his prey, slow, deliberate and ready to pounce. "Even had to kill some of them myself, people who became devils because of your cowardice."

"It is more complicated than that." The devil follows Gilgamesh with his eyes but makes no other movement.

"Somehow, I doubt it." And when Shirou heard that reply he decided to intervene.

"Angelo, stop just pestering the man and talk with him." Considering the two forces that are talking at the moment, almost everyone turned to Shirou to question what he was doing. Gilgamesh and Sirzechs still were looking at each other but the blond stopped moving. "You said once that any good idea needs to be debated. Here you have the leader of the devils, someone that did something you didn't like. Stop being antagonistic and hear why he did it and how you two can solve it."

Not waiting for a response and feeling a little hungry, Shirou takes a bite while Rias massages her forehead with two fingers, Akeno also starts to eat with a smile never leaving her face, Setsuna following her exemple while Yoruichi gives him a nod of agreement. Rin and Luvia look at each other before deciding to eat as well, Kiba gave Grayfia a smile and offered her some tea which she accepted, looking at Shirou but her face not showing her feelings as she sat down and picked the bento that was separated for her as well, part of her wishing they had table and chairs but that is not different of how she used to eat on the days of the civil war.

Shirou's call had Gilgamesh sighing. "I suppose it cannot be helped." The agressivite is still there but the man completely turns from the devil and moves to sit with his usual circle at Shirou's side, opposite to Rias and Grayfia where he supposed the Maou will sit.

He is proven right when Sirzechs does exactly that, accepting a bento that Shirou had made from Grayfia and opening it, the meal was rice and natto. Thanks to his Knight, Sirzechs had a taste of japanese cuisine in the past, some was good and some was bad but in general he can say that he liked it more often than not.

"This is the greatest thing I ever tasted in my life." Sirzechs Lucifer can say without shame and the enthusiasm of a little kid.

"Can I- ahem." Grayfia has to take a moment to recompose herself, something that the devils present took more note than most. "May I request that some more is made to give to my son later in the day?"

That shocked the other devils present, even Sirzechs is looking at his wife like if she told him she was going to take a long vacation, a smile making way to his face that the maid noticed but chose to ignore. She knows that usually her feelings would be more guarded in her work but she can't help, the food is just that good and she wants to give some to her son.

"Of course." Shirou wouldn't deny the chance of making someone else happy with his cooking. "I can get something done after dinner."

"Don't you want to move to the Underworld?" Sirzechs questioned but that didn't surprise anyone, the food is just that good. "I promise to pay you well enough that by the end of the year you will be able to buy a small country and still have enough to never work again."

"Isn't that a little too much money?" Shirou asks and Rin feels in that moment a huge desire to strangle him, only not attempting because she knows that could ruin her food.

"Can we focus?" Gilgamesh demands, not caring about the food of others but only eating his own. His curiosity has been piqued every time some had a new reaction to Shirou's food but he still holds his pride to not ask for it. "Why are you here, Lucifer? I know you didn't come for a fight, you would have brought reinforcements for that, if not only to guard your sister while we duked it out."

"Oh but I brought reinforcements, Serafall is hanging out with her sister." The devils were not surprised by the comment, the rest was.

"Oh, so the rumors are true that she goes around dressed as a magical girl." Yoruichi was surprised and thought she was a student when she passed around and saw the woman running after Sona for reasons she couldn't comprehend.

"That is actually a thing?" Regardless of the situation that she was in, Rin couldn't hide her shock at the information.

"Apparently." Luvia can't help but also comment and Sirzechs decides to clarify.

"Serafall has a show on the Underworld where she is a magical girl and it is quite popular." He explains. "She is a skilled actress when she wants to be-"

"Mostly because she writes most of her lines." Grayfia felt that should be mentioned.

"-and her attitude is an inspiration to many devils to embrace the human world technologies and use them for entertainment." The red haired adult takes another bite of his food before continuing. "It also doesn't disrupt her job as a Maou so I don't see any problems with that."

"It also complements that actual job doesn't it?" Gilgamesh points out. "She keeps the masses entertained and helps you all with her image. An approachable celebrity that gives the impression that you all are nice and cuddly."

"That is also true. But she loves what she does so there is no reason to stop her." Sirzechs reponse didn't get a reaction from Gilgamesh but instead of letting silence reign he decided for a new approach. "Are you really a descendent of Gilgamesh?"

"Of course I am. Do you want proof?" Instead of sounding offended the blond sounds amused.

"That won't be necessary. I have heard some interesting things over the years about your family and I would like to ask a couple of questions."

"Why did you authorize the Evil Piece system?" Everyone blinks at the question, not the contents of it but the fact he chose to ignore Sirzechs and ask something of his own.

"Because it was necessary for the survival of the devil race." Lucifer goes for a smile but Gilgamesh scowls for a second before he smiles.

"You are a liar. A good liar but a liar nonetheless." The tension returns as everyone can feel the pressure on the air as Gilgamesh calls one of the leaders of the Three Christian Factions, one of the most powerful beings on the planet and a hero to his people, a liar. "Survival has nothing to do with that shitty system. It is just an excuse for your pride, or better yet, the pride of the whole devil race. Instead of accepting what happened in the Great War, accepting your losses, you bastards want to live in the same way you wanted before."

Everyone just listened to the man talk, the way he carried a wrath that was cold like the Poles, waiting for the time it would be let out and start to burn everything around like the sun. Yet Sirzechs barely reacted, his face calm and from time to time he smiled and nodded to what was being said.

"After the deaths of your leaders you decided to have a civil war of all things. And when that is done, what do you do? You get to your old tricks, luring humanity to your hands in an embrace that looks warm but promises eternal servitude." Gilgamesh points to Sirzechs with an accusing finger. "How many, devil? How many died in the development of your precious system? How many were brought to their masters' houses only to suffer and have no means to defend themselves or else be turned to monsters and hunted? How many humans suffered by your decision?"

Not even an insect dared to make a noise as everyone waited for a reply from the man who is called Lucifer. "More than I can count." He said it with the same calm as previously.

"You won't deny?" Gilgamesh's posture didn't change.

Instead of replying immediately Sirzechs looks to the sky for a moment, looking almost uninterested by the conversation before looking back to the hero's descendent with his eyes showing a fierciness that wasn't there before. "No. You are right so there is no point in denying. Many people died and many people suffered and still do suffer because of my decisions." The devil has a sad smile on his lips. "But that was necessary for the survival of the devil race."

"Feh, again with that lie." If anything now Gilgamesh looks disgusted. "Are you in denial? Or are you a mongrel that lives by the orders of your former owners?"

The devils and magicians present that understood the situation couldn't believe in the insult that Gilgamesh just threw at Sirzechs. Rias gets up and magic starts to appear on her hands, ready to throw her Power Of Destruction at the human with all she has. Only for a hand to appear and stop her, making her and everyone else notice that Sirzechs is completely unfazed and looking bored. The silver haired woman looks at him for a moment but remains seated, even in maid's clothing her posture spoke of dignity and power as her husband looked as the King he is and doesn't let himself be bothered by the slight.

If it was on the Underworld that kind of insult would not stand, he didn't just call one of the most powerful devils in the world a 'dog', he also insulted his bloodline, his family and his dignity. In a society like the devil's, that is the kind of insult that can result in contests of honor and duels to the death or harsh compensations at the very least.

Rias properly sits down again while her brother just asks a question. "What do you think would happen if the Evil Piece system didn't exist?" The question surprises everyone but Gilgamesh remains unfazed.

"The devils would be forced to grow a spine instead of depending on stealing from humanity for everything." The conviction on the blonde's voice spoke volumes of his opinion.

"And there would be another civil war." Finally Gilgamesh's expression changed with his eyebrow raising in response to the devil's affirmation. "You are right that the system exists for the devils pride. The problem is that after the civil war we needed to offer the noble families something that would both help us to repopulate and recover while not stepping on anyone's sensibilities." He places the bento on the floor. "I wished that I could just say 'let's accept the hybrids' or 'we can take our time' but unfortunately on those days our base of power was extremely weak and when the ideas hit the floor there were those who wanted to fight against that and reignite the conflict on the grounds of us, the new government, were trying to actually destroy the Underworld."

"So what?" Gilgamesh says before he could continue. "Aren't you Lucifer? The strongest devil? Just rule them as your predecessor did and don't give them a choice."

"But I am not my predecessor and neither do I wish to be." His face lost his smile, the person present is now the Maou of the Underworld. "While we, the devils, wished for peace there were and still are plenty that would threaten it for their pride or beliefs. I don't have the authority of the original Lucifer even if I am more powerful and I needed to convince them to follow me instead of leading by force." He pauses and closes his eyes. "Or I would have to kill at least half of the remaining population before people started to listen."

"Onii...sama?" Rias barely could comprehend what her brother had just told her.

"That is correct. The only way to not apply the actual system would be to kill all the dissidents." Sirzechs reaffirms with conviction. "And if that happened others would raise to defend them, family, friends and allies. It would be another civil war but not to continue the Great War and instead to defend their beliefs, that war would be undoubtedly worse. I had to make a choice when the options were on the table and my best friend gave me the best one of the options I had at the moment. It was a sacrifice I needed to make."

"Yet you are not the one that sacrificed anything." Gilgamesh doesn't hesitate to say.

"I believe I did." Was the response. "I sacrificed my honor, my beliefs and made the call that would help me protect the devils and teach them the real value of freedom."

"By taking freedom from others. Your sacrifice is small compared to those that suffer because of it, less than an ant's."

"And yet, I still did it." Sirzechs says resolutely. "Don't misunderstand me because people call me Hero of the Underworld, I am not one. I am a leader and for the sake of my people I won't hesitate to discard something silly like honor and pride." His eyes are firm, his voice loud. "I am ready to risk even that which is precious to me for the sake of my people. Even if some suffer, I will do what I have to do."

Gilgamesh comments out loud. "So this is the famous 'Gremory's obsesion' to protect their precious ones as someone called. For your devils you are willing to sacrifice everything else."

"What are you doing about it?" Shirou asks and everyone turns to him. "About those that are suffering for your decision? Are you allowing them to keep suffering?" That was what worried the magus more than anything.

Sirzechs offers the young man a smile. "Not allowed, but no system is perfect. Once the peerage idea got some support, we passed laws to protect the rights of our new brethren. Even if some nobles call them half devils or mongrels," he gives Gilgamesh a smile at the last line, "I see all of them as my people, my subjects and I get very upset if someone brings harm to them."

"What does that mean?" Shirou insists, trying to understand the person before him.

Sirzechs is happy to indulge in the human's curiosity. "For example; if someone is treating their peerage badly and they complain, the King may lose their member and that person may become a Free Piece, someone that can look for another King to serve and receive compensation if any damage is proven."

"And if someone is reincarnated by force?" Gilgamesh decides to change the subject.

"That depends on the circumstances but if anyone is reincarnated against their will or enslaved to maintain that person on a peerage, the King's fate is death." The Maou feels some amusement at how stiff some people got around him. "Having a peerage means to be responsible for the lives of those following you. There are consequences for both failing and abusing such privilege. We also cannot be seen as weak by letting those that break our rules walk away with impunity and under the actual system not even the Pillars disagree with our sentences when they had already agreed to the rules."

And if any of their listeners paid close attention they would realize that Sirzechs is leaving a lot of things out, both in the system and devil society itself. Just the laws would be enough details that he would need a full day to explain everything but it was the consequences of the first civil war that forced the devils into looking at means to repopulate faster.

Once the dust settled everyone realized that almost nothing was gained into the conflict of the Great War and the little that it was gained they had no means of defending, forcing a mass retreat to the Underworld so they could regroup.

The Underworld itself is not an easy place to live most of the time, while devils have means to survive there and are adapted to the harsh environment there is an extreme lack of natural resources that are tailored for comfort.

With no natural sun, the plants and animals evolved in such a way that they were mosly hostile, there are lakes of lava in inconvenient places and the devils are a little slow in adapting by themselves. With time they did manage to make themselves comfortable but the planet Earth is still vastly superior.

But the Underworld is still vastly untamed, that is the main reason why the Pillars territories are huge, bigger than some countries even, with cities, villages and economies of their own, it is an attempt to tame the land, one as big as the planet Earth but with less oceans and more ground to cover.

"I don't want humanity destroyed." Sirzechs says sincerely. "I wouldn't turn all the population of any race into devils in any way if it is avoidable. But I must do what is best for my people and you humans are the majority. That is the main reason why many reincarnated devils come from you."

"Don't excuse the existence of such a thing and your attitude towards it." Gilgamesh says. That is the closest thing to respect he is going to get and Sirzechs knows it.

"Being a leader is tough." Yoruichi says with a sigh. "The more lives one has to worry about, the more skewed the line of right and wrong can become. Sometimes there are solutions that you can use that don't hurt anyone, that you can live with. But most of the time, even if the leader is good, some lines need to be crossed, especially if you care."

"Couldn't say it better myself." Sirzechs says with a smile. "I don't believe I heard your name, mister."

"Call me Kuro. Just your typical talking cat." She says with a small nod.

"Nice to meet you Kuro." Sirzechs extends his hand and the cat gives him a paw for him to shake.

"For the record Kuro is a she." Setsuna says, fearful that the confusion may cause an incident.

"Ah, I apologize." The devil is quick to say.

"No trouble. My voice is kinda gruff." Yoruichi turns to Gilgamesh. "I think it would be fair if you gave him something after he explained so much about his own problems."

"Huh, fine. One question since he probably also got much from Shirou's prior interrogation." The mood is lighter now and Sirzechs turns to the blonde once again.

"I don't need more than one." It is then that Gilgamesh notes the confidence on Sirzechs tone and eyes. He could tell that the devil truly only wanted one question. "Is the leader of the Khaos Brigade really Ophis?"

When a reply wasn't immediate everyone could see that Gilgamesh's posture had changed, instead of the proud descendent of a king his face now looked like someone that found himself cornered.

"I lowered my guard too much." He says outloud after a minute. "So you managed to plant a spy or something?" Gilgamesh asks back, basically confirming the question.

"Ophis? The Ouroboros Dragon? That Ophis?" Luvia's voice carried some fear and indeed almost everyone was afraid of the name.

Almost. "Who is Ophis?" Shirou asks for clarification.

"The most powerful being that resides on the planet." Rias' eyes weren't leaving Gilgamesh as she talked. "A dragon born on the Dimensional Gap but left it for our dimension centuries ago."

"The 'Dragon Of Infinity', they are the representation of the beginning and the end." Grayfia clarified some more. "There is little to call Ophis other than the strongest existence losing only to the Great Red."

"Great Red?" Shirou's confusion is still going with the new term.

"After Ophis left her home, the Great Red appeared and took residence there." The maid continued to explain. "He is the Dragon of Dreams, the Ultimate Dragon, the Dragon of Dragons, DxD. Before him Ophis was the strongest, now he is. Ophis can't return to its home with the Great Red there."

"More like she was kicked out and lost the keys. She tried to get back but Great Red is just too strong for her." Gilgamesh says with a chuckle. "So, how did you know it? Do you have a spy in our midst? Don't bother on denying, I will check myself later and you would save their life by extracting them now."

"Not a spy, just a very dedicated employee who should be here today." Sirzechs voice carries a considerable amount of annoyance. "I must thank you for the reply, you confirmed a lot of things for me."

'Of course I did.' Gilgamesh thinks with some anger. 'I have no idea of what this 'employee' found or what information you managed to gather but just knowing about Ophis and using it to get confirmation the intel is legit or correct is enough for you.' Not bothering to finish his lunch the blonde gets up and starts to leave. "I appreciate the conversation and will leave for now. I will wish you all a good day. Until next time Faker."

With that Angelo leaves without any more ceremony. "His pride was wounded." Rin comments. "You can include that on his file; he doesn't like to lose."

"Hard to not to when you are dealing with 'The Prince of Lies'." Akeno says it as a joke that got a small smile from Lucifer as she finishes her bento. "Thank you for the meal."

"True enough I suppose, it still ended in his defeat." Rin elaborates and when the older devils looked at her curiously she reminded himself of who was in front of her. "An excellent display of cunning, Lucifer-sama."

"Why thank you, but he just didn't expect that question, that was it." Sirzechs also finishes his bento. "Thank you for the meal. My sister wasn't exaggerating Shirou-kun, your skill in the kitchen is truly something to marvel at."

"Thank you for the compliment." Shirou replies.

"So...do you want to talk about him now?" At the question Shirou stops moving before he takes another bite of his food. "Your father, that is. If-" The signal rang all around school, the time for classes has arrived. "Talk about timing." He says with a chuckle.

Everyone starts to pack to leave but Shirou is a little unfocused, something that everyone can tell. "Excuse me, Sirzechs-sama." He calls the devil.

"Please Shirou, drop the 'sama' if you want. You are the precious magus of my little sister, Sirzechs alone is fine." The permission or the mention is not important to Shirou right now.

"Can I ask a couple of questions now?" His friends were surprised by Shirou's request.

"Shirou, are you alright?" Kiba approaches and places a hand on his shoulder. "Classes are already in session again and you are not the kind to miss them."

"'A dedicated employee that should be here.'" Shirou says while staring at the Maou. "It was my father wasn't he? He is not only with you in a pact but he is the spy you were talking about." The redhead takes a deep breath. "Is he in the Khaos Brigade as well?"

In reality Shirou doubted that, since Illya had to pretend to be on the Clocktower when they were close even if their parents may belong to a different faction and not be aware of each other which made him more than a little nervous. After so long without anything concrete his mind is already jumping to conclusions and he needs something to at least dissuade some of his doubts.

Everyone stayed silent, waiting for Sirzechs answer. For his part he just looks at Shirou who looks back without hesitation. After a while he offered the human a smile. 'Those are strong eyes. He isn't afraid of what he will hear.' A decision needed to be made. "It will be better to have this conversation after dinner but if you don't mind running to your classroom after you can follow us to Rias' and I can talk with you for a bit."

"We can go with you sir." Kiba offers immediately.

"No." Shirou shakes his head. "You guys need to go back to class, don't worry about me." He decided to say once he saw that his friends were not leaving.

"I can say that Shirou-kun here lost the notion of time talking with us." Sirzechs offers to help assure the others. "It won't take long since the meat of the story needs to be left for later when we have more time but I think I can explain some things." Respecting Shirou's privacy, the first years accepted the explanation and began to leave.

Yoruichi approaches and jumps on Shirou's shoulder. "Are you sure that this is a good idea right now? Depending on what he says you will want to hear the rest."

"I still want to see Rias-chan in her other classes. Next one is arts." Which shouldn't be but some teachers are trying to make things more interesting for the parents.

"Onii-sama." The little sister of the pair lets out a groan with a little blush.

"Don't worry Rias," Akeno begins to whisper in her King's ear, "I am sure he isn't going to send the picture to everyone in the Underworld. Or put them in a magazine."

"Don't you dare to give him any ideas." Rias let out between her teeth.

"I will be fine." Shirou reassures Yoruichi, unbenounced of what Rias and Akeno were discussing. "I just want something to feel certain about. At least for now."

"Most of the talks will have to be with your father." The Maou mentioned. "It is for the best."

"And I agree." Shirou has no problem with that.

Yoruichi moves her head and looks at him in the eyes and seeing no signs of hesitation she jumps off his shoulder. "Looks like you are ready for it." She declares with confidence. "I will be close, maybe watching Rias classes. Say, would any magazine on the Underworld pay well to see how the heiresses are doing in school?"

"That is an excellent idea!" "I am gonna skin you alive, cat!" The older and younger Gremory's siblings said respectively.

Making their way down the stairs they didn't notice the presence that was waiting for them at the bottom of the stairs, even if teleportation is a factor her confused mind judged that following everyone to the roof was unnecessary and she kept her distance, hoping that none of her targets would be able to feel her presence.

She watches as the majority of the students separate from her target who begins to move slowly in another direction once they are in the corridor, the magic around her keeping her invisible but she needs to stick to the shadows and wait for an opportunity since it isn't perfect, the blue crystal that holds the magic may be one of her best creations but far from ideal.

Her camouflage was something that she became proud of on her better days when she would observe Rias to learn her weakness. It uses the crystal to surround her form to avoid detection while protecting her from sight and even hiding her smell. But it is unable to persist or help her approach boundary fields. However it allowed her to watch the heiress from a distance, away from sight many times but never collect the mana she desired indirectly.

"Your father is not a member of the Khaos Brigade, he never was." Sirzechs began immediately once Shirou's friends had left, walking in Rias' classroom direction. "I met him when he called me for a contract, not a pact. He needed help getting your family settled down after the Fire of Fuyuki."

"Wait, you were the one that helped him?" Shirou can't hide his surprise, following the older devil with the other behind them, the younger devils also are curious about the topic and, since Shirou didn't really ask for privacy, heard his own question as and the follow up.

"Indeed." Sirzechs admits with a smile. "He had an assistant to deal with many of the details but I was the one that gave him a place to reside and helped with your adoption." Shirou doesn't know what to take from that statement. "After he told me his story I asked for a favor and he did the job so marvelously that I offered a pact and the rest is history."

"So...my father kills people for you?" It still disturbs Shirou but from the impression he can get from Sirzechs the man must have his reasons.

"Shirou-kun," the man stopped walking and looked at his fellow redhead with a serious expression. "I am one of the most powerful men on the planet. If I want someone dead, I can just go there and do it myself or have one of my many, many subordinates do it for me. Your father does that too? Yes, there are some people that I can't touch because of politics but I usually leave up to him how he should approach the problem. It has been like this since we started the Black Sheath Security Firm. I provided the initial personnel, we combined some assets, then he and your mother built the rest from there. Now we have one of the biggest spy networks in the world and an army of considerable size with hundreds of thousands of people working directly or indirectly for us."

"How did he summon you?" Rias can't help but ask. "You rarely leave the Underworld, how did he make contact?"

"He knew that I was the new Lucifer and used a ley line to empower a seal he drew by hand." He chuckled when he saw Rias' incredulous face at the revelation. "His reputation is known even in the Underworld, in his earlier years he gave plenty of headaches for many people and he figured that he needed some real backing to protect his family. Also, he didn't summon me, just made a call and I found odd it was coming from the mundane world and decided to answer since I found the whole thing curious."

"Do you or does he know anything about the fire?" Shirou questions and the devil has to stop to think.

"From what he told me he received a message telling him that a dangerous ritual was going to happen." Sirzechs recalls the details of the story easily. "He didn't know if it was true or not or who sent it so he approached with caution only for it to actually happen and it was many times worse than it was supposed to be on the message."

"So he had the chance to stop it but failed." Shirou can't even blame his father for it, a strange message doesn't exactly inspire trust, especially on an assassin. "Did he ever figure out who sent it?"

"No. We tried for months but in the end the whistleblower may have died on the fire as well. It is still impressive he managed to get the message to your father but in the end that is all I know." Sirzechs' voice is full of regret. "I am sorry I can't help more, but that is all I have on the fire."

"Sirzechs-sama, did you know that this ritual is still going?" Akeno moves to ask and he shakes his head.

"Only heard about it from Shirou's own exploits." He admits. "I have teams investigating but for now we have no clue of what it was and how it happened." Sirzechs smiles at him. "Now you should go to class, we can talk more after dinner and I will explain some of the details of your parents work and what he helps me with if you wish."

Shirou accepts the dismissal, feeling satisfied with what he heard. There is still a huge desire to confront his father but for now it is satiated.

Grafya stops him from moving, feeling something in the air that was odd to describe. Placing a hand on Shirou's shoulder as he turned the redhead notices a shimmer a couple of paces ahead of them when Sirzechs exclaims. "Look out!"

His call got everyone to turn and Grayfia is the first to react, a magic circle appears on her hands as she throws herself in front of everyone ready to make a shield. Rias is right behind reading her energy with Akeno already having a little lighting forming on her hands as Shirou begins to trace a sword.

They don't know what is going on but a human girl starts to become visible and is just running in their direction, not intimidated or even carrying for the demonstrations of magic as everyone can now see her full form as she throws something from her right hand. It is then that Sirzechs reacts.

Compared to everyone else the reactions of Sirzechs and Grayfia are many times superior, experience and plenty of fight to the deaths on the civil war and after had honed their skills with Sirzechs being the most skilled between the couple, his ability to wield his Power Of Destruction being unseen before his birth and raise to power.

So when he saw a concave shaped crystal, a small thing with the color of ash, flying through the air towards his family he didn't think twice, that thing had to go.

With a small sphere that had more than enough power to destroy half of the school, Sirzechs throws it carefully to avoid doing just that, his aim perfect and the speed of the attack easily erases the small jewel from existence and to then stop mid air in place as the devil just makes it disappear without doing anything else.

Nadita stops running and everyone looks at her as she blinks slowly, trying to process what just happened. She had observed Rias previously and her reaction time wasn't good enough to change targets mid spell and destroying her jewel, the pureblood devil failing more than once in redirection and rapid fire gave her the confidence that her plan should have worked even when she was free to think for herself.

But the mistake that she made, and in other occasions wouldn't, was not realizing that Rias is not her target who was actually much more experienced and skilled, capable of creating and using his power in less than a second while Rias needs those seconds to react, stop her original intent and then direct her attention to the threat before being able to attack.

In her actual condition Nadita's brain literally can't process where her plan had gone wrong and all she can do is pause and blink, trying to come up with a new strategy.

Sirzechs steps forward, passing by his wife and shaking his head. He doesn't need protection and only took a moment to evaluate the threat to know that his wife could have stopped the girl either way now that the only unaccounted variable is out of the picture.

"I think I have seen her before." Akeno comments, her and Shirou moving close to the walls to surround the once invisible student who just stood there, observing Sirzechs with an intensity but with no other emotion.

'I also have seen her before.' In his hands a simple katana that he can use without needing to risk the girl's life. 'But where was it?'

"Her name is Fuan Nadita." Rias says, sticking close to her brother but a magic circle in front of her ready to shoot. "She was one of the magicians looking for a pact at the beginning of the year. I can't remember all the details about her field of studies but I think it had something to do with the different types of mana."

When she heard the word 'mana', Fuan reacted. Holding her head high she says, "I request that you accompany me," while looking directly at Sirzechs who raises an eyebrow.

"Is she insane?" Rias questions everyone with a frown but gets no reaction from the accused.

Grayfia looks at the younger student, noticing that she is sweating even if her breathing appears even, her experience on war told her that the new arrival is actually exhausted. "Indeed this is suspicious, but we don't know necessarily what this is about."

"Showing up from nowhere and coming with a request after throwing a strange object?" Shirou says with a little sarcasm. "That is weird either way, doesn't matter how you look." He refuses to let his guard down even if the opponent looks docile.

"But Grayfia-sama has a point, we don't know what is going on." Akeno immediately defers to the older woman's wisdom.

Sirzechs takes a good look at the young woman before him having arrived at similar deductions as his wife's. "Excuse me miss, could you please tell me your name?" His question confuses the others but the reply came fast.

"Fuan Nadita. I request that you accompany me." She says politely but her eyes are not leaving the Maou's as he pays close attention to the student.

"And why do you need that?" He questions back while moving his hand to signal Shirou and Akeno to stop moving, confusing both.

"I need to collect your mana." The answer sounded robotic and the girl's eyes still haven't moved from Sirzechs who replies in good humor.

"Yes and you need my mana for…?" He leaves it open, giving the student a chance to reply.

"Your mana is able to use the Power Of Destruction, I need it to finish my project." She replied but it was clear that there are some things left out of her explanation and that raised alarms on the heads of everyone else. "I need you to accompany me."

"I understood that." Sirzechs says gently. "You need my mana for your projects but you didn't say what those projects are. I am afraid that I can't go with you unless you tell me what your intentions are."

It is a simple request, a fair one and a chance to open negotiations. On a normal day, upon receiving such an opportunity to talk with a powerful being willing to listen to her, the magician of the small Fuan family would be ecstatic and jumping in joy.

She doesn't even realize the opportunity she is losing. "I need you to collect the mana with the Power Of Destruction."

"I see…" Sirzechs sounds mildly depressed when he says it and all present know why. The repetition, the fact that her eyes haven't left Sirzechs yet and the incident from a month ago; when all those facts are connected on the heads of those present a conclusion is inevitable.

"Is she…?" Shirou wants to finish the question but he doesn't know how the person in front of them will react.

"It is a very real possibility." Akeno comments, not lowering her guard. "Depending on what we say, we may trigger a bad reaction."

Rias closed her hand in anger. "We have no idea of what kind of suggestions she is under."

It is the kind of hypnotic suggestion that is easy to leave behind, even without magic but with it the possibility of the person's instincts stopping them from acting gets reduced from the sudden assault of the delayed suggestion.

"Not even counting the fact that this hypnose is uncommon." Grayfia comments, turning to her King. "What should we do?" Both read the report about the last time but she won't act without receiving the assurance that she can.

The man thinks for a while, trying to find a solution. Narita is not dangerous and isn't doing anything at the moment, waiting for his reply. 'Even if she tries something I don't think she is able to take me by force or even really collect my power. This is also an opportunity.' With a decision made, Sirzechs strengthened his resolve. "I can give you some mana if you want." He says deliberately slowly, trying to get a reaction. There was none. "But I think I should know the means on how you plan to extract it."

'What is he doing?' For the first time since she showed up Shirou took his eyes away from Fuan to look at Lucifer. 'He can knock her out easily, why is he still talking?'

"I will use these," Shirou turns his attention back to the girl holding a couple of jewels like the ones she threw before, a different color but with the same concave shape, "I made these crystals to absorb and direct mana towards my main projects. If you give me enough I can do it."

"Why my mana?" Sirzechs offers a smile. "What is so special about it? Didn't you want the Power Of Destruction?"

"Because holding that power in a container is basically not possible, just keeping it stable is something considered impossible." She is repeating what she knows from memory even if Sirzechs has shown him keeping it stable and erasing it without any problems. "I believe that with that mana, able to use the most destructive power, it is possible to open a way to the Root."

"Sorry but it isn't." Lucifer says with a kind smile, the type given when lecturing a child. "You aren't the first to think of that theory. One of my ancestors tried to help a magician to reach the Root with the Power Of Destruction." He retains his smile as he remembers that old lesson. "It backfired and both were completely destroyed. With them they took half of a city with the mana accumulated for many days."

Shirou is the only one surprised by the information, all the devils already knew it, Rias even shivering by the remainder of the damage her power could cause. Narita doesn't react for a moment, her eyes are still stuck in the form of the devil before her. "I still need your mana." She says in the same tone as before.

"After hearing that you still want to try that?" Shirou can't stay silent after hearing this but he is ignored. "Didn't you just hear what he said? If you are careless with that power you can blow up a whole town." He still gets no response and everyone can notice that whoever is controlling the girl didn't give her precise answers.

Sirzechs notices another thing and takes a risk. "Are those crystals connected to whatever you believe can contain my mana to use the Power Of Destruction?"

"Yes, it will be connected to a bigger crystal to use the pure mana able to use the Power Of Destruction." Shirou is bothered about how Nadita sounded, it should be something that she was passionate about, something that she worked on. Yet she sounds dead to his ears. "A strong mana capable of transforming into a force able to destroy anything. Its power is naturally superior to other mana sources."

"That is actually a misconception." Sirzechs says once he knows the girl had stopped talking. "You see, the reason why devils want to preserve the blood so badly is because our special powers come from blood, not mana." He chuckles a little at that. "Funny enough, hybrids can be born with devil powers while there are some purebloods who have none."

He lets the information simmer in the girl's mind to see if she has any reaction, either positive or negative. While the Kuoh's students are nervous about the situation, the adults are calm.

"Out of curiosity," with such a delay for answers, even an automatic one, Sirzechs can tell that the hypnosis is entering in conflict with the girl's consciousness thanks to the new information she learned, "why did you throw that first crystal?"

"For it to start the process as soon as possible. I made it so it would be extremely hard to remove without endangering the life of the subject." No one in their sane mind would admit that easily.

"And you just happened to have it ready for me? That is hard to believe. You never saw me before." Of that Sirzechs is sure but he doesn't like the implications.

"I made it with the goal to get as much mana as possible from Rias Gremory with that special crystal before she eventually destroyed it or found some way to remove it." For a second, Sirzechs eyes were full with a fury, a storm that promised to annihilate anything on its path.

The second passed. "And why didn't you do it?" She may not know it but her life depended on the answer.

"Because...it is wrong?" An emotion leaves her voice, confusion. "I didn't want to do it?" Her hand starts to twitch, the truth being strong enough that it leaves the control she is imposed by. "I-"

Before she can say anything else, a small shadow knocks her out from behind. "You are really careless Sirzechs Lucifer." Yoruichi declares, having easily knocked out the controlled girl.

The Maou just chuckles. "Why? I doubt her crystals could really work on us. Besides, there was no danger for anyone since I knew you were there, ready to deal with the threat." The cat raises an eyebrow. She has been following Shirou and waiting for him to go to class having no intention of leaving him alone for a single moment after the previous incident.

But that didn't mean she didn't try to hide and the fact the devil knew either spoke of his skill or lack on her part.

But Shirou just sighs with relief and moves to help with Nadita. "Thank you Kuro! This was already going too far." He and Akeno reach the girl at the same time, the Queen starts to use Structural Analyses to check for damages while the magus turns to the other devils who are getting closer at a slow pace. "Why didn't you stop her sooner?"

"To get some information. You all determined previously that once the control is broken the individual loses their memories. This was our best chance to test the limits of it." Before Shirou could protest, Nadita starts to tremble a little before she begins to shake uncontrollably.

"She is having a seizure!" Akeno screams in a panic and everyone quickly rushes to help, Yoruichi immediately tries to stabilize the girl's body while Grayfia tries to apply the medical knowledge she has to find the source. However the younger Queen already did. "I… I don't know what that is!"

"What Akeno?" Rias, together with Shirou and even her brother is trying to stop the girl from hurting others or herself, securing her limbs.

"I don't know! It's small! And it's using her veins to move!" The raven haired Queen is trying to get a lock on the small thing but failing.

"This is not natural." Yoruichi is on the girl's chest trying to use senjutsu to stabilize Nadita only to find herself in a struggle to keep her alive. "You really were careless!"

"Just tell me the point where it is! I will take care of it!" Declared Lucifer with a tiny ball of Power Of Destruction, smaller than a grain of sand.

"It's moving with the blood!" Shirou also uses Structural Analysis to help but only finds frustration. "Leg, now chest but instead of going to the heart-"

"It's against the current this time." Akeno is sweating, the effort of keeping up with the spell constantly is starting to get to her. "Sometimes it's using the blood! Other times it's going against it! I can't keep up!"

Shirou grinds his teeth, his frustration building up as he can tell he is in the same situation and he can't find any way to change the obvious outcome that is arriving. There isn't a sword in his arsenal capable of saving Nadita's life and Yoruichi can't keep up her senjutsu indefinitely.

"If I reincarnate her, will it help?" Rias asked, a magic circle appears above her hand and a bishop piece falls for her to catch. "The body of a devil is more resistant. Maybe we get more time if we do this."

"That is not guaranteed." Sirzechs says, the grain of destruction still on his fingers. "That also doesn't get rid of whatever is inside her. We need a clear target."

"Even if the main target is moving there must be something fixed somewhere to cause these seizures." Grayfia points out and Akeno changes her focus on the girl alone.

"Found it!" The Queen didn't celebrate just yet. "But it's too close to the brain and looks like an egg. Smaller than the other dot."

"How small?" Sirzechs asks.

"Smaller than your energy." The Maou nods at the reply.

"Then you need to take it out." He says and Akeno is shocked.

"Me? I-"

"We don't have much time and only you can see if, either this or this girl will die." Sirzechs reminded everyone of the situation. "Her body is little by little getting out of control. Kuro here can only keep her stable for a while and you are our best bet."

"I can do it." Shirou says, getting ready to move only for the Maou to shake his head.

"Your magic is unsuited for it, Akeno's has better changes. Either way, the problem is control and precision." While both redheads talked, Akeno bit her lip, her control not good enough to do it in her opinion. "The main issue is that I don't know where it is exactly to make an attempt myself."

They all know that even if Akeno can give him a direction he won't know how deep the thing is or the exact location if it is too small.

"It's on the arm again." Akeno talks about the bigger target.

"Then we cut it off." Rias suddenly says, to everyone's shock. "We can't get the smaller thing but if the bigger one goes to a limb we can amputate and then put it back once everything is removed."

With no hesitation Shirou traces an extremely sharp and long knife, placing it just above the girl's arm. "Kuro, how long can you hold the senjutsu?" Sirzechs asked with a frown.

"A couple of minutes yet." The cat is also frowning but it was enough for the former Gremory to nod.

"Grayfia! Get Serafall here quickly!" The woman didn't even reply to her husband, she just rushed at an incredible speed for someone dressed as a maid. "Hold on until she gets back. Serafall is good with ice magic and we can preserve the limb."

"This is a big school you know?" Yoruichi replied, already feeling tired from protecting the girl's organs from any damage. It is a constant work because besides the seizure Nadita is also having it attacked every time that the being inside her made a pass. "Goddamnit!"

"For a little longer Kuro, just a little longer." The cat turns to Shirou, who is also keeping up with his Structural Analysis to get to the moment when he can cut the thing out. "Just a little longer."

While he looked calm the magus is anything but, the small parasyte is moving too fast too randomly and if he makes a mistake there is a good chance he ends up cutting the arm off and not solving the problem at all.

But he refuses to allow anyone to see his doubt, this is the best way to secure someone's life and he isn't going to hesitate. "Akeno, focus mana only on the head. Leave the rest to me." He instructs and the Queen just gives a small nod and focuses her spell only on making sure once the main problem is removed the 'egg' stops acting.

Yoruichi closes her eyes and dives into deep concentration to buy as much time as possible but she can only keep her skills precise for a minute or two at best before she has to focus on specific areas to try and keep the girl alive.

Fortunately she didn't have to. "Sirzechs!" Grayfia shouts from a hallway, Serafall and Sona right behind and Shirou takes it as his cue.

The moment that the insect starts to get in the girl's arm, his hand is already swinging the knife to cut it off, knowing that the vein it is in has no escape unless it decides to stop and turn around, something that hasn't happened until now.

With a great timing he manages to cut the arm, bone and everything in a perfect motion, at the precise moment the limb was compromised by the microscopic invader. Everyone else moved to heal the wound as Serafall manifested a magic wand and froze the isolated limb, Fuan's breathing returned to normal and she stopped moving as the devils struggled to close the wound until Shirou manifested a copy of EM.

"You really should walk with the original in your pocket, Rias." Sirzechs says as he grabs the scalpel and quickly closes the wound. "Woah, this is really fast. If we had that in the war I wonder how many it could have been saved."

Everyone breathes a sigh of relief as Serafall looks around confused. "So...can anyone explain why Grayfia interrupted my time with So-tan to freeze an arm?"

….

Hours later someone's call Shinji's cell phone as he is making his way back home. "Did you manage to get it back?"

"I am afraid not." The voice is clearly masculine and of an adult. "There were too many people examining your work and breaking it apart on different levels. I wasn't allowed to approach for now." The last part was said with anger.

Anger that Shinji also felt. "To think she would lose control like that and get caught. What a waste." Still he isn't very upset by the loss of one of his pawns, he already had got what he needed from her after all. "How long until the last preparations are complete?"

"They already are." The spellcaster stops to process that reply.

"Really? Impressive." Shinji wasn't able to deny his surprise. "I suppose you wouldn't be disappointed with your skills, right sensei?"

"Huh. Of course not." The reply got a small smile from the spellcaster. "I shall make sure that everything is ready so we both get what we desire."

'Or I get what I desire and you get what I want you to desire.' Shinji chuckles, he can't stop smiling. 'To think that to hypnotize a magus of your level I would have to use two larvae and also be a little careful with what I have to say.'

In the end Shinji didn't manage to make a larva able to control strong beings, but he managed enough to control exactly who he needed after his yokai experiment.

"Great. Let's give it a few weeks to see if the Maou are going to stick around. After that we can finish this once and for all." Shinji is excited for the conclusion of his plans.

He is the only one. "We must start the operation soon or else everything will be lost." Came out with a tone of annoyance and irritation that just made him frustrated.

Unfortunately for Shinji he can't express his frustration. "But sensei, we need to be patient. We need to make sure that the Maou are out of the way before we do any sudden moves."

"But the more time passes, the greater the risk of our plans getting discovered." The voice in the phone pointed out, still irritated. "They also now have the information that miss Fuan was under our control. If they figure out what she did for us."

"Even if they know her specialty they won't know what we did with it and she won't have the memory per my- our instruction." He can't really express his irritation with the teacher, the man is older and skilled enough that if he notices anything wrong then he will break free in a second.

Even his mind is resistant enough that Shinji needed to place strong suggestions instead of commands. "We must grab the first opportunity that comes about and I feel that with this small setback that opportunity will arrive soon."

"You know something don't you?" Shinji asked with a smile. "That explains why you are in such a hurry."

"The devils and some of my colleagues are cautious on the matter but I shall offer a suggestion to have all students of our nature in the same place to discover who is or isn't under our 'adversary' trail." He says smugly and Shinji nods to himself. "The only problem is the Gremory but there is an event happening that will give us the opening we need once we have the majority of our targets in a place where we can take care of them."

"We just need to wait for that opportunity now, with both Gremory and Sitri out of the picture we can finish everything in a single day." He can feel the smile on the other side of the line as the teacher likes the idea tremendously.

"Just as I thought. We already placed the crystals in position, once we initiate the final phase all we have to do is as you suggested and keep them all busy as the rest of the plan follows suit. Once everything starts and with the size of the terrain to our advantage, the college students won't be skilled enough to interfere if they even notice at all before it is too late." The teacher is proud of the foresight of his 'best student'. "Soon we shall show Emiya and Velvet their proper place."

'And to think you wanted him as your student once.' Shinji thought amused. "Of course sensei, we shall show them their proper place." Once the teacher turned off the phone Shinji started to laugh. "Kahahaha! And to think that the best solution to my problems was to recruit a teacher."

It didn't even take too long to get the teacher on his side, the man didn't realize what Shinji was planning and once he allowed Shinji in his office for a cup of tea it was all the Matou needed to make sure the man ingested the first larva.

After noticing that the lord was not under his sway but was still a little under the influence of his swords, Shinji offered a second one with far less effort and at that point the spellcaster had no others to use.

But he managed to 'change' the teacher's mind in a lot of things and in a few weeks he had a partner to his goal and the authority to move around the campus as he pleased so he could finish the final touches of trap to make sure he reaches his final accession.

'Keep dancing my tune Kayneth Archibald, do whatever you need to guarantee Emiya Shirou's demise and Tohsaka Rin's destitution.' He felt so good at the moment but it didn't last long until a frown appeared on his face, pulling from his pocket two necklaces his frown disappeared into a smile again. 'I can start already but I will need to be careful. I can only use the full effect if I am close to the main crystal and if I use too much then someone may notice.'

Shinji can feel it on the back of his head, on his heart, lungs and in many parts of his body. Zolgen warned him that he will grow much weaker when the snow begins to fall. He will lose much of his power since it isn't an insect ready for that climate but everything will be settled much sooner once his plans come to fruition and that won't be a problem anymore.

"It is fine. I still have a few months and the plan is all ready to go." A sinister smile, almost maniac, threatens to appear on his face but he covers it. "Not yet. Wait for the right moment, the moment when I have Emiya's life in my hands."

Shinji shivers a little and then proceeds to make his way to his home.

…

It is just the two of them, Shirou feels a little nervous while Sirzechs looks around his sister's office. There is a lot of excitement on the long haired man as he checks every corner of his sibling's desk. "I don't think you should be looking at Rias' desk like that.

"Oh? And why not?" Sirzechs wonders in good humor. "As her older sibling I need to check if my sister isn't using anything dangerous or keeping something here that she shouldn't."

'For whatever reason that sounds like the kind of excuse that Illya would use.' Shirou gets a little depressed by the thought. "Sirzechs...can we begin? We are already taking over a lot of time and even getting Rias out of her office."

"Don't worry, Grayfia is distracting her for a bit." Sirzechs sits on the chair and starts to mess with the desk with his fingers. "Akeno also is asking Grayfia for some advice and that will give us some time before- A-HA! Found it!" He exclaims in success as with the press of a button a hidden compartment opens. "Ah~... is the same series she has in the Underworld, she brought another complete set."

"You are talking about her manga collection?" At Shirou's question Sirzechs takes his eyes off said collection and looks at his fellow redhead.

"You knew?" He asked with a smile.

"I saw it when I used a knife capable of analysing objects. Why is it important?" Shirou sees Sirzechs chuckle but doesn't react.

"You could say that is proof of her shyness." Sirzechs closes the hidden compartment and gets more comfortable at the desk. "Thanks again for making a little extra food for my son, I am in your debt."

"No, it was nothing." Shirou scratches the back of his head for a little while. "I like when people enjoy my food."

"Either way, it was nice of you." The devil offers him a smile and motions with a hand for Shirou to sit closer. "Well, I suppose that now I can answer your questions and tell you a little about our operation in Fuyuki."

Shirou nods and sits in a chair in front of the desk. "What can you tell me?"

Sirzechs places a hand on his chin before replying. "A lot actually. There are our contacts, some accounts, the balance of our resources," he raises a hand and starts to count with his fingers, "safe house locations, clients, shell companies, secret passwords-"

"You are stalling." Shirou says with some irritation.

With a smile, Lucifer lowers his hands. "That I am. If you want to know something specific, ask. I promise you that I will tell you anything you want to know, no lies."

Shirou took a deep breath and got ready to ask his question...only to realize he didn't know what to ask. He felt stumped, lowering his head as he can only feel stuck in his own mind. Here it is a golden opportunity to learn everything his father has been up to and Shirou simply didn't know what he should ask.

Sirzechs says nothing while the minutes pass, he sits patiently waiting for Shirou to say anything at all, a smile on his face to invite any question he desires.

"I am sorry." Shirou says after a good while. "It seems that I can't think of anything to ask."

Instead of anger, the former Gremory just keeps smiling. "It is because I am not the person you want to question." Shirou raises his head and looks up to the devil. "Think about it. You are worried with your family, even after learning a lot of uncomfortable things about them that is still your priority. When I told you about your father's lack of connection to the Khaos Brigade you already felt more relaxed about it."

The magus couldn't deny that, the first question has been jumping on his mind for over a month and the fact that his parents may know more about that than he and nobody said anything was one of his main gripes with the situation that made him irritated.

"The person you need to talk about your father is your father. There is no denying that he did bad things, lots of it. Same thing about your sister, really." Now Sirzechs looks down to his own hands, closing them firmly. "Sometimes I wonder how my son will feel once he knows what I had to do to protect our race. Will he hate me? Recent me? Or look at me with pride? The last one is the one that scares me the most." The admission surprised Shirou. "It doesn't matter to me what the devils were in the past. We, this generation of Maou, are trying to improve things, make peace and take care of others as we take care of our own. Even then this is a path full of blood and I am trying to raise Millicas, my son, to be a good man." The next smile he offered Shirou was the saddest one of the whole day. "And good men sometimes hate monsters."

Shirou didn't know what to say but thought, 'Is this how my father feels?' It was prominent on his head, a single line that practically got stuck there and was not leaving. He lost all the courage, all the will of asking anything personal about his parents then and there.

But something came back with it. His previous resolve of asking his father personally is back in full. He also wants to talk with Illya.

"Sir." Shirou looks at Lucifer, determined. "Can I ask a favor?"

"Of course. Free of charge, I still owe you for the delicious food." Shirou shakes his head.

"You owe me nothing. But if you want to pay me back, make sure he can't dodge me anymore." Shirou says with conviction. "It is way past the time we talked."

With a smile Sirzechs replies. "Those are some nice eyes you have." Shirou blinks in surprise but the other redhead continues. "That barely accounts for a favor, I am already making sure that, once his current assignment is done he comes straight to Japan, no detours or other jobs until he does it. Ask anything else if you want me to consider us even."

'A favor?' The idea of having a favor from some is not particularly appealing to him so he decides to ask a question, more out of curiosity than anything else. "Then tell me what was the favor you asked from my father."

"Huh?" Sirzechs can say he is definitely surprised. "You sure?" After he got a nod from Shirou he shrugs. "Fine by me if that is what you want but please don't tell Rias, she is going to be a little upset if she knows what I did."

Now Shirou is really curious. "What did you do?"

"A little explaining first." The devils said with enthusiasm. "You see, one of my peerage is a japanese samurai of the old times, ever heard of Okita Souji?" A moment of silence passes between them as Shirou sits there with his mouth open, his brain trying to comprehend what he just heard.

"Okita Souji of the Shinsengumi?"

"Yes."

"Didn't he...die?"

"No, well, he was going to die because he had a weak constitution but I liked his skill with a blade and decided to recruit him as my Knight." Another moment of silence. "He is also Kiba's teacher in the art of the sword. As well as he could since Kiba prefered more european swords but he still did a good job."

After that Shirou gives a nod. "Okay."

"Okay?" Now it is Sirzerchs turn to be surprised. "I expected...well…"

"What?" Shirou is curious about what he expected.

"A bigger reaction." The two look at each other in silence. "Moving on, he likes to talk about his old country. The food, the culture, he loves to talk about it to anyone who wants to hear and my little sister found herself endeared to it." Sirzechs tone expresses his joy in talking about these days.

Shirou can imagine a small Rias Gremory running around and asking questions about the nation, it was how she expressed herself in something, how she still talked about the Muramasa or the manga collection she thinks Shirou didn't know about.

"It was such a cute thing too, she would show up to my office and ask about either me or him just to hear more about Japan and a few years later she asked if she could move here." He then puts a hand inside his suit and pulls up a wallet, when the Maou opens it Shirou can see dozens of pictures in cascade of his wife, a little Rias until her more recent days and a small boy with red hair that looks like the siblings. "This was her in those days and this is my son Millicas."

He offers Shirou to take the wallet and the magus does so with care. 'His son really looks a lot like the father.' Shirou also sees Grayfia in more pragmatic clothes and the young Rias in a black dress that looks like something a noble from the middle ages would use.

"After she asked to move here I checked the territories that we had years before she could move to one, Fuyuki if you want me to be precise." Sirzechs continues while Shirou looks at the pictures. "This town was still growing and we didn't know the consequences of the fire at the time. On the magical side that there was little we could see, the mundane on the other hand had some unwanted consequences."

Shirou closes the wallet and offers it back which the Satan takes with gusto. "Such as?"

"A spike in crime rates, tragedy brings out opportunity and there were those who abused it to fill their pockets." He says with a shrug. "At that point your father had already agreed to the favor so I asked him to clean the mess." Sirzechs can't help but look at Shirou with serious eyes. "He looked for a family that could be considered the most decent criminal family and offered them power in return from making sure the criminal activity wouldn't involve hard drugs or slavery. One Yakusa family accepted the deal and he started killing." Shirou's gulp was loud but Sirzechs ignored him and leaned his arms on the table. "The bodies he piled up that day were enough that everyone in the criminal underworld of Japan knows that Fuyuki is a no fly zone. Crime here is only relevant of the supernatural variety and we have other people around to deal with them, even making sure that my sister and the other Owners don't face anything they can't win. All under your father's name."

Shirou is a little frightened with what he heard, he now can understand why even at the dead of the night Fuyuki is extremely peaceful, his father gutted every single criminal element in town and installed the ones that would obey his orders. 'How many...how many did he kill?' But the young redhead is afraid to ask, afraid that the answer would make him sick, only hearing about it is already starting to make him sick. "It is my fault. All those lives and it was my fault. All for a favor."

Sirzechs shakes his head and gets up from the chair, he approaches Shirou and places a hand on his shoulder. "Don't blame yourself for it. If it is any consolation, the majority of them deserved it."

"'The majority'. Can you tell me about the minority then?" Shirou fights to not swear or scream. "Can you tell me, with absolute certainty, that my father didn't kill any innocent? Or maybe those that were just starting crime and could just be rehabilitated? Or how many were caught in the crossfire? Do all these people exist or did he manage to get only the truly guilty ones?"

"I won't lie to you, he probably killed his fair share of innocents, both for my favor and outside of it." The devil felt a certain pity on his heart. "If I was to describe your father I would call him a man with a will and efficiency like a machine. He may take many lives but it is because it honestly is the best means to obtain results." He grips Shirou's shoulder a little more tightly. "He doesn't kill without motive."

And with that Sirzechs left the office to spend a little more time with his sister before he had to return to the Underworld in the morning. The political situation there is not ideal for him to stay away for long periods of time, neither him or Serafall.

Shirou doesn't know what to do with himself at the moment, he can just sit there and think. Think about everything he heard, about his family, about Fuyuki. All he felt like doing was thinking.

He kept going until a pair of hands covered his eyes. "Guess who~?" There is an attempt to disguise her voice but unfortunately for her Shirou could feel something that told him who it was since the girl made no effort to keep her chest at a distance.

"Did something happen Akeno?" Shirou asks with the little patience he could muster.

And Akeno noticed. "You have been here for a couple of hours already and I thought about coming here to see what you are doing." She points to an old clock standing close to the wall while saying it.

"Didn't you have work today?" He honestly wasn't in the mood for anything at the moment but managed to bite back a more harsher reply.

"I did one contract and came back when I noticed that Liz and Koneko were still sitting around." She moves a little to sit on the desk at his side. "I checked your workshop and you weren't there so I came here. Care to share what is troubling you?"

Shirou is about to deny her but he couldn't, he felt no strength to even do that. "Just thinking."

"About?" The vice-president of the ORC insisted.

"Stuff."

"Stuff?"

"Yeah, stuff." He really doesn't want to say anything more about it.

"Did Sirzechs-sama didn't want to tell you about your father?" The Queen's guess was good.

"He did. I…" The son of the Emiya house doesn't know how to even say what he wants.

Akeno looks at Shirou as he stops talking, letting the silence take hold between them. If anything, this situation looks familiar to her. "If you want, you don't need to tell me." His eyes looked at her as she offered a small smile. "What happened, happened. It had nothing with you right? So you don't need to tell me."

The red head looks to his hands, closing them into fists. "Apparently my father killed people for me. A lot of them."

Silence takes over again as the Queen doesn't know what to say. She understands why such a thing would botter Shirou a lot. 'He is a good man with a gentle soul.' An idea comes to her head and she picks his hand. "Come here." She gently props him up and to the couch where she sits and taps one side for him to sit.

He obliges and sits there as Akeno then taps her lap making him a little confused. She taps it three times slowly and when she doesn't see him reacting she does it again only to receive a raised eyebrow.

"Really, Shirou-kun? Don't you know when a girl is offering you a lap pillow?" At Akeno's complaint Shirou blushes a bit.

"I-" Before he can say anything she gently pulls him with an arm, her Rook strength giving him no chance for escape, and placing his head on her lap.

"There, now you can try and relax for a bit." He still can't help but blush a little as her chest is still on his sigh even with her relaxing her back. Shirou looks to the side as Akeno starts to pat his head and play with his hair.

Shirou can feel himself relaxing as he fails to recall if he ever had been in such a position before. Iri, while a doting mother, never did such a thing for him even as she covered him with hugs and kisses, Illya also never offered as they played together and worked together in things they liked to share.

'This is nice.' Shirou thinks to himself as his eyes start to get a little heavy. "Akeno...I-"

"You don't need to tell me anything." She pauses to let him process her words. "You are Emiya Shirou. I don't know your father or what he did, maybe he did terrible things or maybe could have done things differently, but they don't define you. Only you and your actions matter." Akeno relaxes as well as she plays with his hair, her other hand on his chest. "So don't worry, I won't judge you for other people's actions and neither should you do this to yourself."

With those words now on his mind, Shirou takes a deep breath and relaxes, letting his eyes close. "If I start to bother your legs feel free to tell me."

"Fufufu, don't worry about it. Just rest for now." Even with the offer Shirou wouldn't fall asleep, he wouldn't let Akeno stay there all night or let Liz and Koneko waiting for him. But he will rest gladly, a little nap will do, as he is feeling more at peace than he ever did in a long time.

Outside the office a certain cat lets out a sigh. "Maybe having a secret identity wasn't such a good idea." Yoruichi starts to walk away. "Well played little Queen. Shame I can't just go in and interrupt them. It can't be helped that I have good manners. Bad luck for me, good luck for her."

…..