The night was darker than usual. In a sleepy, unsuspecting town like Kuoh, such nights were not rare and on such occasions, most people didn't like going outside. For the night scene, people partied unaware of the world that lay beyond the haze of the music, drinks, and occasional psychedelics that were being passed around.

And tonight was one such occasion where the students of Kuoh University and Kuoh Academy partied their stress out, unaware of what was happening in the shadows.

The ground shook violently and from the cloud of dust, a massive deformed monstrosity sprang up. She was completely nude with a mouth located on her stomach and had a centaur-like appearance. The monster snarled as she thrust both her spears toward her prey.

Two blurs jumped out of the way and landed on the spears before dashing forward toward her.

"Ichika! I got the front!" Shin brandished Clarent as he neared the monster's chest.

"Fine! I'll get her from the top!" Ichika called out.

"Insolent humans! I'll tear you limb from limb!" the monster said. Magic circles appeared on her bare nipples before a stream of viscous green fluid sprayed from it.

Shin's eyes widened in disgust. He darted to the right, avoiding the fluid. His eyes narrowed as the fluid began to eat away at the ground where it landed.

"Acidic breast milk! Damn it, Rias! Can't you give us normal devils to take out!?" Shin said, dashing to her legs.

"Fret not, my loyal Knight! Allow your Empress to take care of it! Grant me power, Boosted Gear Superbia!" Ichika called.

The gauntlets and greaves on her feet shimmered.

[Boost]

A rush of power flooded Ichika. She made a few hand signs before encasing her arms in a white, translucent circular armament made of esoteric Japanese symbols.

"Let me follow up! Void Rending Bullet, come forth at once!" Shin made a hand symbol. Several small blue spheres appeared around him and fired at the creature, peppering it and leaving several bleeding holes in its body.

"Ichika!" Shin yelled. He manifested Failnacht in his other hand and trained the pistol on the monster's left arm. A gunshot rang through the night air as Failnacht's energy bolt struck through its arm, severing it from the body.

The monster howled in agony, looking up just in time for Ichika to dive down toward it. Red energy gathered into the palm of her hand as she threw it forward.

"Taste the dragon's flames!"

In a flash of red light, the monster fell to the ground, weak and battered. Its entire arm had been vaporized by Ichika's energy blast.

She landed on the ground and faced the monster.

[Boost]

Red aura gathered into the palm of her hand again. She raised it toward the creature, who reached out to her weakly. Her eyes widened slightly when she saw its desperation to live. A plead to her to let it go and to spare it. Her conscience shook as she yelled at herself internally to finish it off. However, in that moment of hesitation, the creature attempted to strike.

But it never could.

Its head slipped off its neck and hit the ground with a wet thud.

Ichika stumbled back in surprise, the energy sphere in her hand dispersing.

"And that's that," Shin said. He looked down at the now-dead creature with an impassive gaze With a flourish, Shin swiped the blood of Clarent's blade before dispersing it back into harmless pixels.

Ichika stared for a moment at its lifeless, glassy eyes. She had been at this now for a few weeks. This should have been easy for her. Her hands balled into fists.

"Ran. Burn it," Shin said, noticing the expression on Ichika's face.

"Yes, master." Ran appeared next to Shin. She extended her hand and the monster was soon engulfed by a raging black inferno.

"You hesitated again," Shin said, watching as the onyx flames devoured the corpse.

"I… I'm sorry," Ichika said.

"Don't be. It's never easy to take someone else's life," Shin patted her back in an attempt to comfort her.

"Yeah…"

Shin took his hand off her back and rubbed his chin. "Still, you're getting there. You basically got everything down. Good thing your judo skills translated over to your new life. Living in this world and knowing what everything is isn't really all that safe."

Ichika stared silently at the flames. She didn't feel anything as she stared at the flickering inferno. The sight of the fire drew her in, reminding her of the constant presence of her other self whispering in the recesses of her subconscious.

"Ichi."

She said nothing as she continued to stare at the burning corpse. Her breathing became slightly uneven and erratic.

"Ichika?"

She slowly reached out toward the black flames. Her eyes unfocused as she reached for something that wasn't there.

"Ichika!"

Ichika blinked when she felt Shin's hand on her arm. Her eyes widened with surprise when she saw how close her arm was to the flames. She pulled her arm back, taking a few steps away from the flames.

"Are you alright? You zoned out on me and started walking toward the fire," Shin said.

"Yeah. Just… a bit overwhelmed," she whispered.

Shin nodded and turned to the flames. "I'm not going to say it gets easier the next couple of times you do it… but… you tend to stop thinking about it after a while."

Ichika glanced at Shin and back to the corpse. "Let's go home," she said. Ran reverted to her dog form and bounded after Ichika as she walked away from the burning body.

Shin nodded and the three left the warehouse without saying another word.

Lunchtime at school was its usual affair. People separated into their cliques and had lunch together. While they were invited to eat within the Occult Research Club Room, Shin and Ichika ate by themselves, more often than not. The two had their own spot in either the classroom, or on the school roof.

Ichika picked at her food before shoveling it into her mouth. Last night's events were a distant memory for her and she had bounced back quickly.

"So how would you grade last night's performance on a scale of 1 to 10?" Ichika asked, her mouth full of fried chicken.

Shin swallowed his food before thinking. He grabbed a sweet rolled omelet from Ichika's bento and popped it into his mouth. After chewing and thinking for another few seconds, he looked at her. "I'd say about a 7.5 out of 10," he said.

"7.5? Still not an 8?" Ichika asked.

"You asked me not to go easy on you. Your info-gathering was almost perfect. You could work on the way you entered the premises but you managed in that fight rather well. The only thing is…" Shin trailed off.

"Right… actually killing the target," Ichika said, poking at her food.

Shin said nothing and picked some tempura from his bento. He looked at Ichika, who was deep in thought as she ate. He sighed and placed his chopsticks down. His hand reached across their desks and flicked her nose.

"Ow! What the—!?" Ichika almost dropped her chopsticks. She glared at him while holding her nose with her other hand. "What was that for!?"

"I thought it would be funny," he replied.

"Why you—"

"Don't think too much about it. I'm not going to make you go kill something just for you to get over it. I'm not that heartless," Shin said, cutting her off. "And I'm not telling you it's okay to go take other people's lives so casually either. But that is the reality of our life, especially since you told me you wanted to keep tagging along with me. We'll have to kill people eventually, whether we like it or not. Doesn't mean we have to enjoy it."

Ichika rubbed her nose. She sighed and looked down at her food. "Right…"

"Let's stop talking about that. You're doing well magic wise at least. That's something I don't have to worry about when it comes to you," he said.

"You…" Ichika sighed. "Yeah, at least I am. I'm going to try to go through more of those scrolls you gave me the night we babysat Kouyou. At least, squeeze in some time before we get our next job. You never told me we never get breaks!" she whined.

"We do. But the number of jobs we get is erratic. You're lucky we mainly stalk this town. Rias and Sona almost always have a job lined up for us. But internationally, we'll be lucky if we can even get a—"

Shin's phone buzzed on his desk. He raised an eyebrow and grabbed it. His eyebrows furrowed as he read the message on his phone.

"What? What is it?" Ichika asked, noticing the look on his face.

"I think I may have jinxed us," Shin said, placing his phone down for her to see. "It's from Sophia."

Ichika swallowed her food and grabbed Shin's phone. Her eyes narrowed when she read the message. She looked down at Shin's phone for a few seconds then to Shin and back again to his phone. The message was still there no matter how many times she looked away.

[Help]

Shin snatched his phone from her hand and began typing furiously. The look of annoyance on his face was evident as his fingers flew across the keyboard of his phone.

"Is she okay?" Ichika asked.

"Dunno. She hasn't read it. Italy's behind us by 7 hours. It should take a while for her to see this message, especially if she just sent it before going to sle—"

Shin's phone dinged before he could even finish. His eyebrow twitched as he read the message.

[How fast can you come over to the Vatican? And don't take a plane. I need you here ASAP.]

Shin's eyebrow twitched as he snatched his phone and began typing quickly.

"You… kind of do owe her one," Ichika said.

Shin rubbed his temples. "Yeah, yeah, don't remind me."

"Are we going to take a few days off school?" Ichika tossed the last piece of her bento into her mouth.

"Yeah, we might have to. Sophia probably got this job a few days after she got back. Look on the bright side, at least we can go see Asia and…"

"And?" Ichika asked.

Shin hesitated for a few moments. "Well, Irina too."

"Irina? Wait… I thought she moved to the UK. What's she doing in the Vatican?" Ichika asked.

Shin's silence was the only answer she needed. It took her a few seconds to connect the dots. "Her too? Wait, was I the only one who didn't know about this!? First you, then Mii, then Irina!? Did you all just collectively decide just not to tell me?" Ichika asked.

"N- No! We were kids! I didn't even know that you didn't know until I was older! I thought your parents were like mine!" Shin protested, seeing his friend's angry face.

"Still… wait, have you been seeing Irina behind my back? You dare attempt to replace your Empress?"

"Why is that the first thing that comes to your mind!?" Shin replied. "Er… well, I do see Irina from time to time. Our job kind of drives me in that direction where I have to work with her more often than not—"

"Unbelievable! And you had the nerve not to tell me or even give me a way to contact her!?" Ichika said.

"W-Well, I was… but I forgot because I was busy pre-farming mats I needed for a return banner! You don't understand Ichika! It was—"

"A gacha! You forgot because of a gacha! Wait, which banner was this— Anyway, that's not the point! How could you hide this!? She's my friend too!" Ichika took a deep breath and calmed herself. After a few seconds of deep breathing, Ichika looked up at Shin. "You know what... I'm not going to be mad. Being 12 years late is better than never. So when do we leave?"

"It was the Fire Omni Evolution banner. I was trying to get Lava and pre-farm to get her to Ignis Vestae Lava. But, yeah, give me a second." Shin looked down at his phone and typed a message in response. After a few seconds, a new message popped up.

[Today or tomorrow would be nice. I had Mom arrange so if you took Devil teleportation here, then the Church won't blast you immediately on sight. And try to bring Ichika too. Asia misses her. :D]

"She wants us there as soon as possible. So we'll leave a little after school ends so we can pack," he said.

"What does she mean by Devil teleportation?" Ichika asked.

"I use the Sitri Family crest sometimes to teleport. It's usually only when I'm out of Gate Talismans. I don't have any on me so we'll be using Sona's Crest to get to the Vatican," Shin answered.

"Can't you just make some?" she said, packing her bento away.

"Do you want to die?"

"What?"

"I have Kureha make them for me because I can never get the brush strokes for it right. Unless you want to end up cut in half, then…"

"On second thought, we can use Sona's Crest."

Ichika was the only person he was waiting on. He looked up from his phone and sighed. It had been 4 hours since school ended and they had promised to meet up 1 hour ago. He looked to Sona, who was busy reviewing schedules on a spreadsheet on her phone. Ran sat on his lap, sleeping soundly. Her soft snores were the only sound present at the moment, aside from the background music coming from Shin's phone.

"Where do you want me to drop you three off?" Sona asked, putting her phone down.

Her words flew right over Shin's head as he furiously tapped at his phone.

"You keep forgetting to slot HP into your character's grids. That's why you keep getting knocked down by Faa-san's opening move," Vivi said, hovering behind Shin.

"Yeah, yeah, just let me reset the grid. I have Europa as the main summon for my character so—"

"Shin."

"Yeah?" He looked up.

"Drop off. Where. Inside the Vatican?" Sona asked.

Shin placed his phone down and got up. Ran, awakened by the sudden motion, hopped off his lap. He thought about his choices for a few seconds before settling on a location. "Just drop us off at the usual spot. You know I never go into the Holy See with a Devil Crest. Even if Sophia has Lady Uriel vouching for me, getting into the Vatican with the Sitri Devil Crest is nigh impossible. Not to mention that Traditionalists. They might not blast me on sight for entering Rome on a devil's magic circle but it might get dicey," he said.

"So just outside the Starbucks in Rome?" Sona said. She held her hand out. A large magic circle appeared on the ground. A smaller one of similar design appeared in her hands. "Let me recalibrate it. I had to use it to go home yesterday so its target is still Sitri Territory in the Underworld."

As Sona was calibrating the magic circle, the door to the student council room burst open. A ragged Ichika sprinted inside with a large, bloated hiking pack on her back. "I'm… not… late!" she panted, stumbling forward. The weight of the bag on her back was throwing off her balance.

"You need me to take that pack for you?" Shin asked, holding his arm out.

"It's fine! This much is fine for a Dragon Empress such as myself. There is no need to waste your strength on me, my Knight," Ichika said, regaining her footing.

"I mean, I can always just store it in here." Shin pulled a small scroll out of his pocket. He unrolled the scroll, revealing a small array of various kanji that encircled a large character in the middle. "It's a storage talisman. I have all my stuff in here. Clothes. Bag. Snacks. You wanna stuff your pack in here? It's not at capacity yet."

Ichika stared at the talisman for a few seconds. She wanted to refuse but her spine was now practically begging her to hand her pack over to Shin. In the end, she relented and took her backpack off.

Shin took the bag from her, surprised by the weight of it. "What the hell did you pack in here?"

"Essentials."

"What kind of essentials?" he raised an eyebrow as he hefted the bag and placed it on the talisman. The talisman glowed and absorbed the large bag into the piece of paper.

"Clothes. Toiletries… a camera."

Shin nodded and slipped the talisman back into his pocket. "Just letting you know that this is going to be our first international mission so let me give you some pointers about the Holy See. You know that Christianity is divided into three major branches: Catholicism, Protestantism, and Orthodox."

"Yeah, thanks for the fifth-grade history lesson," Ichika replied.

Shin rolled his eyes and continued on with his explanation. "That's the human side of things. On the supernatural side of things, the Church remains somewhat united but is split into two major factions. There is the Traditionalist Faction that strives to follow and maintain the status quo of the Church and there is the Inquisition or the Progressive Faction that strives to advance the Church's ideals into the modern age. Sophia is part of the Inquisition so we'll mostly be working with them.

"...And given your status as the wielder of the Boosted Gear—"

"Boosted Gear - Superbia."

"Huh?" Shin asked.

"Boosted Gear - Superbia. That's what I'm calling it! I've been researching Sacred Gears at Prez's clubroom and I think I might have what is called a Subspecies," Ichika puffed her chest out with pride.

"Can… Can you even confirm this?" Shin asked.

"No."

"Right…," Shin coughed into his hand. "Anyway, since you are a Longinus Wielder, be careful. There are people on both aisles of the Church that would want to brainwash you and indoctrinate you into fighting for Heaven."

"As if I'll allow some paltry men of clergy to chain me down. My dragon's eye allows me to see through all deception!" Ichika said.

"Like that one time you got scammed by that stall owner into believing that the eyeball he had in a mason jar belonged to a vampire?" Shin asked.

"T- That was one time! That knave had some sort of cloaking magic on him—"

"Or that other night we were coming back from clean up and then you fell for an obvious bait from that other stall owner that told you that he had authentic vampire's blood," he continued.

"I wasn't feeling that well that night! I have told you that I am capable of verifying the validity of all alchemical ingredients," Ichika said.

As the two bickered, Sona coughed into her hand. "I have the circle ready. It's outside the Starbucks in Rome as per usual."

Shin and Ichika stopped arguing. Shin nodded gratefully. "Thanks, Sona. I owe you one."

"Just consider this payment for that one time I forgot to pay you for one of the jobs," Sona said.

"We'll be back, President," Ichika said as she stepped onto the magic circle.

"Sona, be careful. Onee and I aren't in town and Riser is still in the Underworld with Momiji visiting his parents," he said as the magic circle began to glow.

"Don't underestimate me, Shin. I've seen more than my fair share of unfair fights when we used to go out on jobs together," Sona said, pushing her glasses up.

"I know. Just don't let your guard down. With Yaldabaoth still out there…"

"I got it. Just focus on your job and come home safely, Shin," Sona said.

Ichika and Shin smiled before the light completely engulfed them. The light blinded the two momentarily before dying down as suddenly as it came. Ichika rubbed her eyes as her vision came back to her. Her surroundings had drastically changed. She was no longer in the Kuoh Academy Student Council.

They were suddenly in the middle of an unfamiliar street. The searing light of the Mediterranean sun cast its warmth on them. Groups of people moved around them, chatting in a variety of different languages, Italian chief among them. The street was lined with old European architecture.

Like last time, the sudden relocation was accompanied by a dizzying sensation of vertigo. However, it wasn't as bad as before.

"You okay?" Shin asked, noticing her pale face.

"Yeah, yeah, not that used to teleportation yet—" Ichika gagged as she felt some bile rise into her throat. "So… this is Italy?"

"Yeah. Come on, let's go. Sophia is waiting for us at the entrance of Vatican City," Shin said, walking past her.

"Damn it! How are we losing against two kids!" A man ran down the hallway as his comrades behind him fell one by one. An explosion rang out in the background, causing the entire building to quake violently from the force. He needed to inform them. They were compromised in this location. They needed back up immediately or all their efforts would go to waste.

He kicked a door open, stumbling into a room filled with various devices.

"Guard the door! I need to contact Valper and a few others to send him over here to retrieve them!" he barked.

The other occupants in the room—all clad in religious vestments—nodded. One by one, they armed themselves with pistols and light swords, gathering around the door. He quickly began contacting everyone, sending messages to all the cells and branches.

"Damn it! Damn it! I didn't think that the Inquisition and the Traditionalists would be working together with this! Damn that witch! She should have been grateful she was even born! Project Daybreak is the only reason she exists!" the man snarled.

As he gazed upon the list of contacts, his eyes fell upon one name. Fear gripped his heart and he gulped. Notifying her of their setback might result in a fate far worse than death itself. With some hesitation.

Katalina Ginsberg.

His finger hovered over the contact. However, before he could do anything, the doors to the control room burst open.

The screams of rogue exorcists, followed by the clash of steel and magic, rang out through the room. Sensing that he had no time, the Rogue Exorcist pressed the button.

"Miss Katalina, we have a situation— urk!"

The blade of a blue and gold greatsword jutted out from his chest. Blood flowed freely down the wound. The blade was pulled out with an unnerving wet noise, akin to meat being cut, and the man fell to the ground. He weakly reached for the terminal.

Behind him, a girl with blue hair stood over his body, staring uncaringly at his dying form. She was clad in a form-fitting black suit that hugged and accentuated all her curves. Next to her, a girl with auburn hair styled in twin tails and violet eyes walked up to her. She was dressed in a similar garb except hers were sleeveless. She had a katana in her hands, whose blade retracted slightly into the hilt.

"Xenovia, at least leave one of them alive. We need to get some information out of them, you know," the twin-tailed girl said.

"Our mission was to bring them all dead or alive, Irina," Xenovia said.

Irina sighed and looked down at the corpse. Her eyes flicked over to the screen where the names of several individuals were listed.

"Looks like they're just under someone's payroll," Irina said.

"And that they were trying to contact someone. But whatever it is… it looks like we managed to stop them before the call could go through," she said.

Irina walked past her and pulled a small device out of her pocket. She attached it to a port on the terminal and her fingers began to fly across the keyboard. "I got all the files we needed. Let's go."

"Whatever it is, we're done here. We got what we needed," Xenovia said.

"Ehhh? You're boring," Irina said. She followed after her. Her katana morphed into a white string that she tied around her bicep. "But… it'd be nice if Shin-chan were here. I wonder… how he and Ichika are doing…"

Dawn breaks across the Vatican

Daybreak I: A New Job

Yes, Shin lost to Paradise Lost.

Anyway, the second arc has begun. We have officially become Not!Azure because this "Holy Sword" arc takes place in the Vatican. Unlike the Redux Arc, I'll probably start making titles for the chapters like I did in Azure. I just want to thank you all for supporting this fic. I'd like it if you guys continued to drop reviews. I really do read them. So until then, see you guys whenever.