Sirzechs Lucifer raised an eyebrow as he heard his personal phone ring. There were few people that had the number to his immediate phone, mainly his personal family, including his wife and son. His fellow Satans, as well as a few friends.

Caller ID: That Little Shit That Corrupted My Son And Stole Ria-tan's Heart.

His eyes lit up, and he smiled. "Ah, Sora!"

It had been a while since he had heard from the young baker and manga artist. Of course, he had been informed of the tragic circumstances of his reincarnation into a devil. But after having the opportunity to beat the ever-loving piss out of the man that murdered him, he must've been feeling miles better. To take on a veteran exorcist of Freed Sellzen's calibur all on his lonesome, as well as a fallen angel, and nearly win as a newly minted reincarnated devil was highly impressive. Coupled with the fact that he couldn't promote into a more powerful piece at the time made his achievement even more astounding. If he had been able to promote, or if Rias reincarnated him with a more powerful piece, like a Bishop, there was no doubt in Sirzechs's mind that Sora would have slaughtered those fools.

Sirzechs answered the phone, putting it on speaker mode. "Sora! It's been a while."

"Hello…" Sora's voice took on a sinisterly sweet tone. "Brother-in-law…"

Immediately, power exploded from Sirzechs's body, making the entire castle shake. "YOU WHAT?!"

"We held hands before marriage!" He yelled villainously. "Muahahahahahahaha!"

"HOW COULD YOOOOOOOOOOOOOU?!"

SMACK!

Sirzechs's head flew forward slightly due to being smacked in the back of the head by his beloved wife, the flow of power he had unleashed ceased on the spot. "Ow."

"Kawakami-san, please stop teasing Sirzech-sama." His wife, Grayfia, asked politely.

"Awww, but fucking with him is so much fun!"

Grayfia's eyes narrowed. "Only I get to do that."

They could both practically see the evil smirk on his face. "Aw, don't be like that, surely we can make time to share with him on the weekends~? I'll throw in the recipe for those brownies."

The beautiful, drop-dead gorgeous maid had a contemplative look on her face, and a slight twinkle of mischief in her eyes. "Hmmm, maybe we could work something out."

Sirzechs looked at his wife in utter horror. "Nononononono! Please, Satan, no! I'm not playing Linguine Party with that monster again! Not after the Christmas Party, he's evil I tell you! Evil! Just look at what he's done to our baby boy! He's running OTK decks and overly complicated card engines that take eight minutes for his opponent to get their first turn in Combat Creatures!" Sirzechs cried hysterically, tears dripping onto his paperwork. "He's mercilessly crushing everyone in his path! Just where did our sweet little boy go?!"

Sora chuckled darkly. "So, my apprentice has learned true power…"

"Screw you and your overtuned nonsense cards!" The current Lucifer yelled indignantly. "Back in my day, summoning a creature and putting two face downs meant something!"

Sora laughed. "Alright, alright. Onto the serious stuff. First of all: Uh, Rias and I are now officially a couple!"

Sirzechs's rage and sorrow was replaced by joy, he knew just how much his little sister loved Sora. "Oh that's wonderful." He had a sickly sweet smile on his face. "Remember though, break her heart, and I rip out yours~"

"Noted." Sora said without missing a beat. "Second: I know about the engagement to Riser Phenex."

"I see, so Ria-tan informed you already." Sirzechs leaned over his desk, and put his hands together, staring at his phone.

"I'm going to take a shot in the dark here. I'm assuming that the Gremory and Phenex families are pushing for the wedding to happen much sooner than originally agreed. And if Rias still doesn't cooperate, the matter will be settled in an unofficial Rating Game."

The current Lucifer blinked in surprise, he and his wife shared a look. As it so happened, that was exactly what was happening.

"Your assumptions are correct," Sirzechs admitted. "I assume you have a plan? Due to my status as Lucifer, I can't get too heavily involved lest I show blatant favoritism. It would cause strife with the Pillars, we're already fractured enough as it is."

"A month. If you can pull a few strings to get us a month to prepare…" Sirzechs and Grayfia could almost see the borderline evil smile on his face on the other side of the phone. "I can promise you that we'll serve this bird up like a bucket of fried chicken, biscuits and drinks on the side."

He sounded confident, borderline arrogant. Just what had bolstered his ego to such a degree?

But before Sirzechs could give his answer…

"Give me that brownie recipe and consider it done." Grayfia all but demanded.

"Sending you the PDF now."

The current Lucifer gave his wife a look. "Accepting bribes now?"

"Aw, come on, Sirzechs." Sora said in an amused tone. "It's called lobbying, it's legal 'cause it's under a different term."

Sirzechs stared at his phone blankly. "You would make a disgustingly ruthless politician…"

"Bro, do not put me in power." He said seriously. "I would have the entire Underworld ruled under an iron fist with a shadow government in ten years tops."

"Scary thought." Then something came to mind. "So, has Rias told you how popular your webcomic, Chaos Rider HxH is in the Underworld yet?"

"It's popular down there?" Sora sounded confused, but let out a short laugh. "It's a little embarrassing considering it's just a Shonen-styled chibi comic."

Sirzechs felt a smile coming onto his face. "Oh the Gremory Clan published it in paperback form here in the Underworld with Ria-tan's permission."

"Guess that makes sense, she is more or less the co-author."

"The Gremory Clan took 15% of the manga sales, and 25% of the merchandise sales."

"Merchandise? We have merchandise?"

"And we put your earnings in a personal account managed by the Gremory Clan as well… would you like to see how much you earned?"

"Uh… sure?"

Sirzechs and Grayfia shared a mischievous look. He quickly swiped through his phone and copy-pasted the latest account balance update of Sora's earnings into their private messages.

"Three… two… one…"

"HOW MANY ZEROS?!" Sora's shocked shout came from the phone speaker.

Sirzechs's laugh bellowed throughout the castle.

"So, this is the Familiar Forest, eh?" Sora mused as he took in their surroundings.

A blood-red sky, creepy looking trees, the ground as mostly barren gray dirt aside from the occasional patch of grass.

It wasn't the most pleasant looking of places, but it had its charm. Like that old Christmas movie about Halloween monsters.

Though Rias was a little conflicted about the circumstances that led them there.

Only one Peerage was allowed into the Familiar Forest, once a month, and as it turned out, Sona wanted to get Saji his own familiar. Obviously, conflict rose between them. Eventually the matter was agreed to be settled in a game of dodgeball. It started out normal, well as normal as a bunch of devil kids enchanting the balls with magic could get.

…Then Sora pulled a Sora.

Sona stood with her jaw dropped as the shadow of a giant turret loomed over her and her Peerage.

She sent a scathing glare towards Sora. "You know I hate you, right?"

His trademark smug smirk was all over his face. "I know~"

He snapped his fingers, and the turret split into five different guns, all tracking the Peerage with red dot sights.

"Targets verified." Came the automated voice of the turret. "Commencing hostilities!"

Then the screams began…

Never in her life had Rias seen her childhood friend so utterly pissed off before…

Oh well!

"Get da ze!" Shouted a man standing on a branch of one of the trees, he wore a white sleeveless shirt, brown shorts, and a backwards facing cap over his head. "Welcome to the Forest of Familiars!"

"Oh my goodness, Ash Ketchum got out of rehab…" Sora muttered under his breath.

Thanks to viewing his memories, Rias actually understood that reference, and let out a small snort as she lightly elbowed Sora in the side.

"Oh hush." She said with a small laugh, and brought her attention back to the man in the tree. "It's good to see you again Zatouji-san!"

The old man gave a wide grin. "You as well, Lady Gremory! I see you've added a new addition to your Peerage."

Sora waved his hand. "What's good, old man?"

Zatouji let out a laugh. "And he's nowhere near as stiff as the blond was, wonderful!"

Kiba let out a nervous laugh. "Come on, Zatouji-san, that was a long time ago."

Zatouji smirked a little smugly. "True, your attitude's improved."

The old man jumped down from the tree branch and got up in Sora's personal space; the latter paid it little mind, only giving a wry smile.

Zatouji pulled out a large book from his bag. "Now, what kind of familiar are you looking for? Something strong, fast, or maybe a poison-type?"

Sora snorted. "A fast poison-type sounds like it would mesh well with my fighting style."

Zatouji had a glint in his eyes as he flipped through his book. "Then how about a hydra!"

Sora paused. "On one hand, that's awesome…on the other hand, all those skulls and crossbones are telling me no. Got something else?"

"I have just the thing!" Zatouji flipped to another page. "This is one of the great Dragon Kings! The Chaos Karma Dragon, Tiamat! She's the only female of the Dragon Kings and no devil has ever caught her. Of course, that's because her power approaches that of the Maou."

"Yeah, that one's right out." Sora shook his head. "I'm friends with the Red Dragon Emperor, and I've heard the stories of them having a lot of beef with each other."

Zatouji winced. "That's unfortunate."

"You got anything low-maintenance or cute?"

"Hah? Look kid, you can't just pick out only one type of familiar based on how 'cute' it is. To be a Familiar Master you have to find the most powerful, including multiples of the same kind! Then you gotta take the strongest male and female-!"

"Bro, I'm not breeding for shinies or IVs. I keep that shit casual!"

"Listen here you brat!"

Rias watched as the two argued back and forth with an amused look on her face.

It had been a long day, a few hours hike seeing the, quite frankly grotesque Undine, and a rather unfortunate incident with a group of slimes that had left the female members of the Peerage near completely naked, before Akeno came in clutch with a new set of clothes for everyone, I still hadn't found a appropriate familiar.

Now, I wasn't like Issei who would've gone for a familiar in the form of a cute girl, or the clothes dissolving slime, I wanted something actually useful.

Something with a lot of speed to blitz and distract opponents while I fought up front, or one with long range capabilities would be perfect for myself.

Honestly, I'd settle for something easy to take care of…

"Look up there!" Zatouji pointed up at a tree.

I followed his finger and spotted a little blue dragon. The same dragon Asia would've made her familiar in canon.

"A sprite dragon. The offspring of a dragon that uses blue lightning." Zatouji explained.

Kiba was awed. "Oh, that's pretty high-class, isn't it?"

"Wow, it's my first time ever seeing one." Rias said.

"Not sure I'd be too compatible with it." I turned to Zatouji. "I've read up a little bit on sprite dragons, they can see into the hearts of others, right?"

The old man grinned. "Ah, so you have done your research. Yes, sprite dragons can look into the hearts of others. They usually follow stronger dragons, those pure of heart, and Dragon Tamers."

From what I remembered Asia was a natural born Dragon Tamer; not only had she tamed and made a familiar of the little dragon in the tree, but also the Dragon King, Fafnir, and four mass-produced Evil Dragons. Sure, she needed Ophis's blessing for the latter, but it was still kind of crazy.

Zatouji gave me a sly look. "Want to try your luck?"

"Aren't they also notoriously untamable?" I shot back.

At that moment, I heard a growl from the tree. The sprite dragon was looking directly at me…

"Shit…"

The old man gave me an amused look. "I don't think you have a choice here."

"Dammit all." I pulled on the Crimson Grimoire and summoned a silver pistol into my hand. "Set it to non-lethal: Rubber Bullet Protocol." I turned to Rias. "Permission to Promote?"

Rias gave me a knowing smirk. "Granted."

God - ow - I love this woman.

"Promotion, Queen!" The moment the words left my mouth, the image of a red queen chess piece was superimposed on my body for a few seconds, and I was flooded with power.

I felt far stronger than I ever had in my life, lighter than a feather, and reserves of magical power had surged to the point it felt like what I had previously was a mere drop in the bucket to what I had before. I never really understood why Issei bothered to Promote to any other piece than a Queen, it gave you every buff the other pieces had.

Red holographic windows popped up showing me just how much my parameters had improved. It was similar to when Issei used Transfer on me.

I saw the little blue dragon's body spark with blue electricity before he began to fly at me at high speeds.

I grinned. "Let's run the ones, kid."

As hilariously unfortunate as the situation was, Kiba couldn't help but be at the edge of his non-existent seat at seeing Sora fight for the first time. Freed had utterly dismantled the whole Peerage when they faced him, yet Sora fought him blow for blow despite being the weakest of them.

The blue dragon shot down from the tree branch, coated in blue draconic lightning.

It was an opponent that most of the Peerage would have a little trouble beating, Akeno especially since her main element would only serve to strengthen the little dragon.

He was anxiously anticipating the battle to observe his tactics…

Sora kept his pistol trained on the sprite dragon, and shot a single bullet.

They could all feel the massive torrent of wind shifting from the shot. The gales of wind were so concentrated, they were visible.

The dragon collided with the bullet.

…And was immediately sent flying. Hitting the body of the tree it had been perched on, and collapsing onto the floor out cold.

"Ehhhh…" Everyone was at a loss for words.

Sora scratched the back of his head with the barrel of his gun. "Huh…"

Zatouji turned to Sora. "The hell did you do?"

"I, uh, applied a wind spell to my bullet to disperse the lightning."

The old man sighed. "Yeah, that'd do it. I'm impressed you figured it out so quickly."

"Well, lightning is a lazy element, it follows the path of least resistance, so I thought using a wind spell with the purpose of countering the lightning would be best. I just wasn't sure how it would interact with magic lightning, cause, you know… magic?"

"No, no, your logic is sound, and accurate, it's just…"

"It was anticlimactic."

"Yup." Zatouji nodded. "On the bright side, it's bound to accept you as its master since you've shown it how powerful you are!"

"I wouldn't say 'powerful', I'm just good at assessing and exploiting weaknesses."

"Ah, but intelligence and logical thinking too is a sort of power. You'd be shocked how many devils would use a lightning-type against a rock-type and be shocked when they lose."

"Who the hell does that?"

"Adjuka did it when he was but a wee lad."

Sora stood there utterly flabbergasted. "You're shitting me."

Zatouji let out a booming laugh. "Smartest man in the entire Underworld, but even he is helpless before the Familiar Master!"

Kiba was deep in thought as the two talked.

Ever since his bout of drunken vengeance talk with Sora, he had been thinking about things more critically. Specifically, himself, and the meager power he possessed. They had talked more into the night, Sora had said his Sacred Gear was one of the best tools for creative problem solving rather than pure power.

The sprite dragon wasn't a big threat to the Peerage, but it would cause them trouble in a one on one battle. If he were to have fought it, his first thought would have been to use a sword that could absorb lightning… the thought of using wind to outright counter it hadn't even crossed his mind. He didn't even know lightning and wind interacted in such a way, and by Sora's own admission, he didn't even expect it to work.

Logical thinking, and exploiting weaknesses…

The battle, if you could call it that, may have been short, but Kiba believed he learned a lot from that alone.

Chapter End