"All in all, he honestly took it better than I thought." Sora said as he sat on his bed.
"Better than you thought?!" Rias glared at her boyfriend as she stood over him. "What part of him storming off with the most desolate look in his eyes I've ever seen was 'better than you thought?!'"
"I half-thought he was going to fly into a rage and have to fight him then and there before touching bases with you on what my plan was." Sora crossed his arms, a serious look on his face. "I didn't expect to see Blade Blacksmith in his soul. He only showed it after gaining his X-Side Balance Breaker, and even then it took until the Rating Game with Sairaorg."
She blinked. "My cousin?"
Sora waved his hand in dismissal. "It's a whole other issue. I'm going to have to go down the series arc by arc so we can plan and train accordingly."
"Is the future really that crazy?"
"It's crazy enough for Issei to go from the weakest Sekiryuutei to the strongest history has ever known, and a bonafide Super Devil within a year."
Rias just stood there, absolutely stunned, still trying to process what she had heard.
"Yeah, Issei's boob lust is more or less the perfect compliment to the power of the Boosted Gear. Shame about Ddraig though, poor bastard had to go to therapy due to how his reputation changed."
Rias couldn't help but laugh. "That's amazing!"
"It is, but back to focusing on Kiba." His face turned serious again. "There's no easy way to address his trauma without triggering him. I didn't expect to see Blade Blacksmith in his soul, but it makes sense." Sora turned to look out the window, a solemn look on his face. "He needs to get hit with reality. He needs to understand that he's weak and has been wasting his time."
Rias felt a surge of anger flow into her. She clenched her fist, she wanted to slap Sora after he said those words. Kiba was her faithful Knight, never once had he let her down, and Sora was his best friend. Hearing Kiba's own best friend talk about him like this… it was infuriating beyond measure. But she remembered how he handled Koneko. He was able to get her to open him to him and comfort her in a way the entire Peerage had failed to for years. She had even begun dabbling in Senjutsu again, much to her shock.
"Explain." Rias said simply, her tone grave.
Sora paused, turning to face her, and looked her right in the eyes. "I'm not gonna sugarcoat it. He's spent all this time hating some hunks of holy metal instead of doing proper research and finding the people responsible for the Holy Sword Project. He was trained personally by Souji Okita, yet uses western sword styles and blades to more fit his 'theme' as a knight. And he is genuinely incompetent when it comes to using his Sacred Gear, the fact that Issei had to take charge when they first encountered Annihilation Maker, and be given the most obvious and basic solution was quite embarrassing."
Rias had half the mind to slap him then and there due to his near condescending tone.
"Kiba has the potential to be one of the greatest heavy-weights in the Underworld, but right now, he's wasted potential. Though that could be said of everyone in his Peerage." Sora's eyes were unwavering. "Yourself included."
Rias felt as if she'd been slapped. "How could you say that?!"
Sora's gaze was still unwavering, but now there was a fire in his eyes. "Because I've seen you all at your peaks, and I still found myself wanting, because I know the insane potential you all hold. And I'd be even further damned if I didn't do everything I could to help you reach it."
"I…" Rias was too stunned for words, especially since she understood the weight of what Sora had said as someone who had seen the future of their world.
Sora clapped his hands together and smiled. "Alright, enough of cold hard reality for now. I'm pretty sure my mom is done suffocating Asia with her chest by now."
[-]
Kawakami Aki stared in amusement as his beloved wife hugged the small blonde girl, Asia, to her sizable chest, lifting the poor little thing off the floor with her height. Hina was six feet tall and half-German, and had inherited her height from her father, Christoph, a former bodybuilder turned chessmaster.
Aki had lived a long and fruitful life, in his humble opinion. Right out of high school he had joined the military and quickly rose through the ranks before hitting Rikusōchō/First Sergeant, then he was sponsored by the military to attend university to get his degree in order to be further promoted. It was there in university where he met the love of his life. By the time everything was said and done, he had served twenty-four years in the military and left with the rank of Santō Rikusa/Major.
Now, he was fifty-four years old with, ran a successful family-owned bakery along with his wife and his one and only son…
He was nothing but proud of his son, Sora. He was a bright young man with a good head on his shoulders. He even shared his son's interests in anime and videogames, though it certainly helped that his boy had an discerning eye for quality entertainment, and could take his losses, when they played fighting games, in stride. He had gotten into a prodigious school and made loyal friends, and now he was in a relationship with Rias Gremory. Aki didn't have to worry about his son's future, especially with how well off the Gremory family was.
"Two weeks ago, I was murdered. Rias brought me back to life as a devil."
Aki took a long sip of his hot chocolate to calm himself down.
Some bastard had laid a hand on his family…
Sora had opted not to talk about it just yet, preferring to explain about what it meant becoming a devil, and the wider supernatural world around them that had remained hidden all their lives. It did wonders to ease Hina's worries, but Aki, he still had to know just what his son had gone through, and what son of a bitch dared hurt his boy.
He heard footsteps as Sora and his girlfriend, Rias, walked into the dinning room. They were both still wearing the school uniforms.
"Mom! Calm down, she's turning blue!" Sora rushed over to Asia and Hina, began desperately trying to pry the poor girl from his mother's steel-like grip.
"But she's so adorable!" Hina whined.
"Stahp!" Sora exclaimed as he made progress in freeing the poor blonde nun.
Truly, it was a miracle they didn't have a dozen cats in their house.
Eventually, his son did finally get Asia out of Hina's hands and sat the poor nun at the table.
Asia heaved in large gulps of air. "I think I saw the Lord for a minute…"
Aki smiled under his mustache.
Sora had put up a sort of forcefield around the home that automatically translated foreign languages for them. It was most definitely helpful, he didn't know a lick of Italian.
Magic truly was convenient.
Sora placed a slice of chocolate cheese cake along with a fork and a cup of tea in front of Asia.
He patted her head over her habit. "Enjoy."
The little girl smiled brightly enough to light up the room. "Ah, thank you!"
Then Sora turned to Aki. "You wanted to talk, dad?"
Aki nodded and got up, he followed him to the balcony of the house, closing the sliding door behind them. A comfortable silence fell upon them as they watched the night sky, the crescent moon hanging above them.
The portly man reached up, putting a hand on his taller son's shoulder. "Are you okay, Sora?"
"I'm…better." He paused, just looking at the moon. "A lot better than when Rias first brought me back from the dead. I was in a really bad place at the time, and did a lot of stupid things…nearly got myself killed all over again a couple times."
"And the person that killed you…?"
Sora swiped his hand, and to his surprise, a red holographic screen popped up. It showed a man in white priest garbs and a black coat, he had snow-white hair and crazed red eyes.
"Freed Sellzen, a stray priest forsaken by the Vatican." He explained. "A psychotic nut job that uses his job as an exorcist to kill people. He kidnapped me, crucified me, cut me open like a pig, and left me to bleed out."
Aki felt a fiery rage boil in his heart. "Where is he now?"
"Hell if I know." Sora sighed. "His boss negotiated with me for his life. I agreed, but not before I beat the piece of shit black and blue."
Aki felt his anger die down a bit, and pat his son on the back.
"He'll be back, I know it." Sora's face twisted into something almost unrecognizable, the blue of his eyes began to glow red, and his lips twisted into a truly cruel smile. "And when he does, I'm going to kill him."
Aki felt his heart twist with grief and anger. That someone turned his little boy into this. That he failed to protect his son. He felt as if he had failed as a father.
"Not without me." Aki said firmly. "I have a few words for this Sellzen myself."
Sora blinked in surprise, his eyes had gone back to their natural blue. "Alright. I…I'll have to gear you up though. Guy's a super soldier, super-human strength, speed, and reflexes, and he's pretty geared out too. He'll probably bring some new toys with him to take me down." He crossed his arms with a smirk. "Joke's on him, I've got a few more tricks up my sleeve too."
Aki took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and lit one, taking a long drag from it. "You better call me first thing when he does. You're grounded if you don't, young man."
Sora laughed. "I'll be sure to add you to the group chat!"
[-]
Kiba stared in confusion as Sora stood outside his apartment with a smug smirk on his face. "Beep-Beep! You sad fuck."
He lifted up two boxes of twenty-four cans of hard cider.
"Let's get hammered!"
The blonde Knight felt his eyes widen. "How did you even-"
"I hypnotized the cashier." He admitted shamelessly as he walked in.
"Y-You can't just use magic on civilians without proper cause!" Kiba exclaimed as he watched Sora take a seat on the couch, and fish out a can from one of the boxes. "And not to mention we're underaged!"
Sora, still smirking, opened one of the cans and took a few large gulps. "We're devils. Drugs, sex, rock 'n roll!"
Kiba gave him a bland look. "That's a stereotype."
The blue-eyed Pawn raised his can with a grin. "One I fully embrace!"
Kiba sighed. "Sora… if this is about what happened in the clubroom, I'm fine, really, I just… need some time to think."
Sora's smile dropped, and he took another sip of his cider. "You can cut the bullshit and be real with me for once, Yuuto."
Kiba nearly flinched at the cold tone of his voice, and the use of his given name. Sora almost always used his family name to address him because he said he liked the way it sounded.
"Rias already informed me about why you acted like that, but I want to hear it from you." He paused. "And drop the nice-guy act, that shit got old fast. I swear, that smile on you is more plastic than American cheese."
The blonde frowned. "I liked it better when you had your own nice-guy act."
Sora snorted. "Ha! Blame Koneko."
"Believe me, I do."
Sora tossed him a can. He caught it and looked at it with some hesitation before he opened the can. With a resigned sigh, he drank a mouthful of the cider. It was sweeter than he was expecting, and burned on the way down his throat a little more than soda did. All in all, it tasted like a mature apple soda, he liked it.
He sat next to Sora, and drank his can in silence, wracking his brain over how to explain everything to his friend. Kiba had seen Sora change a lot in the past few weeks. His first few days as a devil, he was practically scared of his own shadow, then he mangled his own hands by messing around with Transmutation magic…
Kiba took a deep breath, and spoke his mind. "You're a fucking dumbass, you know that, right?"
He snorted. "About time someone other than Rias called me out on that."
Kiba crushed the empty can in his hand. "You treated us all like chess pieces, you asshole. You manipulated us - your friends! We would've done anything for you!"
The smile was gone from Sora's face. "I know, and I took advantage of that."
"I don't give a damn if you booby-trapped that warehouse top to bottom, if Issei hadn't come out of nowhere and awakened the Boosted Gear of all things, you would've been dead all over again!"
Sora opened up another can. "Yup, I fucked around and found out."
Kiba slumped in his seat, looking up at the ceiling with a solemn expression. "Sora… I can't… I just can't go through that all over again."
"I'm sorry." He took a few gulps from his can before letting out a long sigh. "From what I've heard from Rias, everyone in this Peerage has gone through some pretty rough shit."
"Ugh, ain't that the truth." Kiba straightened his back, and cracked his neck. "Lucifer's sake, it's like we're a conga line of trauma."
He put the can to his lips as he saw Sora smirk.
"You've reached the Gremory Peerage Recruiting Agency," Sora began, his voice taking on the cadence of an automated answering machine. "Please list your special power, and or Sacred Gear, and tragic backstory, and we'll get back to you in five to ten business days."
"Pfffttttt!" Kiba laughed, but since he was drinking at the time, he choked on the cider and began coughing, his nose began to sting as some of it went up his nostrils. "Oh hell, that was awful!"
Sora patted his back a few times while he tried to get a hold of himself.
"So… Excalibur got you down, eh?"
Kiba looked between Sora and the can in his hand, and guzzled down the entire can within a few seconds. He began to feel his face heat up a little and a fuzzy feeling in his head.
He picked up another can and leaned back into the couch. "Kiba Yuuto isn't my original name, as you've probably guessed. I'm not Japanese, I was born in Italy, an orphan. Before Rias saved my life, my name was Isaiah. Turns out the orphanage I was at was under the direct supervision of the Vatican's research branch. I and many other orphans across Europe, they said we all had something 'special' in us. Something that would allow the soldiers of the church to strike back against the evils of the world with the Blades of Excalibur, and how it was a great honor."
Kiba remembered it all too clearly. The torturous experiments and invasive surgeries, the punishments they endured when they didn't behave or get the results the researchers wanted. The cold nights where they'd all huddle up together for the slightest bit of warmth, the twisting of his stomach when they weren't given food for days on end.
"We were just a bunch of kids…" He scowled. "And then they killed us all when they realized they couldn't get what they wanted out of us!"
He could practically hear the screams of his friends as the gas entered the chamber. His eyes closed and he could see them all give up their final breaths to save him out of all of them. He could feel the biting snow on his feet, the burning of his lungs from the poison he breathed in… he could even taste the blood in his mouth.
It was years ago, but it still felt like it was only yesterday he woke up in the Gremory manor…
"We were just a bunch of kids…" Kiba crushed the can in his hand in rage, not caring about the cider that spilled onto his hand or the floor. "All for the grace of God and those damn swords. And believe me, not once did they let us forget it. What grace was there in that?!"
Sora shook his head. "Fucking hell, man… that's… fuck."
"That's why I've made it my life's mission to shatter every single one of those damned swords."
"Nah, you can get better revenge than that." Sora crossed his legs and leaned back. "Breaking a bunch of holy sticks ain't gonna avenge anyone."
Kiba turned, facing Sora sitting right next to him. There was a dark, cruel smile on his face, eerily similar to Freed's crazed smiles.
"We still have Azazel by the balls, and he's no doubt got one hell of an information network. Combined with my grimoire, I bet we can find the fuckers in charge of the experiments." He grabbed another can. "I say after we get done dealing with Rias's whole engagement nonsense, we take some PTO and hunt the sons of bitches down. Maybe 'borrow' some of the special holy sticks they're so insistent on blowing, and shove 'em where the sun doesn't shine."
Maybe it was the alcohol in his system, but Kiba laughed. He liked that idea. He really liked that idea.
"Hahahahahaha!" His smile mirrored Sora's, and he raised his can in the air. "I'll drink to that."
"Fuckers won't know what hit 'em!"
Sora clanked his can against Kiba's.
Chapter End