Chapter 17 : Puny Crow
It happened two days later, at around eleven AM.
One instant, I'm mostly zoning out in English, the next my mind is screaming black with almost as much urgency as when a certain plushie gets fed up during training and tries to [PENETRATE] my perky ass.
I barely register said Red Plushie Emperor's urgent call of 'Partner!' that I'm out of my chair, my Observation Haki helping me pinpoint the exact issue.
Armament Haki spread along my arms and hands, battle-honed instincts kicking in as the first light spear crashes through one the windows.
I don't think.
I just move.
Up, right, right, left, down, up, left, left, right, up, up, down, right, left - wow, kinda close from someone's face, that one - up, up, down, right, left, left-
The fucking artillery barrage comes to a halt just as suddenly as it started, and I slowly exhale as the danger goes away, my Senketsu-provided shoes skidding along the floor as stop I Razor'ing all over the place, dozens of light spears held in my grasp.
In front of me, the wall in front of Kuoh High's courtyard looks like swiss cheese, while glass shards, bricks and plaster dust litter the surroundings and the classroom's floor.
A flex of my Armament coated hands is enough to break the spellforms of the light spears as I straighten up, a deep frown almost etched on my face as the questions, yells and whimpers of my classmates finally reach me.
I don't even move as Ddraig lands on my shoulder, my eyes locked on the courtyard.
"Évidemment, les deux bouffonnes sont à blâmer."Of course, the two retards are to blame. I snarl, my knuckles popping audibly.
"... What are they even trying to do? They should be able to tell that they're both completely outmatched by now." The Welsh Dragon squeaks out interrogatively.
"Never underestimate a zealot's propensity for dumbassery, Ddraig." I answer back distractedly.
Because the world's deadliest plushie is right, Xenovia and Irina are getting toyed with down there. Though I'd probably be more sympathetic to their plight if they hadn't managed to pull a high school's worth of innocent bystanders into their shit!
Above us, the clear skies start to darken, even as the Devils start to mobilize and fly in the courtyard.
"A-Ano, Linlin-san?!" Momo's - very understandably - panicked and shrilly voice reaches me, and I look over my shoulder, "What is happening?!"
My eyes rake over Yuki and her forms, and I feel something in me unclench as I register the fact that they look unharmed, if a bit dusty.
Oh, and Saji is also in one piece. Convenient, that.
"Genshirou!" I bark, prompting him to straighten up from his crouched posture, trembling like a leaf all the while, "It's the Fallen! There's enough of them to bloat out the sky out there! Sitri is down there with the rest of the StuCo! Don't think, move!"
He stares at me for a solid second, before a determined look overtakes his form and, with a solid nod, manifests his wings before jumping-flying through what's left of the windows.
"Linlin-san?" Yuki asks, only minutely more poised than her friend, and my eyes snap back in her direction, her own brown orbs alternatively darting between Ddraig and me, "What is happening?"
My frown deepens.
"The world is bigger than you think, but I don't exactly have the time to explain." My eyes lock with the teacher's own, of whom only the head is visible from under the desk, "Sensei, time to get a grip! Think of it as a terrorist attack, what's the procedure?"
"I- I- Erhm…" The forty-something black haired woman starts haltingly, eyes darting back and forth between what's happening outside and her students as she slowly raises up, "I think we're supposed to regroup in the basement and lock every door behind us?" She squeaks out.
I nod at that.
"That'll do." I comment aloud, before jerking my head in the exit's direction, "Please, take care of the students while we handle this."
"A-Ano, what- what are you going to do, Linlin-san?" Two hands grip one of my arms in a pseudo-death-grip and my eyes come back to Momo.
I gently pry her fingers off my arm while giving her my best attempt at a reassuring smile - and failing atrociously.
"Like I said, I'm going to deal with the situ-"
[BA-BA-BAAAA-BAAAAAAAA-BALANCE BRE-BREA-BREAKER]!
[FaDeD sCaLe MaIl Of ThE fAcEleSs LeGiOn]!
A tremendous shockwave shakes the whole building just as my eyes snap in the courtyard's direction, just in time to catch a gray blur making a beeline toward Rias and co.
I can't help but swear aloud.
"You should probably take care of that first, before he manages to kill himself." Ddraig comments while flapping his wings once and lifts himself off my shoulders.
I don't answer instantly.
I only have eyes for the gray, armored form shakily lowering to the ground a diminutive, crumpled body, metallic plates rumbling and almost tearing at each other with each motions, the telltale screeching sound of metal against metal louder than anything else in my ears.
"... You?" I not-quite ask, even as the skies rumble.
"Why, I'm going to make my grand return, of course!!" The Red Plushie Emperor squeaks with pride.
I unlatch my eyes from Rias as she frets over the body, already bringing out her Evil Piece while Sona covers for her, to better lock eyes with my Ddraig.
"Make it hurt." I tell him.
"Of course." He grins back.
We both jump through the windows at the same time while behind us the class empties itself, rapid-fire [BOOST]s echoing louder and louder amid the battlefield as Y Ddraig Gosh reborns darts in Kokabiel's direction while I Razor my way toward Issei.
A few minutes earlier
It had started like any other day.
A day like any other in Issei Hyoudou's life since he had been turned into a Devil, admittedly.
He had risen, took an early shower, helped prepare breakfast while Asia-chan was taking hers - it still boggled his mind that the cute nun was crashing at his house - then helped the foreigner dialog with his mother, before the both of them had made their way toward Kuoh High for another day of learning.
Nothing beyond the norm, really.
Which is why he had been completely taken off-guard when the wall next to him had suddenly exploded, lightspears flying everywhere in his classroom, the same kind of magic that had ended his life barely a couple of weeks ago, bricks, glass shards and plasters raining all over his surroundings as shocked and pained gasps echoed all around him, the indiscriminate nature of the attack reaping a bloody toll amid his classmates.
Issei doesn't know how much time he spends laying on the ground, his ears ringing, only the fact that he instantly protected his head helping him avoid a lethal wound, even if his left arm is probably a goner for now.
Stop being a pussy, Issei. Asia-chan will probably be able to do some-, he starts to think to himself even as he - painfully - rises on his haunches, only for his mind to come to a screeching halt.
His head snaps to the side, and his blood runs cold.
His focus narrows.
The rest of the world grows infinitely more distant.
Next to him, lays Asia-chan, half of her body hidden under the part of the wall that fell on her during the attack, the same that missed him by a hair's breadth, blood slowly pooling out of her, a pained, gurgled moan escaping her lips as a dribble of spit and blood trickle out of her mouth.
It's almost like time stops for Issei, as the image burns itself in his retina.
The teen remains here, frozen, not knowing what to do, as his friend slowly bleeds out in front of him, vibrant green eyes slowly turning glassy, so shocked he is.
"I-Issei-kun…" Barely articulated words reaching his words amid the haze is what pulls him out of it, and he instantly scrambles closer, not even noticing the gray gauntlet materializing on his right hand.
"A-Asia-chan!" He answers back, half-choked, his hands coming to clutch at the foreigner's own in reassurance.
The teenager doesn't know if it is to reassure himself that everything will be alright or for Asia-chan's benefits, and he doesn't care to know at the moment.
"I- I'm…" A stray tear pearls at the corner of the diminutive blonde's eye, "Me dispiace…"I'm sorry…
"S-Sorry for what, Asia-c-chan?" Issei mumbles, squeezing her hand.
The foreigner doesn't answer back, her hand going slack between his owns.
A beat passes, as realization slowly reaches Issei's mind.
And with it, something in his belly howls.
It speaks of grief, of madness, of rage, of pain, of suffering, of payback, of hate, in multifaceted voices, young and old, masculine and feminine.
But above all else, it speaks of Power.
And Issei, who has never felt as powerless in this moment since his death at Raynare's hands, takes it.
[BA-BA-BAAAA-BAAAAAAAA-BALANCE BRE-BREA-BREAKER]!
[FaDeD sCaLe MaIl Of ThE fAcEleSs LeGiOn]!
Then, he starts to dig.
Just as Issei turns around, taking a step forward to join the battle and make the bastard pay, like the Voices urge him to do so, a solid hand clamps on his shoulder.
His head jerks to the side, eyes locking with a familiar bubblegum haired girl's amber orbs, the motion accompanied by a distant sound of screeching metal.
"That's enough. You've done enough." The girl tells him, her voice reaching him in spite of the Voices' screaming in his head.
Driven by the Voices as he is, the teen takes a swipe at the girl, to make her go away so that he can enact his revenge.
Faster than he can blink, a deceptively daintily-looking hand blurs and clamps around his armored forearm and stops it cold.
The teen growls, already shifting gears and readying himself to take down this foe.
"Right, talking is useless. Hard way it is." The girl comments aloud, rearing her hand back.
Next thing the teen and the Voices know, he is on the ground, consciousness rapidly leaving them, a sole startled thought echoing in their joined mind.
… Did the girl really slap them unconscious like that?
"... Well, I'm glad that worked." I muse aloud as the gray scale mail surrounding Issei starts to disintegrate from around him, the perverted teen out cold on the ground.
I'll never say it enough, but Armament Haki is hella busted. Bypassing what looks at first glance like five centimeters thick metal plates with only one backhand because it was materialized magically is one hell of a trick.
"... How's the nun?" I look over my shoulder, my eyes landing on Asia's crumpled form.
"... She'll live." Rias, her eyes wide as saucers after seeing me dispatching a temporary High-Class with one - very measly - hit, eventually answers, her own eyes looking back at the young girl she's crouched next to.
Unprompted, she chuckles darkly, the meat of the palm of the hand not busy clinging to the newly-reincarnated Devil's own coming to rub against her eyelids.
"O-Once again, I was here at the right time, but always t-too late to ask." She chokes a little.
Above us, the skies echo her dismay with another rumble.
I let the Gremory Heiress have her pity party to turn myself in Sona's direction, who's looking unerringly in the distant battle's direction.
"You're gonna be able to maintain the shield with your pose, Sitri?" I ask conversationally.
Her head snaps in my direction, just as a call of [BOOST] gets heard in the distance amid the magic thrown around like it's out of fashion by a quickly panicking rogue Fallen Angel contingents.
"The Red Dragon Emperor." She says, a bit numbly, "That's the Red Dragon Emperor. In a stuffed animal."
One of my eyebrows quirk up, and I feel amused despite the situation.
"Took you long enough." I grin back.
She stares at me.
"This is a nightmare." She mumbles, "The… One above is dead, Fallen Angels attack us, we can't contact anyone outside the wards they set up and one of the Heavenly Dragons is free once again."
"Well, at least Ddraig will be happy you value him as much as you do." I answer back bemusedly, just in time for what used to be Ten-Winged Fallen Angel's body to land in a crumpled heap in front of the shield.
"Puny crow." The world's deadliest plushie sniffs contemptuously while lazily flying inside the shield to take his customary perch on my shoulders, "Not even worth a proper warm-up."
Silence falls amid the battlefield as everyone registers what just happened.
As for me?
"Ma… Ma Ma Ma Ma!" I bark a laugh.
Above myself, the skies
[AN: Next chapter will have the two battles proper-like! In the meantime, enjoy a lil' bit of drama! :D
Hope you enjoy, xoxo!]
