NO CHILL! (High School DxD - Human SI Chapter 4)
Ajuka rewound all the security footage of the incident, from the first seconds of the event being recorded in footage, to the later altercations.
Falbium entered the meeting room and collapsed on one of the chairs near by. Ajuka deduced he likely had to deal with making their armies start guarding their borders, in a serious fashion that hadn't been needed in quiet a while.
"I thought you'd have been done with reviewing the attack by now?" Falbium asked with a tired sigh.
"I'm rewatching it." That was all Ajuka needed to say on the matter. Falbium just mentally shrugged at Ajuka not explaining things properly. "Any activities?"
"More Reaper sightings, but thankfully nothing thus far. Hades thankfully isn't feeling bloodthirty..." Falbium petered off.
"Who else appeared?" Ajuka asked, still not taking his eyes off the incident footage.
"...There has been sighting of Akumas." Falbium said with a frown.
Ajuka paused the recording, thought for a moment, rewound to a part that showed "Adam's" face. He looked relatively handsome, but it was obvious he was using some minor shapeshifting to change his looks.
Ajuka nodded once, and let the video continue playing.
"Adam is likely Japanese." Ajuka said.
This time Falbium sighed in frustration.
Ah, I did that thing again. Ajuka thought.
"Ajuka, you remember you need to explain how you connected the dots to reach that point, right?" Falbium light-heartedly chastised.
Ajuka let out a breath. He thought it was obvious.
The residents of Yomi do not act or wonder out of their realm. It never happens. Meaning it could only happen under Izanami's command.
Izanami usually isolates herself to her realm, or sometimes the Human World to take a break, as most gods do. Regardless of her reputation, Izanami cares for her children, and has mellowed out over the centuries. If her children from Takamagahara were to reach out to her, she'd act on their behalf.
The Leader of the West Youkai Faction, Yasaka, is the Miko of Amaterasu. Usually the Shinto Gods are pretty detached from interacting with the mortal world, even for their subordinates. Or rather, Yasaka is a miko to the Sun Goddess so she can be allowed to operate a territory in the Japan, even if she's one of the children of that land.
Yasaka beseeching Amaterasu for retribution for all the stolen and now returned Youkai, wouldn't have been this swift. Meaning Amaterasu found some other reason to be interested in this matter, rather than hum and haw on the matter before giving her miko some placating solution, so as not to be annoyed by the subject again. The Shinto Gods have long since stopped caring about the Human World, or their people, or followers. It's why Devils and other mythological supernatural beings could operate in Japan in official capacity, as long as they pay the tax for it.
For Amaterasu to act this decisively and this quick, to actually go the extra effort to reach out to her mother of all beings? Adam is likely Japanese, and has done something to earn the Sun Goddess's attention. The timing is too soon, and the nun that lead Adam to the Underworld after some investigating, revealed that she had escaped from Astaroth territory and ended up landing in Japan by accident.
To think all of this happened because of Diodora was a headache and a half. Was he suppose to find out about his brother's actions? Diodora just never seemed interesting, and his obvious jealousy cemented their relationship as one Ajuka didn't feel like he needed to bother with. Right, he'd also have to find an heir for his old family too, didn't he?
Before Ajuka can explain any of this, and put his logical train of thought into words, Serafall arrived by literally kicking the door open. Thankfully it was magically reinforced enough, that it didn't fall off it's hinges but the crack of its slam into the wall echoed loudly.
"FUCKING YOUKAIS!" Serafall shouted as she stomped her way into the room.
"How badly was it?" Falbium warily asked.
"Twenty shipments of Phenex Tears, and any High Class Devil with an Evil Piece set can not set foot in Kyoto or Kanto anymore." Serafall huffed.
"Twenty!?" Falbium cried out, jumping forward in his chair.
Ajuka understood. The bit about no Devil Peerage King being allowed into the Youkai's major territory is understandable. The twenty Phenex Tear shipments however is a whole other thing.
Twenty shipments meant a literal two tons of Phenex Tears.
Given how long manufacturing a single shipment is-likely from the Phenex Clan needed make the healing items, literally one tear at a time. That would deprive the Devil Race of the much needed item, and given these turbulent times, for a long while.
A single shipment is already far too expensive, and the Satans working with the Phenex Pillar Family make sure the market control on the tears is incredibly tight. This way the healing items doesn't get distributed without knowledge, and to keep some held back for emergencies.
"Yeah, given how Amaterasu decided to wake up today and be social, I couldn't play things down any further. Plus side, the Shinto Gods aren't going to get involved. The Youkais are 'pacified' for now." Her tone stressing the word meant things were on thin ice, and they should make sure no Devil starts anything in Youkai territories. "Izanami however we still have to talk to her ourselves, because Amaterasu is playing the bullshit of how 'they're not talking anymore'. So well have to give something to appease the old hag too." Serafall let out a growl at that, as she slouched into her seat.
Given how that negotiation result was the best she could do, that meant the situation had been much, much worse.
Good job, Serafall. Ajuka praise in his mind.
"Did you just start watching those?" Serafall asked, seeing the recordings in front of Ajuka.
"That's what I asked him." Falbium said.
"I'm rewatching them." Ajuka simply stated.
"Why?" Serafall crunched her face in confusion.
"Studying and confirming something." Ajuka said, before he remembered his previous conclusion from Falbium describing the military situation. "Also Adam is likely Japanese."
"Huh? What? Where did that come from?" Serafall said.
"I just told you to explain your thought process." Falbium sighed.
"Right," Ajuka pouted. Why are people around him so slow in some subjects? "So, given that the forces of Yomi were also sighted along our border, this means-"
The last of the Four Satans arrived.
Sirzechs didn't kick the door open like Serafall did. Rather he walked right through it, disintegrating it into nothing from his violent aura of Demonic Power alone.
Huh. He was in his True Form recently. Ajuka idly noted.
"Zerky?" Serafall asked in concern as she swiftly sat up in alarm.
"Apologies." Sirzechs took a moment to calm himself and bring his aura back under control. Another deep breathe, then took his seat at the meeting room table. "I've had to... remind some Pillar Family Heads why we're still the Four Great Satans. Also, the Zepar Family are currently going to look for a new Family Head."
"Oh boy," Serafall mumbled, as Falbium simply sighed and shook his head again.
Ajuka was surprised that only one Pillar Family pushed Sirzechs to the point of seeing the consequences of their errors, rather than three or four as he initially assumed would happen. Guess the Pillar Families really have mellowed out over the years since the Civil War.
"That's gonna cause problems, especially given the Zepar's number of family members. They are likely to raise a stink about you possibly ending a Pillar bloodline." Falbium noted.
"It's actually kind of amazing how they're still around, when they have the lowest number of people in that family and the lowest fertility rate than normal Devils on average. And yet somehow they've been around from the start, survived being on the side of the Old Satan Faction when they were treated like shit there, and then 'turn' over a new leaf when they join us, after paying up for their part in things." Serafall said. "Seriously, how have they managed to still be around?"
"Their illusions make them sneaky?" Falbium shrugged.
"There illusions are shit, I've seen them." Serafall bit back. "They just know how to get into people's beds, so they can fuck their way to safety."
"Their Trait is Life Erosion." Sirzechs said. "Let's just say they'd make the worst assassins to have against you, as you'd never know you were killed, as your body weakens due to seemingly natural causes. And they can end your bloodline by making your women infertile."
"...Why do we have them around?" Serafall cried out.
"Serafall." Sirzechs said pointedly as he sighed.
"Yes, yes, I know. We can't be seen as biased or against the Pillar Families as we're suppose to rule over them and protect them, and not kill them, blah, blah, blah." Serafall waved him off as she huffed and fell back into her chair again.
Sirzech then noted the video in front of Ajuka.
"Found a mystery?" Sirzechs asked.
"Studying 'Adam's' magic circle design." Ajuka answered. He always liked talking to Sirzechs, the Lucifer Satan tended to keep up with him better than most. "He's a genius. I don't think I'd have been able to crack them."
"Say what!?" Serafall's jaw dropped.
"'Genius'?" Sirzechs' eyes narrowed at the words. Descriptors like that weren't something Ajuka used on other people. If ever.
"Hmm," Ajuka nodded and enlarged the image, showing one the magic circles that appeared under a Devil after they'd been ReHumanized, which then immediately teleported them to Vatican City. "He doesn't need Security Magic for his spells. Ah, he's also likely Japanese."
Falbium and Serafall sighed.
"Ajuka, you're doing that thing again where you say a statement and expect everyone to immediately work backwards, connect the dots, and get how you came to that conclusion." Serafall said back.
"Akumas were sighted at the border." Sirzechs said. "They work for Izanami. Izanami doesn't let her people out ever, but she'd do it if her children asked for a favor. Amaterasu usually wouldn't be so active on behalf of her miko, Yasaka, but something made her go the extra mile this time, and given the timing, it's likely that Adam is from Japan and did something to impress Amaterasu enough that she'd want to help the Youkai's he brought back." The Lucifer brought everyone up to speed, getting a smile from his genius friend. "The Security Magic however, I think you should explain."
"Hmm," Ajuka nodded. "People use Security Magic so their spells can't be overwritten, dispelled or disrupted. However the reason why spells could be disrupted etc. in the first place is because there will always been gaps in them."
"Whadda mean by 'gaps'?" Serafall tilted her head cutely.
"A very basic fireball spell using calculations would be something like making your magical energy make a spark, and then ordering oxygen to grow it into the shape of fire, and to keep going as long as magic power is supplied, and also trajectory for where you aim it." Ajuka's audience nodded, as that was simple enough. "For a Devil, it could just be demanding fire appear as they know it, a ball that burns stuff, and that would happen.
"However in the case of both spells, whether one made of calculations or imagination, there are thousands on unaccountable variables that the caster doesn't focus on. Such as the atmospheric pressure on the fireball, humidity, which gas molecules are vibrating and at what rate. All of these things are happening to or around that simple magic spell that the caster typically doesn't account for. Thus anyone can just enter their magical energy into those gaps and assign a value to it, thus taking control of a portion of the other magic user spell and disrupt it." Ajuka finished explaining.
"...You better not be saying what I think you're saying." Serafall's tone couldn't have shown her disbelief further.
Ajuka moved the video recording around, manipulating the image a bit to show Adam's magic circle in full. At first inspection it seemed to be made of many solid blocks of circles. But on closer look, those blocks were thousands upon thousands of equations written so closely as to appear as a block when viewed from far away.
"This is his Teleportation Spell." The Smartest Devil said. "It accounts for things such as distance, time, locations, weather, quantum super position, the position of the stars, Earth rotation speed on its axis, its rotation speed, and position around the sun. And there are many more variables that are too numerous to list right now." Ajuka looked to Sirzechs, who nodded to him with a thumbs up, causing the Beelzebub Satan to smile to himself. He had learned not to go on tangents, or get too much into details when it's not the main point of discussion. "There would be no space to enter my magic or anyone else's to enter and disrupt the spell." With his explanation done, Ajuka brought the video back to its regular frame, and let it continue to play.
"Ajuka," Sirzechs said in a low tone, while the other two were busy digesting all this information about this new threat. "You're smiling."
Ajuka blinked. He felt his face and...yes, while he had been explaining Adam's spell, he had been smiling.
"He'd be an interesting opponent." He ended up saying. Sirzechs chuckled at the reply.
"...Holy shit." Serafall finally spoke. "The Teleportation Spell would be self-updating in that case, or he's constantly updating it whenever he or his target moves a millimeter in order for everything to stay accurate." She said, to which Ajuka nodded at the obvious observation. "And he's doing that while fighting? HAX, I call Hax!"
"Is he really 'Adam'? Like straight up that 'Adam'?" Falbium asked warily. "As in his Spirit Inheritor or, or... his Reincarnation?" He said in a whispered tone, as if afraid the person talked about would suddenly appear.
"Zerky!" Serafall whined. "Did you manage to understand how this happened? Our security couldn't have been so lacking that something like this could slip under the radar?" The Leviathan Satan frowned as another thought came to mind. "Or was this operation planned recently because something happened because Adam saw a chance?" She held her chin, as she wondered.
"He's getting faster." Sirzechs said, making Ajuka's eyes widen as he connected the dots. This whole 'free the unwillingly enslaved Reincarnated Devils' wasn't something planned. It was something Adam did on a whim! "If we start from the first sighting after he broke out of the Astaroth Castle." Sirzechs took control of the video as he began to explain.
The holographic screen showed the outside of the Astaroth Castle after it was initially attacked. Adam and his partner, the ReHumanized Alisa Monk, assulted the castle, and used a city wide energy pulse to break down any surveillance and communication systems while they took out Diodora's Peerage non-lethally, and Diodora himself very lethally.
After that Adam broke out of the top of the castle, floated in the air for a moment, and closed his eyes concentrating. Four minutes and twenty second later, he opened his eyes and spoke.
"This is a message to all the Reincarnated Devils that were forcefully turned against their will, or were tricked into it. Keep yourself safe, I'll come to free you and change you back before sending you to the Human World shortly."
After that Adam just disappeared, before shockwaves were left in his wake. By the time the first shockwave appeared he had already reached the closest city in Astaroth territory from the Head Family Castle, located seven miles away.
From there the video changed to show Adam reached towards a Devil, electricity sparking out of his palm, and placed his hand over their chest. Their Evil Piece would then float out of them and into his awaiting grasp. Their wings and tails would disappear into motes of magical energy, and they returned to their former race.
Other Devils, Peerage Kings would jump in to fight Adam, or even try to captured the Un-Reincarnated Human or magical being, only for them to be teleported away instantly after they were freed.
Adam didn't focus on any Devil attacking him. He seemed to just weave between their attacks. He didn't even need to be looking at them, it was as if his body just couldn't be touched by anyone or anything.
Only those on the upper echelon of Ultimate Class Devils made him pay attention. In that he had bothered to block or deflect their attacks before moving on. No Devil that fought him forced him to focus on them, or feel the need to defend himself or see them as a threat.
Just as Sirzechs said. Adam was at first taking a single second to remove the Evil Piece from a Devil and then teleport them away. He then could do two per second. Then four. Then eight. He was improving exponentially, until it happened.
Adam was surrounded by tens of thousands of Devils, he was in the Underworld after all. Now that his actions were visible long enough for the information to circulate, some Peerage Kings hid their mistreated members-Ajuka bit back an annoyed sigh. Seriously, why mistreat your Peerage, we fought a fucking war over it?-others sent them out with orders to attack and kill Adam or die trying.
Adam then took a stance for the first time in this battle, one arm in front of him to stop attacks, one behind him as if he's ready to grasp something.
"Undo Reincarnation." Adam declared. "Hundred Grasping Palms."
It was as if the world froze. Adam moved and in the next moment, was on the other side of the city, his arm poised behind him now being held in front of him and across his chest. Around him were floating tens of thousands of Evil Pieces, and all across the city the same number of Devils were changed back to their original race and teleported away.
Adam would zoom across the whole of the Underworld doing the same to every city. That was the point were Sirzechs had begun to move, flying as fast as he could toward Adam, only for the supposed Spirit Inheritor or Reincarnation of the Primordial Human to throw one last technique out. His trump card.
Or rather he came up with it on the spot, due to not wanting to fight Sirzechs just yet.
Adam floated in the sky and as he raised his arm up, endless number of magical lines exploded out of him, reaching across the Underworld to every single forcefully Devil he couldn't reach before.
"All Range, Undo Reincarnation."
Instantly all affected Devils were turned back to what they once were and teleported away. All that was left was the mostly inert Evil Piece floating around Adam. All 300,452 of them. Not all inert, some were covered in a bubble of his Magical Energy keeping them from shutting down.
Ajuka frowned at that. He supposed how his Evil Piece worked won't be a mystery for long. Then again, he didn't put much effort into its security because only Gods and Buddhas would be able to interact with the soul that they could just remove them from themselves, if they even allowed the Evil Pieces to change their race.
Also, Ajuka admitted to himself, he may have been a tad lazy when he invented the Evil Pieces, just wanting those complaining about the New Satan's rules to shut up while simultaneously creating a remedy to the low population issue, the biggest problem to Devil Kind. It would have been a sure win for the Satans while gathering the Underworld's support to end all animosities.
Oh how young he was back then.
That is why and how the Evil Piece works to change another's race wasn't too thorough. And technically if someone really didn't like their new life as a Devil, and really wanted to change back, they could have done it if they put in the effort to learn about souls and how they worked.
The footage got to the part where Sirzechs reached Adam.
"What have you done with them!" Sirzechs demanded.
"Free them from their slavery." Adam acknowledged.
"There weren't slaves." Sirzechs admitted back with some hesitance. Ajuka sighed, his friend tended to be too kind and soft at times.
"Hmm." Adam hummed. "I admit I've seen and felt many Devils in this visit that were content, or even happy and thriving in their new lives as denizens of the Underworld." He said before his eyes narrowed as his killing intent surged. Other than Sirzechs, no other Devil could keep flying any longer from the mental pressure. Even Sirzechs looked on edge now. "However, the despair, depression and feelings of loss and self-loathing I felt from those I freed. Their thoughts of their situation and their memories of how they were ambushed, chased down, raped, gaslit, tricked and so on. All those, I couldn't ignore them. So I took them away, changed them back to being Human or what other race they were. Now they aren't your responsibility anymore."
Sirzechs closed his eyes in guilt, before facing Adam once more.
"...How many were there?"
"Over three hundred thousand." Adam stated and Sirzechs' eyes widened before looking at the floating gestalt of Evil Pieces, counting them thoroughly to confirm Adam's reply.
"I see..." Sirzechs took a breath, sounding disappointed that there was such a high number.
Relatively it wasn't really a hit to their population. The Devil Race counted their population at around 10 million, and the Reincarnated Devils only accounted for roughly 25% of their total population.
But the problem was what those three hundred thousand mistreated Reincarnated Devils represented. That this might not strictly be a rare problem, an outlier, or a bunch of bad apples. Every race had them, true but...
It is a problem however when your race has a substantial number of 'bad apples', and they are already disliked by everyone else in the supernatural community at large.
"Do you wish to fight me?" Adam asked out of the blue.
Sirzechs took a breath and resolved himself.
"I cannot just take your word for it, that those Reincarnated Devils were mistreated." Satan Lucifer said, as his aura surged forward. "Your action can be seen as an attack on the Underworld as a whole, thus I'll have to take you in until this matter is resolved." Sirzechs spread his hands out as he took on a mage's fighting stance. "I won't ask for your surrender, but I'd wish to know your name."
"Hmm, a moniker." Adam held a hand on his chin as he thought about it. "I can't say I fully approve of the youngsters using the name of their ancestors or their Inherited Spirit as their own, but I don't want to use my own name at the moment, and letting others give me a label sounds annoying. Hmm..." He hummed.
"That damn playboy looking bastard is way too easy going facing you, Zerky." Serafall grumbled.
"'Adam'." He finally said. "It works well enough."
Sirzechs eyes widened for a second.
"That name, why..." Satan Lucifer shook his head. "Never mind, we'll see if you can live up to such a lofty name, Adam."
Sirzechs immediately fired Rays of Destruction, only for his eye to widen as Adam closed the distance and reached his personal space with his arms pulled back.
Explosions and shockwaves erupted as Satan Lucifer and the now named terrorist "Adam" exchanged blows, the battle forced into close quarters rather than the magic battle Sirzechs tried to initiate
After a seconds of exchanging hundreds of blows from Sirzechs' side, and tens of thousands from Adam the two separated.
Unexpectedly, Sirzechs was the one looking more worse for wear, his dirtied clothes all over representing his state just fine. However, Sirzechs wounds, as light as they were being shallow scrapes and all, begun to heal themselves at a slow rate.
Adam on the other hand, other than his knuckles, didn't looked phased at all. His hands were bleeding profusely from being in contact with Sirzech's thin, body covering, layer of his finely controlled Power of Destruction.
However unlike Sirzechs, whose wounds were healing slowly, Adam's wounds healed instantly.
"Huh, so this is my current level for now." He said to himself, his voice holding a note of curiosity.
"What do you mean?" Sirzechs blinked at the nonchalant observation.
"Later."
An instant later, even though Sirzechs closed the distance where Adam had been, no counter magic or magic barriers stopped Adam's teleportation as he left. Taking with him all the seized Evil Pieces.
"Tsk, he ran away." Serafall said, clicking her tongue.
"No," Sirzechs said with a frown. "It kinda sounded like if we both went all out, we'd both kill or cripple each other."
"Sirzechs, I think you might be giving your opponent too much credit." Falbium tried to encourage his fellow Satan. "You're being too humble."
"What do you think, Ajuka?" Serafall turned to him.
"..." The Beelzebub Satan was quiet for a while as he contemplated that answer. "I think we need to prepare for a response from Heaven, and how the Grigori will react." He advised. "I'll spread some alarm spells around. If Adam were to appear again, Sirzechs and I will teleport directly to him and negotiate, if not we'll both take him down."
Satan Red nodded in agreement.
"LIKE HELL YOU'RE GOING WITH THAT OVERKILL PLAN!" Serafall shouted.
"Hmm, this is a problem." I said out loud.
"What is the problem, Lord Adam?" Alisa said from next to me in the dojo.
The nun ended up cutting her ties to the Church after that rescue mission, citing how useless they were, and some inner corruption, which was typical in anime land. She and some of her sister nuns, that were stuck in the same Peerage ended up living together, and moving to the house next door, turning it into a dojo.
Subtle.
Alisa wasn't running the dojo, that was Sister Síle.
The Saint Martha Spirit Inheritor opted to be a teacher in the school I plan to attend.
Very subtle.
I now had some place to train without worry when my sister and parents weren't around, but soon I'll have to stop playing the sick boy act, and go to school again.
The wasn't my problem though.
My problem was, to my shock, discovering that I was too strong to fight anyone all out, other than someone on Sirzechs' level. Which wasn't a bad thing of course, but it limited the number of opponents I could test myself against until I reach my goal of surpassing God.
After all, if I managed to beat someone like Sirzechs and ended up thinking I've reach my goal, then ended facing God and had my ass handed to me, that would be embarrassing.
"Are you wondering what to do with all the Evil Pieces you've gathered? If you want, my and the girls could take them off your hand to demolish or use as target practice." Alisa suggested.
"No, those aren't a problem, I already dealt with them." I said, waving her off. "Also I told you call me Kenji. Adam is just when I'm out in the field in the disguise. I'm not actually Adam, you know."
"Of course, my-I mean, Kenji." She smiled back. I don't think she's really listening to me. "Also, may I ask, what did you do with the Evil Pieces?"
"Well basically after studying the ones I managed to get while they are working, I learned how to reverse engineer them, but I didn't see the point. So after letting them shut down, I broken them down and remade them. They were the equivalent of a charred computer, so I had to just break them down for material and rebuild. After that I made them so they can give the person that takes them, the ability to use Imagination Magic like Devils do."
"T-That's...!" Alisa's eyes widened.
"Since you girls don't need them as you still have Imagination Magic, and same for all the other Un-Reincarnated people." I continued. "Grauzauberer, Golden Dawn and Rosenkreuzer. I divided them equally between all three Magician organization and sent it to them with a letter explaining what they are since they don't look like Evil Piece anymore." I made them look like Saint Quartz, heh. "I figured that should help Magicians progress in their field and improve a bit. Let's see what happens when information is shared and what people will come up with."
"...Oh dear."
Alisa? Why is your face paling like that?
"Anyways, I need help picking what weapon to use when I'm holding back. It should be a fun hobby." I told Alisa enthusiastically, but for some reason she ran out and began making calls.
I pouted. I thought she wanted to listen to my problem.