In which Ortho is found and raised by Azazel, unaware his family thinks he died that day. Also, no Devil Asia this time!
Oh, and before anyone asks, IDIA is Ortho's attempts to remember his past, but his memory is so hazy he mistook him for his little brother.
Asia was not having a good day. She had gotten completely lost, and while she was able to speak Japanese well enough, she had trouble getting the written version right.
So you could imagine her surprise when she felt a light tug on her habit, and found a small child with long electric blue hair, golden eyes, and an odd facial mask. He wore a long hoodie that went down to his knees, and a pair of comfortable blue jeans and sneakers.
"Can I help you?" she asked cautiously in Japanese.
"Are you lost, miss?" he asked. His voice had an odd tone to it, likely due to the mask.
Asia blinked, before a gentle smile crossed her face.
"I'm trying to reach the church, but the streets have me confused," she admitted.
The boy perked up.
"Nii-san will know what to do!" he said cheerfully. Asia mentally translated that to 'big brother'. She took his hand, which was oddly cold and had a strange texture to it and followed him.
The child, who barely appeared seven or nine at the most, lead her straight to another boy who was getting a snack from a nearby vendor. He had shorter electric blue hair, and the same golden eyes as the little boy.
"Nii-san, this nice lady said she can't find the church!" announced the child brightly.
The boy looked at her, and a warm comforting smile crossed his face.
"Good job Idy," he said. Idy beamed at him.
Right then, Asia's stomach rumbled in protest. To be fair, she hadn't eaten breakfast this morning and she was hungry.
The other boy chuckled warmly, and Asia blushed a bit. For some reason, just being around him made her feel safe.
"I can't let a nice girl like you wander around this town hungry," he said. "What would you like? My treat."
"I couldn't possibly..." started Asia, however her stomach rumbled again.
After a brief moment of indecision, Asia was soon sitting on a nearby bench with some of the local food. The takoyaki was really good, and her stomach definitely appreciated it.
"So what brings a nun to a place like this? Japan isn't really that big on the book you follow."
"My...friends...told me to go to the church once I reached Japan," said Asia.
"What are your friend's names?" he asked.
Asia didn't think twice.
"Raynare and Dohnaseek?" he said, surprised. "I know them."
Asia perked up at that.
"You do?" she asked hopeful.
The description he gave was right on the mark, and Asia felt relief.
"Tell you what, I can contact my old man. He knows everyone in town, and in the meantime you can rest while they come for you," he said.
"I never did get your name," said Asia.
"I'm Ortho and this is my little brother Idia," said Ortho cheerfully. Idia waved his hand, and while she couldn't see it, Asia was sure he was smiling at her. "We live close by, and I was mostly taking a break from my work."
"What do you do?" asked Asia, mostly to make conversation.
"I edit and touch up videos for production," said Ortho.
Asia didn't know why Ortho's father gave her an odd look when he brought her to his apartment. However the blond man was all too happy to contact her 'friends' while Asia rested from her long journey.
With Azazel...
He knew the second he saw Asia Argento with Ortho that something was up. Hearing she was supposed to go to the lone church in town made it doubly suspicious. Especially since he knew damn well the place had been more or less condemned until needed repairs were made three months ago.
To be fair, the Christian/Catholic presence in town was pretty much nonexistent to begin with.
It took all of five minutes to realize something was up in the church. There were far too many people inside, and a quick check revealed a very troublesome ex-exorcist that had gotten kicked out for being too bloodthirsty.
Just listening to Freed was enough to warrant a smiting, in his opinion. Raynare was clearly preparing for something, and Azazel was annoyed enough that he planned to have a little...chat...with his subordinates.
The look on their faces when they realized their boss was there was priceless in his opinion.
"Funny thing really. One of my adopted brats happened to stumble across a certain excommunicated nun on his usual lunch break. She seemed to be of the belief this church was still active," said Azazel with a flat expression.
"Who's this shitty old geezer?" sneered Freed.
Raynare shot him a panicked expression that clearly said to 'shut up, you idiot!'.
"Care to explain what you're doing with an inordinate amount of excommunicated members of the church and an exorcist well known for being a sociopath?" said Azazel evenly.
"It's nothing!" said Dohnaseek quickly.
"Bullshit," snarled Azazel. He could smell the ritual materials from here, and he could sense the spell circle even from the door.
Freed never had the best self control, and it should have come as no surprise when he attempted to shoot Azazel with his special light gun.
It was a fatal error for him, as Azazel easily wasted the arrogant ass. He was little more than a bloody mist before he had a chance to understand how boned he was.
"Lord Azazel," pleaded Raynare in desperation.
Forget the possible Sacred Gear holder, she had to focus on not being murdered by her leader!
~*~*~*~
Asia was beyond shocked when she saw the videos Ortho was editing.
Ortho realized his error before he gave a sheepish grin.
"Isn't this a bit...adult...for Idia to watch?" she asked carefully.
"Considering he's currently plugged into the charging station and oblivious to the world unless someone is dumb enough to trigger the security system..." said Ortho. Asia blinked, before she followed his line of sight to an odd pod-like machine.
She cautiously approached it, and was shocked when she saw wires going into the small child who had approached her earlier.
"Yeah...I may have forgotten to mention Idia is actually a cybernetic AI," said Ortho sheepishly.
"How is this possible? He looked so human!" said Asia fascinated. She had no idea the child wasn't even flesh and blood, he looked so real.
"That is because we put a lot of time and effort into making the best damn robot body for the AI Ortho developed," said a voice.
Azazel looked beyond irritated, but had been smart enough to hide the bloodstains from the side jaunt he had made to the church. He was beyond pissed they had tried to steal a sacred gear as well known as Twilight Healing from under his nose, much less using the humans to do so. He didn't know what their end game was, and frankly he didn't care.
All he knew was that the stunt could easily spark the war between the Great Factions if they were doing it this deep into known Devil territory. And one that was under the shared control of the younger sisters of two Satans no less! He did not need that headache.
Asia looked bewildered at that.
"So how did it go?" asked Ortho casually.
"Raynare and the others are being severely reprimanded as we speak and will be lucky to avoid being on my shit list for the next century," said Azazel. He plopped down on the couch. "Idiots thought I'd look the other way for their little stunt!"
"Um...what?" said Asia, utterly confused.
Ortho tossed his adopted father a cold beer.
"Those idiots were attempting to poach or kill sacred gear holders in an area known to be under the control of two Devils with high connections," explained Azazel. "Hell, Raynare was about to go on a fake date and off another sacred gear holder when I busted them."
Which was the source of why he was extra pissy with them. It was bad enough they were attempting to steal Twilight Healing...Asia was excommunicated and therefor not under the protection of the Church. But to openly target a student that belong to the same school as the Satan's younger sisters? They were lucky Azazel caught them before Sirzechs or Serafall did!
Asia looked downright confused, but understood one thing. Azazel was the "big boss" of her "friends", and he was not happy with what they had planned for her. And since there was no telling who else had been in on this particular plan, she would quickly become yet another ward of the fallen.
It was all too much for the poor girl, who crashed on the spare bed Ortho had in his apartment.
The next morning...
"So Asia, what is it that you want to do?" asked Azazel.
Asia looked so lost. Azazel had some slight sympathy for the girl, but not enough to bend over backwards for her.
"Do you have anywhere to go?" asked Baraquiel gently.
She shook her head.
"My parents handed me over to the Church the day my sacred gear manifested. I have no idea if I even have family," she said quietly.
"What is it that you, personally, want?" asked Azazel.
Asia looked so lost that it was almost painful.
"I...I want to make friends."
"Would you be open to joining the local school?" asked Azazel. She nodded quickly. "That's easy enough to pull off. As for your housing, Ortho has offered to let you have the spare room in his apartment."
Asia perked up at that. It had taken some fast talking by Ortho to explain he honestly didn't care about the porn...by this point the videos were little more than background noise that he had to fix up before it was put into production.
He could walk into the studio where people were going at it balls deep, and the only thing he would care about was the equipment to record video and audio. And yes, that had happened repeatedly. He couldn't count the number of times he'd walked into the recording studio where some random woman was in the middle of a literal gang bang, gone to the equipment on the fritz, and fixed it before leaving.
Ortho wasn't asexual, it was just that he saw so much naked flesh since Azazel found out he was so tech savvy that he had become numb to it.
With the ex-nun situated, Azazel let out a tired sigh. He'd have to fill out the paperwork for her to attend school, but that was a small problem he could solve by tomorrow. The real issue was who had the brilliant idea to send her here of all places.
They could have done this anywhere else and he never would have given a second damn. But this close to the younger sisters of Lucifer and Leviathan? If he found out who came up with that idea he'd kick their ass.
~*~*~*~
Asia was very nervous about attending actual school. Azazel had assured her that she would be in the same class as Ortho, as Idia was attending a different part of the school.
She walked into the classroom, and was very relieved to see Ortho there. He waved at her cheerfully.
"You know Or-kun?" asked one of the girls.
"Or-kun?" asked Asia.
"Ortho Shroud, aka the hottest guy in class," said Hiryu. "He's way better than any of the stupid perverted trio, that's for sure."
"Who's..."
"We'll point them out to you later, just try to avoid them if you can," said another girl in disgust.
"Or-kun is too refined to be like them," said another girl.
Asia's mind went back to the pornos that Ortho had been editing before his morning class, and wisely kept silent. He was polite enough to wear headphones, but she had still gotten an eyeful of naked flesh before she quickly left the room.
Ortho walked over with a grin.
"Try not to overwhelm Asia-chan. She's been home-schooled by some very strict people until now," said Ortho.
"Yikes," said one of the girls.
"Also, there was a major mishap with her luggage, so most of her clothes and personal items were lost," lied Ortho smoothly. "We were able to get her a few things, but she could probably use some help finding replacements."
"You can count on us, Or-kun!" said one of the nicer girls.
"Sounds like a shopping trip is in order. What's our budget like?" asked Hiryu, glasses glinting.
"I'll give you a prepaid card to use later. If you go over budget, let me know so I can add more to it," said Ortho. "She's still getting situated, so pops hasn't set her up with a card yet."