Happy Holidays! I'll be posting today and tomorrow as a present to the fans!
Ortho had to admit, he didn't know why Micheal asked to see him as well as Issei. Azazel had mentioned, rather cryptically mind you, about Micheal giving them something as a way to foster good will to the Grigori and the Devil factions.
Ortho looked at Micheal, who had just given Issei a sword of all things. He foresaw headaches in his future having to train Issei on how to not look like a damn noob using it.
"I hope there's no ill-will about me breaking that cheap recreation of Excalibur...or taking in Xenovia and Asia."
"That sword was a very poor copy of the original, and the manufacturing method was highly suspect even for us. Having it destroyed so that it could be reforged by our side actually helped us short term," admitted Micheal. "As for Asia and Xenovia, I did want to have a word with you about that in private."
From the sound of things, he wasn't angry in the least. That was good.
So you could imagine Ortho's surprise when Micheal handed him a rather odd artifact.
"What's this?"
"Fragarach. I asked Azazel what sort of weapon would suit you, and this was among the top of the list he gave us," said Micheal.
Ortho's eyes visibly brightened. He knew for a fact this was likely the original version, not the weakened one that a certain clan Azazel had mentioned used. It would go perfectly with his personal combat style, which was mostly about absorbing the damage before returning the favor many times over. And the less said about the spell he had made after that magical girl series, the better...Azazel had called it "utterly broken", which coming from him was a major compliment.
"Why do I see much pain and humiliation in my future?" said Issei to no one in particular.
"Because someone will have to train you not to look like a damn noob on how to use that sword properly," said Ortho absently.
"I believe Sirzechs has a swordsman among his peerage," offered Micheal with a smile.
Ortho smirked at Issei's unhappy expression.
Just then, Micheal's phone went off, and Micheal had a look of the damned himself.
He slowly...almost painfully in Ortho's eyes...managed to type in the password to open it up.
Ortho almost cringed at how slowly Micheal was tapping at the thing.
"Exactly how long have you had that phone?" asked Ortho.
"A decade or two, why?" asked Micheal confused.
Ortho got up and went over to Micheal. After being given silent permission, Ortho looked at the settings and winced.
"Don't take this the wrong way, but has anyone ever taught you how to use this thing correctly?" he asked carefully.
From the look on the archangel's face, that would be a no.
"Do you mind if I take a look at this? I might be able to simplify it and make it easier to use," said Ortho.
The look of relief on Micheal's face was palpable.
"Do you know how to get into the electronic mail? I've been locked out of mine since the sixteenth century," asked Micheal with painful hope in his voice.
Ortho stared at him.
"Give me about twenty minutes to fix this and make it more user friendly, then I'll see about getting into your e-mail account. I can't even begin to imagine how many missed messages you have in there if you've been locked out that long," said Ortho.
Issei had left by the time Ortho fixed Micheal's phone, which had an absurd number of tabs open, there were three different apps playing random music, and hadn't been turned off in over five years now.
Micheal had a look of profound relief when Ortho handed it back and found it much easier to navigate. The number of useless apps Ortho had to uninstall was ridiculous, in his honest opinion.
Ortho then took out his laptop.
"Now, what e-mail service do you use?" asked Ortho cheerfully.
It took a bit for him to tap into the service the angels used for their private communication...and a good half an hour to hack into the account and change the password to something Micheal could remember easily.
From there Ortho had to walk Micheal on how to filter all his backlogged messages into the most relevant. By the time they were done, both of them were tired, starving, and wanting nothing to do with tech for the next few hours.
Asia had a look of shock when Ortho casually introduced her to the Micheal, who was nursing some whiskey from Azazel's personal collection. Azazel was still snickering that his adopted son had to help the one running the heavenly faction with his e-mail and phone, of all things.
"So what exactly did you want to talk about in regards to Asia?"
"I'm going to be blunt... the system took a hit after the war, and new angels stopped being born. To bolster our numbers, I want to take a page out of the Devil's evil piece system and create new angels out of humans."
"You want to make Asia a part of that system," said Ortho.
Micheal nodded.
"It would take some time, but she would be able to operate as part of our faction after about a century or so. We can't afford to lose someone who's faith is that strong, even after learning the truth."
"What about Xenovia?" asked Ortho. She had taken the news about God's death rather poorly, and had only latched onto Ortho because of the fact he allowed Asia to still pray even after what she had gone through.
"We can convert her as well, if she's willing. That would at least keep Durandal under our control, and they could be considered as a personal point of contact with the Fallen faction. Irina has already offered to act as our envoy to the Devil faction."
"She probably wants to fuck Issei," snorted Ortho. "Apparently they're childhood friends."
Micheal let out a slight cough, but Ortho found it VERY telling he didn't deny that tidbit.
Ortho was unsurprised when Asia took him up on the offer. Xenovia however wanted to think it over first.
Azazel would laugh his feathered ass off when he found out it was because she wanted to bang Ortho's brains out, and her faith in the people running her religion had taken a massive hit after recent events.
She still believed, but at this point was mostly acting like a guard dog for Asia.
~*~*~*~*
Sirzechs was trying desperately not to laugh hearing the story of how Azazel's adopted son Ortho rescuing Micheal from his tech related problems. That temptation got even worse when Serafall complained of a different issue and Ortho offered to give her a discount if she was interested.
"Your son is becoming tech support," he joked to Azazel.
"Ortho, Supernatural Tech Support," snorted Azazel. "If he's fine with it and runs the client past me, I have no issue with it."
"It would be a nice change of pace from having to edit porn all day," Ortho snarked back.
Azazel ruffled Ortho's ridiculously long hair. To be fair, he mostly let it grow that long because Idia liked to play with it and occasionally braid it. It went down to his waist, and most of the time he just put it into a messy ponytail.
Today it was in a tasteful braid that went down his back, and he was dressed in a smart white shirt and black pants. He looked very sophisticated.
Sirzechs watched the interaction with fondness. Azazel was obviously fond of his adopted son, who treated him with exasperated love back.
"Shall we begin?" asked Micheal.
In the ORC club room
"Think the meeting's begun yet?" commented Kuroka. She was happily braiding IDIA's hair while he played games with Gasper. The two had become fast friends along with Koneko.
Idia didn't even pause the game in the least.
"They're discussing trade terms and are trying to solidify an agreement for a permanent truce," he said absently.
Everyone paused.
"Are you live streaming the meeting?" asked Gasper confused.
Idia nodded.
"Nii-san has his Device on him and it's streaming the video feed directly to me," he replied.
"Cool," said Kuroka. "Think you can let us watch too?"
Idia blinked twice, before his right eye lit up and began to stream the meeting onto the wall. The other eye was firmly focused on the game they were still playing.
"That is both very creepy, and very cool," admitted Gasper. Idia giggled at that. "I'm not even going to ask about sound because I'm worried with what you'll do next."
"I can stream the sound," commented Lilac from Gasper's head.
"Idia I can get, but how are you able to do that?" asked Koneko.
"Ortho created me, and I still have link permission with CHARON," replied Lilac.
The meeting was even more boring than they expected, but at least they didn't have to ask Rias or the others about what was discussed now.
It was halfway through another round of Mario Party that things went pear shaped.
Gasper might have felt terrified at the idea of human mages infiltrating the club house to capture and use his Sacred Gear...except he had seen the video of IDIA being given permission to go full on Chucky on someone.
He almost felt empathy for the human mages when Ortho's voice came loud and clear through the speakers Lilac had been using to help stream the meeting.
Though Gasper had the most confused look when rather than say anything, Ortho did a short but recognizable whistle.
"Um...why did Ortho just mimic R2-D2?" he asked confused. He wasn't the only one who looked confused.
The look of unholy glee on Idia's face was almost terrifying in it's own right.
"Nerd Boner authorized!" IDIA chirped. That got quite a few people to choke.
What happened next was something that would imprint on Gasper forever.
IDIA easily shoved one of his sleeves up, revealing a hatch in his left arm. Something flew out of the latch, and he easily grabbed the cylinder.
He flicked a switch on the side of the cylinder...and an evil look of absolute joy filled his face.
"May the Force be with you," he said in the most ominous tone.
The mages felt dread as an all too familiar hum as the beam of light came from one end of the cylinder. It did not help that IDIA had an unhinged grin on his face and a look in his eyes that indicated that he had no issues dealing fatal blows.
In the meeting room
Ortho couldn't help the dark laughter that erupted from mouth. He was watching the video feed thanks to the special glasses he had on.
"Something amusing to you?" said Sirzechs sourly.
"Ok, what is that psychotic little shit doing now?" asked Azazel.
"IDIA is putting the fear of Hades himself into the idiots that broke into the ORC clubhouse to kidnap Gasper," said Ortho, chuckling with dark glee.
"Okay, stream that shit now," said Azazel.
He knew Ortho and IDIA. There was no way Ortho was this gleeful unless the visuals were good.
Ortho tapped something on CHARON...and everyone had to stare for a brief moment.
"Is...Is that an actual light saber?!" said Serafall, almost drooling.
"Yup. It even makes the sound," said Ortho proudly. "IDIA studied every movie and game he could get his hands on to properly use it too."
"Lucky bastard," said Sirzechs. Ortho just looked smug.
"You think that's bad? That little shit figured out how to fake Force Lightning," complained Vali.
"You're just pissed that he used you as target practice for it," said Azazel with a snort. Vali flipped him off without hesitation.
"Is it bad I feel no empathy for them?" said Kiba.
Ortho just cackled, rather proud of his ability to cause untold chaos...even vicariously through IDIA.