Chapter 4 Lets Spar

17 years later

"Hello, Anos how have you been, it's what been what two or three months now? How is your work going with Ajuka," says Sirzechs with a friendly smile on his face.

"I am doing fine. Well first let me say I have learned...because I wanted to try to use that as a base...and now Ajuka and I are looking into using teleportation as a foundation for moving between realities but, we haven't figured it out yet but I can say we have made some headway."

"Are you planning on leaving again any time soon Anos, somebody has been eagerly waiting for your return," "I know...I know...I planned to go see Rias later on today." "You better hurry she is leaving next year."

Anos looks to Sirzechs with a confused look on his face saying, "what do you mean by that, why is she leaving the underworld."

Sirzechs places two fingers on his forehead and begins messaging it, letting out an annoyed sigh, "you have been gone for a while and some things have changed, but before I tell you why, let me explain everything to you uninterrupted," Anos takes a more serious demeanor saying, " tell me everything and leave nothing out. "

"Okay it all started after the civil years ago…" ten minutes… "so father and I had to make a choice with the Phoenix family"… "basically it was a trade and you were supposed to be the one to get married but that changed because…"

A Few Minutes Later

"So Rias will take your place and will get married after she graduates from human college."

"I can't believe that you and father agreed to something like this, especially you since you are a Devil King," Anos say this with annoyance and anger laced in his voice, "but I know you wouldn't force our sister into an arranged marriage without a way to get her out. So do you plan to let me in on the plan or leave me guessing?"

Sirzechs nods with a small grin forming on his face and says, "it seems you know me all too well."

30 minutes Later Anos POV

I am walking towards the doors of the Gremory mansion with a bag over my shoulder. Before I reach the door I can sense someone's presence standing in front of the door. Looks like she noticed I was here long before I got close to the door, I guess she has become more confident in using her abilities.

I reach the door opening it saying, "I'm home." I look down to see a petit girl with white hair staring at me with a blank expression. "Well come home, Anos, " she says, in a monotoned voice with no emotion plastered on her face. I smile at her and pat her head saying, "thanks Koneko glad to be home."

The now named Koneko looks at me and says in her usual voice with little hints or worry, "did you find a way back to your home yet?"

Authors Note: Couldn't figure out how old Koneko was when she got saved by Sirzechs but I know in the show she is 15 during the time of season 1 so I'm gonna assume that she has been in Rias peerage for one or two years at the start of the anime.

{Flash Back Two years Ago}

I am walking down the hallway with my hands in my pocket just wondering around, it is around 5:30 in the afternoon and the sun is going down. I walk past the balcony in the Gremory mansion.

I look out the window to see both Rias and Sirzechs standing there talking to each other while ever so often gesturing towards a little girl with white hair standing between them looking at the ground.

I think about going out there but if Sirzechs wanted me to attend this conversation he would have told me, so I walk away to my room to get ready for bed. It's now 7:00 and I hear a knock on the door, I open it to see Rias looking at me with a worried expression.

I ask her, "what can I do for you, Ms. Otaku." The depressed expression she previously had changed to that of annoyance, "I have told you to stop calling me, do you want me to say the nickname they everyone else says about you…" but before she can finish I stop her and say, "fine you win, what can I do for you?"

Her expression changes from the pouting face she was holding, to a cheeky smirk and back to the downcast expression she had when she came in. "Can I come in I need to talk to you," I back away from the door gesturing for her to come in?

Ever since Rias and I were little she would always come to either me or her friend Sona Sitri about either advice or problems she was having. I ask her after she sits down, "how can I help you sis I'm guessing this has to do with that girl that was with you and Sirzechs?"

She looks to me with hope in her eyes, "yes how do you know, have you already come up with a plan to help her? Please…" I put my hand up shaking my head from left to right saying, "no I don't know that girls story, all I know is that she was with you while talking to Sirzechs"… but while I am saying this to Rias, I can see the hope slowly leave her eyes.

I then continue by saying, "but if you tell me what's going on I may be able to offer some advice for you."

After saying that Rias perks up a little bit then for the past hour she tells everything she learned about Koneko from Sirzechs. After hearing the story from Rias I ask her something that I picked up on from the story she told, "let me double back real quick and stop me if get something wrong."

She nods in understanding then I continue, "you say that her sister went berserk after losing her mind to Senjutsu, kills everyone in the mansion, yet her sister survives all of this, do I have this correct?"

She nods her head confirming what I just said. I then adopted a more serious demeanor leaning forward, "you say her sister goes berserk and kills her master and everyone else except for someone who happened to be her sister. You also say that she lost control but someone how was able to get her control back?"

Rias looks to me as if she has the answer, "maybe her sister was able to pull her out of it. And apparently, she took in too much Senjutsu and that's how she lost control." I then answer her by saying, "if that is the case why did her sister leave her behind they could have easily escaped together?"

Rias responds to my question by saying, "maybe there wasn't enough time after Koneko calmed her down so she had to leave her." I look to her with a doubtful expression, "I doubt that Koneko was able to stop her sister. Which I can tell by the way she carries herself that she couldn't."

"So what are you saying brother," "to be honest a lot of the story you told me makes sense if you are just listening to the story and at face value but, as you look more into it more things tend not to add up."

She says to me with disappointment in her voice, "how is analyzing her story going to help me connect with her?" A grin begins to form on my face, "if you want to unlock a broken person's heart you have to find the key to get in."

She looks at me puzzled, "Rias give me a few days and I will see what I can do." "Okay but please don't frighten her with your antics." I look at her with a grin, "I don't know what you mean."

A Few Days Later

I have observed Koneko these past few days and I can say she is completely broken. She stays in her room never coming out, only when the servants place her food in front of the door.

Even then I see she barely touches anything except for the desert. When I listen closely I can hear the tv, and from time to time I can hear her working out while suppressing her powers. It took me a few days to figure out how to help but this is taking too long so I figured I would just wing it. When I talk to her tomorrow.

The next day

I walk up to Koneko's room and I knock once and hear nothing, I can sense she is in there but doesn't answer the door. It seems that she is in the corner of the room crouched down.

I knock two more times and say, "fine if you don't answer I'll just come in." I walk towards the door flicking it with my finger and the door does flying off the hinges and through the window and breaking part of the wall in the process.

I think to myself crap mother is going to have a fit. Then before I can restore everything to what it was I hear "ANOS," from the very person I didn't want to see this mess from outside.

"What the hell do you think you are doing I have told time and time again stop destroying my home, when I get up there I will make you regret this," I hear my mothers wings from outside and I teleport in front of Koneko who was caught of a guard from me appearing in front of her.

I pick her up in a princess pose saying, "let's talk somewhere else." We teleport to the top of the mansion, I then instantly cast a barrier with a bit of canceling magic so no one can see or hear us, then I sit her down in front of me.

Koneko, who I assume has come out of her shock from everything doesn't look at me says, "why did you bring me here?" I look at her and act like I am thinking up something hard and with a small grin on my face I say, "all I wanted to do was talk to you is that so bad?" She doesn't respond she just keeps looking down at her feet.

"So you are a Nekomata but from what I can sense you trying to suppress your power." Koneko flinches a little bit and slowly takes a few steps back saying in a flat monotone voice, "why do you care?"

"I just don't understand why you are hiding your power you should own it?" In a voice laced with fear, she says, " because if I lose control I could hurt people." There was silence for a few seconds and I say, "is that it? I thought there would be more to it than that."

She looks at me in surprise and looks back down, "if you heard the story from Lady Rias then you know why I must suppress my power." "Yes, I heard the story so I guess I can understand why but that doesn't mean you have to suppress it."

Koneko scoffs in annoyance, "of course, you wouldn't understand." I go to a knee and say stare into her eyes, "you would be surprised." Koneko looks away and says, "no you wouldn't, your life has been easy compared to mine."

I let out a small chuckle and I create a table, two chairs, and a few sweets on the table. I see Koneko's nose twitch a little and I smirk by saying, "how about this I will let you eat all the snacks you want and all you have to do is listen to a story and tell me how you feel about it. Once we do that I will let you leave."

A few moments later she nods in agreement and turns to walk to the table with snacks on them.

When the both of us reach the table I begin by telling her a short story about my past life leaving out that it is about me. A few minutes later she say's, "he sounds like an anime character, did you find this story from a movie?"

I let out a chuckle, "but I can say that he had his reasons for doing what he did and I respect his resolve to continue to push forward." "Really, you think so, let me ask you this then. Do you think he should have suppressed his power?"

"I don't know, on one hand, he used his power to protect his people, and on the other hand other people feared his power and viewed him as a tyrant." "I see so do you believe he was a tyrant." She pauses, "yes in my opinion he is a monster."

For the next few days, Koneko and I would talk about my life without revealing that I was talking about myself. The more we talked and the more she slowly opened up to me. "So now tell me what you think about him?"

Koneko stops eating and slowly speaks, "I still don't know the more you tell the story the more I believe he shouldn't have suppressed his power but, he still hurt a lot of people in the end even if it was to save his people."

"Yes you are right, but if he never used his power he would have lost a lot more am I right" Koneko stuffs a few more snacks into her mouth and nods in agreement, "so do you still believe he was a monster?"

"No I guess, he used his power to protect his people, so suppressing his power wouldn't be helping people only causing more suffering." I nod in agreement, "umm..sir Anos can I ask you something?"

"Sure go ahead." "So who is this individual, in the story you have been telling me is too detailed to be made up? Also, the way you tell it, it just seems you have seen this first hand."

I stare at her contemplating if I should reveal my little secret, then I respond to her staring into her eyes saying, "can you keep a secret?" She nods, "as you said earlier the story is too detailed to be made up. To answer your question yes the story is real and the person in the story is me."

She looks up to me for the first time making eye contact saying, "what do you mean it's you?" I then tell her the same story I told the others a few years ago in a more shortened version, not lasting hours.

There is a moment of silence for a long time and she says, "this sounds too crazy to be true but I can say after our past few conversations that you aren't someone who lies." "Do you believe me?"

Koneko looks into my eyes hoping to find a hint of deceit. I say, with a smirk, "let me prove it to you then," my eyes flicker showing off my eyes of destruction staring straight into her eyes.

Koneko falls out of her chair and onto the floor staring at me in disbelief and shaking in fear slowly backing away. My eyes of destruction disappear and smirk, "don't worry I mean you no harm, I am not going to hurt you."

I offer her my hand to help her up, she takes it and I can feel it shaking then I gesture her to take a seat. I then ask her as she stares at me in disbelief, "do you think I am a monster?"

She pauses staring at the ground trying to figure out what to say and then stutters out, "if I would have heard your story without knowing you then I would have said yes but, now I can say after talking to you, that you are not a monster."

I nod in understanding then she looks up to me and I can tell by looking into her eyes I can see little flickers of hope, "how did you do it, how were you able to control your power and not hurt your allies?"

I respond to her by saying, "easy I simply mastered it so I would never lose control." She looks at me with the hope in her eyes slowly starting to burn brighter, "could you teach how me to control mine? I am scared of my power and I don't want to lose control like my sister and hurt the ones close to me."

I could hear the depth of resolve in her voice and say, "sure if you are that determined to control your power I will help. Oh yes, before I forget don't speak to Rias about this I plan to tell her eventually but not anytime soon."

Koneko nods her head in understanding and asks, "what should I call you now since you are a king would Lord Anos suffice or…?" But before she could continue I say waving my hand in disapproval, "you don't have to say that, I don't care for formalities."

Koneko blushes a little bit and whispers, "would just Anos suffice?" "Sure I don't mind." She looks up at me in surprise and embarrassment and says, "wait you heard that? " I nod my head letting a smirk form on my face.

She glares at me and then a smirk forms on her face, "okay...Anos " After that, I would train Koneko with her Nekomata powers, after a while, she then starts to open up to Rias more even letting her see her in her Nekomata form.

{Flash Back End}

"No, not yet but I have made some headway." I look into her eyes and I can see a hint of sorrow. I continue patting her head saying, "don't worry I'm not going anywhere yet." She nods in understanding but I can still see the sadness in her eyes.

I look away for a little bit while looking around and saying, "where is everyone else?" "Rias and Akeno went to go talk to Sona, Kiba is training with Souji, and Gasper is still sealed in the basement. Also before you ask your parents are talking to the Phenex family but I don't know why."

I nod in understanding already knowing what they are talking about. Then I feel Koneko grab my hand and start to pull me outside, "let's go spar." I smirk and say, "fine show me how much stronger you have become."

A Few moments Later a Few Feet Away From the Gremory Estate

I cast a barrier to not alert anyone as to what we are doing. I then look to Koneko who is already in a battle stance with her ears and tail out. I lift my finger and gesture her to come at me.

She comes at me in a burst of speed and cast a few elusions to hide amongst her clones, the clones circle me, and I doge their kicks and punches, I then reach my hand to the side catching something in my hand and crushing it.

I then jump back and the earth shatters from where I was standing. My red eyes flicker and the illusion is destroyed and I see Koneko appear in the crater with the heel of her foot in the center.

You need to work on your illusions more, I can tell you have been working on your strength thanks to your rook piece but you can't forget to sharpen your other tools."

She nods and disappears into another illusion, "do you think that will work again?" My question is met with silence I look around waiting for her to attack and I feel her presence behind me I turn to see her with two other illusions in front of her.

I raise an eyebrow knowing that it's a trap but I charge in flying past the other two illusions in a burst of speed punching her in the stomach. She coughs up blood then disappears in a puff of smoke.

I raise my eyebrows in surprise then I look to my left and see three more Koneko's running towards me I flash my red eyes again to dispel the illusion but to my surprise, none of the Koneko's disappear and I can see a smirk form on her face and all of a sudden least twenty Koneko's jump from the trees.

Some start throwing blue fire at me while others try to catch me in a pincer attack. I smirk to myself and think excellent she knows I can see through her illusions and read her Senjutsu easily.

She also knows that I can tell which are clones created through illusion. So that is what this is, a small smirk form on my face, and I flex my aura in a burst of power creating a shock wave. Some of the clones go up in a poof of smoke while others are thrown back.

"You have shown me the depth of your resolve so let me give you this as a reward." I leap back and point a finger at one of the clones, and a small fireball the size of a quarter shoots out of my hand.

All of the Koneko's eyes go wide and they all cast a barrier to brace themselves. The small fireball goes flying at high speed and hits one of the Koneko's cracking her barrier like it was glass and a blast erupts about the size of a small baseball field.

With threes being destroyed instantly and once the smoke clears. I see one Koneko still standing in a crater with no signs of life around her. Her clothes are ruins, burn marks on her body, and gasping for air.

She has two hands outstretched with a small blue fire. She fires it towards my head and I lean my head to the right and dodge the attack. I lift my hand and catch something in my hand about to hit my head and slam it to the ground forming a crater.

I see Koneko with a grin on her face that changes to one filled with annoyance, and then she goes up in a puff of smoke. I look down to see the real Koneko lying in a crater after I slammed her on the ground unconscious. I bend down and cast healing magic on her and create new clothes over her body.

Koneko's POV

I awaken to see all of my injuries gone but I'm not a bit surprised because I know the power that Anos wields but, I do finally come to the realization where I am, I see a man with red hair and red eyes looking at me with his famous cocky smirk.

I sit up noticing where I was laying and with my back to him trying to hide my blush, "what do you think?" I feel a warm hand on my head and with a calming voice I hear, "I would be lying if I didn't say I wasn't a little surprised."

I turn around trying to hide my excitement with my blank expression saying, "really?" He smirks and asks, "how did I create those physical clones?" "I got the idea from this show I was watching.

The boy in the show could create identical clones. So I used what I saw in the show to see if I could do the same, it took a while but I was finally able to do it."

Anos praises me for this accomplishment, and asks how many clones I am able to make?" I respond to him by saying, "I don't know it depends if I don't enhance myself with my Nekomata powers only 10 but when I do I feel like I can make at least a 100 but I haven't tried because it gets real exhausting creating too many clones."

He nods his head in understanding I look around to see that the forest is back to the way it used to be. I then ask, "am I getting stronger? " Anos looks away as if trying to figure out what to say then with a glint in his eye saying, "I would say you have grown a lot since we first trained, I am very impressed."

With time your illusions could surpass even mines and you could be able to even cast illusions on me that not even I could not see through." I look at Anos surprised at what he said, "I doubt it you're the most powerful person I have ever known, to think I could surpass you at anything is crazy."

He chuckles at me and says, "look Koneko the only thing remotely powerful about me is my ability to destroy and the immense magical power I wield. So all you need to do is keep progressing your power and one day you definitely could."

I look at him in surprise with my black expression, with hope filling my eyes. I nod at him a small grin on my face, "I will definitely surpass you." He stands up with his hand outstretched and says, "I hope so."

Twenty minutes later

Anos and Koneko are walking back to the estate with Anos stopping and looking at a mountain in the distance. Koneko bumps into Anos saying, "Hey, what are you doing?" He looks down to Koneko and back to the mountain with a grin saying, "it's nothing don't worry about it."

On the very mountain where Anos was looking a woman with long black hair and pointy ears poking out from her hair. With dark grey eyes that have reptilian slitted pupils. The unknown woman is currently sitting on a rock in a gothic Lolita outfit with a grin on her face, "his power is intriguing and slowly growing each day. Yes, I will need you to regain my silence."

Chapter End