"August 17th."

"That soon?!"

"It seems a reasonable timing for the festivities. The Young Devils Gathering will be concluded by then, at which point we can end it with a celebration."

"Mou! Just like my So-tan being efficient!"

Lelouch watched the byplay between the Sitri sisters. Serafall torn between delight at seeing her sister be just as practical and level-headed as expected, but struggling with her distaste at Sona's becoming a married woman so soon.

The Leviathan hadn't initially been considered as a participant during these wedding planning meetings. The self-identifying magical girl devil had very much invited herself, and it would take Sirzechs himself to dissuade her. And unfortunately Rias' older brother knew how to pick his battles.

"I'm going to be a bride," Rias gushed, hands on her blushing cheeks. "Lulu-nii's bride!"

"Rias," Lelouch said gently as he took her hand. "I know you're excited, but you might want to help plan or Sona will end up deciding everything for–"

"Dresses!" the redhead declared suddenly. "We should decide what our wedding dresses should look like! That will take the most time, right?!"

Sona blinked. "Next on the list is the–"

"Dresses! I'm glad you agree!" Lelouch wasn't sure where Rias had pulled the sketchpad from but she was already busy sketching her idea. "Something like this!"

Looking at the page, none of the devils present were entirely comfortable calling the sketch a wedding dress. Or a dress at all. There were no shoulders, though it looked like she wanted to have lace gloves. Around her torso was a form-hugging garment that somewhat covered her breasts but left cleavage nearly down to her navel, the 'dress' ending in a draping cloth that covered the front and back but not at all for the sides. "Oh!" More scribbles, and she had added a pair of stockings, garters and garter belt that was entirely visible.

"... Wow," Sona uttered. "It's... Bold?"

"Very!" Serafall agreed with a bright smile. "You'll look beautiful in it, Ria-tan!"

"Maybe we don't have matching dresses," Sona muttered to herself, before adding louder, "You forgot to include bridal panties."

"No I didn't." The redhead batted her eyelashes at her future husband, pretending a show of girlish innocence that was clearly fake for reason of her choice, his history with her, and just who she was in general. Of course, that was the point. She was a seductive minx, a wonderfully sexual, expressive, insatiable woman.

Even so, even with the promise of that look, Lelouch demanded of himself that he put his foot down. "No. I don't want them seeing you like that. You're mine."

She couldn't suppress the girlish giggle at that proclamation, even as she forced her coquettish expression back into place. Wrapping herself around his arm. "But Lulu-nii, don't you want to show off your bride? I'll be all yours, let them see what they're missing out on. I want them to wish they were you as you spend our wedding night ravishing me all... Night... Long..."

"Rias, no," Sona cut in before Lelouch could be given the chance to falter. "Veto. You're wearing a more covering dress or you're wearing panties. I'll give you one, but if we're having a double wedding, I don't want the occasion marked by everyone talking about you flashing your pussy."

"Mou... Won't let me have any fun..."

Serafall's eyes lit up without warning. "Ah! How about a compromise, So-tan! You both wear sexy wedding dresses, not as skimpy as that, but you wear something kinky underneath! Chastity belts!"

"Ooh!" Rias suddenly gave the Satan her attention and admiration. Both of the more stoic devils present realised simultaneously how scary it was for Rias and Serafall to be on the same wavelength. "I like that idea! I could show it off during the reception and then after, my new husband can... Unlock me with his key..."

Sona meanwhile turned suspicious eyes toward her sister. "You're planning to steal the key, aren't you?"

"Gasp!" Serafall exclaimed. "So-tan! I would never do something like that and ruin your big day to prevent anyone from plucking your cherished virginity before I can! I am a magical girl of yuri yuri love and justice–!"

As Serafall went on her ongoing diatribe dedicated to her heroic persona, she was luckily not paying as much attention to Sona or Lelouch's reaction to her words. They had both been under the impression that Serafall had been paying close enough attention to Sona that she would have already known they had sex. They had been counting on her stalkerish tendencies so they wouldn't have to acknowledge the intimacy of their relationship to her directly. But it seemed just this once, the elder Sitri sister had actually abided Sona's desire for privacy and independence in the human world. The one time they would have rather she hadn't.

And so the two came to the obvious conclusion. Serafall couldn't find out. Once the wedding happened, that was fine. Probably. It was more likely to be fine than Serafall suddenly learning Lelouch had claimed Sona's every virginity in a single night. The island of Honshu didn't need to become an iceberg today.

"Okay, something a little more modest with a chastity belt underneath," Rias decided more or less on her own, ignoring the silent byplay. "Maybe... Slitted up to the hip on one side, but also... Ooh! Sona! If we have the dresses be a lace mesh over the chest instead of leaving it open! Would that be better?!"

"I could accept that... Perhaps if it went all the way up to be secured by a collar, leaving it mostly backless."

Rias gasped. "Sona wants to wear a collar to her wedding... I forgot you could be kinky too."

Sona closed her eyes. "Rias... Not that kind of collar. A lace one? To sew the mesh into?"

"Oh... Well, that does sound pretty. Okay! Now, how about bridesmaids?"

"Dibs So-tan's maid of honour!"

"That's not how that works, Lady Leviathan," Rias said with a smile after having moved to sit in Lelouch's lap. "Besides, we already decided who will be our maids of honour. Sona is mine."

"And Rias is mine," Sona agreed, smiling apologetically at her sister, and gratefully at the first friend she ever had and effectively her future wife.

"Ah!" Serafall seemed to want to protest, struggled with herself to the point of shaking and banging her fists on her knees. "How can I be mad at such pure yuri love! You break your sister's heart at the same time as you melt it, So-tan! ... Bridesmaid though?"

Yes, big sister, I'd love for you to be my bridesmaid. Alongside Tsubaki."

"Naturally Akeno has already agreed for me," Rias added. "And I'll need to ask Seek-chan soon."

"Not your sister in law?" Lelouch asked.

"No, I love Grayfia but if we're limiting ourselves to two bridesmaids apiece, it has to be Seek-chan. Lelouch," she continued a little more softly, squeezing the hand of her husband-to-be, "Have you chosen your groomsmen?"

It was an unavoidably difficult decision for him. He knew exactly who he wanted to be his best man. The only problem was whether he would even be there. The struggle of figuring out whether to accept he wouldn't and choose someone else, or stay stubborn. Refuse reality and demand it accede to his desires.

Lelouch had always been stubborn. "Riser and Zephyrdor will be my groomsmen." And as for his best man, he'd drag Sairaorg back kicking and screaming if he had to. When the time came, his brother would be there to see him married. There were no other acceptable outcomes.

He didn't care for the pitying... No. The sympathetic look from his redheaded fiancee. She could think what she wanted. He wasn't being a fool. He had set his sights on an objective and would see it through. "Alright. Then let's move on to the guest list. We need– Hold on." She raised a hand to her ear. A moment later, so did Sona.

And shortly after that, Lelouch received his own message. "Master." Anastasia. "There are... We have visitors."

"It's unlike you to be cagey, Ana. What kind of visitors?"

"The holy kind," she clarified. "Sona's Queen is speaking with them now. They're fairly insistent on a meeting with those in charge of the town."

Holy kind. It was obvious it wasn't angels darkening their doorstep. So the church had come this way? They had reason to come this way. Or at least believed they had reason. "Are they hostile?"

"Not exactly... It's difficult to be around them. Tsubaki is holding up very well for such a young devil, but there's an aura about them that is making things difficult."

"We'll be there shortly." His head turned toward Serafall as he smiled in apology. "Sorry Lady Levia-tan, but–"

"My apologies, big sister, but–"

"We have business to–"

The three young devils looked at one another, silently deciding who would take the lead. Sona won out. It was her family, after all. "We have business to attend to."

"Want some help? I'm always here!"

"No, thank you, I'm sure Rias and I can handle it fine on our own."

"Mou... Okay! Be good, and don't let him put his thing in you, kay?!"

The Satan Leviathan moved away from the table to an open space before the light of a teleportation circle washed over her, vanishing her from the room. Sona breathed a sigh of relief, then turned to her future spouses. "Rias, are you ready to greet our guests?"

The Gremory nodded with severity and dignity as she rose from her seat. Her seat that also rose to follow her. "I'll gather my peerage," Lelouch said as he lifted a hand to his ear.

Rias turned and refuted him. "You'll do no such thing." Hands on her hips, those same hips cocked as she looked up at him.

"As we discussed recently," Sona backed her up, with heavy emphasis on the word 'discussed', "We appreciate having you here. But monitoring and defending this territory is our responsibility, not yours."

Right. The whole independence and responsibility kick that brought them to the human world in the first place. The one he had very recently stepped on. "Alright... In that case, would you like any assistance? Or would you rather handle this entirely yourselves?"

"We can handle–"

"Mash," Rias suddenly interrupted Sona, before looking over her shoulder at her friend. "There's no reason to turn away assistance offered. Given who we'll be dealing with, having someone in reserve with significant resistance to light and holy elements would be valuable."

Sona clearly didn't like it, her big moment to regain her self-esteem and Rias wanted to ask for help. Still, it wasn't wise to ignore a Gremory's intuition. And more than that, being independent didn't mean refusing all help. "Very well. We'd like to borrow your Knight, if you would be amenable."

"Of course. I'd like to be present for her sake of course," Lelouch said, a response that raised the Sitri's hackles. "But I'll stay out of the proceedings and let you handle things otherwise."

"Let us?"

Rias drawled, "Sona..."

"Leave you to handle it. Stay out of it," the Bael tried to placate with a better word choice. "I'll be watching over a member of my peerage. That's all."

"... Fine. Thank you," Sona managed to say with a steadying breath. "Rias?"

"Right."

The three of them moved out to the main school building. Sona and Rias gathering their peerages through telepathy while Lelouch summoned only Mash and told the others to not concern themselves.

And so they arrived at the school courtyard to greet their guests. Tsubaki was waiting there, glad to see her King approach. Meanwhile the guests...

... Lelouch hadn't met any of the clergy directly, save for a priest in south Wales. And so the male of the trio wore familiar clothes, not too dissimilar to the Church of Britannia. However, the two girls... Their white cloaks covered them up. But it was easy to see beneath to the shapely curves covered only by skintight clothing. The swell of breasts and thighs was not only obvious, it was highlighted. Enhanced. Asia definitely hadn't been wearing that at any point of knowing the excommunicated nun.

"Oh good," the blue-haired girl said as she spotted the three of them. "Now we can speak to the real authority–"

"Oh...!" The plain boy in priest garb let his jaw hang open. He stared in obvious and shameless awe. "Oh...! UOHHHHHHH!"

It happened in a fraction of an instant. The glow that the three pureblood devils hadn't noticed at first in the open daylight. The holy light exuded by the boy in vestments. In that fraction of an instant as he yelled, it was an explosion of that same holy light. Tsubaki had been the closest and being on edge already from speaking with obvious exorcists, she jumped back just in time to avoid being consumed by that same energy.

"Issei! Stop!"

"O Lady of the Divine Bosom, your blessings be received by the most meagre soul and a princess of Hell and all that lay in between!" He had fallen to his knees, hands clasped in prayer that only made the aura stronger. "That you grace my eyes with this holy feast and graced even thy enemies with such magnificent endowments! Thou art the most generous and wise! I live in service that I may dedicate my life to carrying thy bountiful burdens wherever I may find them!"

"Master!" From out of nowhere, a pink-haired girl in dark armour appeared, her sword raised high as she stood before the praying priest. The sword glowed, and the light he exuded seemed to gravitate toward that blade, to be consumed by it. Devoured by it. "Are you okay?!"

"Tsubaki!" Sona barked.

"I'm fine!" the Queen answered, favouring an arm that was marked by some minor burns.

"That I may suckle upon thy nourishing–!"

"ENOUGH!" the blue haired girl yelled, kicking the boy in the back of the head and knocking him out in one strike.

"Boooooobs..."

The other girl with light hair, looked from the unconscious boy, to the devils who looked very much on guard and ready to fight. "Um... Sorry?"

-(-)-

"Why do I have to wear a blindfold?!"

"Because you saw a devil with big tits and almost restarted the war!" the more severe exorcist of the two stated irritably, guiding him into a chair in the Occult Research Club room. "Irina, why did you even want to bring him?!"

"Because he's strong... And he's a good person really... And... Handsome," her partner listed, ending in a mumble.

"Well," Sona said, sitting across from the priest and the exorcists alongside Rias. Meanwhile their respective peerages filled the room behind them, Lelouch sitting off to one side with Mash hovering at his side. "Now that whatever that was is dealt with. Perhaps introductions are in order. Tell us who you are, why you're here and why we shouldn't treat the past few minutes like the assault it seemed to be."

"I don't appreciate your hostility," the stern exorcist warned.

"Xenovia," the gentler one hissed in reprimand before addressing the devils. "You're right to be angry and we apologise. Issei just gets a little excited when he sees... Well..."

"He's a boob freak."

"He's very devout in his own way..." the gentle one offered weakly. Though perhaps not realising the devils didn't care how devout he was. "I am Sister Irina, this is Sister Xenovia, and Father Issei."

"Father," Rias noted, looking closer at him. "He's a little young."

"Ah, what a beautiful voice! Was that the lovely devil with the bosom crafted by Saint Gabriel herself?" the priest asked. "Yes, I'm young. But my faith is nearly unmatched. However, there were those who did not understand the gospel I preach and so I didn't fit in the greater church denominations. So I founded my own! The Church of Saint Gabriel! There I preach the gentleness and kindness that my lady embodies, the same kindness that she showed me on one fateful night of my youth! Ah! What a beautiful soul she holds, created by God himself to act as a symbol of the grace and temperance of femininity!"

"Stop. Praying," the Sitri heiress warned and demanded in only two words.

"Ah... Sorry."

"So let me get this straight," Rias said, staring at the peculiar priest. "You saw my boobs, just, normal boobs, fully clothed. And that was enough to send you into a fit of prayer and devotion so strong you exuded a holy aura."

"They're magnificent."

The redhead smugly crossed her arms under her bust to accentuate it. "Well he has good taste at least."

"Can we focus, please?" Sona complained.

"Oh! Is that the beauty in the glasses? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to dismiss your majestic bosom. They are ample and appear very firm. I would be blessed to suck–mmm-mm-mmmm-mmm. Mm?" the priest continued to talk while Irina held her hand over his mouth, her eyebrow twitching in annoyance.

All Lelouch could do was hold his head in his hands. What even was this? If Sona wanted her and Rias to handle this all on their own he was glad to let them.

"As for why we're here!" Xenovia cut in forcefully, seeming to be just as fed up as Lelouch had become with whatever the priest was. "We are on a mission from the church. There has been a theft, and so we have been tasked with finding the thief and retrieving what was stolen. What we require from you devils is that you not interfere or obstruct our investigation in any way. We will go about our business and you will stay out of it."

"We will, will we?" Rias asked. "You're presumptuous, coming into our territory, attacking one of our servants, and then making demands as though your desires and interests are of any value to us at all. You want us to leave you to your vague answers, let you keep your secrets, let you wander our territory unimpeded to do whatever you like, not a month after there was an attack here by stray exorcists? Would you like a foot massage after you're done with walking all over us in our own territory?"

"We aren't making demands," Xenovia corrected her. "We're informing you of what we will be doing. How devils feel about it is unimportant. If you get in our way, we will respond appropriately."

Lelouch gripped the flesh of his arm, fighting with himself to not interfere. This was what Bedivere had spoken about. This was the attack on the church that got them riled up. It was connected. Another incident that pushed things directly toward Kuoh, put members of different factions into conflict. Here. Again.

"Why here?" Lelouch hadn't said anything. It was Sona who asked the question and he wanted to kiss her for it. "Why Kuoh?" she specified. "Do you have reason to believe that the thief is here?"

"That's none of your concern."

"Allow me to correct you," the Sitri heiress insisted, adjusting her glasses to catch the light. "The safety and security of this town is our concern. The protection of our peerages is our highest priority. You are telling us that you, exorcists and a priest, have come directly into devil territory to chase a thief. And you expect us to ignore whatever kind of threat such a person might pose, because you say so. I will be perfectly clear, sisters, father. If you do not tell us why you are here specifically, what reason you have to believe your target is here, then I will assume you're both lying to me and intend hostile action against us."

"That's not–!" Irina protested.

"Are you picking a fight?" Xenovia asked, reaching under her cloak.

"You came to our house and made demands with no explanation," Rias pointed out. "You're picking a fight. So one of two things is about to happen. You're telling us the whole story, or you're leaving. The city. Forcefully if need be."

There was a moment of silence, punctuated by Rias sipping tea and the rustling of the reincarnated devils shifting uncomfortably behind them.

"The Excaliburs."

"Irina!"

"That's what we're looking for," she repeated, uncaring for Xenovia's outburst. "Some of them have been stolen from the various church vaults. Xenovia and I were tasked with getting them back, and I asked Issei to come along. We're here because we have reliable intelligence that tells us the thief came here."

"They stole the most famed holy swords in the world," Sona repeated, "And they sent the three of you– No. The two of you. As opposed to a small army or a veritable crusade."

"Not without appropriate armament." Xenovia pushed her cloak open to reveal the blade on her hip.

A voice from behind Rias gasped. Kiba. "That's–!"

Irina mirrored her partner. "Excaliburs. We've been trained to fight with holy swords from childhood. We're the best possible counter to someone who would steal the other Excaliburs and whatever they would use them for."

The plan was questionable at best. But Lelouch had another priority than critiquing the church's plan.

Mash still stood by his side. A hand covering her mouth as she stared at the blades on the exorcists' hips. Her face wracked with sorrow as tears flowed from her eyes. She tried to keep quiet, tried to conceal it, but a breath turned into a gasping sob filled with despair.

And all eyes turned to her.

"Mash?" Sona asked.

"I'm sorry!" the girl cried, openly sobbing, "Master, I don't know why! I, it hurts!"

Xenovia stood, turned to look at the crying girl in dark armour, weeping uncontrollably at the sight of the fragments of Excalibur. "I should have realised. I hadn't taken it seriously, but it's true isn't it? Wielding that sword... You're the abomination."

-(-)-

A/N: This chapter seen very very early on THE GREAT FORBIDDEN P! FEAR THE P! LOVE THE P!