Me? Human? : Chapter 52 : Brother to Brother talk. (Patreon)

A/N - Felt kinda sick yesterday, so took the day off. Feel much better today. :)

Disclaimer - I don't own any of the characters appearing in High School DXD or the Anime or the manga whatsoever.

Scandinavian Territory

–Azazel–

He stood amidst the frozen backdrop, with Baraqiel and Penemue both standing around, looking bored, while he did what he did when he had even a little bit of free time. He worked on his favourite projects. After all, most of his usual time was monopolised by paperwork that was generated from having to run an entire faction. After all, even if he did want to delegate most of the stuff, he simply couldn't. 

After all, there was no other Twelve Winged Fallen Angel, and in their world, power was everything, and as such, even if he did delegate stuff to others, if something did happen, the world would, rightly, come clamoring for the head of the organisation, and that was usually the strongest being, which was him. Sometimes, he just wished that there was another Fallen of his calibre who he could dump all responsibility onto and then fuck into his labs to research to his heart’s content.

Unfortunately, his mind told him of the dozen different ways it could and would go wrong, with the worst being a fraction of the current version of Grigori, with Michael and the others using the opportunity to pounce on them. Not to mention, if he did orchestrate the Fall of another Twelve Winged Angel, depending on who Fell, it might just restart the next Great War, and that….

Sigh. Just pitfalls everywhere with no reprieve in sight. Such was his life, and yet, he couldn't do much except walk the path. After all, he was the Governor General of the Grigori, and it included even the more troublesome parts of the Grigori. Thinking of Kokabiel, and what he might be planning to do after having basically gone underground after the humiliating video of being punched by a human was spread throughout the organisation, he couldn't help but sigh and realise that sooner rather than later, the day he was going to have to discipline and maybe even kill Kokabiel was nearing.

It was… draining, in a way he couldn't put into words. He was just so sick and tired of having to fight, not just his own people but also his siblings, and even the Devils to an extent. Sometimes, he thought that he was not eligible to be the leader any longer; the horrors of the Great War were still too heavy in his mind. He was sure that Michael was the same. He supposed that he should be thankful that the Four Devil brats, even being born after the Great War, knew the horrors of war intimately and, as such, all of them were on the same page when it came to something as horrifying as restarting the Great War.

He should—-

His thoughts were halted as Baraqiel and Penemue both straightened up, facing the same direction. With a flash of golden light, Michael arrived, suffusing the entire place with the purest holy aura, making him unconsciously relax. The same was true for Penemue and Barqiel. Michael was the closest when it came to Him in terms of Holy Presence, even if it was only a fraction.

“Brother.” Michael greeted him. He noticed that Michael had only brought Gabriel with him, even when he technically could have brought another one. Not that both of them were not enough for all three of them. No, they did not need protection, but the fact that no other Angel came with them meant that his matter required secrecy. Gabriel was looking around, as if searching for someone. He wondered why, though. Michael did not specify anyone for the meeting, even if he had a hunch that this whole thing was for Motohama.

After all, he had sensed Heaven’s mark on the boy the first time they met. With Motohama’s power and his rapid growth in power, Michael must have sensed something through Heaven's system and then called for a meeting?

“Michael. Gabriel.” He greeted both of them before snapping his fingers, manifesting a table along with comfortable chairs. One on his side, and two on the other side. Though Michael stopped Gabriel from stepping forward and instead stepped forward himself, drawing looks of confusion from both him and Gabriel.

Michael’s hand touched the other chair, making it blink out of existence, and the other chair turned into a Holy Chair, his magic instantly overwritten by Michael’s superior one by a mere touch, as the sound nullification field activated over the entire table the moment Michael sat down.

He rolled his eyes at the blatant show of power, which was totally unnecessary, but he supposed that even Michael, the most understanding and peaceful of the current lot of Archangels, would not want to leave anything behind on the table, not when a subtle show of power could work wonders during negotiations.

Though he wondered why Gabriel was kept out of the conversation. She more than qualified for it, plus the way she was pouting and glaring at Michael’s back, he could tell that it was a spur of the moment decision, and that Michael was in for a world of hurt the moment they were back in Heaven, or for a long silent treatment period, both of which were painful considering it would come from Gabriel, the darling of Heaven.

“I would like to get to the matter at hand,” was Michael’s opening salvo, which was odd, but he shrugged and agreed.

“Sure. What do you want to talk about?”

Michael peered deep into his eyes. “Motohama Kenji. I want to know more about him. Has he exhibited any light related powers recently?”

Azazel kept a poker face, wondering just how Michael even got that information. Motohama did not have any Sacred Gear, and he no longer had the Heaven’s mark on him, which meant that his power had consumed it for something. It was probably just added to the pool of light he had, making him a bit better at Light Magic. Though Motohama did not have that Holy element to his Light, it should still be able to work on Heaven’s mark, considering that it was nowhere near as strong as Michael could make it.

He debated on just how much he could get away with here, but seeing Michael’s serious face, something he hadn’t seen in years, he sighed and decided to be straightforward. It was not like he had any control over the boy, and Michael looked serious enough about it that he might just threaten to use the Nuclear option, something that he definitely did not want. 

Motohama being inside his organisation was certainly not as important as having Sacred Gears users under his employ at all. Motohama could become strong, even more so than him maybe, but he could not be employed, not in his current form. The best he could do regarding the boy was tolerate him, facilitate his stay, and hope that the treatment alone would give the Grigori an edge.

After all, he knew that the Devils had fumbled the bag when it came to the incredibly valuable and now dangerous boy as well, so he only had Angels to compete with, which was fine since the boy was a teenager and he could offer far more to please teenage human tendencies than Heaven ever could, even if Gabriel was the most visually powerful weapon that no one else could replicate.

“Yes. The boy has displayed an alarming tendency to use Light Magic. Frankly, the skill and ease of use are more akin to Angels using it rather than humans. He is probably the most skilled user of Light Magic I have ever met.” He then matched Michael’s eyes and decided to drop the bomb, “he might even match Vasco in terms of strength.”

Michael’s eyes widened a tiny bit at that. “That is…high praise, coming from you, brother.”

He shrugged, “It is the truth. And since he is a human in my academy, I don’t think hiding anything from you will be useful. So, that’s my side.” He snapped his fingers and gave Michael the official report on Motohama. The bit about the adaptive powers was not recorded anywhere, so he wasn't technically withholding anything from Michael.

Michael flipped through the incredibly detailed reports about the boy, detailing what little he could get from the multiple scans he did of the boy’s body. For some reason, there was an energy cloak within his body that stopped any scanning attempt cold, without fail. He could document all of the boy’s outward physical characteristics with ease, but the moment he tried to dig deeper, the wall of energy stopped him. He might have to exhaust the boy beyond anything he had experienced so far before trying to scan Motohama’s internal body.

That seemed a little hard to do, especially since Motohama had slipped into a coma multiple times and even then, he was unable to do a full body scan. Plus, using a high powered magical scanner on someone who couldn't muster up the energy to defend themselves might lead to a repeat of the Kokabiel incident, and this time, it might result in significant Grigori casualties, instead of just the loss of reputation of a Cadre, leading to said Cadre into isolation. A Cadre who was troublesome out in the open was now in isolation, planning who knows what.

Yet another issue he was plagued with, but if Penemue was to be believed, they could feasibly replace Kokabiel with Motohama, especially if his power worked against aging as well, creating an ageless human. She really was blind in her hatred against Kokabiel, if she thought that.

As he was trapped in his thoughts, Michael went through the whole report multiple times before finally setting the report down with a sigh, a troubled expression on his face. Again, a rarity since Michael could be surprisingly hard to read if he wanted to.

“Azazel, I would like to meet the boy.” 

He blinked in surprise. “Sure. Why, though?”

“That is….confidential. I just need to meet the human to get a read on him.”

He nodded slowly. “Sure. I can arrange a meeting, but if you just wanted to meet him, why not request that in the first place? I could have just brought him there.”

He wouldn’t have, not without having some concrete idea about what this really was, but he wanted to know more about what Michael had to say about that.

Seeing that Michel remained silent, he prompted his eldest sibling alive, “Does this have something to do with the System’s mark I felt on the boy when I first met him?”

“Is it still there?”

“Well, it was there when I first met him back in Kuoh City. Now? Not so much.”

“Do…you know why that is?”

“What I want to know is what that mark was doing there in the first place.”

Michael looked at him for a moment before sighing and coming clean about the whole reason behind this secretive and abrupt meeting in the first place. The fact that Motohama had eaten a part of Raynare and had thus committed the sin of Cannibalism, leading to that minor curse mark, was a minor thing, easy to ignore, especially since Raynare was now dead, and Motohama was far more valuable than even a hundred Two Winged Fallen, let alone someone who went rogue and ended up dead on the orders of Kokabiel.

Then came the shocker.

He felt Baraqiel and Penemue behind him stir in shock, as he froze at what Michael told him.

A Light Human?

What the fuck was that?

When asked, Michael had no answer as well, as this was the first time something like this had happened, and he too wanted to know more.

Though, now that he knew about it, it did not seem like a good idea to let Michael meet Motohama. If the words were to be believed, then Motohama might just be the key to something within the System or, failing that, then atleast as a tool to rejuvenate the deteriorating support for the Church in the Human World.

A Human made up of light would be one hell of a mascot.

On the flip side, he couldn't discount something being truly wrong with Motohama, and that Light Human thing blowing up in his face. 

At least, that explained the hatred Motohama held for Devils, even beyond what he should have for their actions in Kuoh.