(New Leaf) Multi-Interlude 4 (Patreon)

Phenex Clan Territory, Underworld
(Shortly after the Gremory-Phenex gathering)

Riser leaned back onto the massive half-bed/half-sofa that sat in the center of his private wing’s entertainment hall, just a few moments after he and his peerage had arrived with a teleport. With his head tilted back, one of his forearms came up to rest across his eyes with an annoyed click of his teeth. His girls all began plopping themselves around him in varying states of composure and mental exhaustion, now that keeping up appearances stopped mattering.

Spanning almost a dozen meters wide, some would say that the deep-purple velvet monstrosity was oversized as hell and clashed horribly with the rest of the fine mahogany decor, but he would call them idiots.

How the hell else was he supposed to fit all fifteen of his girls together with him on movie nights?

He paused at that thought.

‘Fourteen,’ he corrected himself mentally. While he liked having the ‘little sister’ role in his harem filled, and would be absolutely down for it if Ravel decided to join his girls for real, his sister wasn’t actually into that type of play, and had indeed retreated to her own wing of the mansion upon arrival.

His lovely [Queen] flopped down next to him, laying herself across his chest with a groan, prompting him to wrap an arm around her waist. On his other flank, Mihae snuggled into his side, so he lowered the arm from his eyes to drape around his [Bishop]’s shoulders and idly grope at her modest chest, getting an embarrassed but pleased sigh to escape her lips.

While his family were among the best healers in the Underworld alongside their production of Tears, able to restore a being to near-perfect condition, their healers’ magics fell far short of a true Phoenix Tear, a pale imitation that did nothing to help with mental fatigue, the stress that accumulated throughout a day of dealing with the expectations of a Pillar noble.

Not that he actually had to do that often, being the third son.

“...”

“... You’re very tense right now,” Yubelluna said after a few moments, shifting her head to glance up at him understandingly, a similar frustration in her eyes. “I can likely guess, but what’s troubling you?”

Unlike the rest of his peerage, Riser had none of that same mental fatigue. Unlike the rest of his peerage, Riser had required a Phoenix Tear to be healed after he’d been Retired from the match, given the residual Holy element sparking throughout his system that resisted all other forms of Devil-based healing– including his own innate regeneration failing him.

Mihae gave a small but sharp inhale when his hand clenched a little too tightly, and he relaxed his grip.

“Tch…” He clicked his tongue, not at anyone in particular, but just thinking about the situation left him wanting to do something about it. To rectify some mistake. “I don’t particularly mind that the marriage was canceled. It’s a little irritating, and it would have been nice having the excuse to bring a woman like Rias to our bed, but not something I felt very strongly about either way.”

What was one girl who greatly disliked him compared to his loyal women who loved him dearly?

He shook his head, ignoring the appreciative noises some of his girls made. As enticing as the idea of getting with the Ruin-Princess was, realistically, even if the marriage went through, she would have made the prospect of interacting with her on a regular basis an absolute pain in his ass. In the end, the whole thing was their parents’ endeavor, and it could be argued that he had, as the humans put it, “dodged a bullet” when he decided to concede the draw as her victory behind closed-doors.

The real issue…

He could still feel the way his entire body locked up, the agony of his every nerve feeling like it was dying, like his very self was being torn apart in a way like nothing else had until then. Riser had felt his limbs be erased by Destruction itself and not flinched, been showered by currents of electricity and barely slowed, gone toe to toe

with the newest Red Dragon Emperor and defeated him in a battle of strength, speed, and stamina– yet that one bolt of holy lightning was enough to make Riser black out from the pain and feel it even in his dreams.

Even the pain and humiliation of having been skewered by the little youkai girl was minor in comparison, a footnote of the battle that he could admit in his own mind he’d likely find amusement in when looking back on it years down the line. At least, once she inevitably grew into her own as a respectable powerhouse on the scene, and the incident coming to light wouldn’t harm his reputation too much.

Regardless, the fact remained that he had lost against those that, by all rights, would not have beaten him two weeks ago.

“... I wasn’t strong enough.”

After administering a Phoenix Tear to wake him up, his father had taken him aside and told him that he recognized lightning like that which struck him in the end, from one of the original Fallers no less.

The Lightning of Heaven, Baraqiel.

His father had pulled him close and hugged him tight, warned him that if it hadn’t been for the Retirement system, if that had been a real battle, he would have died. That even with all the safeguards in place in a Rating game, accidents still sometimes happened, and that he’d been lucky he wasn’t one of those cases. He didn’t say anything else, but Riser wasn’t stupid. The message was clear.

An undying Phenex, as mortal as any other Devil against the wrong opponent. Their family’s birthright couldn’t protect them from everything.

He would need to be able to stand on his own in the future, without relying on his regeneration.

For a brief moment, a vague impression of the strange human with blond hair and six whisker-like markings appeared in his mind. At the time, Riser hadn’t bothered remembering the human’s face, but those particular features and his impertinence had stood out nonetheless.

“Yubelluna.”

“Yes, my lord?”

“I’ll need you to create a new schedule for everyone, and increase the amount of time set aside for the girls’ training.” He paused for effect. “Naturally, I’ll be joining you all.”

The human boy had been right about one thing, at least. In the end, the two weeks had been enough for Rias to win, even if by technicality.

‘If only two weeks of training got a few reincarnated devils strong enough to stand against me, what progress would be made if I, a pure-blood, began training?’

-----

Kuoh Academy
(Thursday, May 17th)

“Hey, are those leftovers from the party?”

“Mhm.”

“Damn rich people! Even leftovers look better than the lunch I brought with me today!”

A pause.

“... Can I have some?”

“If you try to take my food I’ll throw you over the railing.”

“So stingy!”

Amatsu Norika felt her lips lift into a small smile, while she watched from behind her glasses as her strange new friends argued over something as normal as food.

“Oh yeah, you two did mention going to a party or something yesterday, huh,” Mitsuri mused from her own seat on the roof tile, idly picking at her own bento while leaning back against the guard rail. “Was it part of that thing you guys were gone for?”

Despite everything that made the tomboy stand out from the rest of her classmates, Norika felt like the redhead was the most normal person in their little group of four, something she was grateful for. The taller girl’s casual disregard for the social norm compared to other girls their age was, ironically, a far more normal behavior than the other two’s personality quirks.

Norika was grateful, in a strange way.

While she’d never had any trouble making friends and acquaintances, she’d always found herself ending up in the role of being that one friend that everyone knew, but nobody knew. And as much as she enjoyed interacting with everyone, watching how friend groups merged and split as interests crossed or parted ways, it still left her feeling on the outside, no matter how readily any of those groups would integrate the kind girl.

But then Ueda Mitsuri– the tomboy with a straightforward attitude, and surrounded by rumors of delinquent-adjacent behavior–  had come to her in private, and shyly asked her to join the tea ceremony club with her. Despite standing over a head taller than Norika, the girl hadn’t been able to look her in the eyes, nervously looking around while struggling to get out her request without stuttering or mumbling.

It was impossible for Norika to refuse the request. It felt like the beginning of a shoujo manga! The “normal” girl being approached by the classmate with an intimidating exterior, only to find out that exterior hid a soft and vulnerable heart? She jumped at the chance to develop a true friendship of her own, accepting with a wide smile and no second thoughts.

It was only shortly after that, that she remembered who exactly Mitsuri tended to hang out with at school.

“Mm.” Koneko’s simple answer was accompanied by a single nod. Norika’s smile didn’t shift as the sun bounced off of her glasses lenses.

“Yep.” Uzumaki’s answer was a lot more verbal–  “Remember how I said they hired me? It was for training. They wanted to break a contract they didn’t agree to, and the other guy agreed to a physical contest to settle things, which they won.” –but left out so much context that it just created more questions.

The conversation quickly moved on after that, and she chimed in once or twice when it got to the topic of recent club activities.

Knowing how these sorts of things usually went from her research (manga), Norika wasn’t surprised. She didn’t expect the boy to volunteer more details on what was obviously one of “those” things that normal people like herself didn’t know about.

And while at first glance it might have seemed like the Koneko wasn’t all that engaged with the conversation thanks to her usual blank expression and focus on her food, Norika was well aware that the girl was paying plenty of attention.

The slight twitch of her pure white tail at the boy’s answer was a dead giveaway, not that the others could see anything.

Sometimes, it was really hard not to let her eyes roam where they shouldn’t. Like she’d said two weeks ago, she was used to ignoring the “weird” things she sees, but Koneko was just unfairly cute! The way her ears would swivel and twitch to track distant sounds Norika couldn’t hear herself?

She wanted to pet them. Just once!

“Wait, people actually use the online portal?” Mitsuri asked in surprise after Naruto explained his current project. “I thought it was just something the school was trying to push to show they’re modernizing.”

“Mm.” Koneko nodded in confirmation. “It’s mostly just upper years, though I have a friend that uses it. Does all his classes on it.”

Norika’s smile became brittle. “A-ah Mitsuri… do you… not check our club’s message board for event notices?” She asked the tomboy. “Is that why I always have to remind you when it’s one of our ceremony days? Why I have to keep dragging you to the club that you asked me to join with you?” Her smile strained as she spoke.

The awkward shifting of hazel eyes to avoid meeting her own, as well as the nervous wince, told her all she needed to know.

“What’s their username?” Naruto asked the cat girl with a bright grin while ignoring their byplay, a grin that did a lot to offset his intimidating… everything else. “Maybe I can send them a message. A friend of Koneko-chan’s is a friend of mine.”

“It’s a reference to a videogame; Vee-dot–” She cut herself off when her ears flicked to the roof access door suddenly just as the door was pushed open, revealing the recognizable figure of one of the Two Great Ladies of the school.

The familiar dark red aura pulsing in her chest that she shared with Koneko was significantly lighter than she remembered it being, brightened by a jaggedly radiant white glow that was almost similar, but distinctly different to Koneko’s own full-body shine. The ephemeral, barely-there bat-like wings she also shared with Koneko, as well as a few other notable students in the school, were joined by a pair of beautiful, full-feathered black wings reminiscent of a raven.

‘It’s just like a manga!’ Norika squealed excitedly inside her own head. ‘A two-week training arc that unlocked a new powerup!’

Her face didn’t show even a single hint of her thoughts despite her desire to see what they would look like for real, her natural small smile slotting into place without any effort. After all, she’d gone her entire life seeing things that no one else could. Even something “new” like this was still within her own sense of “normal”, even if she couldn’t share it with others.

“Ara ara~” Himejima Akeno brought a hand up to cup her cheek with soft eyes and a gentle smile, her other hand holding a suspiciously large bento box tied shut with a delicate bow. “So this is where the two of you have been running off to, Uzumaki-kun, Koneko-chan.”

Koneko relaxed with her tail slowly swishing behind her, the only visible sign of her having tensed in the first place being that same appendage having stiffened.

Naruto, on the other hand, snorted. “What do you want with us, ya witch?”

The upperclassman turned her gaze on Mitsuri and Norika for a moment, ignoring the boy’s rude greeting entirely with a smile. “I don’t believe we’ve been introduced. My name is Himejima Akeno.” She gave a quick bow.

“It’s nice to meet you, senpai,” Norika replied with a polite but genuine smile. “My name is Amatsu Norika.”

“Ueda Mitsuri.”

Norika would have elbowed the girl for her un-ladylike greeting, but that would have been even more so, so she settled for staring judgingly at the tomboy who continued to avoid eye contact with her.

For someone who joined the Tea Ceremony club to become more feminine, the redhead certainly didn’t seem to put any effort into that goal outside the club.

“Don’t let her appearance fool you,” Naruto spoke out with an exaggerated warning tone, “This woman is dangerous.”

Even though he was clearly joking, Norika didn’t doubt the statement’s face value anyway.

“Rude.” Akeno pouted. “I guess that means you don’t want to share the bento I put together for you.” She poked a fingertip to her lip while shifting in a way to emphasize the large container in her grasp. “And I made sure it had all your favorites from yesterday, too…” She sighed dramatically and turned back towards the door. “Oh well, I can tell when I’m not welcome.”

“Wait wait wait! Hold on now…” Naruto, who had begun eying the bento with a greedy, hungry look, immediately panicked and began running damage control. “Why don’t you join us for a little bit, and we can talk about this like civilized adults?”

Akeno smiled angelically and walked over, elegantly seating herself in a kneeling position on the other side of Naruto from Koneko, between the boy and Mitsuri.

Tellingly, the whiskered boy’s eyes were still locked onto the bento.

Norika hid a laugh behind her hand, and Mitsuri snorted in amusement. 

“And for your information,” Akeno began as she placed the bento in front of him and rotated it deliberately, “I wanted to thank you in some way for all the help you gave us, something a little more personal than a check to be cashed.” The senior student watched his face as he began untying the bento’s ribbon in a hurry, a gluttonous grin on his face.

“We couldn’t have done it without your help,” Akeno said with a soft smile. “So thank you, truly.” 

Something about the way she said it put a weird feeling in Norika’s belly, one that had her sending a worried glance at Koneko, though the white-haired girl only tilted her head slightly, looking curious.

The lid came off and Naruto leaned over to peer into the box with a grin, only to pause and blink.

His expression shifted to one of confusion for a moment, before a look of surprise and realization entered his eyes.

“Huh. I guess… it really has been a whole year since I got here.” His new smile was complicated, like he couldn’t decide whether he was more happy or sad, and it was the first time Norika had seen an expression like it on his face. “... Huh. Thank you.”

It took a moment for her to figure out the significance of his reaction, after she finally realized what was in the bento. There were a variety of finger-foods packed in around the edges– most of which looked like meaty western snacks that she couldn’t name– that surrounded what looked like a homemade omurice, complete with a personalized ketchup garnish 

From her position across from him, Norika saw that the red sauce took the upside-down form of the kanji for “Happy birthday”.

-----

After school let out, Norika found herself deep in thought as she walked through the thin crowds of the town’s mall to do some shopping.

It seemed that out of all five of them on the roof at the time, the ninja was more surprised than anyone else about his gift, like he hadn’t even remembered it was his own birthday until after he opened the bento.

Norika idly shifted to one side of the path, leaving plenty of room for a somewhat familiar older Inugami hanyou with hands full of bags pass by her, not even sparing a glance at the half-human man’s dog ears. The weirder– but still unfortunately familiar– sight, was the fact that the man was also holding the leash of an actual Inugami that trotted patiently by his side. That, she had to force herself to try not to stare at.

‘I wish Yashamaru-san would stop taking his mother for walks in busy spaces like this… it’s so off-putting to see…’

Although, it wasn't as if the man who lived in her neighborhood realized anyone knew about him like that. Norika knew better than to blab to people about her ability, even if it was hard to ignore it whenever she passed by the man on her walks to school, and had to listen to his "dog" scolding him for not spending enough time with her anymore.

She shook the thought from her mind a moment later, and refocused on the topic of her classmate, the one that didn’t belong.

For as long as she’s known, there’s been a specific identifier, something that people either had, or didn’t. A ‘quality’ that had no visual tells, but that she was able to notice inherently, on a fundamental level. From the majority of her teachers and classmates, to every identifiable youkai she’s ever seen, from the mister who ran the convenience store she went to when she visited Tokyo, to her parents, to most of the people around her at this very moment. It took her a few years to pinpoint exactly what it meant, but she’d understood what it meant in the end; they were all children of Japan.

Even the first time visitors of their ancestors’ home, the hafu’s who’d never even set foot in the country before, were welcomed back by Nihon.

Shitori Souna, Yuuto Kiba, and Rias Gremory were all examples of people who didn’t fall under that umbrella. The American and European tourists she sometimes saw were the same.

So why didn’t Uzumaki Naruto fit into either of those categories?

It had unnerved her at first, being in the same class as a boy so different from everything she’d seen before. She was too used to seeing oddities to stare, but even in a world full of oddities, he was still somehow… alien to her.

Regular people didn’t have any auras, any unexplained glow or features, nothing like that. They were simply a product of biology, and the natural world.

Supernatural people did have things like that. As a normal person, her sight notwithstanding, Norika didn’t know if this was because something like magic existed or not, or if there was some more logical explanation, but she wouldn’t be too surprised either way. She just didn’t know, and never bothered inserting herself into a world that would probably put her and her family’s lives in danger, like some sort of anime.

With Naruto though, there was nothing, but in a way that made her realize that there was something, and she just couldn’t comprehend it.

There shouldn’t have been anything to make her think this. For all intents and purposes, he seemed like a kind– if intimidating-looking– normal person to her, never mind the fact that he didn’t have that Japanese identifier despite his clear hafu appearance. But all it took to make her notice the discrepancy, was seeing how Koneko’s own aura latched on to his “nothing” one day, when the girl had been poking at him after class.

Despite her initial hesitance though, she didn’t need to interact with him for long in order to realize that he wasn’t actually scary at all, and that he was just a bit of a weirdo with very little common sense.

In other words, nothing she needed to worry about!

Instead, she would worry about what would be appropriate to get for her recent friend as a late birthday present!

… Plus some other shopping she needed to get done.

Before anything though, she needed to use the restroom first, so that she wouldn’t have to interrupt her shopping trip later and shuffle into the bathroom with a handful of bags.

As she was walking down the side hallway to where the women’s restroom was, she was shocked when a young looking girl with messy medium-length golden pigtails rushed out of the door next to her in a hurry, and bumped shoulders with her while tugging unkempt pieces of clothing back into their correct places.

It wasn’t the girl’s sudden grinning appearance that shocked Norika, despite the gothic-lolita style of dress, nor was it the pair of ethereal raven wings that curled behind the girl, so similar to Akeno’s.

‘Why was a girl like that in the men’s room?!’

A second later, another person stepped out of the same bathroom with a sleazy smile.

“Ugly Bastard” was the first descriptor to pop into Norika’s head.

It took a moment for the dots to connect.

‘I should… call the police, right?’ Norika wondered, torn between alarm, suspicion, and uncertainty as the man walked away with an off-key whistle. The lolita was clearly someone from that side of the world, and was probably older than she looked based on what Norika knew from manga tropes… but then again, that was manga and hardly represented real life, so if that girl was as young as she seemed and that man really…

Her face twisted in disgust and she pulled out her phone. ‘Ugh… I think I’m going to be sick…’

-----

Kuoh Mall
(Seconds later)

“Ohohoh~” Mittelt giggled to herself behind a raised palm as she strutted away from her latest ‘playdate’, fully satisfied. The practically visible revulsion and concern flowing off of that human girl filled her with a debauched sort of delight.

Unfortunately for her most recent toy, the man had begun taking glances at other, actual children recently, which was a big no-no according to their little ‘arrangement’.

That, and the laws of basically every civilized country on the planet.

Thus, she had decided to let a bystander become suspicious of his depravity to draw the mortal police forces in his direction. By the time he would be caught, she’ll have been long gone, on to find a new little piggy to play with until they outgrew her mercy.

This not-so-little piggy had likely believed himself above his “conquest’s” rules, for whatever reason.

The only thing that saved him from painful death via her cleansing spear was that he hadn’t yet acted on his growing urges to diversify. Mittelt was already tainted, so she was a fine target, but an actual innocent? She would have had him begging for the release of death within an hour.

“That girl though…” Mittelt muttered under her breath, the condemned man’s ultimate fate, both in life and in spirit, already out of her mind. ‘She hesitated too long.’

The glasses-wearing teenager hadn’t even blinked at the sight of her, just the sign above the men’s bathroom. The girl wasn’t even phased by the sight of a pre-pubescent dressed the way she did, a very rare style that was almost entirely relegated to cosplay-tier, that thus tended to generate a lot of attention. Despite that, it had taken longer than expected for the girl to finally decide to call the authorities.

‘Her body was that of a normal human’s, no magic potential at all.’ Mittelt mused. ‘Her eyes though… Did she see through me?’

The Fallen lolita shrugged, not really caring that much anymore, and quickly found a secluded place to take flight from after wiping the memories of anyone who’d seen her nearby.

She had a meeting with her new minder/parole officer to get to, and the four-winged asshole wouldn’t hesitate to toss her in the slammer for a couple weeks if she was a minute late. Info-sec officers were uptight bastards like that, and deviant pervert she might be, but she wasn’t into abandonment play.

Mittelt idly wondered how her old team were doing back at Headquarters as she flew through the slowly darkening sky. Unlike herself, who had surrendered pretty easily and cooperated with her captors, Raynare’s actions and refusal to cooperate beyond admitting her defeat had threatened a fragile political balance, and landed her in a bit more hot water with both factions. Kalawarner, being the useless lesbian she was, had followed her girl-crush’s lead in unintentionally making things harder for everyone involved, not just their Devil captors.

“Eh, who cares.” Mittelt, once more, didn’t really care that much. “Fuck them.”

‘I’m sure Raynare’s probably stoked to be Azazel’s disposable lab rat or whatever anyway, the psycho.’

-----

Grigori HQ Barracks, Punishment Block A-3
(Same time)

‘This is fucking awful!!! I can’t believe I Fell for that creepy nerd bastard!’ Raynare wordlessly screamed into her thin pillow, lying face down on her assigned cot after another soul-crushing day of work.

Raynare was not stoked to be working under Azazel in his Sacred Gear research department for her punishment, even though her position was that of a secretary and not as a test subject. As good as that was for her continued health, her past self would have undoubtedly preferred being a test subject, because at least then the object of her devotion would have noticed her!

Instead, unless it was for the purpose of foisting off all his neglected paperwork onto his overworked staff, the man seemed to have a pathological need to avoid, ignore, and talk down to the entirety of his staff. For a man who Fell due to Lust, he certainly didn’t seem to make any effort to positively interact with his female staff, and instead appeared to actively turn them away with sleazy comments and verbal abuse.

And Raynare would have been fine with that, would have thrived even, with the delusional belief that she was ‘easing his burden’ and he was simply ‘venting his stress onto her’ whenever he decided he wanted to spend more time tinkering instead of running his government.

But he didn’t know her name.

The man who she Fell for, one of the first to follow him in abandoning their home in Heaven forever, and he didn’t even bother remembering her name.

That stung, but wasn’t unexpected. He was a busy man and the leader of all Fallen, and she was a lowly two-wing foot soldier, and it had been thousands of years since they’d forsaken the Light of their Father, so surely she just needed to remind him.

So she did.

His response?

“Listen, unless you have a Sacred Gear that can make me a perfect cup of coffee, I literally do not care. Anyways, here’s a budget proposal that Penemue needs from me in the next hour, so get to it.”

She screamed into her pillow again at the memory in a mixture of humiliation and rage.

‘This is fucking awful…’ she reiterated in her mind, feeling drained after many minutes of venting her impotent frustration into her bunk. ‘I’d even take continuing to be that pervert’s pretend-girlfriend over more of this bullshit.’

She snorted at the ridiculous thought. Even though she’d be free and not have to deal with watching her hopes and dreams die in front of her in real-time, that would mean she’d have to deal with dating a perverted human– or Devil, rather, since he’d been reincarnated after she’d killed him– and that would be a hassle that was completely beneath her, a former Angel.

‘Although, he did act like a perfect gentleman on the date itself…’

She giggled. Of course he acted like a gentleman. The weak little virgin was on his first date and was nervous he might fuck it up, so he had to be on his best behavior if he didn’t want to scare away a seemingly-normal human girl with his usual antics.

‘Actually, can I even call him weak still? Even though I wasn’t taking him seriously, he did overpower me.” Raynare began running her fingers through her long black hair to smooth out the mess she’d made of it with her thrashing around. Going to sleep with messy hair was just a recipe for knots in the morning. ‘And I’m not a human, so it was kinda funny to see Issei struggle to suppress his Lust… with his looks he’d only need a little bit of self-control, and then he’d-’

Raynare’s totally-rational thought process continued down this spiraling path, deep into the night. It was hours after mandatory lights-out time that she broke out of her delusional fantasies of spending more time in Kuoh, just enough to momentarily wonder about the fate of her most loyal former-teammate before finally being ready to sleep.

‘I wonder what Kalawarner punishment duties are?’ She mused as she closed her eyes at last, her thoughts on her sort-of friend that had been remanded to a different punishment detail. ‘Whatever they’ve got her doing, I doubt it’s worse than this.’

She absentmindedly scratched an itch coming from her shoulder blades, thinking nothing of it before she drifted off.

-----

Grigori HQ Barracks, Punishment Block A-2
(Past midnight)

“Hey, wake up.”

The lights flickered on and Kalawarner woke up in a confused daze, the bored voice of the barracks night warden and footfalls of the night shift guards entering her room rousing her.

“Wha-?” She muttered drousily after an exhausting day of running drills with lowest-tier foot soldiers, like some sort of cadet that got punished for talking back to their sergeant. “What’s going on…?”

The warden– a six-winged man with slicked back brown hair– watched her as the guards took their places on either side of the door.

“Beats me,” he shrugged apathetically, eyes dull. All I know is we got an order from high up to bring you to meeting room five. Seems like someone wants to have a chat with little old you.”

It pissed her off that this needed to be done during sleeping hours, and the barely hidden leering of one of the guards as she changed was annoying, but it was her fault for being in this position in the first place. If she hadn’t failed Raynare those weeks ago…

The blue-haired Fallen shook those thoughts from her mind as she walked into the meeting room, the guards closing the door behind her.

She looked around, not seeing anyone else in the dimly lit room with her, just a large oval table surrounded by empty chairs.

“Tch.” She clicked her tongue. “Can’t even show up on time to your own meeting…” she muttered, before sighing and pulling out a chair to sit and wait.

“And I thought patience was something that Father gifted to all His children.”

She shot up in surprise as she was in the process of sitting down, a voice speaking up from the side of the room.

“I suppose that’s something that doesn’t pass down to the natural-borns, though I’m hardly an expert of the flesh.”

Stepping out of the shadows in a spot she was certain she had checked and found empty, was a tall, thin, pale-face man in dark robes with aristocratic high-cheekbones and elfin ears, long and wavy black hair, and blood-red eyes.

“Then again, I find my own patience withering by the day.”

Kalawarner was quick to bow as lowly as she could, not having expected to be called in by one of the leaders of the entire Grigori. Especially not the most bloodthirsty one of them all. “M-my apologies L-Lord Kokabiel, sir!”

The man’s smile twitched in disgust at the show of weakness, not that she could see it.

“There’s no need for any of that,” he said smoothly instead. “Please, take a seat. I heard about the circumstances of your mission in Kuoh, and simply wanted to hear more about it from one of the sources.”

Kalawarner straightened up and sat down stiffly, not relaxing in the slightest as the man walked towards the table. When a Cadre asked you to take a seat, they weren’t asking.

He hummed, stopping across from her. “I overheard one of your teammates was killed?”

“Yes, sir. Dohnaseek was his name. I didn’t see it happen, but apparently he was Destroyed by the Devil’s Ruin Princess.” She answered. “I was unconscious at the time. I…” She hesitated. “I was defeated by a human, sir.” 

He smiled and began slowly circling around the table. “And your leader, Raynare, was it? Where is she now, how is she doing? I understand you hold her in high regard.”

A bad feeling began forming in her gut as he crept closer and closer to her side. Everyone about the man in front of her set off alarm bells in her head, one of the leaders of the Grigori or not. In fact, that little detail was probably a major contributor to it.

That feeling almost made her consider not answering the question, but she knew that if she didn’t, it would likely just make things worse for both herself, and Raynare.

“S-she’s in block A-3 I believe. Serving her punishment just like me.” 

“And your final teammate?”

But fuck Mittelt, the traitorous bitch.

“... Still in Kuoh, I think.”

“I see.” Kokabiel stopped just behind her, and placed his hands on her shoulders in a parody of a comforting gesture.

Her pulse pounded through her ears as she felt his hands squeeze.

“I have a little task for you, Kalawarner.” His rich voice almost seemed to drip into her head like poison. “You will be excused from your current circumstances, and you will head to Kuoh. Once there, an agent will deliver you further orders.”

He leaned down so that his mouth was closer to her ear.

“You follow your orders, Kalawarner, and I will ensure your friend Raynare doesn’t have any, ah, ‘incidents’ during her punishment. Do you understand?”

Kalawarner’s heart skipped a beat and she gave a shaky nod.

“I didn’t hear an answer.” His hands squeezed a little tighter, and her breath caught in her throat. “Is that a yes, or are you denying my generosity?”

“Y-yes, sir, I und-understand sir,” she barely managed to gasp out.

Kokabiel released her with a chuckle and a couple light pats, and she sucked in much needed air, feeling like a crushing pressure she hadn’t even known was there had been lifted from her whole body.

“Good. I’d hate to be disappointed.” He stepped away with a chuckle. “Oh, and do remember to keep this arrangement to yourself. Betrayal is one of the greatest of sins, after all.”

Kalawarner didn’t know how long she sat there before she was retrieved, but when it happened, she knew it wasn’t one of the Punishment Block guards.

The masked Fallen wore the combat uniform of the Angel of the Stars’ personal army. Despite being reduced in number to just a few hundred from the original three hundred sixty-five thousand, all the remaining survivors from past wars were rumored to have gotten to six wings.

Even the weakest of his men were at least a dozen times stronger than even Dohnaseek was, and they were all totally loyal to a vocal warhawk.

Whatever she had just been conscripted into, was seeming more and more like something she wanted absolutely no part in. She’d prefer scrubbing the HQ toilets for a decade over it, even.

But if it was to protect Raynare, she would do it no matter what it meant for herself.