Outsider Chronicles: Devil's Advocate

Getting reborn as a Devil was unexpected, but I'm certainly not gonna complain! Between being practically immortal, a noble and having the power to make time my bitch, I wasn't even going to complain about being reincarnated into the DXD world...then again, I also wasn't expecting to get order to investigate another world infested by an oversized space worm. This...could be awkward.

We'rrrrrre back! Well, this is a tad unusual, no? Still, I did say I'd be back to this and back I am! This does mean that Little Birds will be stopping for a bit, but I need a break from that anyway. Anyway, enjoy!

Chapter 11

I let out a sigh of relief as I let the hot water of the shower wash over me, loosening the many knots of tension that were forming in my back. After the hectic nature of the last month, I was in dire need of a break. If I had any inkling of just how stressful coming here would make me...I'd still have done it. No matter how much stress I was under, I was also having fun. Well, I had been. Then Coil decided to try and kidnap one of my Peerage. I scowled. I'd really have to do something about that bastard sooner rather than later or he could become a problem…

The sound of chatter from the changing area outside of the large, Japanese style bathroom (what? I'd become a big fan of them after Rias introduced me to them) drew me from my thoughts and I glanced over my shoulder, just in time to see the door open and a very naked Sveta wrapped in a towel enter the room with the rest of the girls busy getting changed in the room. Now, had I been a typical Ecchi protagonist, I probably would have ducked under water or something, but since I was here first, I didn't see the point. Instead, I turned away and sighed.

"Occupied," I said.

"We know," said Sveta.

I grunted.

"Fine, but I'm not moving."

"Your not looking either," said Paige, "Most people would kill to be in your position."

"Most people didn't grow up with women more than capable of blowing up entire buildings," I deadpanned.

A pair of warm hands on my back made me stiffen as a dark tendril took the soap I was about to grab.

"True, but we don't mind," said Sveta as she knelt down behind me.

"You don't need to do that," I said.

"Maybe not, but I want to," she said, "Its my job after all, right Master?"

I sighed, but didn't protest as the Case 53 started washing my back.

"Man, your really into that," said Sabrina from the tub, "You seriously like working for Kervius, don't you?"

"I've told you, this is what I love," said Sveta, "I know I don't have to, but it makes me happy to know I can be useful."

"Heh, and I'd be stupid to complain," I said, letting my eyes drift shut as Sveta's talented fingers did there thing, "Seriously, a hot girl washing my back? Nothing better."

I glanced at the black haired girl and smirked.

"You can help to if you want," I said.

Sabrina's face went red and I'm pretty sure it wasn't from the warm water.

"H-hey, don't say things like that!" yelped the younger girl.

"I'm surprised you're embarrassed by that," said Paige as she flared her wings and ran a shower head over them to get the soap off, "Considering who you used to run with, I'd have thought you'd be used to lewd comments."

"Yeah, but I can ignore them because I hate their guts," growled Sabrina.

"So does that mean you like Kervius?" asked Paige with a smug smirk.

This time Sabrina's blush was more into the nuclear territory.

"I-I-I-I don't know what you're talking about!" she yelled.

"Then why are you blushing?"

"I-I-I-I…" stuttered Sabrina, before glancing at me and sinking into the water until only her bright red forehead could be seen.

"So where are Sabah and Dragon?" I asked.

"Oh, missing the extra eye candy" asked Paige.

"No, just curious," I said.

"Sabah's helping Dragon get some necessities," said Sveta.

"Well, better her than Sella I guess," I muttered.

I sighed as Sveta finished washing my back and got to my feet.

"Thanks Sveta," I said.

"Of course Master," said the Pawn with a smile.

I got into the tub, hiding a smile as Sabrina tried to look anywhere but me, and settled back with a sigh of relief. A moment later, I opened my eyes in surprise as Paige sat down next to me and rested her head against my shoulder while hugging my arm to her chest.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Sella told me that this sort of thing helps deepen the bond between Master and Servant," she said, "She called it skinship."

I snorted.

"I know you're not naive enough to actually fall for that," I said.

"Of course not, but are you really going to turn down the opportunity."

I snorted again.

"Of course not, I'm not an idiot," I said as Sveta stepped in beside me.

I reached out and touched her on the shoulder. She looked at me for a second, before accepting the wordless invitation and shifting closer, leaning her head on my other shoulder with a sigh.

"I feel like I shouldn't be doing this," she mumbled.

"Eh, I don't mind in the slightest," I said.

"Care to join us Sabrina?" asked Paige, "Theres still some room."

I rolled my eyes as she gestured to my lap and Sabrina blushed even brighter than before.

"I-I'd rather not," said the Rook.

"Suit yourself," said Paige, "But Masters really comfy."

She nuzzled into my side, making me shudder slightly as the feathers in her hair brushed against my skin. They were really soft. I sighed and relaxed back against the side of the bath, taking the opportunity to just relax with the good and warm company of my girls.

Once I was done in the bath, I headed back to my room to get changed into my PJs, before heading for the main sitting room where my console collection was set up for a few rounds of PVP. As I did, I walked past the room Sabah had taken for her use and heard faint giggling coming from inside. Curious, I tapped on the slightly ajar door, before opening the door. Inside I found Sabah and Dragon, the former holding a set of bunny pajamas and the latter glowering at said pajamas with her cheeks puffed up.

"Having fun ladies?" I asked.

"Yep, I don't get to work with kids often," said Sabah with a smile.

"I'm not a kid dammit!" yelled Dragon, stomping her foot, which really didn't help her case.

"Oh, don't be like that Dragon," said Sabah, "You liked most of what I came up with, right?"

Dragon blushed and glowered, although it was more adorable than anything.

"What do you think Kervius?" asked Sabah, waving at the short pinkette.

The AI turned Devil was wearing a relatively simple white shirt with a pale blue sailor collar, a white skirt and thigh high socks while her hair was now tied into pigtails. In short, she looked adorable and a heck of a lot like Milim, even more so than she did before. I was just glad she wasn't wearing Milims standard outfit because then I would have had to punch someone.

"Very cute, I approve," I said with a grin and a thumbs up.

Dragon turned her glare on me, but it looked more like a pout than anything. I chuckle lowly and put a hand on her head.

"Sorry Dragon, but I think you'll have to get used to that when in your True Form," I said.

Dragon crossed her arms and pouted in annoyance.

"I know, but its annoying," she muttered, "I don't like the idea of being underestimated after everything I've done…"

"Maybe not, but I think it'd be a good idea if you didn't reveal this form," I said, "People might find it hard to believe that a 12 year old is Dragon. Better to use your HDD form for that and use this one for general day to day life."

"I can live with that," said Dragon, "Although...I would like to tell a couple of people the truth."

I raised an eyebrow.

"You do know you don't need permission from me, right?" I asked, "I mean, I'd rather you not tell them about being a Devil, but other than that, go nuts."

Dragon smiled and nodded.

"Thank you," she said.

I waved off the thanks.

"No trouble at all," I said, "Now come on, lets go have some fun."

I smirked.

"I'd like to introduce you to a game from Aleph called Hyperdimensional Neptunia."

Dragons shrieks of horror was more than worth the pillow to the face when I burst out laughing.

School seemed to crawl by for Amy. She wasn't exactly sure why considering the only thing different about the day was that she wasn't going to the hospital or straight home afterwards. Instead, she was going to hang out with Sveta.

Then again, maybe that was it. It had been so long since she'd gone out with anyone without Vicky being there as well to act as a kind of barrier that she wasn't entirely sure how to so the whole 'go out with friends' thing any more. God that was sad…

A hand landing on her shoulder made her jump and snapping her out of her thoughts.

"You OK Amy?" asked Sveta, "You look a little pale."

Amy smiled.

"I'm fine," she said, "Just...I don't know, its been awhile since I've just gone out with a friend.

"Sounds like I was right to bully you into this," said Sveta, "Come on."

She grabbed Amy's hand and dragged the other girl in the direction of the bus stop, waving to Kervius as the blonde hopped into a car driven by a young woman with silver hair.

"So, what did you have in mind to do?" asked Amy after a quick bus ride into the city center.

Sveta shrugged.

"No idea," she said, "Its not like I have much experience with this sort of thing after all."

Amy winced.

"Sorry," she said.

"No worries," said Sveta, "Hey, how about bowling?"

She indicated to a nearby sign advertising a bowling alley.

"Sure, why not?" said Amy, "I haven't been bowling in years."

"And I've never been at all," said Sveta, "I think. Whatever, this'll be fun!"

And it was. Neither of the girls were any good but that wasn't the point. The point was that they had a good time with good company and plenty of junk food.

"So whats it like working for Kervius?" asked Amy after taking a gulp from her soda.

"I'm...not really sure how to answer that," said Sveta as she lined up her shot, "I mean, its not like I know anything different. But Ma...Kervius is a good boss and Sella and Leysritt are good people, even if they are a little...odd. Plus, the rest of the Peerage are good friends."

She sighed.

"I truly don't know what would have happened if Kervius and Lord Ajuka hasn't appeared where they did," she said, "But I do know that they saved my life and I'll always be grateful for that."

"That sounds...really nice," said Amy, "Almost like your a family…"

Sveta smiled softly.

"I guess we are," she said.

"Must be nice," muttered Amy as her friend took her shot.

Despite herself, Amy couldn't help the flair of jealousy that flared up in her chest. While she would be forever grateful to the Dallons for taking her in, with the exception of Vicky being a great sister (when she wasn't dragging Amy out to fix things she'd broken at least), she never really felt like she was part of the family. Between Marks depression making it so he was rarely there even when he was and Carols thinly veiled mistrust and general cold attitude, Amy rarely felt welcome in her own house.

It was rather telling when an amnesiac Devil had a better home life than the Great Panacea.

"So what about you?" asked Sveta as she took her seat and picked up her own shake, "Whats it like being the Great Panacea?"

Amy shifted uncomfortably. She had never really talked to Sveta about her many issues with her family and identity as Panacea, mainly because she'd only known the Devil for a month, but also because she'd kept the secrets for so long that she didn't feel comfortable sharing them. Then again, if you can't trust the Devil, who can you trust?

Amy sighed.

"Truth is, I hate it," she muttered.

Sveta paused and looked at her friend with a raised eyebrow.

"And here I thought you liked healing people," she said.

"I do," said Amy, "Well, sort of...I like helping people and I loved being the Great Panacea back when I first started. It was a great feeling, knowing that so many people were alive because of me, but now…"

"You feel taken advantage of, right?" asked Sveta.

"Not...really," said Amy, "I mean, there are people who are rather rude and I still get people trying to hire me to do cosmetic work, but I can deal with that. No, its more the issue that I'm always kept on the sidelines."

She sighed.

"I get why, I'm a Healer, hell, I'm THE Healer, and Biokinetics aren't exactly well liked thanks to Nilbog, but sometimes I just want to go out and help people by stopping them from getting hurt rather than putting them together after the fact."

Sveta snorted.

"I bet that'd go down well," she said, "Panacea punching thugs in the face…"

Amy cracked a smile at that.

"I bet Carol would pop a blood vessel," she said.

"That bad huh?"

Amy sighed and nodded.

"Yeah, that bad," she said.

She hesitated for a moment, before shrugging. What the hell, in for a penny and all that.

"She doesn't trust me," she said, "Carol I mean. I don't know why, but shes always looking at me like she expects me to do something bad and keeps me at arms length."

"Any idea why?" asked Sveta.

Amy swallowed.

"I'm pretty sure my Fathers a Villain," she said, "Someone really bad, like, Birdcage bad. I'm not sure exactly who it is, but I get the feeling that Carol thinks I'm going to take after him and go Villain."

Sveta, who had been taking a drink, nearly snorted it out her nose as she burst out laughing.

"And here I thought Lawyers were supposed to be smart!" she said once she'd got control of her choking, "She actually thinks that?"

Amy shrugged helplessly.

"I have no idea, but its the only thing I can think of," she said, "But...sometimes I can't help but think she could be right…"

Sveta smiled and draped an arm around the Healers shoulders.

"Amy, trust me when I say that you are far from a bad person, regardless of what thoughts you might have," she said, "Everyone has bad thoughts on occasion, especially when their under as much stress as you, but that doesn't make you evil."

"I did summon a Devil though," muttered Amy with a faint smile.

Sveta snorted.

"Devils are no more evil than Humans," she said.

Then she sobered.

"In all seriousness, if its that bad, why don't you do something about it?" she asked.

"Like what?" asked Amy, "I've asked Carol and Dad about my Father in the past and they brush me off and Carol gets even more suspicious for a few months and I can't just leave. Regardless of the fact that I don't want to go that far, it's not like I've got anywhere to go and I'm not dumb enough to believe that I'd last long on my own without someone trying to kidnap me."

There was a moments silence before Sveta spoke up again.

"Um, you could always join Kervius," she said hesitantly.

Amy shot a sharp look at her friend.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

Sveta squirmed slightly, looking a little uncomfortable.

"You remember how I told you about Evil Pieces?" she asked.

"Yeah, you said that they let Devils Reincarnate people as servants," said Amy.

"Well, Kervius hasn't used up all his Pieces yet," said Sveta, "If you wanted, I'm sure he'd be happy to take you in."

Amy stared at her friend in shock.

"You mean...become a Devil?" she asked slowly.

"It'd give you more options, not to mention some upgrades that I'm sure would come in handy," said Sveta.

"And what, you guys get a Healer?"

Sveta shook her head.

"Not if you don't want to be," she said, before sighing, "Look, I'm not going to lie and tell you that this is entirely spontaneous, Kervius would be very interested to get you in his Peerage, but neither he nor I have any intention of forcing the issue. Its entirely your choice."

Amy stared at her friend, her mind swirling. There was a part of her that felt betrayed, as if the soul reason Sveta had become her friend was to get close and nab Panacea for her organization, but one thing she knew about Sveta was that she was honest and didn't really have the capability for a long con like that. Plus, a few of Sveta's tendrales were brushing against Amy's hand and, while the Case 53/Devils physiology was different from a Humans, that didn't mean that Amy couldn't tell if she was lying.

Another, much bigger, part of her was sorely tempted to take the offer. Despite Carols constant reminders to her Daughters of New Waves image, the fact of the matter was that the team was basically dead. Vicky was the only one who went patrolling with any regularity any more and she and Amy were really the only reason they were still talked about. Combine that with her lack of any real connection with her family (other than Vicky) and her dissatisfaction with being Panacea and the idea of joining a group where she could escape from being Panacea, just for a bit, was incredibly tempting. Still…

"I...need to think about it," she said eventually.

Sveta let out the breath she'd been holding and smiled.

"Of course, I wouldn't expect anything else," she said, "Its a big decision after all. Truthfully, I was half expecting you to storm out."

"I considered it," said Amy with a smile to show she was joking, "But I'm honestly tempted. I would like to meet the rest of the...Peerage before I say yes though."

"Thats fair enough," said Sveta, "Why don't we organize a study session at my place some time? That way we can knock two birds out of the way."

"Sounds good," said Amy with a simile.

Svveta grinned.

"Great, I'll talk to Kervius about it later," she said, "For now, its your turn."

The rest of the afternoon was spent just being teenagers with nary a word about Devils or Capes.

"I'm sorry, you want to what?" I asked as I stared across my desk at Paige and Sabah who both looked rather eager.

"We want to put on a charity event," said Paige, "We've both done events in the past, but we figure that putting together Canary and Parian would help bring bigger crowds."

"Yeah, I get that, I just don't know why your asking me," I said, "You know I don't mind what you do so long as you don't do anything really stupid."

"Well, we were hoping you could help set it up," said Paige, "Its a lot easier to get a suitable venue when you've got a wealthy backer right from the start."

"Ah, that makes more sense," I said, "Alright, I don't mind. Hell, it might get the PRT to stop worrying and sending those unmarked patrols around the neighbourhood they think I we don't notice."

"Good PR's always helpful," said Parian with a grin.

"That it is," I said, "Get the other girls to help if they can and I'll see if I can wrangle some help from some friends of mine."

I glanced at the clock, sighed and stood.

"You girls go do...whatever," I said, "I've gotta go make sure a Hero doesn't over rea-"

I stopped and looked up as I felt something extremely strange enter my sensor net.

"Kervius?" said Paige, catching my expression.

"Thats...strange," I muttered, "Why can I sense Magic?"

I ignored the two girls for a moment as I closed my eyes and focused.

"Its faint, suppressed, but its definitely there," I muttered, "It feels like…"

My eyes snapped open and I paled.

"Oh crap," I said, "Whats one of those doing here?!"

"One of whats?" asked Sabah, "Whats going on?"

"You two get Sella and Leysritt!" I said, vaulting over the desk and sprinting to the door, "I can only sense one, but there could be more!"

"More of what?!" demanded Canary.

I stopped and looked back at the two women who were staring at me with worried looks.

"Theres a Fallen Angel close by," I said, "And trust me, your not ready to fight one of them."

Dragon sighed as she paced up and down the veranda, waiting for Narwhal to arrive. She was in her HDD form (and she just knew that that particular similarity with Neptuna was going to be a pain in the future), trying to figure out how in the hell she was supposed to tell her friend about what had happened and get her to believe it. Even in a world full of impossible powers, the existence of Devils was still a bit of a stretch, even if Kervius was technically from Aleph. She was sorely tempted to come up with a different, more plausible story, but she couldn't do that to Narwhal. The serial nudest was the only person on the planet to have figured out she was an AI and hadn't even batted an eye at the revelation. As a result, Dragon trusted her completely and couldn't lie to her, not about something as important as this.

Dragon was pulled out of her thoughts a moment later as a strange feeling washed over her. She paused and looked around, trying to figure out what the feeling was and where it was coming from. It almost felt like a warning, as if something dangerous was nearby, and made her muscles tense and her fingers twitch to summon her sword.

A shadow flickering across the sun made Dragon spin around, fingers already moving to grip her sword, before she saw it was Narwhal flying down to land a short distance away. Dragon relaxed, dismissing her sword as she walked over to her friend. Narwhal looked around and paused when she saw Dragon, looking the former AI up and down with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, thats interesting," she muttered.

"Thanks for coming Anna," said Dragon with a smile.

"It sounded important and I wasn't busy," said Narwhal, "Is that a new platform?"

"Ah, not exactly," said Dragon, indicating for her friend to follow as she started back to the house, "Its part of what I have to tell you."

"Does that have anything to do with the fact your now a Devil?"

Dragon froze and spun around. Narwhal was looking at her with an unusually serious look on her face.

"I...how do you know that?!" spluttered Dragon.

"Actually, I think the better question would be what's a Fallen doing here?" said Kervius as he stepped out of the house with a pair of black metal tonfa in his hands.

Welp, thats certainly one way to end a chapter. Should make for an...interesting conversation, no?

Bath scene because why not. No really, thats why I did it. Plus DXD.

Set up for Amy joining the Peerage. I originally planned for a convoluted mess involving her meeting a swordsman who'd train her and...oh, forget it. It was way to much and I binned it. She can learn swordsmanship later.

Set up for what I have planned later. Trust me, that event will be the catalyst to a LOT of upcoming chaos.

I had Narwhal pinned as a Fallen from fairly early in the stories run. She old, but not really that strong with only one pair of wings, which puts her at high Parahuman level, but not strong enough to really show off what one of Gods former Soldiers can do. Well, thats what she appears to be.

Anyway, this is done so I'm going to sign out. Don't forget to leave a review!