The following is a non-profit, fan-based AU story. [High School DxD] is owned by Ishibumi Ichiei, Miyama-Zero, Fujimi Shobo, TNK and Funimation. Please support the official release. Have any of you seen the teaser for High School DxD Hero yet? Though looking at the redesigns, I am feeling really iffy toward it right now. The animation change is not to my cup of tea, but I'll give it chance for a few episodes. Alright then, here we go again.

"I want to hear all the truth now, [Roter Drachenkaiser]."

There was just a long gust of wind after I, Hanna Blumhardt, took the photograph from my pocket and showed my evidence. This devil, the one who called himself Hyoudou Issei, lied straight to my face. It should not have come a surprise. A lie was as natural as breathing for his kind. The only plausible answer was that if he claimed that he didn't know the [Red Dragon Emperor] and that from my picture showing the devil Phenex's mark, it must have been him behind the armour.

No one else would lie so hard unless they were unwittingly being targeted. Not even a devil was too prideful to hide anyone else unless they didn't wish their own secrets coming to life. If it were anyone else he knew, he would have said it was an ally. That was my logic.

It was probably the most ridiculous decision I had made in my career as an exorcist for four years now after completing my initial training in Munich. There would be many people I had the pleasures and displeasures of teaming alongside who would have told me that keeping a blade to his neck while interrogating him would have been the best advice and the only way to extort information from a denizen of Hell.

Chopping his limbs was also an option; it saved having to worry about instant retaliation, however there would then be a time limit before his black soul passed over. I had seen a few bite their own tongues just to kill themselves off and keep their secrets. In their defence, suicide was probably a one way ticket back to Hell for them, so no wonder many chose that option.

I could hear him grinding his teeth, and his face clenching forward after he had looked at it in total awe. I expected to see serrated fangs appear passed his lips when next he spoke, but there were none.

"How many people know?"

His eyes were shrinking, like some predatory reptile. Fitting since he was both a devil and a dragon. Both equally snake-like, but only one was a compulsive liar.

"The pastor in this region knows. He is a stronger man than I, even wiser as well."

I didn't need to say any more than that. Wasting too much breath to explain things would only open a path for verbal misdirection. One of the key tactics in fighting devils was that they liked to talk. They were proficient in it. It was their chief abilities, their talents. I wasn't going to easily allow myself to be caught wondering down a path of words.

I had a spare hand ready to reach for a small knife made of silver in case his beastly instincts overtook him. As if I would be so green as to confront a devil without the smallest of armaments. And unlike the sorry state he appearance gave off, a few scratches were not going to hinder my physical abilities.

Not even the side wound to my hip was bad so long as I avoided stretching it too far, despite such an ugly scar marked by his cauterizing.

Although, I did worry that his bandages were just a ruse. I didn't put it passed him as the time.

"Why confront me first?" he asked, but his eyes were staring at the photograph until it vanished back into my pockets. I waited for him to grab it, so that he could lose the hand that dared, but he seemed to have some self-restraint.

"It's not as if it was my choice."

He shifted himself with his arms crossed. If it wasn't for the fact he was taller than I was, I would have pointed how obvious he was looking down on me.

"What is it you want then?"

"The right choice."

It meant nothing to him. But I was doing just as I said; while I hadn't been assigned to the Father for very long, I respected that his wisdom and strength was something to consider if I wasn't inclined to obey. He obviously wanted me to make this talk, so I was willing to do just that.

The only difference was that I couldn't stop this [Red Dragon Emperor] from being a monster, considering he already was one.

His eyebrow rose.

"Answers then?"

I simply nodded my head, but I could feel my hand getting itching with anxiety.

He started moving around. Not very far around, I managed to keep him tailed even if it was just a couple of steps and he was aware that I would not let him leave. It was dangerous to corner a dangerous beast, but I was willing to kill him before he tried anything in a last ditch effort.

At least, that was what I told myself, but my itchy hand may have said something else to that matter.

His head looked around in the forest line, and then he approached as if to walk past me. I stood guard, but then his face was next to my ear.

"Not here though" he whispered. "There are ears here."

I jumped away cuffing my ear. The condensation from his breathe still fresh to my skin that it

He looked at me with utter confusion, one cheek burying his right eye, while his left eyebrow ascended his forehead.

"When then? And where?"

He turned and pointed north or north-west with his left index finger.

"Next Saturday. I'll be in Old Kuoh. In the cemetery to the west side. We will talk there."

His face looked back, but there was no obvious sign of hiding his expression. It was just a blank face, without happiness or anger.

"At what time?"

He dropped his arm and then started walking back toward the main school building. There was still at least five, maybe ten more minutes before the first lessons started, but the bell hadn't even issued a warning just yet.

"I'll wait all day" he replied whilst he started moving. "Unless something comes up, of course. But, I will be there again if I need to leave on urgent business."

"How do I know you won't just ambush me when I arrive?"

He didn't stop, even when he eventually replied before he was too far away to speak to without shouting.

"You don't. Even I don't."

He left before I could say in another word. I was unsettled by his last words. He gave no indication to trust him if I took it literally. But devils were always liars, so I was trying to decipher the lies within the lies.

It sounds more complicated than it actually was, but talking to people for a while you also watch how certain words are met with actions. Even if you see them doing nothing, there is a forcefulness in doing nothing that can catch your eye. A blank expression. Stiffness. A pause without breath. You get the picture.

The idea worked very easily on most people. Devils, that was trickier since they weren't humans and therefore you couldn't trust that the actions would be opposite. A truth could be stiff and a lie could be as able as breathing. I had never had the opportunity to enact an analysis on a devil, so I had to work on the inversion of responses theory.

It took me the entire walk to my classroom and sitting down for a minute before I managed to separate his words between the natural and the unnatural. My only problem was now assigning if natural meant truth or discord-

"So, you're not going to say anything about what you just did."

I was jumped unexpectedly. Or, perhaps the proper word was expectantly since the culprit was inevitably one who would intrude on anything to discon- eh, dissect

Kiryuu Aika. After the overly-hormonal mongrels that were two boys in the same class as me of all people, she was already building her own reputation with her own select repertoire of perverseness.

"I did nothing that would warrant your interest."

"The fact you're trying to keep it a secret means it's juicy."

"That's none of your business."

The only reason she would approach anyone was the same as any journalist with a pen in his hand; a story to sell. Although unlike the media employee who needed a pay check every week, Aika-san was only interested in the scoop itself and whether it was worth spreading.

It didn't help that her mind was plagued with demonic thoughts of all manners of lustrous perversity that would make a pagan ritual look tame. Just seeing those pressing brows form evil looking gazes behind pink framed glasses and smile that bared up one side of her mouth, it was enough to incite an image of social fear.

There had only been two other occasions she had approach me, my first was when I first joined the class at the beginning of the year. She was comparing cups sizes, but I was too naïve and inexperienced with the language and it innuendos. I stepped in talking about coffee mugs and tea cups, but she managed to turn it into something quite repulsive before I finally managed to decipher what I was saying.

Darn this language. Darn this country and how it brings up its youth. Darn these perverted- *sigh* never mind.

The second occasion was an incident in the changing room that I will not talk about. I now stay close to the door during these times we must partake in physical education-

. . . Dear lord, please restore my naivety now that I am aware it is broken.

This third time however, would be something that would be branded to my mind whenever I look back on this day;

"Oh, but it is my business" she insisted, seating herself on my desk like she was welcomed there. "When you walk through the whole school with a boy following behind to go where no one else can see, you know that people start talking. Even if it isn't their Prince, other people take notice."

I kept my mouth closed, but my teeth were gritted and grinding together as I tried to hold myself. "I have no idea what you are saying."

She took this to mean that I was still losing something in translation. Sadly, I had lost that card after having to frantically study to keep up my grades in hopes of escaping this class next year. Even if it had been a bump up to class 2-D, then I could feel safer without having to guard myself throughout class with eyes that thought they were being cleverly covert.

If they belonged to demons, they wouldn't have eyes any longer I can assure you of that much.

"I'm sorry, I'll put it into blunter words;"

Her face leaned in as I tried to push it down, but her voice caught my ear. It would be the second time that something unpleasant was forming next to my hearing. Though, even though the first was a devils, I know for a fact that I was reviled more by this one.

"Are you and Hyoudou-san an item?"

The whole world could have turned white that moment, then maybe I wouldn't have stood out so much when that word bomb suddenly landed on me. It took me a moment before I could properly realise what she was saying before the whole ordeal began overheating.

"W-w-what?"

"Oh, sorry: An item. It means, like: Together. Conjoined. In a relationship. Snuggling up together and shar-"

"I know what you said!"

If no one hadn't started taking interest in the conversation, then the noise of me slamming my hands on the desk in protest was sure to start turning a few heads. Even if they were there I didn't notice them with everything that was already steaming.

"So it is true?"

I had to look up again, but now her eyes were hidden by a pair of light shards flashing over her face, and a third reflection coming off a larger smile.

I honestly felt sick to my stomach. Me. And a devil. I could taste breakfast on my tongue again, but my guts were feeling so much tighter. The queasy feeling started making my heart panic. I could feel it trying to escape and run to a hole to hide.

Oh dear Lord, was that what she was thinking? Was that what others were now going to think? I had thought that if I walked and talked without doing any unnecessary physical contact than it might have been just-. On the contrary, it appeared that a meek approach had suddenly flipped it to its other end, and now they're thinking it was the prelude to a confession.

I should have followed my heart and crawl into that same hole.

I did the only thing I could think of, and embarrassingly I flailed my arms and shook my head in high veracity.

"No. Nonononononononononono."

"You can't deny it. Going red like that only means I'm hitting the nail."

It's true that I was getting very hot in the face, but not for the reasons she was implying. The blood that was being shaken in my head was now making everything feel hot, and undoubtedly it was going to turn red.

"I'm red because I'm angry. And I don't love him! I don't even like him! I hate him. I hate his guts!"

"You say you hate him, but come now;" Her hands planted themselves on my desk. "You walked straight into his classroom and asked to talk with him alone. And, you did it in a shy and bashful way without any sort of hostility. Even he didn't seem to hate that gentle way you put it."

"Where the heck are you getting that? I said I hate him. He's the epitome of revilement. He's . . . he's . . . he is a devi-"

I widened my eyes and I slapped my hands over my mouth before I realised what I was about to say.

There was a taboo to involve people outside of the factions, and that meant that revealing the supernatural aspects of our world to them was prohibited under any and all circumstances. Just admitting that one person in this school was a devil was enough to warrant my return back to Germany. At best I could hope for a temporary suspension and house-arrest for half a year. And I said, only at best. I didn't need to think what worse thing could happen.

Though certain magics could be applied and memories could be rewritten, on our side it was considered a great sin to delve into those arts. Our faction as one that aimed to spread divine enlightenment, and to so purposely was against the church's creed. Meaning every word of mine was final and inerasable.

I mentioned worse things, but now I was suddenly

"A devil, you say. Oh-ho-ho. So you've se-"

A half relief and half sickness came over me.

'Say another word and I am going to cleave you, I swear by the Lord's name.'

It was childish to make threats like these even if they were only in my head, but my wits were hanging over the edge and I let my anger get the better if me. Of course, I would never attack an unaffiliated person.

Although, my hand did seem very itchy that day, and I was tempted to simply reach into my pocket there and then.

"He's totally ripped isn't he? The boys have their hole to the changing rooms, but so do the girls. It works both ways and they never even considered it.

Now, I know all the other girls have their pick of the crowd; Kiba-hiko (prince) is your more graceful kind of body, the sensitive boy you take home to meet your parents and they will grovel to their knees begging him to take your hand. You can understand why he's the most of the girl's favourite."

I was aware of who she was speaking of. Another devil, this one a servant to the demon Gremory. Just one of many. He was obviously much better at ensnaring girl's hearts. Though magic was not detectable, it was likely he could be an incubus in human skin which was why all those girls were fauning over him and his every word. I had even made notes that he had a club dedicated solely to observing and preserving him, or something like that. They called it a 'fan club

"But, Hyoudou-waka (young lord). Well, I can't speak for most girls, but he has a 'large back' doesn't he?"

I didn't even want to know what she was talking about. I didn't even want to think more on it.

"Say what you want. But I am telling you for the last time that there is nothing between us. End. Of. Story."

I had thought that my strong words would have finally silenced that . . . well, she-devil is probably the best fitting word despite not being anatomically correct. I said would have, only because I was foolish to assume there was no more ammunition for her to use.

I should have noticed where her hand was travelling when a zip unfurled.

"Oh. But then . . . why is his shirt in your bag?"

The volume of her response was loud enough that suddenly every other conversation in the room was gone. That shirt. That, forgive me lord, damned shirt. Why the heck had I not just burned the darn thing after taking it off of me.

The black fabric hung loosely on her index and middle fingers as if she were waving a flag, and suddenly I found myself swarmed by the class as soon as they heard. I just couldn't find any more words as I suddenly had no more room in which to breathe. There was no denying it, even when it was true. The holes in the shoulders and residual bloodstains, coupled with proof from everyone's eyes that he was bandaged in those areas, there was nothing that could have been done.

I wanted to throw my head through my desk, but the best I could manage was face plant it to the surface and bury it under my arms as the voices started attacking at me like Furies gnawing at my sanity;

"Is it true? Is that really his shirt?"

"How did you get? You are so lucky. He gave it to you?"

"As long as it's not Kiba-kun, I am happy for you."

"Did you see him take it off?"

"Did he leave it behind in your room?"

"That damn bastard! Fuck, why is life so unfair?"

"As if there wasn't already enough competition with Kiba-san. Now, we have to worry about Hyoudou-san too!"

Too many too keep count of. I don't even remember if these were the real ones or ones that my memories fabricated just to continue pestering me. The only one I know definitively was Aika-san's final remark before homeroom concluded.

"You didn't even wash it. Couldn't let go of his scent that you wanted to keep it with you forever."

If I wasn't getting an apology when I next saw him, I was going to kill that darn Devil.

Monday afternoon. It was approaching evening and school had ended for the day hours before. I, Sona Sitri, was finishing up the reports for the day in the student council's room where I always did.

I didn't need to recite how many duties were assigned to me, both as Fukukaichou and also the one who handles the delicate issues of what doesn't officially happen in this town and especially within this school.

Having sorted through the reports made by all of our efforts, including an in depth essay on the further events from Kyoto that Rias and Akeno provided, we had enough to compile something the higher ups back in our homeland would be satisfied with.

'Not my sister though.'

I regretted that this information had to be siphoned through by our guarantors as both Rias and I were still technically underage for governing a territory. But this was the same if we had been learning under the watch of another devil.

I have no doubts in my mind that Serafall was going to freak out over something relatively small to her idea of equivalent retribution. For clarification, she once threatened to blow up half the moon after a rather unexpected lower grade than I was used to showing. I will have to decline going any further than that though, so don't expect me to bring this up again.

Rest assured, I did all I could to minimise anything that would warranty a re-evaluation of our tenure here as underage co-rulers. It was bad enough that our elder siblings had basically gone around the books on our behalf. If there was trouble and we could not prove capable of handling it, then it would be revoked and suspended for many decades. Decades was only if we were lucky. This kind of underhanded abuse of power could very well oust our elder siblings from office.

It would be bad enough if I had to return home with such a mark to my personal history. But, I don't think I would get an opportunity to myself if Serafall were at home all the time.

But, thinking of all the complicated possibilities was never going to finish this work, and I still had to tweak everything and thrice check it over.

"Is this the reports from everyone?" I asked Tsubaki.

With me handling our 'extra-curricular' cases, I had to allocate a few of the lesser tasks unto her. It wasn't an easy task when I had to rewrite several wordings just to keep any issue arising that may threaten our small notion of independence we continued to have here. For Rias' sake more than mine.

"Hai, Sona. The reports of Kiba-san and Toujou-san have been collected. Added to the five reports on our side and the one from Hyoudou-san, what you have is everything."

"Did you get anything from our residing hikomori?"

She shook her head. "I had word passed that his report was sent via e-mail. I'll check again later."

Although Rias' Bishop had not been present, I had to twist her arm to get him to write his own words on the 'situation' that occurred over the weekend. As he was technically still at school, even if he had been unable to see anything, having his words on anything else important was crucial and an immediate necessity.

Sure enough, I opened up the computer screen and logged in. I assumed and I found it eventually, though the document itself was considerably very short. Expected, although I had hoped to see a little more in there. What information that was provided was barely half a page long.

*knock*knock*knock*

There was thrice a knock on the door, but instead of waiting, it opened without hesitation.

"Back at work again, Sona."

Rias was the only one who would simply just walk in while I was busy working. I had expected her to have gone home by now, but it really wasn't my business what she was up to with her own peerage at any hour after school had ended.

"As Vice-President" I told her as I continued to eye at word on papers before me, "I naturally have a lot of work that requires my steady hand."

"Not the President's?"

That tone of voice, I just had to slyly eye her back behind my glasses with that jokingly questioning expression.

"You know fully well."

"Of course."

I knew she wasn't finished with just simply coming on by to check up on me. Knowing Rias, to come to the Student Council's room while I was in the middle of filling through all the work that should have really been shared by the both of us meant that she wanted to pick at my brain.

Obviously this work would be done much faster in my hands than in our collaborative effort, but that was not the point I was trying to come across with. Anyways, neither of that mattered when I was already piecing together her real objective.

I flicked up my right hand, which signalled to Tsubaki to give the two of us the room. It wasn't that having her around was going to be a problem now. On the contrary, having her around would have made me finishing this work a lot easier. But her presence meant that Rias wouldn't say a thing, and having her hover around waiting for a good time to speak was just going to waste my time.

I didn't see my Queen leave the room, but I could hear her papers being gathered and her chair sliding back and forward before her footsteps started walking further to the other side of the room.

When the door closed behind her, I spoke again without leaving my sights from following my pen.

"I suppose you've come here about the anomaly in the equation."

"Whatever do you mean?"

I had to rub my eyes. I had been a long day in front of papers, but when she was completely lacking in subtlety, the small ounce of tolerance to jokes wore off.

"I know you're trying at act with an air of incognition, but I know you too well to understand that you only hover over my work when I know something you don't. You want the information on the Longinus wielder who thwarted the death of most of our peerage members."

I could hear her clothes rustling as if she was either straightening herself up or if she was not prepping to prop herself unto a desk instead of a chair. But I never looked up to confirm which it was. There was little need to.

". . . Maybe."

"*sigh* You wouldn't be here if it wasn't."

Sacred gear users were always human. At least, when they are born. Although, there have been a few cases of species with human heritage being born with Sacred Gears, the cases were rarer compared to lineages of purely human ancestry.

The fact that they are human, means there was a good opportunity for discussion. And not necessarily for merely a contract. Since there had been no reports of any of the Devil clans owing up to possessing the [Red Dragon Emperor] in their peerages or of those within their families, there was a high possibility that this Longinus wielder was available for recruitment.

That was Rias' hope at the very least.

"What do you know then?"

Even as I was tapping away at my keyboard, I heard her hand hit my desk. From the corner of my eye, I could make out her arm to my near left.

"No more than what your Knight and Rook have already told you. Your Bishop is also just as clueless since he doesn't even make any mentions. I don't really know what you're asking of me when I don't have anything different."

I had already gone through all of these separate accounts, and at least seven which were repetitive as the witnesses were all focused on one angel's actions and only his demise by the [Red Dragon Emperor] seemed to be consistently reported.

I was not looking to blame any of them for mismanaging their memories; it couldn't be helped that the fatigue and lack of adrenaline in the later part of the day meant that many of our peerage members had started developing inconsistencies when they recounted exact what happened despite being in the same scene.

"It also doesn't exactly help our case that we have only one source sighting the second angel. And even then, there is only a brief sighting of the [Red Dragon Emperor], which only further adds to the mystery."

It was only thanks to Hyoudou that we even have any information on the second separate attack at all. Having nothing except knowledge that it took place was never going to cut it. I could have embezzled a false report, but it still needed some foundational truth to build on.

In the one I was writing up, I had to leave out any mention cooperation between him and the exorcist for a number of reasons. The big two were that a cooperation between either factions was not something anyone would want highlighted on their accounts. Putting aside the personal matters, it would be a diplomatic assassination that not only did Hyoudou need to rely on an exorcist, but that it became a two faction gang up, even on a rogue.

Second was that leaving it out while not explicitly mentioning it could then be interpreted as a lesser danger since any second party inflicted wounds found in the original report are automatically assumed by the first party.

To think that this would have been made a lot easier for all of us then manipulating information would have been if he had simply walked away from the confron-

. . . 'Hmm.'

When it suddenly came to me, something was suddenly not adding up. As I started stroking at my chin as I picked up Hyoudou's account, Rias began to notice my change in behaviour.

"What is it?"

"Why didn't he run?"

She probably looked at me puzzled after I said that. She even moved around the desks so that she was now standing right behind me.

"Hyoudou-san?"

Her response was still stiff, despite the fact that month had gone by. While it wasn't exactly fair to group one servant from the Phenex clan to their whole family. Well, it's not even the whole family that she doesn't have a high opinion of shall we say

"Yes; 'I attacked the fallen angel under the presumption that the rogue in question was about to engage an unarmed human. However, as I approached the scene, I discovered the ownership of a light sword, which I assumed the human was in fact an affiliate with the Angel Faction.' That's what he wrote. The normal procedure for when coming upon two members of the other factions is to avoid all necessary conflict."

"Perhaps he got overconfident, and then didn't have the pride to swallow it and flee."

I shook my head, as I took the timely brief intermission from reading to clear the few smudged on my glasses.

"We've faced B-ranked strays before, but after the first one he never overreached himself like that again."

I remembered that night clearly; the thought of putting myself so far away from my own peerage members without a proper observational line of sight nearly cost us that bout. If it hadn't been for Hyoudou's recklessness to retrieve that stray at the cost of being poisoned, it may have turned out quite a horrible affair.

Never again would I simply assume that a stray was anything but a creature that had no tact for intelligence again.

"I'd doubt that was his own measures. Knowing you, you stopped that from being an issue in the next fights."

"I learn from my mistakes, yes. But I observe everyone, and I know better than to assume that he would jump in to a fight he didn't think he could win."

'Not unless there was suddenly an anomaly.'

Ever since that night aforementioned, whenever we had to deal with another stray, he had been more cautious rather unlike his more foolhardy stunt on our first collaboration. He prioritized more hit and run tactics over close-combat, and made use of his {Promotion} and {Demotion} abilities quite regularly to keep the enemy on their toes.

For him to blindly attack and stand his ground was unlike the self I had been seeing for over several months now. I couldn't blindly put this down to forgetting how to fight in the two months he had been away for the summer. That realisation that this was an enemy too great to stand against based on experience should have kicked in immediately.

. . . Unless there is still something I am missing here. Obviously, there had to be, but nothing seemed to come to me immediately.

"Well, as you said, you should know him better."

There was definitely still residual dissatisfaction in Rias' tone, but I knew that for the better of the both of us that discussing it any further was not going to go anywhere.

Not between the two of us more specifically.

*knock* . . . *knock* . . . , . . . *knock*

Thankfully, the tension was cut by another knock at the door. Unlike Rias' entrance, the knocks were quieter and more timid than what one would usually expect from a knock at the door. There were long pauses between each before they stopped entirely.

"Come in" I said as I took my eyes away from the computer screen.

"Um, f-f-Fukukaichou?"

Peering around the door, but not standing in the room as all, I immediately saw brown hair and unmistakable striped knee socks that could only belong to my Pawn.

"Ruruko. I'm sorry, is it that time already? Please, come in."

"H-hai."

Indeed; coming from behind the door was my newest addition to my peerage. Nimura Ruruko. Though not part of the high school division of Kuoh Academy, she came to the Student Council room in her middle school uniform. It wasn't a coincidence considering I had asked her to come over in order to get her acquainted early with the dealing our peerage. Even if she was only recently reborn, it would be better to

The fact that I had suddenly found myself had made me lose track of the time and now I was behind.

I pushed my notes to the side in order to give my full attention to my new servant.

"Are you adapting well?"

"H-hai. Arigato."

Despite having her Pawn piece inside, the process was still relatively new and it had yet to properly adjust so her translator input still needed time to adjust. Consciously, she should still be speaking Japanese as she always has, but the Evil Piece would have automatically made it so it speaks in Deftodiz when I hear it, which as of yet hasn't happened.

Curious things, these Evil Pieces. Even the Maou Beelzebub admitted that there were many secrets he himself had yet to uncover, and that because each set were unique and each piece was an individual, there was no telling if two would ever work out the same as each other.

Ironic that he would outright say he was clueless about what these devices he made would turn out or mature when used, despite him being considered the 'sensible one' among our Maou. If they weren't also the strongest amongst our kind, I think they would have been replaced centuries ago with more competent leaders.

"Please, don't be so nervous" I told her. "Tsubaki should be in Class 2-A right now. I had the student council meet there while I finish this. Please, go on ahead of me."

"Hai."

She put on a brief smile before leaving, but everything about her motions were awkward. I couldn't be certain why she was being so tense at this moment, however the precognition of this situation was useful to me after having gone through the same if not similar adjustment phases with the other five.

"Ruruko."

"Ano?"

I kneaded my fingers over each other and brought them in front of me to show that they were not hiding anything. Basic psychology, but people do generally feel easier knowing that the sincerity is a second priority when the person speaking is doing something else.

For most occasions, except when you are delivering bad news rather than good, but that would be going too far.

"You are free to call me Souna if you like. If that's too sudden, then let's start with Shitori-san. Ok?"

Despite being a new devil, or a reincarnated underling as most high class devils would put it, I wished to be on a friendlier term. Being around the easiness of Rias' family and all their servants since I was little put me into a better perspective of how well the Gremory family's more lax constraints when it came to communicating between masters and servants.

Even while others may call it 'fraternising' as if it was derogatory, I wondered if which it is that reason that the Maou Lucifer has the universally recognised strongest peerage that are not only powerful on their own, but are the equivalent of a mobile task force on their own.

I had only gone through this process with Reya a couple of weeks before, but perhaps having my two newest servants learn alongside each other could also benefit growing and maturing as they nurture into this new life together.

"Hai. Sh-Shitori-san."

That smile as she left was one worth seeing; sincere and a true expression of emotion unlike polite smiles which I have seen too many people wear to mask their real faces. Times likes these, small me grateful that I bought into Rias' idea to set up schooling here.

And seeing how grateful people can be when given the right initiative was enough to push me toward the path I had been fiddling around with since I considered what I would do after my third year was over.

I still had a good couple of centuries before my parents considered retirement, and even as heir I needed an occupation of my own when I return to the Underworld. Being at this school, opening a school like this where all matter of devils, high to low could learn together.

Though it was nothing more than a dream right now, as I peaked in on it more and more each day, that dream was one that I wished to resolve myself to committing to."

"She's . . . coping? I didn't think she would still be that nervous after two days."

Although, now that I was giving the room a thorough look, I could think of one presence in the room that may have made so excessively nervous. Not every girl was blessed with inheriting their more of their mother's genes than others.

"She did die unless you've already forgotten. And, she's only nervous because you're here with me."

"Oh" Rias replied, crossing her arms under her chest as she would do. "Did you happen to say something that may have gotten the wrong impression of me?"

"It's your own fault, 'First Great Onee-sama of Kuoh Academy'. You made such a visage that just being around you can be overwhelming for the girls who aren't exactly popular."

It should have been a lightly veiled insult, but rias took it to be a compliment, though she was probably just that used to deflecting my retorts that she rolled with whatever observations I threw at her.

"I can't help that everyone admires me so easily."

"You mean because they all admire your various assets so easily."

It was only strengthening my case when she was puffing her chest like that. Not that in was looking since I was still doing my work at my desk all the while I'm still talking.

"Do I detect jealousy?"

"You're imagining things, Rias."

She was imagining it. And if you have a disagreement, then so are you. Assets are nothing when compared to a well-polished mind, just you remember that.

Perhaps it was the luck of the devil, pardon the pun, that we managed to get our interruption before any more nonsense was spewed between us; a small steel blue light appeared. Rather than appear as a large magic circle on the floor, the sequence appeared small around Rias' right ear.

Think of it as a blue tooth ear piece, except other people hand it to you when they want to call you. And judging by that unique colour and quadrupedal winged symbol, the only person who could have sent it belonged to the Agares Clan.

And, after filtering the options down, only one person in particular would call either of us in such a private matter rather than speaking via hologram. That was our friend from childhood; Seekvaira Agares.

I waited until their conversation was over, which wasn't hard to do since even if I was able to read Rias' lips, the conversation was private and her words were muted to all outside listeners. When the circle finally disappeared signifying the end of the conversation, I continued pretending that I wasn't at least curious about what was said.

I knew that patience would grant me the answers, simply because Rias couldn't keep secrets very well and would eventually cave in to her own desire to share it with me.

"I got a message from Seekvaira saying she wants to pay us a visit next month."

'Oh, really?' I could have replied, but I already fully guessed who the caller was. Although, there was one such topic that hadn't appeared to have been taken into consideration given its timing.

"I thought she had her hands full with the whole messy business between her and Zephyrdor."

I am not one to kiss and tell, so you won't be hearing a word from me about what exactly this 'messy buisness' entails. Although, it's not as if no one in the Underworld wasn't at least partially aware that the Agares' heiress and cousin of the Glasya-Labolas heir were in somewhat an intimate relationship.

That is, until apparently just recently. That is as far as my lips will tell.

For her to decide to bail there could only be two reasons; the first is just an escape from the eyes of the general populace who would be eating at the story for at least a week. Hiding here for a while would be her best option.

However, it was far more likely that the second option was the truer to her intentions. Rias too knew what would constitute her to come to Japan more than just to see us again.

"I know, but Gundam 00 is coming out very soon, and she want to be here when the merchandise starts hitting the shelves."

"That girl and her mechas."

I couldn't help but shake my head in a pleasant reminiscent way; ever since Maou Sirzechs brought back that VCR of Mobile Suit Gundam Volume 1 with its first three episodes back when we were all still in the single digits, Seekvaira has wanted nothing more out of her life than to own an oversized weaponised piloted automaton of her very own.

I think she even has her own warehouse with her family's lands specifically so that she can spend her eternity into making such a dream a reality. More of her time was spent with her engineers than it was with her boyfriend, and you didn't hear that from me.

It seemed that Rias had the same idea.

"Unless Zephyrdor was willing to cut off one of his arms and installed a metal prosthetic, it was never going to work out between those two."

"I couldn't agree more."

I snickered a little, and made one last reply before I most definitely had to return to my work before the day was over.

The Saturday came again almost in no time at all. I, Hanna Blumhardt, only say that, because I have had to subliminally blank out the rest of my week.

Not even just secluded in school hours. I have had several incidences before and after also where I've had to apply mental whitening over. But now that day had finally come around again.

"Going out, my child?"

I jumped in surprise from my packing as a voice came around the door behind me.

"F-father. I-I-I . . ."

As Father Mertens entered my room, I accidently tugged on my bag and it fell from my bed. All manner of contents I had spent the early hours and the day before sorting and packing in preparation for this day was now littering the floor:

Salt harvested from the shores of the Dead Sea in seven compactible shakers.

Two full bottles of Holy water blessed by the Archbishop of Metz. Even a small vial I had received from my inauguration four years ago with a droplet from the River Jordan was with them.

A silver crux I had usually placed over the head of my bed was also packed, while a smaller one was tied to a necklace.

The only thing that had not been packed was a small silver knife that I was keeping in my pocket.

If the meeting was a trap, and I most likely assumed it was. I could have taken less and attached them to my body for better ease of access. I could have, but I chose not to for conspicuous reasons. It felt like I was almost tempting fate to simply throw in the 'bad ending' by preparing for it.

If you think me comparing this to a fatal route in a visual novel, . . . well, I'll explain that a little later.

With everything now on the floor, I fell to my knees as I scoured my floors and under any piece of furniture I could see within view in order to restock my bag. The Father simply stood at the door the entire time as I clambered around to grab the bottles and check for leaks or scratches anywhere before he made a shuffling sound as he fed his hand into his robe pockets.

I didn't look around at first, but then he made a click in his tongue, which meant he had found what he was looking for. So I turned to face him, just as he had gotten his hand free, clutching.

"You can't go anywhere without this."

From inside a pocket in his robe, he pulled out an object wrapped in a pure white embroiled cloth. The cloth itself was no larger than a handkerchief, but it concealed much of the object as he passed it to me.

I held out both my hands, and I could feel a coldness as the object beneath made contact to my skin when he placed it upon them.

I removed the cloth after his hand retreated, and a bright gleam of light reflected off a metal object made for fitting around the hand. It wasn't a glove if I confused you, but it was a weapon.

There was no mistaking what I now held within my palms; it was a gun. A revolver with a six barrel cylinder and the cross pressed into the handgrip. The cylinder was already loaded, but the hammer was raised. This wasn't simply a toy you hand to a child after watching a spaghetti western. This was a real firearm I had just been handed.

"How on . . . , wh-w-where?"

"There are many rules in which we are governed by" he said after raising his hand to stop me from speaking. "God gave us Ten Commandments of which to live our lives by. The Church gives us additional one as Exorcists so that we may serve Christendom. But, the church are a collective of humans, and they often overlook a few laws that become outdated."

The gun felt like it would slip from my fingers by how uneasy I felt holding on to it. My mind was telling me that I was not qualified to use this gun. Not even the thought of going into potential battle with only

The bullets were of a sharper silver colour than the rest of the gun. So the bullets themselves where made of the same blessed metal as the light swords more exorcists were used to carrying. Only a select handful of exorcists with special training were ever permitted blessed silver as a sword, and then fewer than that were allowed a firearm of the same mineral.

Not one in a million. This was . . . was one in fifteen million at least. More than even that most likely.

"The rules under the terms of owning firearms is prohibited from being issued to those without a sufficient rank. However, a rule set when guns became small enough to be wielded one handed, there was an exception to the rule; 'Exorcists and Acolytes that are posted into regions classified as 'frontier bases' are required to carry a firearm and a blade at all times.' The classification of frontier means a place where there are less than thirty active members of the church stationed within a given area at any one hundred miles apart after travelling became easier to cover within a day.

I saw a small twinkle in his eye as he seemed to have found his loophole necessary to bend around the rules.

"And as the only two stationed in this island, I think it's fair to say that this is the bare minimum you are amounted to be using."

That still left one question on my mind though, even if I was going to comfort myself on the knowledge that I wasn't technically breaking the rules.

"But why a revolver?"

There were certainly better and more modern firearms with greater power and less recoil than this weapon of two centuries old design. This belonged in a museum more than in the hands of an untrained wielder. Even if the situation allowed it, this was simply not the best weapon to be giving me if any at all.

But, even then, the Father had an answer to that, like everything he does.

"That law was made during the time when the Americans were pushing westwards into the unknown. I felt it was more appropriate than a semi-automatic. And, it's an IOF .32, more accurately. Small enough to hide on your person. So long as you remember to reset the hammer, you will be fine for six shots."

The barrel was certainly shorter in length, and I guessed that the inclusion of the hammer when choosing it for me meant that I couldn't simply pull out the gun and shoot. There was an underlining determination to kill if I was to go through the necessary motions to ready the gun for firing rather than simply losing control in an uncertain situation with a slippery finger.

I probably could have explained that better, but this gun underlying asked that if I was to use it, that my resolve would need to force my hand to ready it.

I nearly felt such an itch to pull my thumb to the hammer just to get a feel, but I was thankfully saved from that temptation by the Father's right hand reaching out and stopping me.

"However, that doesn't mean you should whip it out so casually. It's a lot more ferocious than a camera, understand?"

I knew he was trying to throw in a small inside joke between the two of us, but I didn't feel like laughing or giggling in that instance. Smiling didn't even cross my mind when I could only think of this new weapon in my hands.

I nodded instead. My lips and face didn't even twitch.

He released his hand from mine, and I chose to hang on to the gun. I let it lie in one hand, my right one, before sliding my grip to adjust around its frame as if I was already drawn.

It was still cold, so dressing with a long shirt and jacket over the top would be more than sufficient to cover it up even if was only tucked to my belt. He provided no holster for me to use, but that was probably the extent of his willingness to bend the rules to his favour.

Though thinking on it, there was never a rule against a holster, even if there was or was not a gun ready to place inside it. It never crossed my mind until I had to think on it a little while later after I had already left our accommodation.

With that, I had nothing more to do except head to the meeting place. There was a slight strain in my chest that made me reluctant, as it should have. But, I had to. I can't say anything stronger than that, or more determined. I would rather have not decided primitively to accept the proposal, but now I only had this one chance. I couldn't afford slip up and abandon this chance for clarity.

"Oh, and one last word" Father Mertens spoke.

I stopped at the door and turned around. He didn't turn his head, but instead looked sideways towards the window as if to watch the sun come over the trees. He still retained that softy smile he always wore unless he was seriously worried.

"Remember your bible passages. I quite like Romans 13, so I think you should use that if you need to."

My eyes twitched a little. I knew what verses he was referring to, especially when in regards to the chapter he had cited. Whether he was offering me a weapon of offense of defence didn't occur to me quite then, but I trusted his words.

No. I had faith in his words. I trusted his judgement, because he was my superior and far more experienced than I was.

My hand reached for door to close it behind me, but again I was interrupted before that.

"Sorry, I do apologise."

I almost clocked my head around in annoyance, but I was slightly caught off guard by the fact his face was facing in my direction this time. But, his face was not smiling this time.

"This is really the last thing; Silver isn't as cheap as you think, so please use it sparingly."

His face then resumed that same gracious look that seemingly was fixed unto his face. If he had been retrying for a joke, then this time was a success. Admittedly, I felt a little more uplifted by it that I nearly let out a snicker.

"Of course. Dankeschön (Thank you very much), Father."

I closed the door behind me and descended the stairs. I checked the clock before leaving and it was quarter past nine before I finally stepped out of the house to walk the morning road to the cemetery in Old Kuoh.

["I really don't like this idea of yours, Partner."]

"So you have been reminding me for the last week, Ddraig. Even in my sleep, you're whispering in my dreams to abandon this meeting."

["There's a reason I am doing this to such an extreme extent; because I don't like the idea."]

I, Hyoudou Issei, was in the middle of dressing when I ended up with a rude interruption from my Partner behind green. I had already put on my trousers and was about to button up the shirt before tucking it in when he started voicing his distaste more strongly.

Before you asked if I was dressing up because I was meeting up with a girl, I would have to shoot you down because there are other reasons to put on your best clothes.

No. The clothes were specific for the location, not the event.

But even if I knew Ddraig was meaning well in his attempt, I felt that his paranoia was getting the better of him now; trying at all his best attempts to kerb me of this meeting despite the fact that I had been the one to orchestrate a better compromise.

She had a photo of me, in full scale mail. {Boosted Gear} and Phenex brand all in one convenient shot. Had I not reacted, I might have salvaged a more plausible excuse, but I knew not what to expect at the time. Never mind if that information were to reach the Underworld after having kept it hidden for six years. Now the Vatican, Anglican Communion, and all those churches would know who I was and what I possessed. No doubt Heaven would then learn of it quite quickly after, and then with more bad luck the Grigori will undoubtedly get that information as well.

Soon, not that I wished to think about it, I could end up being targeted. Harmlessly, but more likely from multiple sides. The biggest factor would of course be the fallout of when the other devil clans find out.

So much gravity was now on the pivotal edge should this information escape. It was going to happen eventually, but now was definitely the wrong occasion and the seriously most unfortunate of circumstantial ways.

I had lived in fear that one day the Maou Lucifer would suddenly return, to either apprehend me. Or worse in some nightmares of mine, you imprison me. Those eyes that pierced through me those years ago still haunt me sometimes when I close my eyes. Everyone in the Phenex household suspected something similar, but he never said a thing. For five years now, he has been silent.

When I question why, I cannot think of a contemptable answer. No one could, unless he was waiting. That idea scared me even more. What possible opportune moment was the [Crimson Satan] withholding potential blackmail that he couldn't use already?

"And who was the last wielder to die by the church's hands?"

I thought I could throw him off by counter attacking with a logical question.

["Your immediate predecessor."]

I was wrong though. My fingers ceased fiddling with my clothing, as the thought suddenly usurped my concentration and I couldn't erase the image from my head.

"You never talk about them."

["I don't like to lament on past lives. I have wallowed on my own death for far longer than any of them have lived. I moved on long ago."]

I licked my front teeth behind sealed lips as I let my mouth become agasped and inhaled inwards slowly while taking in that information.

"How old?"

["When he died. Or, when I first partnered?"]

". . ."

I couldn't answer; half of which was because I wasn't too sure which question I more specifically wanted the answer to. The other half was a small hint of reluctance to want to know. Perhaps it was a premature fear that was still in me, an inherited strain of human fear for my own mortality still lingering coupled with another human fear for superstitions such as tempting fate.

["He was seventeen when I could first talk to him. He was just a terrified boy living on the streets. I wasn't awake myself for his earlier life and he never spoke of where and why he was when I could first speak to him."]

"Nothing?" I asked.

["He said God abandoned him. I was inclined to agree."]

I sighed, and said nothing else. I couldn't think of what else to say as I now stood in this mirror near finished dressing but now unable to complete.

I was now suddenly more curious of the partner Ddraig had before me. Now that all fences were suddenly open, there was many things that I could have asked him about the one who came before me. I could of, but there was suddenly very little I wanted ask.

Dread. I had this feeling of dread wash over me. Perhaps it was the tone in his voice about how he was speaking of him, or mayhap because this once taboo topic was now suddenly available for dissecting that my words were hesitant to respond.

I wondered many things about my predecessors; who were the strongest? The bravest? What did they do with their power? What height of power did they obtain? My own childish line of questions I once wanted to pester Ddraig with. I wanted to know the 'coolest' of the [Red Dragon Emperor's] legacy. I didn't want to ask about a legacy now. I was older and less naïve toward the truths, and I wanted to know more about the person. I didn't ask for a name, a question that I felt was now suddenly too personal. I only felt comfortable with a trivial question at first.

"Did . . . he died the same day I was born?"

It was the first question that came to me at that moment. One fact I was immediately curious about, and one that I never forgot when the idea dawned on me; I had this Sacred Gear since I was born, so how long after was that from when my predecessor died?

["I suppose it is possible"] he replied, after pausing a little while to recollect his own memories. ["I never kept track of calendars because of my own limitations, but it is most probably correct."]

There a gnashing sound, like Ddraig had somehow retained his teeth as well as his voice, as they snapped together three times between sentences.

["He was only twenty nine when he died. I think he was a week, maybe nine days until he reached thirty. So I think."]

Not all men born to greatness find a long fulfilling life in their futures.

I don't remember which book or person may have told me that. But hearing the age of my predecessor, I found that one line surfacing into my immediate thoughts. Not even reaching thirty years old. For humans who lived on average at around eighty in this modern era, that barely accounted for half of his expected life. To most of the population, he would have still been considered fairly young.

'That number is less than twice my own age now.'

"Were they all like that?"

["Some older. Some younger. Different strives. Different lives."]

"And, how did he die?"

He had to take a while before he answered. Behind a layer of faux green mineral crystal, I could have sword I heard him make a clicking sounds, or something akin to smacking his lips, whether or not his soul actually had lips.

["We went to all-out war with the Churches of Europe. For what reason, I can't recall after six, seven, maybe eight years since we started. No allies. No permanent base of retreat or shelter. Just wandering to each new battlefield, then leaving a ruin behind with dead men guarding it. I don't even believe he knew the purpose of what he was doing. Just that he had power, and he was going to take out his anger on something with it. Not the first I ever had."]

He exhaled heavily, and by the sound it was nasal. The rest of his air hummed in his throat before he let out a disappointed sigh.

["Then, we were struck down by another Longinus, {Zenith Tempest}. Unexpected, and so quick when it happened. We didn't stand a chance. Never did we stand a chance even had we known, I know as such. And-"]

I had to blink a couple of times before I remembered that I was only listening to a story. I felt a grip constrict in my left hand, but I wasn't doing anything. Just listening, I started feeling a phantom pain of burning and shocks running across my veins.

"And?" I gulped, after having washed out the projected pain.

He sighed deeply. To me, there was a small dimming in his light when he talked like his voice was exhausting himself. This only happened when he was tired, or when his mood was weak.

["We were on the verge of death anyways, lying in agony from burns and bleeds that would not heal. No amount of {boosts} could stop death. But a priest struck a sword into his chest. The [Dragon Slayer], Ascalon. I still remember its sting, how much more painful it was than that lightning. And that was it; I fell into sleep again, until you woke me up again."]

I could feel a constriction over my lungs. The phantom pain almost felt so real the way that Ddraig delved into describing them. There was no literal proof that I and my predecessor were connected by some ethereal external forces, but considering that the last [Red Dragon Emperor] had been paired with Ddraig, that one small connection made it seem so possible. I wondered whether it was just nerves that were suddenly becoming too active, but I quivered at the déjà vu when that description turning from a recreational mental image into a falsely inserted memory.

But, I questioned whether his fate would have become mine had I not met my Lady that cold and rainy night six years ago. Would my death be as inevitable, and life so fruitless that I would be no more than a pest that needed to be exterminated.

["Imagine my surprise when my first new day was hammering down a giant bird with a five year old wielding me."]

A snort travelled through my throat and into my nose as I slapped my hand to cover both it and my mouth.

"Your memory's waning, old man. I was ten when that happened, not five."

["And yet you threw a pretty good tantrum, like a five year old."]

I snickered a little. More sarcastic than the first time however.

"I had to beat some sense into a perverted dragon who didn't know how to keep his mouth shut."

The light on my left hand flashed over and over again, getting brighter by the second as Ddraig's laughter started to become infectious to the point that I was now laughing at my own joke.

This was the partnership that made our relationship so precious to me. These times where we work as one, fight as one, and especially when we can have a laugh between ourselves. As much as I am grateful to the Phenex for giving me a new home and a better life, Ddraig was my family. His soul and mine were joined since I was born and he is the one being who has never left my side.

I don't think I could have survived everything I had been through if he hadn't been there with him. Last week, I definitely would not have lived had he been partnered to anyone else.

"You've always been my conscience" I said to him. Had anyone else been present in the room, stroking the back of my left hand would have looked especially weird, not mention that I was talking to it.

["Someone had to teach that reckless child to keep his cool in a castle full of devils. And even when you started getting a little too full of yourself and started picking fights with Tannin's brood."]

"Hey, you and I both know that Bova deserved what he got."

["I'm not suggesting anything different. But, it's this very trait that has nearly gotten you killed. A few times, I should add."]

Though the mood in the air had resumed to its norm, I couldn't help but take his words a little more seriously than when I first woke up this morning.

"Are you saying it's a bad trait?"

["It's a double-edge sword, Partner. If you don't keep a firm grip of it, you'll be the one who gets pierced by it one of these days."]

I raised an eyebrow to his response "What trait, specifically, is it?"

["Your need to prove your self-worth."]

" . . . "

I didn't answer, but that stood their in silence, before I went on to continue fixing up my clothes. Ddraig eventually got the message.

["*sigh* Take it from one who has lived the same story a hundred life times, Partner. You take unnecessary risks to yourself. I may be partially to blame for giving you this sense of courage too early, but when you knowingly choose not to invoke my help, that's not courage. That is stubbornness and foolhardiness."]

I couldn't think of a proper response, and so I pretended that I never heard it. Whether this was because I wished to ignore it, pay no heed to something that was untrue. Or perhaps because I was seeing the Graeae in his words, and not his words, that I was now wishing it had never been said.

I finally applied my belt to my trousers and tucked in my shirt before tightening the buckle and centering it. I put on my suit jacket, but then neglected my tie because I didn't' wish to have it obstruct me while I was working. To that same effect, I kept my top button undone

Tugging at the sides as I looked over myself in the mirror, I nodded in satisfaction and got into my shoes. I had no other smart ones except for the one I wore to and from school. I neglected polishing them, so they were a little scuffed at the right heel where I almost caught myself tripping as I descended the stairs last Tuesday. A small patch of dust from walking in dry mud over the course of five days in the row made a small line at the bottom edges of both

I walked from my bedroom to my kitchen. I looked to counter to double check the Tupperware for the defrosting bolognese sauce and mince on the drainer for dinner tonight. And of course a small helping of sardines for Karuka when I returned. My bags of cleaning utensils from last week were with me and within an arm's reach in case the circle was too small by some small mistake that I could grab it. With nothing else to check up on, I was ready to depart now.

I set up a teleport circle and headed straight to the burial grounds.

I, Hanna Blumhardt, approached the graves on a terrible day of pre-winter chills. Though the sun was hot when it was out, the clouds that covered it and the winds that followed made it feel like a very cold day.

I had dressed to accommodate the heat of the sun whilst I was making my way towards the Shinto burial site. But now, it was cold and I was cold too. Ridiculous weather this country has. It also didn't help that the uphill climb to the Old Kuoh district meant I was even hotter than if I had simply stayed standing in the sun for the past hour.

Why I didn't take a bus was a simple principal that the route was within walking distance. Besides, I was not wasting the yen to visit a devil.

I reached the bottom of a long and narrow stairwell that would lead me to the destination. I tapped my hand to my back and felt the gun still holstered there. I gave a shook of my bag on my back and I heard the contents shift in response. To my left pocket, I touched the handle of the knife in its sheath still deep next to my thigh.

I hadn't left anything behind, and everything I needed was here. There was no more hesitation, and so I took that first step going upwards and into the cemetery in Old Kuoh.

Everything was so . . . clean? No, maybe that was a pretty too generic word to describe it; weeds still grew in places and the path had obviously shown signs of retreating into the ground. Even the rain had eroded some of the shaping into the gravestones. Clean was not the right word.

Orderly. It was oddly orderly when I looked out.

That is not to say that the Japanese had anything up against our European styled cemeteries, or that was implying in any way that their method of burying and displaying the sites of their dead was superior, but everything was still kept neat and . . . well orderly.

All the stones were not struck into the ground, but sat on little blocks like buildings on a city plan. The earth could not drag it down, so it remained above the ground and upright as it should be. I could remember a few examples of ones back in my home of Eisleben, where a grave was flat on its front and almost being drawn into the grass and disappearing below the green.

It hurt to see memorials of peoples come and gone just fading like they were never here. I wondered how many parents would never be found again by their children, or their grandchildren, or even their great-grandchildren because the natural world was cruel like that.

It was smaller here though. Definitely smaller than the much larger one that was still expanding in West Kuoh I had passed on my way to school every five days for the last six months, excluding the holidays. There was definitely more signs of age in this place, such as the lack of health and safety when it came to a surrounding fencing, or even handrails on the steps leading up to the top.

The steepness alone would be hazardous if the steps themselves were to lose any sort of grip with a person's shoe.

To the third row along the right, I spotted a person standing there. As this place was utterly deserted save for one soul, or should I say soulless, it had to be that devil. He was dressed as if he was prepared for a funeral, but I noticed the lack of a tie as my view of him became clearer.

He didn't see me approach, so I felt a little more at ease. At first.

I took long surveillance of my path ahead and all around in case I had indeed fallen into a diabolical trap set pre-emptively for my arrival before I walked on toward him.

Even when I walked, I watched the gravestones in case some small imp or spriggan would leap from behind the stone and attack. As my steps drew nearer, I focused less on around and more towards my front. Towards the [Red Dragon Emperor] himself.

My worries turned more into a glaring disappointment; he was noticeably very rude despite having asked to meet me here, blatantly ignoring me as I drew in closer with every stepping pace and even now as I was now directly next to him. Closer, might I add, than I should really have kept myself within. His eyes never turned from the stones in front of him. It was only when I got closer that I saw a rag in his hand, and a distinct pinkish, or even reddish, ointment on the tips of his fingers.

My left hand felt itching to reach into knife, when the contents started to drip from his tips and form a small puddle to his side. The colour made me think of blood, and was suddenly more alter ahead of me than to my surroundings. I thought it was too unoccupied even for a graveyard, and yet it somehow made sense that no one would find a dead person among the graves to be the least bit suspicious.

I dug my hand into my pocket as I walked on closer.

But, my . . . *ahem* initial assessment was unwarranted, when I saw the carrier bag sitting by his feet, and few different brightly coloured bottles poking out from the plastic. There was even a paintbrush grasped in his hand before he tossed it into the bag as well.

There too was a sponge and several old clothes poking from his left hand and from his pocket too, and it was only as I looked more closely that I noticed open grave that was cleaner than the rest, and he was standing directly in front of it. Had he been cleaning the entire time? Now that I thought about it, how long had he been here before I arrived? He did say that he would be here all day, so he

"You know, I thought it would be dirtier than I imagined it. Thought I might literally be here all day, but I finished sooner than expected."

From the side of the large monolith of black, I could read various amounts of Kanji, but one pair stood out and replicated multiple times on this single site was accompanied by its romanji counterpart on a small informative stand just in front of the graves;

兵

藤

(Hyoudou)

My eyes turned from both the name and to the devil before me at least twice. His name was Hyoudou too. This wasn't come contractual obligation, it was more like covering his back more than anything. I had them all memorised: Hanakai, Himejima, Hyoudou, Kusaka, Kiba, Meguri, Shinra, Toujou, Yura. Oh, yes and Nimura also now.

"Is this the human family you took your name from?" I said aloud, hoping to stir some form of reaction out of him.

I was honestly quite surprised that a surname like his ended up being real. When I first heard of it, I was certain that it was just a made-up name that he had taken from a popular media source. 'Fate/stay night', that was the game I was thinking of. There was a certain character from within the video game I picked up with nearly the same name as him, so I assumed that the alias was taken from this fictional person. The only difference was the change of "Ryuu" to "Hyou", which looking into it I thought may have been to hide the clue that he was the [Red Dragon Emperor].

In my defence, I was only just learning Japanese, and I saw the words "Holy Grail" and I thought that it could be beneficial. It also cost me a good deal, and the game-play was very unappealing with all these multiple choice you have to make just to advance. Honestly, who but these Japanese would turn something as Holy as Christ' Chalice from the Last Supper and turn it into a mere plot device to instigate an adventure/romance genre game with multiple story paths to follow down?

His reaction to what I said didn't show in his face, but there was something more emotional in his tone. Not a whiny sound, just something that tried to be more assertive.

"It is my family" he replied.

I couldn't help but sarcastically snort at his response. "But you're devil."

"Yes. But, I was born human."

I wanted to snort again, but there was a difference in his tone that halted my initial response. I knew, at the time, that it had to be a lie. It made no sense what so ever based on everything I knew, and I knew that he could easily spin a lie and make it truthful. But, I didn't think he was lying this time.

It sounds odd even for me to admit it, but that change in tone from his first reply to his second was different that I was questioning whether or not one was a lie with truth and the other was truth with a lie.

Gah. This is why I prefer to just kill them rather than talk to them. I don't have to think so hard about the way they speak.

"b-Born . . . human?"

His head finally turned, but he looked at me in utter confusion. If, that was supposed to be a face that was replicating confusion. Eyes squinting and a slightly crooked jaw could have meant a different expression of emotion for devils.

"You don't know about-" he stopped midsentence and blinked a few times. "W-what did you think happened when devils started getting Sacred Gears? If only humans can be born with them, then how is it possible for so many to be in the possession of devils?"

'We have no way of making our own.' That was what it sounded like he was implying. That had to be the truth. Only the Lord God was capable of crafting such gifts that bestowed power to the weak. It was not something for the likes of lowly devils to be able to snatch their claws on.

"No one at the church knows until you reach high enough in the system. Most of us guessed that devils took the identities of those they had killed and wore their skin to cover their tails and horn."

His face stretched and then shook if off. I was worried that the skin was a mask and he was going to throw it off by how he shook. "I assure you I have neither of those things, and I haven't been stealing skins either."

'I still don't believe you.'

I don't know whether he could read it in my eyes, but that thought was somehow translated to him and he responded as if he could read my mind. He started by pointing to furthest right on the second row, flicking his hand up and down three of them as he pointed out the names on the stone faces.

"That's my great-grandfather. His first wife, and then his second wife was my great-grandmother. He moved here with her at the beginning of the century, but she died. He married my great-grandmother eight years after. He passed in his sleep, and she died of stomach infection."

Hyoudou Izumi

兵藤 泉

1878年05月05日

1900年12月07日

Hyoudou Kazuma

兵藤 一真

1867年09月28日

1922年02月21日

Hyoudou Touka

兵藤 董香

1870年07月01日

1940年12月31日

His hand then drew to the lefthand side and again flicked over a couple of names as he narrated again.

"My grandfather and grandmother are here. He had served in garrison units in the homeland during the Sino-Japanese war, but died from wounds sustained as a result of the fighting in Korea. He was on a UN transport vessel sunk in the East China Sea as a result of the Chinese intervention. He survived, but he was severely mentally scarred. My parent's only said he took a walk to Mt Fuji and he passed on there. They didn't tell me he walked into Aokigahara however. My grandmother outlasted him, and did the best she could on a survivor's pension to support my father."

Hyoudou Hiroto

兵藤 一人

1908年11月08日

1954年10月15日

Hyoudou Keito

兵藤 景戸

1919年07月05日

1991年06月03日

"And here, these are my parents."

He pointed to the stone directly in front that he had been rubbing and cleaning off whilst he had been here. It was certainly more modern looking than the ones I looked over previously, and the stone used was definitely newer and less affected by the signs of aging.

Hyoudou Kazuya

兵藤 一也

1954年12月31日

2001年10月19日

Hyoudou Miyu

兵藤 美夢

1958年11月23日

2001年10月19日

There nothing more significant than the previous graves. Nothing except for their dates of death. Both of them were identical from day to month to year. Which could only mean that they died on the same date.

"It was the 19th October 2001. My parents were killed in our own home. I was ten years old, orphaned. The next time I saw their bodies, they had already been cremated and placed right here. When I came back here less than six months ago, this is the first time I have really seen them again in six years."

I heard a sniffle, but when I looked, his face turned away. It was probably just a cold as I initially thought. His tone didn't sound entirely broken up despite the fact that he was describing his own 'parent's demise.

"My family had complications when it came to giving birth and having children. Both sides of the family as it turned out. My parents had two stillbirths before I was born. Those two stones here; these are my elder sisters."

Sachi

(さち)

15/2/1982

Iriko

(いりこ)

11/10/1987

Unlike the other graves, there was no formal smooth block with engravings. There were only two stones the size of two palms cuffed together, each of then sitting in front of the graves of their parents. The paint looked new, but there were traces where the letters had been painted over with the last layer almost washed a chipped. Only an observant eye would have noticed, but there were also differences in brush style.

The names were written in hiragana rather than kanji, and the dates of birth were written western style rather than Japanese. The more obvious sign was the lack of a final date.

Unlike the main monolith, I noticed that the names had been painted all in red. I wasn't too sure where I had read it from, but supposedly the Japanese paid for a grave stone in advanced and put both spouse's names on it to symbolise a marriage until death. When either or both of them perished, the names would be painted in red to mark witness to their passing.

Though the older ones had been more worn, there was clear evidence that this had once been, but unlike these newer ones, theirs had been left as they were. Only the 'parents' and 'siblings' had been repainted as far as I could see.

He turned his head off to the left and I saw his hand brush his cheeks.

"These . . . rocks with letters and kanji and numbers. These are all I have left of my family. I had a childhood home that is a ruin. I have boxes in storage of memorabilia, or whatever is really left. And I have these rocks in this graveyard. This is all that remains of my human life."

"Why did you ask me to come here?"

His teeth chattered for a bit before his answer came.

"Why indeed?"

He didn't turn his head, but looked up over the graves rather than at them. His eyes seemed to follow the clouds, but then it became mesmerised by the two characters of his surname on the largest plinth. He then took in a large breath, and replied in his respective neutral tone.

I had no idea what to believe when I was speaking to him; he spoke of a family and a history, but the way he was speaking about them had to be a lie. No human would speak that way if they knew so much about their family. Even a broken person could speak about the dead with some sympathy or emphasis on their own depression.

He sounded like he was simply too far away to allow it to concern him anymore. The emotion for mourning had been lost.

If, and I say this if as in I don't know but I won't say yes, . . . IF, he was telling me the whole truth, and this was his family, then he must have abandoned any ties of- . It was so inhuman to do, that it made perfect sense for a devil.

I had no idea why I was suddenly getting emotional over that fact. I didn't believe him. I wasn't willing to allow myself to believe what he was telling because everything in me was saying that his tone was not- . . . How can this be the voice of one who has lost so many people in their lives? People do not move on so like this. They do not abandon their feelings and warmth from their memories? Without a decent amount of love or sadness or happiness or hatred, or whatever the heck they are supposed to feel them when they talk about these things.

This was not what you would hear. I can't stop repeating myself, but this is not what family does for one's own family. These are not just facts you read in a book, these are your important and treasured feelings. Did becoming a devil take that from him? Or was he just so fu-, just so incredibly

I wanted to seriously pull my gun on him and shoot his brain from his skull for being so insensitive about these human's lives. I restrained myself this time, but I wasn't too sure if another would come up.

"At least you knew your parents."

I didn't say it loud enough to be heard, but the words just seemed to slip from my mouth rather than remained contained within my own head.

What I said wasn't just a few empty words. They were riddled with absolute truth; my father died before I was born. Like, he was already dead right before my mother even knew she was pregnant with me, or supposedly since he was dead nine months before I was born. Either way, I never even got to see my father's face even after I was first introduced to him, because his body was already buried and the grass had already began to grow over his coffin.

'What did your mother say about him?' you might ask. The answer is nothing. I never heard her say a word about him. Or about anything.

Because I never met her.

'Did she die as well?' most would ask afterwards.

I don't know. She abandoned me. I grew up in the church. I was just . . . found one day, at the altar of St Andreas Church in Eisleben. The priest didn't know how I got in, nor do the nuns that served from nearby. I was just there and they first knew when they heard me crying.

They found a baby in a wooden basket stuffed with straw. Wrapped up in a white silk blanket and a birth certificate. Under father, it said 'Hans Georg Blumhardt'. Under mother, it said only 'Laylah'. No other information, except of course for my own name, and the day I was born;

'Hanna Lieselotte Blumhardt'. '20th März 1992'. The same day that I just happened to have been found. Too great a coincidence, but it was all true and I have never suspected that any of the witnesses had every tried to lie to me about the circumstances.

I only knew who my father was because . . . *sniff*

Sorry. This filthy air is itching my nose something irritatingly. I've probably picked up an allergy or something standing next to a devil for so long.

My only proof was DNA; a biological confirmation proved that I was his, this Hans Georg Blumhadt's daughter, despite them having buried him five foot under only months before. I remember when they first took me to it when I was seven. They said things like 'your father was a great man. A strong man. A zealous man who gave his life in service to God.' It wasn't really even my choice. It was expected that I would be an exorcist. And, that's what I became.

"Did you say something?"

"No!"

Oh, stupid stupid me. I yelled out my response as quickly as he said that.

"You didn't kill me."

"Excuse me."

"I was lead into the forest, I had my guard down during your interrogation, but you chose to whip out a photograph and wave it like fanning a flame." His face looked at me. Those eyes were not bloodshot or anything. "You didn't suspect you would get burned?"

"And you. You could have killed me. But, you didn't."

"I didn't. No" he sighed in reply.

"Why?"

"Too prideful" he shrugged.

"Now you're just insulting me."

He turned his face and screwed his face in a carefree manner. he didn't even look scared, but deep down that made me feel even more cautious.

"I'm a devil. Isn't that what I should do?"

Was that a snicker I heard? His mouth curled a little, so he must have found it amusing. Darn devil.

I rolled my eyes.

"So. you're not going to kill me then?" he asked.

I seriously wanted to at that point, but I then found myself hesitating. It wasn't because I didn't belive I couldn't take him down. I knew that if I didn't kill him first off, he would rip me in half before I would get the chance to retreat. The fact that neither of the fallen angels had been left with much of a trace meant that I could at least gauge how powerfl he was if he went all out on an opponent.

If I attacked, I had to be the one who puts a bullet in his head first.

But no. No. It was wrong. He wasn't a stray, so killing him would be a declaration of war. That was, unless the church were to throw me at the devil's mercy to keep the peace. It was then that I remembered the Father's words before I left. It was only now that I was thinking back over those passages he told me too remember that I came to a new conclusion as to why he was asking we to reference them in this discussion.

"Romans 13:7 and 8" I said. It was both a reply to him, and a reminder for me as if my thoughts were spoken out loud

I felt a small throb in my side. As much as the words tasted bitter when saying it, having my hand over my hip convinced me that perhaps, just for now, it was for the better of both sides as a whole that this was the outcome.

"I haven't actually read the bible you know. It's a pain to read. Literally, not figuratively."

I was really starting to hate this tone of his. I hate talking for this long with him. It only forced me to be mindful of how I spoke so that i wouldn't' show him an opening to dig his silver tongue into.

"Indebtitude. That's the basis of the verses; don't be indebted to people."

Even after all that, I hated to admit it, but I did technically owe him for not killing me when he could have. Even treating my wound counted as saving my life. Confronted with the possibility that I could have died if he hadn't cauterized my hip didn't sit well, even when it was truthful taking into account all the factors that might and might not have happened.

"And ye-"

"Don't bother. I'm only here becau-"

I stopped midsentence.

"Hmm?"

"Nothing. Because you didn't kill me, I won't kill you. We're even."

His face screwed after that. "Hardly. The difference is that you can't kill me."

That gun and knife within arm's reach were starting to make my fingers itchy again. I started stepping back as his tone became a little more aggressive.

"You seriously want to test me?"

"The debt" he said, as he presented out his fingers before me "is I didn't strike you down in a moment of weakness, and I saved your life by cauterizing that wound to your hip. Plus, you would have caught a cold if I hadn't given you my shirt. I count that as three."

The shirt. Oh, if only he hadn't of brought up that stupid, god-forsaking shirt, I might have just let his words slide over me as Jesus did to when the devil tempted him in the desert.

"The 'shirt thing' is causing me grief in school thanks to it being in my possession."

For the whole week, I had to endure the rumours and the back talking that. No matter what words I said, I only could ever stoke it up. Staying quite was not my virtue. That fire continued to erupt and I couldn't stop demanding that it ceased no matter where I went.

I tried to hold my tongue, but it was beyond my own mortal controls.

He stopped and took a deep breath, then his face relaxed a little more. But, that didn't warrant me to be any less cautious around him after showing his more natural persona.

"Fine. Two. I'll . . . say the shirt is nothing. I'll explain that to them and you'll hear no more of it. You know, I can be persuasive to people. Very."

"You really are the devil, you know that."

"Thank you."

Urgh. That smug smile.

"That's not a compliment."

"When you are calling the pot black, you're stating a fact. That's a compliment."

"I still have to file a report."

His face was still dead, like it didn't even twitch when I said it. He stepped forward, so I stepped back. He noticed this and stood up more straight and coughed to clear his throat. I still stepped back again. The again while his eyes blinked.

"So you should" he replied, too composed as he was. "But, you would have already. Do you want a de-"

"Deal with the devil?" I rhetorically asked, not even requiring his answer since there was never going to be one where he got to reap the benefits. My faith was not weak enough for him to get to me that easily.

He waved his hand in obvious defeat to that reply.

"Fair point. Then what is it?"

I was about to speak, but then I spotted something, or someone , standing behind him.

"Hmm?"

I rubbed my eyes, and yet that figure was still there. But . . . when and how was what I was asking myself.

"What?" the devil said. Did he not notice either? But, his senses were suppose to be sharper than mine. How could he not know. Unless . . . he was expecting it?

"Is that one of your relatives?"

"Huh?"

I wasn't being sarcastic in my tone, as my finger pointed toward the site we had been standing at, and his head followed it and confirmed as such. His shock came at quite a surprise for the both of us at this mysterious third figure in the cemetery.

There, a girl was now kneeling before the graves of his 'parents'. She held a stick in her hand the size of a small skew with a wick of fire at the end furthest from her left hand. Small trails of smoke from incense were floating form the air. First I could see three, and then four, before the wick in her hand went out.

"No. I don't-" the devil replied to me, taking a step back toward the graves of his 'family'.

As she turned to see us, I could see how blue her eyes were. Her hair was the colour of periwinkle, and was long like one of those 'hime' cuts from the old days. Her skin was quite pale, but it was a natural pale rather than inhuman or painted. A faint layer of light colour was present on her lips, but nothing that seemed to draw out the need for attention like a bright red or pink. It was simpler than that, like a touch of tea rose. She was dressed in a kimono, a blue one with a black obi over some other navy long piece of fabric wrapped to her waist.

I couldn't get my head around all these different names for clothes in this country.

Her shoes were black, but they were those sandals this country's people wore. Not the wooden ones with the two small stilts across the bottom. These were all solid, a bit like a 1970's platform shoe, except it had a blue string that her sock fit around that also tied around her ankles.

Her hands had fingerless gloves with a gold ring hooked over the middle fingers, and her hair was decorated with black ribbons with gold rings just above the ear while the tresses next the backs had shiny black beads holding together at the ends.

I couldn't tell from her age. She look young, but there was something about the way she held herself that seemed unnaturally elderly. I didn't know if that had something to do with the old style clothes she was wearing, but I could sense a presence of experience coming off from her. I can't really describe it. It seemed so . . . transcendent, but that didn't seem like the right word.

"Excuse me" he said to her. "Pardon, but . . ."

"Please"

She said cutting him off, before standing up and doing one of those Japanese bows. After the stress of today, seeing a small smile curiously made my heart feel lighter even though I wasn't present in the conversation.

"I do apologise about this abruptness, but I haven't had the chance in such a long time."

I couldn't see from the back of his head, but I assume that his eyes would have widened had he been human, and based on the higher volume in his voice.

"Did you know my parents?"

She shook her head gently so that the hair wouldn't fly out of control. "I know of a lot of people, but never quite so personal. I only came now because I was finally able to do so."

She turned and looked almost lovingly overt the graves. It was strange to sya it, but it resembled painting I had seen of the Virgin Mary as she looked over the baby Jesus lying a sleep in her arms. Why that image came up is unknown to me.

"Did you used to live around here?" he asked, to which she turned back to him. I'm surprised that she had decided to talk to long with him without feeling the least bit creeped out by his existence.

"Once. A very long time ago, I used to live in this very district to the west of here. But, my old home is under new occupancy unfortunately after being empty for so long. I don't mind. It was lonely living here by myself. I still have my sisters and brother where I live now, so I am never lonely."

"Do you ever curse the gods for taking the people you care about from you?"

"w-w-w-Why do you ask?"

She didn't answer at first. Her hands glided over the newly cleaned stones as if she was stroking them.

"People often forget that it's the duty of the gods to maintain the order of the world. If people are meant to live, they will live. If they are meant to love, they will love. If they are meant to die, they will die. Gods cannot be held responsible for something that is beyond even their control. Yet, many forget that they can perform small miracles if they wish. Bringing friends back together. Allowing good fortunes to come about. Even sparing those we treasure the most. The gods do listen, but they are stubborn creatures too, just like humans."

She covered her mouth with the back of her hand as if she had made a small joke. I didn't quite understand it at all though, it wasn't exactly funny to be speaking about pagan gods as if they were equals of the Lord almighty above.

"Empty stones" she then said. "Names carved into them from a time before. A mark upon the world that people once lived her. Built here. Worked here. Raised children and grew old here. But they are just empty stones unless there is someone to treasure them. They are just useless inscriptions, unless there is someone to give them meaning."

His knees were now muddied by the ground as he knelt before the stones and wipes his hands over them, as I watched him from the left.

"They may now go on in peace, knowing their son is safe."

"Hang on, I- Huh?"

The wind suddenly picked up, and I had to cover my face as it caught my hair and smacked it in front of my eyes. It was so strong that the trees were rustling like they were about to break. Leaves brushed against the both us and were completely blinded.

As I looked around when the winds died down, the kimonoed woman had vanished. I checked for a second entrance, but there was no way for her to have moved so quickly even if there was. No footprint either despite the ground being ripe for memorising them. The wind had blow the incense out too, without knocking them over, which was also a mysterious phenomenon.

It made no sense at all.

"Where is she?"

The devil shrugged his shoulders, obvious startled as well as he stood up again. I noticed that the leaves had all but gone from the floor despite the flurry that followed along the gale's trail.

"Was it . . . an angel?" I questioned, as Hyoudou covered his forehead as he looked skyward.

"I definitely would have felt uncomfortable if that was so. I would never have been allowed to get so close without feeling instinctual fear."

'Perhaps it was a ghost', I then thought. Maybe some sort of pagan ritual and been invoked and inadvertently awoke a ghoul from beneath the graves to our sights. Yes. Maybe that was it. It fitted pretty well, better than anything else that would appear quick to my mind of a appearing and disappearing act.

"Why do you clean your graves?" I asked, hoping that he might realise that it was his fault if it was a ghost.

"Don't you?" he asked.

I didn't answer except by shaking my head. Though some people did, it wasn't exactly very common for it to be done. There was no moral obligation to constantly maintain a person's grave since they were already deceased whichever way they went.

"Respect. It's a silly tradition, but we do this to show that we still respect them. At certain times of the year, we even are able to communicate with them, figuratively."

He tapped the grave stones of his 'grandparents', and I swore that I saw an exhaled smile on his face.

"I think I did this once when I was younger, with my parents. I wanted to play with Irina that day and it became a conflict of interests. I remember, my dad told me that I had to, because . . . um. Oh; 'If we do not cleanse these stones and make them shiny, then it will be hard for Irori-kamisama to find-' . . . them."

He didn't react at all. Despite the halt in his speech, he didn't do anything for a while.

No. No, don't say that he was ow thinking it was a goddess we just saw. No.

"What are you trying to imply?" I said, when he turned his body around slowly to the spot where the woman once was.

I knew what he was trying to get at; he was trying to say that woman that appeared before us was a goddess. A pagan goddess. I refused to believe that such suppositions were even fathomable.

I knew what I saw, but . . . I had my God. There was only one. Right?

He sniffed, and then sniffed again. That had to be a cold. He wasn't crying. He was wiping his nose with a dry rage from his pocket. No, that was a handkerchief. He had a handkerchief and was wiping his nose.

"I-I don't know" he replied.

His face stopped and so did his speech. I watched his hand reach for his right cheek and dabbed it a couple of times before examining it.

He didn't turn around to look at me, but I . . . well, I saw water, or something wet on his palm from around his shoulder.

A tear?

No. That wasn't possible. It was probably just rain, surely.

He was now wiping his cheeks and his eyes over and over, but no, he couldn't be crying,

He was devil. No. No.

He didn't even sound sad about his parents or his relatives. No. He surely wasn't doing any such thing.

What on earth was going on now?

Pity? Was I now feeling pity for this thing.

Over a single tear?

No. Surely not.

I was not feeling pity for him- for it. I said it.

Just because he was showing emotion now towards his family should erase that which he show no reaction toward earlier when he spoke of them like facts in a book. That was not a tear, unless it was one that was shed by a crocodile.

I couldn't handle this

"You're going now?"

I didn't turn back to look at him. I simply couldn't hold myself anymore to do so.

"Yes."

"Is there-"

"My superiors will have to hear about the [Red Dragon Emperor]" I told him, before he could work anymore of his devil tricks on me. "There is no negotiation that you can do."

As I continued walking away, that tinkle of pity started flooding, until I couldn't bear it anymore. The passage the father gave me echoes in my head again. Indebtitude. I was still indebted to him, even if it was a disgusting devil like him.

Darn you, my stupid ignorant human heart. Making me so weak to frivolous things like this.

'Lord. Please forgive me for all that I am about to do. I am weak and I am with sin. Accept my trespasses and seek retribution as you see fit.'

I took up all my courage as I stopped dead in my tracks before I was out of audible range of him, inhaled once again, but I still kept my back to him when I said.

"You know, it's a shame."

"What is?" he asked. His voice was quiet, which meant that he had not followed. That was a relief.

I didn't bother turning to look at him still. I couldn't do it again with all that he was doing now. It was too much for me, and I worried that I would only fall further if I looked back at him.

"I was unconscious when he appeared. If it hadn't been for that photo, I probably wouldn't have known to seek you out. A shame I never got a real answer from you about the [Red Dragon Emperor]."

I bit down on my own jaws and walked off without showing any desperation to leave. One uneasiness had left my chest, but now I was feeling a new emotion; Guilt.

As I reached the main road and walked along the pavement back home, I hung my head low as I trailed on.

Then, I felt a coldness in back of my shirt, and I knew for a fact that the metal of the gun had gotten warm since before the meeting, so I was certain it wasn't that.

I reach out my hand, and I could feel wetness against my hand when I hit the bottom of my bag.

'Scheiße, Lord forgive me.'

I swung my bag from my back and at the side of the road I knelt down and inspected the bag.

Nothing was broken, but one of the caps from the bottles in my bags had somehow come undone whilst it had been sitting among my other equipment.

I dug my hand in, and sure enough I found that the cork had come loose, and so did a few granules of salt, but as I checked though it to see if the shakers had been damaged in anyway, I felt an unfamiliar fabric like texture brush my fingers.

At the bottom of my bag, among all the other items I had prepared for this meeting, was that shirt. The black shirt with the holes in the shoulders. Holes no more. Just hole though. It seemed that one of the bottles or shakers or something else has managed to tear at the right sided hole and joined it to the collar.

I pulled it from my bag and sure it enough it was so. The whole seem had been pulled out somehow. If he or anyone were to put this own, it would fall off one shoulder. It was soaked too. The blood was clean though, which must have been the holy water's doing, but the holes were still singed from the burning of light spears.

Despite the blood now having been purified from the cloth, it didn't appear all that clean. There was no more muck or anything else staining it, but it still had a scent to it. His scent, I should say.

. . .

. . .

*sniff*sniff*

That liar. It didn't smell as good as Aika-san claimed it did.

It still had his smell though, despite having been washed in holy water and salt which was most confusing. Perhaps there is a limit to what even holy water can do to a devil's stink.

. . .

*sniff*sniff*

. . .

. . . What the hel-, fu- . . . What the heck was I still doing?

On the eve of the day that I allowed for my . While I, Father Willem Mertens, made my necessary preparations for the early morning Sunday services the next day, Hanna was busy with her own work for God's cause.

I chose not to pry into the matters of what she spoke of and what her ultimate decision was. It was not my place to do so, and so I left myself in appropriate ignorance and chose to keep faith that my student was doing the morally right thing.

A report needed filling, but it was her choice whether it would be completed or incomplete, or even a compromise between the two if her heart was swayed to accept both halves and favour neither side half-heartedly.

The ninth hour had come and I had finished tidying our little place of worship below our home, and so I retired for the night, climbing the stairs twice to reach the rooms above the ground.

As I came to first floor, I decided to stop by and see if Hanna had taken to sleep from exhaustion, or if her work had carried her on even into the night. She had begun this after dinner at six, so three hours should have been a good lengthy time to fill out all the necessary titbits.

As I peered past the door, into the dark room illuminated by one desk lamp hanging over her working hands, I knocked twice after spotting that she was still awake.

The tapping surprised her, and she looked without a word before welcoming my intrusion with a nod. I stepped inside and waited until her hand had finally given up wielding the pen.

"This is as much as I can do. And now, there are no debts between us. [Red Dragon Emperor]."

I heard her whisper like she believed that no one but God could hear her, but it reached me by the door.

I took the filled out form into my hand, keeping an eye of my apprentice to see if she had any last minute protests to my actions and found none.

. . .

Report for Submission: Reference for Peoples of Possible Hostility

Article Priority: Eighth Order

Birth Name: Unknown

Current Alias: Red Dragon Emperor

Current Age Range: Mid to Late Teens (based on report from last confirmed deceased case file, see LaMont, Charles)

Current Location: Unknown

Last Known Location: Oyashi Island, Eastern Japan

Last Known Sighting: 6th Oktober 2007 (second hand account, Anon.)

Current Alignment: Devils

Known Abilities and Equipment: Boosted Gear (Sacred Gear – Longinus classification)

Current Threat Level Known: N/a

Evidence for Proof: Attached photograph taken of said individual (Camera model: Type-77 Diavocerca 2004). Devil clan sigil imprinted to left hand shown. Colour range singled to yellow hues. Specific clan is unknown due to dark quality of the room and therefore guesses may be inaccurate. As much of the information has only been confirmed via a second-hand source from a non-affiliate, the information is suggested to be taken without one hundred percent certainty. Identity of the information broker is granted anonymity for the protection of his/her identity with the reason that the presence of ten or more non-allied aligned supernatural beings with status classified as enemies (see: Clause 6: Paragraph 1 of the Protection of Identity to the Non-allied Affiliations Act 1957).

Signatory: Hanna Lieselotte Blumhardt, East Asian United Christendom Frontier Branch – East Japan Division, formerly East German Lutheran Branch – Saxon Division.

. . .

Based on what I was reading, it would have appeared that we only had the same amount of information based on a single photograph over a week ago.

"Are you absolutely sure about this?"

She didn't answer. Obviously her heart was still in conflict with herself, and I could not blame there for being such great doubt washing over her; withholding information was akin to treason, even if she was filling everything with truth and not one single lie

"Absolve yourself, my child. You have done nothing wrong."

"I am about to betray the church. I am being selfish by-, no. Not selfish. I'm being so, so stupid. I let him get in my head in the spur of the moment, and now I don't even know if I am even doing this because I am selfish."

Her knees curled close to her body until her feet were sitting on her seat.

"What was it that Jesus taught us, above all other teachings?"

"Love thy neighbour?"

I pleased to hear some confidence in her answer despite muffling between her arms.

"To emphasise this parable" I continued as I knelt closer to her seated height, "he told the crowds a story of an injured man rejected by two of his countryman. One was a priest, and the other was a descendant of Levi, but both walked on without batting an eye to his distress. It was not his fellow Israelites who saved him, for was rescued by a Good Samaritan. Do you know the significance beyond its teachings?"

Many who actually get their eyes on any of the verses never delve deep into uncovering any more than what is necessary. Information has been the death of faith. In this time where so much information can be obtained at the tapping of one's fingertips, irreligiousness has been on the rise as contradictions in multiple sources have been brought up and not many people have the courage to answer back using that same logic.

Of course, the Bible was written by men. Men who long ago collected stories from multiple accounts and rewrote the words again and again.

I forwarded my right hand toward her right arm so that I could look her in the eyes by removing it from between our visions. I did this so when I was explaining this usefulness in fact and logic, which so many other mishandle and reinterpret to hold to their beliefs instead of adapting and expanding it.

"The Jews and the Samaritans were enemies. The two peoples despised each other, much like in the manner of the Israelites and the Philistines in the days of Samson or King David. The moral is that even enemies can show kindness."

I manoeuvred my right grip to her wrist and pulled her hand out so that I could clasp it between both of mine.

"I have known devils of all shapes and sizes: some with brain, others with brawn. Some like slug, and others like beasts. I even met one that half a bear and half a pig with pinkish flesh dotted in patches of thick brown fur. They all had the same goal when we came face to face; they would have killed me if I hadn't killed them first. Never, in all my years I have been with the church, have I ever been able to label a 'Good Devil'."

I could feel her hand grip between my own, into a fist that was shaking a little.

"You wonder why he didn't kill you while you were unconscious? Why he allied with you instead of turning on you the moment the both of you were disadvantaged? Why he brought you home and bandaged you up? Why when you knew his secret, he didn't kill you to protect it? Why instead of animalistic nature or demonic temptations, you could see an individual using reasoning?"

"He used to be human" she blurted out of nowhere, which caught me quite by surprised. "At least, that's what he was trying to make me believe."

I had suspicions, but now I have words of validity.

"And, do you?"

I waited to see if her head would shake or nod, but she did neither. "The church never taught us that devils could turn humans into their kind."

This was not new knowledge, indeed the church has known for quite some time. I myself am included in this short list. I was always aware that a hideous monster that I cut down and purify one day may have once been born human. Whether they suffered too long under the influence of devilish poisons that they lose themselves, or that as humans their own sins outweighed the capacity their human forms could take.

I do not know, what makes these reincarnated devils more monstrous than the real kind. But a hideous thing with no variable sign of divine intellect is nothing more than a rampant beast that must be put down for good.

"Was there any evidence to believe that he could be trusted?"

"The grave?" Her eyes squinted as she said it like she was suddenly not so confident. "I don't know. I don't even know if I am now looking back through a rose tint."

Her face was wet, though apart from the eyes the rest was probably the cause of burying her own face too close to her arm while breathing into it.

"Can I help you believe that your judgement in a person is justified?"

Hanna stared back a while, her eyes now more than ever hungry for guidance. As her elder and guardian, it was my duty to fulfil such enthusiasm to the best of my ableness in these matters.

I stuck my index finger from my right hand and pointed toward her, dragging my finger down along her left side until it hit one particular part of her body.

I only needed to point to her left hip. More specifically, to a cauterized scar that had formed over the last week. We had avoided the hospital or the doctors since this kind of injury was not something that would be left alone and settled once a man of medicinal science saw a wound that could not been properly explained within their bounds of reasoning.

That one simple scar, was all the proof I needed for my answer.

"A man was once walked toward a dying one's home, covered over in rocks, and said unto the man 'Lazarus, come out'. He asked not for compensation, nor to hold a favour over them, only that the man rise again and live."

I withdrew my hand, no longer was it needed anyways.

"That man was Jesus. And, before you interrupt the obvious, I am not saying that God has sent us a devil in place of his own son. I am not speaking from teachings, but from the heart; in this world where good and evil are as easy to come by as a flip of a coin, sometimes there is kindness where others would usually find cruelty. It's just a matter of what you believe."

I got up from one knee, and turned to leave her in the room to leave her to linger on that last thought. It was never my place to tell her what she should think. That was not the way I wished to teach my disciple. I encouraged her to evolve and grow on her own understanding.

I may push or nudge her occasionally, but that is one of the delights in being a teacher.

Besides, I now had some information I needed to ponder over myself.

'Have we found a 'Good Devil' in place of a Samaritan?'

But, I really must ask her why there was a torn shirt sitting in her desk while she works. Though, perhaps tomorrow when she is in a fresher mood.

The autumn term came and went quicker than most people would expect. For I, Hyoudou Issei, the winter holidays came after months of uneventful happenings after that incident with the fallen angels. The duties of the devil remained the same, pertaining contracts and eliminating strays that wandered into the urban areas or by another's request.

I didn't' see the exorcist Blumhardt again, except for a few passings by in the corridors, but I obviously had a call in from Sona to discuss the call-out during the school hours. More like an interrogation, but it was simply a matter of keeping the co-owner of the territory I was in informed so I was under obligation to comply. I had no problem with that and showed no quarrels with it either. I answered everything she asked; 'why we were meeting?', 'what were you discussing?', 'was any sensitive information exchanged between the two of you?', etc.

She was already informed via my report that I had made a temporary alliance with her during our confrontation with the fallen angel that attacked the two of us, but I left out the meeting at the cemetery and any discussion that may have pertained towards said meeting. Then again she never asked so there was not even a reason for lying.

Though if she had asked, I doubted I could have gotten away with it as easily as I had done. Even bending the truth or speaking truths in a roundabout way would have been caught out. I did not wish to compete wits with one as well educated and informed as the Sitri heiress of all people, no matter how confident I could have been.

I did fulfil my end of the deal, of course. The incident involving shirt was easily pacified with a few good words, and a bit of memory and persuasive meddling with magic. I didn't hear a peep after that, from the people with the rumour or from the exorcist, so it must have worked, thank the Maou.

Though, I realised then that I never did get my shirt back. I couldn't work up the initiative to retrieve it myself, and the more I thought on it, it appeared less and less significant that I risk so much for something I could have bought in the shopping district without the added holes. Plus, if I had done it in school hours, all the work might have come undone. Plus, another interrogation for why I had insisted on retrieving an article of clothing would have been too much for me to handle. I doubted I would maintain the same luck I had the first time.

I was now at nine contracts, which was only an improvement of two from my initial seven at the first week on the job. Not great, but then again it was also not bad since I didn't lose any of my previous ones. A positive was still better than a negative no matter how small the gains were. It was much easier on top of school once I managed to get Karuka to do the job on his own so that I could concentrate on external matters without having to ride my bike and do half the work myself.

Karuka was getting big really too quickly that his head was almost at the same height as my hips, where as he was at my knees at the beginning of the school year. Not so much a chicken, now more like cross between a pheasant and an osprey. But underneath those feathers, there were now reptilian scales more prevalent than before. Even a serpent's tail was beginning to poke beyond his tail feathers, and his fangs starting to outgrow his beak.

If his species had not been confirmed at birth, many would think he was one of the missing links between the birds and the dinosaurs.

Lucky for me, this little dinosaur was practically asking to be petted and treated with attention like a domesticated dog whenever he wasn't eating or playing on his own. The feathers were fluffier around the neck and even scales on his underbelly were spongey rather than sharp or armoured.

He was given a greater time to roam free after I brought him back to the Phenex household when the school term was finished. He often ventured if I paid him too little attention and then would pester someone else. More often than not, he would venture of to visit Lord Phenex's familiar Chol, in his room, which I sometimes caught in the corner of my eyes or when walking the corridors.

I, on the other hand, tried to avoid going into his room after what happened the first time around. I still can't face him after punching him like that.

I was a little jealous when I returned back to the Phenex household to find that Karuka had been pre-emptively summoned back before me and was getting petted left and right. I can't deny that his still childish softness was part of his charm, but really? Come one.

A week afterwards, my King finally came home, and this time I had no other plans, which meant that all the time of the holidays was for us. Ravel had finished her entire education, but I wouldn't be able to attend her graduation unless I managed to skip out on the exams week.

Though, I knew how the fukukaichou would react if I even brought up the intention as a hypothecial scenario, so I would not try and risk her wrath.

Then, before we knew it, Satanalia came again, and so did the parties. And so, were were here again just as it was last year when we sat at this very window watching the guest enter the household via the front walkway. Ddraig had agreed to retire early for the night so that Ravel and I could converse alone.

It also helped keep our identity a secret a bit longer if he didn't try to make communication between us. We had a better seal over Ddraig's presence than the last one the previous year, but there was no sense in taking chances. Not with so many high-class devils in attendance.

I was lucky enough that I could arrive and attend this year, which meant that I didn't have to wait up here staring from a fogging window at the highest floor. I must say that I was full of extreme nervousness just being given an opportunity to attend this year with many more devils. And, it's thanks to the omamori I received for my birthday this year. So long as i kept my distance from any of the more powerful heads, I should remain very well anonymous.

"Just another four months, and then you'll be going to the Overworld. Are you nervous?" I asked.

It had already been decided long ago that she would be joining me in Kuoh when she begins her high school level education in the Overworld, but I've already said that once. That was the whole . A trial run of sorts, which because I was easily able to deal with the most serious issue.

Not, that I told them I nearly got myself killed by not activating my Sacred Gear that is. Believe me, it took a while to convince Ddraig to keep his jaw shut on the subject.

"It will be fun to see the town you were born" she said, raising the glass of pomegranate-ade to her lips. After the issue with Dragon apple juice last year, we just stuck to more suitable drinks to our taste buds. "I only met you when you had relocated to Chiba, so I've never actually been there."

I took my own gulp of the drink, but I was almost finished. There was nothing quite like a local drink. Even if it was grown in a completely separate region of the Underworld.

"I'll show you around when you arrive. There isn't much, so we can cover the town within the day. Though the uphill climbs might be a bit rough at first."

"We'll work as hard as we can to get as many contracts as Rias and Sona. You, me, Karuka, and Azul."

I enjoyed that enthusiasm of hers. I truly have missed seeing that determined smile on her face.

While I was away, Ravel had gotten herself her own familiar as part of her final year in what would constitute as middle school in the Underworld. Rayzem's phoenix had laid an egg, and from that egg came Ravel's own little bird. She named him Azul, because his primary colour was blue which was a rare oddity in the usual range of reds and yellows and the occasional golden colours. It was unknown whether this shade would last, but for now at the size of a sparrow, he was Azul.

I dared not let him meet Karuka though, since my familiar was large enough now to consider him an evening snack. Plus, even he wouldn't turn down bird meat though fish may have been his favourite.

There was only a single term left between now and the end of the school year both here and in Japan which was convenient.

"The apartment is quite far from the academy though. You can sit behind me on my bicycle when we ride there every morning."

Her face went red that instant, but I didn't initially realise until what I said was repeated in head over again. Then I was suddenly red too when I visualised her holding around my chest while i peddle towards school. And all the students looking at the two of us. And . . . and . .

Then, it was an awkward silence.

Luckily for me, we had an interruption.

*Crash*

We turned our head out towards the hall, where a convenient metal cup rolled its way and hit the door frame. A few items of silver banged and collided with the floor, and the sound. I saw a pair of three toed feet run past the door whilst in the middle of moulting his feathers into a trail behind, which meant that my familiar had been the cause of this incident.

A maid popped by within sight of the door as she went to retrieve the last of the metal pots that she had been balancing between her arms.

"Sorry!" I shouted out to her, to which I nearly gave her another fright and made her drop all the items again. Thankfully, this was not the case.

"Not to worry, sir. It was my fault. Excuse me?"

It felt confusing being called 'sir'. None of the servants ever addressed me a sir. There was never any warranty for it since I wasn't a noble, nor was I a Knight. I then realised that I had never met that one servant before, so I asked Ravel about that.

"New maid?"

"Uh-hm. Octavia" she answered. "She came here from Grandfather's territory, under good reference of course."

"Oh" I replied. "Is Lord Algernon also here then?"

"No, not recently. He'll arrive in the following days. But, given the situation, he'll probably bring Sascha with him."

The person she was referring to was Sir Alexander Josef von Brandenburg-Stendal Ascania, or simply Sascha to everyone else, a pretty famous name given how long he had been serving. He was Lord Algernon's Captain of the Guard, and another high-class devil despite not owning a peerage of his own.

His father was the former Margrave of Brandenburg, the False Waldermar whose real name was Jakob Rehbuck. A commoner who made a deal with Handoran Malphas to steal the title of Margrave by taking the guise of a former lord in 1348. It lasted for two years until when the heir of the Lord Malphas was killed, and soon the false lord was deposed but was kept in some luxury at court in Anhalt where he died of natural causes in 1356.

His son whom we know as Sascha, born of a relationship between the false lord and the real lord's wife in 1349, was taken from him as hostage and forced to join the army when he came of age as compensation for his father's dealings. He was attacked with his battalion by a troop of angels fighting fallen near Berlin in 1392 when he was mortally wounded. He made a Knight of Two by Thallo Andrealphus, or whatever the precursor to Evil Pieces was in his times. After his King perished years ago, Sascha volunteered to not leave or enter another lord's peerage, but to remain with Lord Algernon as his Captain of his personal retinue.

I hadn't met him at all in my time that Lord Algernon has visited here or whenever I was accompanying Ravel to see her maternal grandfather, but his reputation exceeded him wherever he was spoken of. I did see a small theatre troupe that were advertising a one-off performance from a novice writer's play based on one particular instance in the man's life.

"Ode to Celestia" it was called, but I never got the chance to see it, and it wasn't big enough that it was ever properly reviewed.

He wasn't a social person from how Ravel and others had previously described him, so to hear that he was indeed coming especially to the Phenex household of all places meant that this was not a simple house call to be bringing in a seasoned general by his side.

"I don't like the sound of that tone" I said. "I-Is there something amiss?"

Her eyes turned from me and set upon the wintery landscape that only stretched the front gardens. I wondered what she was seeing when the specially magic=crafted snowflakes fell upon the lawn that she needed to stare out for so long, or the rows upon rows of botany that still survived the frosty bite.

Then her lips moved. One word.

"War."

My eyes widened at the sound of that word touching my ears. I almost dropped my own glass when I felt my hand go slack as the sensation passed through my body.

". . . E-e-e . . Excuse me?"

"Oh, sorry!" she replied frantically, waving her arms as if to signal a misinterpretation in communications. "I-It's not literally war. Well, . . . not yet anyways. This is all just preparations for one."

Prepations?

"Why are we preparing for war? What of the armistice?"

My biggest fear of course was that I may have been the cause for war prematurely restarting after all this time. Maybe I was thinking a little too highly of myself, since realistically the Three Factions wouldn't undo two centuries of armistice for one person. Not even me.

"From what we've been hearing, the Grigori is crumbling."

"You're saying that . . . "

She shook her head before I could finish.

"It's not just that. That's just the minor issue. The major one is where they are going."

"Where are the-" I had to sop when a though came to my head. "Are they preparing for an invasion? Even after so many fell on the fields of Apollyon? Does a demilitarized boundary no longer hold meaning?"

In general history, it was established that during the fall and the rise of the Girgori, the fallen angels too took refuge in the underworld. However, this was one of those times where the enemy of my enemy was also my enemy. The fallen and the devils fought a bloodied war for territory, and the major battles stood out especially on the territory of Alvilag as an image almost akin to the human's Battle of the Somme;

Rows upon rows of bodies bloodied the grass until they simply grew red stalks and blades. Both Kashim Asmodeus, [Maou of Military Affairs], and Gadreel, [Cadre of Warfare], sent thousands of their own people, and hundreds of thousands of denizens who had naturally resided in the Underworld a millennia before devils or fallen angels, to die over a territory wrought of nought but empty grass fields that carried out farther than fifty consecutive eyes sights could reach. Neither side won the frontier, and only the signing of a demilitarization between the territories was there an end to the death, though only on Alvilag.

But, neither the Maou nor the Cadre would die on this battlefield, but ironically against each other in a battle in the later future.

The region was split into two down the River Fene, with the devils gaining everything on the east bank, which they renamed Apollyon, and the fallen gaining the west which they named Azazael and founded their capital of Girgor to watch over the field. Indirectly, this peace gave rise to the Order of the Girgori who became the de-facto leaders of the fallen angel's nation. And while there is an armistice between our two factions, it is clear why two viceroyalties were raised directly at the border between the two regions.

What neither side really considered when dividing the land was where they had indirectly cut off their own peoples on the opposing sides of the bank. That of course explains why Lord Alsiel can make blessed silver and remain unharmed, not to mention why his wings are still feathered. But that also means that devils ended up under fallen occupation through no fault of their own. No one ever speaks of it though, and no one knows what became of them.

"No. that's the predicament" she continued. "We don't know where they went, and it's not only the Grigori. It isn't even just our Three Fractions with the same problem. A lot of people from every group seems to be vanishing without the authorisation of their respective leaders. The Aesir, the Olympians, the Devas, all of them are losing suspicious characters. It's not that we are at war. But, we are expecting war very soon."

Everyone in the older generations knew of war. It was why we had the hereditary titles, the legions. Especially the legions, still compulsorily conscripted from the ranks of lower and middle-class devils.

Lord Rivalen was the commander of twenty legions of devils, though the ranks in present day were mostly filled by the low and middle-class as well as reincarnated and half-bloods whom the Old Kings faction would never consider to fit the definition. The first four or six legions were captained from a hereditary position passed down by branch family members, either second or third children and/or those of illegitimate origins from previous heads. Iqem Pheynix, Tsuzenno Phoeniex, Yobuat Fenix, Lobmaldy Theonecks. They were only a few that I was aware of, all who bore slightly altered surnames to display their descent while also signifying that they were not part of the main family.

In the future, when Lord Ruval becomes the next head with an heir of his own, his remaining siblings would have to change their surnames at some point to distinguish themselves separately from the new main branch within a few decades or so. Rayzem could probably be allowed to keep his name so long as Ramarh and Riana took the Murmur clan name from Zemele should Ramarh ever be granted the title of [Duke of Murmur]. Riser will take the Gremory name as he is marrying the current heiress Rias, and Ravel would likely take her husband's . . . name in the future before all . . . thi- . . .

*ahem* Sorry, I suddenly lost my trail of thought there. Excuse me for that. Uh . . .

Th-there were talks decades or centuries back that had been brought to attention over the matter of refilling the remaining clans; the debate had been divided between giving it to the half-devils who were legal descendants of the previous heads who had already perished, or to give them to the branch family members who were in command of one or more of the family legions. The outcome, was indecisive;

The arguments solely lay on the issue regarding blood purity, as did everything. When Maooujo Lilith perished in AM 4968 or 1208 CE, it sparked an end to the viable recruitment of new devils and so now the retention of pure-blood devils became almost a necessity unlike how it had been during her lifetime. In the past, had a half-blood devil needed to succeed, his ascension would be backed by a ceremony in which he would intake her blood as his ancestor had and he too would have been pure-blood. This was the only exception in the Old Maou's day to allow half-devils to become whole.

The only instance that I could recall was the ceremony for inducting the late Lord Rhaikard Vapula, the father of the current Lord Jiorcarmin, [6th Duke of Vapula], and whom I also believe was the grandfather of the current Bael heir, Sairaorg. They were only words, but rather hideous ones citing his original impurity for his grandson's lack of demonic magic. Nasty sorts of whispers.

But now, when it came to producing children of pure devil descent, there no longer this safety line for succession, and this was the cause of the extinction of thirty-nine families from the pillars, and four exterminations also. While a branch family member who had been raised and trained in the underworld was preferable, they had been left unmonitored in regards to with whom their descendants would be born from, and so while many claimed to still be as pure as the main branch, their roots were questioned to the point that half-bloods were seen by some to be more devil than the branch candidates.

I cannot speak for either side as I am without devil blood entirely, but it is for this among many reasons why it has taken so long to even approach the reasons toward succession. And not even members within the Old Kings and New Maou factions can even agree internally which side they will take, save of course for Sairaorg Bael who has seemingly raised his flag to rally the half-bloods to his banner.

"What was that exorcist called again?"

I blinked two times as my thoughts were snapped from me as the subject suddenly changed hands.

"Hmm? Y-y-You mean the one with the . . . "

I stopped before finishing and made a gesture as if to take a picture with a camera, to which Ravel nodded in response.

I had already told her everything that had happened, but this was one secret that not even her parents were aware of. Or, at least I hoped that they would never find out about. I didn't wish to think what form of punishment I would get for the many number of things that had happened. Forget simple cooperation, I had let a potential enemy discover my secret when the rest of the Underworld was still relatively clueless.

"Blumhardt. Hanna Blumhardt, unless that was just a school alias of hers."

Her hand placed itself beneath her chin when she heard that name come up. Her mouth mulled over that name for a while before a sound emerged.

"Blumhardt?"

"Hmm? What?"

I didn't get an answer as she quickly turned back towards me.

"You said she is an exorcist, and that she is German."

My eyes looked over the room for a short glance when she asked me that while verified my own memory before committing to my own words.

"Y-yes. w-Why?"

Her hand left her face as she proceeded to her explanation.

"In 1850, the title of [Strongest Exorcist] was awarded to a Johann Christoph Blumhardt, supposedly for exorcising a SS-Class demonic possession in two years. In reality, it was a two year manhunt of one hundred strays and a Stray King."

Both my eyebrows rose over my forehead when I heard that. I then suddenly clicked why she suddenly found it so interesting that she needed to share this little piece of history.

"You think they're related?"

She nodded, but it wasn't as confident as it used to be. Maybe because we had both grown and matured that her initial absolute assuredness in her answers even when they turned out later to be wrong was more hesitant to be definitive.

"Possibly. What was that title you said the fallen angel called her?"

I racked my brain around for that answer, but I only heard it that once and it didn't come back to me immediately. I scratched at my hair, but I couldn't remember it precisely. It didn't help that it was a midsentence change in linguistics, so not even my Evil Pieces could tell me what that fallen angel had said precisely.

"I don't recall exactly." I snapped my fingers repeatedly in vain trying to reconnect that memory. "Um, maybe something like . . . Christus . . . bearvorten? Something like that."

"[Christibefürworten?]"

I was stunned when she said it aloud. It was only then when it suddenly clicked.

"Yes. That's it. How did you know?"

I really should not have been questioning her intelligence. Even when we were younger, her interest were mostly focused in reading and especially in history, so it made perfect sense that in some scripture that she would have found that name and remembered it.

In the library on the first basement floor of the Phenex household, there is a whole bookshelf that Ravel has already read through, and that included both sides and all nine shelves of them. From the creation of the old Canaan up until the great armistice, she had read it.

"Johann Blumhardt had a saying, sort of like a war cry according to the chronicles; 'Jesus ist Sieger', aka 'Jesus is the victor'. That was his motto he carried into battle, whether it was against the devils or anything else he would fight against. His son, Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt used 'Jesus Christus, dem Siegeshelden' or 'Jesus Christ, our Saviour'."

"I see."

She shook her head a little and struck her hand in the air.

"The point is that both of these men were very influential in their times. So much so that they were named [Christibefürworten] or 'Champion of Christ' by the church leaders. It became a familial title passed down from holder to heir essentially."

My eyes widened a little more at the realisation.

"You mean . . . that the Blumhardt I met is their descendant?"

Her shoulder shrugged, but she seemed so much more certain this time than previously.

"She bears the title, so she is at least descended from the first. She is also the only heir to a very short legacy."

"Is that so."

We said nothing after that, and then the silence crept in and it was awkward.

I didn't realise how hard this was. When the two of us were younger, this never used to happen. If it went silent, then we would strike up a new conversation all on our own, but now we had nothing to say.

I heard a clap, and I turned to see Ravel with her hands together. The look on her face was determined, but I wasn't initially aware of what she wanted. She turned her whole body and faced me completely straight.

"Issei. There's something I need to tell you."

"R-ravel?"

Her lips stuttered, but then without another hesitation, she placed both of her hands out in front of her, and looked me right into my eyes.

"Give me your hand."

I didn't initially realise what she wanted to do, so I freely offered her my left, which she then grasped between both of her and then pulled it closer. Only when it started pressing against her collar did I then suddenly realise where my hand was going.

I felt a pulse. But, it wasn't her heart.

No, I could feel her heart. That was what I then found strange. A second heartbeat.

No.

I knew instantly what that was. I had eight like those imbedded into my own chest. Not the same, but not too different from my own.

"Is. Is that?"

She nodded before I could say anything else. It was an Evil Piece. My King, Ravel had an Evil Piece inside of her. She was a peerage member, and I hadn't known about it despite having been with her for two weeks now. She never said a thing until now.

I wanted to say something, but she cut me off before then.

"I questioned-, no. I rationalised what I needed to do in order to be a good King. I lack the experience to properly command and direct you if we ever had to fight a stray, or compete in a Rating game on our own. I asked Riser to make me his Bishop so that I could learn that first hand."

My hand was still fixed to her . . . lower neck area, but her fingers started to dig into my bones. They trembled a little as well, and I could feel her real heart increasing a little in pace. Her eyes started drifting further and further down.

"I did this because as your King, I'm responsible for the both of us. If I lead you blindly into a fight that I knew we couldn't win when we could have easily escaped, then I wouldn't' know what to do with myself. I wouldn't know what to do if I lost you, because of a mistake I-"

"Ravel."

Her arms were really shaking now. Her eyes no longer maintained contact, when a small drop of water hit my skin. I looked as it rolled off my wrist and then vanish in the shade between our two bodies. There wasn't a sniffle or a gas her air, but that was clearly a tear I had no doubt of that.

Did she think she was being selfish for not telling me all this before? Was this guilt? Was I missing something here? I do not know, and I don't even think I tried to contemplate what she feeling the need to cry over. I just felt a gut hatred for seeing her cry like this. It was hideous to see her upset that I wanted her to stop.

With free hand, I reached out and cupped her face in my right palm, stroking away a falling tear with my thumb before she realised that I had placed it there.

Her eye looked into me rather than below me, and continued stroking the left side of her soft, peach-like face. In the softest tone I could muster, looking deep as I could at her, I said to her.

"Please. Don't cry, Rei-chan."

"Ise."

"Am I interrupting?"

Our eyes turned from each other hastily when a third voice called out to us. In panic we turned and saw the interrupter standing there at the doorway with one hand against the door. I cannot say with certainty if he knocked before speaking, but his posture suggested as such to our embarrassment.

Eyes like a storm, with smoky grey fogging over a dark blue rainy sky. It was like seeing the very eyes of a typhoon when you stared into it. His hair matched the picture; mostly cut and cropped like a military style length, but kept some individuality to his character with several overgrown strands layering his forehead and around the edges of his ear. Every strand was as dark as the night, with a few silver streaks that only showed his experience.

From head to toe, his uniform was metal plating over chain with a sword strapped to his left side. His armour looked very similar to Lord Ruval's which he wore for his Rating Games, except less ornate with every piece of protection prioritizing flexibility and guarding the more important areas of his body. It was functional, and that was all that counted. It was also blue and white instead of black and gold, and it was more obvious that this man's armour have been scarred with age and wounds that cut through the metal.

"My apologies, but your mother requests your presence. The main festivities are to start."

Ravel straightened herself out quicker than I and grabbed both her own hands before placing them in front of herself.

"Oh, sorry Sascha. We'll be down soon."

Sascha? My eyes widened and my jaw fell when I suddenly realised whom we had just seen. I didn't think how odd it was that he had arrived since Lord Algernon himself had not come this year since I was caught up in his aura.

It was not a physical aura like how you could feel the strength in power when in the presence of any of the Maou or an ultimate-class devil. No, this was just his person, his character and composure that exuded.

I saw his eyes stare over the room. Once or twice they looked over directly in our direction and all up and down the two of us which put my all of my motions on edge as I felt uncomfortable in any position I left my hands or my arms of even my posture that I kept having to change it too frequently. I felt very flushed too which probably didn't help anything.

However, he said nothing. He simple nodded and then he did nothing else but proceed to leave.

When he turned and left the room, the only thing that remained apart from Ravel and I, was the lingering silence and awkwardness of the situation before. When our eyes met again, it suddenly felt like two magnets repelling each other when he spun away almost the same time they locked sights.

It felt like an odd conundrum the both of us were in; I wanted to look in her direction and I could feel her gaze occasionally burn my side then retreat quickly afterwards. I wanted to, but then the emotion was overwhelming to the point that I couldn't keep my gaze there.

My hand still shook as if I was feeling her- Gah! Sorry. Nevermind. Forget it!

Luckily for me, Ravel was the one who attempted to end this. She cleared her throat, and tried to maintain face while her cheeks will still so beetroot coloured.

"Ok, s-s-s-so we've both done something . . eh, stupid and out of our minds. *ahem* As your King, I command that we call it even and leave it at that."

For some, unknown and bizarre reason that caught me in the moment, a switch in my brain clicked and I felt the urge to tease her.

In the manner of an over the top actor, I took to one knee and grabbed her hand while she looked o in complete embarrassment. I can't say what my face looked like, but I tried making it look as , and I said to her.

"Yes, my princess."

Perhaps it was my own embarrassment that forced me to suddenly act like that, but the awkwardness faded and now it was as if it never came about.

What made it funnier, was how Ravel reacted; she responded quickly as I leaned in close to kiss her hand, snatching it back away and then tried with all her might to hit me with the undersides of her hands to force me to stop.

"Don't call me that! It's embarrassing."

In the most over the top performance I could perform, I stood to my feet and I flailed my arm and stood at my toes before bowing and proclaiming aloud; "Hai, O-himesama!"

She hit me again of course, but now she was redder than I had ever seen her before. Had she been an anime character, her ears would have exhausted steam like a tea kettle. That only made my reactions worse because it had become too much fun to stop while I was already ahead of myself.

"Don't, you're making it worse! That's it, you're getting your punishment now!"

"All is even. You commanded it. Doesn't count anymore."

She stuttered a little when I waggled my finger like an anthropomorphised blue hedgehog, but she didn't stop.

"I-I un-command it! Suffer and take your punishment!"

She leapt at me when my back was turned and somehow ended up hanging by my neck. Her grip was strong, but not enough to strangle me. When I felt a sudden rise in heat, I assumed when was trying to incinerate me. I could only chuckle at the notion.

"You know flames are going to be that effective against me, Ravel"

"No. That's right. But I know you have a weak spot; the nape below your armpit is susceptibly ticklish."

I went cold instantly, when her grip changed to only a single hand and the missing right swung around and dug into my hip. It felt like a few bolts of electricity, before suddenly I felt my nerves being overpowered and my knees were getting weak and I almost toppled to my front.

"Wait! No!"

"Hu-hahaha! I've got you now! I've finally tamed you, you immature dragon!"

I was now losing breath, and with that any retort that I had to follow up with. My knees touched the ground as suddenly I was caught in a torrent of my own laughter.

"Na-hahahahahahah-stopuahahahah. No cu-hahahaha-t it out-ahahahaha!"

I rolled around, but avoided deliberately rolling over her, as she two was laughing at my sudden weakness. Our good clothes were messed up, but that didn't matter either of us in the least. I remember trying to get my own back, but she got off me and ran before I could catch her, so I followed after her with haste.

Her laughter and own taunting created a trail from which I followed after, laughing at my own pace.

I was now reaping my own rewards, as I jogged through the halls with my lungs bruning and knees still weak from hitting the floor. But, I look back fondly on that memory, and I don't even remember vaguely what the rest of the part was like. That moment, when the two of us acted so immature, I remembered most fondly about that evening as the night drew further and further in.

As all in the church began to settle in for the night, a flash of lightning broke out in the cloudy sky.

I, Asia Argento, awoke as the light crossed over my window. The window wasn't big, but it was enough that everything became bright in my own little secluded place. I awoke in a fright as the thunder cracked afterwards.

I had no clock in my room, so I could not tell the time. It was still dark, so I knew it was still night. No one else was awake either, so they must have been sleeping.

With the rain still striking the ground, and the storm stretching on, I could not fall back to sleep. I had already said my prayers before I went to bed, and I was uncertain if there was a protocol for repeating it after awaking at night.

I looked around my room, but my few possessions only included the clothes I wore on my back for day and night, a cup for which I had permission to fill with water between 6 am and 8 pm, and a dog's collar which I could not bear to bury five months ago. I was grateful the Father didn't ask me to yield it and allowed me to keep it at my bedside.

Yes. I loved it here, and everyone was so kind.

I had been at this church for as long as I can remember. By God's grace, I was left at the steps of this church when I was a babe and the clergy who served here took me in. As there was no formal orphanage, I was looked after by the nuns and by the priest who oversaw service. Serving God has been my lot in life, and I have never wanted anything more than that.

I am glad to have been in God's service, especially on that day six years ago; I remember a crowd gathering in the streets and circling round. I walked through the people to see a poor innocent puppy lying half-alive and terribly injured there.

I prayed to God to spare its life, offering everything I had unto him to show this puppy mercy. And God heard my prayers by giving me the power to heal him. His dislocated back leg was fixed and the terrible cuts to its right side were fixed up in seconds.

He was so happy to be healed that he jumped at me to give me a kiss on the cheek. He was named Lazzaro, after Saint Lazarus whom Jesus himself brought back from the brink of death.

He is gone now unfortunately. His stomach started twisting, and even after I healed him nights and nights over, the Father of the church told me that I could do no more and it was simply God telling us that it was his time to enter heaven. I went with the Father to the veterinarian so that he could pass on in peace, and stroked his fur until he finally went to sleep.

We buried him near the entrance where he used to lay in the shade from the sun after midday had passed. I knew he would have liked that.

People came here to seek my healing hand whenever it was needed, and I was more than happy to help all those in need. Even those who were not part of our denomination, and some who even prayed to God in a different name, I would not turn them away.

This was not for monetary gain, for that was not why God bestowed this power unto me. He wished for the sick to be healed, and I would pray each and every day how grateful I was that he had granted this divine task unto me.

I have helped so many people, and seeing their smiles of gratitude was all the thanks I could ever need.

*SMACK*

I nearly squealed when something smacked the glass.

The glass wasn't broken, but it was such a loud smack that despite the hard impact had to have been made by something soft as well.

The only thought that came to my head came from my own memories. I thought it must have been a bird. And suddenly I was scared that a bird had flown in this direction looking for shelter and then killed itself when it unexpectedly hit the glass. If it wasn't dead, then it must have broken its wing on the collision.

I couldn't knowingly go back to sleep after a poor little bird injured itself hitting at my window. Not in this weather, in this cold. If it could not fly, then it would surely die. Some of the animals that lived around here would not show it the kindness it

The Lord made its plight heard when it struck my window. In all good conscience, I would not leave it be when I was gifted to help it.

The Father who oversaw the church had a coat for when he needed to perform funerals in the rain. I was sure the Lord would forgive me for borrowing this piece of clothing to save a bird. I had nothing waterproof to walk in, so I had to make do with the shoes I always wore.

Even if they become muddy, I will clean them again before returning to bed. And if there's no time before first light, the nuns will not punish me too harshly for saving one of God's creatures.

I opened the door, and the sound of the rain was greater than it had been behind the windows. The view ahead was blocked by a wall of falling rain and the darkness enveloped it even more. I took a torch from the Father's coat pocket and switched it on.

As I stepped into the cold, the rain started beating my head through the hood, and the splashing beneath crawled just below my knees while my shoes became moist like sponges stepping into the puddles at the bottom of the steps.

*FLASH*

I froze while I waited for the thunder, which was only five elephants away now where it had been eight when I first woke up.

I took more steps whilst I kept my light low to the floor and away from the windows as to not wake anyone if at all possible. I counted up to twelve steps as I walked further into the dark. I nearly slipped on the mud, but remained on my feet with heaven's graces.

Then, before my thirteenth step, a voice called out from the night.

"Please. Someone he- *blech*"

I shone my light further up and I could see not a bird, but a figure in the mud.

As I stepped in closer, I could see him more clearly; his face half covered din mud with his hand outreaching towards the flashes of light of my torch in hand.

"You poor man. I'm here."

I knelt down to his side as I put the torch to one side. His eyes looked near dead and black as they weakly looked on at me.

"Are you . . . the [Holy Sister]? The one with the healing hand of God?"

"Please, save your energy. Where are you hurt?"

He rolled to his back and I covered my hands in shock at what I saw; a saltire of Saint Andrew scratched across his chest like someone marked an 'X' on his body with a large blade. He winced, and from the area still caught under torch light, there was a small layer of steam like the wound was physically burning him.

"Oh Lord, please spare him from pain."

As I made a small prayer, his pain only increased as one of his hands took hold of his head. I became startled as he groaned in agony in the cold. My knees were now like ice in the cold mud, but that didn't matter to me as I looked at this man's injuries. His skin was so pale, so I thought I had to act fast.

'Exodus 15.26' I concentrated on as I traced into my memories of the good book. The passage came to me and I clasped my hands together looking towards the clouded view of heaven even as the rain started to hit my face.

"and He said: 'If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in His eyes, and wilt give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases upon thee, which I have put upon the Egyptians; for I am the LORD that healeth thee'."

The whole time I was thinking that I had to hurry; from my point of view, the poor man looked to be in even more pain than when he first arrived. With another one of his free hands, he was grappling with his head like he had taken a cut their. The mud was now covering more of his face as it splattered in the rain over both him and me.

I could only hope that my prayer brought him some comfort as he lay in the mud in so much distress.

It was very strange when I looked at his head later and there was nothing external that I could treat. I had to conclude upon inspection that it was a migraine that came and went. But still, it was very odd at the time.

"{Yahweh-Rapha}."

My prayer was answered as it always was, and the Lord's holy green light emitted from my hands as two silver rings appeared again on my fingers.

But . . .

'A scar?'

This was the first time that it had ever happened. The wound rather than vanishing completely was now marked across his skin.

How? This had never happened before. I used God's gift to help people, and they had never left a mark like this before. There should have been nothing there. This was not what I intended at all.

In spite of that, his injury was no longer there. So, it was a blessing even with this mark.

He could move now, and his pain had appeared to have been removed with my help, but I couldn't look at him. Not, after leaving such a horrid thing on his chest when I should have been able to fix it with God's aid.

I felt so ashamed of myself for having taken so long to reach him. This had to have been my fault somehow, even when God was so kind enough to still bestow upon me the power to make his wound no more.

"I'm sorry."

I whimpered apologetically, with my hand digging and grabbing into the waterlogged soil.

"For what?"

His voice was softer now. There was not an ounce of pain in his tone.

"That scar on your chest. I'm sorry you have that mark. I should have gotten rid of it. I can only blame my lack of faith that you must now bear this reminder of your wound. I'm so sorry that I can never make this up to you."

He pressed his hand against my face, and another went to my hands tater were cuffed and buried in my habit. His hands were clean now, but they were still quite cold like they had never been warmed to begin with. It prickled my cheek when it made contact, but his soft face made me less stunned by its approach.

"Don't ruin these lovely healing hands by rubbing them with mud. Don't ruin those perfectly untainted eyes with wasteful tears. Men need scars, and this one is pretty manly, don't you think?"

All his words were trying to comfort me. His expressions were so soft that I couldn't

"If it weren't for those hands of yours, then I would have probably died here in the rain. I will wear this scar like a badge of honour in your name, blessed maiden Asia."

His lips touched my hands, and I strangely felt so warm from his kiss that the tingling of cold from earlier seemed to vanish with it.

He grunted a little, but he was able to stand to his feet without slipping in the inches of puddles now forming on the ground. When he was able to stand up straight, he looked up at the sky with a deep breath and a smile. I couldn't help but feel relieved that he was no longer in pain.

When he looked down, even with the rest of his face now covered in the shade, he looked so relieved that it put me at immediate ease. And then, his back started shifting, like something was about to emerge.

"Thank you so very much, Asia Argento."

His light features and non-threatening tone, I was sure that when I saw wings emerge from his back that he was an angel who had lost his way from heaven.

But, they were not.

Big black leathery wings grew from his lower spine and curled behind his body like a crown of thorns. Despite his fair appearance and kindly manners, I could not take my eyes away from how dark his wings were that I was questioning whether I should even be breathing.

"You, who have shown me kindness can ask any favour of me, if it is within my power the next we meet. I swear it in the name of my brother, the Great Satan called Beelzebub, I will repay you with the same kindness you have shown me this day."

*FLASH*CRASH*

As he stood over me, with the lightning flashing behind him, I felt no strength in my legs to stand out of the mud biting at my knees.

I felt a deep pit swallow up my stomach as I continued looking into his softly closed eyes.

"Wait. You're a . . . a devil?"

Territories of the Underworld

Part 1: The Great Devil's Kingdom aka Pandaemonium

In the times of Ancient Canaan, when Elyon was [King of the Zophasemin], the pantheon of Levantine gods, the underworld was ruled by the [Lord of Death], Mot, who was the third son of Elyon. In olden days, after a yearly cycle of plotting where Yahm, [Lord of the Sea] and second son of Elyon tried and failed to overthrow their elder brother, Hadad [Lord of the Sky], it fell unto Mot to finish the deed to send the world into winter. However, while in the land of the dead, Hadad would defeat Mot and re-ascend back to the realms of the living, to bring spring back to the world. And thus it always would have been for millenias to come.

However, following the death of Elyon after an insatiable lack of worship caused his very existence to fade and slowly die, Yahm stole his chance for the title of [King] by killing his eldest brother, and assuming the throne. When Mot came to overthrow him, he too was defeated and his rule of the underworld thus came to an end also. When he was done with his brother, Yahm too killed his younger kin, with the twins Shahar and Shalim, the [Lord of Dawn and Dusk], and then with Shapesh, the [Lady of the Sun]. With the death of his eldest brother and four eldest of his younger siblings, Yahm's reign looked to be secured.

That is, until the rise of his youngest brother, the seventh son of Elyon, Attar, [Lord of the Morning Star], who with many of the displeased gods led open rebellion against Yahm, but were ultimately defeated and were forced to flee to the abandoned lands once ruled by Mot. The surviving gods, Attar, Litanu (later Anat), Ekron and Aeshma Daeva (later Kashim), would become the founders of the devil race by ingesting the blood of Attar's wife Lilith, who thus became the [Mother of all Devils]. Taking the personal surnames Lucifer, Leviathan, Beelzebub and Asmodeus, they established a new home for their people in the deepest layers under the earth where they could one day hope to retake their heavenly domain back from the usurper Yahm.

The large region of the underworld formerly governed by Mot was originally known as Mavet, but was then afterwards divided among the new Four Great Satans as a personal region of control and administrate over without conflicting with each other's handlings in general affairs;

The first territory, Gehenna, was ruled by Attar Lucifer, who built a great city called Lucifaad over the ruins of Mot's keep. It was deemed the greatest city in all the Underworld, and became the de-facto capital of the entire devil realms. Governance and law were prominently made and unmade in this capital, and the Grand Court of Lucifaad is still located here to this day and where many criminals are tried and sentenced. After the death of Maou Attar, and the expelling of his descendants, much of the original lands that were held under the Lucifer clan's direct rule was divided up into smaller holdings for newer devils, including the Baronys of Lucifugus and Pheles among others. Lucifaad was created into a Free City state with the current Maou Lucifer, Sirzechs Gremory directly ruling over it as his predecessor had done for three millennia before. Other prominent lands include the Kingdom of Bael, Kingdom of Buer, Principality of Vassago, Archduchy of Agares, Duchy of Valefor, Duchy of Barbatos, Marq of Amon, Marq of Samigina, and Earldom of Marbas.

The second territory, Tehom, was ruled by Ekron Beelzebub, following the construction of Beelzeyav to act as the administrative capital of the region, and as a place from which he constructed both a great library with texts collected from every region above ground that could have been lost to history, and a greater workshop from which many innovations are forged daily. The University of Beelzeyav serves as a school for all the high and middle-class devils from six year to sixteen years, and only those who choose a career solely in the Underworld may continue to a minimum of twenty-one. However, like the fate of Lucifaad, much of its original territories have been reduced to allow for the raising of new Baronys, including Belphegor, Mammon and Zephon. The small Free City is not prominently governed by the current Maou Beelzebub, Ajuka Astaroth. Other prominent lands include the Kingdom of Paimon, Kingdom of Zagan, Principality of Sitri, Principality of Seere, Duchy of Dantalion, Duchy of Gusion, Marq of Decarabia, County of Andromalius, and Earldom of Buer. The former Kingdom of Amayon was located here.

The third territory, Tophet, was ruled by Anat Leviathan, constructed the city of Leviadina on an isolated island in between where two great lakes meet; Tolylixl (the Red Lake) to the west and Tolypoyl (the Blue Lake) to the east. Common misconception believe the names originate transition from the sunrise to sunset which give the lakes their distinctive colours when it would have supposedly levelled with the horizon, however the true origin predates the introduction of the artificial sun, and so the mystery continues. As the capital of foreign policy, Leviadina served as a meeting point between ambassadors of devils houses as well as other factions by offering a place of isolation and tranquillity from the public eyes. Even in present day, the city serves as a place of relaxing lesiures under the current Maou Leviathan, Serafall Sitri. Out of some of the former lands, the Baronys of Nahemah and Baphomet were created. Other prominent lands include the Kingdom of Belial, Kingdom of Balam, Principality of Orobas, Duchy of Alloces, Duchy of Gremory, Duchy of Vapula, Duchy of Murmur, Marq of Orias, Earldom of Caim, Earldom of Amy, and Earldom of Ose. The former Kingdom of Ziminar was located here.

The fourth territory, Tzoah Rotachet, was ruled by Kashim Asmodeus, from his city of Asmadadan into the side of mountain where many mines were built to excavate the many minerals lying beneath the ground. The surrounding lands are dedicated to the conscription and training of armies of the Maou from many low and middle-class devil families. High-class devils are recruited as officers and commanders after passing secular examination in Beelzeyav. Even after the old Maou families were driven to exile, the tradition of recruitment was maintain as a way for many low and middle-class devils to receive social promotions. Other prominent lands include the Kingdom of Purson, Kingdom of Asmoday, Principality of Ipos, Duchy of Aim, Duchy of Berith, Duchy of Astaroth, Duchy of Buné, Marq of Naberios, Marq of Ronové, Marq of Forneus, County of Marax, Earldom of Glasya-Labolas, and Earldom of Foras. The former Kingdom of Corson was located here.

After generations of devils continued to war not just with the angels and fallen angels, but with many of the other residents of the Underworld, a growing frontier was formed and many families relocated from their initial holdings to create new territories with prominent populations;

The fifth territory, Eunoe, which also gave its name to the river running through it, was the first colony and later region established by the Maou. The city of Lilith was built at the source of the River Eunoe, serving as a spiritual city and the de-jure capital of the devil realms until after the civil war where it became the official capital as a neutral territory away from the rule of the Maou. The city is solely governed by an elected representative every twenty years from among the low and middle-class devils to maintain administrative duties, but who answers to the Maou when they meet to discuss matters of state. The Forest of Familiars is located here, covering a large chunk of the territory. And to the mountain range lies the Viceroyalty of Tannin, where a grove of Dragon Apples are grown in the fertile soils at the basin between seven inactive volcanoes. Other prominent lands include the Kingdom of Vine, Principality of Gaap, Duchy of Flauros, Duchy of Amdusias, Marq of Phenex, Marq of Andras, Marq of Andrealphus, Marq of Kimaris and Earldom of Valac. The former Kingdom of Pruflas is locate here. The lands are natively inhabited by groups of demons including the concubi (incubi and succubi), who have largely become integrated as citizens after the Devil Civil War.

The sixth territory, Inferno, was formed by lands seized from the Roman pantheon territory of Avernus. Its capital Diapoli lies within the Viceroyalty of Flamel, but the Viceroy holds no political control over the city itself which functions similarly as Lilith does. As a major tourism region after Tophet, it boasts a very humid climate with many onsens located in the boiling lakes scattered throughout the region. Other prominent lands include the Principality of Stolas, Duchy of Focalor, Duchy of Vepar, Marq of Marchosias, Marq of Sabnock, Marq of Shax, County of Furfur, County of Halphas, County of Räum, and Earldom of Malphas. The first true prison and torture palace within the devil occupied regions was located here until it was delegated as a public hospital when the criminals were transferred to Malebolge and Phlegethon.

The seventh territory, Dis, named after the City of Dis governed by the Barony of Alsiel, was another region annexed from Avernus. Mostly a desolate wasteland with little growth, the main industry of mining and masonry became a rival for the old mines in Tzoah Rotachet, leading to an economic boom which prompted an inflation that had to be retracted by a newer law restricting the mining of lower class ores to maintain a relatively balanced economic monetary value used by low-class devils. Other prominent lands include the Duchy of Bathin, Duchy of Eligos, Duchy of Zepar, Marq of Leraje, and County of Botis.

The eighth territory, Apollyon, is a large steppes with very few permanent holdings located over it vast lands. The cause of this was the many battles fought and bloodied over this region between the Maou and the Grigori, which saw a territorial division that settled the land once known as Alvilag into the devil controlled Apollyon, and fallen angel controlled Azazael. This division is not without border tensions despite a ceasefire over the region. Many devils who have accidently migrated unto Azazel have never been heard from again, and the same is said for fallen angels in Apollyon. Its administrative capital of Abaddon lies within the Barony of Abbadon, ruled by the clan of the same name. The Viceroyalties of Rosencrutz and St. Germain are located here, as are the Baronys of Choronzon, Arioch and Adramelech. Following the conclusion of the Devil Civil War, Apollyon was designated as a relocation for thirty-five of the seventy-seven clans of Djinn who were uprooted from their lands in Jahannam, all of whom held the rank of Emir; Fuqtus, 'Mrd, Kywan, Shimr'al, Firuz, Mhaqal, Zaynab, Syduk, Jndrb, Siyyar, Zanbur, al-Da'hs, Kawkab, Hamran, Dahir, Qarun, Shidad, Sa'sa'ah, Baktan, Harthamah, Takallum, Furuq, Hurmiz, Hamhamah, 'Ayzar, Mazahim, Murrah, Fatrah, al-Haym, Arhbh, Khyth', Khyfth, Rayah, Zuhal, Zawba'ah, and Mhtukara. Due to the vastness of the lands, there are large varieties of livestock of all different breeds are ranged daily across the bountifully grassy and open fields.

The ninth territory, Malebolge, is a mixture of thick brush and steep hills with very few passages allowing for travel around the region, making it very difficult to monitor proactively, which lead to the creation of knightly clans to sheriff the region on a daily basis and bring the lawless to heel. The administrative capital and meeting place of the knights in Malebranche is also the seat of the Earldom of Furcas. The prisons of Malebranche are formed into a large rings hovering over a giant pit with an echoless bottom, where only the vilest of criminals not sentenced to death are sent. Some legends say that the bottom of the pits is a river of molten tar, but there has been no confirmation nor denial. Petty criminals stay relatively close to ground level, and serious criminals descend further from the light. The Viceroyalty of Cagliostro is located here also, as are all the Knightly Fiefdoms of the Demonic Order of the Knights of Malebranche; Alichino, Barbariccia, Cagnazzo, Calcabrina, Ciriatto, Draghignazzo, Farfarello, Graffiacane, Libicocco, Malacoda, Rubicante, and Scarmiglione. As with the situation with Apollyon, seven of the djinn clans who previous held rank as Sultans have been relocated here; Danhash, Shakhba, Marbaya, 'Abara, Mismar, Namudarki, and Bakhtash.

The tenth and final territory, Phlegethon, named after the River Phlegethon, the [River of Fire], with runs to its border with Tartarus, was originally held in Greek pantheon control until an invasion and occupation of the region lasting three thousand years was settled with a boundary drawn up separating both pantheons along the river's banks. Its administrative capital, Pyri-on-Phlegethon, centres on the shallowest and narrowest point at the ford between Phlegethon and Tartarus, where it stands guard even to this day from a potential invasion. The city is part of the Barony of Phlegyus, but the territory also consists of the Baronys of Charon and Shaher. The Viceroyalty of Shinami too is located here. As with the situation in both Apollyon and Malebolge, thirty-five other djinn clans who previously held rank as Emirs have been relocated here; Hayshab, Tq'ytan, Wqas, Qdmnh, Mufarrish, Ayra'il, Nizar, Shftil, Dywyd, Ankara, Khatufah, Tnkyush, Misalqar, Qadim, Ashja', Nawdar, Tythamah, 'Usar, Thu'ban, Naman, Nmudrky, Tyabur, Sahitun, 'Udhafir, Mirdas, Shytub, Za'rush, Sakhr, al-'Aramram, Khashram, Shadhan, al-Harith, al-Hurth, 'Adhirah, and Faqruf.

A visit for the dead

invokes sorrow, all the while

a goddess watches.

A grave marked in stone.

A grave dug without exit.

A grave choice of words.

If tranquility

were as many as blossoms,

we could find our peace.

Omake XIV: Escaped?

Alek: (arrives on screen, arms still bound in chains behind his back, but swiveling his legs to move) Yes. I finally got away from that S&M enthusiast. I would use worse words, but I'm the pervert here for enjoying some o- (realises the readers are here) Oh. Hello. Don't mind me. I'm delusional and all from the excessive torturing. (blushing while reminiscing) A-and it's very hot in these chains as you may have noticed. Yes, Glepnir also serves as an electric blanket so- . . . you're not buying any of this are you?

Never mind that, I have returned with another chapter. You'll be happy to know that this is the last of the original events before the traditional starting point in the series, so next chapter will be picking up from when both the Anime and Light Novels originally started. Also, this is a very special chapter, because this day one year ago was when I published the first ever chapter of this fanfiction, so let loose those poppers everyone!

(awkward silence)

. . . Yeah, sorry. My bad that was two da-, no thre-. Four. It was Four days ago. Sorry, so sorry about that. I meant to get it out, but I wasn't quite finished with it, so it's come out late. (clears throat) As of this moment, there are 225 reviews, 427 favourites, and 489 followers. (waits for the cheers, but there are none) . . . yes. So on behalf of myself and to all of you who stuck around this long despite how inconsistent this fanfiction has been. Thank you. Thank you all who made this possible, whether it was your kind words, helpful tips, and just general patience of most of you who decided that this was worth keeping informed on.

On another note; I don't own the character "Alexander von Brandenburg". Surprisingly, he's not one of my OC characters, but belongs to one of my reviewers and another user; WarsmithDantioch. Back in 5th July, he asked me by private e-mail for permission to use a few of the more in depth background information I had made up for the purpose of this fanfiction, and I said yes. Don't worry, it isn't too much stuff that has anything much related to this story, but just some names of Devil nobles that most of you will not think relevant.

Now, his fiction Beyond the Point of Death currently has 11 chapters up. I'm in no way saying you should read it because I'm telling you to, just I quite enjoy seeing what he has written and I think it's worth a read if you want something more original.

I didn't ask him for permission, because I wanted it to be a surprise. Um, so; Surprise! And please don't sue me. I also made up a faux history since both our stories are in entirely different universes, so all characters are unrelated and there is no crossovers what so ever. Just remember that.

Alright, I'll get to the reviews for this chapter;

『To Guest (1): I think you mean 'selfless', but I get what you're trying to say.

To User:Dr4cul: 1. Yes. That is exactly what happened. 2. Yeah, that's my fault. I forget about ending some sentences because I write a bit here and bit there and then I try to link them up, but forget to finish others. I do try to fix them when i find them, but I still miss a few after I publish them.

To User:WarsmithDantioch: Thanks, and no sweat

To User:desdelor: Thank you.

To User:RedSS: How did you know?!- Er. I mean *ahem* maybe. Maybe.

To User:darth56: Thank you so much.

To User:bk42bk42: Damn, I wish i could have been there to see it. I'll get there (eventually), but's it's still a struggle to move around at the moment.

To User:RH-Exclaibur: Thank you, but I'm afraid you'll have to wait a bit longer for that. If you can't, then I'm sorry.

To User:AcclaimingTR: Thanks.

To User:Hydrocell2: Thank you, and believe me when I say that when the story reaches that point to really analyse it, you should be able to better understand how it became like that.

To User:Kenshin135: Yeah, I can understand that, but I promise you I got better as I started writing more.

To User:percy_zoe_and_artemis_fan: Well I hope your wish was satisfied.

To Guest (2): Thank you very much.

To User:sao_for_life: Thank you.

To Guest (3): I understand how frustrated you are, but using google translate to write a poorly written complaint in Spanish isn't helpful to me not to yourself.

And to moron_1: No! Not my family jewels! I've done it! I've done it! Just don't hurt me, please!』

(clears throat) So, with tha-

Akeno: (voice off-screen) Arara. So, you did manage to escape. Well, looks like someone needs to punish you for it. Ufufu.

Alek: (in a panic) No. No! Need to get away! Hop! Hop! Hop, and awa- (trips over and falls to his stomach) Ow! *tss* No time to get up. Crawl! Crawl! Crawl like my life depends on it! Crawl! Crawl! (crawls off-screen like a worm)

Akeno: (appears) Oh my, even with that heavy chain, he still thinks he can get away. (sees the readers watching). Ufufu. In such a hurry that he forgot to thank them for reading and everything. Not even enough time just to say until next time and everything. You're so cruel. Not even a usual 'Bye-Bye' before ending the review.

Alek: (voice off-screen) Bye-Bye!-

Akeno: (smiling) Oh, there you are. Arara. (runs after him)

Alek: (voice off-screen) Eek! (sound of crawling intensifies)

Thank you for reading, and review at your nearest convenience.

Special thanks to 'Guest' (1), 'Dr4cul', 'WarsmithDantioch', 'desdelor', 'RedSS', 'darth56', 'bk42bk42', 'RH-Excalibur', 'AcclaimingTR', 'Hydrocell2', 'Kenshin135', 'percy zoe and artemis fan, 'Guest' (2), 'sao for life', 'Guest' (3), and 'moron 1' for their reviews, I really do appreciate it.

Next time, we finally reached the official canon (aka Volume 1/Episode 1). There are going to be some alterations, but that as to be expected.

Well, until next time everyone (whenever that is). Bye!