Chapter 73: My luck has always been peerless

Part 1

3rd Person POV

The sun was setting and the group was preparing to head back. Watching everyone look in amazement as Nora was taming the bear using food, two people were a distance away, hidden from everyone's view.

"You have failed miserably." Kamiya coldly said.

"So what? I couldn't have imagined that something like this could happen." Azuma snorted. "That stupid creature was beaten by his clown-like performance. What human in their right mind would even dare to face a bear with their bare bodies? Instead of running, that bastard did the most stupid thing and stayed. He even used stacks of bills to beat the bear... no, no matter how you look at it, something strange happened."

"Is that the excuse you want to use to avoid taking responsibility?" Kamiya narrowed his eyes.

"Don't you find it weird? That bastard is like those other rich kids that come here flaunting their money and women, yet he managed to survive under that circumstance. He should've been killed while I would've gotten-" Azuma had to stop speaking.

Extending his hands toward his little brother's throat, Kamiya choked Azuma with a strong grip.

"I believe I asked you if that was the excuse you wanted to use to take responsibility. It is a simple question that even a fool can understand how to answer. I wanted to hear a 'Yes' or a 'No', simple as that." Kamiya sighed in disappointment, his gentle expression long gone, replaced by a vicious face. "Not only did you go against my orders and acted on your own accord to kill one of our guests, but you also failed."

Easily lifting Azuma from the ground, Kamiya did not seem to be having a hard time. His actions reflected a lack of effort and he even seemed to have the leisure to glance at the group riding the bear.

"How it happened is not important given we were not able to notice anything from our position. He might as well have used the luck of his whole life during this encounter or he probably is the lover of lady luck herself. I can't say, and you cannot either. However, the fact that he is alive is not the point here. If something had gone wrong, some other sacrifices could've been killed." Kamiya said. "If an accident like that happened, the ritual would not be completed correctly. We MUST NOT fail to offer the correct number of sacrifices unless, of course, you would be willing to take their spot."

With a vicious smile on his face, Kamiya tightened the grip on his hand and squeezed his brother's neck one last time as he glared at his figure squirming in the air as he fought to get air.

Azuma struggled to break free, but his strength could not match Kamiya's.

"Whatever, I did not have high hopes for you from the beginning." Kamiya released his hand. "Go back to the village alone and make sure everything is ready for today. The ritual will be held today so send someone to retrieve the book from the true altar. We must ask what kind of ritual our naive Miko is holding or she would refuse to cooperate. They don't exactly fall from trees and I had a hard time bringing one here after you decided to ravage the last one. I will lead the group by myself so there are no more 'surprises'."

Without waiting for Azuma to stop gasping for air, Kamiya left.

Alone, Azuma shed tears of rage as his face distorted from anger.

"You... always look down on me." Azuma held his neck as the throbbing pain assaulted his senses. "Wait until it awakens. The day I become that, that will be the day you and everyone else will have to bow down their head whenever they see me, the day I am not being compared to you... that day, you will be compared to ME!"

Spitting on the spot on the ground where Kamiya had been standing a second ago, Azuma departed.

...

...

...

"Everyone! It is getting late so perhaps we should call it a day. We had some activities prepared for you in the village and perhaps the ritual might happen today if there is a good wheater." Kamiya exclaimed.

his words were completely ignored as everyone's attention was on the bear. The visitors were busily posing and taking pictures of themselves with the bear or asking the villagers to take the pictures. The creature would look at Nora before anyone got close to him and only when Nora nodded did it let itself get pictures taken.

"I am surprised that you did not go with the idea of cooking the bear." Tobio suddenly said.

"Oh, perish that thought. Pochi is part of the family." Nora muttered.

Deciding not to tackle the issue with the dog's name, Tobio glanced at the bear.

Its towering figure could easily make it a fearsome opponent if they only used their physical abilities alone, and while they could best it in speed and stamina if they ran thanks to Nora's training, fighting it bare-handed would be beyond them. The thick fur was soft to the touch, but the toughness was far from something they could use simply brute strength to overcome.

The use of Ki was a huge boost for him, but Tobio felt that the bear was not your run-of-the-mill creature.

"This one is close to becoming a youkai." Nora narrowed his eyes. "Nowadays is pretty rare to see regular animals turning into youkais or divine spirits, and most of our population comes from reproduction rather than being born from nature. That said, until not long ago, nine-tailed foxes had a unique method similar to the original way, but that is no more."

Casting a glance at Kamiya that was having trouble hiding his displeasure from being ignored but kept a wry smile on his face, Nora sighed.

"I am not sure if these guys knew about it, but once the transformation was completed, its strength would go up considerably and its size would at least double." Nora said. "If this one had transformed into one, faking a lucky survival would've been tough."

"Is it really that dangerous?" Tobio curiously asked.

The youth almost burst into a laugh after seeing Sae seriously asking for the bear's paw.

"There are many ways that youkais can be born, and I reckon that this includes other fantasy creatures from other mythologies." Nora glared at the bear and it immediately gave Sae its paw. "Putting Gods aside, the birth of many supernatural creatures comes from the belief of humans. Of course, it is not the only requirement, but it can play an important role when creating unique and bizarre creatures beyond natural boundaries."

Smiling wryly, Tobio sent Nora a thankful look for being considerate towards Sae.

"Even when following the original path of nature, there are differences. Youkais and Divine Spirits are different for a reason." Nora shrugged his shoulders.

"Is it the human form or...?" Tobio inquired.

"Nah, it is nothing as boorish as that. Besides, the first nekomatas did not look completely human since that was not their intention." Nora looked away. "Anyways, while Divine Spirits have different grades of strength, the originals had a pair of defining traits. You see, Divine Spirits were benevolent by nature and they never consumed a drop of human blood."

"So that means.." Tobio left the rest unsaid.

"Please, do you think I would get upset if you finished your sentence? I would not touch the topic if that was the case." Nora rolled his eyes. "Youkais, for whatever reason, tasted human blood. That is an important trait for ancient youkais."

Wondering if he should stop her, Tobio saw Aika excitedly pointing at the bear and she let go of Lisa's hand to run toward the bear.

"Gods, on the other hand, are tricky. For one to appear at this age, well... it would be even rare. Whether it is about building divinity through others' faith in you or building it through karma as an example to become a Buddha, the path is not always guaranteed since it requires a lot of effort." Nora sighed. "Well, if the conditions were set in place you could technically become one, but the method would cause your divinity to be random. It is not like you can have the same divinity as one of the original gods from a lucky situation, but the quality can be subpar if you compare a monk who lived a rightful life full of discipline and a monk that barely worked to meet the minimum requirements."

Making a slitting throat motion to the bear that had opened its mouth to bite Aika who was pestering it, Nora turned to Tobio.

"Well, you don't have to worry too much about that, Ikuse-san." Nora muttered. "Devils, Gods, or Buddhas, with your blade, there is no enemy you cannot defeat."

Smiling wryly in response, Tobio did not feel like he could do what Nora say even if he bitterly trained. Nora usually looked down on himself too much and Tobio was certain that if he got serious about it, Nora would not lose even if he used a balance breaker. It was not to say that Tobio was just that weak. Nonetheless, Tobio knew how much determination Nora had, and if those important to him believed in him, he would do whatever it took to not disappoint them. No trick was dirty enough, he would use it. In a serious confrontation, his blade could injure Nora fatally, but his body would not give away that easily. Regardless of what kind of injury he received, he would stand up again and again. Even if his hands or feet were cut, he would simply re-attach them. To Tobio who lost control of his Sacred Gear once, it was Nora who contained him and exhausted him to stop his rampage. Despite how ruthless he was, or how many times he cut off his hands, Nora did not waver. The only solace is that back then, he did not know how to use his blade that well, otherwise-

"Hey, don't go there." Nora called out.

Blinking in surprise, Tobio did not notice that he had fallen into deep thoughts.

"You are not guilty of that, as the leader I let Sae get hurt and I consider it my punishment." Nora said.

"There is no way you can call that a punishment!" Tobio exclaimed. "I could've killed you!"

Rolling his eyes, Nora signaled the bear when Kamiya tried to brag about getting along with every animal he had seen. Nonetheless, the bear was smart and understood what Nora wanted so he growled menacingly at the youthful next village chief.

"Please, what you did was nothing. Killing me? Don't be absurd, cats have more than one life. I have a place to go back to snuggle with my precious people, I will not die." Nora said. "Although I would like to be spared of you and Vali going on a rampage at the same time. Vali's Juggernaut Drive is impossible for me, if Azazel had not been there, Vali would've taken all my lives at once."

Chuckling slightly, Nora tried to cheer up Tobio.

Knowing that Nora will not blame him no matter what he said, Tobio did not push the topic any longer.

It was at this point that Tobio had a question, one that he forgot to ask a moment ago.

"Shiki-san, you mentioned Gods and their divinity having different grades, but where does that leave the... Fake Gods?"

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3rd Person POV

"Did you even consider the consequences?" Yasaka spoke in a tired tone. "I am not saying that there is not a possibility of him being evil, but you can't just go and try to pick a fight with him."

Sitting in seiza, Shirone, Ayananami, Charlotte, and Kanna were listening to Yasaka as she scolded them. Something unfair, Shirone thought. An identity thief is a troublesome foe and she recalled that Nora always warned her to be careful whenever she had to face identity theft.

"But he is stealing our identity!" Shirone rightfully retorted. "Urakyoto will be in great peril if we leave someone like that to go unchecked. To protect our citizens, it is our duty to beat up- I meant, to teach a lesson to the evildoers."

"I know that you corrected yourself because you thought you made a mistake, but you still said the same thing. Resorting to violence first is not the right way to solve problems." Yasaka sighed.

House arrest, was what Shirone and her gang were subjected to by Nora's fox crush. Shirone did not think it was fair so she called Yasaka for a trial to defend her honor and warn her of the shadow cast over Urakyoto. It was her duty as Nora's right hand.

"E-Etto, I would like to say something..." Yume timidly raised her hand.

Yasaka glared sharply at the girl and she fearfully trembled.

"If you say that Nora-kun gave you permission, I will personally strangle that cat." Yasaka narrowed her eyes.

Gulping fearfully, Yume took a deep breath.

"He was not as innocent as you believe." Yume took out a bunch of documents from a pouch hanging on her waist.

 Raising an eyebrow, Yasaka took the documents and began reading them.

"I see." Yasaka said a minute later. "However, I am already aware of that."

"Then why have you not done something?" Shirone furrowed her eyebrows.

"I could use dozen of excuses to not answer that question, or hide myself behind my position. Nonetheless, I am not only the ruler of Urakyoto but your guardian and friend as well. I will tell you that it is because we have plans." Yasaka replied. "You should not worry about it, the tengus are keeping an eye on him. While the twins are away, Nora-kun left his next target of trust among the tengus in charge of these sorts of problems. You kids should be playing instead, Kunou has finished her studies for today so she is waiting for you in another room along with... her."

Heavily sighing after recalling 'her', Yasaka wondered how could someone like that be lured with sweets. A person of that caliber needs a strong mind and a sharp intuition that cannot be swayed by something like earthly desires.

"Indeed, she should be like me, someone who cannot be swayed by sweets..." Yasaka mumbled.

"Pffft" x 4

"Zzzzzz."

The sound of laughing and snoring could be heard, but Yasaka was kind and mature enough to not pursue it.

Lamenting the fact that her respect seemed low among this group, Yasaka stepped away. Her thoughts went towards that visitor, a supposedly nekomata who heard about the rising numbers of his kin here and came looking for a mate. Such a thing sounded normal given the free nature of the nekomatas coming from the East Youkai Faction, but Yasaka had already contacted that side and they confirmed the lack of data on such individual, and while it is not impossible for a male nekomata to be born from a stray nekomata living far from japan's jurisdiction, there was something odd on the child since he triggered the alarm set by Nora. The boy who was subjected to a deadly situation with that kind of murky energy came to study it over the years until he became a youth. His sleepless nights were always used to be able to control the rampant energy on his body so he came to learn a lot about it, and with the help of his wide range of acquaintances and friends that basically included women, he was able to pull a method to detect a certain amount of bearers of that energy. As long as they have even a small signature of it and they cross the torii leading towards Urakyoto, it will trigger a silent alarm.

"I am not sure how to feel when he explained that he got the inspiration after seeing the detector on stores for stolen merchadience." Yasaka sighed. "I almost got a heart attack when he brought those pair of goddesses here too... like Amaterasu-sama, Tsukuyomi-sama and Susanoo-sama were not enough. He allows more women with such a high standing to enter his place as they belong there... Urgh, Raikou and Yukari are enough to make the fur on my tails stand up when they start rampaging for whatever reason... I wonder if my Kunou will be able to deal with them...? As her mother, I want to make her the main wife but..."

A fuzzy feeling in her chest caused Yasaka to stop speaking. It was hard to ignore and the feeling caused her pain.  Afraid to worry Nora, she never asked him to do the check-up. Against her best wishes, she called upon an acquaintance, Florence Nightingale, and was subjected to several tests and exams over and over until Florence confirmed that whatever the pain was, it was not a physical matter. Once again, against her best wishes, she spoke with her acquaintance and after listening to her, Florence sighed heavily and advised her to look for  Sora. She even called her blockheaded before leaving to confirm Nora's growth. Yasaka felt slight concern after hearing Nora's screams a second later, but she decided to reach the bottom of her problem thus she went to talk with Sora. Ignoring the screaming Nora whose shirt had been ripped and was running dearly for his life as Florence ran after him with a syringe, Yasaka looked for Sora but the response she got was that woman laughing so hard that she was left out of breath after rolling on the ground.

Noticing that no one reliable enough was there to listen, Yasaka left and went towards Shion who just rudely told her that she must wait a few years before making her move. Yasaka understood immediately what she meant and left the place as well. Since then, whenever she thinks about that topic, her heart beats faster from rage (?) and she tries to avoid Nora, but he never relents in looking for opportunities to spend time with her. He picks her favorite flowers and hands her a bouquet or just visits her during work and helps her to finish quickly so she can go home and spend more time with Kunou. Whenever he does something like that, her heart beats faster but Yasaka does not want to accept that she... because that would be like she is taking advantage of him and leading him. Yasaka was well aware of her charms and for a boy that had grown up surrounded by Saya and her from a young age and later only had her at his side so he is just considering her because he is blinded by her appearance.

"Hahaue!"

A spirited voice called out to the thoughtful Yasaka and she only had seconds to spread her arms to catch the figure rushing towards her.

"Kunou, I told you to not do that because you can hurt yourself!" Yasaka mildly scolded.

"Hehehe." Kunou giggled in her mother's embrace.

Completely ignoring what her mother said, the little girl about a head shorter than Shirone, just snuggled before pulling away. After seeing her mother's stare, she just stuck out her tongue playfully.

"You need to act more gracefully..." Yasaka sighed. "We have many visits here that we cannot afford to displease, you know?"

"He said that you are telling me that so I behave." Kunou said. "There is no need to worry, Hahaue, I will not tarnish the reputation of the Youkais."

"That just makes me more worried though..." Yasaka smiled wryly. "Alright, just try to not bump into anyone again. Skadi-sama is a benevolent goddess so she forgave you, but we cannot make a custom."

"Yes~" Kunou nodded.

Lightly caressing her head, Yasaka took a look at her daughter and how much she had grown. She was close to 9 years old so her height was higher. Perhaps it was because she was her daughter, but Kunou had begun showing traces of her charm by maturing faster than most girls her age. Nonetheless, she had still a long road ahead to call herself a woman or even reach Yasala's level.

However, she was an adorable girl and she was Yasaka's pride.

"Hahaue, is he still not back?" Kunou tried to peek behind Yasaka but did not get far because she did not want to stop being caressed in the head.

"Fufufu, do you miss him already? He just went out for work so he will come back soon." Yasaka found her daughter's question amusing.

"Hmmm, Tamamo-aneue said that we should keep an eye on him but not constrict him, always act magnanimous but never detached so we can earn Nora-aniue's favor." Kunou furrowed her eyebrows. "I want to play with him, but I have to give him space and let him do his stuff."

Yasaka's expression stiffened slightly and her hand followed suit, and perhaps noticing her mother's behavior, Kunou looked at her with questioning eyes full of desire to be patted.

"Kunou... sweetie, what might you be meaning by that?" Yasaka asked.

"As the earlier ones in the list of the harem, Tamamo-aneue said we should always pay attention to certain details such as the time he leaves home and how long he takes to come back so we can predict if he has a new woman in his life." Kunou spoke with an uncertain tone. "She said that he is too kind and he might get taken advantage of so we must always pay attention to what kind of women get close to him."

Nodding slowly with her eyes closed, Kunou seemed to be recalling something that was said to her instead of using her own words.

"She also told me that we must forge alliances with the other women in his life to protect him. He will be approached by nekomatas, and that much is to be expected, Tamamo-aneue said that we should entrust that management to Kuroka-aneue who will make sure everything is in order. That would leave us to focus on the other youkais waiting for opportunities." Kunou furrowed her eyebrows and sighed before pulling a notepad from the sleeves of her hakama. "I think there is a blind point on the devil's side, but Tamamo-aneue said that she has someone looking for the right person to take care of that side."

Reading without problems, Kunou sighed.

"Even though Tamamo-aneue is working so hard, we cannot stay behind and let her do all, Hahaue." Kunou tightened her fists in determination. "There is still the human side and many others."

Being unable to come up with enough retorts to all she heard, Yasaka wondered why is the person she admired for so long like that. Tamamo no Mae was supposed to be the incarnation of power and gracefulness judging from the stories she heard about the fox when she was little. unmatched wisdom and unparalleled intelligence. Why was it that she used all that to cause her headaches? Yasaka wondered if she did it out of spite because Nora liked her more.

"...we? Kunou, I want you to be in the harem, no, I originally wanted him to marry only you, I am not..." Yasaka was unable to finish the sentence.

The word harem was not the issue, just imagining herself on the side as Nora is surrounded by women made Yasaka unable to finish her words.

"Hmmm? Hahaue, what are you saying? All girls who love Nora will be in the harem, that is what it was agreed on it so no one tried to fight each other to have him for themselves." Kunou tilted her head. "I think there is a set of rules as well..."

"Sweetie, did someone tell you to say that...?" Yasaka inquired.

For the young Kunou to be muttering words like harem or love, it must be someone saying it to her. While Yasaka indeed hoped for Nora to marry her daughter, she just prepared situations for them to spend their time together. It was possible that she would develop a sibling relationship so it was a real plan or way for her to make Kunou and Nora fall for each other. As she gets older, Yasaka planned to loosen her 'tricks' and see if they would try to approach each other. If things did not work out, she would not push it.

"Hmmm? Oh, Nora-aniue did say something to me once." Kunou said. "He told me to ignore what everyone said about harems and the like. First of all, since I was too small, I should by no means use the word 'love' until I understand it for real. Only when I could tell the difference between familial love and the other one is when he would allow me to use it. He was pretty strict about that."

Smiling, Kunou nodded.

"And second, the one who would decide whom I should like was not Hahaue, or Tamamo-aneue, not even Nora-aniue, but me." Kunou muttered. "Well, he also told me to forget about what he said and not ponder deeply about it. I would understand what he meant when I grow up."

Feeling like her role had been taken over, Yasaka felt slightly jealous that Nora had already had this talk with her daughter.

"I said joining the harem, but Nora-aniue would not let me even if he decided to create one. I... just want to stick together with all from the Shiki Household. The funny Kuroka-aneue and Shirone-aneue, the mischievous Alice-aneue, the strange Raikou-aneue, and everyone else. Everyone is a precious friend and I do not want us to separate." Kunou mumbled. "Hahaue must be the same, she wants to stay close to Nora-aniue."

Pressing for an answer, Kunou clung to her mother. Feeling slightly afraid, Yasaka could not face the eyes full of innocence that her daughter was giving her.

"I have no idea what love is, but I can tell that Hahaue likes Nora-aniue more than you would a family member." Kunou said.

"No, I..." Yasaka bit her lips.

"Is it wrong to like him...?" Kunou asked.

The little girl could not understand her mother's problem with being honest. Tamamo had already mentioned it several times, about how they flirt more often and how Yasaka is becoming more conscious of Nora as someone of the opposite sex. While Kunou could not understand most of what she had been told, she was certain that her mother would look at Nora with eyes full of affection like no one else. The same look that Nora received from Kuroka whom everyone considered to be madly in love with him.

"I promised Saya that I..." Yasaka did not continue.

Furrowing her eyebrows, Kunou was unsure what she could say to help her mother to sort out her feelings. Since she had been a baby, Kunou had been very sensitive to the mood of her surroundings thanks to being capable of reading the flow of ki. Nora had been helping her handle and grasp the use of ki, mainly Senjutsu, so Kunou could feel the complicated mood her mother had, but she did not say anything more. Nora had once said that sometimes, people have to deal with their problems alone, and while that had been a lesson she had overheard him telling to one of the girls Nora picked up from a grim place as he once described, Kunou understood that if one always solved the problems for others, you would take their opportunity for growth.

"Hahaue. I am sorry, my words have upset your mood." Kunou meekly apologized.

Perhaps, if she had chosen a better phrasing of her words, or waited for an opportunity where her mother had been more relaxed, she could've done a better job at communicating. The books that Nora had been reading with her about communication had said it before but she had forgotten.

"No, it is not your fault." Yasaka sighed. "You are really growing up fast."

With a gentle smile, Yasaka caressed her daughter's hair.

"I want to learn a lot so I can help Hahaue and Nora-aniue sooner." Kunou spoke in a tone full of determination. "I cannot lose against the ones in the hidden village."

Recalling the rivals she had in the hidden village, Kunou was filled with drive. Her next lessons were in the afternoon so she had free time now.

"I will ask anyone if they could practice with me." Kunou suddenly said before sprinting away. "Phis-done left to take a walk so I don't have a playing partner."

Her first stop was Shirone's room since her group usually hung up there or sneaked into Nora's room to look for hidden candies. Kunou was bound to find a sparring partner after asking so many people.

"...rushing is not good, but..." Yasaka smiled wryly. "She wants to grow even faster. As a mother, I am happy, but I also feel a little lonely."

With her complicated mood, Yasaka felt like taking the day off, but her duties did not allow it. That 'invader' was a strange fellow. There were no records of him so Yasaka was initially against letting him in, but Nora's ideas had to be tested. There were enough countermeasures, but he wanted to hide them as much as possible to not scare off the 'invader'. Learning about its goal and how Urakyoto would cope with such a threat was necessary as well.

"There is also watching over that sleepy young woman..." Yasaka groaned. "She is being protected by the strongest one, but Nora-kun still insisted on keeping people ready to attend to her needs. Thankfully, she is not a troublesome child and is currently learning about the modern world but... really, how did he suddenly leave one day and brought a descendant of-"

"Yasaka-sama." Raikou's voice was heard.

Yasaka's monologue was cut off and she turned her head to see the buxom woman in her battle garments.

"There has been a mission issued for me a moment ago. I came to inform you about my absence, although my sister Ei will be arriving soon, I have to take Sara with me. Ei will soon arrive, but I did call 'her' to cover for my absence as well. I am worried about that 'invader', but this mission is important."

Nodding in acknowledgment, Yasaka pondered for a moment.

"Is there still no news of...?" Yasaka asked in a hopeful tone.

Shaking her head sadly, Raikou did not offer a reply to the question.

"She is most likely being moved often or their HQ must be in the dimensional gap where it is impossible to track. Even if Yukari-sama has origins in that place, her history with Great Red makes her an unwanted guest so she must search with caution to not be discovered by the dragon." Raikou muttered.

Sighing, Yasaka wondered how long do they have to wait until they can find her.

Part 2

3rd Person POV

"Hahaha, bro, are you sure you want to try your luck while being so drunk? You will be wasting your money here."

A friendly stand owner advised Nora, who was barely standing on his feet as he swayed left and right.

The very same evening after the bear raid, when the group arrived, the festival had begun. The preparations had been underway while they had gone out so it seemed like the villagers had done their best to finish everything. The first thing that awaited them was a feast full of meat and sake so everyone began to dig in heartily. As someone who had faced great adversity and had a great story to tell, Nora had been offered the seat of honor and had been given a lot of food and sake. The result was that he was intoxicated beyond a normal level.

After the feast, the group was invited to several stands with games and activities to pass time. They were mostly armed for the visitors, but a lot of villagers were happily participating in games to earn prizes.

"Brother, I also advise you against it. This stand is among the most expensive ones. The fees are higher since the rewards are of higher quality." Kamiya kindly advised.

Not only Nora's group was going around and checking the stands, but Kamiya and Azuma were accompanying them. There were also the pair of ladies that Nora had reproached following him as well, but they did not try to approach him as aggressively as before, but they were rather engaging in conversation with Lisa as they asked her advice about fashion and how to look like her at her age. If it wasn't because they meant no ill will with their questions, Lisa would be more than happy to teach them a lesson.

"Nonsense... I am going to get the best prize for my girl here!" Nora said as he pulled Natsume into his arms.

"I... still advise you against it." Kamiya kept a gentle smile, albeit a bit forced. "How about this? I will get something in your stead."

Looking confident, Kamiya patted his chest reassuringly, and without waiting for anyone else, he walked towards the stand a picked a dart. Sharing a look with the stand owner when he picked the dart, Kamiya turned towards Natsume and flashed her a smile.

"This is for you!" Kamiya said as he turned his head back towards the target.

By doing this action, he missed the disgusted face Natsume made in an instant.

Kamiya was confident about not missing since he practiced in every game to surprise the ladies that visited the village and were different from the visitors, he did not use a dummy dart. However, his movements were interrupted for a split second, a small window of time that his brain barely registered. After trying to flirt with Natsume so blatantly, a terrible fear gripped his heart and like that, his dart missed the target. The stand owner was surprised, but not as much as Kamiya who sweated coldly and carefully glanced around him. Nonetheless, no matter where he looked, he could not find the source of the terrifying fear he felt.

"Was that supposed to be a miss on purpose or you actually failed?" Natsume asked.

A hard-to-hide smile was on her face as she glanced at Nora. From the perspective of those who knew her, it was a simple happy smile, but Kamiya could only feel that it was a mocking smile.

The truth was far from his imagination since Natsume noticed what happened and she felt pleased that Nora got jealous despite outwardly taking Kamiya's blatant actions like he did not care.

"Tough luck, brother..." Nora regretfully said. "Huh? Are you perhaps not feeling well?"

At these words, everyone noticed the unnatural cold sweat pouring from Kamiya.

"Y-Yeah, I mean, no, I might be feeling under the weather and did not notice until now..." Kamiya excused himself. "it might be a good idea to stop here..."

"You need to watch out for your health. I think you might've drunk too much alcohol." Nora said. "Sake is great, but only in moderation."

Looking slightly sluggish, Nora kindly advised his 'brother'.

"I usually can hold my liquor better, but perhaps because this feast had so many guests I made friends with, and it even had my sworn brother that I drank more than I could hold." Kamiya explained.

While looking at Nora, Kamiya inwardly groaned at his presence. The youth had consumed enough alcohol to kill a normal human, yet he only looked slightly drunk. Kamiya drank less than him and he would've passed out if he did not prepare medicine beforehand so his body got rid of the sake fairly quickly.

"No shame on that brother, we all cut it loose sometimes, hahaha!" Nora heartily laughed. "Well, I guess it is my turn. I have to avenge my sworn brother and my beloved wants... whatever the best prize is."

Looking doubtful, Nora did not even look at the display containing the prizes. He strode to grab the darts 'kindly' prepared and handpicked by the stand owner after paying for them. However, someone tugged his clothes, but Natsume was a few steps away since she did not want to get in his way. As he turned around, Nora saw Lavinia looking at him with a hopeful look.

"Nora-kun..." Lavinia did not say anything else, but the message was clear for the youth.

"Don't think I would forget about you... I never would..." Nora gently took her hand away. "Of course, that includes you too."

Shigune stopped in her tracks with one hand outstretched to tug Nora's clothes.

"I-I just thought it would be lonely if..." Shigune shyly mumbled.

Not daring to look at him, the girl blushed.

Her actions made Nora smile since she looked cute.

"Sorry, my brother. I guess I can't avenge you." Nora sighed. "These shoots will be in their honor..."

With the three darts in hand, Nora turned around to walk towards the stand, but his actions were too sudden and his drunk self lost his equilibrium and fell.

Inwardly smirking, Kamiya was about to head towards him to help him and maintain his reputation, but his steps froze after only a single one. Not only he, but everyone did the same. Nora's group looked very 'surprised', perhaps a bit too much, but no one paid attention to them or the poor Nora. They were all looking at the target that had three darts attached in the center.

It seemed that when Nora fell, he had 'accidentally' thrown the darts and they had coincidentally hit the bull's eye.

"Man, today must be my lucky day." Nora stood up and undusted his clothes. "No, this is a divine message. They must be telling me that having three girls is not wrong, and I just have to treat them fairly."

His nonsense was not heard by Kamiya or the stand owner since they were shocked to the core. They knew that

Nora's darts were dummies. Even the most skilled in the village could not even hit the target, regardless of the mark, but Nora had done it, not only once but thrice.

"No, I am a man who goes against the heavens. I decided to take care of my maids as well so I have to get them something too." Nora said a put more money on the stand and grabbing the two remaining darts that Kamiya did not use.

Moving left and right in place, Nora's eyes did not seem to be capable of locking the target.

"Ah, screw this." Nora covered his eyes with one hand and threw the darts all at once.

"Bullshit..." Kamiya could not help but say.

Another bull's eye from a nonsensical throw.

Kamiya was still shocked, but the stand owner was sweating coldly as he recalled the prizes he had. Five... did he have enough to cover the first prize five times?

"Haha, I am on fire!" Nora flashed his friends a victory sign.

"Pops, gimme one, just one dart. I can't just leave it uneven." Nora pointed at Lisa. "This is for you."

Widening her eyes in surprise, Lisa certainly did not expect him to do that, but she smiled nonetheless.

The absent-minded stand owner was so busy calculating the loss that he simply passed Nora another dart. The youth stretched like he was going to do an arduous action, however, the movements sent him stumbling forward and like before, another bull's eye.

The stand owner was already pale, but Nora-

"Is this game rigged? I mean, I am just winning so easily that makes me wonder if you guys are going easy on a beginner like me... no, maybe it is part of the experience from our visit?" Nora mumbled.

The stand owner almost passed out in that instant. However, his merchant soul reanimated him and he immediately changed the display for the first prize, an ancient-looking teapot that was his family heirloom, with something that the young village chief had prepared in case he had won. It was an item that had 'ties' to their 'land god', and it was usually worn by their mikos. Kamiya had used to flirt with girls since a long time ago, and he had planned to do the same this time. Luckily, the amount was just right.

"So, where is the prize?" Nora asked.

Without caring for the mental well-being of the owner who almost coughed blood, Nora demanded the stand owner at once.

Carrying a flattering smile, the stand owner pulled several small boxes. Exactly six. Nora was curious and as soon as he directed a look at the boxes. He paled.

"These are rings exclusively for females, they were handed over by our land god long ago to males whose love and devotion towards their women was unmatched. It is a custom for our mikos to never marry as they must remain virgins to carry the rituals, but those who were granted these rings had permission to marry and have children despite their miko status. There are the real deal and have been passed down from generation to generation, and while this will not hold the same meaning for an outsider, we consider them Rings of Eternal Vows, We usually only display them as means to have visitors ask about them and introduce them to the story of our land and would never hand them over to outsiders but the love shared by you guys has moved me and it changed my mind."

Speaking even more eloquently as Nora paled, even more, the stand owner found it sweet to get revenge on Nora this way.

The eyes of the women in the group shone subtly after the stand owner opened the boxes one by one and showed them the rings.

"...and my luck ran out." Nora facepalmed.

"Since it is a gift, you will certainly put it on me, won't you?" Natsume said.

"A gift from Nora-kun, I am so happy." Lavinia muttered.

"Awawa, aren't we skipping too many steps? At this speed, we will be raising our children by next year..." Shigune began imagining several images that made her face turn bright red.

"Nanami had dreamed of this day since she was born..." Nanami looked deeply moved.

"Ah, if Altais finds out about this, I will have to live in the run." Felis looked pale.

"Oh, cutie, you are really bold to propose to six girls at the same time..." Lisa amusedly said.

Sighing, Nora only let go of any intention he had of escaping Suddenly, he felt a pat on his back and his expression turned confused.

"You reap what you sow" Aika consoled.

"No, where did you come from?" Nora asked. "I did not notice how you got here..."

"Hehe, surprised? Lisa taught me how to move like this." Aika said. "Now I can go to those places that adults did not let me go to."

Smirking rather obscenely, Aika's goal could be easily inferred so Nora immediately karate-chopped her.

"Ouch! Don't you know that you cannot hit beautiful women?" Aika complained.

"What woman? You idiot, you are only a fool ready to get way too mischievous for her own good." Nora muttered. "Besides, what are you going to do with what you find?"

"I won't tell a mean guy like you." Aika stuck out her tongue at Nora.

Rolling his eyes, he raised his hand threateningly and Aika crumbled under pressure.

"I give up." Aika said. "I want to...."

Mumbling in a low tone, most of her sentence was lost but Nora seemed to catch bits of it and he looked at Aika with a confused expression. He noticed that she was feeling shy to speak in public so he kneeled and pointed at his ear and Aika whispered her sentence again.

"Hoho? To think it would be like that..." Nora looked at Aika with interest.

The girl immediately covered her non-existent chest fearfully. Her action earned her a roll of his eyes.

"If you are interested..." Nora whispered in her ears.

Squirming with a red face, Aika was not sure why his simple action embarrassed her so much. However, she soon threw her shame away and her eyes shined with interest.

"You and I will be buddies for a long, but long time..." Aika muttered.

Amidst Nora escape from reality as well as creating a new friendship. He failed to see a certain duo filming his actions. Tobio and Sae were both recordings everything from the beginning.

"Should we stop recording already?" Tobio asked.

"Giving his usual streak, he will surely say another crazy thing in a few seconds. We have to record as much blackmailing material, I mean, precious memories to share with him when he gets older."

Sae seemed to believe that years of collecting his embarrassing behavior will be useful later on, but Tobio thought otherwise. Nora was the type to not care about embarrassing behavior or the like, but he did not say anything and let Sae have her fun. From his position, Tobio saw the animosity barely hidden in Kamiya's expression and Azuma gleefully observing his brother. It seemed that the two brothers did not get along that well so perhaps they would each have their own agenda so they needed to watch out in case they had different plans in mind.

"Master, Nanami has finished setting the camera. Please proceed to put the ring on the finger you desire." Nanami said.

As she mentioned, she had pulled a tripod and set her phone in recording mode. While the maid had given Nora the choice, only one finger was not part of a tightened fist.

Those words seemed to spur the rest and they tried to push themselves forward to be the first.

Smirking at this, Aika seemed to be waiting for a good spectacle of Nora being troubled, however, Nora saw through that and snorted. He picked the first box close to him and immediately kneeled in from of Natsume who was the quickest to arrive near him.

"This might be a simple gesture on my part, but I want it to express that our bonds will last forever." Nora slowly opened the box and showed Natsume the ring.

While being interested in the ritual but acting for the fun of it, Natsume found that Nora was not simply joking and acting for the mission. He avoided any cheese line to make it sound more serious si she felt moved.

"I hope they do." Natsume presented her hand.

Smiling wryly, Nora was obligated to put the ring on the ring finger since Natsume had formed a fist with the rest.

Like that, Nora easily resolved his issues, or so he hoped, but that was a story for another time.

------------------------------------------------------

3rd Person POV

Taking a deep breath, Musashi sheathed her katanas. Taking a look at her surroundings, like they had not been there since the beginning, the wooden golems she just destroyed turned into a muddy liquid. Even after walking for a while, she still has a long way to go. She failed to grasp the actual distance before so she followed the direction she had to go through the forest.

"So it was an evil mastermind causing me to drop my food after all." Musashi reasoned. "However, there was no Intel about this kind of place as far as I recall..."

Dispersing the transformation of his sacred gear, the white cat Byakusa stayed on his master's shoulder and Kouki picked a branch from the ground and poked at the liquid. It clung to the branch for a second but it did not take long to evaporate completely.

"Anee-san, you said you stumbled upon this place by coincidence and were not aiming for it from the beginning?" Kouki asked. "I thought that Stray-sensei had called you to help me."

"No, I had a separate mission." Musashi shook her head. "Although I certainly did not expect to stumble with an acquaintance in the middle of nowhere... if I had a choice in the matter, a pretty young boy would've been better."

Sighing, Musashi gave another look at Kouki before sighing with disappointment.

With the corner of his lips twitching, Kouki did not try to retort.

"I see." Kouki pulled out a map. "Local maps do not point out any buildings near so the place we are looking for must've been built illegally or our target must be using a cave of some sort as a base."

"Either way... we must continue walking. There is a chance that he is aware of our presence already if he is sharing his senses with the golems or he has been alerted after we destroyed his toys." Musashi exclaimed. "You said that he sent you here to rescue someone?"

"The parents of a child we picked up during our mission went missing. A shikigami that Nora used to scout was kidnapped and one of the last images it sent Nora before disappearing was the parents of the child following someone's orders." Kouki explained. "He was not sure that it would be related to our mission so he sent me over since I was not busy. He mentioned sending backups so perhaps we will find other friendly units in our rough destination."

"I wish he would've given Yukari-sama a call, he is the only one that she listens to other than the older members in-" Musashi closed her mouth immediately. "You did not hear anything."

Given that Kouki was Nora's ally, Musashi began to speak confidently about her organization, but it was forbidden to speak to it to outsiders. While Nora had learned of it from a slip of tongue, the organization did not seem bothered (they even had positive feedback about it), and the case was different from other people who learned of it without the acting leader's approval.

“Anee-san, do you know anything about our target?” Kouki asked. “We are seeking him to rescue the parents of a girl Nora picked up on our mission. They had disappeared mysteriously but we could not be certain if our mission was related to their disappearance so he sent me here to check on them. His shikigami caught had seen them after getting kidnapped so we have evidence on our side, although our numbers are small now, he promised to send back-up.”

“So you guys had that kind of circumstance.” Musashi frowned. “That explains why I found you out here in the woods; it is pretty far from civilization after all. Although, I would’ve preferred to find a pretty boy out here instead of…”

Sighing in disappointment, Musashi put a hand on the handle of her katana.

“How about coming out?” Musashi called out.

After not receiving an answer, Kouki shared a look with Musashi and waved his hand. Byakusa understood his meaning and lighting rained upon the shadow of a tree.

The tree transformed and a small figure evaded the lighting with swift movements, landing a couple of steps away.

“Aren’t you…?” Kouki recognized the figure and relaxed his stance.

“You know her?” Musashi still did not let down her guard.

Dressed in a light outfit, the figure was covered in some sort of kunoichi outfit. Her mouth was covered with a black cloth and her right eye had been wrapped with an eye patch, leaving only her left eye staring at them.

“There was one time that Stray-sensei was pondering deeply during our training and he seemed distracted, but asking him about it was a mistake because he dragged us to some sort of hidden village in who knows where. He said that we should learn the way of the ninja.” Kouki sighed. “Lucidra-sensei was thrilled, but we were not. What awaited us was a full week filled with extensive training on Ninjutsu, everything from presence concealment to shuriken throwing and handling different types of weapons. Basically, he made us train, but we were not alone. The village was filled with several women that he had picked up and they were receiving training from a lot of people with famous names.”

“It has been a while, Samemija-dono.”

Bowing her head respectfully, the figure took the cloth off her mouth.

“My name is Chiyome, just Chiyome.” Chiyome introduced herself. “I am one of our esteemed Master’s shadows.”

Nodding respectfully at Musashi, Chiyome continued to stare at her fixedly.

“…Did I do something to her?” Musashi mumbled.

“My apologies, it is an honor to meet Musashi-sama so I unknowingly stared at you for too long.” Chiyome said. “We have not met before, but our master mentions you from time to time.”

“That is a bit embarrassing…” Musashi scratched her cheek.

“Not at all, he always sings praises about your noble heart and skills with the sword.” Chiyome muttered.

“I see, my sword skills…” Musashi looked a bit dissatisfied.

Noticing her blunder, Chiyome looked distressed.

“No, he also speaks about the time you two met and expresses how he was saved by you in his darkest times, that we should not direct the gratitude we have for saving us to him, but it should all be for Musashi-sama!”

Unsure what expression to make, Musashi decided to evade Chiyome’s innocent look. The girl looked like a fan meeting their idol after years of waiting for it, and Musashi couldn’t find the heart to pour cold water on the petite girl.

“Pfft, yes. I forgot to mention that detail, Anee-san.” Kouki smiled.

“This is not funny!” Musashi glared at him. “And stop with that way of calling me, just Musashi is ok.”

“No can do, sorry but I cannot do that. Stray-sensei would harass the heck out of me if he thought I was taking liberties with you.” Kouki shook his head. “He is kind of possessive sometimes and crossing him can cost you dearly. Even if you are a friend, he can still prank you to death.”

Recalling a certain leader of the fallen angels that told a dirty joke about Yasaka once, Kouki shuddered knowing how Nora caused the mysterious disappearance of the said individual for weeks. The mystery of the cursed bathroom in the Nephilim Institute became one of the Seven Wonders of that place and no one has been able to crack the source.

“On one hand, I know that he never means anything bad, but on the other hand…” Musashi smiled wryly after seeing Chiyome. “Anyways, are you alone?”

“No, Master usually forbids us to work alone.” Chiyome said. “He always instructs us to avoid death flags as much as possible, although I am not sure what he means by that. One of our instructors should be watching us from far away. Master asked for her presence, I think she was your acquaintance, Musashi-dono.”

“Mine?” Musashi tilted her head.

“Yes, she carries the name of someone related to Japan’s historical characters like us. Her name is Katou Danzo-dono.”

----------------------------------------

MC’s POV 

After dealing (?) with my conundrum, we continued checking the stands. There were honest people and dishonest ones, so I acted accordingly, using my drunken disguise, I cheated the cheating ones, although I end up winning even when I did not cheat with the honest ones. I felt kind of bad, but maybe it was the luck of a black showing. I had financial troubles in my old life so I had to find ways to pay the bills. My father tried his best, but our situation never improved given the expenses that paying for my mother’s treatment brought us. Thus I trained and trained, many times getting beaten up after getting noticed to be cheating. Many times I worried my parents when I could not hide my bruised body after getting beat, but I did get better with the years, yes, until it was no longer needed since… my parents passed away.

“Nora-kun, you are making a sad face.” Lavinia-san’s voice pulled me out of my musings.

Smiling wryly, I felt bad for worrying her.

“it is ok, I am sad that this will be over soon.” I lied. “We can’t play being lovers anymore.”

The ritual will start soon and everyone dispersed to check that anything unusual did not take us by surprise. Lavinia-san stayed with me as my guard, since that was a big sister's duty or so she said, although winning against Natsume and Nanadaru-san in rock paper and scissors had to be what earned her the right. That said, this was going to be a temporary measure since those rings were not so simple.

“Geez, Nora-kun is joking again.” Lavinia-san chuckled. “I will always wait for the day that you decide to trust me with your worries.”

Holding my hand towards her chest, Lavinia-san's determined eyes made me feel bad. However, I… did not want to talk about it.

Looking away, I caught a pair of venomous eyes staring at me.

“He is not hiding his intentions anymore, huh.” I mumbled.

“He is the annoying guy that always tries to pester me.” Lavinia-san grumbled.

For the easy-going and airheaded Lavinia-san to complain, he must be rather persistent. Well, he had his eyes on her since day one so he must’ve been trying to approach her even when she was not with me.

“Lavinia-san, remember, we must find the book so leave him half dead.” I warned.

Nodding regretfully, Lavinia-san looked away.

What the heck did he do to my Lavinia-san…? I mean, to Lavinia-san.

Since he is still alive, nothing bad must’ve happened, but he could’ve said something nasty.

“Nora-kun, are you sure you want to follow their plan?” Lavinia-san gazed at her ring.

The ring that was given to us had a spell imbued, one that would teleport the wearer somewhere. I could roughly guess the coordinates after inspecting the spell, but even if they carry it, it will be ok.

“The teleportation spell is intact, but I did take care of the hypnotic one.” I said. “They will be expecting a hypnotized person to show up at the location so they will be dismayed when you guys show up fully aware of your surroundings.”

There was some truth to that stand owner’s words; the rings did have ties to the land god of this land. The metal looked ordinary, but when you inspect it closely, you can appreciate the craftsmanship befitting a relic dedicated to a god.

I am not completely sure about the original goal of these, but I doubt it had the same use or meaning that we were told.

“It should take you guys closer to the main issue at hand, and the real land god should be sealed somewhere close to that location. There are two Longinus users in such proximity so handling this will be a breeze for you guys.” I shrugged my shoulders.

Even if it is fake, that guy has a god resting inside his gear.

“I think Nora-kun could also do it if he tries…” Lavinia-san said.

“Please spare me, a cat cannot kill a god, we are meant to live a life of laziness where we nap seven times a day and eat the finest of the food.” I retorted.

“Is that Kuroka-chan’s daily life?” Lavinia-san asked.

I indulge her too much.

“Just locate the seal and I will take care of the rest.” I muttered.

You are reading story Highschool DxD: A new opportunity at novel35.com

“What about Aika-chan and your new friends?” Lavinia-san asked.

“They are not my friends.” I exclaimed. “They are all pestering Lisa so for now they should be ok, I will take care of them when everything starts so rest assured.”

“I am jealous of her.” Lavinia-san complained.

“Why is that? Do you want girls to pester you about how to look as pretty as you are? You don’t use makeup; neither does Lisa so anyone asking is only going to get disappointed.” I smiled wryly.

“I want you to call me Lavinia…” Lavinia-san mumbled pitifully.

Groaning at that, I had accepted that before, but one cannot erase customs. 

“The dance will begin shortly!”

An announcement was heard, saving me from an awkward moment.

“Please, get closer to the shrine and witness the dance offered to the god!”

Still looking at me pitifully, Lavinia acted like she did not hear what was said.

“Let’s go, Lavinia, it is time we go…” I said.

A bright smile blossomed on her face and she took my hand and interlocked our fingers. Surely because we have to act as lovers, surely for that reason.

Pulling me, she gave a subtle look that made my heart beat for a bit before turning her head ahead.

“I think I should’ve stayed home…” I knew that I was not being honest here since I did not truly dislike what was happening, but my escapist mind made me utter such a thing.

Our relationship is changing so I could not help but wonder if she would be satisfied with staying as my big sister figure, although I ended up acting more as the older one given that I took care of her.

…

…

…

“Thank you, all of you. This was a performance filled with all my sincerity towards our god, so it makes me happy that not only he will be pleased, but you also enjoyed it.”

The miko was speaking to those who witnessed the dance, but there was something odd about her. She was already a strange child with a rather voluptuous body but with a childish and earnest personality, but right now, she looked out of it. Her face did not express any emotion as she was speaking, and the visitors dispersed throughout the place were mumbling in hushed voices. Nonetheless, the villagers did not seem to find anything out of place. 

The guy who sold me a flower vase when I arrived, the old lady that gave me candies when I helped her carry firewood to her house or the little kids I played cards with, everyone seemed to take this as a natural occurrence.

“Nora-kun…” Lavinia detected the same as me and raised her guard.

“Our god is…”

Suddenly, like a puppet that got its strings cut, she fell. However, she was caught by a nearby figure. Kamiya effortlessly picked her up and with a snap of his finger, one of the villagers took the stage to drag her away.

“What is going!?”

“Is she ok?”

Worried words were poured out but Kamiya seemed to ignore those.

“My apologies, it seems that our shrine maiden is a little tired. Allow me to take her place.” Kamiya smiled meaningfully. “Until 10 years ago, our village dedicated their faith to the land god that watched over nature. It provided bountiful crops and blessed us with healthy bodies. Although it all changed all of sudden, the land god abandoned us and we were on the verge of being wiped out, our crops died and disease plagued us helplessly. Our village hardly had interactions with strangers so we could not simply ask for help. Nonetheless, it was then that they extended a hand to us. They offered us a way to cure the sick and strengthen our bodies, we did not need to worry about getting sick again, and we could do things that we never imagined before. Somehow, thanks to that, we could overcome our situation. Yet, we could not simply accept things as they were, we went to seek explanations, but we found our god’s situation. His wife had died while giving birth so he had directed his powers to raise his cubs.” 

His words caught everyone's attention.

“It was because such a thing that we lost many people, my mother, uncles and grandparents all died because the land god was using the powers he should’ve been using on us, to nurture his kin.” Kamiya said in a somber tone. 

Pausing slightly, Kamiya smiled ominously.

“It was unforgivable and as we saw his weakened form after giving most of his power to his kin, a crazy idea formed within our minds. Our benefactors had spoken to us about such a method, to kill a god to harness its powers… it was too sweet to be true, but thanks to their help, we managed to slay it, although his remaining divinity was put somewhere else.” Kamiya pointed towards the shrine. “Our benefactors told us that since a god was not willing to live for our sake, we should just create one that does as we please. However, it was not an easy task and the method they offered us was not easy to complete.”

An eerie aura began drifting from the shrine and cold air began to spread everywhere.

“Blessed crops, bountiful fishing, and hunting, it all required a sacrifice.” Kamiya chuckled. “Nonetheless, we would be too heartless if we just offered to him like that. We are friends after all so I thought of giving you a chance to run away.  If you put your heart into it, you can certainly escape…”

Unrest among the people could be clearly felt, but they did not dare to believe Kamiya’s tale. For them, he was just spouting nonsense all of sudden.

Like he had expected such a thing, Kamiya snapped his fingers and one of the villagers brought him a gourd of sake. Rather big, you would normally have trouble carrying with both hands, not to mention one. However, the villager, a small girl about 10, easily carried with one hand without even breaking a sweat.

Drinking without reserve from the gourd, he ignored the hopeful look from the little girl. Stomping her foot hatefully on the ground the little girl left while Kamiya chuckled. Changes occurred on him as he did so, small bumps seemed to grow on his head his previous ‘gentle’ demeanor disappeared and a dangerous and bloodthirsty aura began to emanate from him.

“S-Stop with the jokes…”

“Is this one of those tricks to fool city people…? I must say, you got us here.”

Mostly disbelief was heard among the visitors, either because their brains could accept reality, or perhaps they were naïve. Either way, Kamiya smiled at that and picked a pebble from the ground and flicked it towards the nearest visitor. The pebble hit him in the shoulder and he had to take a step back to not lose balance and fall.

“What the hell is this!?”

The shock must’ve been too much for him because he did not even scream in pain, he only shouted after seeing the pebble lodged in his shoulders as he bleed.

“Don’t waste the chance to escape I am giving you, it won’t come back if you waste it like this.” Kamiya mumbled. “For the lucky ones we catch, we will offer you to our god, but the unlucky ones will suffer a different kind of fate…”

Grabbing Lavinia, I stopped the girl who wanted to rush and help. Shaking my head, I refused to let her end this in one go. Our mission was more important.

“He won’t die from that. The book of rituals must be retrieved, and you know it.” I whispered.

I felt a certain amount of pain when she looked at me with sadness, but I ignored it. I am not a hero, and I certainly cannot become the ideal person everyone thinks I am.

“Sorry if my choice causes you discomfort.” I said.

Lavinia had something to say, but the running visitors interrupted anything that she could say. I lightly pushed away those that ran to pass in our direction as Lavinia and I stood in place. The villagers looked visibly excited and some of them even had watering mouths, but a glare from Kamiya made them get their bearings back.

Briefly closing my eyes, I used my ability and confirmed the position of certain objects I had planted throughout our stay. When I opened them again, I saw Kamiya waving his hand and the villagers spread. Not everyone left since I saw some of the ladies interested in me before trying to shield Kiryuu from everything that was happening. I could spot my people as well and I signaled Ikuse-san and Toujou-san to leave.

“Well, I expected someone with swift movements like yours to leave first, ‘brother’.” Kamiya sarcastically said.

Shrugging my shoulders, I hugged Lavinia.

“Look at her, I cannot leave her alone, her clothes will not let her get very far so as the gentleman I am, I have to stay and escort her.” I mumbled.

“Heh, is that false bravado?” Kamiya smirked. “When you are surrounded by women, you act more composed. I wonder what would happen to you if you were to lose them all at once.”

Before I said anything, Azuma appeared while glaring at me. I expected him to carry the book, but he simply carried some weird stone with a shape that screamed ‘kon, kon’.

“I would love to stay here to chat, but I have to oversee a ritual, you see? However, my dear brother here will keep you company.” Kamiya took the stone. “My brother asked me to leave you two to have a little chat alone so I will be taking your companions with me.”

Raising the fox-shaped stone in the air, it gave an unusual glow and the same glow became apparent on the rings of my companions, and in less than a second, they were teleported away. I clicked my tongue in annoyance, but I decided to entrust them with the rest while they were away. I had Kiryuu-tan here so I had to make sure she was safe before I went looking for the others or the book. I won’t lie and say that I was not worried since having everyone vanish from my sight like that was concerning, but I trusted their abilities.

Casting one last look at me, Kamiya walked away. 

Azuma step forward and opened his mouth.

“You are finally alone-“ He muttered.

I ignored him and looked at Kiryuu-tan and the ladies staying with her. They were about to get surrounded by the smirking villagers. Those smiles looked creepy and while the ladies were putting a front to not scare Kiryuu-tan and she was acting tough to not let them know she was scared, although they all had shaky legs.

Looking at the thing hanging on her chest, I nodded. The trump card there will keep her safe, although I am a little worried about the meeting of those two.

“I will be right there!” I waved with a reassuring smile, but they looked ghastly pale and pointed behind me.

“Careful”

One of the ladies, wearing a sweater, exclaimed.

I stepped aside two steps and soon enough a shadow flashed by and a fist struck the ground leaving a small crater.

“Being always hasty is not a good quality, for men, it is good to take our time rather than to go bam quickly, you know?” I sighed.

Sadly, my public was tough and my comment only worked to make him mad.

“Even in this situation you plan to act like a moron? Don’t you know what kind of position are you in right now?” Azuma angrily pointed at me.

Shrugging my shoulders, I closed my eyes briefly and began to make a head count. Putting aside the two college onee-sans guarding Kiryuu-tan, there are no other innocent people around. In the distance, I got the feel of my little arrangements activating.

“What do you mean? I always knew you were a di**.” I muttered. “You are just a hypocrite that acted nice in front of us because you wanted to attract us to this situation by making us suspicious.”

As the villagers tried to plunge towards Kiryuu-tan, I tapped my left foot on the ground and a minimal amount of ki towards their location. It was a rather simple thing to do once you practiced enough and impossible to notice by those capable of using Senjutsu so I used to trick- I mean, to practice and train a pair of humans that Rias-chan had her eyes on. It became my task to watch over them since I put her to look for a certain someone to add to her peerage and until she found him, she can’t go around looking for others.

My actions went unnoticed and soon enough, from the ground, the grass grew and wrapped on the villagers' feet, causing them to stop in their tracks.

Everyone froze when they saw and did not know what to say.

“Way to go, Kiryuu-tan, I heard you say that you come from a long-standing family of exorcists, but I always thought you were playing around.” I gave her a thumbs up.

“A-An exorcist…?”

“There is no need to be scared; she is just a child…”

“You are the only one with shaky legs.”

Not to mention the villagers approaching her, Azuma glared sharply at the girl. Said girl in question only looked at me suspiciously.

“People awake their powers when they need them the most…” I gently smiled at her.

That made Kiryuu-tan look at her hands and smile fearfully. Punching in the air at the villagers, I synchronized with her and made the grass below their feet grow and entangle them.

I did feel something special sleeping inside her, other than her strange ability to measure a guy’s di**, but it is obviously not awake.

“We certainly did not account for the child to have that kind of ability…” Azuma clicked his tongue.

“By the way, this entire charade could’ve been avoided if you just kidnapped people randomly from the city, or to make it more discreet, you could’ve alternated it by attacking different cities.” I inquired. “I am not so sure about your stealth abilities but you move more quickly than a person can and your strength is above a regular adult. I doubt you would find enough resistance from your targets if you went down that route.”

“Aren’t you pretty calm? Don’t you feel restless now that the guy who came with you is not here? I always felt threatened around you people, but now that he is gone, I feel at ease. I am not sure what he has hidden inside his sleeve, but given the child with special abilities, he must have the same origin.” Azuma said.

This guy is kind of off-mark since the one making him feel threatened was me. I kind of bullied him since I was bored. Kamiya was harder to bully since he is sharper so I had to settle with this guy.

“I am not sure about that, your brother is one thing, but now there is just you so it kind of takes out the hype.” I shrugged my shoulders. “You are just a mid-boss character.”

“…I have no idea what that is supposed to mean, but I can tell that you insulted me.” Azuma glared at me. “…even a trash like you is underestimating me?”

“I was being kind, you look kind of mob-ish to me.” I honestly replied.

My words must’ve pushed some buttons on him because he was disregarding Kiryuu-tan despite my timed assistance to make most of the villagers entangled. They were toughies that had superhuman strength, but Nora-kun had improved over the years and I could now turn normal-looking grass into super grass… not like it sounds impressive but they have a great ability to propagate and grow they work well as a way to stall the enemy that can destroy bindings at great speed.

“I did not want to use this on the likes of you, but your stupid mouth would not shut up…” Azuma ominously said and raised his hand towards me. “Look at this very well, I will show you something that trash like you would never dream to see. Observe it very well, this is power, dwelling inside of it is a creature that was the definition of fear and even gods were wary of its existence, behold!”

A red glow covered his hand and began taking the shape of a gauntlet, red in color, it looked like scales had taken the shape to form the gauntlet. 

“Hahahaha! This is the Boosted Gear! Inside of it, the spirit of the Welsh Dragon, Ddraig, sleeps in.” Azuma viciously laughed. “It is one of the Longinus, a tool made to kill gods! I was born with this great power! I was chosen by the heavens to wield this ability!”

"Pffft! Hahahha." I laughed, hard.

Oh, boy.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

3rd Person POV 

“Hehehe, we are lucky to find these pair first…”

“I have to admit, that guy has good taste, first time I see a maid, but I like them already.”

“Youth these days, you need to show some restrain.”

“Seriously, we have them surrounded; you do not need to rush it.”

“Don’t make a mess of them, the meat tasted funny last time because of it.”

“Ino and Kazu must’ve been skipping work again if they let the two escape…”

“Who cares? They usually have the first bite and we always have to taste them second hand…”

Standing back to back, Felis and Nanami were surrounded by a group of villagers. The males looked at them with lust but even the women had unhidden greed when they gazed at the two as their mouths watered.

The duo had been sent to different locations with a pair of villagers waiting for them, and they quickly disposed of the ones spouting nonsense.  As they tried to reunite with the others, they attracted several people along the way.

“Senpai, this situation sounds like it was pulled from a children’s book, two maids are back to back as they face a group of man-eating villagers.” Nanami said.

“What idiot of parent would read that kind of book to their children?” Felis spoke in a deadpan tone.

“One that wants to prepare his children for situations such as this?” Nanami muttered.

“That is one explicit situation he wants to prepare them for.” Felis retorted.

Shrugging her shoulders, Nanami and Felis each pulled a pair of guns from under their skirts.

“Fufu, Nanami has seen it, senpai did not use Aport to make the guns appear on her hands but instead did as Nora instructed.” Nanami chuckled.

“Should I write on the report that Nanami’s death was an unfortunate casualty…? No, I should just say it was friendly fire.” Felis mumbled out loud.

Their actions only made the villagers laugh.

“Look at that, using guns?”

“Ladies, you are wasting your time, do you think you are the only ones with that kind of idea? We had people like that before but we have already tested that those lumps of metal cannot hurt us.”

“We have abandoned our humanity long ago, not only our strength surpasses anything you can do but our bodies are tougher than human flesh we could never-“

The sound of gunfire was heard and the talking villager froze in his tracks. Blood began pouring down from the hole that had appeared on his forehead and he incredulously looked at the smoking gun in Felis's hand.

“I have been feeling quite stressed since this mission started so would you mind letting me take care of cleaning this time?” Felis said.

It was supposed to be a question, but Felis did not wait for a reply as she immediately began opening fire. The villagers reacted after the second shot and they were divided into two groups one guy, one decided to run while the other ran towards Felis, except for the oldest man who just decided to observe.

In response, the petite woman did not change her expression but instead rushed to meet them head-on, the leading guy got shot on the knee and lost his balance, and like she had timed his fall, Felis stomped on his head as he fell and used it as a foothold to jump. With swift movements, she landed on one of the woman’s heads, her heel hit the nose, but she was unable to cause further damage with her shoe.

Knitting her eyebrows briefly, Felis decided to not engage physically with any of the villagers since it would take more effort than usual to hurt them due to their tough skin. It was only because the bullets she was using had Anti-Youkai properties in the spell engraved that she could hurt them so easily.

Before the woman reacted and grabbed her foot, Felis planted her second foot on the woman’s face and jumped back as she did a spin mid-air and before she landed, she shot at the woman’s head, leaving another hole perfectly aligned in the middle of her forehead.

There were a pair of villagers close enough to grab her with their extended hands, but Felis hit their hands with the guns. They did not receive any damage worth mentioning, but they got blocked. Using this chance, Felis swiftly evaded them with light footwork. Her small size made it difficult for the villagers to target her. In the meanwhile, Nanami mercilessly shot her enemies without batting an eye, and while both Felis and she looked expressionless, the villagers felt more pressure from her every action and hesitated in their movements, causing them to delay their actions which in turn not wasted by any of the gun-wielding maids.

Everything seemed to take a long time with many movements and actions taken, but in fact, it had taken a couple of minutes since the first shot was made. Once in a while, the villagers' attack would be deflected and dust would fly up whenever a fist struck the ground or the shards of a tree would be get sent away as the trees were mercilessly broken in pieces, nonetheless, their monotonous movements and lack of experience in dealing with skilled individuals caused the villagers to be reduced to nothing but corpses. 

“Not bad, you two are pretty good. Even in my days, youngsters like you two would be hard to come by.”

Playing with his long beard, the remaining attacker, the old man, looked unperturbed by the death of his fellow villagers.

“Ah, your face might not be expressive, but I can tell what you will say next. I don’t have as much connection to this place as the rest of the old folks. I was accepted into this place by the current village chief years before the changes all occurred so I have no real attachment to anyone here. It might sound cruel to you, but I never considered these folks to be in the same league as me.”

Cracking a laugh, the old man expected the other party to react by judging his actions, nonetheless, he chose the wrong target.

“Senpai, senpai, do all perverted old fellows like to run their mouths and say things that no one asked?” Nanami curiously asked.

“As their brain cells are used only to satisfy their disgusting habits, I would say that they lose the ability to properly judge what they are saying. In my opinion, they are just a waste of air, so recommend to swift pluck their miserable lives to ensure that they do not taint the innocent with their pointless banters.” Felis spoke in a neutral tone. “His speech was seriously a waste of time, and even though no one asked him, he just said whatever he pleased, learn from it a never commit such a mistake. Your dream might be to be hired in the Shiki Household but be aware that it is the dream of many. To refine your abilities so they have no flaws is a maid’s duty, never forget it”

Giving an encouraging (?) speech with a dispassionate tone of voice, Felis glared at the older man.

Looking annoyed but still maintaining a relaxed posture, the old man smiled as he took a stance.

“The problem with youngsters these days is that they are too hasty.”

The old man put one foot forward and immediately used it to dash forward. The speed was slightly surprising for Felis who was the target, but she stepped aside and easily evaded.

“They had the opportunity to leave behind the weak body of humans and gain strong bodies, thus they get confident.”

Firmly planting a foot on the ground, the old man used it as a pivot point to spin in place and sent a kick toward Felis with movements you would not expect from someone of his age and build. Too close to evade, Felis crossed her arms before she was blasted toward a tree with incredible force.

“Those brats never bothered to learn how to fight because they believed that with their strength nothing could stop them.”

Watching with interest how Felis simply undusted her clothes even though she had crashed into the tree, the old man narrowed his eyes as he glanced at his leg.

“So that is why I felt like I did not connect the hit. You used the grip of your guns to take the impact and jumped backward as you used the force of my blow to avoid the damage, not bad for a brat.”

Calmly analyzing the maid, the old man looked rather amused instead of frustrated that his attempt failed.

“These guns are made of a rather unique material that is hard to find so if they could not do a simple job as taking a hit, I would throw away these junks.” Felis muttered.

“But you underestimated the strength behind the kick, right?”

Without any sort of vigilance, he gave his back to Nanami who was glaring at him with a death-piercing glare.

“Even if you are fakes, an oni is an oni. No matter how much your presence displeases me, I have to accept that even an insect like you can be a handful if you let it run wild.” Felis said.

“You can’t help but spout nasty comments about me, huh, aren’t you quite sharp-tongued? Women like that are never popular.”

Smirking, the old man checked her from head to toe.

“Well, there are always those who would be interested in your body rather than your personality.”

“Too bad, my master believes that the way I talk is a lovely TRAIT!” Felis continuously shot at the old man to kill him, but he just evaded the bullets for the most part as he used his fist to deflect a few. 

Continuously using magic spells to change the empty magazines, Felis did not stop until blood began oozing from the hands of the old man and he took a large leap to evade. During his escape, he saw that Nanami had moved away from her earlier position before he could even notice and was currently observing him with her deathly glare from behind Felis.

Lowering her guns, Felis changed weapons using magic and a pair of mini sub-machine guns took their place.

“So you can use Touki as well.” Felis commented.

“It might not look like it right now, but I used to be part of one of the so many secret units from the church, one of the so-called holy warrior candidates. Well, I failed the test and deflected.”

Shrugging his shoulders, the old man shook his hands briefly and got rid of the blood. On a closer look, there was part of his skin that took a darkened hue.

“You shouldn’t be able to deflect my bullets even if you are capable of it. Albeit small, I used a special type of bullet that would trespass most defenses without a substance.” Felis muttered. “Is it the oni’s trait..?”

“Oh? You know about it? Onis have tougher skin than most youkais so harming them is usually very difficult for anyone who does not use large weapons, although regular onis are not conscious of this ability and only certain onis are capable of using their trait at will, being able to harden their skin to the limit, but those who trained their trait to the limit are softening it if they desire. Nonetheless, it is an interesting ability, when I first got it, I trained for a bit, my defense is a little lacking, but my offense can be pretty interesting and I even capable of making use of it in… hehe…”

The creepy laugh of the old man made Felis want to blow his d- 

“You two are quite skilled. I am not sure if you are just using that brat or if you truly like him, but I doubt you are a freelancer. Who do you work for?”

“What is it? Are you jealous of our master? That we have decided to become his women? We are just maids, and maids are supposed to be the strongest.” Felis taunted.

Her deadpan expression and neutral tone made it hard to sound like a taunt, but no one pointed it out.

“I am jealous that some brat tasted you first, I always had a bit of taste for strong women, you see? I love breaking them. Women like you are too good to be in the hands of some brat, I will teach you what a true man is, I was the one who taught Kamiya how to break women after all.”

Exposing his desires made Felis want to throw up in disgust, he was beyond saving and she only stopped to chat because she was curious about the difference in skills and wanted to obtain information about other individuals like him in the village, but she wasted her time. However, just as she was about to turn him into a hive, a pale hand was put on her shoulder stopping her in her tracks.

“Senpai, would you allow me to take care of this one?” Nanami spoke with killing intent barely hidden in her tone.

It seemed like a simple request, but there was an unusual amount of force on Nanami's hand. Felis could not simply shrug off that grip like her usual playful nonsense so Felis stared deeply at Nanami's eyes and saw that she did not intend to back away so Felis did not even try to fight back.

Sighing heavily,  Felis decided to accept her kouhai’s offer. Pulling her weapons away, they were exchanged for a white envelope with a cat head as the seal. Nanami’s expression turned blank for a moment.

“As soon as you are done, read this without fail. That is an order as your senpai and friend, understood?” Felis handed over the envelope.

Nodding at that, Nanami carefully put the envelope away.

Mumbling something in a low tone of voice, Felis left to hunt down the villagers that ran away.

Nanami stared at the place Felis left with a warm expression before she turned back to the old man she did 180 grades turn as she frostily glared at him.

"You called her senpai, is she your superior in the organization you work for? It must be tough working for someone weaker than you."

Smirking, the old man appraised Nanami.

"She is still young and has many opportunities to grow. Her abilities rely on her weapons and that certainly could be said to be a weakness, but it is not like she is not aware of it. Felis-senpai always strives to train to get stronger, she always polishes her skills-" Nanami explained.

"However, you cannot deny that she is weak. Her armaments are threatening, I will give you that, but without them, she would not be able to even leave a scratch on me. If I had not been wary of you since the beginning, I would've incapacitated her already and minutes later, I would have her panting under me, hehe."

Giving an unnecessary graphic description, the old man hoped to get a reaction from Nanami, but she simply raised her hand forward, and an intricate golden magic circle formed, after glowing brightly, it disappeared and a barrier began expanding around the duo covering dozens of meters.

"If you think that she would've been hopeless without her weapons, I can only call you stupid, but given the number of brain cells you must have, that must be praising you. Even an ameba would be able to conclude to not underestimate your enemy when they are clearly holding back." Nanami coldly said.

The magic circle triggered some memories in the old man so he only half listened to what Nanami said. A feeling of dread enveloped him but he pushed the feeling away and- 

"Are you angry because I spoke badly of her? No need to defend her now that she is not here. I am not denying that she has quite the fighting spirit, and her movements are sharp, but you can't deny that she is below you."

"No matter what I say, I would be wasting my time." Nanami sighed. "You have made a great mistake, you know? One that qualifies as a great sin."

A large pressure began building on Nanami, the wind stirred as a golden glow covered her.

"Are you going to tell me that I should not have insulted your friend?"

Even if he tried to act calmly, his body betrayed him and the old man took a step backward.

"That is a mistake, and I will make you pay for it as well. My senpai is the best senpai that can exist." Nanami shook her head.

"Is it because I said I will be breaking you two? It is my hobby so there is not much I can do about it."

Shaking her head again, Nanami simply kept her eyes on him.

"Because I did not care about you killing the other villagers?"

A little feed up, Nanami shook her head.

"Then I am not sure what you mean."

"As expected, my senpai accurately could tell that you had brain problems." Nanami sighed. "You said that we would be wasted on our master, and that is incorrect. You have no idea what kind of individual he is. The depth of his abilities, or his character, a waste of air like you cannot understand a single thing about him."

Pure white wings, a total of six pairs of them manifested while being covered in a golden glow along with a golden halo floating on top of her.

The old man could hardly believe his eyes and he shook fearfully.

"T-This is a lie, you must be trying to fool me, setting as this should be here, you lot have forgotten about humanity and have not appeared in our lands since long ago!"

"What do I gain from fooling you? Although seeing you make a fool of yourself sounds pleasant, I don't feel like being playful anymore." Nanami said. "It is true that the heavens are the most detached type and let humankind do as they please in concordance with God's will. However, I will not deny that some will assume that we abandoned you and that heaven's grace is no longer with you. That much, Nora-sama reprimanded us for the first time we met."

"H-Huh? You are saying that the brat dared to lecture an angel of your standing?"

"Not only me, at that time, but he also spoke in the presence of several high-ranking angels, one of even higher standing than me. His bravery is something amazing and until now I am in awe." Nanami said.

"B-Bravery? Are you insane? No, he is insane. That is recklessness, he does not know his limits!"

Snorting, Nanami flapped one of her wings and like daggers, her feathers flew and stabbed the old man in the legs. He tried to evade while putting in his strongest defense, but it was futile, the feathers lodged into his body and brought him incredible pain.

"Argh!!!"

"Who gave you permission to speak ill of him?" Nanami inquired.

"What are you!? There have not been any documents about this kind of ability in common angels!"

Remaining silent, Nanami just glared coldly at the old man.

"Are you really an angel!? You must be faking-"

"I am a bonafide angel, and deceiving you has no merit. It makes me curious about the fact that the church is keeping records of our abilities, but it is not something that was asked of me so I will not pursue it." Nanami muttered. "I am honestly more fond of the name Nanami, but..."

"There is no such an angel! There cannot be a pure-blood angel with a Japanese name!"

Like he could not accept Nanami's words, the old man threw a tantrum.

"And you have been acting violently without a reason! You are also being consumed by anger and that is why you are not killing me at once, you plan to torture me, right? Haha, you will fall if you do it."

Regaining part of his confidence, the old man stood up, and bracing the pain, he launched an attack. Throwing himself at Nanami, he hit nothing as she floated upwards.

Gritting his teeth, he put his hand on a nearby tree and uprooted it before he tried to swing it at Nanami, but he could only drop to the ground after Nanami flapped her wings and feathers flew towards him, skewering his arms and stomach.

"Urgh."

The pain made him drop to his knees as he held his wounds to stop the bleeding. Gritting his teeth, he hardened his skin and tensed his muscles to stop the blood from spilling.

"Do you consider murder to get rid of an insect you step on? It is the way that nature works, and an angel would not fall from something of that magnitude." Nanami stated.

Getting a chill, the old man pushed himself to run away, but before he even took a step forward, feathers rained on him.

"Anger? Certainly, right now I am very angry. Even though I would like to erase you at once using my powers, I think it would be a shame to end it so quickly so I can only use this method. Nonetheless, I would not fall for the sin of Wrath. Neither murder nor anything related to it will ever be a cause for me to fall. I am a special kind of angel, I was made to be solely a weapon and my purpose was to get rid of enemies threatening the heavens no matter how." Nanami coldly said.

"Haha! I see, so you are that, huh! Heaven's weapon, the Angel of Massacre, Sandalphon! Just my luck, I was hoping to break a couple of women but I found my doom looking at me."

Laughing in resignation, the old man stood up.

"DON'T YOU THINK I WILL LET YOU KILL ME EASILY! I WAS ONCE PART OF THE HOLY WARRIORS' PROJECT! NO MATTER IF IT IS YOU WHO I AM FACING, I WILL NOT DIE EASILY, IF I CANNOT KILL YOU, THAT BRAT-ARRGHHHVH!"

The cries of the old man continued for a while amidst the rain of feathers. No matter what kind of defense he mustered, they were unable to stop the onslaught. Feather after feather tore his flesh apart like a hot knife slicing butter. Blood rained on the trees and feathers lodged on the ground creating a ghastly landscape.

"I told you that you have no right to speak ill of him." Nanami frostily said. "I also hate to be called by that name, although I guess I cannot run away from it."

Furrowing her eyebrows, Nanami landed on the ground. Feeling some discomfort, she touched her face and found a few droplets of blood belonging to the old man there. The blood that had splattered during her attacks made her disgusted.

She tried to look for a handkerchief in her pockets to clean it, but her hand touched something she had forgotten about. Pulling it out along with a handkerchief, Nanami first wiped the blood before throwing away the dirty handkerchief. Briefly hesitating, Nanami followed Felis' instructions and opened the envelope. Half fearful and half excited, Nanami took a look at the letter.

Inside the envelope, there was a letter written by Nora.

"Hello, maid one. You seem to have gone ahead and used your abilities again. I kind of hoped you did not have to do it since I feel like you are going to be burdened by it. I have only read a bit about it and I cannot honestly say I know all there is to know about yourself. Being an angel and all is not something a youkai-devil hybrid like me can grasp, even more, one that was made so long ago with the purpose of fighting and exterminating enemies only. I will not lie and say I did not have bad impressions of you, no, I was small-minded and had a bad impression of angels in general, but you all proved to be good people instead of the type of people I thought you were. Everyone always looks at you by your titles and positions, but for me that is wrong. Whether it is you, Gabriel-sama or Metatron-sama, you lot are more than just high-ranking angels that control things in heaven. You have your individual personalities and each has your wishes. Nonetheless, you were quite the case. Trying to kill me as soon as you saw me because I was not human was surely too much, don't you think? Even though I was technically illegally trespassing the Vatican and was kind of illegally taking photos of books in the forbidden section, you surely could've chosen to not try to kill me at first." Nanami read aloud and felt kind of troubled by what she read. "I did my best, seriously, if Shishou had not been training me since long ago by throwing me Gae Bolg continuously in order for me to be able to avoid the unavoidable, I would've been a dead cat by now. Nonetheless, I was happy that you were stopped back them by Metatron-sama. Teaching him about the place he could learn ninjutsu beforehand saved my life as funny as it sounds. I almost cry when he let us be locked in one room to sort out our differences, but I guess that is when our friendship was born."

Chuckling Nanami felt her heart feeling lighter with each phrase she read. The text was long and it took her a while to read to reach a meaningful part.

"You know? You might get called by that not-very-cute name in the Vatican or in heaven and I can't honestly do something about it. However, I can guarantee that in the maid guild or Urakyoto you can just be Nanami, the mischievous girl that learned about pranks from me, There is no need to act like you were created for because that is not what I want. I just hope you enjoy all that life has to offer for you." Nanami continued to read. "Even if you decide to continue using your powers and continue your old job, I will accept you at home. I will offer you a roof to sleep on, but NOT IN MY ROOM."

Clicking her tongue at that last part, Namami thought that it was unnecessary to add it.

Looking again, the ghastly spectacle that resulted from her actions was still there, but Nanami did not feel as burdened for using her abilities again.

Furrowing her eyebrows, she noticed an addition to the letter. It was not written in the same language and did not follow the previous ink color.

"As your senpai, I might lack the proper understanding about what troubles you sometimes but I... am not the type to let you go now that I have you under me. You decided to become a maid, and I will make it happen. It is forbidden to quit halfway so don't think you will escape from my teachings." Nanami read aloud.

Smiling, Nanami could understand now why her senpai wanted her to read the letter.

"I would be ashamed to be called a bundle of mischievousness if I do not make fun of my dear senpai after reading this, wouldn't I?" Nanami mumbled happily.

------------------------------------- 

3rd Person POV 

"Sae, stand back." Tobio said.

Raising his hand to shield Sae, Tobio stared deeply at the darkness ahead, and soon enough, an old lady that needed a cane to walk and a little girl came out accompanied by a pair of villagers.

"Hoho, Sae-chan and Tobio-kun, so you were here."

Using a nonchalant tone, the old lady spoke in a gentle and harmless tone.

"I am glad that you two did not get split up, it is heartbreaking to see couples separated, you see?"

"Grandma, I am hungry~"

Pointing at the duo, the little girl did not hide her intentions.

"...I did not expect to see the person who joked about us getting married in this kind of situation." Tobio bitterly said.

"Oh dear, it is nothing personal, sometimes, things like these happen."

Smiling the old lady simply muttered.

Glancing below, Tobio briefly caught his shadow moving thanks to the moonlight shining on the sky.

"You speak as it has happened often." Sae asked.

Smiling, the old lady chose not to answer.

"Can I ask you to give up?" Tobio asked.

Raising her cane and lowering it, the sound it cause made the villagers accompanying her walk forward.

Sighing, Tobio's expression sharpened as he began to step forward. His actions made the old lady narrow her eyes as she could perfectly hear the villagers' steps and until a few seconds ago, Tobio's steps as well, but as soon as his expression got sharper, the sound of his steps disappeared. Not only that, but his speed looked slow but he was covering a long distance and despite not moving at a superhuman speed, he was leaving afterimages.

"You better give up and we could make it painless..."

"For you maybe, the lady on the other hand..."

Smirking, the pair of villagers tried to put a hand on top of Tobio's shoulders to stop him, but he simply passed by them and their expression froze.

"Oya?"

The old lady furrowed her eyebrows, as she failed to properly see what Tobio did.

The villagers fell on spot and Tobio continued to move forward.

"Eh? Everyone just fell forward? Are they playing around? Normally they would've made that Onii-san to cry in pain..."

Looking curiously at Tobio, the little girl walked past the old lady and got in his way. His gait immediately stopped and his expression turned complicated.

"Miyu, come back!"

The old lady called out, but the little girl did not seem to hear her. Clicking her tongue, the old lady banged her cane again and several villagers revealed themselves from behind Sae.

"Tobio-kun, would you mind stopping? I don't want to make a terrible scene the last thing you see. You remind me of my dead grandson so I would rather have you die peacefully at least."

Glancing back, Tobio frostily stared at the villagers and they stopped immediately. Not only his shadow, but the surrounding ones stirred.

"Sae." Tobio called out.

"Yes." Sae pulled out a stack of ofudas.

Splitting it evenly in each hand, Sae let them fall and despite the lack of wind, they flew up towards the villager's feet, and as soon as they touched the floor. The villagers looked below and the ofudas shinnied in gold before chains made of light came out and tied them.

"So Sae-chan was a practitioner."

Sighing the old lady, raised her hands in defeat.

"You got me, I have no more tricks up my sleeve. What's next? Should I bend my neck a bit to make it easy to cut my head? All you ask as long as you let my granddaughter live."

Biting his lips, Tobio looked at the old lady.

"She is an innocent child, I hope you can be considerate, go with the onii-san, I will catch up to you soon Miyu."

"But grandma!"

"Listen to me!"

After the exchange, the little girl walked towards Tobio with tears in her eyes.

"I didn't know you had those kind of skills when I first met you."

"...it is nothing much. Nora-kun taught me the movement technique. I believe it is called Rhythm Echo and he learned from one of his acquaintances." Tobio closed his eyes. "I worry about his the people he hangs with, I cannot deny that whatever he teaches us always helps us."

"Heh, is that so? That child is also more than what he is showing. I always had the feeling which is why I did not dare to get in his way. I considered him one of the most dangerous ones."

As the old lady and Tobio exchanged conversation, the little girl got closer to Tobio. With his eyes closed, Sae could not signal him but despite being able to talk, she did not say anything as she saw the shadow below his feet stirring.

"I think he would not accept that and plead that you change your mind." Tobio commented.

"That is certainly how it might look, but even though I faintly felt that the maid and the air-headed girl were dangerous, I would rate you and him a step higher."

"Why is that?" Tobio inquired.

"At my age, after having lived through what I have, you develop instincts. I just imagined facing you both and I am not sure why, but I could never imagine winning against him."

Already close to Tobio, the little girl lowered her head and her expression was hidden. Shyly standing in front of Tobio, she kept her hands behind her.

"He insists that I am the strongest one." Tobio mumbled.

"That can be discussed, but for me, you are not stronger... because you a too gentle, and naive."

As soon as those words were said, the little girl jumped at Tobio.

Sighing, Sae looked down sadly as the blood began dripping... from the little girl.

"Night Haken." Tobio said.

Numerous blades grew from his shadow and impaled the little girl mercilessly. Following that, blades grew from the villagers and the old lady's shadow. They were all aimed at their vitals and none of them was capable to avoid the hit.

"H..ow...?"

"I don't want to burden him anymore." Tobio pointed to several places.

The old lady, not dead yet, looked in those directions and saw several animals that she had failed to detect before.

"If I had hesitated, those animals, those shikigamis would've stepped in to kill you instead." Tobio said. "They lack the strength to face tough foes, but he made them to deliver deadly attacks by aiming at vitals. He controls them all remotely and they have been spread all over the mountain. Individually, they might not take on you people if you are on guard, but they have enough numbers."

"H..ehe, I knew he was... the most dangerous one."

"I prefer to taint my hands with blood than to let him carry that weight by himself. I can't just hide behind my ethics every time we face a new foe and refuse to land the killing blow, or else, he will do it in my stead. I decided to help him and become his strength, someone he can rely on." Tobio said.

Bitterly smiling, he recalled some of the conversations he had with Nora, but he shook his head and gave one last look at the old lady before stepping in to confirm her death.

"Tobio..." Sae called out.

"It is ok, we got work to do." Tobio smiled wryly.

The 'animals' that Tobio had pointed out before, dispersed without making a sound as the duo continued to walk forward.

Author's Notes

So, I think I mentioned before, but I made a mistake when I wrote about Kunou after Nora was rescued from the lab. She should be about a year younger than Shirone here given that she is a year older than in the canon. I can't recall which chapter had that so I did not correct it. Just think of her like I am describing her now.

I had some troubles with the chapter and the writing app along with Christmas time made my chapter delayed, although the good news I could work on some SS for you guys. Well, those will be for the next year given that I have finished the volume. Although I have planned an intermission next, but it will not interfere with the next chapter since I have been writing a bit of it and it is short.

This chapter covered a bit of Nora's abilities. His luck in this kind of games is unusually high to a terrible degree and even if someone tried to cheat him, he is pretty much a master on that area as well. His past was also briefly touched to explain his skills and believe, one has to learn how to cheat correctly or if you get caught, you will lose big time. I am not a gambler, but the histories my grandfather told me about a friend of his were pretty graphic given that I knew the man.

Some characters got their spot light here while others did not. I particularly added Nanami's part and background.

I hope you liked your chapter and the parties.

Merry Christmas, albeit delayed.

I would like to ask you to suggest me a good writing app given that the one I have been using lately uses too many ads and after trying word, great deal of the chapter ended with no space, something I had to edit for a while.

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