Disclaimer - I don't own any of the characters appearing in High School DXD or the Anime or the manga whatsoever.
Kyoto, Japan
–Yasaka–
The wards around the city had been raised to their highest levels the day the Shinto had deigned to inform her of the disaster they had dropped in her lap. As such, the wards were to scan every single signature in the city at all times.
As one could guess, such functions required enormous energy expenditures, and the longer this went on, the more the Ley Lines were going to be taxed, resulting in a short period where she wouldn’t be able to use their full power without getting a mental backlash. It was not that the Ley lines would be drained. No, they could keep these wards and more active all the time without any drain on the Ley Lines, but it affected their stability, and if she was to use them properly, she couldn’t focus on the enemy and on making sure she did not go mad because of all the chaotic turbulence in the Ley Lines.
The Shinto, as usual, were not sympathetic to the fact that they were making her people more and more vulnerable as time went on, but there was nothing she could do aside from helping make sure that the issue was resolved as soon as possible and peacefully as well. The energy drain for scanning was nothing compared to the energy they would need if they actually had to utilise the wards offensively.
Due to this whole setup, the existence of a Devil was easily detected, no matter how strong. Usually, she would have been the one to notice it first, as she was the one most in tune with the ward network, but alas, recent events had exhausted her beyond just her body. She was just not in the right headspace to be connected to the wards and their information feedback all the time.
Which is why she had called upon Tamamo to be the one to bear that burden. The news that she carried with her was yet another burden on her shoulders.
An Ultimate Class Devil? Even if there was a chance that it was a false strength reading, it did not mean that Serafall hadn’t just violated the express treaty with the Shinto, not unless they declared this devil a rogue one and gave them full rights on how to deal with said devil.
Before she could contemplate her next set of actions, she felt a familiar pulling sensation at her soul. Gritting her teeth, she was about to reject the summons and explain the situation at hand, only for the Shinto to get impatient and quite literally yank her spirit from her body.
She cursed them, as she was only able to see the moment her body slumped and Tamamo catching it before she was standing in a hall with white clouds, and the sun shining from behind a resplendent throne, all but blinding her.
Getting the message, she bowed deeply, greeting the Supreme deity of the Shinto Pantheon, Lady Amaterasu.
“Yasaka,” The voice reverberated all around her, making a dull ache bloom in her mind as the stark difference between a God and a Youkai, no matter how strong, was made clear to her in a single world, “I have a task for you….”
__xx__
–Magdaran Bael–
He’d ignored the wards around the city, invasive as they were, and just roamed around the city. There was an obvious current of tension in the city, something that could be felt even by the completely mundane humans.
Shopkeepers who looked far more stiff than they should have been, considering customer service was their bread and butter. People walked faster than they should, as if something was chasing them. One person or maybe a few people could be understandable, but the entire city? All humans he’d seen in the streets were just speed walking everywhere, and even if Japan had an exhaustive work environment, it shouldn't be this bad.
Police were everywhere, looking even more tense than everyone else, herding people away from the city centers. Many stores were simply closed, while the ones that were open had far fewer customers than the seating suggested. Maybe it wasn’t peak time?
No, it was likely that something important was about to go down, and the mortals were feeling the impending disaster.
And yet, despite his instincts telling him to go away, he did the exact opposite. Sure, he made sure he did not draw any undue attention, but he did not go hide away. He went into the stores, went into the rather empty parks, ignored the looks the police and the park staff were giving him, and just went about his day.
He’d come during the middle of the day, and by the time he reached Lake Biwa, which was just outside Kyoto, the sun was already setting. Ofcourse, being a Devil, he had no issues navigating everything in absolute darkness, but soon enough, lights turned on, basically everywhere in the path.
Munching on some salty snacks for a change, he found himself sitting on a random park bench, overlooking the giant water body, with an occasional small boat being rowed by one or two people. It was nice, calming even.
He supposed that even if he was now a Devil, the sound and sight of water around him calmed him down a bit, even though Devils didn’t really need water as sustenance, in the strictest sense. Ofcourse, once you reached a certain level of power, you didn't need anything to live. At that point, Devils could live off of just Demonic Energy. Some even became living energy, just like Mr.Destruction personified back in Underworld, who was also his cousin, not like the man acted like it.
Then again, they were all Devils, and he couldn’t apply the concept of human families and relationships to the devil kind.
If you couldn’t tell, he was still a little bit salty about how their first meeting went. Sirzechs had basically swung his big hammer around, and he wasn’t allowed the opportunity to do the same. It was something he planned to rectify in the near future, once he had the power to do so.
Ofcourse, all this while, he was quite aware of the Youkai stalking him, doing so from a distance but certainly making sure he remained in their range. In the beginning, it was an entire team of about a dozen different Youkai, but now? It was only a single Youkai, and from the looks of it, he was not that experienced. More than once, he had almost slipped, coming too close for comfort.
He wasn't too bothered by it. It would have been one thing if they’d tried to interrogate him or detain him or overall do anything overt, but as things stood? They were just guarding their city, and since something had obviously sent them in a tizzy, it was prudent that they monitor any foreign element, especially a Devil.
He supposed his kind hadn’t gathered the best reputation in any foreign incursions. More than once, he’d read reports about Devils just reincarnating someone from foreign countries and just fleeing back to the underworld to hide behind the two big shields of Devilking, leaving Serafall to handle the backlash.
Shaking his head, he put his hand in the bag once more, only to see that the Spicy Fried Chicken was finished. Noticing the dustbin in the distance, and being too lazy and relaxed to make the short trip, he folded the whole thing, which should have raised some eyebrows since the container was made up of very hard cardboard, but there was no one around to see it, and chucked it in the direction of the dustbin.
“Score,” He whispered to himself, leaning back on the hard bench, hands behind his head as he looked at the neat reflection in the water.
His attention was drawn to his stalker, as he felt the Youkai move around in place before he felt four more Youkai add to the small group. Now, that would not have been enough to draw his attention as he would have assumed that his stalker group had just met yet another security group, as had happened, as he moved about the city.
No, the interesting part was the other energy signature that had walked into the running track that ran alongside the river. His eyebrows rose as he sensed the obvious Holy signature on the human. No, he wasn’t completely a human. Some flavour of halfling, then.
It made sense, he supposed. The Church, especially since the loss of Big G, was always on the lookout for more firepower. They would totally take in a half human half anything, as long as they looked mostly human, and had the firepower to back it all up. Ofcourse, the Christian part was negotiable, as long as they were practising the Church’s doctrine publicly, the current version of the Church couldn’t care less about their private practices as long as they remained just that, private.
He slowly tensed as the man began making his way towards him. He also sensed the Youkai getting more and more tense, moving closer to both of them, their numbers having increased to a dozen now. He was not afraid of a fight, Lucifer no. The man was roughly on par with a High Class devil, which was commendable for a human, but unless he had very high level Holy artifacts on him—-Ohh.
So that’s why the entire city was up in a tizzy.
The man had a Sacred Gear. Likely one of the Holy flavour, if the Church had the will to come up directly to the HQ of the Youkai faction. He was probably also a Youkai, which solved the puzzle of his other half lineage.
It also confused him a bit. Why would the leaders of the Youkai faction even allow him inside the city if they were in a clash with the Church regarding him, knowing full well what Devils usually did to promising humans with Sacred Gears?
They couldn’t be that stupid, could they?