Disclaimer - I don't own any of the characters appearing in High School DXD or the Anime or the manga whatsoever.
Kyoto, Japan
–Magdaran Bael–
Meeting the amused gaze of Yasaka, the Nine-Tailed Fox, and the current head of the Youkai faction, he felt equal parts tense and exasperated. He just wanted to enjoy a good bucket of fried chicken while sitting next to the Lake, and then move on.
Instead, he just had to meet the person of interest in the whole town, almost be ambushed by a Six Wing Fallen Angel, and then meet the leader of the local Youkai faction. It was as if the universe itself was pushing stuff in his direction.
Still, it was impressive how well she could hide herself from him. He wouldn’t have even known she was standing just a dozen feet behind him. If she had not spoken, she likely could have successfully attacked him. Of course, if she had won or not was in question, but her stealth capabilities certainly were top notch.
At least here in Kyoto, where she was at her best, and could tap into a functionally unlimited source of energy at all times. It was probably why they were keeping such high quality wards active for such extended periods of time, despite being only a mid tier faction at best when it came to power as well as money. Youkai really didn’t have anything unique that they sold to the rest of the world.
It was just that they were the dominant faction in Japan, and as such, most of the supernatural economy here was routed through them, keeping them propped up.
“Greetings.” He greeted her with a nod, not bowing, which signified he was talking to her from a slightly elevated position. Not completely superior, but not at her level as well. He didn’t want to appear subservient here at all. He had to do that plenty of times back home, and plus, he had no interest in staying here.
“Devil.” Oof. The greeting was certainly cold as Yasaka’s attention moved from him to the man of the hour, Akihiko. The change in behaviour was almost whip lashing, as she went from intimidating leader to intimidating leader fussing over a particular valued employee.
After making sure Akihiko was fine, she whirled around and tore into the Youkai who were standing at the side, berating them for their lapse in protection. Apparently, Akihiko wasn’t even supposed to be leaving the Church right now, let alone the city’s ward network, and come to meet a devil who’d wandered into the city right in time for their summit, only to get attacked by a Six Wing Fallen.
While Six Winged Fallen were mostly around the level of a high class Devil, they had the innate advantage of the Light against the Devils, so they could punch above their weight in certain scenarios. Now that same light, while not as effective against Youkai, did work on them as well. Youkai were not neutral like humans were, which is why Light poisoning worked against them.
It was just the Fallen’s bad day as he found himself attacking a Youkai who had a Sacred Gear that seemed purpose made to counter the Fallen’s attack. Hell, if Akihiko could control that light so effectively, he would be a very good weapon against any Devil.
Seeing his current strength and young age, he would likely reach the peak of High Class by the time he grew too old to actively work, and at that point, he would be amongst the peak of the current lot of Exorcists, barring anomalies in the shape of humans like Vasco Strada and others.
If this was a targeted attack, it was hilariously badly planned, or they just wanted to pin the poor Six Winged Fallen with something. Judging by the menacing looks the Youkai were giving the now restrained fallen, even if he was released back to the Grigori, it would not be without delivering the fair share of suffering that the Youkai were clearly itching to give.
It could not be a coincidence because how could someone just ignore the current activity in the city and just waltz right in, and claim that they were unaware of anything happening and were just a tourist who just happened to stumble into the city where a very important Summit was about to happen.
…..Huh.
Ignoring that, he sat back down on the bench, waiting to see just what Yasaka would do about him. To be frank, he was over the whole situation. It just seemed far more risky than it should be to just roam around a city. Sure, the sweets and the food was really good, but there were other places that had just as good, if not better, food in Japan itself.
He felt her approach him from behind, even as he did nothing but munch on yet another fried chicken bucket he had in his pocket space.
“Devil.”
Craning his neck, he asked, “Yes?”
“Why are you here?!” She asked him, her entire body faintly glowing red as he felt her try to apply pressure on him using her innate powers. The silhouette of her Nine Tails was faintly visible behind her, as the Youkai were now talking with the Church people who’d arrived to see what the commotion was, with both the factions now fussing over their target, Akihiko.
Also, was the whole display supposed to be menacing?
Looking back at the lake, he casually replied, “Just roaming around. Sightseeing.”
“The disrespect!” He sensed the Youkai who had conveniently positioned himself to his right. The same one who all but bellowed and charged at him. The same one who will attack him, and after Yasaka had a good measure of his strength, would be reprimanded by their leader for attacking a guest, with Yasaka’s next step depending on what his strength would be.
He didn’t even look at the Youkai as he slammed into the barrier around his body, a thin shimmering layer of purple that stopped the Youkai in its tracks. The barrier absorbed all the kinetic energy perfectly, negating any shockwave that might have emerged from the attack.
As expected, Yasaka shouted, “Tengu!” before quite literally backhanding the Bull themed Youkai back into the wall, as if she couldn’t have done that before the man had begun charging his attack and attacked him. She just had to wait until she had confirmed his identity.
His barrier spell, coupled with his name he’d given freely and the fact that he was a strong Devil, were dead giveaways as to who he was.
See, Devil Houses were very prideful and, as such, were constantly on the lookout to differentiate themselves from the others. While Low Class Devils struggled to scrape together enough money to buy a low tier generic magic circle so they could more efficiently use their magic, Devil Houses, on the other hand, had the luxury to modify the spell matrices that were used for their House Magical circle, to create unique effects for their spells.
The purple tinged barrier spell was one such thing that was used by Houses to differentiate themselves. It was one of the barrier spells he was taught from a young age, and since then, he’d learnt a dozen different varieties of the same thing from the Bael House Library. Still, the spell did its intended job of informing her of his identity, or rather, confirming his identity since there was no way that a Faction leader like Yasaka was not aware of the ongoings in the Underworld.
It was actually quite public information. After all, the Underworld had DevilNet, not to mention Rating Games. All of that freely available information, coupled with the tendency of young Devils to constantly boast about themselves, created quite an extensive repository of Devilkind that was freely available to most supernatural entities.
It helped that it allowed most independents to have a ready made database of just whom to target and whom to leave alone and to run for their life from whom.
“My Apologies, Heir Bael. It seems I have been lax in disciplining some of my people. Rest assured that I will personally see to it that he does not see the light of day for years to come.” She apologised, but still maintained the cold demeanour.
As for punishing that Youkai? Yeah, right. He was not a child to believe that.
“That’s fine. I can understand subordinates being headstrong,” he commented, punting the bucket back into the dustbin from a distance, as he waited for Yasaka’s next move.
“It was my understanding that Satan Leviathan was informed about the restrictions imposed upon Devils travelling freely in the country.”
He turned to her, genuinely surprised by it. He wasn’t informed about this at all. Cleria and Serafall must be fairly close, and even if they were not, Cleria, being the overseer, must have known about such a thing. Even then, for her to not inform him and let him wander about the city for an entire day?
That reeked of something rotten to him.
Yasaka looked at him for a moment, before replying, “I can only assume that this is news to you. Unfortunately, now that you are involved in an incident,” She was referring to the Fallen Angel attack, “we can’t let you go immediately without getting to the matter at hand.”
“I was not involved in the attack whatsoever.”
“You might not have attacked the Fallen, but it is entirely possible that the Fallen was targeting you. Without ascertaining, we can’t let a Devil heir walk out of our protection. It would bode terribly on the relationship between the Devils and the Youkai.”
Hmm. What to do. What to do.
He was not keen on going with her, to what would essentially amount to, at best, house arrest and, at worse, a hostage negotiation. The last part will not come to fruition as he was what he was, and the Youkai were what they were, but still.
The whole situation was undesirable, and he could do very little without exposing his power levels. Maybe not as a Satan Class, but an Ultimate Class will do?
Before he could do anything, he looked to the side as a magic circle manifested, bringing Cleria with it, along with two other Youkai who were fully armoured and holding magical weapons.
“Yasaka-sama!” Cleria greeted the now frowning Youkai leader and handed her a scroll. A scroll with the stamp of Satan Leviathan.
Oh, what was she up to now?!
A/N - I am so sorry for the mostly info dump chapter. It’s what my brain could come up with right now. I’ll see that something actionable happens in the next chapter, even if it ends up running long.