Naruto
"Ufufu~. It looks like you could use some help, Uzumaki-kun." A new voice suddenly called out from the side, one that I recognized.
I felt a wave of relief wash over me at the unspoken offer of assistance even as I groaned. As ready as I was and as little as I wanted to be in that woman's debt, I wasn't looking forward to a fight like this right now.
"That's probably because I could use some help!" I called back in resignation, a glance to the side showing Himejima and Rias approaching through the trees side-by-side. "'Sup, Red! Fancy seeing you two here."
"Hello to you too, Uzumaki-kun. I hope we didn't make you wait too long?" The red-haired Devil greeted politely.
Dohnaseek had twisted himself to face the two the moment the Gremory devils had spoken, dismissing me as a threat. "Mittelt, get up already and take care of the human," he ordered. "Even a weakling like you can deal with him now that he's injured. I'll take these two out myself."
I glanced back down to the girl behind me through the corner of my eye. Even when he'd shown up and taken the majority of my attention, she'd stayed on the ground, only twisting around to sit on the forest floor instead of laying on her stomach.
"Go fuck yourself, jackass," she retorted with disinterest while glancing between him and the approaching devils, surprising the devils. "I already surrendered. The only reason I even joined this team was because I thought it was gonna be an easy mission I could have some fun on, but from the moment we entered the town, it's been one issue after another." She lazily flapped her hand in his direction. "Do it yourself if you think you're so strong."
"Useless bitch," Dohnaseek grunted.
"You should follow your comrades' lead, if you wish to live," Rias told the man. "As the joint overseer of Kuoh town and the local representative of the Devil Pillar Families, I can promise your safety in our custody until an agreement for your return can be worked out with the Grigori."
"A promise coming from a Devil's mouth is worthless," Dohnaseek sneered, jumping into the air and hovering above the ground with his wings extended. "And even if it were true, why would I accept that from some spoiled little girls when I can just kill the three of you instead?!" He flew at them with his spear cocked back. "Starting with you, you little–!"
And with a flash of dark red light, he was gone.
Vanished without a trace, just like that.
'That…'
I frowned.
"How uncouth," Himejima stated disdainfully, her eyes closed in an unconcerned blank expression. "As expected of a filthy crow."
"Akeno…" Rias sighed, "You should try to refrain from speaking like that. Remember, our Youkai guests are actual, literal crows."
"Ah…" The normally devious witch actually seemed bashful for a moment, coughing into her fist. "Ahem. Yes, you are absolutely right. My mistake."
My frown deepened.
In contrast to how at ease the two devils were while speaking, the Fallen behind me was practically shaking like a leaf while I bent over to pick up my kunai.
"P-power of Destruction?! Wait, that girl's the Gremory heiress?!" Mittelt asked, sounding like she was both terrified and relieved.
"Indeed." Said heiress overheard the blonde and began walking our way, Himejima on her heels. I took the time to look around with a squint, trying to find my stuff.
"Hey, you guys have good night vision right?" I spoke up, while trying to ignore what I actually wanted to bring up for the moment. The mission wasn't over yet, so I could bring it up once everyone was back home safely. "Could one of you point me to where my sheath is? It's too dark for me to see. It should be around that-" I pointed to a patch of trees. "-area."
Himejima's eyes followed my finger and she nodded. "From the third tree directly ahead of you, it's about five feet to the left."
I sent a thumbs up her way and walked over, only keeping half an ear on the short discussion of custody between Rias and Mittelt. What was really on my mind was the casual ease she'd shown killing a man, and how little it affected her and Himejima, the Japanese girl even going so far as to mock the man after his anti-climatic death.
He wasn't a good person by any stretch of the word, but he was still a person.
After picking up the bottom of my cane and re-sheathing my sword, I then made my way over to where the still-unconscious body of Kalawarner was laying. It took a couple tries with one of my arms being compromised, and a bit of awkward positioning with her wings in the way, but I managed to get her into a fireman's carry despite my protesting shoulder, and carried her over to the others.
"Here's the other one." I set her down gently next to the blonde. "She probably has a concussion, but I'm not sure how different an angel's biology is from a human's, so I could be wrong."
Akeno stepped forward and wordlessly began casting spells to make sure they didn't try anything.
Rias looked at me curiously.
"You took these two out all by yourself, while fighting three of them?" She asked. "How did you do it with so few actual injuries? It didn't seem like you were that strong enough for something like that the other day."
"Ninja," I deadpanned, poking a thumb to my chest. I turned and gestured widely all around us. "Forest." I turned back to face her. "Lot's of ways to set up an ambush."
"A-ah, right… that should have been obvious," she muttered, averting her eyes in embarrassment.
I chuckled in amusement. "Also, the name of my home literally means 'Village Hidden in the Leaves', and it was surrounded by a massive forest. That might have something to do with it too."
"Now you're just teasing me," she pouted.
I became serious. "Anyway, we should hurry and catch up to the others in the church now that these two are secured," I said.
Himejima was thorough. The two Fallen were surrounded by a translucent barrier that periodically crackled with electricity, tied together back-to-back with a thin red rope that wrapped around them many times. On top of that, Mittelt had what looked like some sort of shiny-red tape covering her mouth. Something about how excessively they were bound at their joints struck me as odd, and it all seemed to almost be suggestive in some way, but I couldn't put my finger on why that was the case. Mittelt seemed to be looking anywhere but at Himejima though, who looked entirely too satisfied with herself.
"I trust my peerage to have everything in hand, though you're right; we should get going soon." Rias nodded, before looking at my wound with concern. "Akeno or I can heal your shoulder before we head over."
"Nah," I shook my head. "I should be fine for now, the bleeding is already slowing down." It ached a bit, but I'd fought while worse off by far, and she was right; I trusted that Koneko-chan was strong enough to keep them safe. "Let's just get this over with first."
"Alright, if you're sure." She nodded again, reluctantly this time. "Akeno, could you keep watch over these two until we get back?"
Akeno's smile widened.
"Without excessively traumatizing them?" Rias amended.
Akeno pouted.
"Hai, hai…" she muttered in disappointment.
Mittelt let out a relieved sigh through her nose.
Rias turned back to me.
"Let's get going then."
I nodded. We were close enough to the church that I could get there within a minute of sprinting, easily.
"Right."
Koneko
(Minutes earlier)
At the speeds we were all moving, it was a matter of seconds before we reached the bottom of the abnormally long staircase. Even more abnormal was the absurdly massive cavernous basement we entered, being big enough to fit the entire church itself inside with room to spare.
"Asia!" Hyoudou yelled out at the sight of the girl at the end of the room, strapped to a weird cross.
"I-Issei-san!?" The girl's soft voice gasped in surprised worry.
"I thought you might show up uninvited, but you're too late to stop me, Issei-kun!" A pair of neatly folded wings blocked sight of the figure standing below our rescue target, said figure not even bothering to turn from the cross to face us as she casually called out her response to him. "The ritual's already started, and soon enough her Sacred Gear will be mine. Don't worry though, Asia's spirit will live on within our [Twilight Healing] in my service to Azazel-sama, ahahahaha!"
Yikes. She sounded perfectly sane at first despite her actions, right up until the end when her voice took on the stereotypical anime-yandere obsessive tone, followed by a demented cackle.
This was why Devil media painted the Fallen as two-bit cardboard cutout villains. Because so many of their low-tiers acted like it.
The Fallen stopped her unhinged laughter to give her orders as the two boys with me rushed deeper into the cavernous basement to meet the enemy with wordless yells. "Men, delay the intruders!"
The crowd of hooded exorcists ignited their light swords and charged to meet the boys.
I idly wondered what the previous church even used such a large and ominous space for before they abandoned it, even as I kicked off the ground. I launched high into the air with a flip, above the gathered exorcists to get a better view of the battlefield.
My feet touched the rough and rocky surface of the roof a moment later, a couple of Light bullets piercing into the surface around me as exorcists took potshots at me. My feet did not leave the ceiling.
I tilted my head back to look up (down?) at everything, seeing that Hyoudou and Kiba were already engaging the rogue priests. Kiba was easily handling dozens of them at a time without any real trouble, but without a weapon or particularly high strength, Hyoudou's Promoted speed didn't let him easily handle the somewhat-trained grown men. Sure, he was naturally stronger as a Devil and his strength was doubled by his gear, but he didn't have a lot of room to build momentum and many of the exorcists were still able to get up from his hits. He was also forced to spend a decent chunk of his efforts on dodging attacks that I would have been able to easily tank, even before I began using my chakra.
I didn't bother reacting to the few stray shots that hit me while I hung there upside-down, since avoiding the slight discomfort honestly wasn't worth splitting my attention right now.
'Should have had him switch to [Rook] once we got here.'
Oh well. Being annoyed at myself for the decision wouldn't help us save–
"Promotion: [Rook]!" Hyoudou shouted angrily, slamming his gauntlet into the ground at his feet, the impact ragdolling the group of enemies that had surrounded him. He immediately began to pummel anyone who got in his way in a straight path towards the back of the basement.
I guess that's one issue handled. He must've gotten fed up with his lack of progress.
I looked towards the end of the cavern where the giant glowing cross stood on the raised stage, Asia hanging from the built in metal cuffs by her wrists. In front of it was the Fallen that I guessed was Raynare based on Hyoudou's description, a girl with black hair dressed in a completely normal black skirt and white blouse combo. She stood within a large magical circle centered on the base of the cross, looking like it was coming from the clearly magitech device itself.
Based purely on appearances alone, if it weren't for the black feathered wings on her back, I would have assumed she went to one of the local schools.
… Huh. That's probably why she chose that cover when she killed Hyoudou.
Regardless, I had my target.
I released my own wings and flexed them, bending my knees. Just a moment later the cross glowed much brighter and Asia began crying out in pain, convulsing as the two girls were bathed in a green light.
"Yuumaaa! Let her go!" Hyoudou screamed from the middle of the crowd, unconscious bodies of grown men being flung in every direction away from him.
Kiba was closer to the stage at this point, but he was more of a duelist in the first place and didn't have experience at crowd control, so he was getting bogged down by the sheer numbers.
"I told you already, it's too late–"
The Fallen only partially turned from the strange cross at Hyoudou's enraged shout, sending an exasperated look in his direction. One that quickly turned into a look of alarm as she just barely twisted out of the direct path of my hand, me having launched myself across the room at the stage as fast as I controllably could.
Unlike a couple minutes ago with Freed, this time I wasn't even aiming at her, though it would have been a nice bonus if I'd managed to take her out instantly as collateral. Unfortunately, the side of my palm only clipped her cheek with just the force of a sedan instead of a full-on truck, but she at least still got sent tumbling across the stage in a green blur as I flew past her, so there was a silver lining. From the satisfying crack, she probably had a broken jaw or something.
With the screeching of tearing metal, my hand tore through the base of the cross with a small spray of sparks and flickering light. Asia's screaming died out at the same time as the green light surrounding her, and I dug my fingers into the cross with the groan of bending metal to shift the apparent Sacred Gear extractor to a horizontal position, and smoothly lower to set on the floor. It was heavy enough to unbalance my footing, weighing about as much as a tree or two, but sending chakra to my feet solved that easily. I made sure to be careful not to harm the now-unconscious nun lying on top of it by jostling her too hard.
With a few quick motions, the cuffs that were binding Asia by the wrists were nothing but scrap, and I was holding her in my arms bridal style. She was covered in sweat, her breathing was labored, and her heartbeat was faint, but she was still alive
I took a few steps run-up to smoothly build speed before jumping into the air with my wings extended, gliding over the mob back towards the foot of the stairs.
"I have Asia!" I called down to the two boys.
"Alright!" Hyoudou cheered. "Let's get out of here! Promotion: [Knight]!" He reversed course, switching back to the faster piece to dash away from the melee back towards where I just landed by the stairs. Kiba also pulled back from the fight, but in more of a fighting retreat, holding off and defeating any of the remaining exorcists who tried to pursue us.
By the time Kiba stepped beside us with his Holy Eraser still at the ready, the majority of the rogue exorcists had been taken out with only a few stragglers left, who according to him had all dropped their weapons in favor of tending to their wounded and unconscious allies when they realized it was an unwinnable fight for them.
It had been around three minutes– maybe four, tops– since we'd entered the underground chamber, and about two minutes or so since Hyoudou and I had gotten Asia to the relative safety of the church itself, laying her on a pew to check on her.
"What's going on with her, is she going to be okay?" Hyoudou asked worriedly. His gauntlet had disappeared and he'd let his Promotion drop.
Unlike Kiba, who was standing at the ready and making sure we wouldn't be ambushed while we were occupied, the brown-haired [Pawn] was practically hovering over my shoulder as I kneeled next to his newest friend and scanned her vitals, his full attention on the pained expression she was making.
"I don't know." I answered honestly. Aside from her weak heartbeat and the adrenaline running through her system, her body and its tissues felt entirely healthy to my senses, and unlike Uzumaki-kun, Asia's life force was strong. On top of that, because of the fact that she was a normal human, she shouldn't have any sort of badly damaged… spiritual organ… like him…
'... Do Sacred Gears count?'
"Give me a moment," I told the boy. "Trying something else."
I quickly shifted my chakra's properties into the same state that allowed me to interact with Uzumaki-kun's network.
"Ah." I muttered with an internal wince.
I immediately found what I believed to be the problem.
"'Ah'?" He parroted anxiously. "What do you mean 'ah'? What's happening to her?"
There was an aura emanating from the right side of her body, one that felt identical to the green energy that covered her and the Fallen before I stopped the ritual. Starting from her right hand, it stretched across her body towards her left side, but faded into tattered-looking wisps once it reached the halfway point. Tracing the source of the aura, I could feel the shape of a spectral object similar to a gemstone centered on the base of her middle finger.
"I Interrupted the ritual, but didn't manage to stop it completely. She's missing part of her Sacred Gear, which is a part of her soul," I explained. "She might survive without the missing piece like Uzumaki-kun did, but she might not."
"Dammit… Dammit!" He dropped to his knees with a helpless expression and punched the floor to little effect.
I glanced at him out of the corner of my eyes, feeling a bit of pity for him. I'd only ever seen him as an annoying pervert until now, so seeing him being so serious about something caught me off guard, even if I knew in my head that he was capable of genuinely caring for people. "... Sorry. It's my fault I didn't get to her faster."
"No…" He grit his teeth and shook his head. "It wasn't your fault at all. Without you here, we wouldn't have gotten to her anywhere near as quick as we did… It's because I'm so weak that she was even put in this situation to begin with!"
I shook my head. I was being serious. I underestimated the danger the nun was in and didn't release my true form, thinking it wasn't needed and not wanting Hyoudou to see me; We all assumed the clock would only start counting down once the enemy realized we were after her, not that she was in danger whether we showed up or not.
"I–" I began, only to be cut off by the sound of Kiba's sword shattering a Light spear headed for our backs, getting Hyoudou and I to turn our heads.
"Tch. I should have figured a little payback wouldn't be that easy." Raynare rose into view from the hidden staircase, nursing her jaw with a glowing green hand, a ring with a familiar green gem sitting at the base of her middle finger.
Her mutter was quiet enough that only I seemed to hear it.
"Looks like Raynare isn't as down for the count as we expected," Kiba commented as the Fallen stepped properly into the room with another glowing pink spear in her other hand, a rare tone of vicious anticipation in the [Knight]'s voice. "Shall I go and finish the job?"
Ah, right. He wanted to help Asia almost as much as Hyoudou did. It must've been stressful to stand guard while hearing about her current condition.
The Fallen worked her jaw for a moment while glaring heatedly at me. "You damn devils almost ruined everything!" She growled out with a slight wince of pain. "Even now, with just half of [Twilight Healing, how the hell am I supposed to be useful to Azazel-sama when it's this damn slow!?"
Despite her anger and aggressive stance, she held back from going immediately on the attack.
'Maybe she has enough awareness to know she'd lose?' I thought to myself.
Hyoudou stood. "Yuuma! Give Asia her Gear back!" He yelled in desperation. "She might not make it without it!"
The black-haired woman twitched, an irritated expression appearing on her face. "For the third time Issei, Yuuma doesn't exist. My name is Raynare." She scoffed. "And even if I wanted to– which I don't– I can't. The ring won't come off my finger, and because of the incomplete transfer, I can't even dismiss the Gear properly." Her hands came up in a careless shrug. "It's a shame, but she'll just have to deal with it. Or not. Her survival isn't my problem anymore."
"How can you say something like that?!" Hyoudou grit his teeth and clenched a shaking a fist. "How could you be so cruel to someone innocent like her?! She wouldn't be in this condition if it weren't for you!"
Kiba and I wordlessly shared a look, and stayed quiet for the exchange. We were ready to move at a moment's notice, but let Hyoudou take the lead. While Kiba wanted a shot at the ones who hurt Asia, out of the three of us, Hyoudou was the one who had the biggest grievances with this group, this Fallen in particular.
Something about the way she was being so casual and forthright seemed off to me, but if she wanted to talk instead of fight, that just made things safer for the nun.
Raynare laughed. "Cruel, you say? That girl was betrayed by those hypocrites of her old faction and stripped of her purpose in life! She joined us willingly. All I did was give her a new purpose, to be the means by which I'd be able to support Azazel-sama!" The sheer adoration in her voice when she said his name was kinda creepy. "Her current condition is your fault; If you'd have just let me finish the ritual, then I would have treasured her life and death deep in my heart for supporting me!"
Hyoudou's head lowered.
"Koneko-chan, Kiba? Please keep protecting Asia," he requested, body tensing all over. "I'm going to punch this crazy lady in the face!"
Without waiting for us to respond, he ran at her. I sighed and let him have his way.
One of us will step in to save him when he inevitably needs it.
"As if you could manage to even land a hit on me, let alone actually harm me!" Raynare laughed, not even preparing to dodge the sloppy charge.
"Promotion: [Knight]! Promotion: [Rook]!" He sped up significantly for a split second, launching himself at her and switching mid-dash to maintain his momentum while making use of the new promotion's strength buff. He reared back his fist and swung it at her head level.
She still dodged the attack with ease, and punished his reckless move by slashing a thin line through the back of his uniform with the tip of her spear as he passed.
He hissed in slight pain, but his [Rook] defense was high enough that I didn't smell any blood, so it was just the contact with Holy power that stung him.
"Is that all?" Raynare taunted with a sly smile.
"Shut the hell up, I'm just getting started!" Hyoudou growled back at her.
'How original.' I almost rolled my eyes at the cliche underdog line.
With how easily she was toying with him and clearly not going for lethal attacks for some reason, I felt comfortable splitting my attention to continue checking on Asia's condition, only occasionally glancing at the "fight". As far as I was concerned, our mission was already over. If he needed any help, Kiba was right here too and ready to throw down with the slightest excuse.
"Promotion: [Queen]! [Twice Critical]!"
"Whoa there, almost got me that time Issei-kun!"
I would have expected Asia to have woken up by now if the extraction was anything like what Uzumaki-kun had been through because she still had part of her gear, but maybe expecting a relatively sheltered nun to be anything like that idiot was dumb of me.
Or maybe the two things weren't similar at all, and her only having half her gear was what was keeping her under? Its aura seemed to keep trying to reach out for its other half, which simply wasn't there to connect to. It might be drawing on her energy reserves to try and fix itself.
My nose twitched as first-blood was drawn.
"Gah! Just stay still, damn you!" Hyoudou bit out through grit teeth as he clutched at the hole in his thigh.
"No way, silly! Why would I just let you hit me?" Raynare practically danced away from him with blood dripping from the last few inches of her weapon.
"Shit…" he panted, "I need more power, dammit!"
I frowned. The wound would be painful, but not particularly debilitating for a [Rook] or [Queen, let alone one with their power doubled. Hyoudou should still be able to fight in that condition, and the Fallen should know that too.
The sound of Raynare's voice was especially obnoxious to me the past couple of moments as well, knowing what she'd been responsible for already. The fact that she sounded like a perfectly innocent teenage girl right now just made it especially irritating, and was probably even worse for Hyoudou, who'd been lured in once already by her disguise.
'... Oh. I get it now.' My eyes narrowed.
The reason she wasn't going lethal, the weird feelings I got from some of her actions and the way she spoke, was because she was acting. If she wasn't lying when she told the boys that her original mission was to spy on and kill Hyoudou, then that probably meant she was good enough at spy-stuff to get that mission in the first place.
Basically, she was using her words and actions to try and manipulate us, like angering Hyoudou to the point that he decided to duel her so she could buy herself some time. Her acting skills were good enough to hide the fact that she was panicking, and her decision to not go lethal was making sure we didn't all just jump her before she could create an opening to escape.
I stood up, having had enough of letting things drag out. I locked eyes with Kiba, who had been forcing himself to sit back and observe even though he wanted to jump in.
"Even with your Promotion and your power being doubled, you're still too weak," the black-winged Angel taunted as she let him take a breather to recover.
He looked at me questioningly, and I was about to nod.
"When I learned that you got reincarnated, do you want to know why I let you live despite my mission to kill you, Issei-kun? It certainly wasn't because of our little date, even though that was entertaining."
I paused, curious despite myself. If there was an actual reason she had, it could end up being important information for us in the future.
Thinking about it, she definitely didn't seem the type to leave a mission only completed on a technicality, especially not with how much she idolized her faction's leader.
Too bad for her, Hyoudou was as much of a single-minded idiot as the main character in a shounen anime, and her mentioning their "date" lit a new fire in him.
"I don't care! Shut the hell up already!" He reached the limit of his tolerance for his (fake) first girlfriend, and charged her again with a yell. "If you won't fix Asia, I'll just have to take her Gear back by force!"
Raynare laughed as she flew back at the same speed as him, staying out of reach. "And how will a weakling with a [Twice Criti-"
[Boost!]
His speed doubled.
"-cal]– Wha-!?"
With a massive burst of green light, Hyoudou streaked across the room and caught up to her, decking her in the face with a transformed gauntlet covered in jagged edges that resembled scales, sending the Fallen rocketing across the building for the second time tonight.
'...That's not a [Twice Critical].'
It took a lot of effort for me to keep my face blank while Hyoudou was panting from the adrenaline, but surprise was clear as day on Kiba's face.
Raynare slammed into the back wall with a pained gasp, staggering to regain her footing as she brought her hand up to her head again.
"Even if our date was just a lie you made up," The brown haired boy said determinedly after catching his breath, "I would probably do it again, even knowing what you had planned for me. It's because of you that I got to become Buchou's servant, and meet Asia-chan! So it doesn't matter to me why you let me live, or why you killed me in the first place, not really."
[Boost!]
The light on his gauntlet flashed again.
A pair of familiar scents becoming stronger shook me out of my shock and put a frown on my face. One of them was the lizard-like smell that Hyoudou constantly gave off, practically tripling in intensity.
"Y-you… [Boosted Gear]? D-don' tell me, t-they were actually right about you?!" The Fallen questioned in a panicked slur, her control over her act falling as she healed her potential concussion. "Shit!" With her free hand, she formed a Light spear and threw it at Hyoudou, who simply batted it aside reflexively, despite it moving faster than anything he'd ever reacted to before.
"Whoa, what the?" He held up his clawed gauntlet in surprise, looking at it as if just now noticing the changes, which was entirely possible. "That felt way easier than before…"
The moment she'd thrown the spear, she tried to use the distraction to escape by flying up and out through the same broken window Freed had gone through. Kiba's legs tensed in preparation to give chase, and I would have made an attempt to stop her myself, but there was no need.
"Dynamic entry!" Uzumaki-kun swung through the window feet first, both of his heels slamming into her face in a sort of airborne mule-kick, sending Raynare crashing back down into the ground in a heap. She was limp for a couple seconds, before a weak groan and few twitches showed she was still alive.
I almost felt bad for her with how many headshots she's taken tonight. That can't have been good for her long term mental health, and she was already kind of messed-up up there.
"So, what'd I miss?" The blond idiot asked us with a grin after he landed and began making his way over to us, that second familiar scent being much stronger now that he was inside the building with us. Something in my stomach twisted.
"Where the hell have you been, you midget-ninja?!" Hyoudou questioned angrily as I began walking to meet my whiskered friend half way. "We almost didn't make it in time! Asia, she…!" The brown haired boy struggled to hold himself back from continuing, as if saying it might make his fears come true.
Uzumaki-kun's grin slipped into a frown, and he opened his mouth to give a worthless apology.
"Shut up." I told him as I reached him, stunning both him and Hyoudou. Unlike the brown-haired boy, who was too caught up in his adrenaline and emotions after his first major combat experience, Kiba noticed the same thing I did when Uzumaki-kun arrived.
The scent of his blood staining his clothes was almost overpowering at this close of a distance, and a quick once over with my eyes brought me to the most obvious wound among the dozens of cuts, all ranging from somewhat deep scratches, to gashes that a normal person would need stitches for.
I grabbed him by the wrist and pulled, forcing him to turn to the side to give me better access to his shoulder, where pink and red muscle was exposed to open air, the severed tissues coated in his absurdly quick-to-coagulate blood. It wasn't fully stopped, the wound was too deep and had too much surface area, but it oozed like honey instead of dripping like water. I began doing my best to heal up his other cuts and scrapes, while doing what little I could to make sure the big wound wouldn't start bleeding like a fountain until we could get him to Akeno or Buchou.
And this time, I would definitely keep watch afterwards to make sure there weren't any complications.
"Shit…" It was at this point that Hyoudou noticed that the younger boy had a chunk of his shoulder missing and realized his mistake. "Uh, forget I said anything."
I glared up into blue eyes, and Uzumaki-kun looked back down at me, hesitantly confused.
"Stop fighting by yourself," I ordered him. "I don't like it. You keep getting hurt."
His eyes widened for some reason, before his expression relaxed into a soft smile.
"Yeah, you're right," he agreed quietly with a nod. "I don't like it either. It's way better when I have friends who can watch my back." He placed his other hand on top of my head, lightly ruffling my hair.
The knot in my stomach loosened a little, even as I attempted to swat at the offending appendage.
He turned his head to face Hyoudou and Kiba. "Sorry about that." He apologized to the boys anyway, even though he had no reason to. "I was going around the other side to sneak in through a back room when I came across a patrol. I decided to take care of those three Fallen before they could come back here and cause issues."
I sighed.
'Idiot. Reckless idiot.'
He really was unfair.
"Thank you for the assistance Naruto-kun," Kiba said with a smile, Hyoudou nodding along. "We appreciate it. Do you need one of us to call Akeno-senpai to finish healing you?"
"Nah, Red is already around here some-"
A woosh of air that accompanied the flap of wings and a pair of feet touching down in the open front doorway interrupted his denial, revealing Buchou, her winged form backlit by the ambient light of the moon streaming through the entrance.
"-where. There she is." He turned to deadpan at my [King]. "Really? Couldn't you have just come in earlier, instead of timing it for a dramatic entrance?"
Rias lost her 'mysterious Devil in the night' aura when she immediately pouted at the callout. "If you can do it, why can't I? Maybe sometimes I just want to show off for my cute servants." Buchou became serious as she took in the unconscious nun and the crumpled heap of feathers, her eyes opening a bit wider as they landed on Hyoudou. Or, more specifically, the wound on his leg and the new form of his Sacred Gear.
She brought a hand to her forehead with a sigh. "I'm torn between being proud of you for evolving your Gear, and mad at you all for disobeying my orders, especially when I clearly said that we would deal with the problem, but afterAkeno and I handled the political side of things." Hyoudou and Kiba glanced at each other, then at the unconscious nun, and nodded at each other completely unapologetically. Buchou saw the exchange and shook her head in exasperation. "Instead, I'll just say I'm glad all of you are relatively fine. Now, I want to hear the full story."
Before any of us could begin, Hyoudou's [Boosted Gear] was engulfed in light once more, before disappearing into motes of light.
"Huh?" He let out a confused grunt, before he stumbled in place, and would've fallen to his hands and knees in exhaustion if it weren't for Kiba darting forward and catching the teen.
"Easy there, I've got you." The [Knight] said, helping the [Pawn] shakily walk over to a free pew. "Let's get that hole in your leg patched up ."
"T-thanks, man," he muttered weakly, apparently too tired to make one of his usual hostile comments. "Damn… feels like all my strength just disappeared…"
Rias and Uzumaki-kun both nodded at the same time. "No shit, dude. Your muscles are barely able to hold you up right now. Whatever you just did was straining your body way beyond what you should be able to sustain," the boy observed.
"That's a fair assessment of what just happened, I believe," Buchou confirmed for Hyoudou as she met him at the bench and laid a hand on the wound. "Both your [Queen] Promotion and your Sacred Gear deactivated at the same time from what I felt through your Evil Piece. You're still very new to being a Devil, so your body wasn't able to handle the combined power without any drawbacks. Now please sit still, this shouldn't take long."
Hyoudou nodded tiredly.
With Buchou's skill in healing being only slightly behind Akeno's and the wound not being super deep in the first place, it wasn't long before he was up again and standing by Asia.
After Kiba and Hyoudou explained the lead up, planning, and execution of the rescue, and I described the current state that Asia was in, Buchou stood quietly in thought for a few moments while Uzumaki-kun stood somewhat awkwardly to the side.
"Hmm… The way I see it, there are a couple of ways we can theoretically try handling this, and only one realistically acceptable way," she said at last. "Because the Evil Pieces have safeguards to prevent non-consensual use outside of the recently dead, and we have no idea when, or even ifshe will wake up, resurrecting her is off the table for now as a fix. That leaves us with only two or three options. First, and probably the least likely one-" she pointedly glanced at the way Hyoudou practically hovered over the girl, "-is to check her in to a long-term care hospital and hope she wakes up on her own, washing our hands of responsibility."
Both Kiba and Hyoudou shifted uncomfortably at that, so she continued. "Second, and almost certainly going too far in the opposite direction, is to… speed up the process so I can resurrect her." The way she said it made it clear she found the idea a little distasteful, but what she said only confused Hyoudou and I.
"Uhh, am I missing something?" The boy spoke up, voicing our confusion. "Didn't you just say you couldn't resurrect her?"
KIba answered for her, a grim but understanding expression on his face. "By 'speeding up the process', she means ending Asia-san's life in order to be able to resurrect her immediately."
"What?! No way!" Hyoudou immediately recoiled, crossing his arms over his chest in an "x" pose. "No one's hurting Asia-chan any more!"
"Relax," Buchou said soothingly, "I knew that would likely be the case, I was just putting it out there because the option does exist. It… wouldn't be the first time I've had to bring someone back." There was a moment of slightly uncomfortable silence as Hyoudou looked between Kiba and I, gears turning in his head as he tried to guess who Buchou was referring to. She continued. "The last thing I can think of is to give her the rest of Twilight Healing back from Raynare, and there's only one way I can think of to do that."
She held out her hand, palm facing the black-winged Angel.
Naruto
Even in the darkness of the church, even with the red glow it gave off, that black core of the Power of Destruction seemed to absorb all color from the world as it hovered in front of Red's palm.
"If the ritual was interrupted, her half of the Gear might not be fully settled into her soul yet. If we kill her, it's possible it might seek out its other half and re-connect with Asia-san."
I started walking, the image of Dohnaseek's last moment replaying in my head.
Red would absolutely follow through without a second thought. These people wronged her and hurt her friends, so their lives didn't matter to her.
Issei looked conflicted, eyes flickering between Asia and the Fallen lying on the floor, while the others watched him, waiting on his decision impassively.
I cleared my throat once I was in position, drawing their attention to me.
"You're not killing her." I told Red firmly.
The ball of power disappeared after a blink, when she realized she was aiming such a dangerous attack at a friend of her peerage, a wide-eyed look on all of their faces.
"I know she's hurt a bunch of people and needs to pay for her crimes," I said, standing in front of the downed woman, between her and the Devils. "But executing someone who already lost and can't fight back, not giving them a chance to argue their case, that's going too far."
Red may have put the attack away, but she wasn't convinced. "She killed Issei-kun once already, allowed her subordinates to freely attack the people under my protection, and operated illegally in Devil territory," she countered. "If anything, whatever political protections she might have had from being in another faction were voided the moment a member of her group first harmed a citizen of Kuoh, let alone continuing with this second operation. How is killing her here not the right choice after all she's done?"
I shook my head with a sigh.
I might not have been particularly into anime until becoming friends with Koneko-chan, but even I'd turned on the TV and seen a few rerun episodes of some popular ones.
"Vegeta," I said, causing her to blink at the random name drop. "By your logic, it would have been better for Vegeta to die in Drag-so ball, but from what I know, he turns into a good guy and one of the better characters later on."
Was it kinda stupid to bring up a fictional character in this situation? Maybe, but Red was what Koneko called a "weeb", and a massive fan of anime and its tropes. "People you consider 'bad guys' are still people. No matter what they've done to you personally, they still have hopes and dreams of their own, and people of their own who they care for and who care for them. You might have the right to kill her, but right now, as the situation stands, killing her doesn't make you the 'good guy'," I finished my little lecture. "The world could always use a little bit more mercy to go around. And more pragmatically too, keeping her alive gives you a bargaining chip."
She frowned, a chastised look in her eyes, while Issei had a slight look of relief on his face.
"Fine. You win this one, but that doesn't solve the issue with Asia-san."
I rolled my eyes. "There are plenty more ways I can think of to potentially remove these Sacred Gear things non-lethally. From what I've heard so far, they sound kinda similar to a Bijuu, at least in how they interact with their hosts."
Koneko-chan perked up at the mention. I gestured for her to come over to me, and she complied.
"Uh, Buchou… what's a 'Bijuu'?" Issei not-so-quietly whispered to Red.
"Don't worry about it," I waved him off before she could respond. "She wouldn't know anything about them, I've only told Koneko-chan a bit as part of her training." I half-turned towards the black-winged Angel when Koneko reached me. "See if your chakra can interact with the thing, and if you can, try to dislodge it without hurting her. She won't try any funny business if she wants to leave this building alive." I tilted my head to speak directly to the Fallen that was faking unconsciousness. "Isn't that right, Raynare?"
The others looked at her in surprise.
"Somehow I knew you'd be a problem from the moment I saw you." She pushed herself up into a sitting position, glaring at me now that the jig was up. "How did you know?"
"I kicked you with less force than I needed to knock out that Kalawarner chick." I snorted. "You've been awake this whole time."
"Tch," She clicked her teeth. "This is what I get for bringing on incompetent backup."
"Your allies would have barely been a good enough distraction for you to escape Koneko alone if they had arrived, and only temporarily at best. Without them, you would have tried escaping the moment Red fired her attack at you if I hadn't stepped in, and you'd have been caught again immediately after," I told her with a squint. "Don't misunderstand, you never had a chance to leave on your own terms. I'm just giving you the chance to at least leave with your life. Please don't waste it."
"So I've heard," She grunted in reluctant acceptance. "... Thanks, I guess. Don't expect me to owe you anything." She held out her hand with the ring of Twilight Healing for Koneko.
That seemed to surprise the others, and Rias looked at least a little uncomfortable as the prisoner she had openly talked about executing willingly cooperated.
'Good. That'll get her to think twice before dismissing another's life so easily.'
If Koneko was surprised by any of it, she hid it perfectly and accepted the offered hand, closing her eyes as she concentrated.
There wasn't any glow or anything, no sign that anything was happening on the outside, but after a few somewhat awkward minutes, Raynare began to shudder and twitch uncomfortably.
"Almost have it..." Koneko muttered.
Moments later, the ring began to glow dully and Koneko pulled her hand away, the ring slipping off the Fallen's finger with it. I reacted quickly, catching the woman with a wince of my shoulder as she collapsed forward, slowly lowering her to lay on the ground as she tried to regain strength in her limbs.
"Da… dammit…" She panted weakly, struggling to push herself up regardless while she hopelessly watched Koneko walk away with her would-be prize. "A-all this effort… just for… n-nothing, in the end…"
The green glow in the small girl's hand slowly brightened more and more as she got closer to the blonde nun, until the entire room was filled with the gentle light when she slipped the ring onto the nun's finger. The effects were immediate, and the heavy, struggling breaths of the unconscious girl evened out, her body relaxing as what was effectively a part of her soul was returned to her. The ring seemed to dissolve away into sparkles of light, and the glow died down.
"Taking shortcuts to power usually aren't worth it in the end, from what I've seen over the years," I told her as Red began making her way over to us. "Even when there aren't any physical side-effects or downsides, even when everything goes according to plan, the type of person who cheats their way into power or has it handed to them always misses something that people who worked for it have. Whether it's experience with that power, the ability to truly work hard for something you want, or even just having people willing to support and help you when you're struggling, looking out only for yourself leaves you on the backfoot sooner or later."
People like Kabuto were prime examples.
I stepped away after giving my advice, passing Red on my way to talk with the others. Her footsteps stopped.
"Uzumaki-kun."
"Hm?" I paused, turning slightly to face her. "What's up Red?"
"I was wondering… if this method hadn't worked, what would you have suggested we try next?" She asked curiously.
I shrugged. "The Gear was stuck on her finger in its ring form, and wasn't fully attached to her soul yet, so the next quickest thing to try is just cutting the finger off to get the ring." I saw the surprised look she sent my way. "Oi, quit looking at me like that. I'm not exactly squeamish when it comes to blood and injuries, if you haven't noticed," I deadpanned, shifting my arm. "There are probably a dozen different ways she could get it reattached afterwards, and that's not even including regular-ass surgery."
She studied me strangely for a moment.
"... You're very different from what I expected of a ninja."
I laughed.
"You have no idea how many times I've been told that," I said with a chuckle, "I'm literally known back home as Konoha's 'Most Unpredictable, Knuckleheaded Ninja'."
"I believe it," she said honestly. "Are you still sure you want to wait for one of us to finish healing you? I can easily spare a few minutes right now, you know."
I waved her off, turning back to the others who were standing around Asia. "Do what you need to do to get your prisoners situated, I'm not dying anytime soon if Koneko-chan has anything to say about it," I said over my shoulder as I continued walking. "She'd probably sooner kill me herself than let me bleed out like an idiot, heheh!"
A few moments later I silently stepped behind Koneko-chan with a smirk, my hand poised above her to give her a pat on the head for her progress. The moment my hand came down though, she stepped to the side and I got nothing but air.
"Aww, come on Koneko-chan! Let your Sensei reward his student for a job well done!" I complained jokingly as she turned her head to look at me. She wasn't super fond of being treated like an actual cat a lot of the time.
Surprisingly enough, she seemed to actually be considering it this time.
"... Fine."
She reluctantly took a step closer and faced me fully, eyes averted to the side as she waited for me.
I felt a strange hesitation suddenly, even as I brought my hand up to try again.
Pushing through it, I gently lowered my hand to rest on her scalp. The locks of white hair felt like silk under my fingers as her warmth radiated into my palm.
She really did do well today, has been doing well for the couple weeks I've been teaching her. She was extremely diligent, and I had a lot of fun teaching her and watching her progress. Unlike with Konohamaru, who I'd sometimes take a day or two here and there to show some tricks, I got to see her every day, and could watch her improve in real-time.
I smiled down at her as I slowly rubbed her head, a warm feeling in my chest as I watched her face relax.
Someone coughed.
The two of us looked up to see Kiba looking away with a fist to his mouth, and Issei looking at me with a tearfully constipated expression.
"You bastard…!" Issei sobbed. "I'm so fucking jealous!"
Koneko jerked away like she'd been burned with a scowl on her face, one that was completely ruined by how rosy red her cheeks were.
I could tell my own face started to warm up, but it couldn't stop the happy grin I felt forming while watching her reactions.