[111] The Waiting Game

Chapter 111: The Waiting Game

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[Third Person Point of View]

Applauses weren't the only thing he got.

Unlike the cheery Serafall and the bored Ajuka, Sirzechs, and Grayfia weren't very happy from the looks on their faces. Even if he had won, he painted himself a target for the Norse Gods.

Sure he had the Aztec’s backing, which meant he would be safe in the future if similar situations occurred, but the Devils’ affiliation with him wouldn't go unnoticed. The devils might receive the bad eye of the Norse Gods.

“Serafall, what was that?” Sirzechs said to his old friend, dragging her to the side to talk inside a Bubble of Silence. He didn't want others to hear.

She was the Satan in charge of foreign affairs, so he hadn't interrupted her when she declared her backing for Aqua.

But now that the situation has concluded, he wished Serafall had a good reason behind this decision. He liked Aqua, he was Rias’ very good friend. But to piss off an entire Pantheon just for him, moreover one such as Norse was going a bit too far.

Serafall shrugged, “It was a request from the Phenex Lady. She has provided enough assurance that taking his side wouldn't do us any harm.” She said, “Plus, he's cute.”

“....” Sirzechs frowned, ignoring the last comment. Although it was true that he had cured Lady Ranefer’s curse, which was a really big deal, wasn't she being biased here? Aquamarine was surely very strong for a human his age, but…

Sirzechs sighed. Right, he had an [Icon]. He couldn't be some nobody.

‘Alright, I admit, the young human is impressive.’ without even considering his young age, few humans could match him. He was strong enough to slam around a Death Goddess as if she were a little girl.

So, Sirzechs accepted the fact and moved to a more serious question. “And do we know why they are after him? It can't be anything small if they sent Hel just to fetch him.”

“It can't,” Serafall nodded, her features sharpening in seriousness too. The two of them turned their heads to look at Aqua, who was busy patting a scared Koneko and telling her to calm down. Speaking of, was Koneko always that scared of people…?

“I wonder who he really is,” the Satans said as they looked at the odd human.

* * *

“Fuck! Fuck, it hurts!”

It shouldn't hurt that much just because she lost an arm, especially because her pain tolerance was beyond the roof, as a Goddess of Death. After all, death was the most painful thing most people ever experienced.

The Valkyrie Rossweisse used her healing spells on the stump to close the wound, but she was having a hard time.

“What's going on?” She groaned as her mana left her hands but refused to do a proper healing. “Why is it not working?”

“It's-” Hel gasped. “It's my soul. That Qi Spear cut my soul!”

Although she uses the word ‘soul’ it was a higher form of spirit than the one mortals had. A God's [Essence] is what a [Soul] is for mortals; even if their body is harmed, they can get back to their prime state with not much difficulty. This doesn't apply all the time, such as Odin's missing eye, but those are special circumstances.

How in the world could a mortal inflict such damage on her?!

“I… I’ll kill him!” Hel, Daughter of Loki, vowed to herself.

But her father disagreed, “No, you stay out of this.” said the God of Mischief, Loki who walked into the teleportation array where the two of them had appeared.

“Father…” she paused when she saw the All-Father Odin walking beside Loki.

That was a… rare scene. No, has this ever happened before? Just how dangerous was the situation that these two old enemies were walking together?

Despite being sent on this mission, Hel didn't know much about the situation. Just what was going on…?

Odinson Thor walked behind them, a head taller than the two elder gods ahead of him. His long blonde cascaded down his back, his electric blue eyes dancing.

“...Ah?” Hel blinked.

No way.

That little mortal had used a few lightning abilities too, then could it be that…

So he was a Demigod.

“He’s in Japan, and Shinto holds a good relationship with him. Amaterasu herself met up with him a couple of months ago.” [1] All-Father Odin said, “That's why we are unable to send a proper army there. When we finally found a way to send you there, he proved to be strong enough to beat you. He is indeed dangerous.”

“Is he Thor's bastard son?” Hel didn't like to beat around the bush and asked.

Thor raised an eyebrow, Loki laughed and Odin looked to the side. Loki shook his head, “No. He is the son of someone from Norse, indeed, but he's not a Demigod. It's complicated so we're keeping it a secret.”

“It's obviously Thor, why are you lying? They look the same and even have the same power.” She insisted with a frown. Although she'd feel greatly insulted if defeated by the son of Thor, defeat against a Demigod was better than against a mortal.

“He is not my son,” Thor shook his head, his massive hammer moving along as it was resting on his shoulder.

Hela groaned.

Loki walked over to her, grabbing her bloody stump and snapping his finger to close the wound, as he helped her up.

“I wanna kill him,” she repeated.

“You're not strong enough,” Loki said. “I have a better plan.”

“Which is?”

“You'll know the details later. For now, just know that we first need a connection in Japan to freely enter it. Luckily for us, there is a faction ready to help us out any time.” he said, grinning. “From what we have gathered, he has a history with the Fallen Angels. So first we befriend those crows, who have a good standing in Japan already, and then with their addition, we not only take out the little human boy, but as well as his allies. The Devils.” If the Norse promised the Fallens that they'd help them take the Devils out, they'd be head over heels to do anything.

“Oh…”

All-Father Odin nodded, “For now, we'll leave him alone. We should be patient as we execute this plan. As long as we can send Thor to Japan, or at least bring the boy out of Japan, our assignment will be accomplished.”

She growled under her breath knowing that her kill would be claimed by Thor, but then again… she could always bring that kid's soul into her Hel and torment him for eternity and beyond.

Knowing that she'd have his soul to play within just a couple of months, she let her rage calm down. The threads of fate and schemes danced in the air as the mythical Gods planned the demise of a mere mortal.

* * *

[First Person Point of View]

It took me a while to calm down Koneko. The Satans wanted to talk to me about it, but I kept it short by lying to them that I had no idea why the Norse Pantheon was after me, just that I knew that they were.

I rather focused on Koneko. I didn't want anyone else to try to calm her, what if she spilled the beans? During the early stage of my 9th life, as the Heavenly Demon, I did some heinous stuff and Koneko had seen a bit of it a couple of months ago. So it was understandable why she was scared when she saw the Venerable One’s appearance due to the dark [Crown Icon].

Lunch break was long over by the time the fight had ended, and all classes were done too by the time I calmed down the cat yokai.

When the bell rang, I left her in the club room for Occult Research Club. Just when I walked out of the room, I found Sona and Rias waiting for me.

“Is she alright now?” asked Rias, while her friend beside her looked at me with a weird look in her eyes.

“She's fine. She was just a little shaken,” I said.

“And do you know why?” Sona asked. “We have known Koneko for a long time, she's not easily scared.”

“Looks like my appearance reminded her of someone and made her trauma react,” I lied while the two girls exchanged looks.

Rias sighed. “Well, thanks for taking time out of your day to help her calm down. I really appreciate that.”

“It’s alright, I caused it so I had to fix it,” I said and pulled her closer by her waist. “Besides, she's a member of your peerage. How could I leave her scared?”

“Oh…” Rias blinked, blushing a little as her childhood friend was right by her side.

“.…” Sona stayed silent. I didn't quite like how she had been staring at me all this time, so I enjoyed her stupefied silence.

“I'll give you two some space,” she said and turned around, only to pause. “Oh and, if you have time, can you talk to Tsubaki too? She seemed oddly scared too, though not as much as Koneko.”

Tsubaki Shinra. I fought with her during the first days of school. I had let her off easy and she must have held resentment for that to this day. But seeing my strength today, she must be feeling lucky instead.

Well, she can go fuck herself. She's not Koneko, I don't have to talk to her.

“I'll see,” I told Sona who walked away.

Rias cleared her throat now that she was before, as she eased into my arms. “What is this, someone is touchy today?” she tried to say in a teasing voice, but it didn't quite work because of her massive blush.

“What’s wrong with me touching my little devil princess?” I held her waist, my hands lowering to squeeze her butt. “I wanna ask you something.”

“Mhm… what's up?” she moaned gently from the squeeze and asked.

“...No, never mind,” I let her go with a look full of skepticism, which made her blink in surprise.

“Wait, what is it? You can't just say if you can ask me something and then don't.” she had a point, but I was just being dramatic to drag her into the topic.

“Well, the answer to the question is very obvious anyway,” I shrugged. “It's better to not ask it then.”

“You're being weird,” she pushed herself back against my body. “Tell me, Aqua?”

“Well,” I twisted my expression to appear as if hesitant. “Well… you know, I run this sect of mine. There are eleven members other than myself,” with five of them being the Tiger Cubs, “and I was wondering if you'd like to join. Of course, your peerage too, I’m not taking you away from them. Though obviously, I'd expect the devils to have some kind of rule to not join a team led by a human, that's why I didn't want to ask.”

“Oh…” she blinked. “W-well, I… I'm not sure if such a rule exists. But why would you be hesitant to ask me that? But yes, I'm part of the Devil Faction, while you're a human, so I'm not sure if I'd be able to join you…”

I sighed, “Yeah that's what I thought too. Anyway, I understand.” I pulled myself back from her. “In any case, I'll get going now. My friend must be waiting for me at the gate.”

“Hey, Aqua…” Rias called as I walked away. “Aqua?” her tone was filled with a lot of emotions as I left her alone.

Hey, guilt-tripping isn't a crime. Plus it's for her own good, she'd be happier with me than with the devils for sure. Probably.

Now I'll just have to wait for her to reach a decision.

* * *

Norse must be planning their next moves on me. For that, I'd need my own army to counter theirs. Not a big one, but a small team would do. I could deal with most problems myself, but smaller problems would need smaller hands to handle them.

So although I was training the current members of my sect, I needed some new members too.

As I had said, I found my friends waiting for me at the school gate. Ruby was mad that I wasn't there for the lunch break, and  Tsubasa too was curious about where I had been.

To my surprise, Mai Senpai was there too. I hadn't given her much attention these days due to being busy cultivating, so it was surprising to see her waiting for me.

“I sensed you and a couple of others vanished into a thinspace,” she said, “So I was just making sure you're safe. Since you are, I'll get going now. Bye.” She said and left.

‘Huh,’ it was cute that she was worried.

But it was surprising that she managed to sense that. She didn't even know what a thinspace, a dungeon, was a few months ago. And now she could sense such stuff in subtle changes.

I should try getting her into the Sect too. I guess I'll focus my attention on her after I return from the beach. Only one month remains till the agreed-upon date time, I need to bag her before that.

But for now, I must focus on my family. Ai and Ruby need to be fixed.

**

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[1] A little/big mistake. In chapters 96 and 97 we see ‘Tsukuyomi’ talk to Aqua, but it has already been established that Yato from the Noragami side of this novel is Tsukuyomi the Moon God. So that was supposed to be Amaterasu who Aqua talked to. I got confused since in the original Oshi-no-Ko manga, the loli used the ‘fake name’ of Tsukuyomi. Anyway, I’ve changed those two chapters, it’s all the same except for the last point where she says she felt his emotional gaze sent to the moon. It’s still the same but a little different.

“I just want you two to be together again,” Amaterasu said, then she hesitated. “Last night… you had your hand stretched toward the moon for the entire night. You know I am a Goddess of the Sun, right? My brother is the God of the Moon, but due to a little mistake he made, I’m governing over both the Sun and the Moon right now. So the compassion for the moon you held, and the pain you hold in your heart… I could feel them both.”

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