Chapters 81-85

The Seraphim Michael, the current leader of Heaven, sat upon his throne in the Seventh Heaven. The seventh realm was reserved only for the archangels and his father himself. It was where the Heavenly System was located; it was the throne itself. While sitting upon it, Michael could hear every single prayer in the world in real time. He could then influence the system to bestow blessings onto the people praying who were worthy of them. Michael ignored the prayers of the wicked and cruel. Even if they were ironically devout, they were still not worthy of Heaven's blessings.

Another thing the throne could do was show him the information on all of the world's current Sacred Gear holders. That's why he was currently very confused at the information he was receiving. A new Sacred Gear had entered the system. Another [Twilight Healing] had come into existence! That shouldn't have been possible, and yet it had happened. What shocked him even more was when he received the information of who was in possession of the Sacred Gear. His youngest sister, Layla, had it…

He wondered how this had come to be. Their father had NEVER given a Sacred Gear to any angel before. Although, Layla wasn't just any other Angel. She was his final child after all. Michael wondered if their Father might have foreseen his own death and chosen to bestow his last child with one last parting gift. It was odd that it had only awakened now of all times, but then again, some humans could go their entire lives without ever awakening their Sacred Gears. Michael was just glad that his youngest sister was still okay and within reach of the Heavenly System. He was sure Gabriel would be ecstatic to hear the news.

…

[You have leveled up!]

"Here is some tea; thank you for healing my daughter. When those monsters return, I will break them!" Yasaka declared with a grunt that promised vengeance upon the Khaos Brigade.

"This is quite good. It is also strange to see a queen preparing her own drinks. Your culture is fascinating," Sif commented.

"I'm not really a queen per se…" Yasaka stated.

"Were you elected to lead the yokai?" I asked her.

She shook her head no. "I inherited the position from my mother, as Kunou will one day from me."

"Then you are a queen." "That's the definition of a queen." Sif and I bluntly stated at the same time. We turned to each other and laughed. Yasaka blushed but didn't argue our logic any further.

"Will you require further assistance to deal with the perpetrators of your daughter's poisoning?" Sif asked Yasaka.

The fox woman shook her head. "I thank you for the offer, but I'm afraid this is a Kyoto matter and should be dealt with as such. It was some of my retainers that betrayed my family and let the intruders into our home in the first place," she explained. "I would actually like to ask you what you desire as a reward for saving my daughter, Layla?" Yasaka asked me.

Oh right, the quest reward also said I would receive "Yasaka's Favor" as well as a Level Up. I wondered just how far I could push such a favor, though. A thought crossed my mind… The Yokai have a lot of reach within the human business world as well as the supernatural, do they not?" I asked Yasaka.

She nodded to me. "Could you offer a very lucrative job to a man in Kuoh that requires him and his family to move to Kyoto?" I asked her. "Without making it look suspicious?" I had just thought of the perfect way to use her "Favor" to help further relations between our two factions and completely screw over the Devils at the same time.

Yasaka frowned a bit. "I admit it shouldn't be too hard. You want to relocate a family out of the devil territory? Might I ask why?"

"The son of the family is the next Red Dragon Emperor. He currently should be or will soon be in the crosshairs of the two Devil princesses for enslavement," I said as I spat out that last word. That's what peerages were from my memories. Enslavement. Found Family? Camaraderie? Love? Hell no! The evil pieces came with built-in mind control that made the peerage members naturally inclined to love their "Kings" over time. Baraqiel was furious when he found out his daughter was taken by the Gremory Clan. She was spirited off to the underworld for years after that, and it was only years later that Rias and her slaves started attending human school. By then, Akeno would have been fully indoctrinated. One of my goals was to eventually give my niece back her freedom, but for that to occur, I would need a way to safely extract the evil pieces without killing the Host. Ajuka was very thorough when he created the things unfortunately. I knew with the power of the system though, I'd be able to do it.

[Damn right! I'm way better than anything some paltry mad scientist devil could ever make!]

Yasaka's eyes widened. "The Red Dragon!? He's in Kuoh?"

I nodded. "We can't let him fall into the devil's hands." Judging by Kunou's current age, which appeared to be very close to canon, he could be recruited very soon. The only reason I knew canon hasn't started yet was that Asia Argento was still currently a revered Holy Maiden in the church.

"Very well," Yasaka said. "It will be done. Now, why don't you tell me a bit more about the young man?"

XXX

"Thank you so much for this opportunity, Miss Yasaka! I promise you won't regret making me the head of development for your new string of apartment complexes," Gorou Hyoudou, an older human man and father, said to the currently disguised Fox Woman. Yasaka had her ears and tails hidden and was wearing a VERY tight businesswoman suit. Her shirt's seams were holding on for dear life, doing everything to not tear and cause her shirt to bust open from her impressive bust. No pun intended.

[That pun was absolutely intended, you liar…]

Yasaka and I were sitting in the Hyoudou family's new home in Kyoto. It had been about a week since she sent out the anonymous job offer to the Hyoudou family to try and snatch the Red Dragon Emperor away from the Devils. There was just one small caveat—

"Care for some tea, Miss Layla?" Miki Hyoudou, the mother of the current Red Dragon, asked me. She held out a teeming cup for me to take.

"Thank you," I smiled at her and took a small sip. It was hand-brewed and not instant, which I appreciated.

"Wow, DAD! These are your new bosses. Both of them are so beautiful! And their Oppai are amazing! I hope mine grow that big someday!" And there was our current problem speaking now…

"Isane Hyoudou! That is no way to talk to guests, let alone your father's new bosses! Apologize now!" Miki scolded her daughter—yes, daughter. There was no Red Dragon Emperor. There was, however, a Red Dragon Empress this generation. Issei had been gender-bent. That wasn't exactly a big problem per se, but it did throw all of my meta knowledge into question now.

The teenage girl apologized to me. "I'm sorry. Sometimes my mouth just gets ahead of me, and I say stuff before I know what I'm saying!" Isane explained.

Yasaka giggled nearby. I could tell she found the situation hilarious. She had also laughed at me earlier for trusting whoever my "information broker" was, considering he was so unreliable. Yasaka was under the impression that I had a terrible broker who gave me the information about Isane being a boy and not a girl. I found it was easiest to run with stories that people came up with on their own, so I just went with it and told her I would fire the nonexistent guy.

"Well, at least he was correct about her actually being the Red Dragon Empress," Yasaka said a few days ago. "Otherwise, all of this would have been for naught."

"It's fine, Miss Hyoudou. Just know that most women will not be comfortable with a young girl like you talking about their chests so openly," I explained.

Isane pouted. "I'm not young! I'm 17, I'll have you know!"

"Talk to me in another year then," I muttered.

The girl heard me, though, and perked up. "Is that an invitation!?" She asked with excitement.

"Isane! No flirting with older women until you're 18, we've talked about this!" Her mother scolded her again. She then apologized to Yasaka and us and explained that Isane was very much into girls…

We had noticed... Isane couldn't take her eyes off of either Yasaka or myself for hardly a few seconds. Isane was cute, I'd give her that. She had short brown hair and a heart-shaped face. But she was currently jailbait, and I wasn't going anywhere near that.

Isane quieted down after that, and Yasaka started hammering out the details of Gorou's new position with him. The job did, in fact, exist. The apartments were just being built to house yokai and not humans. Gorou didn't need to know that, as he was just the construction general manager. It was the same as his job in Kuoh, except Yasaka had offered him twice as much money to move to Kyoto and start immediately.

She had initially done this as a 'favor' to me, but I could tell she was ecstatic to have the Red Dragon Empress in Kyoto. With some real training—and not whatever the hell Rias had Issei doing in canon—Isane could reach Ultimate Class in strength in only a few years. That was one of the reasons why the Longinus Sacred Gear holders were always so coveted. They got really strong really quickly!

We left the Hyoudou household an hour later. "I'm surprised how well that went!" Yasaka said. "Usually, anything involving the devils goes to shit immediately, but this time everything worked out. We spirited the Hyoudou family away, and I don't think they even noticed!" Yasaka laughed. We had shared a few conversations together the past week. One thing we had in common was that she really hated the devils as well—well, most supernatural beings, actually did but still. Yasaka had apparently lost quite a few friends in the Nekoshou massacre and had refused to do business with the devils since. The only reason Rias and Sona were allowed in Japan at all was that the contract back from when Cleria Belial was the 'owner' of Kuoh town had not yet expired. When it did in a few years, Yasaka was going to demand the devils leave Japan forever.

That would actually be a more significant blow to the devil race than someone would suspect. The devils, because they were so hated, didn't actually have very many footholds in the human world. Kuoh was the only one in the East at all, in fact. They had a few smaller towns in America, such as Salem, and a few scattered throughout Europe, but that was it. If the devils lost Kuoh, they lost pretty much all contact with the East. Rias and Sona would have never gotten such an important location if they weren't basically devil princesses...

We discussed what Yasaka would do with Isane from here on out. She told me that she would wait to finish her business with the Khaos Brigade before she took the girl aside and exposed her to the supernatural world. We were expecting them to show sometime in the next few days to offer an antidote for "Kunous Poison." Yasaka would capture and interrogate them. I asked her to spare all the Fallen Angels and let them face justice from Azazel. She begrudgingly agreed. Even if they had gone rogue, they were still my siblings and i didnt want anymore Fallen Angel or Angel blood being shed for such a pointless thing as Khaos Brigade.

Afterwards, Yasaka would take Isane as her apprentice and train her up to be a protector of Japan of sorts. I thought that was a novel idea.

XXX

"A bit later, we returned to Yasaka's home. I could see Sif outside in the yard attempting to teach Kunou how to wield a sword properly. The little girl preferred to use her fox fire to fight, but Sif had told her that she shouldn't be a one-trick pony. Yasaka agreed, and after the attempted kidnapping of Kunou, had allowed Sif to train her. It's not like we had much else to do as we were stuck here unexpectedly. The only way for me to get back was to find Azazel's artificial Sacred Gear, and that was in the underworld. The only way into the underworld currently nearby was unfortunately in Kuoh…

Although our week of lazing ended sooner than we thought it would, particularly when we received the latest information.

"So, what are you planning to do now, Layla?" Yasaka asked me. We had just been informed of the latest news from one of Yasaka's informants in Kuoh. "I don't know why your kind decided to bring the girl there of all places. Are they stupid!?" Yasaka asked me.

"Yes, yes they are." Was all I could say.

Yasaka was annoyed. "We have just gotten the Red Dragon Empress away from the Devils, and now some of your stupider brethren are pretty much handing the other possessor of [Twilight Healing] over to them…" Yasaka lamented.

I sighed. Everything was moving so fast. It was like the universe was demanding I head towards the 'plot.' Asia had been excommunicated a few days ago and was already in Kuoh… with Raynare and her gang of other idiotic fallen. From my memories, Raynare really did not like me. I was always Azazel's favorite in her eyes and was incredibly jealous of that. Out of all the places in the whole world, they brought the girl to Kuoh. What was their plan even? Kill her, take her Sacred Gear, and blame it on the devils? Raynare would then have to never use [Twilight Healing] for the rest of her life. If she did, then their plan would fall apart, and everyone would know that the fallen had killed Asia. Even if she was excommunicated, the church wouldn't just let that go.

"I guess I'm going to Kuoh then," I said. "I'll be taking Sif with me, of course. I don't know how things will go from there."

Yasaka nodded to me. "Well, good luck then. If you manage to keep Asia out of their hands as well, then I'll owe you another favor.

[Quest Initiated→A nun who just wanted to help! Save Asia Argento from being killed by the Fallen or being recruited by the devils.]

[Reward: Level Up! Balance Breaker for your Sacred Gear!]

My eyes widened at the reward. Balance breaker! I wondered what it would be? Whatever it was, it would definitely be an upgrade. Twilight Healing was amazing, but it did have some limitations, such as not being able to fully restore missing limbs. I'm sure the balance breaker would allow healing to such a degree and possibly even more.

I headed outside to tell Sif the news that we would be leaving soon.

"Ooof." Kunou cutely fell on her butt after blocking a sword strike from Sif. It was too strong for her to fully stop, though. They were using wooden practice swords, of course.

"Don't just try to fully block someone who is stronger than you. You must redirect the force of the blow by parrying if your enemy has more physical strength," Sif said.

Kunou pouted. "But people are always going to be stronger than me."

Sif laughed. "Then you better get really good at parrying!"

Kunou's ears twitched in annoyance. It was cute, and I wanted to pet her, but I knew that was rude. Yokai weren't actually animals after all, unless they were transformed into their animal form. Then all bets were off…

"Layla!" Sif brightened up as I approached. "I noticed you were back, but you seemed deep in discussion with our hostess, so I didn't interrupt."

"Hey Sif," I said. "I just wanted to let you know that we'll be leaving tomorrow. We have to go into the Devil territory…" I explained.

"You're leaving already…" Kunou said sadly. Her ears and tails slumped down. She had grown a bit attached to us after we healed her. Unfortunately, we just didn't have more time to stay.

I squatted down so that our eyes were on the same level. "I'm sorry, Kunou, but we have to go save another girl now from the nasty devils."

Kunou looked like she wanted to say something else but didn't. "Good luck. I hope you come back soon."

"Hah, of course we will. Just so you know, I have never taken an apprentice before in my long life. I expect you to keep up your sword practice, and the next time we meet, I just might make you mine if you've improved," Sif said. That was a pretty big deal if it was true. A lot of pantheons still remembered the other Asgard, and once the worlds merged again, a lot of eyes would be on Kunou for being the student of a goddess.

The little fox girl smiled and grinned. "I will, just you wait!"

XXX

"So this is Devil Territory? It doesn't exactly scream evil upon first glance," Sif commented as we walked through the average Japanese streets. They were mostly empty considering it was a weekday and most people were at work or school. Even so, both of us were dressed in casual civilian clothing so as not to get noticed by any hidden familiars. I wasn't worried about any of the devils sensing us. If they couldn't sense Raynare's current location—just her general presence—then they certainly wouldn't be able to sense me, who was much better at hiding my magic signature.

As we kept walking through Kuoh, I reached into my inventory and pulled out something that had been in there for a while. It was a syringe. Inside was the perfected Extremis formula, the one with no side effects that I'd been rewarded from my quest a while ago. Initially, I'd wanted to save this for Natasha, but I didn't know what could happen soon. We couldn't just take Asia and bolt back towards Kyoto. Our only escape route at the moment was… down. We were going to have to grab Asia and hijack the teleportation formula in Rias Gremory's clubroom to get to the underworld. From there, we'd have to get to Fallen Angel territory quickly.

I have no doubt the devils know that someone just stole Isane out from underneath them. They definitely won't let us take another Sacred Gear out of their territory without a fight.

"Here, Sif, this is for you," I said as I handed her the syringe.

Sif looked at it curiously. I figured they didn't have syringes in Asgard, so I explained how to use it and what was inside.

"Wait? So I inject this into myself, and I'll be able to heal from fatal wounds almost immediately, and I'll be able to shoot fire?" Sif asked.

"Yes."

Sif didn't even hesitate after hearing that and stabbed herself in the arm with the needle before injecting. "Ugh… that feels strange." An orange glow danced across the nearby skin on her arm before fading away. "Was it supposed to be that simple?" Sif asked as she inspected herself. "I don't know, I was expecting… more."

To be honest, I was too. I thought she'd be in pain for at least a few minutes or something, but the Extremis formula seemed to have merged with her almost immediately. "I guess that's it? Maybe you can test it?" I asked. It was gross, but pretty much the only way we'd be able to tell if it worked.

Sif conjured a small dagger and pricked her palm with it. A line of blood temporarily spilled out before it turned orange and shot back inside her skin! A second later, her skin completely sealed shut. There was no scar or evidence of a cut at all. "Wow!" Sif squealed in excitement before she wrapped me in a tight hug. "I can't wait to spar with Thor soon with this on my side! Let's see him win now when he can't even hurt me!" She boasted with pride. Now that she was completely over Thor, she wanted to defeat him in combat for some reason. I'm not sure why, to be honest.

With our slight distraction over with, we headed back towards the supposedly abandoned church at the edge of town. As we approached, I got a feeling like I was unwelcome to be there. I frowned at the sensation. It had been a while since I'd felt like that.

"Are you alright, Layla?" Sif asked me.

"Yeah, it's just that this is consecrated ground, and I'm technically not welcome here as a fallen angel. It's not so bad, just feels like a mildly unpleasant tingle. It's not that strong since it's been abandoned for so long," I explained. I had to give it to Raynare. It was smart that she chose this place. The devils wouldn't think to look here as they would assume we Fallen wouldn't want to stay in a place that makes us uncomfortable either.

The doors of the church were closed, and I didn't feel like knocking. I lifted my foot up and kicked them inwards. With my 35 strength, the already rotting wooden doors immediately ripped off their hinges and were flung across the room. "Raynare. Get your ass out here!" I yelled loudly.

Inside the church were about two dozen ex-priests. They were all looking at me like I was crazy.

"Who the hell dares yell at Raynare like that!? Do you have a death wish, bitch? Huh? Do you—oh fuck, Layla…" A short blond Fallen Angel came rushing down the pews and screaming her head off. That was until she saw my face and turned meek in an instant. The old Layla and her might have been similar in power, being both low class, but in the hierarchy, I was far above any of them.

[Good ol' nepotism.]

'Damn straight!'

"Hello, Mittlett. I know what you and the three other idiots have been up to. Now, where the fuck is Raynare, and where is Asia Argento?" I asked her as I glared down at her. Mittlett started shaking with fear in her eyes. That was a good start…

XXX

Mittlet shook in fear! What the hell was her youngest sister doing here? Layla was supposed to have been missing because of one of Azazel's crazy experiments. Had that been a lie? All so that Azazel could secretly send her after their group? Did Azazel know what they were up to? Mittlet's mind was racing as she tried to come up with a reasonable explanation.

"Don't hurt yourself there, Sister," Layla said across from her. "Critical thinking was never really your thing after all," she said as she snickered at her own joke. The armored blonde woman next to Layla also started giggling. Mittlet had never wanted to stab someone so badly, but she refrained. She could feel the power almost seeping off the armored woman. Clearly, Azazel wouldn't let his precious little Layla go anywhere without a strong bodyguard. Mittlet could tell the woman was easily strong enough to beat everyone here without breaking a sweat. And speaking of everyone else. Where the hell were they?

"Hey! Dohnaseek, Kalawarner! I can sense you two hiding! Come out now!" Layla yelled loudly enough for her voice to echo across the church.

"H-hiding? We weren't hiding, younger sister. We were just um… taking a nap," Dohnaseek emerged from the church's backroom wearing his stupid fedora. Kalawarner was right behind him.

"Hey, Hey, Hey! What's going on here!? Why are all you mighty Fallen Angels acting so scared just 'cause two fuckable pretty little things showed up. Come on! As your loyal follower, I'm embarrassed!" From a nearby pew, a man who was laying down and catching some shut-eye sat up. He had silver hair, red eyes, and a manic expression on his face when he spotted Layla and her guard. Mittlet cursed in her mind. Freed Selzen was batshit insane, and she had no idea why Raynare let the crazy fucker stay around!

"Shut the hell up, Freed! Couldn't you hear us calling her sister! This is Layla, she's a Fallen Angel as well," Mittlet yelled at the crazy exorcist.

"Well, if they're here to ruin our plans, then we might as well kill them, right? Ugh!" Freed said before he suddenly coughed out blood. Mittlet's eyes widened in fright at what she had just witnessed – except she didn't! Layla's bodyguard had moved faster than her eyes could track and had impaled her sword right through Freed's torso. A second later, she pulled it out. Blood splattered onto the holy ground before Freed dropped to his knees, clutching at the hole in his chest.

"That's the second time you've insulted the lady I love with such a foul mouth. I won't be hearing it a third time," the woman said as she swung her sword and all the blood dripping on it flew off. She sheathed it before turning back to Layla and smiling at her.

The other nearby stray exorcists all shrank back in fear at the display. Mittlet knew that Freed was pretty much as strong as they were, and he was disposed of just like that. And by a woman who claimed to be in love with her youngest sister…

"Mittlet!"

"Eeeeep!" Mittlet jumped as Layla called out her name.

"Well, that was unpleasant, but we're wasting time now. Where is Raynare?" Layla asked her again. This time the woman with her also glared and released a bit of her power into the air around them. It felt crushing and smoldering as it pressed down on everybody in the room.

Mittlet peed herself... and then fell backward.

…

Oh for fuck's sake… Mittlet wet herself in fear and then passed out. That was gross, and I feel bad for whoever will be cleaning that mess up. I turned toward my other two siblings. Dohnaseek and Kalawarner were both cowards at heart and had been keeping themselves relatively quiet.

"I'll tell you where they went! Just don't sic your paramour on us! Please!" Kalawarner said as she stepped forward.

"Kala, no! Raynare will punish us!" Dohnaseek said.

"I will punish you two if you don't tell me!" I said as I let my 8 black wings emerge from my back. The expression on the two's faces upon seeing them was pure shock.

"E-eight!? HOW!?" Dohnaseek trembled as he asked. None of us his business, that's how.

"Oh fuck! It's a high-ranking Angel!

"We're screwed, man, screwed!"

"Game over, run for it!"

CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!...

I watched the comical scene before me as the dozen or so stray exorcists remaining all started fleeing wherever they could. Considering there was only one entrance to the church, they all started giving out the windows. Glass was shattering everywhere as they all dove out the windows in fright. It didn't even take 20 seconds for them all to clear out of the church. I considered capturing them, but chose not to. That many stray exorcists running throughout Kuoh town was sure to draw the attention of the devils. I could use that as a distraction.

Kalawarner looked gobsmacked as she watched all of her henchmen run away. She turned back to me once they were all gone, though, and let out a sigh of defeat. "Alright, Asia Argento ran away and is hiding somewhere in the town. Raynare told us all to stay here and keep a low profile while she went out and searched for the girl.

"You could have just started with that instead of wasting all this time!" I yelled at her, and she shrank back.

"You two, pick up Mittlet over there and get the hell out of this town. I have no doubt the Devil princesses are going to be on full alert soon," I told them. My two conscious siblings nodded vehemently before I spun around and headed back out the way Sif and I came in.

XXX