Sorry, for the delay. Explanation and replies at the end of the chapter.
BEWARE: This is long! 12,8k words!
Update February 10: Some spell and grammar checked.
Disclaimer: I don't own Ao no Exorcist nor Highschool DxD.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Chapter 10: Infiltration into the unknown
(Issei's POV)
Let's recapitulate all the events of this night. First, Buchou was informed of a communication coming from Assiah, the universe where Rin was born. She told him the news and helped him to return to Assiah. Kiba, Koneko-chan and I decided to go along with him and the members of his peerage. Mostly because he's our friend and helped us a lot in the problem we had with Kokabiel.
So, we're now in another universe, riding a vehicle in the middle of a forest road. Our group consists of me, Kiba, Koneko-chan, Rin, Saigo-senpai, Nayura, Kuro and that "friend" of Rin, Takara Nemu, who's talking through a bunny puppet. We head to one of the bases of the True Cross order, the most important organization of exorcist in Assiah, which, according to Takara, has become corrupted.
The story that Takara told us was that Rin and his comrades used to work for the True Cross order as an exorcist, always trying to protect the people from evil demons. However, Rin's situation regarding his linage forced him to escape to the AFU. Well, we already knew that as Rin told us back then when he first joined the school. After he was gone, suddenly, without any expectation, the organization kind of went to hell.
There were a lot of treasons within the higher ups. Many exorcists changed their methods and instead of fighting demons to save the people, they started to kill devil only to have control over the ones they should be protecting. However, there were some that didn't follow this new tendency and cut their ties with the True Cross Order.
These now considered rogue exorcists created a Resistance against the new True Cross Order. Takara and Rin's comrades are in that group. Nevertheless, he told us that the True Cross has much more money and technology than the Resistance, so they're having a hard time dealing with the organization and, at the same time, with the demons.
"In one of their encounters with the True Cross, Okumura's brother and his friends were captured and taken to this prisoner camp," Takara tells us as the minivan keeps following the road towards our destination. "They have outstanding tech and… Okumura! Damn punk, are you listening to me?"
I turn my gaze towards Rin, who is sitting looking at his feet with dead eyes. I don't know what happened to him, but he doesn't look much in his senses. He hasn't spoken in this whole trip and that's weird for him. Nayura and Saigo-senpai, his peerage, are by his side trying to pull him back to reality.
What happened in his conversation between him and Saigo-senpai? How weird it is that from time to time I hear him muttering something like "daughter of the clown, daughter of the clown, daughter of the clown…"?
What clown?
"Master is…. a little stressed right now," Saigo-senpai tries to defend him. "Please, Takara-kun, be patient with him."
"We can't be more patient," Takara replies, as always, via his puppet. "Because we're already here. Everyone out of the vehicle."
We follow his orders and exit the minivan, which I haven't been able to see its driver's face. Now is impossible because the vehicle is gone.
"Oi, Okumura. Return to your senses now, punk. Tch. Now other way."
After saying those words, Takara pulls out a mysterious hammer from his clothes. By mysterious I mean it looks like a toy hammer for 4 years old kids. What is he planning to do with that? As I think about that, the boy lifts the tool up and swings it over Rin's head. What kind of game is he….?
BUMP
"Aaah! Fuck!" Rin falls to the floor after getting a single hit of the "toy". What's with that thing?! How did that little guy or that tool have the enough force to throw to the floor the son of Satan? Luckily, I think it actually helped. "Why the fuck did you do that?" Rin asks angered as he stands up patting his head.
"Stop whining and listen. Everyone listen!"
I'm starting to dislike this midget. I already miss the AFU, my family, comrades and, most important… I miss Buchou's oppais!
BUMP
"Auch! Koneko-chan! Why have you just punched my gut?"
"You were thinking lewd stuff."
"That's…" Well, it's true, but… Kiba put his hand on my shoulder to remind me that I also should be listening to Takara's explanation.
"As we were saying, the True Cross Order has tech that goes beyond 20 years from the one that the rest of the world use. In this base we'll probably run into some of these techs, so we have decided that we're going to use stealth. Any problems?"
"Why can't we just go straight ahead?"
We all turn towards Rin, who just asked that. Takara's puppet sighs and answers. "Because we won't be able to reach and free the prisoners if we fight with them. They are very strong, learn that!"
I exchange looks with Kiba and Koneko-chan. We, the Gremory team, know that we can never low our guard against an enemy. If he, the one who knows more about this exorcists of Assiah, says we should go stealthy, I think is wiser to listen to him.
Although, Takara doesn't have any idea of our battle power. He probably is thinking of us like humans, even if we already told him that we're devils. Maybe we…
"Hey, Takara. We…" I move my finger pointing Kiba, Koneko-chan and my person. "... We have battle skills that can help in case we have to fight. Guys, what about if we show them to him?"
Kiba nods and takes a running stance. Then he leaves the spot and quickly reaches a really far place. He comes back and now is beside me as just a pair of seconds ago. Takara doesn't show any facial emotion, so I don't know if he's impressed or not. Alright. I eye contact Koneko-chan and she slowly walks towards a tree. She grabs the trunk and, without much problem, lift the entire plant. My kouhai then throws it away before she returns to our side.
I summon my [Boosted Gear] and explain what it does. "With this, I can double my power every 10 seconds. Also, I can give that power to another person."
Giving that basic explanation, we stare at Takara, or rather, at his puppet, as he has been only talking through that damn toy.
"Well, we see you can be helpful instead of hindrances. But it's better if we keep our heads down in this place." His puppet opens its mouth and says that with the voice of a character from a kid's TV show.
If he says that…
"I also can do a lot of stuff!" Nayura Yuki interrupts us. We turn to her as she walks towards a tree. Nayura makes a roll kick and break the trunk making the entire plant fall. She points at herself and poof her chest all proud. "I'm Sensei's [Rook]."
Ignoring the lively way she joined the talking, I want to explain that by Sensei, she means Rin. I don't know why she's calling him that way, but right now we have more important matters. Takara has already seen all our powers. Considering that Saigo-senpai showed her skills when not more than an hour ago she suddenly started to attack Rin's onii-san, the Demon Lord Astaroth…sama.
"Very well, but as we said, is better to keep our heads low. Now follow me."
And those are the orders of the puppet's boy. Something that I just recalled, that Buchou told me the day after the battle against Kokabiel.
Flashback
"Nayura Yuki is a good addition to Rin-kun's peerage."
"You think so, Buchou?"
"Indeed," the beautiful Rias Gremory replies with a smile that makes my heart jump. We're currently in the Occult Research Club organizing some documents. "Ise, you didn't notice?"
"Mmm…" I don't know what she means exactly. "I didn't noticed anything special… Except, that she was as powerful as Koneko-chan."
"Exactly. What can you guess by that? A girl that was reincarnated as a devil that same night showed equal power to someone who has been in my peerage for many years."
"So she's very talented."
I can only think about that. I'm not a talented person. I don't have skill for magic nor big strength. I only have my Boosted Gear to help me in all the battles I come across. Without it, I'm kind of doomed.
"Rather," Buchou continues talking. "I would describe her as a genius."
"A genius? Buchou, I don't believe that Nayura Yuki is genius. I heard from Matsuda that her grades are average. Well, she probably would be a genius in sports."
"Not just sports, Ise. Any physical activity. That includes fighting and it helps that her force was already high far higher for a normal high school female student."
Indeed, Nayura's physical capabilities are famous in the school. Really famous. All the sports clubs want her for their own. However, I heard she never focused in a single activity rather than practice whenever she wanted. That's why she don't have any recognition outside the school as she never participated in important competitions against other academies.
"She already knew how to use her new devil strength. Nayura-san was helpful in our clash against Kokabiel."
That's true. I remember that moment when Saji tied Kokabiel's arm with his Absorption Line and he needed the help from the [Rooks] of our teams. Nayura, along Koneko-chan, were able to fulfil the task of containing that monstrous fallen-angel while the rest kept attacking.
Buchou keeps talking. "Yes, Rin-kun acquired a good [Rook]. Now, I'm only worried about…" She stops speaking there.
"Buchou?"
"…It's not important right now. The next class is about to start. Let's return to the main building."
Flashback end
And that's it. Continuing with the current situation, our group do as Takara says (Rin reluctantly, needing Saigo-senpai to calm him before he starts to yell again) and walk through the forest towards this base of the corrupted True Cross Order.
"Is there really a base here… wow."
We come out in an enormous clearing. There is a big military-like camp with many buildings and reflectors. All of us stare, except for Takara, at the facility with amazement. From here I can see many military vehicles and even tanks! In the air a helicopter patrols the area. There is a proper big entrance with a checkpoint where vehicles keep entering and leaving the place. Takara gives and step to the base's direction…
"Oi, Takara!" Rin shouts blocking his way. "That's a fucking fortress. How do you expect us to pass the fence and infiltrate in there?!"
"…" Takara pass by his side without even looking at him.
"You stop there damn midget!"
"Do you want to rescue your friends?"
"Yes!" Rin is taken back. "O-of course I want! But…"
"What Okumura-kun is trying to say," Kiba intervenes with politeness trying to stop the argument. "Is that we need a concrete plan? Do you have it, may I ask?"
Takara nods and his puppet opens its mouth again. "The Resistance managed to get Intel that there is a section of the fence which isn't electrified."
Wait, the fence is electrified? These guys don't take things easy at all, right?
He continues his explanation. "I have the location of the control room. We'll get in there to find out where are the prisoners and free them. At the same time, I'll send a signal to blow away one of the reactors that gives energy to the whole base. It'll be a good distraction."
"What about if we run into some guards?" Saigo-senpai, Rin's [Queen], asks with seriousness. Even with the mini-skirt maid uniform she's wearing, this woman can act all mature and respectable. As expected of someone raised by Grayfia-san.
"We're going to find the guards routine in the control room. Before that… we can only keep our heads low."
We follow Takara and make our way to one of the sides of the True Cross Order's facility. No we have to go through that fence.
"Alright." Rin smiles and put a hand on the hilt of his katana. He'll break the fence I guess.
Nevertheless, Takara put his hands to stop him. "If you bring out your flames right now you'll compromise the entire mission."
"Don't fuck with me!" Rin looks pissed off. "How do you wanna enter, midget?" He says with an annoyed expression.
Before something happens, Kiba intervenes. "Allow me." The [Knight] takes the chance and summons a sword. In a blink of an eye, he makes some accurate movements with the blade and now we have a nice hole in the fence that we can use to enter.
The group begins to walk following Takara to the place where the control center should be located. I only know that the True Cross Order have a lot of military power and tech, besides their knowledge to fight demons. Although that knowledge goes for the ones who belong to Gehenna. As we move in the place, the seven of us stick in the shadows…
"To the floor." Takara drops down and lowers his head. Of what is he…?
"Ise-kun!" Kiba palms my back telling me to do the same. I, as all the others, do that and look around trying to see what we're hiding from.
BRRRRRR
A flying object moves near our position. We're currently in a section of the facility that doesn't have reflectors, so darkness surrounds us. Luckily, I'm a devil so with my vision this is no problem. I don't know how Rin's body work, but he shouldn't be having any troubles because he hadn't complained at all until now. However, I wonder how Takara is doing.
"Drone."
I hear Takara's word and focus my gaze again in the flying object. No way. Two small airscrews. An airplane-like form. A little bigger than a microwave. It stops and a green laser moves around, scanning the machine's surroundings. The laser goes above our heads, if we hadn't throw to the floor it would have detected us. After that, it continues flying and patrolling the base.
That was a drone…
"A fucking drone!" Rin raises his voice as we stand up, but Nayura and Saigo-senpai manage to shut him before he alerts the machine.
I can't believe it. These guys have a drone patrolling the place. I remember reading online that only some countries' armies had those.
"Let's move, quickly." Takara starts to walk again. "Or the next one will notice us."
"Next one?" Nayura asks surprised.
"They probably have dozens….. We told you that the True Cross Order had developed outstanding technology."
"Takara, how long have I been out?" Rin asks with concern in his voice.
"27 days."
"Master, remember, the time is the same in the three universes."
As Saigo-senpai said, according to the information that Ajuka-sama managed to get, which Buchou told me before leaving, the AFU share the same timeline and coordinates with Assiah and Gehenna. Anyway, we continued moving through the facility. In the way, we encountered more drones that forced us to hide.
We also ran into human guards, all of them heavily armored. They carried their assault rifles and grandees, used mask and bulletproof jackets. I have never fought against someone with a gun. I express my concerns to Kiba.
"I haven't either, but our bodies should be able to withstand normal bullets… However, we still would suffer a lot of pain."
Oh, boy. I don't like the idea of having my body pierced by bullets. I hate it in here. Dude… I really don't want to be here. But, my comrades and I took the decision of helping Rin. We can't go back. The team moves through the base carefully hiding of and avoiding cameras, guard and drones. Also, there is a helicopter patrolling the place searching for any suspicious activity using its reflector.
"The control room is inside that building." Takara points at some specific edification located many meters from us.
"Cool, let's break in and do whatever we have to do there. And let's rescue Yukio and the others." Rin don't mind anything and moves towards the building.
"Wait! Okumura! Wait! There's still more planning to do!" Takara calls him back.
"What more planning? Let's just jump to do it."
"You know that if you fuck this up we won't be able to rescue anyone."
Those words stop Rin as he had been hit by an invisible punch. He clicks his tone and returns to us. "So what do we do?"
"There's a small edification in front of the building. From its looks, it seems to be a storage room. It's in front of our objective, so we're going to hide and then infiltrate the building. Do you copy it?"
We all nod. The group moves to the storage room and confirms it's empty. Empty of people and stuff. Probably they are going to clean it or something, so they have taken all the items out. We decide to send people to do some of scout job. Those people are Nayura, Koneko-chan and Kuro.
As we wait for them to return, I get close to Rin and ask him in a low tone: "Why Takara is always speaking in plural?"
"Who knows? I think he believes that his damn puppet is alive, or something."
…..Okay.
"There's something coming."
That's what Nayura says when she and the others returns to our temporal base.
"What did you see?" Rin asks them.
"I saw a…. Big thing I have only seen in movies and mangas."
"Eh?"
BUMP
BUMP
We pick through the door of our little temporal base and see…
"What's that?"
I barely can hear Kiba's doubt because I'm trying to recover my air for the surprise. What is moving in front of the building is a biped robot of almost 6 meters (19.68 feet aprox) with a main body the size of a small elephant. It has cannons and machine guns in several parts of its body, besides it has some lights that should be sensors.
There's no other way to define this machine. It's a war drone. It couldn't look more sci-fi!
(A/N Imagine it as a geeko from the Metal Gear Solid games, but this one doesn't have any biological parts. It's metal only with an IA)
"Oi, Takara!" Rin grabs the small boy's head and makes him look at him. "Why didn't you say they were using things like those?!"
"...We told you that they had outstanding tech. Although, that's a new model. The True Cross Order… they are truly advancing."
"What are we going to see next? Evangelions!?"
"Be quiet punk, or it will locate us… to the floor!"
As he finish to say those words, I move my gaze to the outside of the storage room we're hiding. The drone has turn to the building's direction, like it had detected us. With huge steps, the big guy walks towards us. Are we done?
"Quickly, hide under the windows so his sensors and cameras can't see us."
"No time for that shit. I gonna take this piece of rubbish down!"
"Okumura, stop right now!"
"Yeah, Rin calm down."
Takara and I try to stop Rin from unleashing his flames and fighting with the drone. Man, this guy has been… How could I describe it? Volatile? Yeah, he has been more volatile than ever since I met him. He seems bitterer, like he would punch anyone who pissed him off. It reminds me the first day after meeting him, when I didn't know him enough well.
First, I thought it was due to the frustration and worry about his friends, who trapped in this place, but now that I think about it, he wasn't like this when he first received the news. He didn't behave like this when he was… when he was still in the AFU.
"If you attack him, even if you defeat him, it'll send an alarm and the mission will be over."
"Damn it!" Rin, clenching his teeth, put down his katana.
He proceeds to duck and hide with the others just below the window. The only person who is still standing is…
"Saigo-senpai, quickly hide… Why're you charging your magic?" Saigo-senpai is currently standing in front of us, while we hide under the window in order to avoid the drone's detection.
"Miku?" Rin calls her trying to get her attention.
"I'll destroy it."
"Hey!"
"Wait a minute!"
"Saigo-senpai, stop!"
We try to prevent her for blowing off our cover. However, she's about to release her demonic power. This is seriously bad.
"Mikuuuuu!" Rin stands up again and grabs her shoulders. "What's wrong? Why are you acting like… well me?"
Saigo-senpai blinks a few times and stop preparing her attack. "Master…. I…. this place… this place… is changing me…"
"You both need to hide!" Interrupting all of this, Kiba shouts them. Dammit! The drone is already scanning through the window. I can see a green laser moving across the room searching for something fishy.
Rin takes her [Queen]'s hand and almost jumps under the window just before the sensor detected them. Or I hope it didn't detect them. If not, our cover would be blown off. The green laser scan the room a pair of times. We stay quiet hiding ourselves under from it, almost pushing the wall and maintaining our bodies really compressed against the wall.
The laser moves through the entire room, as if the drone knew we're hiding here. It barely stay away from our legs. Seconds pass. I'm getting a little uncomfortable here. The thing, I'm sitting between Kiba and Koneko-chan, and my hand is touching her young tight. Is a nice feeling and luckily she hasn't realized… till now. When she does…
"I think it's retreating," Nayura comments as she peeks through the window. "Yep. It's turning around and…. Is walking away from here."
"So, we're safe for now," Kiba comments as he cleans some sweat from his forehead.
"Think so." I need to stretch my body a little. We have been like an entire minute hiding under the window and we had to compress our bodies.
Then something cuts my thoughts.
"What's wrong with you, pair of idiots?" Takara's puppet spits that into Rin's and Saigo-senpai's face. "Do you want to ruin this mission?"
Rin's face distorts into an angered one and grabs the boy by the shirt's collar. "Oi, you damn midget, you can say whatever the fuck you want to me, but don't insult her."
"Mater, is okay…"
"No, it isn't. I'm truly going to punch him."
"I'm also going to punch him." Nayura Yuki gets in the discussion and yells at Takara. "You have been ordering us since we came to this Assiah universe. Who put you in charge?"
"Myself. I'm the only one who knows how to deal with this situation…"
This is getting out of control. I don't know how to end this argument. So, I have to rely in… "Kiba, a little help please."
My comrade understands my request and walks towards them. "Excuse, don't…"
"You don't look like wanting to save your brother."
"You…" Rin close the distance between his face and Takara's.
"Okumura-kun. Takara-kun. Please, remember the mission…"
"You better don't fuck with me using that, midget." And my blond friend is ignored again. There's no other way, I also should put between them.
"Guys." I put my hands on their shoulders softly. "If we start to fight against each other, there won't be any way to complete this mission and save the prisoners including Rin's friends and brother."
Rin moves his gaze towards me for a pair of seconds, then he leaves Takara's collar alone. The other guy falls to the floor, but quickly stands up before taking the dust from his clothes.
"Now we leave this storage room and head to the control room," he says pointing at the closest building to the one we're in right now. "I'll open the door with a lock pick."
"Let me do some scout job before." Kiba opens the door of the storage room and peek outside the building just before leaving our line of sight. Some moments later he returns. "We can cross."
We're about to go to the control room, but Rin calls our attention. "Guys, I need to speak something with Miku and Yuki. Can you go ahead?"
Takara doesn't even look at him, but he replies. "Hurry. We're in the front building."
The teams leaves the storage room without the Okumura Peerage. I believe those three will need to speak a few things.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
(Rin's POV)
I see the Gremory guys leave the room along Takara and I stay with Kuro and my peerage. We stay in silence until I finish thinking how to start this talking.
"Miku, Yuki…"
"I'm so sorry, Master. My behavior have been unacceptable." Miku lowers her head in apologize.
"Miku, calm down I'm not mad."
"I truly don't have any excuse…"
"Miku…"
"Whatever punishment…"
"Miku! Chill, I'm not pissed off."
"Miku-san, please calm down!"
"Haai!" Our shouts manage to bring my [Queen] back to reality.
"Miku, there's something going on. I can see that. Tell me. You know you can trust me," I tell her trying to be the most supportive I can.
The woman, who is a year older, than me moves her gaze to the floor. "I… I don't know. I have never behaved like this."
"I know. You aren't like me." She isn't the kind of girl who would just lose control when she's in danger or pissed off. "Are you stressed for something? Or, is it…You didn't like coming to Assiah, do you?"
Miku sighs before replying. "I wasn't prepared to return to my old home."
"Wait, how is this your old home?" Yuki asks completely confused. "You didn't say that you were born in that… Which was its name? The Underworld!"
"I was raised most of my life there, but I was born…" Miku extends her hands. "Here. And that's not the most important."
Here we go again.
"I'm the daughter of the second Demon King from Gehenna, Samael."
"No way!" Kuro's eyes open bigger than when he sees delicious food.
On the other hand, my left eye twitches when that precise information breaks through in my brain again. I… I just can't deal with that! It's drilling my head! When she first told me, I almost burst out in flames. I don't know what to think out of this situation. Much less, what to do.
Miku, the hot girl that has been helping me all this last month in the AFU was actually the daughter of Mephisto, that fucking clown! If I think it much further, I won't be able to forget that…
"So you're Sensei's nephew?"
"Yiaaaaaahhhh!" I shout out as I cover my ears.
"Both have the same hair color and similar eyes," Kuro adds looking at Miku's figure, comparing it to Mephisto's.
"Yiaaaaaahhhhhhh!"
The girls ignore my attempts to escape reality and continue talking as I shout. "You're Sensei's family. Good. I have more chances," Yuki says as she gives Miku a confident smile.
Chances of what? I'm about to ask, but my [Queen] speaks first.
"Wait a second, Yuki-chan. Even if our demon sides are related, our human sides don't."
"So, it's like being half-brothers."
"We have human bodies. Enhanced with demon power, but in the end, human bodies."
"Sensei's tail doesn't agree."
"…"
I think Miku has been taken back. However, what she said is kind of true. Indeed, my body is the one of a human, but it counts with many "gehennanic" characteristics like the big force, endurance, resistance, my flames and the most resembling, my tail. All those aspects are what define me as a hybrid. A half demon, half human.
…..Now I feel like asking:
"Miku, where is your tail?"
The girl looks at me for a few seconds with surprise in her face, but then she moves her face and her cheeks are filled with a pink tone. "Master… are you asking a girl to tell you what's under her clothes?"
…
…
…
And I feel my blood filling my face. "N-no! Nononononono! I'm not asking you that! No, I want to know about your body… That didn't sound good… What I'm trying to say is… You're teasing me!"
"Master, your reaction is so cute." She covers her mouth with her hand and laughs.
"Tch." I cross my arms and turn around.
She always teases me like this. This month living alone with her have been… kind of difficult. Many times she woke up in the morning hugging me while I was sleeping wearing a simple lingerie. Other times, when eating, she tries to feed me herself….. Putting the food on her lips!
It's not like I disliked those actions. I'm a boy and to have a girl making all this sexy stuff is kind of a dream become true, more if the girl in question is as hot as Miku. However, it's kind of bothersome because I know she's just doing it to tease me and I truly don't know how to react. I talked to Issei about this and he told me that he was in the same situation with Rias-senpai and Himejima-senpai. Although, he enjoys it a lot more than I do.
"Anyway, do you have a tail too?" Yuki's question to Miku takes me away from my inner reflections.
Miku makes a disgust expression. "Fine, I'll show you if that's what Master desires."
Cool….. Wait! Is she about to…?
The girl turns around and starts to lift her skirt in front of my face. Wooooooooow! "M-Miku! Stooooooooooop! Oh, you truly have one."
Right above her panties, her thin lewd panties (nosebleed incoming), there's a cute little rabbit-like tail. Is very similar to the one of Usamaro. Well, now I know why I never noticed until now. She could easily hide it under her underwear. And it is….
"Yeah, very cute." I stretch my hand towards it, but something hits it. "Ouch!"
"Sensei, you have been staring at Miku-san's butt for too long." Yuki frowns and put her body between me and Miku.
I move my gaze away trying to keep appearances. Good thing that the mood is much more relaxed by this point. However, there are still more questions. "Miku, anyway, why do you think that you aren't acting like you usually do?"
"Mmm." Miku put one of her delicate fingers under her beautiful chin. "I can't tell why. But I know that since we crossed the portal I have been feeling more annoyable. I think that if I had a fly bothering me, I would probably blast it with my powers instead of ignoring it."
"Since we appeared in Assiah?"
I try to think about it. Maybe her memories from this place aren't good so she just hate to be here, but she doesn't want to admit it. "You didn't have a nice time here, in Assiah, right?"
That last question could be difficult to deal for her. She could have suffered a lot here. I didn't have a nice childhood and if the Old Man, Yukio and the others priests from the monastery hadn't been there, hell, probably I would be a psycho by now. Without them…
Miku pales and she shifts her gaze to other place. "No… I… I was happy here."
"Really?"
"Yes. I lived with my mother in a small cattle in front of a lake. We grew rice and there were a lot of fruit trees. I was indeed happy with my life."
I guess I was wrong. However, Miku continues speaking and her tone of voice goes lower.
"But… there was a day… Demons attacked us and my mother… Oka-san…. She…"
Tears fell from her eyes and she covers her face with her hands. I'm left speechless. I wasn't that wrong. Something went seriously bad here.
"Miku, calm down. I shouldn't have asked that out of the blue." I know I did similar with Yuki, but that time I was sure about myself. Now, with all that has happened, I'm not prepared to give a speech. I don't know how to deal with this! Yukio is always telling me that I should think about the others' feelings, but I'm not good in that so I just go and say what I think.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry." Miku wipes the tears and takes a huge breath. "Bad things happened. Yes, but I don't think that's the only reason of my behavior."
"It's okay. Don't worry." I don't want to ruin more the mood. "Do you remember how did you end up in the AFU?
Miku sighs and moves her gaze to the floor before replying with a low voice. "I don't know."
I'm left without voice due to her answer. She doesn't know?
"I was very young when I left Assiah. There was a…" Her breath goes more forced, but she controls it and relaxes again. "It was a bad day when many things happened."
"Miku-san, what are you saying?" Yuki, as me, is confused.
"I woke up in the Earth of the AFU. How did I? Why? I don't know at all. I only recall losing consciousness and waking up just to be picked up by the Gremory household."
I hear some noise behind me and turn around just to see Kiba opening the door of the storage room. "Excuse me, but the door of the building is already opened. Takara is asking us to proceed with the mission."
After he notifies that, he leaves again. I move my eyes to Miku and speak. "We'll speak later about everything. We need to deal with this shit first. Let's go."
I leave the storage room with Miku, Yuki and Kuro following my footsteps. We join the Gremory guys and Takara, who're waiting for us in the entrance of the building where our objective lays.
"Hear me out," he begins talking in a low voice. "There're guards patrolling the building and cameras."
"How're we going to reach the control room without getting noticed?" Kiba asks, peeking through the door into the building.
"We'll have to infiltrate in the building knocking out everyone, or killing if necessary, until we reach our objective."
"Killing?" Issei and I mutter at the same time.
"Is… this for real." Yuki looks at me with doubt all written in her face.
Damn. I think I can deal with the fact of killing someone in order to save another people, but Yuki is new into this dangerous worlds of the demons. How can I explain her that there will be times where you have to fight with all your force and that your foes won't endure it?
Luckily, Miku comes in my rescue. "Yuki-chan can easily knock out any person we encounter. Isn't it right?"
"…" Yuki opens her mouth and closes it again. She makes some thinking expression and a few seconds later, she replies. "I… guess so…" Some resolution returns to her face and she smiles proudly. "Yeah! A single fist is all I need to make them drop."
The girls give a huge laugh then. She gets so cocky sometimes, but it's cool. Is cool that Yuki can take this whole situation more lightly.
"Listen up." Takara calls our attention towards him again. "The only ones that are going to enter the building are me, Kiba Yuuto, as he had shown to be fast and precise, and Okumura. The rest will wait here. Got it?"
We all nod. "Kuro should also join us," I suggest pointing at my familiar. "He's fast and silent."
Takara nods and opens the door of the building. The four of us enter watching our steps and making the less noise. We move towards a wall to get some cover and watch carefully a hallway we want to cross.
"The control room should be in the second floor and there should be a staircase after crossing this hallway and the one in the left."
After the explanation of the kid with the pink puppet, I send Kuro to check the hallway and the next intersection. He comes back in less than a minute and tells me that there are a pair of guards walking towards our position.
"When they come closer, Okumura and Kiba, knock them out after I give you the signal."
We nod. I listen carefully to be prepared to do my movement. I hear the sound of footsteps coming in our direction. Those two guards are chatting casually. They are very close. Takara gets a metal spherical object from his clothes.
"What's that?" I ask in a low voice.
"5… 4… 3… 2…" He throws it from our cover. "1… Go."
I take a pair of seconds to understand what he's asking, but when I see Kiba leaving our cover I recall that I should knock one of the guards."
So I also leave our cover and head into the hallway where the guards have been blinded by some stun grenade. I quickly reach one of them. Kiba is already shocking the other with his arm trying to make him loose his consciousness. I, on the other hand, just go the fast way. My fist reaches the face of the guard and he fells to the floor completely knocked out.
"Good. Move the bodies. There is a closet right there. Hide them in there." Takara joins us and points a near closet where we can fit the two unconscious bodies.
"Kuro, make watch in the intersection with the next hallway in case some other guards come in our direction."
"Sure."
A pair of seconds later, both unconscious men are locked inside the closet all tight. Hahaha! With those marine suits and their masks they will probably end up very sweaty.
"Rin!"
"Kuro, what's going on?"
"There's another coming from the halfway left to the intersection."
I exchange looks with Takara and Kiba, just in time when someone is turning the left corner. I curse, Takara starts to pull out something from his suit, but Kiba only mutters a single word.
"Sword Birth."
The blond boy summons a sword and dashes towards the guard with his God-like speed. The guy using a modern war outfit almost jumps when he sees Kiba going for him. He aims his rifle, but, luckily, the [Knight] manages to put his sword under the guard's neck before he has the chance to put the finger in the trigger.
Silence envelops the place. It was silent in the first place, but now it feels quieter. The guard drops his assault rifle to the floor and raises his hands. Kiba looks at his eyes with impassiveness and keeps maintaining their eye contact (the guard has a mask so I don't know if he's actually looking into the blond boy's eyes). Then he sighs and, with a quick movement, he moves to the back of the man before shocking him and leaving him in the floor.
Uff. That was close. I don't want to see any person dying, even if they belong to the organization that has my brothers and friends captured. The same we belonged not so much ago. Now is time to proceed.
The team walk to the intersection and take cover in the left wall. We check our right and confirm that nobody see our backs. I send Kuro again to investigate and notify us of any threads.
"There is one in the top of the stairs. I barely managed to prevent him from finding me. He got many guns and grenades."
That's what Kuro said. Taking out a guy in that position could be hard. "Any ideas?"
Takara holds his bunny puppet up. "I summon you, Surprise Box Dabulus!"
Just after he finished his words, a strange green and red box with a clown smile drown appears out of nowhere. Did he just summoned it from Gehenna?
"I didn't know you were a Tamer."
"Go," he whispers to it, ignoring my words. Instantly, the box starts to float up and reach the roof.
The object, or rather, the demon with box form, travel across the hallway towards the stairs where the guard is watching. From our cover, I see it going above the guy, so he doesn't notice. What is Takara planning to do? As I think about it, the demon floats behind the guard and opens, releasing a small cloud of dust.
"What's this!? Who…?"
BUMP
The guy falls to the ground. Just like that.
"Was that a…?" Kiba begins to ask. "…some kind of smoke bomb?"
"It's a demon from Gehenna," Takara explains. "Its name is Surprise Box Dabulus. As its name says, it can surprise its enemies. Let's go on. We just have to climb those stairs."
After hiding that last guard's body in the closet (I wonder how we actually managed to fit them in there) and watching how the Surprise Box Dabulus disappeared in a smoke cloud, we climb the stairs to the second floor. Right now I should be making use of the situation and asking Takara some question like why didn't he show his Tamer skills before.
However, there are more important things to do right now. We walk another hallway, this time without finding any vigilance with the exception of a camera, which Kuro managed to disconnect so we could pass. The three of us eventually reach a notorious door.
"This is it." The boy of the puppet turn to look at Kiba and me. "We have reached the control room."
The door is of that kind that has like a fence from which you can watch the other side. I peek and see a lot of console tables, many screens and other technological equipment. There are four guys who don't look like soldiers, instead they look like engineers.
"How should we proceed?" Kiba asks wary. The guy looks like he can draw a sword at any moment. Hell, I'm also like that. My hand is holding really tightly the grip of Kurikara.
Takara put his hand on the doorknob and moves it to check if it's unlocked. "We're going to break in. We're four. They are four. Yes, the familiar also counts. When I open the door each of us must go against one of them and knock him up."
Kiba, Kuro and I, we'll nod. "Get it. Let's do this. Kuro, you take the one on the right. Kiba and Takara, take down those two who are in front talking. Meanwhile, I'll go against the one who is in the left."
We exchange looks with each other. Takara moves the knob…
"Aaaahhh!"
With a shout, we break into the room and rush against our opponents. I quickly close the distance to my selected target prepared to end it in one blow. The guy opens his eyes in fear, but I hit him with the hilt of my katana in his temple before he got a chance to scream for help.
On the other side, Kuro gets in his bigger form and jumps over his target. He's lucky that he can still move freely thanks to the high roof of the control room. Kuro headbutts his opponent in the forehead and the guy loses consciousness in an instant.
The other guys also develop in a good way. Kiba uses his God-like speed and gets behind his target before shocking him with his devil physical force. Takara, on the other hand, summons that hammer which looks like a toy and he used before to hit my head. Damn! That little shit is hard. With this gadget, the midget knocks out the remaining engineer.
A feeling of victory assaulted me and I think the others felt the same for an instant, but I recall why we came here. "Takara, get the data and do your thing. We need to rescue everyone!"
The boy doesn't reply and just start typing in one of the consoles. He types and keeps typing like some sort of hacker. From time to time, the screens show different things. At some point, many code lines are shown, then pictures and…
"Yukio!" I shout my brother's name when I see his face in the screen.
"I already managed to acquire his location. He's underground, in the deepest part of the prison."
"Finally. Yukio, I'm going for you. What about the others?"
"Above his cell. There are many good exorcists trapped in this base." I don't know if it actually was that, but I think I saw Takara clenching his fist. "Arrested for doing their duty and not abusing of their power. I'm going to download this into my PDA and sent it to your smartphone."
"So that's it, we can go now to save…"
"Remember I still need to create a distraction. I'll blow away one of the reactors that gives this place energy."
"Hurry!"
In that moment…
UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHHHHHH
A red light covers the room and a siren starts to ring through the whole place. Fuck! It's really loud.
"Who activated the alarm?" Kiba shouts and turns around. "You!"
I look to the place where he focused his eyes on, only to see an unexpected turn of events. A fifth guy just like the engineers we took out before is standing beside one of the consoles. His hand pressed over a red button.
"I just can't… Augh!" That's the last sound he's able to produce before Kiba hits him with the blunt side of one of his swords.
"Shit!" I swear and hold even more tightly my grip over the hilt of my sword. I truly… feel like exploding in flames…
No, man. Relax, don't let them control you. Don't… let them control you. Don't let them control you…
"Okumura-kun." I feel my shoulder being shaken. I turn my head just to see Kiba with a serious expression. "We need to leave this building. Now!"
I see Takara and Kuro waiting in the door of the room. I release my grip over Kurikara and run to them with Kiba by my side. "Takara, did you do what…?"
"That reactor will blow off soon. But now it won't help very much. The entire base should have figured out that there're intruders thanks to that alarm."
We go full speed and reunite with the rest of the team.
"What happened?" Issei asks us as he looks around. The base have changed. There are more 2 helicopter more patrolling the skies and some flying drones. I also feel some kind of small tremors. The cause of them can only be those big biped robots.
"Our cover have been blown away," Kiba explains reading his sword for whatever could come right now. "Takara-kun, are we going to abort the mission?"
"No," he denies looking at his PDA. "We need to do this. If we don't free the trapped exorcists right now, there won't be another chance."
"Oi, how many people have these guys locked up in this place?" He had mentioned that there were others besides my friends trapped here, but now I finally understand the importance of this fact.
"At least 100 exorcists. All of them above the medium class."
!
100 exorcists!? The True Cross have captured 100 exorcists in here? If that's the case we have to release a whole army.
KABUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUM
Cutting my thoughts, a huge monstrous explosion is heard. I cover my ears and I see the others doing the same.
"What happened?" Yuki doubts as she palms her ear with a bad expression. "What was that explosion?"
"The reactor. With that, they won't be able to send all the forces inside the base against us. Now is the moment to move into the jail where the exorcists and Okumura's comrades are locked inside."
As Takara said, this is the moment to do it. "Guys, let's goooooo… Big drone."
I point my finger in front to make the others realize that one of those biped drones is in front of us blocking our way. Its sensors analyze our group and it stops walking. Silence takes control of the place. But only a few instants. When the machine opened its sides revealing a pair of tough looking machine-guns, the whole team reacted like it was one person.
"Jump!"
Issei didn't have to tell us. The team splits in two taking the nearest cover just when the drone starts to shoot uncountable amounts of bullets. Sparks fly everywhere as the bullets crash with the side of the buildings that we're using to protect us. I'm with Miku, Yuki and Kuro hiding behind the storage room we used before as a base.
On the other side, the Gremory guys and Takara take cover behind the building where the control room is located. The drone starts to walk towards our position without stopping its deadly fire. I have to take it down. I exchange looks with the team and Takara nods at me from his position.
"Let's do this!" I jump from my only cover and the machine-guns are pointed at my person, but I quickly unsheathe my sword. The blue flames surround my body and I feel how my power is released. I raise my sword. "Satan… Slash!"
With that shout, I swing Kurikara down and a wave of blue flames travel in the drone's direction. My attack clashes against one of the guns destroying completely. Take that you piece moving toast! Hahahaha! The drone stumbles, but something else comes up from its upper part. I have seen that thing somewhere else. It's a…
And a missile explodes almost in front of me.
"Waaahh!" I'm thrown away after the drone fired a missile to the floor a pair of steps from where I was standing. If I was a normal human, I probably would be dead by now, but I'm not. So after being thrown away like 10 meters I only have some bruises, scratches and some pain in my head.
This machine just… threw me a missile. Just like that. Is kind of weird to get used to the idea that I'm fighting heavy war machinery.
"Master." Miku runs to my side and holds me. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, don't worry. Completely fine."
After replying I watch the others fighting against the drone that took me by surprise. Kiba uses his speed to avoid receiving a missile and soon reaches the enemy. He moves his swords filled with demonic energy to cut one of the legs, specifically the left one. The metal extremity, surprisingly, withstands the strikes, but the machine stumbles even more.
[Explosion!]
Issei have already charged some Boosts and he can join the fight. "Dragon Shot!" He shouts and fires a green powerful attack against the missile launcher that was about to open fire again. That gun is blown away and that leaves the drone with a single remaining weapon to attack us.
"Here I go!" Yuki's turn. My [Rook] punches the right leg of the drone, the one which wasn't attacked by Kiba before. Adding that strike, the machine fells to the floor with a huge impact.
The metallic creature tries to stand up again, but it fails. He's done!
"Koneko-chan!" Issei calls the Gremory [Rook] and points at the front part of the drone.
The small girl nods and jumps over the machine. She drives her little but extremely powerful fists into it. With a big scratch, the metal is destroyed and sparks fly. The drone starts to tremble and moves its extremities in erratic ways. Koneko drives her punches several times until she rip off some cables from the machine.
At this point, the drone loses all control. It tries to stand up, but it legs don't look like they would like to cooperate. The last machine-gun is throwing bullets in all directions, so Issei destroys it with a great punch of his gauntlet. Now is time to finish it.
"Hyaaaa!" I jump and stab Kurikara in the hole that Koneko created before. Blue flames cover the machine as it starts to release sparks and mechanical shrieks. Finally it stops moving. I get off the big thing landing without any trouble on the floor.
"Rin, nicely done." Issei gives me his fist so I can bump it.
"Thanks, man." After talking to him, I move my gaze towards Takara, who hadn't get into the fight against the drone. "Where're the prisoners?"
"There." The boy points his puppet to a tall building far away from us. However, we can reach it by simply running in a straight line. "We have company. Move!"
Suddenly, a powerful light fills my vision. "What's…?" I cover my eyes and when I adapt to that illumination, I realize that there's a helicopter pointing its reflector to us.
Oh, fuck. We run from the place where we fought against the biped drone and head towards the building where the prison is located. The chopper start shooting with its machine-guns forcing us to cover our heads and hurry our footing. It's a luck that this war vehicle don't got missiles.
"More!"
Thanks to Issei's warning, the rest of the team is able see a military car stopping near us. Five soldiers come out of the vehicle and aim their assault rifles to our group. They have military clothing, bulletproof jackets, helmets and even masks. Dammit! We're surrounded!
PUMP
PUMP
From other side, I watch how another biped drone comes towards us. "Oh, come on!" This have truly go to shit.
"I'll handle the drone, the rest is in your hands." Takara murmurs those words and moves to fight against his chosen opponent, which had already activated its weapons. So the chopper and the armed soldiers are our job.
"Guys…" One of the soldiers points his finger at me. "…Blue flames…"
"…You can't be serious." Another speaks with a tremor on his voice. "Satan no Musuko? Wasn't he supposed to be lost?"
"…"
"Right now I'm here and ready to kick you fucking ass!" As I increase the size of the flames surrounding me, I shout this not letting them keep speaking.
"Okumura-kun." Kiba gets beside me. "Let us, Koneko-chan, Ise-kun and I, handle these men. I think you and your peerage are more suited to fight the chopper."
I take a moment to think about it. "You sure? Fine... Try not to kill them."
I tell him that and turn to see how's Takara holding the biped drone. The boy raises his puppet and yells:
"Go ahead, Super MechWarrior Sentogaia!" Just after he pronounced those words, a big cloud of smoke cover a spot between him and the biped drone. From that cloud, a big robot a bit taller than the drone makes its appearance! Since when this boy can summon something like that!? "Attack!"
Takara's robot runs to the drone, which start to use its two main guns against it. Now, I move my head to the enemy I have to face right now with Miku and Yuki. The chopper might be reloading, because it hasn't been shooting in this last seconds.
"Break is over." Yuki raises her fists and takes a fighting pose. As she says that, the helicopter activates his guns and tries to make us cheese with its tons of bullets.
"I won't let you harm Master!" Miku moves in front of us and creates a barrier with her demonic power. The bullets aren't enough powerful to break it, but tons of them might cause problems to her.
"Good job, Miku, but let me handle it." I leave my protection and shoot a fire attack to one of the two guns that the chopper has.
BRRRRMMM
The metal flies as that specific part of the vehicle is destroyed by my attack. The chopper moves in an erratic way across the dark sky. The pilot must understand now that we can attack him, so he's cautious. As it crosses the air, the vehicle keeps firing tons of bullets from its remaining machine-gun.
"He's the son of Satan!" Some guy gets his head by the side of the chopper and also starts to fire his rifle. It's common sense that in military helicopters there should be more people than the pilot.
"These aren't exorcism weapons! These ones are meant for humans!"
I hear their talking from here, but I choose to ignore them. As I have this thinking, a big object is thrown against the tail of the chopper. It's a motorbike. Who…?
"Nail it!" Yuki was able to catch the first thing she saw and threw it towards our opponent. Great!
"Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck!" The vehicle starts to do whirlwinds without any kind of control and I hear the voices of its passengers.
It's about to crash the ground, but the pilot manages to stabilize the helicopter and it begins to fly with regularity again. Fuck! I think it needs a Satan Slash to finally fall.
"Master, let me handle this." Miku takes fly and quickly gets in front of the helicopter windows. "Excuse me, but I won't let you get in Master's way."
The chopper replies to her complains with a bullets rain from the remaining machine-gun. And as yesterday's battle against Kokabiel, Miku movements suffer a transformation. As she flies dodging swiftly the bullets, her body looks like it disappears for a pair of seconds, only to reappear again and then disappearing. That process repeated several times until she decided to attack with her demonic power.
"Take this!" A purple blast hit the front of the chopper destroying the controls and the machine starts to fall down doing circles.
It crashes against the ground creating a powerful tremor. The airscrew is destroyed and the tail of the chopper cracks. A dust cloud rises just as the machine catches fire. Luckily, it doesn't burst out until the passengers have left it. We beat it and nobody died in the process. Good. Now…
"Miku, one question."
"Yes, how can I help you?" She says that when she lands beside me.
"That thing you do. That moment where you move and…. Disappear or move to fast… What's with that?"
Miku opens her mouth making a big "Oh". She then smiles and replies my question. "That skill is one that I acquired from… 'Him'."
Her expression loses her smile and she moves her gaze to other direction. I guess that by "him" she means Mephisto.
"I call it [Time Dodge]." Miku continues her explanation. "With it, I can stop time for about 1 or 2 seconds. I can't do more than that without stopping to use the skill for another 2 seconds. In that way, I stop time in many short intervals."
"So…" I don't get it. It's very complex for my brain, but I'll never admit it! Or Yukio would have won.
"Did you thought that I was moving very fast? So much fast that there were moments where you couldn't follow my movements?" I nod. "It's because there were moments where you were froze and your eyes didn't see me moving in some direction. Then the time came back to normal and you saw me again. And the process repeated many times. Do you understand now?"
"Somehow… Either way, it's not the time. We have to move."
I actually understood it, although I better not try to think about it very much. Not enough hard drive in my head for more.
"Waa!"
The three of us, Miku, Yuki and I turn to the place that scream came from just to see five soldiers in the floor.
[Reset!]
Issei leans on his knees as he loses the power of his boosts. Just in time when he and the others had just finished dealing with the armed soldiers. The only one who hasn't finished is…. A huge noise cuts my thoughts.
"Takara-kun also have taken down the drone," Kiba comments as he massage his arms.
"Return!" Takara calls back his giant mecha, which had already left the biped drone as an abandoned car. "What're you all looking we have to move."
True. The team continues its way towards the prison we here the alarms all over the base and from time to time what flying drones and helicopters surveying. Luckily, we managed to reach our objective avoiding all fight. It was also thanks to Takara who burst that reactor from the control room.
"Stop right there… Ahhh!" Two guards in the prison's door try to stop us, but a good Satan Bomb and a magical attack from Miku send them flying and now they're lying in the floor without conscious.
After dealing with that, we rush to the door, which is made of steal and looks very wide. And, obviously, is closed.
"I got the password from the control room. I'll connect my PDA and open it so we can…"
"Miku, Yuki, Koneko, are you ready?" I ask the girls ignoring Takara.
"…enter. Oi, what're you planning to…?"
They all nod and we proceed. The [Rooks] strike the door with all their might. The damage isn't very big (it's a powerful door), but then I and Miku do our part.
"Satan Nuke!"
"Hyaaa!"
I use my most explosive technique and Miku release a big wave of her demonic power. That plus the previous attack send the door to the floor. We enter the building, but not before I take a moment to look at Takara, who sighs and follows us.
"Now, where to go?"
"There should be an elevator that will take us underground, but there should also be…"
"The intruders!"
"…more guards. Quickly, let's take the elevator. Take down all the enemies you can. Remember that this one is also our return path."
What Takara said is true, but… Dammit! Some injuries are okay, I guess.
The inside of the building looks like the reception of an enterprise, but less fancy and more cold. There's another metallic door in front of us, on the other side of the room. That must be the elevator. From the sides, we receive fire.
"Master, let's create barriers to protect everyone!"
"Yes!"
I create a barrier for the right side and Miku handles the left. We are the only ones from the group who can make barriers, so it's our job to handle the bullets.
"What are those shields?"
"Are they using demons? They're Tamers?"
I hear the opponents speaking.
"Impossible, if not, where are the magic circles?"
"And what class of demons are they using?"
They think we're Tamers.
"One of them is the son of Satan! Look at his blue flames!"
"If that's the case we must bring our exorcism weapon and stop using this guns with normal bullets."
Until now we have handled fast all the enemies we encountered, but now they'll be able to notify the entire place of us. This operation will become really hard. But I need to save them. I need to save them!
"Guys, can you deal with the soldiers as me and Miku keeps with the defense?"
I ask the ones who are free right now, who are Issei, Kiba, Koneko, Takara and Yuki. Kuro can't do any type of range attacks. So I can't count with him right now.
"Don't worry, Sensei!" Yuki grabs the closest object she can find and throws it towards the opponent.
Koneko nods and follows her fellow [Rook].
[Explosion!]
"I'm ready to fight again. Dragon Shot!"
They are all using distance attacks because we can't break the formation. If not, they'll be hit by the bullets. Explosions and screams echo all around us when we decide to counterattack. We keep moving and finally reach the elevator.
"You can't destroy this door as the last one." Takara shouts at me over the sounds of bullets and explosions. "This is the elevator. To make it work I need to use the password that I have in my PDA. You all need to stop the True Cross until I can get us inside it!"
"Do it quickly, you midget!"
I dispel the barrier and raise my sword. The situation right now is bad. There're enemies in all direction and they have us surrounded. Issei keeps firing Dragon Shots to all the enemies he can take, but his Boosts might run out soon. Kiba creates some throwing knifes filled with demonic power and throws them to each gunslinger. Koneko and Yuki are using any blunt object at their disposal to knock down our foes.
Unfortunately, the enemies don't stop coming.
"Gaah! Hurts!" Issei grabs his right arm. Did he got shot?
That pisses me off and divert my gaze to the closest group of enemies, which are shooting from the second floor. "Satan Slash!"
My attack strikes below them and throw them to the floor before they can escape. As I do this, Miku tries to protect all of us with her barriers, which are suffering great damage from the tons of bullets those are receiving. Issei has retreat behind us because he isn't very much able to fight do to all the bullets that his arm had to endure.
"This is not good!" Yuki is covering herself from the bullets with a steel trashcan.
"I can't attack them." Koneko is taking cover behind some desk. "They're very far and I don't have more to throw."
On the other hand, Kiba is like: "Sword Birth!" He is constantly creating throwing knifes to be able to hit the far away targets. "I can't keep fighting like this! I'll use my speed and attack them with my sword."
"Kiba wait… aght!" Issei tries to stop him, but he moans of pain and press his arm.
Not just Kiba, but also I clench my fist with anger. Seeing our friend hurt is something… We look at each other and prepare to kick all their asses.
"The door is open!"
Takara's voice kind of awakes us. We all move our eyes to the boy and see the elevator opening its door in front of us.
"What're you waiting? Enter!"
The team moves quickly. Issei enters first with Koneko. Kiba grunts but follows his comrades. But then…
CLINK
I look at the floor and see a green small round object…. Oh shit…
"Grenade!"
I grab Yuki and then Miku, who is forced to dispel her barrier. The bullets fly over us and we're forced to lower our heads. Yuki covers the three of us the best she can with that trashcan, but… "Aght! Fuck!" One of her knees fall to the ground.
"Yuki!" I notice blood in the floor. Some bullets managed to get her leg! Then…
BOOM
The grenades explodes and I have to quickly cast a barrier to prevent it from hitting us. A smoke cloud is created and we lose sight of the shooters who're trying to pulverize us with their bullets.
"Yuki, you okay?"
"Is fine, Sensei. It hurts less than it looks."
I hold tightly the hilt of Kurikara and my flames almost burst around me. I speak lowly. "You two get into the elevator. NOW!"
For a pair of seconds, the girls are like paralyzed, but then they nod and follow my command. I erect another barrier to prevent the bullets from hitting me or the girls behind me. After the dust cloud vanishes, I give a good look to all sides, localizing and memorizing all the enemies. When I finish doing that, I stab my sword in the ground.
"Satan Bomb!"
I use all my power in this attack and a dozen of explosions cover the area. Most of the soldiers are sent flying away and the others fell to the floor due to the hit and power of my attack. I hear screams all around me, but I shout louder enough to make them hear me.
"You DON'T harm my close ones. Specially these girls! Learn that lesson!"
That bullets have stop because most of the enemies have been hurt in some way and they are all disorganized. I turn around and sheathe Kurikara before following the others into the elevator.
"We're going down," Takara says and press a switch which closes the door and orders the elevator to go down.
We stay quiet as the elevator moves, but only for a few seconds because there are some wounds to treat.
"Ise-kun, lend me your arm."
"Is not that bad…. But it hurts." Issei shows his arm to all of us.
That's when I notice that the bullets haven't entered inside the meat and, instead, they have penetrate the skin leaving half of their long outside the body. Issei must be thankful of having a devil's body. Meanwhile, Kiba takes of his jacket and lends it to the other teen.
"Bite this. I'll do my best removing the bullets."
Issei obeys and then the blond boy summons a really small "sword", that in the end is just a bistoury. He takes the job of taking all the bullets out of Issei's body. This guy grunts a bit, but the bullets come out easily, so soon he finds himself without any metal inside his arm.
"Thanks man, I should have tried to block the bullets with my dragon arm, but it went that way."
What happens next is that Koneko uses some bandages to cover the small wounds in Issei's right arm, while Kiba handles Yuki's leg in the same way he did with Issei. Then, Yuki all gets some bandages too for her body.
Just in time, because the elevator stops its movement. Tension fills the atmosphere again. I exchange looks with everyone. What I see is some nervousness, but also a big will to get the best outcome of this situation. We have come this far. However, the worst is yet to come. I know.
"We can," Kuro says moving his tails.
I can't prevent myself from smiling. "Yes, we'll save them." Yukio, Bon, Sheimi, Konekomaru, Shima, Izumo and Shura. I'll be with them soon.
And the doors open, revealing a big new room.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
OUT OF THE STORY
Rin: At least I didn't get shot.
Issei: Talk for yourself.
Rin: Is not that bad.
Issei: Yeah, I know, but still I don't like it. I'm going to try to cover with my gauntlet the next time.
Rin: Even that might not work. Those were regular bullets. If they had used the ones they have for demons… That could have been very bad.
Issei: What're you talking about? Bullets filled with holy water?
Rin: And smoke grenades with condensed holy water. We might have to fight this kind of weaponry later.
Hiiiiiii everyone. First, replies:
TO Elemental-OverLord: Glad you liked. Thx for the review.
TO Master of Dragon God: Finally is here. Sorry for the delay. Thx for the review.
TO S0ularbiter97: As you see, the only Gremory members going were Issei, Kiba and Koneko. I choose it that way because it kind of look more personal. Because it was personal. They decided to give Rin a hand. Happy to have surprised you with that fact. Thx for the review.
TO Neroj: Well, I kind of explained why it would be okay. Hope it worked. Thx for the review.
TO Telron: Happy to have surprised you. Thx for the review.
TO grandshadowseal: My native language is Spanish. The tail deal. She has a small bunny tail that is easy to hide, very close to the one of Usamaro, who's the small demon that appears in the Ao No Exorcist movie. Thx for the review.
TO redburningdragon: I have been like to much eager to use that joke since the beginning of the fic ;) Thx for the review.
TO Earth Dragon Arnighte: Haha! Glad it was a surprising event. Thx for the review.
TO PersonaQeminod1: Well, he's going to regret some things, but those won't be related to Rin's school ;) Thx for the review.
TO Amvmaster: Going Rin X Harem ;) Thx for the review.
TO coronadomentes: Gracias-Thx.
TO Kyuremblanco7: There you go. There you go. There you go. There you go. There you go. There you go. There you go. There you go. There you go. There you go. There you go. There you go. There you go. There you go. There you go. There you go. There you go. There you go. There you go. There you go. There you go. There you go. Thx for the review.
TO Guest: Glad you're enjoying the fic. Thx for the review.
TO Swordalfgun: That if you go into the "technically" realm xD Thx for the review.
TO reffast 1000cc: Glad you are having fun with it :) Thx for the review.
TO Ricc850: Well, I have been thinking of the artificial Sacred Gears, but let's meet Azazel first ;) Thx for the review.
TO anonymous: I can add some of them without much problem. Thx for the review.
TO TheLaughingStalk: Glad I make you laugh. Wincest….? I guess it depends of the point of view. Thx for the review.
TO darksquall03: Me alegra que te guste la historia. Y sí, lo continuo. Gracias por la review.
TO Aries64: Thanks. I'm really glad you're enjoying it. Thx for the review.
TO IrishKatana: Oh, you see. There is a character that will eventually come, but I think it will be a big surprise.
TO JD Fanficing: Yes, I'm sorry. I'm aware I make some mistakes. I'm always willing to fix them. So point me out which you think I should check, please. I'm glad you're having fun with the fic. Thx for the review.
TO Smiling Reader: Didn't see that coming, right? xD Thx for the review.
Very well, the hardest part comes. Why I haven't upload in 5 months? First, 3 of those months consisted on the university kicking my ass really hard. 1 was about not getting the grades necessary to get discount which my family need right and falling in a low depression that I fought playing videogames and watching anime no stop. January I was into my other fic a little, but the most is that I think I might be a little rusted. I had problems writing this chapter. But I think I'm recovering it. Hell, I might have already recovered. So, anyway, I'm really sorry for the delay. I want to keep doing this.
About TAKARA NEMU. A character that hardly have screen time in the Ao no Exorcist franchise in general was really important this chapter. Takara is a tamer that we still don't know much. We only know that he's really powerful and was hired by Mephisto to watch over the exorcism student in the Cram School. In the beginning of the Iluminati Arc, there's a scene where he summons that mecha that I made him use in this chapter. The manga didn't show him drawing or using a circle as all tamers we have seen till now. So, I just took that from the manga. How he does that? Who knows? Right now, only the mangaka.
There was a scene that I particularly enjoyed writing. I'm talking about the part where Rin, Kura, Kiba and Takara used stealth to reach the control room. As the biped drone, this scene have a base in Metal Gear Solid games. Using covers and taking down the enemy before he can make a sound. I love this kind of games and now I loved writing this. I WANT YOU TO TELL ME, would you like to see more scenes like this one?
IMPORTANT: I want to tell you right now, from this point this fic will reveal fact that have only been shown in the manga. In few word, there will be spoilers. I recommend anyone who is reading this fic to have at least read until the end of the Iluminati Arc. Also, there are many thing that might differ from the manga in this fic. Mostly because there are many secrets that haven't been told until now. Is hard to explain, but Ao no Exorcist haven't given us much content to use until now. We have basic information of the characters and the lore has barely been explored. Since the beginning I was planning to go freely with the content and add my own ideas in every chapter. I want you people to know this before continuing with the fic.
Okay, I hope that I have explained myself enough well with that paragraph. Is 5 am and my father is about to kick my ass. Also, my senses aren't really sharp right now.
Anyway, right now we have get 186 favs, 224 and 99 reviews. I couldn't be more happy :D I really appreciate all the support you people are giving me. 99 reviews, hehe. That means you might be the review #100 ;) So….. Fav, Follow and most important: Review. Sebaspe out!