Chapter 19
Waking up it takes me a moment to remember where I am, the ceiling and bed decidedly not mine.
Mia stirs, but only enough to coil tighter.
I'm not sure what the devil's plans are for today, but I know mine. Even if I hadn't joined up properly, they were and will continue to be willing to kill one of the people closest to me, hell, most of the people I'm close to at all. If there's one thing I know about isekai protagonists, it's that they protect the people they care about.
After about 20 minutes Mia lets me up, curling back under the covers, and I make my way over to the en suite bathroom that apparently every bedroom here has to shower off.
Yesterday was intense, but I've got time to think now I'm finally something approaching calm.
Short term, those Fallen aren't sticking around much longer, past today if I can help it.
Then, I need to deal with this Riser thing, alongside the rest of the peerage. Fine.
Long term is the issue. I need to be strong enough to stand up to people like the Satans if it comes to it, and their equivalents in the other factions. Plus, I agreed to a 'study session' with Beelzebub. Well, a meeting at least but I can't imagine he won't want to study me given everything, so I should also think about what I want to ask for since Lucifer said he'd likely make his own contract to study me or study with me, and what sort of devil would I be if I didn't get everything I could out a deal with a Satan?
I can handle this.
Letting the water run through my hair I take a breath, time to go convince Rias I should be allowed to fight an unknown number and strength of Fallen Angels and their lackeys.
~~
I find my way down to what is apparently the dining room here, because this is just a mansion disguised as an old school building, finding Rias and Toujou there eating.
"Morning Haruto, sleep okay?" Rias mumbles out.
"Yeah, thanks Rias, you okay?"
"Hn, just up early." She grunts in response.
It's almost 11am, is that early for her? I mean, it is a Sunday but still.
Toujou clearly notices my look and smirks into her food.
"Have we got anything more about the exorcists and fallen?" I ask, sitting down and taking a bowl of muesli from the centre of the table.
Rias perks up slightly at that, a glimmer in her eyes.
"Yeah, it took like 6 hours, but my familiar finally saw someone entering the church, and two hours later a couple people leave. Clearly they're hidden there, we just need to work out how. Satan Leviathan hasn't asked us not to get involved or anything, so I doubt she's made progress on her side yet."
I know what I want, I just hope I don't have to go against her to get it.
"Rias, can I go over and take a look?"
Both her and Toujou's eyes lock onto me with concern and warning.
"Why, Haruto?" Rias asks, crossing her arms.
"Well, I have an idea to deal with them however they're hidden, it'll look good for us solving the issue, and it should earn me more power. I know it's Sitri's peerage and a human at the time that got hurt by them, but I won't sit still while they could hurt the people I care about."
She studies me for a moment, chewing at her lip lightly before letting out a sigh.
"Unless we literally restrain you, you'll try and do something yeah?"
Letting out a breath of my own I just give her a simple nod.
"Right, well I want you to know I trust you, so okay. But you won't be going alone. If you get into trouble we will be there to pull you out, understand?"
"Yes, Rias, thank you." I answer, relief flooding me that I don't have to do something stupid. Or well two stupid things at least.
"Alright, Akeno and Kiba are checking things out around town. I'll call them back and inform Sona." She says, narrowing her eyes at me a little, "And you will be waiting here, clear?"
"Heh, yes my King" I say, giving her a deep bow.
~~
It's about an hour before Rias comes back, the rest of us sat around, anticipation and nerves in the air.
"Okay Haruto, Sona doesn't think it's the best idea, but provided you can take at least a few in alive she's willing to allow our peerage to deal with it. Though again, we don't know that the old church is the only place they are nor the specifics of their numbers. In better news, Sona was able to find some old plans and notes from the previous overseer of this town, and the church should have a hidden basement, accessible from behind the altar."
I stand and start stretching, Rias giving me a look that I could generously call exasperation.
"I'm not that full of myself." I joke, "At least let me tell you my plan and then you can tell me how smart I am, sound good?"
~~ An Hour Later ~~
Hovering above the church I can definitely feel the tiredness from the sun, luckily it's a bit cloudy, and I shouldn't be here long.
The rest of the peerage are stationed around, ready to jump in, and I know they're cautious of my plan, but they don't know my girl like I do. We'll show them what we can do, I'm not getting caught off guard or having them hurt the people I care about again.
Looking down at my phone as the 'ready' message comes through I start scattering feathers, carefully moving them around, inside and out. Half slowly spiral out over the grounds of the church, the other half slip in through cracks and broken windows - of which there are plenty - and slide over the surfaces.
I'm looking for air flow. If there's some underground base it's not going to get all its air through whatever trapdoor there is, there's gotta be something better.
It takes me about ten minutes since I'm trying to be stealthy with my bright red feathers. But I find a grate in the ground a little ways away from the building that has air intake.
Now the only sticking point. Hopefully they don't have some kind of apocalypse prepper air filter.
[You're up Mia, feather will direct you to the intake. Paralytic and knockout poisons for now, and we'll find some monsters to fuck up later.]
A moment later I get a response.
[Aye aye master.]
Following the feather I left with her she slips out of the forest behind the building and over to the obscured air intake.
As she twirls her parasol and starts to release a poisonous mist I swap to my devil wings, stuttering in the air for a moment.
Time for my newest Fusion ability
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Fusing [Lightning Spear], [Sharpen], and [Absolute Accuracy]
[Railgun]
|Epic Ability|
The user can launch a spear of lightning at any target they can see, and it will hit without fail. With concentration, the user can also set multiple targets, determining a 'flight path' for the spear, able to take out multiple targets per spear, thanks to its piercing abilities. The Fusion ability projectiles are also significantly faster than Lightning Spear.
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...
So, watch any good shows lately?
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Feat Achieved! Defeat Kalawarner +1 Silver Ability Gacha Ticket
Feat Achieved! Defeat Mittelt +1 Silver Item Gacha Ticket
Feat Achieved! Defeat Raynare +1 Advantage Silver Random Gacha Ticket
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Someone comes bursting out of the front door, cough violently and moving sluggishly.
"Come out and fight you fucking cowaAARGGH" He screams, lightning coursing through his body.
Wow, still standing?
I wonder if I can do trickshots with this by targeting a specific body part?
"Who the fuGAAKKKK"
Hehe. Yeah, I can.
One more for luck.
"KGKKssaaaa" As he finally falls face down, twitching slightly.
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Feat Achieved! Defeat Freed Selzen +1 Advantage Silver Random Gacha Ticket
Feat Achieved! Defeat the Fallen and Exorcist presence in Kuoh +1 Gold Selection Gacha Ticket
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Well, that was, uh, easy?
I turn and give Mia a thumbs up and she waves at me with a big grin.
Okay then, let's gather up our new friends. I give the peerage the all clear sign and they emerge, looking warily between the twitching individual on the floor and me as I 'fly' down. I prefer my wings.
As I land I pull out my duffle, reaching for some rope and chains, Akeno quickly getting to work tying down the exorcist. I'm not going to focus on how good she is at it.
The rest of us start to move into the church, still wary, Rias using magic to form a 'bubble' of clean air. Mia's poison is near invisible and odourless, she could be a truly terrifying assassin if she wanted.
There's a couple other exorcists near to the alter, along with a raven haired woman just barely up the stairs of the open trapdoor.
Toujou gathers up the grunts and loops chain around them, while Akeno repeats her performance on the woman, apparently a fallen though I'm still having trouble identifying magical signatures.
Descending the stairs there's a trail of sleeping exorcists. The underground is bigger than I thought it would be, with a couple of barracks, living spaces, a kitchen, and a meeting room.
A further slope down and a final set of double doors lead us into a much larger room, more so carved than constructed.
Two more fallen are over the right side of the room, slumped in front of some sort of cage.
At the far end is a large metal cross, up on a pedestal of sorts, though one arm of it is chipped and scorched, obviously damaged in some fashion..
We cautiously move into the room, but everything stays quiet. Akeno and Toujou tie up the fallen while Rias, Kiba, and I move past them to cage. Inside is a slumped form, a blonde girl, I think Europe- oh shit Asia, I forgot about her.
Also in the cage is a heavily damaged Kuoh boys uniform...
Well, I imagine this just got more complex.
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Feat Achieved! Learn what happened to Saji Genshirou +1 Gold Trait Gacha Ticket
Feat Achieved! Save Asia Argento +1 Gold Skill Gacha Ticket
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~~
Back at the ORC, Sona has been made aware of everything and contacted her sister, both of them on their way here soon.
And do you know how I can best set myself up for meeting yet another Satan? That's right, gambling!
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Rolling Silver Ability Gacha Ticket
A Rare Ability!
[Yami]
|Rare Ability|
Yugioh - When used, an ominous darkness with rouge clouds covers the surroundings, boosting the power of dark abilities and infernal beings while weakening all Holy beings and abilities.
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Ooh, that could be very useful, we're infernal, and the people we're kind of at war with are Holy. Are at war with but it's cold? Ah who knows?
Anyway, is thinking about the Satans before rolling some kind of cheat code?
Lucifer, Leviathan, Lucifer, Leviathan, Lucifer, Leviathan!
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Rolling Silver Item Gacha Ticket
An Uncommon Item!
[Crescent Rose]
|Uncommon Item|
RWBY - The ungodly mechashift fusion of a massive scythe and a high-calibre sniper rifle. The weapon can be compacted and carried or shifted into several forms for combat, such as a rifle or war scythe. It also comes with a magazine of dust sniper rounds of your choice every 24 hours.
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I never got into RWBY, though I know of it. But what kind of self-respecting person would not be excited about a combination scythe/sniper rifle? I just hope gacha magic means it doesn't really need maintenance, I have no idea about mechashift or anything like it.
Oh well, still happy!
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Rolling 2x Advantage Silver Random Gacha Tickets
[V - The Hierophant]
|Rare Item|
Tarot Card - Allows you to dispel any illusions in your line of sight. 72 Hour Cooldown.
OR
[Cool]
|Trash Ability|
Allows you to decrease the temperature of objects through touch. Does not decrease it particularly fast and it's certainly not enough to freeze then, but it will keep your drink or ice cream cool.
[HK 47]
|Rare Familiar|
Star Wars - "Defiant Statement, there is nothing you can do to me." HK is an incredibly experienced and advanced Assassin Droid, being extremely skilled in all forms of combat and sorts of weapons, as well as in combating and assassinating enemies thanks to his brilliant computational mind and engineering. He is also a very skilled mechanic. He comes equipped with standard droid gear, such as a blaster.
OR
[Rain]
|Uncommon Ability|
Allows you to make it rain from the skies, the more energy you expend the larger the scale of the rain. Slightly boosts water-based abilities and slightly weakens fire-based ones.
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Tarot and a droid please gacha.
The Tarot card is good to keep in my back pocket, but relies on me being able to know there's illusions in place. But it does say any so if someone better at sensing than me knows something is there, I can get rid of it hopefully no matter the level.
The droid is nice to have, what nerd doesn't want stuff from Star Wars?
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Rolling Gold Trait Gacha Ticket
A Rare Trait!
[Innocuous]
|Rare Trait|
Look at that face! How can you stay angry at that? People are far more forgiving to you, and they cannot stay angry at you too long. It even works in court.
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So, the shenanigans trait? Don't mind if I do, look out world.
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Rolling Gold Skill Gacha Ticket
An Uncommon Skill!
[Intermediate Math]
|Uncommon Skill|
You are very good at math, enough to be considered somewhat of a savant. You can rapidly calculate numbers in your head very accurately, faster than most people. You can also keep track of numbers and variables especially well.
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Eh, it'll make school easier, and if I ever want to branch into the human side of magic, Momo said that used calculations and shit, so it'd be handy then.
Okay, last but not least. Though what is a selection ticket?
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Explanation: Selection Ticket Type
Occasionally you may receive a Selection type Gacha Ticket, this allows you to choose between Random, Abilities, Items, Traits, Skills, or Familiars for the ticket type.
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Hm, what am I lacking? Realistically skills, and I know I can get tickets for people enjoying my cooking, so hopefully skills tickets beget more tickets.
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Rolling Gold Skill Gacha Ticket
An Elite Skill!
[Expert Programming]
|Elite Skill|
You are an expert programmer, your skill with coding is comparable to a low-level Tinker ability. You can craft and code complex algorithms and programs with ease, you can even make basic artificial intelligences.
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...
I can do so much alongside Mia with this.
Finally looking up I see everyone looking at me with, I'm going to go with fond exasperation.
"Power shit?" Kiba asks.
"Power shit." I confirm.
"If I start playing with a new weapon will you all judge me?"
I'll take the sigh as a no.
Pulling out Crescent Rose gets barely a weird look, turning it into a big fuck off scythe gets a few more.
Dammit, this is cool. Where am I going to learn to fight with a scythe? Are grim reapers real here? I assume so right?
My careful planning is interrupted by a knock at the door that's immediately followed by it being slammed open.
"Heellllloooo Rias and co!"
"Is that a fucking magical girl?" slips out of my mouth, and she turns to me with stars in her eyes. I knew about Leviathan's, uh let's go with style, but actually seeing it is something else.
"Mhm mhm, magical girl Levi☆tan at your service!" she says, spinning on the spot.
Sitri enters behind her with a deep sigh.
"Sister please. Shitara-san, this is my sister, the Satan Leviathan, please don't encourage her."
Hm.
Okay.
"The strongest female devil is a cute magical girl? Or did a magical girl become Satan?"
"The first one silly!" Leviathan exclaims, bopping me on the head with her wand.
"So then -" She starts, casually taking a seat on my lap making me blink and Sitri pinch the bridge of her nose "- So-tan has updated me about your little excursion. Now normally I wouldn't encourage that sort of adventure, buuut you delivered some naughty fallen and their exorcist friends that I can bully Azzy about, so I think I'll let you off this time."
She spins around to face me, and I'm sure she can feel the growing hardness under her but she seems more serious now.
"Now, Sona told me you have a truth-forcing ability correct?"
Rapid nods.
"I would like to contract you to use this on the fallen. Frankly either Azazel knew about this in which case I need to know what else is going on, or someone else set this up and he'll want to know about it as well."
"Yeah, that's fine, but uh contract? Is this not just a do what I say? Not to shoot myself in the foot or anything." I ask hesitantly.
"Eh, I technically could under war and diplomacy stuff, but you're Rias' peerage member and friend of So-tan's peerage, and there are benefits to that. Plus it looks better for us and you to do it 'properly' ya know?"
"Uh sure, thank you then."
"You're welcome!" She says with a bounce, like literally, and gives me a sly smirk.
"Hmm, is Haruto getting a little worked up?" She asks with a tilt of the head.
Thankfully I'm saved from replying by Sitri dragging her sister off of me by her pigtails, and it's incredible how quickly the Satan goes from business to seductress to crying baby.
Rias sidles over while Sitri tries to both comfort and admonish her sister.
"Seems you won't be long in my peerage Haruto, getting a contract from a Satan on your second day I think is a record." She says with a slightly conflicted smile.
"Eh, we'll see Rias."
~~
Apparently, my first trip to the underworld (and any if not for the benefits of nepotism) should be on a magical train.
Levia-tan, as I've been instructed to call her, decided that wasn't true and teleported us straight to the underworld, before basically dragging me through winding corridors and up to a very warded door.
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Feat Achieved! Visit the Underworld +1 Bronze Random Gacha Ticket
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I'm probably not going to send up a magical chaos beacon by rolling that right now. Especially since Levia-tan is looking at me.
"Okie dokie, ready Haru-tan?"
"Uh, yep, after you Levia-tan."
She gives me a big smile before schooling her face and pushing open the doors.
This is not very prison like.
Sat on a big leather sofa, looking scared shitless, are the fallen, and I can't help the flare of anger at the male fallen that attacked us, even if his missing arm does make me feel a bit better.
"Right, Haru-tan, please do your thing on that middle seat, and then you can go chill next door while I talk to our guests, okay?"
Perfect, I do not want to deal with all this.
Shooting her a thumbs up as I activate Confessors Light, currently over the raven haired fallen that shivers under the light, before she directs me back out and to a room next door.
Inside looks like some combination of a luxury hotel room and doctors waiting room.
Flopping down the on the bed in the middle I put on some devil TV to wait.
~~
It's about two hours later when Levia-tan comes skipping into the room, pretty good timing as I can feel the drain ramping up from keeping Confessors up so long.
"Ahoy Haru-tan! All done with the mean fallen, thanks so much for your help!"
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Feat Achieved! Complete a Contract for Serafall Leviathan +1 Platinum Random Gacha Ticket
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"Ooh, your power just did a pretty notable spikey thing! What was that?" She asks, leaning in close over the bed.
"I assume Sitri told you, I just got a power charge for completing a contract for you."
"How exciting! Fancy doing whatever you do with your charges with me?"
"Sure, Lady Le - uh Levia-tan, I can do that, I actually got one for visiting the Underworld for the first time as well."
Well, just saying their names got me good rolls, surely I get some powerful luck by being near a Satan right?
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Rolling Bronze Random Gacha Ticket
A Common Item!
[Cookie Jar]
|Common Item|
Cookie Clicker - One of the flagship products of "The Bakery", a glass jar that contains a practically limitless supply of perfectly warm and fresh chocolate chip cookies, endlessly produced by the compressed universe contained inside the jar, optimised solely for cookie production. Note: DO NOT BREAK THE JAR. Note2: DO NOT BREAK THE JAR; THE BAKERY IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CONSEQUENCES OF BREAKING THE JAR.
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Ohhh Konekoo~ I have a present for youuu~
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Rolling Platinum Random Gacha Ticket
An Elite Ability!
[Soul Marriage]
|Epic Ability|
You can soul marry a target of your choosing, they must be willing to marry you. With a kiss they will become your bride and get a soul ring on their ring finger, you can freely share your energy with your wives and vice versa. You can also teleport to their location or they can teleport to yours with an 8-hour cooldown. You can track the current state of your wives and their location. You can also give them your abilities and take them back without penalty.
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Magical Satan luck is indeed a go apparently.
But this is a risk, I'm in front of an incredibly powerful being and I just got the power to give out my abilities.
I think I'll keep this one to myself for now.
"Hmm, that was quite the little power spike there, Ajuka will be sad he missed it." She mutters, studying me.
"Well, what'd you get? I wanna see!"
"Right, well I got an infinite cookie jar, and then an ability called Yami. It lets me release a dark fog kind of that'll boost infernal beings and weaken holy beings, probably why it felt so strong, pretty good, though I'll need to train with it."
"Mhmm mhmm, that is pretty good! Right then, let's get you back to Rias!" She says, grabbing me up by the arm and dragging me back through the winding corridors, and eventually a quick teleport back to the ORC leaves me dizzy for a moment.
Spending the evening with the OR- the rest of the peerage is a pretty calm affair, and I spend some time just texting with Momo letting her know the details of today.
Koneko wraps herself around the Cookie Jar after I give it to her, and even with it being basically infinite cookies it still takes some time to get her to share. I'm pretty sure Akeno would have lost a hand if she'd been slower at pulling back after going for one.
As the evening comes to a close and we unfortunately have school tomorrow, I head back home to my own home, Mia jumping through and snuggling into bed as I run Wooper a fresh bath.
~~ Serafall Leviathan ~~
Haru-tan is a meanie, lying to me like that.
He might be growing at a staggering rate, but I've been doing diplomacy longer than his family name has existed.
The only saving grace is he seemed afraid or concerned, more than anything malicious. I'll still be keeping a close eye on him though, and not just because he's spending time around So-tan!
Well, that's not the biggest issue, annoyingly.
A sacred gear extractor is one thing, I'd be surprised if Azazel doesn't have a few knocking about. But according to those fallen the specific ones they had were also designed to rip the magic and life force out of the person, crystallising it to be consumed by anyone for a quick but allegedly permanent power boost.
If that gets out to everyone, there will be war. The ability to turn theoretically any living being into a level up is something worth going to war over, either to take it or stop it.
I need to speak to the others before going to Azazel. What a pain.
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A/N: Haruto finally got his kick up the ass and just went and solved a problem, no showing off, no training, just get it done.
Also Satan's apparently give ticket luck. Before I rolled Yami I got Absolute Accuracy again and rerolled to Yami.