"So, are you set?" I turned to the girls behind me as we made our way to the academy.
"We are, my Lord." Xenovia and Irina walked by my sides while Mitelt brought up the rear. The two were back into their exorcism suits and donning their white capes while Mitelt got back into her dress made extra cleaned for the occasion.
As for me…
"Whoa, someone dressed up for the occasion." Tsubasa's voice ranged out in the courtyard the moment we stepped through the front gate, drawing everyone else's attention towards me. I mentally sighed as I waved back at them while walking, noting the vampire Bishop was not around.
I was currently wearing a combat suit that could pass as something formal while still practical enough for fighting. Consisting of a long sleeve jacket with light linings that could double as a tuxedo, a thin grey inner shirt that peeked out of the collar and dark pants, this was about as close to a formal suit as I could get. This of course came with its own sets of protection spells and attack features to deal with whatever situations I would encounter.
I just hope I won't need them at this place. We barely fixed the damn academy.
"I figured if we are having some big shots coming to a meeting of this level, it is best to do a bit of dressing up." I mentioned while looking at the rest, "But considering your attires, I might have been paranoid."
"Nope, you are doing just fine." Rias replied with a smile. "Considering we are about to have Michael of the Heaven Faction and the leaders from our faction, that was a prudent idea from your side."
"Indeed." Tsubasa came forward and looked at me with a hand on her chin. "And I may say so myself, you cut quite a dashing figure."
"You looked really good in the suit, Emiya-kun!" Meguri chimed in agreement. I merely raised my hand to scratch the back of my head with cheeks feeling a little heated. Seriously, how did I ever get past my previous years in high school without getting embarrassed on my looks?
That might explain the exasperation Archer kept displaying in the other dimensions I went to.
"It is time." Sona called out to us after looking at her watch. "Let's get moving."
With that, we made our way to the Occult Club Building, with some of the others trying to alleviate the mood by small talk. I spent the time looking around the area mentally going through every pathway and buildings to go over possible escape routes and hiding spots. Call it paranoia but when you have gone through your fifth meeting with people trying to attack you through different methods, you would want to have several escape routes to be on hand.
Wasn't it sad?
Thoughts about my sad life were put on hold when we got to the door. With a nod, Rias opened the door to let us walk through.
The first thing that came into my sights was the reduction of furniture in the room. All the huge cabinets and objects that could prove to be a distraction were removed to have more room for chairs and people to stand around the one lone table in the center of the room. The next bit I saw were the people who had arrived before us.
On the left side was whom I presume to be from the Heaven Faction, consisting of one male Archangel with Gold Wings, one female angel that had a beauty to match many of those back home and one human female who currently had a shroud covering her head, preventing me from seeing her face. Right in front of me was supposedly the Grigori Faction consisting of Azazel who was seated and waving at us with that smirk of his and Vali who was by the wall with his arms crossed and his eyes closed. Lastly on the right was the Devil Faction, mainly Sirzechs and Serafall who was waving at us eagerly in her office outfit, with Grayfia in the background.
"Ah, all the guests are here now!" Azazel nodded his head at us. "I don't believe you have met the angels before." He motioned with his hand at the people in question who stood up to face them.
"Good evening to you all." The male bowed deeply at us and gave a very gentle smile. "My name is Michael, one of the Seraphs of Heaven. This is Emilia, one of my representatives for the angels." He motioned to the female angel by his right before motioning to the left. "And I believe you have met the newest representative for the church." The human stepped forward as she raised her arms to remove the shroud and reveal a familiar face.
"Griselda, didn't expect to see you so soon." I spoke as I offered a hand to her.
"It is nice to meet you again, Shirou Emiya." The woman in question smiled warmly as she shook the hand. "I trust that my apprentices have not been too much of a trouble under your care?" She looked to the two who seemed to shrink under her gaze like children before a stern teacher.
"They are…" I paused to find a word. "Helpful, to say the least."
"Hmm…" I could almost hear the gears in her head as she seemingly loomed over them. "I hoped you did not give unnecessary issues for him?"
"Nope, Lady Griselda." Xenovia squeaked while Irina was shaking her head so fast she could accidentally lose it from the movements.
"They have been very assistive during their stay." I tried to alleviate her suspicions only for Mitelt to shoot that down.
"Except they have a broken a few plates, vases and a whole bunch of items that needed us to pay for their mistakes." Mitelt quipped without missing a beat. "Not to mention the occasional beating of a customer who got too touchy."
Crud.
"I see." For a moment, I thought I saw a demon mask appear behind her as she smiled rather scarily at her two disciples. "It seems the two of you need a reminder in proper handling of items."
"HIE~" The two girls hugged each other in fear, whatever semblance of their strong sides gone before us as the woman got closer to them with a presence that promised an excruciating punishment.
"Well, this is rather entertaining." Mitelt let out an evil crackle while some of the others were looking on with various degrees of amusement. I myself could not help the small smile tugging at the corner of my mouth. That short moment of amusement ended when Michael coughed lightly into his hand, though it seemed even he was slightly amused by the display before him, judging from the light smile he had on his face.
"Shall we commence with the meeting?"
...
So far, this was a pretty calm meeting.
Granted, there were a couple of hiccups, such as the part where Ise went on a small rant against Azazel about Asia's kidnapping and subsequent incapacitation that led to her conversion into a devil, and the rogue actions of Kokabiel. He then switched targets to Michael, asking why Asia was abandoned by the church for helping an injured person, even if he was a devil. I found myself listening in a lot closer than expected to hear the angel's side of the story. It was interesting to hear about some type of system that was made to regulate prayers and protect those under Christianity. This same system was apparently one that dealt with Sacred Gears as well, but was highly dependent on God to run its system properly. Without the Big G, the system did not perform as well, thus resulting in some like Asia to be left out.
Honestly, that sounded a little off to me. I was pretty certain a system like that should have some fail-safe, but then again this was not my world.
There was also the bit where Azazel actually stated that he wanted peace between the three factions since there should be no reason for them to go to war, what with their falling numbers and something that sounded suspiciously like something I had encountered in other worlds: the ending of the Age of Gods. Not sure how to feel about that.
One other bit that came up were the opinions made by Ise and Vali. For Ise, that choice went to a weird direction when Azazel explained it to him in the only manner that Ise could understand: no peace, no making out with Rias for hours-on-end.
Bummer.
Vali Lucifer's choice was simple as well but one that only served to enforce the image of him not caring for the choices of this meeting. He merely wished to fight strong opponents, and if my E-Rank Luck were an indicator, this guy was going to be trouble since this meeting would essentially prevent him from doing so. I would need to keep an eye on him.
So yeah, the meeting was pretty tame, at least by my standards. After all, the ones I have been to were those that had knives, poison and a few explosions as appetizers, followed shortly by decapitations, skewing and occasional property damage.
...
A/N : The Story Needs More Power Stones ;)
PS : if we can reach 400 Stones by the end of the week, I will throw you an extra chapter
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if you want to read ahead of the public release you can go to my p atreon :
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