Once again, I was fully distracted during class that day. I kept thinking about what to tell Yuuki about what I found out about Valper Galilei.
She seemed calmer than she was yesterday, but still determined to seek her revenge.
… Shit. I had no idea what to tell the others.
Excalibur was in Kuoh! That is a serious security issue! What's worse is that it's in the hands of FREED!
I have no idea what to do about this!
So, for the moment, I was content to simply remain silent. I would try to speak to Rias about this later. She was more open to negotiation. If I told Sitri-senpai something like this, her immediate reaction would be something along the lines of military defense or something. She would take no chances and would pull out all of the stops. As selfish as it is, if she did that, then Yuuki might never get the chance to take her revenge.
When class ended, I still had yet to solve my problem. It was just so difficult.
"Sorry for just disappearing on you like that, Ruto." Yuuki said, walking up to me after the bell had rang. It felt nice to be able to see her smile again. She still seemed tired, but not as angry. "I just… I had a lot to think about. But now I'm ready to calmly approach the issue of… that sword." She took a deep breath. Apparently even saying the name of that Holy Sword was enough to hurt her. "Anyway, so how are we going to look for the sword?"
I stared at her. "What?"
"You said you would help me get my revenge, remember?" Shit. I did say that. "And I know you don't want to cause trouble for Leviathan-sama or anyone else, so here's my line of thought: Freed is a Stray Exorcist, right?" I nodded. "And he has the sword, right?" I nodded again. "So who's to say we knew that the sword we were destroying was THAT Holy Sword?" Yuuki smiled at my expression of confusion. "As a Stray Exorcist, the Church and the Devils consider him an enemy and would kill him on sight. So if we ended up slaying Freed and destroying the Excalibur in the process, who could fault us? It would be an accident committed in an act of self defense."
I stared at Yuuki once she had finished explaining her idea to me. Yuuki stared back.
"I-Is something wrong with my idea?"
I shook my head, gesturing frantically. "No no no! Nothing! It's just far less bloody, violent, and war-causing than I had thought it would be. I figured the plan would be more complicated."
Yuuki held her hands behind her back, biting her lower lip as she turned away from me.
"Well… I admit it. If you hadn't offered to help me, I probably would have done something far more drastic and dangerous." Yuuki admitted. "But… I don't want you to get hurt either. A small part of me doesn't care about my own life if I could just obtain my revenge… but I don't want you to suffer. It would all be meaningless if I got someone I cared about killed as a result. It would be equally bad if you got blamed for a war my actions would have caused."
I let out a small sigh of relief. It appeared that my gesture to Yuuki had done more than I hoped. She was still tired, but not quite as angry as before. It was a long-shot, but I had hoped I would be able to convince her to let go of her revenge and move on. However, that was not likely. The most I could do was help Yuuki come out of his alive and minimize the damage. I was honestly surprised when it was Yuuki herself who came up with the plan that would cause the least collateral damage.
As long as we took out Freed and didn't do any other harm to the Church or their assets, we could actually come out of this situation consequence-free.
But a thought came to me. "But Yuuki… this is one of the strongest Holy Swords we're talking about. I doubt it'll break as easy as any other sword."
Yuuki waved off my concerns. "That's an issue for a later date. Our foremost and top priority is actually acquiring the sword from Freed. If he has to die in the process so be it… Well, killing him is really optional, but—"
"The world would be better off without a psychopath like that nut job?" I guessed, finishing Yuuki's sentence.
"Has anyone ever mentioned how creepy it is when you do that?" I shrugged in response. "Anyway, yes. I know you might think of it as an ugly thing for me to say. Still, I say it not just because he's a priest, but also because he is a sick person who exists only to cause misery."
"You won't see me giving that guy any sympathy." I said sharply. Especially not after he hurt Asia and my friends.
"Right. So we have to get the sword and then find a way to break it before the Church finds out we have it. It's all a matter of doing it as quickly as possible."
I rubbed my chin, thinking. "Now the only question left is how do we find Freed so we can take the Excalibur?"
Yuuki crossed her arms and sat on the desk next to me. "It's hard to say. That priest has proven himself to be slippery. He can't be found unless he wants to appear. He usually only appears when there's a Devil he wants to claim as his prey if our recent encounters are anything to go by." That was when the lightbulb lit up in my head.
"Yuuki, say that again." I said, having a sudden realization.
Yuuki frowned. "'The priest has proven himself to be slippery'?"
I shook my head. "No. A bit after that."
"'If our recent encounters are anything to go by'?"
Now I was sure she was doing it on purpose. "No. A little bit before that!"
Yuuki pondered this. "'He usually only appears when there's a Devil he wants to claim as his prey'?"
"Bingo!" I snapped my fingers at Yuuki, revealing my big realization to her. "We've been thinking about this too logically! Freed is a psychopath, remember? He doesn't follow the same logic as you and I. His primary instinct is to kill and slaughter. That's why he was thrown out of the Church in the first place."
"But how does this help US?" Yuuki asked. "I get he's an evil and horrible existence, but that doesn't explain how we track him down."
"It's a pretty simple plan when you think about it: We give him something to target." Yuuki raised an eyebrow at my suggestion, but said nothing. "We're usually hiding our presence as Devils except at night during activities. If we stop suppressing our Demonic Power and willingly release our power into the nearby area, Freed will be drawn to it like a moth to a flame."
"I get it!" Yuuki said, her eyes wide.
Like I said before, we're usually suppressing our powers so as to hide our identities as Devils from certain parties. However, the only people who would notice us anyway would be people with abnormal or holy powers at their disposal. The only way you would be able to figure out a Devil's presence would be if they attacked you or if you knew what they looked like ahead of time. So we hide our presence to avoid detection. However, it could also be done in reverse, such as purposely releasing a large amount of our presence to the nearby area. So, with luck, we would be able to lure Freed into a trap with the promise of a potential Devil victim for him to kill.
"But, it's not full proof." I admitted, crossing my arms. "You remember our fight last night. Even with the two of us, we barely managed to drive Freed back." Although I neglected to manage that Yuuki had exhausted herself too quickly with her reckless assault. That would not earn me any points. "The only way we can get the Excalibur AND defeat Freed would be if we worked together."
"Then what's the issue?" Yuuki asked. "We'll just stick together and defeat him together."
"Well, for one, there's too much ground to cover for us to go together." I explained, pointing out the most obvious flaw in that idea. "By the time we even catch a whiff of Freed or the Excalibur, they would probably be long gone, done with whatever they set out to do. There's too many holes in this town that that snake could have slithered into and not enough time to check them all with the two of us. My second reason is that Freed knows how to pick his battles. He knows that taking on the two of us with the same old tricks of his would be suicide. He would be sure to prepare well for a second outright confrontation with us if he saw us together."
Yuuki seemed to argue with herself for a moment, but she sighed. "I don't like it. I'm the one who agreed to let you help and I don't want you to get hurt because I wasn't there… but I admit your point."
I thought about Yuuki's warranted worries. She did have a fair point.
Then an idea came to me.
"I got it!" I held out my hand, covering it slightly to protect my palm from the sight of others. Suddenly, a small flame formed by Demonic Power sparked into existence, dancing in the palm of my hand. "Old fashioned signal flares. You can manipulate your own Demonic Power, right?"
Yuuki nodded slightly. "I'm no Bishop, but I think I've learned to control my power a bit through creating my Demonic Swords. I could probably make a small flame."
"Good. In that case, if either of us finds something or needs to regroup with the other, one of us will send up a small flame into the sky to signal the other and provide a location where we can regroup. We both have a high level of speed due to possessing Knight traits, me because of my Queen piece, so at the first sight of trouble, one of us can signal the other and they can be there in a heartbeat." I closed my hand around the flame, extinguishing it. "What do you think?"
Yuuki hugged me, resting her head on my shoulder. "I think it's still really risky, but it's the best shot we got. Just promise you'll be careful and call me at the first sign of trouble?" She asked.
I grinned in response. "Of course. This is me that we're talking about!"
"That's what worries me." Yuuki teased. My smile became more gentle as I hugged Yuuki back.
Ah! It felt so nice to be on hugging terms with Yuuki again! Her hugs were so soft and her oppai felt so amazing pressed against my own chest!
"It would be best if we got this underway immediately before anyone, especially Rias, gets suspicious."
Yuuki nodded. "Right. I need to go get something real quick, but I'll be out scouting in a moment. I'll cover the residential area." It made sense. That was where we had fought Freed before and where I had first encountered the sick bastard while doing a job about a month or two ago.
"Roger that. I'll get to the area around the park and the woods nearby. That area provides quite a bit of land to hide in." I decided. "In case we don't find anything, we'll meet back at my place and discuss a new plan. If that is impossible for whatever reason, we'll meet back here tomorrow. That sounds okay?"
Yuuki pulled away, still smiling at me. "Yeah."
Then I remembered what I learned from Serafall and hesitated. "Yuuki…" The blonde-haired princess stared at me with curious eyes. "... You… you be careful too." I… I couldn't do it. Telling Yuuki about Valper… It might only serve to further fuel the flames of revenge. No. It would be best to defeat Freed and destroy the Excalibur as soon as possible.
*CHU*
She gave me a quick peck on the cheek. "Good luck." As I started to walk away, I shot a thumbs up over my shoulder.
Yuuki, no matter what, I'll help you overcome your past and move on.