(A/N: short time skip plus longer chapter going to try to make them longer from now on to compensate for less often releases.)
It's been a few weeks since we moved to Urkyoto. I still go to Kuoh a few times a week. Rias got challenged by Riser to a rating game in 2 months. He's salty their engagement was canceled but at this point I will not interfere beyond training her and her peerage. She was suprised how much therapy actually helped her peerage. They aren't completely okay, but they aren't the emotional disasters they were previously. I've heard that the holy swords are being stolen so that's something. What we assume is Ddraig's daughter is still watching us and made no effort to contact us.
Right now I was at Kuoh getting my ass handed to me by my ancestor.
*THWACK!!*
*OOF*
"Come on Nae! You can do better than that! That was barely a love tap!"
"You are two whole tiers of strength higher than me!"
"Meh, enough excuses! Try harder!"
She lunged at me at high speed. I barely dodged before her fist collided with, then detonated the ground. A cloud of dust rose upwards. It was taking a rather annoyed Runeas, in magical girl outfit, to maintain a barrier strong enough for our training. The two heiresses and their peerages were watching the clash, as well as my own. Seras had gotten used to devil life to some extent, but high tier clashes like this still made her nervous.
"Shit!"
Kalana rushed out of the suat cloud and kneed me right in the solar plexus.
*ACK!*
"Let's stop here."
"Fucking finally!"
"So now I'm going to tell you what to work on. First speed, you have a lot of firepower however most of it has a large wind up or depends on tech. Find ways to get around that or speed it up."
"Like how you can treat life as a biological machine?"
"Yeah but I don't know if you will be able to pull that off."
"The other thing you need is to work on unlocking your balance breakers."
"I know. Ddraig is being stubborn."
"Your just saying that because he won't count fighting me as a strong foe because I'm your ancestor and training you. Isn't that right Ddraig?"
[Yep, I want him to fight some one strong in a no holds barred fight. Not this training match where you could instantly kill him if you wanted.]
"See. Also the last thing is your not using our bloodline ability to its fulllest. You focus on fancy magic tehc weaponry which is fine but your neglecting one very obvious fact."
"… Our power is the control over the very concept of technology. And literally any tool devopledby someone counts as technology."
"See I knew you were smart. But that's not all your focusing too much on the control aspect. We can also enhance aspects of the technology. Like make a sword sharper, more durable, etc. But when you get to my level that when you can do some fun stuff, I won't spoil it though no fun if you find out now."
She was right I have been to focused on that.
"Anyway, go clean your self up and here."
She handed me a devil contract of all things.
"Do something that isn't cooping your self up in your workshop or playing with Aina, Kuroka and, Yasaka."
"I don't spend that much time doing that."
"No you don't but it's true your getting complacent. The very thing you hate."
I paused I wanted to argue but I couldn't, because she was right.
"You have been focusing too much on the technical aspect of your fighting style. Not the physical."
*sigh*
"Fine let me get cleaned up."
I walked to that shower that Rias keeps in her club house, and cleaned up. Everyone had dispersed to do their own things. It was humiliating in a way that both Aina and Yomihana had achieved balance breaker already. With Aina's being a subspecies.
*sigh*
"Big sis is right as usual."
Even though she is an alcoholic pervert. She is still incredibly strong, she could easily rank in that propagandic top 10 list. But they won't put her on it because she would be pissed at them using her for propagandic purposes.
After cleaning up I took out the contract I was given.
'London? Weird.'
I accepted the contract and found myself in the supernatural division of Scotland Yard. I saw a man who was most likely the chief of the division.
"Alright, what's the job?"
"Straight to business, eh? Perfect a lot of you devils tend to…"
"Act like stuck up children?"
"Yes… that."
"You clearly haven't worked with a Flauros before. Anyway what do you need for me."
"Well here's the thing. It started a month ago. At first we thought it was just random killings here in there, but we started noticing a pattern all murders done in the seedier areas. All committed on foggy evenings or mornings. And the murder scenes were gruesome to say the least, and all women usually with a body part missing. We've interviewed people that were in the area when the killings happened, but not only do they have no memory of the time it happened they don't remember there being fog that day. Honestly the case reminds me of the Jack the Ripper cases."
We started walking towards the evidence room.
"Hmm, I have some theories but I would need to see the bodies and anything gathered from the crime scenes. But in truth you may be more correct than you think."
He narrowed his eyes in concern.
"What do you mean by that?"
I guess he doesn't know. Even I had limited info on it due to how the entity known as Jack the Ripper functioned. It had an ability that allowed it to erase itself from memory and view at will. The only thing on record was that it was some form of wraith and was supposedly put down. However high end undead are extremely difficult to keep down.
"I don't blame you for not knowing the files are sparse on top of being restricted to my knowledge."
"And you have access?"
"No information on a computer is safe from a Flauros."
"…alright I'll pretend I didn't here that."
"Anyway, there is very little information on it, but you might be correct, this might be the work of The Ripper. The files state it wasn't a human, but some sort of wraith, a high level undead. Its motives for the killings are unknown. This is due to an ability it has which is why their are no witness testimonies."
"… it can erase memories of those who see it."
"So it seems. From what I remember of the incident the one who originally dealt with it was a group of mid class priests. So they probably couldn't resist the info erasure."
"I see, well we're here. Look over everything you can let's we if you can confirm of this is The Ripper or not."
He took out a key and unlocked the room. There, on a table, was a recently desceast woman's corpse on the table, it smelled of death but it wasn't unbearable. But I already saw what I needed to. It was invisible to most human usually only high class mages and priest could see it. But there was a lingering negative energy on the wounds. The kind that are caused by an undead.
"Well?"
"Yeah it's likely The Ripper, it is possible that it could be another undead creature, but given the wounds it's unlikely. The wounds look like they were done with a dagger."
'Heh, knife crime in London.'
"… you were laughing internally about the murder weapon being a knife while we're in London weren't you?"
He looked at me accusingly
"Yes."
"*sigh* fine. Do you need anything else?"
"Yes, actually. When were each of the victims discovered?"
"They were found in the early mornings in the bad areas of town. Each killing has happend once every 2 to 3 days give or take."
Hmm I think I can set up some wards for detection in those areas. This undead is powerful. Which means since it's a wraith it's likely a conglomeration of resentful souls given form. Wraiths were annoying for all the pantheon because they are a mass of souls given form it denied the various afterlifes souls.
"When was this last victim killed about 2 days ago so your in luck the ripper will probably strike again tonight."
I nodded.
"Then in that case I will set up some detection wards around those areas in town. Do you have a preference to how you want this wraith dealt with? Just so you know outright destruction will be hard even for me."
I was lying about destroying it. I was curious if I could make it a devil. I knew undead that are sentient in some form can be turned into devils but that's because they have souls still, but I had never heard of a wraith being turned. Was it probably a bad idea to recruit a notorious serial killer to my peerage? Maybe. did I truly care. Not at all.
"If you can't kill it then just make sure it can't come back or something."
"Good we have a contract."
We both felt something snap into place as the deal was struck.
"Then excuse me I need to set up some wards for detection."
I quickly left the building to set up the wards to detect the killer.
Once the wards were set up I went around and enjoyed the city. Enjoyed some tea, took in the sights, bought a bundle of bananas for a later thing, I didn't try any food though I know enough about British food to realize that's a bad idea. Eventually night fell. Around midnight that night I felt one of my words trigger. I teleported directly to it. It seems I was a little to late to save the victim, but just in time to catch the killer.
"Well now, for someone called Jack the Ripper I was not expecting the wraith to look like a child."
Jack the Ripper had the appearance of a small girl of around maybe 12 years old. She was wearing a tattered cloak. She had silver hair, piercing yellow eyes with a scar over one of them. This was not a weak wraith. She(?) was mid-high class from what I can tell. You can tell a wraiths class by its appearance. Low class look like rotting corpses for the most part. Mid class look human although pale and only basically sentient. But high class are almost indistinguishable from humans. (A/N Yes if it was not extremely obvious this is Jack the Ripper from Fate/Apocrypha.)
"Who are you? Are you here to hurt Jackie?"
She got in a defensive stance. I could see under her cloak her cloths were… revealing to say the least.
'Why is she wearing underwear, a corset like shirt, and stockings?… are those heels?'
She was in a defensive stance but didn't attack immediately. I wonder if I can just talk her into joining me. I also noticed the corpse. The other was naked for the sake of examination, but I could clearly tell this one is a prostitute. So the same targets. Would've been able to definitely confirm if I knew that.
"Why did you kill them?"
"Jackie asked you a question first! Answer Jackie!"
She looked to be getting agitated.
"I'm sorry my name Is Nae Flauros. What is your name?"
She lowered her guards slightly. I guess no one actually tried to talk to her before.
"We are Jackie. We punish them."
That made me raise and eyebrow.
"Why do you punish these…"
I gestured with my hand.
"Prostitutes, Jackie?"
"They abandoned us, Left us to die, or never gave us hope of life. No family, no home, just pain and cold."
She was getting agitated again but didn't raise her guard. More like remembering the frustration and rage that formed her.
'So that's it she formed from the resentment of the abandoned children, and aborted infants of prostitutes who never had a chance to live. I think I know what I need to do.
"Would you like one?"
She looked at me confused. I also noticed now that she had 6 daggers on her and had some strange purple tattoos.
"Jackie doesn't understand what you mean."
I shook my head.
"I mean do you want a family Jackie?"
She looked startled at that question. Probably because no one had asked her that before. She was always seen as a monster and murderer, and to be fair she was. But I'm not human and I don't care. She didn't answer.
"If you want a family I and my people will be your family."
I walked over to her. Her guard was no longer up. And I patted her head.
"Hmmm!"
She was startled by the sudden contact.
"I'll ask you again. Jackie, do you want to join my family?"
Her eyes widened. She realized she hadn't misheard.
"Un!"
She nodded.
"Good girl, now all you need to do is accept this."
I conjured my pieces. Oh? Four pawns. Equal to that weirdo who wants to impregnate Sitri. Which means she could've taken two knight for anyone else. My mutation rook was out of the question, and a regular knight wasn't enough.
I kneeled down to Jackie's level pressed them into her chest. She passed out shortly after. I wonder how this will effect the fact she's a mass of souls. I wasn't lying to her. I felt pity and respect for her or rather those who ended up creating her. Those children never had a chance to be strong. She is their will and outrage given form to be their vengance and strength, and that I respect.
I watched over her for a bit while she changed. Eventually the process was over and she was a newly reincarnated Devil. She slowly opened her eyes.
"Mommy?"
She said looking at me. Now it was my turn to be confused. But I decided not to try and correct her. I felt that would be a losing battle.
"Yeah… mommy is here."
I smiled awkwardly. She then got up quickly and hugged me
{pfffft hahahahhahahah}
'Shut up you lizard I'm going to make her call you aunty Ddraig.'
{You wouldn't dare!}
'Try me!'
{Fine but you know Kalana is going to laugh too.}
'Yeah, yeah. Try to be a big brother, end up a parent. This,had happend twice now.'
"How do you feel Jackie?"
"Jackie feels… different? We aren't cold any more. We don't feel as mad anymore."
{She seems to still be an amalgam of souls still, but instead of a clump of them. They've all fused together into one soul.}
'Huh, interesting, welp I'll deal with the potential political fall out of Jackie later. From now on she's family and mom say you don't turn your back on family.'
"JACKIE HAS WINGS NOW!"
She has figured out how to unfurl her wings.
"Jackie."
"Yes mommy."
She smiled at me.
'Why is this little murder child so cute.'
"Mommy is going to take you to meet the other family members. Can you be a good girl for them while mommy concludes some business I promise I'll be right back."
She hesitated.
"Pinkie promise Jackie?"
"Pinky promise."
"Good I'll stab mommy if mommy breaks their promise."
'Well she doesn't have common sense going to have to work on that. Just like I'm going to have to get used to the mommy thing.'
I offered her my hand and she grabbed it. I then sent a quick text that the issue was dealt with and I would give specifics later. As well as the location of the victim I was unable to save. We then teleported to the house.
"Your back, and who is this?"
Big sis was there in the living room while Runeas was bingeing various other magical girl anime. I have a feeling she wil either make her own or join Serafall's show. I was about to answer but Jackie answered first.
"We're Jackie! Are you mommies family?"
Big sis looked at me with an amused grin that told me she found this hilarious. I sent her back a similarly annoyed look.
"Yes I'm mommies family you can call me Great grandma or just granny."
'Oh fuck the hell off! You never let us call you that!'
"Granny!"
She said with a smile. Curse this adorable murder muffin. I thought while absent mindedly patting her head.
"She was… 'the job' for the contract."
Big sis paused for a minute than smiled sadistically.
"Oh, that's great! I can already Imagine the church throwing a fit about this. So she is the Ripper, Huh? So how many?"
"Yes, she is, and 4 pawns."
"Damn that more than what I'd expect. She must have lot of potential… actually Nae. Maybe you should contact Izanami."
"Why?"
"Well I know you went through a lot of trouble to get it, but I think Dimension lost would better suit Jackie here instead of you."
'Hmm she has a point other than defensive use it wasn't much help for my fighting Style. Someone like Jackie would probably benefit from it. Plus having two Longinus might be hindering to each others growth.'
{It is.}
'… why didn't you tell me earlier.'
{I thought it was obvious. This isn't a problem with regular sacred gears but Longinus don't like sharing hosts.}
'That made sense from what I remember of the info I was given of that alternate timeline the guy who had two Longinus was only borrowing it, and using his own to force the others balance breaker.' (A/N reminder that Nae was given the contents of the original canon novels as memories. By an entity he is unaware of.)
"Alright I agree it's a good idea."
Jackie looked adorably confused about the conversation.
'Oh god she's already growing on me. Am I going to be a girl dad? Not that I have a problem with it just suprised. Learn something new everyday.'
"Anyway can you show Jackie around the house and to the others I'll be right back."
"Sure thing. Let's go meet your aunites, and sisters Jackie."
"*gasp* we have a sister! Best day!"
I'm unsure of letting kunou around her is a good idea. …Probably not but that's future Nae's problem. Then again Kunou is already a trouble maker. I'll just let Yasaka vent when that inevitably happens. I then teleported back to Scotland Yard to finalize the contract. They didn't bother asking about Jackie, and because no one of note has seen her true form. No one will ask questions about who she is unless we tell them.
Authors note: I am working on the lewd chapter. Need to be in the right mindset to write it and I just haven't been.