Kapitel 47: Chapter 46 - Stalkerish Misunderstanding

Reginleif ran through the town following the trail of white feathers, it had already been an hour and she was running out of gas. The rune on her body was sapping her energy while the constant running also did so and while her physical parameters were boosted she still hadn't caught sight of the Seraphim Princess even once since she left.

"Haa, haa, haa." Reginleif was basically walking at this point and with her noodle legs she tripped and fell, dropping both her hat and her glasses. "Ughhhhh."

She groaned on the sidewalk in front of a familiar food stand and felt her runes slowly disappearing with her being unable to do a single thing about it.

"Reginleif?" The familiar voice of the blue haired Kojika Kushihashi sounded in Reginleif's ears.

Reginleif feeling all of her muscles sore and unwilling to cooperate couldn't even respond to the girls question.

"She really ran you through the wringer huh?" Kojika says a bit jokingly, bending down to push over the Valkyries body so that she would be on her back. "Here, Cebrail left this for you."

Kojika slowly poured a sparkling blue potion down Reginleif's throat forcing her to drink it.

It seems to restore her reserves of Magical Power but does absolutely nothing to fix her physical fatigue so she can only continue to lay there in pain.

"If you stay here too long you'll never catch up to her."

"Haa, haa, what are you, haa, haa, even doing here?" Reginleif questioned, annoyed by Kojika's casualness about her pain.

"Revenge is expensive. A grey haired Devil invited me to the auction that's coming up in a year. He was a pretty shady guy, but the auction is a great place to start looking for Stray Devils."

(Grey haired man? Auction invitation? Why would Stray Devils be at an auction?) Reginleif feels like those things should connect however she was in far to much pain to proper put the dots together.

"The feathers are disappearing." Kojika notes as she watches the trail of white feathers begin to disintegrate in light.

"UGHHHHHH!" Reginleif groans loudly, willing her body to move. While she didn't reapply her runes she had to constantly use her mana to keep herself going as she ran after Cebrail.

Kojika watched the girl and found that perhaps it was good she didn't join Cebrail's group. Even if she often had to deal with terrible misfortune at least she wasn't being tortured.

Plus for some reason ever since she gained the contract from Cebrail her luck hasn't been quite so bad. Sometimes she'd get an annoying customer or two and sometimes her stock of food would suddenly spoil, however it wasn't nearly as bad as having the whole stand catch fire or meteor falling from the sky.

—-

"Listen, to make this plan work we'll need several supplies!" Kaori Murayama exclaimed as she held Tosca's hand dragging her throughout the market. "Masks, cameras, a new tracker since Koga found my last one, wigs, and…"

Kaori lets go of Tosca and turns to her. "Are you writing all of this down?"

"N-No…"

"Well it's no problem, I'm used to this already so I know what we need for the most part. We should get some extra cameras too you know… to place around their dating spots."

"You already know where they're going to go…?" Tosca took a step back from the clearly strange girl in front of her.

"Of course! I was prepared to solve this problem all on my own before you arrived so of course I did my research. Eavesdropping, spying, breaking and entering."

"..." Tosca took another step back, there was no doubt that she was still only just getting used to the world of the supernatural however she had no idea regular humans could be so strange as well.

"Don't look at me like that! This is all in the name of protecting Koga! This is JUSTICE. JU-STICE!!!!" Kaori pumped her fist in the air with a great amount of determination, but still in truth she was just a stalker and Tosca could very much see that.

"R-Right…" She didn't have the courage to chastise this girl for her immoral and creepy behavior however. If she failed this task given to her by Cebrail what would she do after all? Even if Cebrail doesn't explicitly want anything from her she couldn't just accept her kindness entirely for free.

"Huh? What's she doing here?" Kaori mumbles squinting into a section of the crowd.

Tosca looks at her in a bit of confusion since Kaori was taller than her; she couldn't at all see what the older girl was looking at. Strangely when the girl suddenly pulled out her phone she tapped on an app revealing a bunch of cameras located in a particular house.

"Not here at all. How did she leave without triggering any motion detectors?" Kaori mumbled to herself before noticing Tosca's confused look. "I set up cameras all over Yuri's house to keep track of her movements."

Kaori showed Tosca the phone, horrifying the little girl whose eyes widened with each and every camera she looked at.

"T-T-T-Twenty eight? W-W-W-W-WAIT! This one is just above her toilet! And this one is in her shower!" Tosca exclaimed, pointing to two cameras in particular.

"Yeah and? Like I said I put up cameras to keep track of her movements. We're both girls anyway so who cares if I see her naked."

"Th-That's a complete invasion of someone's privacy! Boy or girl it doesn't matter!"

"Luckily she isn't human so human rights violations against her don't count."

"I don't think-" Tosca began only to be cut off by Kaori.

"She's leaving, let's go follow her, maybe this time we can catch her in the act!" Kaori ran off into the crowd forcing Tosca to follow after her pushing and bumping past a multitude of people on the way due to it being the middle of the day.

"Sorry! Excuse me! Sorry!" She kept apologizing every time she so much as grazed another person. "W-Waittttt!"

She cried out barely keeping herself from being swept away by the people.

"How are you an Angel, shouldn't you be stronger than this?" Kaori complains, dragging Tosca out of the crowd and into an alleyway.

"I-I'm not used to being in such crowded places." Tosca said though she was a bit ashamed and knew that the girl was probably right, as an Angel something as simple as a crowd shouldn't be so difficult for her indeed, but this is exactly why she was on her current mission. So that she can gain more power as an Angel through answering prayers.

"Heaven must be pretty big then given how many people have to go there when they die if there's no crowds." Kaori comments before turning away to the dark alleyway. "I think she walked in here."

As they stepped deeper and deeper into the alley a familiar smell hit Tosca. The same smell that came when all of her friends were experimented on and slaughtered on by one.

It was the iron like and oppressive smell of fresh blood.

Kaori covered her nose, though she hadn't recognized the scent she found it to be grossing enough that she was barely keeping herself from gagging.

"Kaori… we need to go back…" Tosca warned grabbing Kaori by the side of her shirt in an attempt to stop her.

"Stop being such a baby! Come on I think we're almost there-" Kaori heard a splash and her shoes suddenly felt very moist so she looked down in confusion and disgust.

Unfortunately what she found was a trail of blood leading deeper into the alley. Terrified, she stumbled backwards until she tripped and was barely caught by Tosca on her way down.

"T-That's blood!" She exclaimed pointing frantically.

"..." Tosca stared forward but could very distinctly hear the sound of footsteps getting closer and closer to them slowly but surely.

*Tap* *Tap* *Tap* *Tap*

The footsteps were light meaning the person probably wasn't very heavy.

(Was Kaori right? Is Yuri really some kind of succubus or monster?) Tosca felt afraid but seeing Kaori cling to her she resolved herself to protect her no matter what. Not only because she was meant to be helping the girl, but because it was the right thing to do!

Putting Kaori behind herself she pulled out her spear and held it tightly in both of her hands. She was prepared, she would fight whatever came from the darkness.

*Tap* *Tap* *Tap*

(What if she's stronger than me?)

*Tap* *Tap* *Tap*

(What if I fail?)

*Tap* *Tap* *Tap*

Tosca's grip tightened further. This would be her very first fight alone and the enemy was completely unknown.

*Tap* *Tap* *Tap*

Slowly from the darkness as the footsteps reached their loudest a girl crept from the darkness.

A familiar girl with lazy yet intense yellow eyes, long white hair, and wearing a large jacket which made it seem as though she wasn't actually wearing anything else.

"M-Ms. Cebrail?" Tosca questioned looking at her master.

"Oh, Tosca, are you already ready to go home?" Cebrail asked casually.

She was carrying someone under her arm, a person that seemed to be bleeding rather profusely. The girl looked only perhaps two years older than Cebrail herself however she was obviously not human. With her deathly pale white skin and pointy ears which couldn't be hidden even by her long blonde hair.

"N-No, not yet." Tosca responded relaxing her body.

"Y-You! What are you doing with that girl!" Kaori who had regained her confidence due to her fear being overshadowed by how much she didn't like Cebrail. She pointed an accusatory finger at the Seraphim Princess who just stared at her.

"Nothing to say?!! This is your boss Tosca?" Kaori asked incredulously.

"Tosca, just call me when you need to be picked up." Cebrail said before pausing for a moment to add. "And be careful, something unsavory is going on right now. I doubt you'll be in any real danger but still…"

"Alright, thank you for your concern miss Cebrail!" Tosca salutes Cebrail who nods before vanishing leaving behind nothing but a few white feathers.

"She ignored me!" Kaori yelled in outrage.

"It's because she doesn't know you but you were really rude."

"Doesn't know me! We've met before!"

"She probably doesn't remember. Did you guys ever exchange names?" Tosca asks, putting her spear away and turning to her companion.

"Ugh… we didn't…" Kaori admits. "B-But that girl! Didn't she kill her? How can you not even bat an eye to that?!?!?"

"Cebrail doesn't kill people Kaori she probably saved her."

"How do you know that?"

"Well… I feel like if she killed her she wouldn't move the body… who would suspect her anyway? Who would put her in prison? Angels- no, supernatural beings don't have to abide by human laws in the first place technically."

"Well… whatever, you don't seem like you're lying so let's just go pick up the supplies we'll need."