Chapitre 39: Naive
Hands in my pocket, steps calm and steady, body relaxed, you could mistake me for being relaxed. However, I was anything but relaxed, I was tense and ready for anything. After all, I was being escorted by Sona Sitri and her Peerage, though such a term had not been given to what was actually happening.
It was unspoken but very clear to me.
I could even prove it.
Rummaging around in my pocket, I took my phone out and as soon as I did, I could hear the movement behind me go still. Those in front of me didn't make it as obvious, but they were far from subtle. Devils though they may be, they were still kids, inexperienced and quite frankly, a little naive.
Did Sona really believe I was the first to have ever attacked a Fallen Angel? The war from the sounds of things, the bits and pieces I had been told, was the single most brutal conflict in the entire history of Earth. More devastating than any war fought by humanity. A war such as that would breed a great deal of hatred that a simple peace treaty wouldn't be enough to simply bring it to an end.
There was a high chance that many went rogue and continued to wage the war on their own. It was just dealt with and then covered up. Hell, there were people probably still waging that war to this day, killing every Angel, Devil, Fallen Angel they came across depending on their faction or race, but it was just covered up as to not spark a war.
The same thing would have happened here.
Her little fit about my fighting the Fallen Angels just showcased that as smart as Sona was, she was naive to how the world really worked. I wasn't, the Inside as far as everyone was concerned, didn't exist. There were literally no records of its existence anywhere, it was completely off the books.
That was just for criminals and done by humans with no magical history, or not that I'm aware of.
Imagine what factions such as the Devils, Angels and Fallen Angels will do and how far they're willing to go to make sure that war didn't happen.
Pretty fucking far.
"What are you doing?" Sona questioned, from my side, her Queen, Tsubaki on my other side.
"Making a phone call." My reply was dull and sarcastic, I pulled out my phone and waved it slightly as to showcase it was not a weapon. Though I could probably kill a few of these Devils with this phone. "Unless you want to accompany me all the way to my home and then get killed by an angry Vampire running on maternal instinct. In which case, I'll put it away?"
"...Fine." Sona relented and I withheld the urge to roll my eyes.
Just further proof that as smart as she was, Sona was just plain naive.
What she should have done was ring Rias or Akeno herself, then had them tell Ingrid rather than let me, someone she distrusted make a call. Plus, why would I contact Ingrid? Sona was related to a Satan for Christ's sake. Why would Ingrid attack a Satan's sibling and bring down the wrath of said Satan down on her head?
Threaten? Yes, Ingrid would do that without hesitation.
But actually follow through with said threat? Not likely.
"I thought you said you were making a phone call?" Tsubaki questioned as I typed away a message.
I nodded my head. "I did." Finishing off my message, I pressed send and then pocketed my phone.
Like I said, smart but far too naive.
-X- Line Break -X-
When she received the message, Saeko had been sceptical.
Fallen Angels were many things, but reckless was not one of them. Entering into Kouh, which was under the protection of three Magus families, but also two Devils from powerful Houses and the siblings of two Satans, that was reckless. However, they had kept their heads down and by the stipulations of their agreement with the Devils, it was not her problem to deal with.
She had been enjoying a nice bath after a long day of training in the forests. Her defeat at the hands of Mikoto had highlighted many faults in her techniques and fighting style. In terms of pure skill, Mikoto was far beyond her to the point it was almost disconcerting.
She had dedicated years of her life to training as hard as she could.
Yet Mikoto had completed outclassed her, his skill with a blade while not as good as her, the reflexes and battle awareness he possessed was not simply an equaliser, but gave him the advantage. Then when she removed his weapon, his true skill was revealed and Saeko had lost on numerous occasions, openings were created that if Mikoto had decided to end her life then and there, he could have.
The number of times Mikoto had not ended the fight when he could have frustrated her even to this day. It was why she had kept her distance for as long as she could, he had embarrassed and humiliated her.
If it hadn't been for magic and the various techniques of the Busujima clan, Mikoto would have escaped that fight almost entirely unscathed. She came at him with the intent to kill, but he hadn't, Saeko was skilled enough to recognise the intent behind a strike.
He came at her with the intention to hurt, but never kill.
Not once throughout the fight did that intent ever change and yet she still lost, dozens of times over the course of a single duel.
A complete and utter humiliating outcome.
But it had also highlighted faults and flaws in her fighting style that she had previously been unaware of. Whether that was his intention from the beginning or not, Saeko did not know nor did she want the answer. However, she supposed that this highlighting of flaws did ease the humiliation she felt a little.
'Meet me at my home, escorted by Sona and her Peerage.'
The message itself was short and simple, but it left Saeko wondering what could possibly be happening in Kouh to have caused such an event. Mikoto was hers to deal with, that was something that had been agreed upon by all of them at one of their earlier meetings this year. So why was Sona going back on her word, that was unlike her, 'unless she found a loophole.'
That was not entirely impossible and Saeko frowned.
She was not done with Mikoto yet and the last thing she needed was for Sona to get in her way.
-X- Line Break -X-
"What exactly did you do?" Saeko questioned, shrugging my shoulders nonchalantly.
"The Fallen Angels tried to kill my brother, I simply attempted to return the favour." My response made Sona's frown deepen.
"That is precisely the problem," Sona replied hotly. "Your actions could have been easily blamed upon us and that could have started a war. You don't even understand the gravity of the situation that you have put us in."
"Yes, because there are definitely people stupid enough to try and pin the blame on the sibling of a Satan," Mikoto snarked. "Look, I get why you're stressed out and all, but you really need to relax. The fact is, you intervened and saved their lives. Pretty poor form to try and blame your saviour for the whole thing. I was the one who was about to kill them not you."
Saeko rose a brow. "About to kill them? It looks like the other way around." Her snarky response made me frown, looking down at my clothes once more. She was right, not only were my clothes a mess, but I honestly looked like I was the one getting my ass kicked.
"Yeah, well in the beginning I couldn't properly see their Light Spears so it made it difficult to dodge. If you look closely, you'll see that most of the cuts are superficial." Nothing more than papercuts really.
"In the beginning?"
I nodded my head. "Yeah, as the fight dragged on, I was able to start tracking their spears to the point it became an exercise in repetition. The only problem I had was that I didn't really have an answer to their flight and the fact it was three-on-one. The biggest problems were Raynare and Kalawarner. Raynare because she just produced spears en masse. Kalawarner on the other hand was smart enough to never get too close and always stop me from being able to pick them off one-by-one."
Out of all of them, Kalawarner seemed like the only one with enough experience to slightly convince me that she had fought in a war. Though her level of power still made it very difficult to believe.
"Sounds boring," Saeko muttered.
"It was," I said, walking past them and up to the door of my home. "Oh and don't all invite yourselves into my home. I'll let Sona and Tsubaki in, but the rest of you can wait outside or go back to your own homes, whatever suits you best."
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone