Capítulo 33: DxD : A New Hero : Chapter 33
"Checkmate." Sona declared after setting down the bishop.
"Ah, well." I rubbed the back of my neck as I stared at the chess board. "Looks like I lost. Well it was fun but I really-
"Again."
"But we just-"
"Again." She repeated, a tone of finality in her voice.
I sighed in resignation as I began to help her rearrange the pieces on the board, all the while trying to ignore the snickering of the Student Council member around me.
Momo had stopped half way through filling some paperwork when she heard Sona's declaration of my defeat. She stood up and walked up to the large man sized blackboard that had recently been hung on one of the walls of the Student Council Room.
It had a vertical line drawn down the middle of it, dividing the blackboard in two. On the top of both halves were names, Sona's on the right and mine on the left. My side had nothing in the middle of it, just a clear blank space until you reached the very bottom where the number 0 was clearly written.
Sona's side was the complete opposite of mine. The middle of it was filled with dozens of tally marks, almost filling the entire space. On the very bottom of the board was the number 71.
Momo picked up a piece of chalk from a nearby table before approaching Sona's side of the board and added an additional tally mark, and despite the stoic/bored expression she wore I knew, just knew, that she took vindictive glee as she ever so slowly erased the number in the bottom and scratched out the number 72.
Seventy two, I had suffered seventy two continues losses. Just looking at that number sent a knife of pain through me as my pride took another hit.
For the last five straight days, ever since the training I had given them, Sona has dragged me into the Student Council office where she repeatedly forced me into a game of chess. She proceeded to kick my ass in every possible way, and I do mean every way.
I've had games where she beat me in as little as seven moves, while at other times she repeatedly spared me as she hunted down all of my pieces one by one until the King remained.
Then instead of killing me she proceeded to hunt my King across the board for the better part of fifteen minutes before she decided to put me out of my misery. Or more likely she simply got bored; she seemed to be all out of mercy these days.
All the while she made sure to have the rest of the Student Council watch while it was happening. Going by the barely concealed smirks and snickers it seemed that they were enjoying the show.
Yeah, they may been a little sore about training.
What I didn't understand was why did it burn so much to lose? I didn't even like chess for Maou's sake but my pride, my poor shattered and abused pride, hurt so much at the thought of this little wisp of a girl kicking my ass seventy two times in a row at anything.
The rest of the Student Council's smirks were not helping either. Is this bullying? Am I being bullied?
Sona, being a Devil of Pride like me, probably knew exactly what to do to hit me in mine while not actually doing anything wrong. I mean what am I supposed to say? Mr. Principle, the bullies are beating me at chess.
No, they're not beating me with a chess set but in an actual chess game and it really hurts my feelings so tell them to stop.
I'd get laughed at, which will probably grind the remaining fragments of my broken Pride to dust. And if Serafall ever found out it wouldn't surprise me if she decided to cheer her little 'So-tan' on…in a cheerleader's outfit with pom poms.
I let out a sigh before picking up one of the pawns and moving it two spaces forward. Oh well, considering what I put them through I'm getting off pretty cheaply. And at least this will give me an opportunity to talk to Sona.
"Did you speak to Gremory yet?" I asked as she instantly replied to my opening move.
She nodded, "While I avoided any details I was able to impart the need for us to prepare and train. All she knows was that I had been able to figure out part of the reason why you're really here and that we needed to get stronger fast."
"So does she plan to come to me for training?"
"There is no need," She used her bishop to capture my knight, "Rias intends to take her entire Peerage to one of her family's villas in the mountains for a ten day training camp and has already arranged for a trainer. She had contacted her brother and requested to borrow his knight, Okita Souji, to coach them for the duration."
"Really? I'm surprised, I never thought she would willing go to Sirzechs for help in anything. How did you convince her to do that?"
"While I didn't mention anything about your true purpose here, I did impart that not only our lives but that of our Peerage were in danger. Say what you want about Rias but she is more than willing to swallow her pride when it comes to keeping her Peerage safe. They'll be leaving in a couple of weeks' time."
I was secretly relieved at that. I have been avoiding the Gremory ever since our first meeting but I knew I couldn't keep away from her for long, not if I wanted to protect her. However if Okita is going to take care of them I won't have to deal with that problem for a while longer.
Now that issue was settled, it was time to broach the newest problem that happened to crop up.
"So, have you heard about the theft?" I asked as I tried to think of my next move.
"Theft?" She repeated, clearly confused by the question. I guess no one told her. "Shirou, what are you talking about?"
Instead of answering, I reached into my inner breast pocket and pulled out the folded up report I received last night and handed it to her. She took it from me and began to peruse it while I continued to think of a next move.
It was several minutes later that Sona finished reading, just as I had decided to move my knight. "Four of the Excaliburs were stolen? How did they pull that off? All of the Excalibur's fragments were stored in separate churches all across Europe yet they stole four of the seven at the exact same time." She didn't even bother to look down at the board as she played her next move.
When I first heard that the Excalibur in this world was broken my first thought was disbelief. In my world Excalibur was the strongest holy sword in existence, one that cannot simply be referred as beautiful because its appearance was so unmatched that to call it merely 'beautiful' would only dirty it.
My second thought was gratitude that Saber was not her to hear about the fate of her beloved sword. I was not sure if it was possible for King Arthur to have a heart attack but I didn't want to find out.
I grimaced as it became apparent that my king was getting cornered. "Yes but that wasn't the most remarkable part of the entire thing."
"You're talking about the guards?"
I nodded as I moved my king. Sona instantly played her move as soon as I let go of the chess piece and I had to bite back the urge to cuss. "No one was killed. Do you realize how strange that is?"
She absently nodded as she thought about it, "Why would they bother sparing them. Breaking into such well-guarded places to steal the Excaliburs would be difficult enough as it is. Why would they make it even harder on themselves by sparing the guards? The chances of something going wrong increases exponentially for each guard they spared but they did it anyway."
She shut her eyes to focus on the mystery, "It's not like it would lessen the wrath of the Church by sparing them after stealing the swords.
The Church may have been happier to have dead guards but kept the swords then the other way around, so there is no way they'd show any leniency no matter how merciful the thieves acted. And if the perpetrators wanted to harm or weaken the Church it would have been better to simply kill the guards."
I nodded in agreement. The Excaliburs were not guarded by run of the mill security guards, but they were protected by some of the best exorcists the Church has. If they had killed them instead of sneaking by or incapacitating them, they would have significantly weakened the Church's manpower. At least of the human variety.
"So it was an inside job?" She thought aloud, "No, the Excaliburs were guarded by different sects. There is no way that could happen."
Despite the humans of the Heaven Faction identifying themselves as the Church, they were not actually a united group. They were divided into several different sects, ranging from small to large in size, each with their own set of beliefs and command structures.
Some of the major sects were the Roman Catholic Church, the Easter Orthodox Church and the Protestants.
Each of the Excaliburs were guarded by different Sects. And while they were officially on the same side, the Sects rarely got along with one another. That was why the idea of an inside job is laughable. The Sects had trouble even agreeing on the smallest and simplest of issues.
That a clandestine group of people from several different sects were able to work together so coherently that they were capable of pulling off an elaborate and well-timed theft like this without anybody finding out was as close to impossible as you can get.
"Surprisingly the Church hasn't accused Devils of the theft." I said, drawing Sona away from her thoughts. "It seems that the lack of death or destruction, in addition to the theft occurring on holy ground, has convinced the majority of the Church that it wasn't our side that did it."
"Yes," she nodded in agreement after thinking about it, "not to mention that Devils can't even hold an ordinary Holy Blade let alone an Excalibur. There was no way we could have done it. It's still your turn by the way."
Damn it. I looked down at the chess set and moved a random piece forward, hoping it I would get lucky and get out of this mess. Looks like she'd learned from the last time I tried to distract her with news.
"Speaking of weapons," She was wearing a smug smile as she looked down on the chess board after my latest move though she did not respond yet, "I've been meaning to ask you about the one you gave Tsubaki."
Ah, that's right. I had almost completely forgotten about it. From the edge of eye I caught Tsubaki looking up from her work as she heard Sona bring up the topic. I turned towards her and asked, "Tsubaki, could you please summoning it here? It will be easier to explain that way."
After a questioning glance towards Sona, who gave her a nod, she summoned the halberd that same way she did with her Naginata. The weapon soon dropped into her hands and she twirled it around so that the blade was pointed upwards and the butt of the shaft was placed firmly on the ground.
"Its name is Houtengeki," I began, "a one of a kind halberd crafted in ancient China. It is in every meaning of the word a masterpiece and if you search the entire world you'll never find another halberd that can match it.
What distinguished it from any other type of weapon is its versatility that allows it to use all the major characteristic of all other two-handed type of weapons, allowing it to be effective in slashing, thrusting, battering, scything and sweeping.
"However that is just as much a flaw as a blessing in its design, as it takes a lot of skill to handle this weapon. It would not be inaccurate to say that in order to master it you need to the skill to wield several different types of weapon.
It is an incredibly difficult weapon to learn how to wield proficiently and will take years even for the most talented fighter to completely master. In the almost two thousand years that the Houtengeki has existed only one man has ever successfully mastered it."
"The most remarkable aspect about this particular weapon is how it's destructive power varies with the skill of its wielder. The more skilled the user the more powerful the halberd becomes, while in the hands of an amateur it becomes little more than a pointy stick."
"At maximum strength it is said to have the capacity to pierce anything in the world, from the strongest of armor to the scales of dragons and even the flesh of Gods."
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