The two exorcists were confused about what just happened. If it's an attack with even slight mal intent, they would have felt and reacted to it, but the magic is too sudden and silent that they fell victim to it.
Even now, they didn't know how to react, especially when the Devil maid started cursing and losing it at, presumably, the one who wrote the notes.
"...Irina... What's happening?" Xenovia wiped her bloodied nose and asked her comrade. She didn't even know what to feel in this situation.
"...No clue... But that Devil seems to know about it..." Also wiping her nose, Irina stares at the hysterical Devil, 'That face stamp with shaggy hair is all too familiar... Is it Kisuke? He knows magic? Then that probably means that he was also converted into a Devil.' Complicated feeling bubbled up inside her as she didn't really want to become enemies with the person she's very close with in the past and saved her, '...Is this also the Lord's trial?'
"Should we ask her?" Xenovia suggested.
"Probably after she calms down a bit."
"Good call."
It took Akeno a few minutes to calm down. Sakura already left for Hokkaido a few days ago and she was left taking care of the house after school.
She's excited at the prospect she'll have a chance to find out Kisuke's weakness so she went overboard at searching the house, putting more effort in searching Kisuke's room in the guise of cleaning it.
But instead of his weakness, what she found is annoying traps everywhere. It ranges from plain annoying up to borderline sexual harassment. At first, she didn't mind it as she already knew that this is the case, but as time goes on, her patience was slowly deteriorating and stress piling up.
She felt like she's a hero of a shitty RPG crawling the last dungeon where the Demon King lives and every step is a landmine making it impossible to clear.
Due to stress piling up and unclear mind, she ended up using the only thing she found, Kisuke's porn stash... by 'comforting' herself.
Of course, she regretted it immediately after her mind cleared up a bit. But despite how she looks and acts, she doesn't have any experience and it's not often she can lay her eyes on a porn magazine. So seeing Kisuke's diverse collection, it caught her attention and unwittingly read all of it when she knows that no one is watching her.
What caught her attention the most is magazines with S&M themes and the book that she 'used' is from this category. It's a very effective method to relieve nevertheless.
Another day has passed and stress piled up on her mind again and ended up doing it again, but with lesser regret this time thinking that no one can see her anyway and she always cleans up the scene for any evidence that others might take a clue from.
From then on, it became a routine for her after falling victim to many of Kisuke's traps yet not finding anything useful. It even came to the point that she won't leave Kisuke's room anymore to take the porn magazine and doing it there. Of course, she took extra care not to leave any evidence. It's the room she searched the most anyway and she's sure that there isn't any hidden camera or any sort to capture her activities in the room... How wrong she was.
When Irina and Xenovia came, she's just about to start her routine and was interrupted with her stress-relieving time, so when she answered the door, she's more feisty than usual. If it's the usual her, even if she's facing exorcist who seems to be carrying dangerous weapons for the Devils, she'll just laugh it off and show them a bit of courtesy. Too bad... They really came at the wrong time. She's already in the mood and ended up suppressing it, so when Kisuke's annoying trap came, she instantly lost it.
"Uhmm... What's happening?" Irina didn't know what to ask so she just chooses to ask the general idea of what just occurred.
After calming down, Akeno wiped her nose clean and said, "You claim to know him but you don't know how that bastard's mind works?"
"T-That bastard?"
"Of course I'm talking about that Kisuke Urahara!"
"You Devils don't go along with each other?"
"Hmm? What Devil?"
"I mean, didn't he become a Devil?"
"Devil? That guy? No way! No one can control that bastard!"
"He isn't a Devil?"
"He isn't."
"Then what are you doing here?"
"..." Akeno didn't know how to answer that question. She didn't want to reveal her funny situation she's in because they lost a bet against Kisuke.
"Why are you staying si--..." Before Irina could finish her question, Akeno's phone suddenly rang.
Akeno took out her phone from her pocket and saw an unknown number calling her, "Hello? Who's this?"
"Ah, Akeno-chan! Good evening~!" From the other side, she heard a familiar voice, "Sakura-san?"
Thanks to their training and control of Holy Power to strengthen their bodies, Irina and Xenovia can easily hear Sakura's voice.
"Yep, it's me. How are you doing?"
"I-I'm fine..."
"...Did you activate any traps?" Hearing her reluctant answer, Sakura immediately guessed.
"..."
"I'm sorry... I forgot to tell you that Kisuke put some gimmicks in the house and will only activate whenever both of us aren't home. Though I don't know what gimmicks are those, I can tell that those are just some nasty traps."
She didn't know why, but Akeno has a feeling that she didn't tell her on purpose. However, Akeno is more curious about other things, "Sakura-san... How did you know my contact details?"
"Ah, right. Miki told me that Irina-chan arrived from overseas and visited her and Issei-kun. I got your contacts by asking Rias Gremory who is staying at their place. She'll probably arrive at our place tonight so I want you to entertain them in my place. By the way, Irina-chan is Kisuke's childhood friend and they're pretty close back in the day."
"...They are in front of me right now?"
"Really? Great, can you pass your phone to them for a few seconds?"
Akeno hesitated for a few moments but complied in the end, "Sure." She then threw her phone towards Irina's direction.
Irina caught it and examined it for a moment before putting it before her right ear, "Sakura-kaasan?"
"Irina-chan! It's been so long! How are you doing?" She heard the familiar jovial tone on the other side and sighed in relief.
"I'm doing great~! How about you?" Irina and Sakura exchanged pleasantries and talked about what they missed for a bit. But it didn't take for them to talk as Sakura needs to attend to something, "I'm sorry, but I have to go, I would like to talk to you more but I'm busy here in Hokkaido and my good for nothing son is currently in a vacation in Greece so he can't entertain you either. How long are you gonna stay in Japan anyway?"
"Just a few days or maybe a week if my business takes some time."
"Do you have a place to stay already?"
"No, I don't."
"Great~! Then you stay at my place for the duration of your stay in Japan!"
"Huh? I'm sorry, but I can't impose myself with you too much!" Irina rejected her offer, 'And besides... A Devil is here!'
Even Akeno was shocked after hearing Sakura's words but felt relieved when Irina instantly rejected her offer.
"It's fine~. And I insist. That's the only thing I can do for you."
"No. I can't. I appreciate your offer, but I'm with someone else and there is also another reason that I can't take your goodwill."
"The fact that you're an exorcist, and the maid in front of you is a Devil?"
"!?... How?"
"I heard it from Rias Gremory."
"So you know about the existence of the supernatural world..."
"Yep~. I also heard that you vowed not to attack the Devils under the Gremory and Sitri, and Akeno-chan here is the Queen of Rias Gremory. And I can assure you that she won't hurt you in any way... Right? Akeno-chan?"
Akeno stayed silent for a bit before eventually answering, "...Yes."
5/5
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And that would be all for mass release.
So I'll be returning to 1 or 2 per day... is what I would like, but I'd like to rest for 1-2 days.
I haven't been able to sleep properly this past few days due to work and it's letting up now, so I'd like to laze around!
.
Forgive this lazy author~.
.
.
Btw... If I got caught up with some of my backlogged novels, manga, and games... It'll probably longer.
After a few more persuasion from Sakura and the fact that they are broke after being scammed, they conceded and accepted her offer. Sakura talked to Akeno again for a bit before hanging up the call to attend to her business.
"This way, please." Akeno invited them inside and guided them towards the room that they'll use, "You can use this room. You'll probably never eat the food that I'll make so I ordered something from a family restaurant and should arrive a few minutes later. In the meantime, you can arrange your things here and wash up in the bathroom. The bathroom is the second door from the end of the hallway."
When they reached the room, Xenovia, who is staying quiet up until now spoke, "Are you really fine with this?"
"Ara~. I wonder what you're talking about?"
"We could hurt you, you know? I'm surprised that you would trust our words not to hurt any of those in Gremory and Sitri Household. We indeed promised that, but there's still a limit to it."
"Is that so?" Akeno then gave them a big smile, "Why don't you try attacking me then and see if you could really hurt me."
Xenovia stared at her for a while before unwrapping the big sword she's carrying and just as Akeno thought, it's a Holy Sword and a strong one at that, "I assume that's a challenge?"
Akeno only kept smiling, unfazed of Xenovia taking a stance.
Seeing that she looked confident, Xenovia flared up her Holy Power and transferred it to her Holy Sword making it glow in a golden hue.
But just as she did, a green magic circle suddenly materialized in front of her and an arrow with a head of a suction cup. Xenovia already expected something like this happening after falling victim to the first one, 'Is this why she's confident? How naive...'
With a swing of her sword, she slashed the toy arrow into to, but to her surprise, the shaft of the arrow is hollow and is containing green fluids. Xenovia couldn't dodge in time and ended up bathing in it.
She thought it was acid and braced herself to the burning feeling she's about to feel, but even after a second, that feeling never came and instead, she Irina calling out to her, "X-Xenovia!"
Irina is not looking at her face but her body so Xenovia also looked down. Most of her clothes were already melted by the fluid and a few seconds more, she would be in her birthday suit.
"Did you think that something like this would faze me? Especially when we're the only people here?" After saying that, Xenovia resumed her assault, but she miscalculated something.
After seeing that the fluids just melted her clothes, she thought that it wouldn't have any other use, but as she took a step forward, she slipped and fell forward. She underestimated how slippery the fluid is.
Although she fell for the trap, with her reaction, slipping wouldn't be a big deal for her... If not for the pitfall suddenly appearing in front of her where. Without anywhere to grab, she fell in the dark pitfall. Even Irina couldn't react to how fast things moved. No matter what Xenovia did to react to the situation, she still wasn't capable enough to escape the series of traps in a single activation of magic.
After a few seconds, they heard a large splash of water from the end of the hallway and a scream from Xenovia, "Wahh!!"
"Xenovia!?" Irina ran through the hallway and opened the door where Akeno pointed earlier as bathroom and saw Xenovia in the bathtub... shaking as she was dunk in the ice-cold water-filled tub. Irina also noticed a note posted on her forehead saying, "Cool your head, will ya~?" Along with the familiar face stamp on it.
Irina's mouth twitches, "What the hell? Why such sophisticated, non-lethal trap inside the house?" She muttered a question.
Akeno came from behind and answered her question, "It's that bastard's hobby... He's using his smarts in all things that are only useful to annoy others." She then walked towards the side of the tub and heated up the water with her magic, "I can't have my guest catching a cold, so please be careful~."
"You already knew about that trap..." Xenovia gritted her teeth in frustration and isn't a bit thankful for her gesture. After all, she's the one who led her to the trap by provoking her. Although she knew there would be a trap, she didn't expect that she has to react to it every single turn and still fail in the end.
"Nope~. I don't know about that trap at all~." Akeno said in a light laugh. She can now understand Sona's point of view of wanting others to fell victim to Kisuke's traps after experiencing it countless times. Xenovia's frustrated expression is just what she needs, 'Too bad, I can't invite others in this house without Sakura-san and that bastard's permission.'
"Huh? Then how did you..." Irina and Xenovia looked at her with confusion.
Akeno's smile suddenly froze and became a forced one. She looked at the distance with blank eyes and said, "Because I already fell for all sorts of traps in this house that I already trusted it of doing the same for both of you... You can't imagine how many times I tried to outsmart those traps." She answered honestly.
"...Irina... Staying here is too dangerous if there are traps everywhere... Let's just go to that abandoned Church that you mentioned."
Irina was about to agree when Akeno interrupted her, "If it's about that, then you don't have to worry. As long as you live here normally, you wouldn't activate any traps."
They wanted to ask her how did she claim that she fell in countless traps if that's the case but stopped themselves when they saw a strange glint in her eyes along with her smile which isn't.
'Kisuke's antics became worse, huh? That's fine though. As long as he doesn't become a Devil... Everything is fine...' Irina thought, "Xenovia, I think it's fine to stay here."
"...I-I guess you're right."
"Then I would have to leave you alone now as I still have to clean some rooms. After washing yourself and taking care of your luggage, you can wait for the food in the living room." Akeno didn't wait for them to answer and left the bathroom. After all, she doesn't plan to change what she initially planned. Even though she was able to release a bit of her stress after seeing Xenovia's 'downfall', it wasn't enough. On top of that, it became a routine for her to do it to the point that she won't feel right if she skips it.
After Akeno left, Irina and Xenovia looked at each other, "You're childhood friend is... interesting..." Xenovia wanted to comment on Irina's supposed childhood friend but didn't know how to describe him.
"He's always been an eccentric guy... But looks like it worsened these past few years." Irina replied, "I'll go get some change of clothes. I'll join you in the bath."
~Corrupt them all~