Nyx and Athena rushed towards the Belial Mansion's secret basement when they heard that someone entered it through Teleportation Magic from Cleria. They already knew who'd came through, but they were not expecting to see Kisuke twisting Erebus' full of holes body to the correct orientation as if he was fixing a broken doll.
"...Y-yo~!" Kisuke awkwardly greeted them while patting down Erebus' midsection that was stretched and mangled.
Athena's expression darkened while Nyx started tearing up, "...B-brother..."
"Hold on! It's not what you think! He's alive!... Barely, at least." Kisuke explained while pulling out dozens of bottles of potion from his inventory and pouring everything on him. Since he didn't have the equipment needed for a full recovery and he didn't want to bring him to any of the facilities he owned, this is the most he could do. Even then, he could be kept alive, though barely and painfully.
Hearing Kisuke's words, the life in Nyx's eyes returned, and ran over to check her brother, only to see him groaning in pain despite being unconscious. She didn't know that he's actually having a nightmare instead of actually hurting.
Athena also walked over and checked Erebus' situation and instead of a battle, it looks like he was tortured instead, "...Just what did you do to him? I also felt him activating his signature 'Night' yet here you are, virtually unharmed."
"His ability didn't have good compatibility with me. Not to brag but something like that is easily managed by a counter specialist like me. As long as he couldn't kill me in time, I'd find a way to render it useless."
"...Kill you in time?" Athena then recalled the instance where he survived Ares' all-out attack, "Remind me again how the heck someone could kill you?"
"Err... Slice me enough times that I won't be able to regenerate?"
"You're not sure?"
"Athena-san, acquiring death experience isn't an easy one. I'm sure you don't have one either."
Athena realized her mistake and said, "...My bad." While also thinking, 'You'd normally know how much you can take before you die isn't it?... What was normal again?'
After patching up Erebus to a degree that his condition wouldn't worsen anymore, Kisuke finished his treatment, "You two can continue my treatment. Just follow the instructions in this booklet and use the supplies that I'll be leaving behind."
After receiving the booklet and cabinet of various concoctions from Kisuke, Athena asked, "Where are you going?"
"You should know that after this attack, it'll be seen as a declaration of war from Hades' side. But before the Alliance can gather its army and attack, they'll be initiating it first."
"I know, but shouldn't I come with you to prepare? They probably have already finished the process of opening Tartarus. No matter how strong you are, you won't be able to take on a group of Titans."
Kisuke then looked at her with genuine confusion, "When did I say I'll be fighting them?"
"B-but you said you'll take care of them..."
"I did. But why would I do something as unreliable as fighting? If that's what you were expecting, I'm sorry, but I'm not villainous enough to think I can take on the whole world."
Athena blankly stared at him for a short while before holding her head in remorse, 'Since when did I start thinking that violence was the answer to everything!?'
While the Goddess of Wisdom and War was having an inner conflict, Kisuke left to kickstart the spell he'd prepared for the prisoners of Tartarus, 'If I'm successful, I won't need to win this whole tournament.' He thought while also thinking of the possibility of failing and revealing most of his cards to the world just to get 'a bit' of help.
While the two Goddesses thought that the possibility of breaking open the Tartarus was a grim challenge for the whole of Olympus and the world by extension, Kisuke saw it as a massive opportunity to get some free labor. If the two knew what he was thinking, they'd be pulling their hair out of frustration. The bad thing was, they wouldn't even be able to deny that possibility no matter how unlikely it looked.
.
.
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A few days had already passed since Aika locked herself up in her room. As time passed, Honoka became increasingly paranoid while her husband, Haruto, tried his best to calm her down.
After placing Aika's dinner in front of her room's door, Honoka came down to the living room with a haggard look. In all the days she had raised her daughter, this was the first time she'd become unresponsive to almost everything. She knew that her daughter was afraid of something but she couldn't figure out what it was. If not for the fact that her food was still being eaten, she would have thought of the worst and asked Haruto to break down her door.
As she lethargically sat down on the sofa, she felt Haruto's hand holding hers and asked, "...Just where did we go wrong?"
"I don't think it's right to blame ourselves for this." Haruto replied with a calm and soft voice, "It was his fault. Nothing will change that."
Honoka turned her palm and grabbed Haruto's hand and replied, "But I can't help but think that we're also not entirely blameless. We were given a chance yet it turned out like this. I've been thinking that we should have been honest and said that we're hiding something from her. Maybe... If we were able to convince her that she shouldn't uncover this secret, it might not have reached this point where she doesn't even listen to anything."
Haruto gave out a wry smile and said, "I guess that's true too. We don't know enough of the situation to make a proper judgment."
He then suddenly stood up which confused Honoka, "Where are you going?"
Haruto started walking towards the main entrance while replying, "If we don't know something, we should ask someone who does."
Honoka followed Haruto to their garden and heard him say, "If someone's there, please come out. I'd like to talk."
"What are you..." But before Honoka could finish speaking, a woman in a suit and shades came out of the shadows and spooked her into silence.
The woman walked towards Haruto and introduced herself, "Nice to meet you. I'm Onoskelis of Grigori, the Fallen Angel Faction and the current leader of the security assigned to your family. How may I help you?"
"Sakura Urahara, we'd like to have a word with her."
Editors:
28th00
Redemeperor D
Onoskelis pulled out a smartphone from her pocket and operated it for a bit before giving it to Haruto, "There's only one contact saved in it and it's the current head of the Belial House. She's the older sister of Sarah Belial who uses Sakura Urahara in the Human World."
Haruto looked at the smartphone with a screen showing the name Cleria Belial. He then looked up only to see the woman returning to the shadow before entirely disappearing, "Aren't you awfully prepared? And it looks like my guess that there are people watching this place was true..."
Without being able to find the source, Onoskelis' voice resounded to both Haruto and Honoka, "We were given the directives that if you were to ask for a contact, we'd give it to you without any questions. That smartphone is just a standard issue for everyone. And if you're worried about your privacy, please don't think about it. We've been instructed not to tap anything inside the house and I'll also personally make sure that nothing sensitive goes out of your house."
"...That's reassuring."
Deeming that the current explanation was accepted, Onoskelis didn't further elaborate.
Haruto turned around to see his shocked wife and grabbed her hand to lead her back inside, "Now, let's ask what's really going on."
Returning to the living room, the husband and wife sat side by side as the latter picked up the phone and called the only number that was on it. Without their notice, a small and very discreet barrier that blocked off sound waves was erected around them. The standard-issued phone was a high-tech espionage device.
"How did you know there were people outside?" Honoka asked.
"I didn't. I just bet that there were considering how they mentioned in passing that they'd arranged security for us when Aika was not around. I thought that maybe they were still around. Though I didn't really expect that someone would come out of the shadows..."
"Does it tingle your inner chuunibyou?"
Haruto immediately broke eye contact and looked down at the phone, "...L-let's wait for the answer, shall we?"
Honoka chuckled seeing her husband flustered for the first time in a while. Also watching him move confidently and with a clear goal in mind made Honoka gain her own confidence and calm down a little bit, 'I also can't just mope around and passively react to everything...'
The phone rang for a minute or two but there was no answer. Haruto and Honoka looked at each other before the latter said, "Call her again. If there's still no answer, we'll try it again later."
After another minute of ringing, Cleria finally answered with a slightly hurried voice, "Good day, Kiryuu-san. I was already informed that you wanted to talk with Sarah. I apologize for answering late. We had a situation we had to deal with first."
"I-it's fine. Is it a good time now? We can always call later."
"It's fine. You called because you have concerns with your daughter, right? That's Kisuke's responsibility, by extension, is also our responsibility. So if there's a problem with Aika-chan, we'd also like to help. By the way, is it alright for me and my brother to listen in? I think we might be able to help."
"It's alright. It isn't exactly help that we need, but knowledge. Last time, we thought that brushing the issue aside and pretending it didn't exist was a good thing for Aika's situation... But now she's struggling with something and we couldn't even guess what's going on. We want to know what exactly happened to her."
The other side became silent for a moment before the couple heard Sakura's voice, "...If you want to know what exactly happened, we'd have to ask Kisuke since he's the one who took her in. But I guess you wouldn't want to talk about this with him, yes?"
Haruto sighed and replied, "Yes... In the meantime, we would like to have no involvement with him. As you've said, he's the reason why Aika is in this situation so I... No... We might not be able to control our emotions and think straight with him around. I'm sorry about this, but even if it's just a little bit, I'd like to know everything you know."
Haruto then proceeded to tell the siblings about how Aika was doing fine at the start, but slowly became distant until she stopped talking to them and refused to get out of her room.
Cleria and Sakura looked at each other as they too, don't have any idea of what was going on even with what they know, "...What do you think is bothering her?" asked the latter.
This time, it was Honoka who answered, "...I have a feeling that she's afraid of something."
Both sides became silent for a minute. But when Sakura was just about to tell them what she knows, Diehauser, who'd just came back after receiving the news of Erebus' attack, spoke up, "She's probably afraid of those around her."
The unfamiliar male voice surprised the couple for a moment but Haruto asked without questioning who he was, "...Please explain it to us."
Diehauser nodded and continued, "I'm no parent so I don't know what it means to have a child. But if you think she's afraid of something, then I can give my objective view of the situation. But before I explain further, let me ask how you dealt with it whenever she asked something about her missing memories."
"We responded as we planned we would and kept any mention of it to a minimum."
"I see... From what I can see, from long ago, she had been able to tell that you're lying to her."
"What!? But how!? We even prepared all the documents needed to support our responses!", exclaimed Honoka.
"That might be the reason for her fearful attitude. I don't know if even Kisuke predicted this, but even though the ability and memory sealing was successful, it was also only to that extent. Meaning, aside from those two, everything else was open, including lingering emotions and instincts."
"In other words, she might have forgotten about it but her heart couldn't?" asked Sakura.
"Something to that extent. As a seasoned fighter, I can tell to a degree what she's experiencing. Even though she might have forgotten a lot of things, someone who's trained to fight and read their opponents couldn't possibly forget the intuition that they'd honed. Unless your lie is perfectly executed until the very last micro expression, veterans would be able to notice the discrepancies."
Haruto couldn't believe it and said, "You've already said it yourself. Veterans would, but my daughter is nothing like that."
"In an ordinary human sense, that's correct. However, you have no idea what Magic Power or other similar systems could do to the development of someone. One great example of this is Issei Hyoudou who aside from experience, is much better than most veterans out there. And this becomes more apparent when you think of those who contributed for him to reach this height, one of which is Kisuke."
"Only a few know this, but Kisuke has a reputation of being a good trainer or coach since everyone he has helped became wildly sought after. This is also the reason why Aika's existence was hidden amongst the Three Great Factions, since she is one of the few individuals who has been with him the longest."
"Well, to put it another way, you can blame Kisuke again for this." Diehauser finished with a wry smile.
Editors:
28th00: You can blame Kisuke for a lot of things, really. You can’t really seal instincts, or you’re basically fucking up someones head/soul/personality so hard that they may as well not even be the same person anymore.
Goyya: Memory erasure, in the first place, doesn’t erase anything. It’s more like a hypnotic spell to forget something specific. That’s a lot more safer and effective since it’s the brain itself that could fill in the blanks.
Redemperor D