Kisuke sighed and rubbed his forehead when he received Yoruichi's message. Kisuke couldn't help but imagine Yoruichi's mischievous grin while going through her message once again, 'I already anticipated this, but to think none of them could really go... Looks like they're ramping up their activities. Is it because of the tournament here?'
"Is something the matter?" Gabriel softly spoke from behind him, "We can postpone it if you still have other important arrangements."
"Well, it's important.", Kisuke shook his head, "But I can't leave like this. I first have to establish a good route before stopping or all the progress I've already made would just be erased by the ever-changing encryption."
Kisuke returned his hand to the holographic keyboard and watched the console he'd painstakingly created after giving up the analog way of Angels to give a command to Ophanim, an Angel without any will or mind that was solely created by the Biblical God to watch and access the Sacred Gear system.
The route he's talking about was the way he could attach and debug the console he'd created for permanent access. Since it was only the Biblical God who could fully control Ophanim, Kisuke had to find all preset instructions embedded using all the Angel's findings, which wasn't very much in the first place. At least it was a good start.
"I see. Thank you for your efforts. If there's something I can do to help, please don't hesitate to say it."
Without missing a beat, Kisuke instantly replied, "Then give me the full catalog of all Sacred Gears."
"T-that..." Gabriel immediately ate her words.
"Don't pretend that you don't have it." Kisuke turned his head and looked straight into her eyes, "With all of these findings, even if you didn't include it, I can safely assume that you have it. I can only guess why you're hiding that fact, but I need it if I want to have an accurate reading on this thing."
"..." Gabriel stayed quiet.
"Just so you know, I'll also be able to access the same data but it'll take me some time. Just make it easier for me, please."
For a few minutes, the only noise that could be heard in this enormous chamber was the rotating and intertwining rings of Ophanim and Kisuke's nonstop typing on the holographic keyboard, until Gabriel sighed in surrender.
Opening her palm in front of her, she conjured a thick book and handed it over to Kisuke, "Please don't reveal its contents to outsiders."
"While I did ask for this, you're too trusting of me. Just what did I do to deserve this?"
"Because I think you, who moves alone and is not tied to any big organization, is much more trustworthy compared to the other factions."
Kisuke received the thick book and said, "I see... You have to choose between two evils and I'm the lesser one. But just how desperate are you to open the Sacred Gear system..." He stopped his sentence after flipping through the book, "... You're desperate, alright. What the hell is this?"
Gabriel smiled wryly, already expecting his reaction, "Even with risks, we have to stop the Sacred Gear system... Or else, an age of endless conflict may come."
'No shit...' Kisuke thought while looking through the list. Even the Grigori who had a large intelligence network throughout the entire Human Realm could only find around 10,000 Sacred Gears, yet this book is listing at least a million of them. If this was discovered, a great search would commence. Until now, only large factions could effectively control the Sacred Gear users due to their limited numbers, but if there were this many of them, even the smaller ones could do it and no one would be able to do anything because it's an unmanageable number. With a potential power spike like that, it'll indeed lead to an endless conflict.
"No wonder you easily allowed me access here. It'd be disastrous once left alone. Compared to the looming problem called Apollo..."
"We're ashamed that we couldn't do anything about it with our measly power. If only someone like you was born in our faction, we wouldn't have had this problem."
"If you'd had someone like me in your faction, there's a good chance this whole place would've been taken over, so don't wish for it."
Gabriel chuckled, "Is that so? I think it'll be alright as long as he or she has the proper morals."
"I'm someone like me because I don't have the proper morals. In any case, I'll continue what I'm doing for the time being so I'll ask you to keep a watch on Apollo's movements."
"Just watch, is it? Do we really have to do nothing to defend?"
"He might notice something is wrong, so just keep going about your days as usual. At any rate, the 'weapon' he's so proud of is already broken."
Even then, Gabriel still had some apprehension from Kisuke's warning of Apollo's invasion, so she decided to move some of their forces secretly.
Naturally, Kisuke was already aware of what she might do, but he didn't say anything against it as there was really no way to assure her. And this, in general, was a good practice. 'As long as they're careful with their movements, it's going to be fine.'
Ignoring her, Kisuke focused on the task at hand while also sending a message to his mother to take care of the Teleportation Circle in the Belial Mansion's basement and receive their guest. While doing so, he also pulled out another console that would monitor the World Gate, 'If there are any problems, I'm going to leave this alone. I'm sorry to say, but the safety of a friend is much more important than the safety of this faction. Though Irina will probably complain if she were to hear me say that.'
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After a few minutes of extremely uncomfortable darkness, Riveria finally saw a light in the distance and it only took a few seconds for it to cover her entire sight, giving a very dizzying feeling. She was already feeling really weak after what she went through two days ago, so when her feet felt the ground, she was not able to balance herself and began to fall forward without any signs of being able to recover.
"Oh my." Riveria heard someone's voice before she felt a soft body stopping her fall and supporting her stand.
"Ughh..." Even then, Riveria could only groan because the headache she was feeling was immense.
"There's nowhere to sit here, so I'll slowly lower you to the floor. Take it easy and rest for now."
Unfortunately, Riveria couldn't understand what she was saying. However, she was able to guess her intentions and followed her lead to sit on the floor, "[...Thank you.]"
"Ah... I almost forgot that you can't understand me." Sakura took out a PET bottle containing water and opened it before giving it to Riveria, "But I can't just give you that language helper candy in your current state."
Riveria gratefully received the water and happily drank it, washing away some of the uncomfortable feelings. It's also just now that she noticed that she can't understand what she's saying.