The pope stopped combing his beard with his hand and could only stare at Serafall with wide-open eyes.
On their flight towards Rome, Serafall contemplated how she should handle the situation and how she could have the pope direct the current Holy Power. She thought that she could pretend to be an Angel but immediately discarded it due to the high risk of the Holy Power rushing into her. As she's not someone like Claire who was already an irregular in the first place, only death awaits her the moment she takes the faith of billions of people no matter how strong she is.
She could technically do it if she stopped being a 'Devil', but it's just not realistic to be 'Ice' all the time and she'd hate to do that too.
Without much choice, she decided to reveal her true identity as that would also indirectly prove the existence of heavenly beings, 'If only Irina-chan or Akeno-chan were here with us, it would have been a lot easier...'
But after a moment of silence, the pope suddenly started chuckling, "Young lady, if you're going to joke around, pick a good one. But you shouldn't really joke around and just tell what you're here for instead of wasting both of our time."
"..." Serafall's smile grew wider, 'Alright. Let's freeze him until he understands.'
Serafall slowly stood up and released her massive Demonic Power while manifesting her Devil Wings.
The thick Holy Power was instantly triggered by the presence of Demonic Power, but without any direction, all it could do was push against it. In turn, that only gave a dreadful feeling that washed over the whole City State like a tsunami. If the explosion of Holy Power from days ago was like a flame of hope, the current one reminded everyone in the vicinity of the flames of war and destruction even if they hadn't experienced it at all.
At the origin of this wave, the pope didn't speak, or more specifically, he couldn't. The suffocating feeling and the horrifying smile of the young beautiful girl in front of him only reminded him of one word, 'Devil. He fell off from his chair and tried scrambling away but soon enough, he found himself unable to move and when he looked down, he was alarmed to see that his whole body, neck down, was enclosed in a thick sheet of ice. Although strangely enough, he didn't feel its coldness.
"W-what are you going to do?" The pope nervously asked the winged lady.
It was Serafall's turn to chuckle, "Nothing. But I'll return later."
After saying that, the lady started turning into dust and disappeared with the wind blowing, leaving behind the immobilized pope. A few seconds later, the pope could hear his security shouting in the background and multiple footsteps approaching his doorstep. However, he couldn't care less about them right now as his mind raced to understand what the 'Devil' was trying to say.
He had a lot of questions, but one thing that's for certain is that he can't disregard her claim of being a 'Devil' anymore.
.
.
.
"So you went and joined Claire's group after that?", asked Kisuke.
"There's nothing more I could do aside from waiting for them to get themselves together. Besides, Claire-chan's current state of mind is much more important."
"How is she, by the way?"
"She's looking good right now and has mostly returned to her previous self, but it's better if I can watch her closely in case something else is up."
"And the real reason why you took Claire with you?" Kisuke knew that it wasn't just because Claire was not in her right state of mind. He already guessed the reason but he wanted to hear it from her directly.
Serafall sighed and turned her head up to face Kisuke who was looking down on her, "The real reason is that Claire-chan could kill those from Hell. Although it's just the two of us now from this side, that guy she fought is still a source of information and soon that information would reach this side. We could defend against Soul Society who will seek to use her, but to what extent? Unless you can find a way to end them without relying on Claire-chan, I won't permit her to return to Japan."
"Roger that." Kisuke smiled and agreed with her, 'Soul Society was not really the problem but the all-knowing monk. I don't know what he'll do... I should do something to limit his range of movement.'
Seeing that smile, Serafall became concerned because it was the same smile he made when he was about to face Chaos, "Are you going to do something dangerous again?"
"It's something that must be done."
"Can't you let me help you?" Serafall asked, however, she already knew the answer. If she could help, he would have already asked for it without her offering.
"Please ensure the safety of the kids. More than anything, don't let Claire be scared of her own power."
"...Hmmm... That's true, isn't it? It might even be the source of her current problem, or at least, a part of it."
Serafall then sat up and waved at Soifon who just arrived and opened the door to the two of them, "I need to go. It's about time I show Claire-chan what it means to be a big sister." She then stood up before teleporting away.
As soon as she disappeared, a knife went flying towards Kisuke's face and he caught it between his two fingers.
"I was under the impression that you and Yoruichi-sama are together... But what is this? After bragging about your relationship with her to my face the other day, are you actually cheating on her?" Soifon, with a glare that could kill, asked him.
Kisuke laughed wryly before tossing the knife back and sighing, "It's complicated. Without the people involved, it's futile for me to explain so I'll spare you the ear rot."
In an attempt to escape from him awkwardly explaining that he actually developed a harem, Kisuke immediately changed the topic, "How did your practice go?"
Soifon glared at him for a few more seconds before walking and taking a seat on the couch in front of him, "All good. I've been practicing ever since Kurosutchi distributed the instruction books but your instructions and device are way better. Why not just give this to them?"
"For free? No way. It's one of the currencies we can exchange with Soul Society so I'm not willing to be this helpful with them this early."
Soifon immediately realized his intentions, "So you fed us just enough that we'll ask for more..."
"Well, that's the gist of it." Kisuke then stood up, "Going back on topic, you should have already noticed that there's no way for you to use this Magic Power."
Soifon stayed silent. She tried controlling this newfound energy like she would with her Reiatsu but only hurt herself in the process.
"In fact, it's almost impossible for someone like you who has a Spiritual Body. That brings me to offer two choices to you. Learn how to use Ki instead or join me in an experiment for you to use Magic."
"The first one." Soifon instantly answered.
Kisuke almost tripped on nothing, "Hold on! Listen to me first! That's not even everything yet!"