"..." Slowly opening her eyes, Serafall felt like she was rousing from a very comfortable and long sleep. But when her mind began clearing up and she remembered what happened before she lost consciousness, she instantly shot up from her bed and was momentarily blinded by the sun rays coming through the window, "Kuh... Where am I?" Serafall loudly muttered while instinctively covering her eyes from the rays.
"We're back at our place in Karakura Town." A familiar voice answered to her left.
Serafall's eyes widened and her head hurriedly turned to see Kisuke busying himself on the drawers.
Without turning his head, Kisuke immediately felt Serafall's sudden movement and used Flash Step to arrive at her side and push her down by the shoulder, "Don't even think about jumping out of bed. You're fine but you still strained yourself too much."
Serafall was forced to sit back down but that only made her pout, "I'm not so weak that I can't tackle you."
The corner of Kisuke's mouth twitched, "...So you really were intending to tackle me." He sighed and sat down next to her bed, "That recklessness... Well, I guess that's just part of who you are. I won't say anything about your attempt back then since it was also a valid choice, but settle down for now. I won't allow you to hurt yourself further, no matter how small it is."
Serafall was really happy upon hearing that and wanted to hug Kisuke tightly, but upon further inspection of her own condition, she found out that despite her stable condition, she was in a really fragile state right now that even a simple utilization of her Demonic Power could crumble that delicate balance.
Soon, however, her frustrations were washed away when she felt Kisuke's arm wrapping around her head and bringing it close to his chest, "I'm really glad that you're safe."
Serafall was surprised for a moment but soon smiled. She slowly and carefully moved her arms to wrap around him too, "I'm also very happy to see you back."
After patting her head for a bit, Kisuke let go of her after a minute or two, "Rest up. Things on the other side aren't exactly peaceful either so you'd need to get up and move around soon."
"Ah, that's right? What happened? Ajuka-chan also hinted that it doesn't look great on their side. Wait... Before that, how long have I been sleeping and where are the girls?" Serafall asked while looking around, noticing the strange quietness.
Kisuke stood up and went back to the drawer before pulling out a tea set from his inventory, "It has been a week."
"...Were you able to defeat the monk?"
Kisuke didn't answer immediately and instead looked towards the window, staring into an empty space, "Yeah. I definitely did."
Serafall wanted to ask him about the strange pause but he didn't let her, "Ajuka-san and Azazel-san also told me what happened on the other side, the summary of it. I have to oversee the transfer over here and the channels aren't that wide enough so I sent Ophis, Lilith, Claire, Kunou, and Tanis back first along with Unohana Retsu and Tenjirou Kirinji."
Serafall immediately frowned and asked, "Why?"
Kisuke answered while pouring the tea, "Apparently, Koneko received an injury directly to her soul and Kuroka has been using her Senjutsu nonstop to keep her condition from deteriorating."
"Koneko-chan!? And if it's a soul injury Sephiroth Graal should be enough, right?"
Kisuke returned to Serafall's side and passed her one of the cups he was holding, "It seems that the Sephiroth Graal wasn't immediately effective and some research time is needed to mend her soul."
"Why didn't you go yourself?"
"As I've said, I have to oversee the transfer process here. I would have gone if the entirety of Hell was going to be transferred too." Kisuke took a sip of his tea, "Besides, those two are better equipped than me when it comes to healing an injured soul, especially Tenjirou-san. I could have asked Kurotsuchi-san to go, but there's no way I'm going to trust him."
It might look like Kisuke isn't too concerned with Koneko's well-being with how nonchalant he's acting, but that thought never once crossed Serafall's mind as she knew well that Kisuke was just pretending to be calm and was about to explode, "So who did it?"
"It's not clear. But it stemmed from the conflict between Shiva and Indra with both sides taking Etoulde and Evie's support respectively."
"Huh? No way! It became a bonafied proxy war!? What are those two doing!?"
"Not just that, the other factions also started taking sides and the only major factions that haven't taken a side are the Heaven, Grigori, Underworld, and the Ouroboros Academy. Even then, the Underworld side is also being torn apart with nobles wanting to side with either Shiva or Indra."
Serafall couldn't help but grit her teeth, "This means that the Alliance has effectively disbanded..."
"That's what they told me too."
"Wait... So Indra attacked the Ouroboros Academy?" Serafall asked, thinking that the Etoulde won't easily make them their enemy, "But hold on... That's strange. Only the Etouldes could possibly directly attack a soul. If the Evies had this kind of technique, they would have already used this to attack the Etouldes."
"It was indeed Indra's side who attacked the Ouroboros Academy because he didn't want neutral forces as much as possible. But you're right. The Evies couldn't do this. That's why there's no clear person who's responsible for this."
At this point, it was already public knowledge among the higher-ups that the Evies couldn't overpower the Etouldes because they don't have the capability to attack souls directly which is the latter's source of power. On the other hand, the Etouldes also couldn't overpower the Evies because these mechanical beings are essentially immortals. Even after their defeat, they would somehow return to the battlefield and be stronger than before.
"So we have no information at all?"
"Well, we don't but Yoruichi probably does. It's just for some reason, she's not revealing it yet."
"Yoru-chan?" Serafall tilted her head, "Last I heard that she's going to be gathering information on both Evies and Etouldes, but I doubt she could establish a proper network in just a short amount of time much less make it reach to the frontlines."
Kisuke turned to her and smirked, "I didn't tell anyone before to avoid potentially being compromised, but I actually asked her to meet and cooperate with one of the three leaders of Evies, The Wicked God, Seraselbes."
Serafall almost dropped her cup and stared at Kisuke with a blank face for a while before suddenly yelling, "Huuuuuh!!!?"
Editors:
28th00: Ah, looks like it's gonna be a wholesale apocalyptic massacre. Or at the very least, Indra is gonna die. Only the Three Factions remained neutral too, huh? That's not good.