The Inner Shrine of Naiku, housed within the Shrine Complex of the Ise Grand Shrine is dead silent.
Not in worship for the one Kami who's housed here, unfortunately, but rather in sober and silent thought.
Within this shrine, a round cypress wood table has been erected. Six chairs fit on either side with only one side currently being occupied, although, by how the chairs have all been justled about, it's clear then they were in use rather recently.
On one end, the figure of a woman sits alone, staring at the ceiling absent-mindedly.
She seemed rather bored, a far-away look clear in her violet eyes, as her long pink locks flowed down from her head and swept the ground gently.
"You know, Ama-chan," the woman breaks the silence suddenly, "if this is what you have to deal with every day in Takamaghara, I can see why you gave the Earth to your grandchildren."
A voice, feminine and soft whilst sounding absolutely done permeates the inner shrine, barely above a muttering whisper.
"I know…are you counting, Inari-san?"
She nods, "This is the third recess the Devils have called so far," she muses, "think they'll come back with something different this time? This time did seem more urgent than the last."
The voice snorted, sounding almost like cracking wood, "I doubt it," Amaterasu muses back, "It's been the same thing, over and over…we didn't know anything, we didn't do anything…they have no one to blame it on, so all they can do is claim ignorance."
It was Inari's turn to snort.
Truly, Inari didn't want to deal with Satan's Leviathan and Lucifer back then, because she knew she'd have to deal with them now.
After all, the Shinto need to present a united front right now, and she's the closest to a leader or at the very least a representative for the Earthly Kami.
Amaterasu is of course 'here' for the Heavenly Kami.
But they are missing one, the King of Yomi was supposed to show a while ago, but he hasn't quite yet.
Granted, it's not like they need him here.
Susanoo-no-Mikoto does have a reputation, after all.
Still, he was supposed to be here to confirm the number of the deceased, really press the severity of the situation down upon the Devils, and force them to agree to some…terms.
But, it's not like they were the only ones missing some of their number.
Inari hummed, before adding, "Think they are finally going to drag the Grigori and Heaven into this?"
Save for the uneasy creaking of the wood composing the Shrine, she didn't get a direct verbal response.
It's strange.
Heaven has seemingly denied the Devil's call for help at all.
While the Grigori don't seem to be picking up the phone in the first place.
It's very strange.
Standard Three Faction modus operandi dictates that in big situations like this, the three usually band together to press-gang the opposition down and get what they want.
Inari, personally, thinks it's hilarious.
Because they've been leaving the Leviathan out to dry, as she sits across from them and argues around and around in circles.
The Earthly Kami can see the poor Satan getting desperate, and rather annoyed, at the whole thing.
After all, it's not like the Devils can claim that they, the Shinto, were at fault.
Noriaki's reveal to the world, showing him as the first responder, while Inari herself covertly focuses on luring people away from the area and trying to save those caught in the blast, sealed that option from them.
It was especially impressive, considering the world sees them as fairly isolationist.
On the flip side, however, the Shinto themselves cannot lay the blame solely upon the Devils either.
For one, the video also showed the sisters of the Satans attempting to help out and beyond that, trying to pin the blame on them and calling them incompetent directly goes against the edict Amaterasu laid at the Devil's feet all those years ago.
The Devils aren't supposed to own territory in Japan anymore. If the Shinto tried to claim the sisters didn't overlook the territory properly, then are they not saying they consider that territory Devil territory?
What about the edict then? Was that just grandstanding from an enraged deity at the time?
Well, yes. But they can't exactly admit that out loud, can they?
Inari internally groaned.
Politics.
Inari gave politics all of her hate.
At least this situation gives her the excuse to not have to 'be in' several thousand different places at once, answering prayers, giving blessings, running several different businesses and enterprises, making several dozen different products, and-
She blinks rapidly a few times, her thoughts snapping out of…that rut again, as she shifts in her seat and sighs.
"How are things going in Heaven?" Inari decides to ask, filling the silence once more.
Also would help stop her mind from drifting off, again…
The wood creeks, as if grunting this time, and the voice returns once more, "I just shot a beam of sunlight through some Kami who thought we should be thanking the Devils for their help, and be giving them a gift."
Inari giggled at the absurdity, "Who was it?"
She could feel the wooden walls shrug, and the voice huffs, "I don't know, there are millions of them, how am I supposed to remember one dumbass amongst the sea of millions?"
"Fair," Inari mused with a sly smile, which only grew slightly more as her senses were pricked by the telltale chill of Demonic Power entering the confines of the shrine space, "ah, guess who's back~?"
"Inari." The Shrine, at Ama's voice, felt like it was deadpanning at her, "I can tell, I'm basically inhabiting the shrine, you don't need to say that."
"I know~! But I'm going to do, anyways~!" She sang out in response.
Not like there's anything better to do anyway.
Inari suddenly quirked her brow, and the Shrine seemed to be still, as another Demonic Power entered the space.
Not with a chill, but like a void. A black hole of all-consuming crushing power, that could easily annihilate anything it so much as blinks at.
Inari inwardly muses then, that it's rather impressive the amount of control the master has over such power.
Unlike the last two times, the Leviathan doesn't enter the inner sanctum alone, as the door opens and she walks in, not too far behind her is the source of said power.
Sirzechs Lucifer, in formal Satan attire and all.
Inari is the first to speak, "Welcome, welcome~! I see Satan Lucifer's here as well! Did something happen down in the Underworld?"
Serafall sat down, a blank look on her face, not responding at all.
As Sirzechs sits down, he grimaces. "First things first," he bows slightly to Inari, "Lady Inari Okami, a pleasure. No, everything's fine. Right now, anyways." Inari giggles to that, before Sirzechs turns his eyes upwards, "Well met, Chief Goddess of the Shinto, Lady Amaterasu Omikami, I thank you for allowing me access to your most sacred shrine."
A beat passes, before her voice returns, directed at the Satan Lucifer, "And I thank you, for not letting out that power of yours to disperse the shrine's power."
Sirzech blinks at this, not expecting her voice to come from…everywhere.
He turns to look at Serafall, who waves it off. "You get used to it, after a while." She adds, dully, tiredly. "Now, tell them what you told me, please…"
"Right, right, Sera…" he sighs and faces Inari's side of the table, "We believe we may know who caused all this."
"Hmm?" Amaterasu hummed out all around, slightly intrigued, "And who may that be?"
"The Fallen." Sirzechs answered clearly and succinctly, "They were using a Sacred Gear Extractor in Kuoh, presumably killing many. They tried extracting the Boosted Gear from its host, and…well." Sirzechs trailed off, obviously needing not to explain further there.
Inari, very slowly, pulled out a hand fan and started waving it in front of her face.
Serafall sighed, and Sirzechs looked around and pulled at his collar, as the heat within the shrine rose by several magnitudes.
"Where did you get this information from?" The Shrine demanded with a loud creak.
Sirzechs winced, "Your…son, actually."
The rising heat halted, staying at a boiling simmer.
Inari raised her eyebrow slightly, and quickly put two and two together.
"Ah, that Reincarnated Devil, then?" Inari spoke up, "He told her, who told you and your sister?"
Sirzechs nodded, "He told my Rias's Rook, yes."
Well, isn't that a shock? She didn't think the boy knew anything, and certainly didn't think to ask him while she still could, he seemed far too out of it.
Looks like Amaterasu is learning something about her son today, hmm?
Well, it certainly isn't Inari's problem who he fucks and summons, so who's she to judge?
"Inari." Amaterasu's voice echoes dully through the inner shrine, causing her to pipe up, "Kuoh has a Church, no? If the Fallen were in town, they would have been there. Could you check it for me, please?"
Ah, glad she's taking it well.
"Sure thing~! It will be just a moment!" Inari leans back into her chair, her eyes gaining a thousand-yard stare as she sees elsewhere.
Several of her cute little foxes are still roaming around Kuoh, assisting in the cleanup and searching effort.
She takes control of one of them and has it go skipping off, towards the church house sitting atop a hill in the middle of town.
The doors to the Church are gone, the little fox easily walking in to find them several feet from where they should be hinged, smashed off the frame and onto the ground.
It looks around and beholds the smashed and defaced iconography. The twisted symbols, and ruined insides of the building, the smell of ash and fire wafting through the air.
But the most damning thing it sees?
The stretches upon stretches of Enochian, the Language of the Angels, desecrating the walls of the Church.
Although Inari herself can't read exactly what they say, she knows the purpose of the writings.
To block out His sight from the house, and deconsecrate the ground around it, commonly used when the Fallen wish to set up a base, but don't want their wayward Father to watch them.
They were here.
Inari blinks back to herself, slowly sitting forward with a grim smile on her face, as soon as she speaks, everyone focuses on her, "They were there," she starts, "the walls are covered in Enochian, to ward away His sight."
Sirzech's eyes widened at the confirmation, a grim frown slowly stretching across his face.
Serafall meanwhile, groaned loudly, "Why, why Azazel!" she shouted, throwing her hands up into the air, "No, how!? How does someone fuck up this badly!" She pulls a phone from her uniform again and starts rapidly pressing the screen, "Pick! Up! The! Phoooonnnee!"
Her phone screen starts to flicker, causing her to pause.
"Eh?" It glitches, before sparking and flickering dead. "Eh!? Oh, come on! Not now!"
The people sitting in the shrine stare at that occurrence with a widened or confused gaze, but Amaterasu? She merely sighs.
"Well, here we go." Is all she says.
Suddenly, a demonic magic circle appears next to Sirzech's ear.
"Hmm?" He hums out, then his eyes widen into saucers. "The Grigori headquarters is under attack!?"
Serafall pales and blanches at that, "Huh?"
Inari hums thoughtfully, and is about to ask who, but…
Well, the storm building around the Shrine should be a pretty good answer, no?
Sirzechs tensed suddenly, muttering into the circle something about the border, before dispelling it.
Just in time, the smell of ozone fills the air and a massive lance of lightning roars down from the heavens.
The Shrine seems to part, its pieces folding and sliding to the lighting through, striking a chair on the Shinto's side and shaking the entire Shrine complex.
And standing there, once the light from the bolt parts?
The King of Yomi, God of the Sea and Storms.
Susanoo-no-Mikoto. Battle worn blue robes clad his form, pulled open to freely expose his muscular chest, and a long straw hat barely hiding his stormy long black hair, and glowing fiery orange eyes.
In one hand, he holds the Governor General of the Grigori, Azazel, up by the neck. With the other, a massive silver odachi, notched like a sword breaker near the hilt and roiled with darkness and thunder.
"Here's the man you're looking for." The storm god grunted out, before tossing the Fallen like a bag of bricks to the other side of the table.
Azazel has seen better days, Inari thinks.
The man looks like he got struck by lightning and flung through a mountain. Several lightning-shaped burn marks are laced across his body, his clothes are similarly scorched and torn, and several of his wings are bent out of shape or outright broken.
The man's body ragdolls into a chair, which promptly skids across the room with him on it, and slams into the wall.
Azazel grunts, and groans as soon as the chair stops, sitting up slightly, he sees Sirzechs and Serafall, glaring at him.
"Ah," he huffs out, "well, I…" he sighs, "okay, yeah…this one is my bad." He admits, belatedly.
Serafall lunges at him, crying out like a banshee as she rams into him, grabs him by his collar, and starts furiously shaking him every which way.
His cries of pain as he tries to put away his wings, and calls for saying he needs to explain, went unheard and ignored as Serafall continued.
Not even Sirzechs looked like he wanted to step in to maintain any sense of professionalism left.
Above them, the Shrine closed back up, and Susanoo took his seat lazily, putting his feet up on the table.
"Brother." Amaterasu's voice rang through, dryly, prompting the Kami in question to huff right back.
"Don't start with me right now, sister." Susanoo bit out, "That fucking clown and his posse of edgy rebel wannabes deserved it, and you know it."
"I know." She replied, prompting the deity to blink, "Good job."
Susanoo elected to sit there for a moment, staring dumbly at the table, before huffing and setting this sword down against the chair he was sitting on.
He crosses his arms and lets his eyes go to a more normal look, the blazing orange and red becoming nothing more than piercing sky-blue eyes, as he watches on in amusement at the antics of the Satan of Foreign Affairs.
Specifically how she was slowly shaking Azazel to death. The near-upshot view under her skirt was just a bonus at this point.
Even Inari watched on in poorly disguised mirth behind her fan.
Although it was odd, Inari supposed.
Just how quiet Amaterasu was right now.
After several long moments of enjoying the scene, it was slightly shocking just who eventually interrupted it.
Loudly clearing his throat before speaking up, Susanoo began.
"789." He stated, prompting the Devils to still and turn to him, Serafall still holding a groaning and dazed Azazel by the collar. "That's the death total, the amount of souls whose deaths I could manage to trace back to the dragon currently. And that's not counting the likely dozens if not hundreds more humans who are hospitalized right now." Susanoo added lowly, "Who knows how large that number may be in a week or two from now."
At this Sirzech's frown deepened, saddened at the news, whilst Serafall seemed to bristle, lowering her glare upon the Governor General once more, who tenses up likely expecting his face to get caved in.
Susanoo snorts at his plight, "Hold it shortstuff, you can wail on him some more after I finish."
Blinking, Serafall looks right back at Susanoo, head tilted slightly, "Eh? Shortstuff?"
Ignoring her, he continues, "I don't know the exact population count of Kuoh Town, so who's to say if those are big deal numbers-"
"Kuoh Town isn't large enough to be considered a city, but still possesses large scale accommodations for large population centers," Inari interjects, "if I had to guess? I'd say Kuoh possesses the upper-end population range for a town, somewhere between 15,000 and 20,000 people."
It's Susanoo's turn to blink, "Thanks, foxy. Anyways!" He moves on, ignoring the giggles she sends his way, "While all that's not fine at all, you wanna know what really pissed me off? What took me so damn long to make it here?"
Thunder rumbled outside, as Susanoo gritted his teeth.
"The few dozen mutilated souls I found over the past month, sorted between Yomi and the Buddhist Heaven!" He practically snarled out, lightning flashing in the background, he levels a fiery glare right at Azazel, who shivers at the god's wrath-filled gaze, "You are lucky, so very lucky, that the bone-headed edge lord outcast from Olympus set down that law that prevented all Death Gods from interrogating exact details out of their dead, or I would have had your head on a spike! And your wings cut off, and sent right back to your Dadd-"
"Susanoo." Amaterasu's voice cut in, stern, yet frighteningly calm. "Still your rage, before you tear apart my Shrine with your storm outside."
Inari looked outside, seeing almost hurricane-like rains and winds and flashes of lightning rage outside.
Susanoo growled, stretching his fingers, as the storm outside slows, but doesn't truly subside.
"Regardless, Mother's Shinigami have the Grigori Headquarters locked down. As soon as we figured out the damage done to those souls was much like that caused by having a Sacred Gear torn out, I led the charge myself." He bit out, then looked at Sirzechs directly, "You don't need to worry. It's just Fallen territory we're locking down, I'm locking down."
Sirzechs nodded, tentatively, "Then you'll understand if we keep a watch over our borders, then?"
Susanoo waved him off with a grunt, which Sirzechs took for affirmation.
"Alright!" Serafall suddenly called out, "We good then? Good? Okay!" She holds up Azazel and sets him down in his seat. "What are we going to do, then? Because, I, personally? Can think of several things to do!" She gets this downright sadistic grin that forces Azazel to grimace and shiver.
"Before then," Amaterau's voice interceded, cold and commanding, "I want to hear it. What happened, from his point of view."
Azazel blinked out at that, and pointed to himself, slowly.
"Me…?" He looks around, seeing everyone stare at him like he's an idiot, "H-Hey! I know, I know, I'm just…surprised is all. I honestly thought I was just gonna be strung up like the world's handsomest pinata, and beat on all night after I got…ah," he looks at Susanoo, "invited here."
Susanoo glares right back, but before he can administer a controlled shock, Amaterasu says one word.
"Azazel."
He winces, and holds up his hands, "Alright, alright…so, ah shit…where do I begin." He rubs his chin, "So, the Fallen in Kuoh? I sent them there to keep watch over the Boosted Gear user, with instructions to ah…" he clears his throat, "to kill him, under certain conditions. Like lack of talent, compatibility, and such. You know? Standard operating procedures." He explains, "I didn't tell them specifically that the boy had the Boosted Gear, for security purposes, obviously. Most lower-level Fallen aren't the most trustworthy as a rule of thumb, but this particular cell…" he trails off.
He thinks for a brief moment, before shaking his head as he settles on, "Most cells know the Sacred Gear extraction ritual to collect gears for research, but that's an old practice, I don't know why they went on a gear collection frenzy…the fools died long before they could tell me anything about their mission, so I guess it doesn't matter now." He finished with a sigh.
He was meant with silence.
"Can I toss him into Cocytus yet?" Until it was broken, by Serafall's deadpan question.
"Make sure to cut his wings off first." Susanoo adds, 'helpfully' with a snort.
"Okkkayyy~!" Serafall happily summons a very jagged piece of ice using her Demonic Power and starts advancing on Azazel, who inches back away from her more and more.
"I think it's funny." All of them paused as Amaterasu's voice broke through again, this time, she sounded amused, "How your name fits you so well, Governor General."
"A-Ah…?" Azazel's face twitches and he gives an uneasy smile, "Thank you, Lady Amaterasu?"
"We keep taking it out on you, and yet…" she continued, "I feel as though we have a much better target than the man who doesn't even truly run his organization. Your Cadres? They don't do anything either. They sit in their tower, researching, learning, but never keeping up with the present beyond what suits them."
Azazel gulps, the heat in the shrine simmers, and Serafall blinks as her jagged ice knife starts to melt in her grip.
"I suppose, from a certain standpoint, I'm no better, hmm?" She giggles slightly, "But at the very least, I'm not stuck in the past anymore." A pause, as the Shrine seems to sigh, "I'll be honest, Azazel. The only reason I haven't declared war on your entire Faction and razed your Headquarters to the ground? Four years ago. The Heavenly Alola Incident, your Fallen saved many sons and daughters under my light that day."
Azazel's eyes widened in realization, as she continued, "And those same sons and daughters continue to do good work, with my people's blessings."
Susanoo scowled slightly at their specific mention, while Inari was slowly beginning to realize where Amaterasu was going with this.
"So, rather than you, Azazel…here's what I want. Lives given, are lives your people took away once more," the Shrine's heat and power seemed to press down upon Azazel, causing him to sweat and his knees to buckle, "I would have them returned to me, my sons and daughters born under my light, and by the end of all this? Either by division and dividing up, or destruction, the Three Factions shall become Two."
Serafall blinked at that, "That is…the dissolution of the Grigori…just like that!?"
Loud, uproarious clapping, echoes throughout the shrine, coming straight from the god of storms himself.
"There we fucking go! Hahaha!" Susanoo laughed like thunder, "My little sister can pimp slap a little bitch! Ah, where the fuck is the pimp's prayer when you need one!"
Inari watched all this very carefully, as she got the immense feeling that her workload was about to double or triple.
Bypassing Susanoo's hooting and hollering, Amaterasu went on, "Clearly. The good they've done doesn't outweigh the harm, no? Traitors after traitors, deaths after deaths, with the Children they are supposed to watch over constantly being caught in the crossfire, used by their traitors, or outright killed by them regardless. When will it end, Azazel?"
The aforementioned Governor General simply looked dead to the world, perking up slightly at his name, "I…" he starts, "It's not that simple, I…" he sighs, deeply. "I don't know."
Slowly, he looks up at the Shrine, "If we force this issue, you know there are several executives that wouldn't approve, right? They'll try something, and I won't be able to stop them."
"Would you be able to stop them, regardless?" She responds curtly, prompting a wince from the Fallen. "Let them come," she continues, "they'll be dealt with one way or another."
"I…ugh," Azazel looks towards Sirzechs and Serafall, though he doesn't look particularly hopeful, "what about you guys, huh?"
Serafall responds first, with a rather simple, "You nearly got my little So-tan killed."
And that's all she needed to say to get her feelings across.
Sirzechs rubbed the back of his head, sheepishly, "I…don't particularly blame you for my Rias' lack of danger sense, Azazel, but this is bad." he stresses, "We all know, this situation could have been so much worse. If the wielder was stronger, then…well…" he trails off silently, the obvious implication hanging.
"Still," he continues, "I don't know if dividing up the Grigori like this is a good solution, that's a fair amount of assets, and people, and a whole lot of work and potentially small-scale fighting over something like this, isn't it?"
"That is what negotiations are for, Satan Lucifer." Inari pipes up for the first time in a while, "And besides, I don't think it needs to be said, but I think we all know Lady Amaterasu isn't going to budge on this at this point."
"Ah," Sirzechs hummed, and looked at Serafall, "I suppose I'm not the Satan of Foreign Affairs, but," he sighed, looking down at the table, "no, we can make this work, I believe." He moves his gaze to Azazel, "I'm sorry."
Azazel waves him off, leaning against the table himself.
"Yeah, yeah, alright…" he sighs, defeatedly, before looking between the two sides, "for what it's worth? I'm sorry too. So!" He claps his hands together with fake cheer, "Where do we start?"
~ A New Sun ~
With a bright crimson flash, Sirzechs Lucifer appeared in the Gremory Castle, a somber expression marring his face.
He had left not too long after the Grigori began being carved up, trusting Serafall's renewed motivation to push her through and let her finish the job.
Meanwhile, Sirzechs had something he considered much more important to do.
Taking a ginger walk through his old childhood home, he eventually finds the room he's looking for and knocks on the closed door.
"Ria-tan," he calls out softly, "are you awake?"
He already knew the answer. Beyond just sensing her awake, he knew his sister well enough to know she wouldn't be getting any sleep right now.
She was waiting for him, after all.
He heard the soft pattering of feet approach, just before the door handle was rustled and slowly opened.
"Brother…?"
Revealing his baby sister, in her nightgown, looking absolutely depressed.
Her posture held a sag, her eyes were baggy, and her face held a constant sad frown.
He had to hold himself back from wincing, it hadn't been so long since the incident, and yet, once what finally happened in her town caught up to her…well.
Rias crashed hard.
It only got worse once she found out what the Fallen were doing right under her nose.
She blamed herself almost instantly, and as much as Sirzechs wanted to say it wasn't entirely her fault, to cheer and hype her up as Sera had been to the Shinto, he just…couldn't.
He couldn't lie to her like that, right to her face. She wouldn't believe it.
And this is all before even knowing all the damages, the death total.
That thought made him struggle to hold back a wince.
"Got time for a small talk?" He asked tentatively.
She merely nodded and beckoned him in.
He had barely managed to close the door behind him, before Rias spoke up, albeit softly.
"How many."
Sirzechs paused, before turning to face her completely, "Not counting those in the hospital, but counting those who the Fallen killed as well?" He elaborated, she nodded, "Just under a thousand."
Rias flinched as if struck.
"That's…somewhere around 5%..." She mutters, mostly to herself, before slowly curling up into a ball on her bed, and saying no more.
Sirzechs walked over to her side, and put his hand on her head, petting her hair gently, "Listen, Rias…I'm not going to sit here, and tell you how bad the situation is…you already know that." He began, tentatively, "Mother and Father have already decided on how they plan to punish you for this," He could feel her still under her hand, "and I…won't be helping you out of it, not anymore."
Rias turned her head slightly to look at him, tears budding at the sides of her eyes, "You mean…?"
Sirzechs nodded solemnly, "Beyond it being moved forward, just as Serafall is going to be personally staying with Sona from now on, they decided you need a…minder…as well."
Honestly, Sirzechs thinks Sera doesn't even see her staying with Sona when she can as a punishment per se, but Sona certainly does.
It also inspired that particular decision from their parents.
Sirzechs shrugs as he adds on, "Although, I don't think they've quite decided on who just yet."
She turns completely to face Sirzechs, her knuckles tensing and cracking, "But! T-Thats…" she weakly begins, but trails off.
This time, Sirzechs does wince. He isn't used to seeing his baby sister so…drained, like this. It hurts.
Usually, she'd be up in arms right about all these decisions, but right now?
Sirzechs blinks, an idea forming and taking shape.
He stands back up suddenly, prompting Rias to give a startled flinch as he does, only for her to look at him quizzically as he holds his hand out to her.
"Ria-tan," He starts with a small smile, "let me show you something."
"O-Okay…?" Rias slowly, hesitantly, took his hand.
And clenched her eyes shut as a crimson glow enveloped the two of them, and sent them away.
Next she knew, the cool night air was hitting her skin, and she opened her eyes to see they were outside, in the Human World…
Above a lake?
The two quickly unfurled their wings, and floated there, Rias looking every which way in sheer confusion.
"Where…where is this?" She asked, concerned.
In every direction she looked, she kept seeing more and more water. She could see mountains far off in the distance, but she didn't recognize any of this.
Sirzechs hummed thoughtfully, before answering, "The United States. Specifically, we are above the Great Grande Lake, right in the middle of the country."
Rias simply blinks at that, "Why…show me this then?"
"Because this lake isn't natural," Sirzechs waved a hand out to the distant waters, "a few hundred years ago, a young man and his family traveled across something called the Oregon Trail, seeking opportunity on the other side of the country."
As Sirzechs went on, the chill in the air seemed to only grow colder, prompting Rias to shiver, "Unfortunately, they wouldn't make it. Around halfway through, stray vampires attacked, torturing and killing the young man's family right in front of him."
Rias' eyes slowly widened as she looked around, starting to get it now, Sirzechs continued with a solemn frown, "How unlucky was it, that said man was that generation's Boosted Gear wielder, and the stress of it all forced a—"
"Juggernaut Drive…" Rias finished for him, prompting a slow nod from her brother.
"This lake was caused by the mere activation of the state…it's bigger than several small states, countries, and islands." Sirzechs stresses, "The water here was placed to cover up all the damage and fighting that happened at the lake bed. Me and Serafall were there to put him down, Rias…it wasn't pretty."
He turns slightly to look at her, "I want you to see this, and I want you to understand just how bad things could have been." He floats over to her slowly, and puts a hand on the side of her face, "There's a difference between pride and…whatever it was you three did that day."
Rias nods slowly at that, "Ah, right…" Then she tilted her head slightly, "Wait...Three?"
Sirzechs hums, "You, Sona, and Kusanagi-san. I'm sure he had good intentions, and he did help, but…Well, I'm sure you saw the video before you got there, no?"
Rias winced, recalling some of the hits he took back then.
Yeah.
What was it Koneko had called him?
A battle pervert?
Fitting, she mused internally.
Sirzechs smiles, and pats her on the side of her face, "I know you can do better at least, Ria-tan. But you're going to have to prove that to our parents moving forward, with the marriage, and your minder…"
Rias smiled right back, albeit significantly more drained, "I got it, big brother…" she put a hand on his hand and squeezed, "...thank you."
Ah, there it is.
That fire in her eyes, just a tiny little spark, but back nonetheless.
There's still a lot of work to be done, for all of them, but at least with this, he can hope his little sister doesn't herself in the times to come.
"Now then, let's go home," Sirzechs suddenly announces, "I picked up some ramen on the way home, and I figure-"
"R-Ramen!?" Rias suddenly bursts out, before sheepishly shifting in place back and forth.
Sirzechs just let out an amused chuckle.
Maybe he should have led with that, instead?
~ A New Sun ~
A nearly twenty-foot tall heap of muscle and red skin sat atop a carved stone throne.
In one of his massive hands, he held the hilt of his kanabo, a massive stretch of black rock and metal, a club.
The only weapon the Fierce God of the Oni needs.
In the other hand, a contrasting object, a human-made television screen of such size it should be housed in a living room.
But rather, it's used as this Fierce God's phone.
With this, he watches the same video spreading across the Supernatural World, over and over and over again.
That man, no, boy with those markings, wielding that blade clad in those accursed golden flames.
The man who wielded such things should be dead. Yet, here is this boy, all the same.
The answer is simple.
That man mated, and now, their world is under threat once again.
The Fierce God grunted and snarled, remembering the look of that man when he came here and demanded fealty.
When he went around and demanded fealty of all Yokai, the Clans, and the country, all for the Heavenly Kami who would much rather sit up there and let them rot than rule!
And now, it could happen again.
Yet, this boy isn't a man, and most certainly isn't that man.
Here is their chance.
Rising to his feet, the Fierce God let his Youki out for the first time in decades.
And all of Mount Ōe felt his pressure, his rage, and his determination.
"They shall not rule us again." The Fierce God, Ibaraki Douji declared, and his Oni hooted and hollered in reverence and glee, all across the mountain.
It was time to gather the Yokai of Old back together again.