Raytherion rubbed his temples. "You really need to let that go. Yes, she nearly killed me. She's also my Queen. I trust her."
The girls exchanged wary looks.
"…Fine," Sona said at last, though her tone was tight.
With a flicker of Blue, he vanished, reappearing just outside a guest room. He pushed the door open without knocking.
"Tiamat, we've got a—"
He stopped.
She was sprawled across the bed like a dragon guarding treasure, except instead of gold, it was candy. Chocolate bars, gummies, cookies, hard candy—piles of it. Wrappers rustled every time she moved.
Tiamat licked chocolate from her finger. "Ever heard of knocking?"
Raytherion stared. "I've… heard of dragons hoarding treasure, but I didn't think that would apply to sweets."
She shrugged, totally unapologetic. "I got bored. Decided to start hoarding something better. You can eat this treasure."
"Well, lucky for you, I've got something even better."
"Doubtful."
"We're dismantling a demonic research network and rescuing a fugitive Nekoshou before her enemies get to her."
Tiamat paused, then let out a long sigh, looking down at the mountain of candy with a sad gaze before turning back to him "…Fine."
He laughed softly, even as he turned back towards the door. "Weren't you the one who joined me because I was going to do stuff like this?"
She rose slowly, wiping a smear of chocolate from the corner of her mouth as she huffed. "Just lead the way."
Moments later, the two of them reappeared in the hallway.
Sona visibly tensed. Seekvaira scowled.
"Long time no see," Tiamat said, voice lilting with amusement. "Miss me?"
"Lady Tiamat," Sona replied curtly.
Seekvaira's smile was all teeth. "Nice to see you… intact."
Sairaorg, completely unfazed, raised a hand in greeting. "Hey."
Ignoring the tension between his Queen and the two girls, Raytherion clapped his hands together. "Alright! Day's not over yet. Let's move."
No one argued.
A teleportation circle bloomed beneath their feet, and in a flash of power, they vanished into the dark.
Author's Note:
Original chapter was like 10k words long. As you can see I cut off the rest. It's all done and polished, but I am saving it for the next chapter. Basically I split the OG chapter into two.
I tied back Rizevim's appearance many chapters ago to Naberius to show a little more detail to that whole thing.
Oh LMAO I almost uploaded the unedited 10k version because the Google Doc tabs are right next to each other.
It was so nice of Ishibumi to create that whole hairclip thing. Now I can have the whole arc play out like this.
An issue with this chapter having been so long originally is that there were so many edits I had to make, small edits that unfortunately combined to become huge issues that made me rewrite the entire fucking chapter twice, and even now I am not sure if there is something I might have missed. Oh well.
The two weeks that followed were a blur.
The five of them moved non-stop across the underworld, hopping from one location to the next. Each lab they reached told the same story. If there had been any lingering doubt this was part of a cover-up, the condition of each site erased it completely.
His Six Eyes scanned the ruins again and again, searching for anything, some lingering echo of Senjutsu.
It took thirteen labs before they found something.
From the outside, they could tell this one was different. The building was already half-collapsed, smoke curling from the upper floors. Walls were cracked, scorch marks were visible across metal and stone.
Dozens of devils moved in a frenzy, rushing through the shattered hallways with boxes in hand.
They carried things like files and hard drives, anything that could store information. Some were limping. Others were bleeding. Whatever had happened here, it had been recent.
The Six Eyes flared as he took his glasses off.
Strong. The Senjutsu here was strong. Far more concentrated than what he had felt in the first lab.
"She was here," he muttered. "Not long ago."
At his side, Sona tensed. "Kuroka?"
He nodded. "She left a trail. She must've fought her way out of here."
That's when the devils noticed them.
They froze mid-movement. Dozens of pairs of eyes locked onto Raytherion's entourage. There was a long silence—
And then one of them roared and charged.
Raytherion allowed the man to get close before backhanding him across the jaw, sending the devil twisting in the air before slamming into a wall, the man remaining motionless after that.
The rest snapped into action. "Stop them!" one of the devils shouted.
Raytherion clicked his tongue and turned to the others. "Tiamat. You take the strong ones. The rest of you, help her clean up the fodder."
Tiamat's eyes gleamed as she cracked her knuckles. "Finally."
With that said, he used Blue, appearing dozens of meters in the sky above the building. He focused and saw the trail of Senjutsu leading away from the lab.
His hands came together in a familiar motion…
And then he vanished.
He followed the trail, dozens of miles turning into hundreds as he made sure to use smaller bursts of Blue to keep track of the life energy.
It took mere seconds for him to arrive at a canyon far into the wastes. And there, at the edge, he saw her.
Kuroka.
She would have looked exactly as she did in Seekvaira's time projection if it wasn't for the many injuries littering her body. Blood dripped from the left side of her body and she leaned slightly, favoring her right leg. She was clasping her right arm, which was bent slightly.
Two cloaked figures stood meters away from her, turned away from him.
With his glasses off, he could see that something was off about them. Their power was immense, reaching into the Satan-class, but it didn't feel anything like the powerhouses he had met throughout his life. It felt…
Artificial.
Looking at them from behind, he could see that one had gray, corpse-like skin. The other was hunched forward, breathing erratically, but there weren't any actual signs of injury on either one of them.
Despite the clear threat they posed… Raytherion smiled.
With another flicker of Blue he dropped down, floating just above Kuroka. His glasses slipped back on for what he planned to do next.
"Found ya," he said with a lazy grin.
Kuroka looked up, eyes wide in confusion at the sight of him. He allowed the white aura of his Reversed Demonic Energy to flicker around him as he descended slowly towards her, white hair fluttering in the wind. He took his glasses off slowly, looking into her eyes as he began to speak in a low murmur.
"I'm here to save you, Neko-chan."
Her cheeks flushed despite the situation she was in.
Raytherion counted that as a win.
Now that he was in front of them, one of the cloaked… things looked up at him, its face twisted with disgust. "White hair…that power… you must be the fake Lucifer's spawn. All of this is your fault."
Raytherion twitched, turning in the air upside down to look at the man. "Really? You had to ruin my intro? Do you have any idea how hard it is to time this kind of stuff perfectly?"
The second one, the one with the hunched back, flew up towards him.
"Peter," the first one ordered, "handle this bastard."
The now-named Peter bowed stiffly, his voice wheezing. "Of course, Andrew. " He turned to Raytherion again. "I am Peter, the—"
"Why would I care?"
Raytherion interrupted the man's introduction, boredom in his voice as he righted himself. "Your name. Your title." He leaned forward just slightly. "Why would I give a damn about either?"
Peter's face twisted in rage. He lunged, hands glowing with black energy, warped and unstable.
Raytherion caught him with a hand around his throat, stopping him cold. The man flared his wings, clawing at the grip crushing his windpipe as he tried to escape Raytherion's grasp.
"Let me guess, your superiors heard the announcement and sent you to silence her?" Raytherion asked softly.
Peter choked, his eyes bulging as Raytherion's hand began to glow with the Power of Destruction. His neck began to peel apart. First skin. Then muscle. Then bone. There was no scream from the man.
Just a wet, disgusting rasp.
"You defied my father's decree," Raytherion whispered. "That's treason."
His eyes held amusement in them.
"Your life is forfeit."
The Power of Destruction finished eating through the man's flesh, allowing the headless body to fall to the ground with a wet thud. Another use of the Power of Destruction and the head ceased to exist, along with any remnants of blood and gore in Raytherion's hand.
With that done, he turned to the second figure.
"So… Andrew, was it? Your buddy was kinda weak. You'd better give me a better fight if that Satan-class badge really means anything."
Andrew stared at Peter's headless corpse, his expression unreadable. His lips parted slightly.
"How…?" He trembled, though whether from rage or something else, Raytherion couldn't tell.
Then, without a word, Andrew pulled a small vial from inside his cloak. Inside it slithered a small black serpent.
Raytherion's eyes narrowed.
Andrew swallowed the vial whole.
Immediately, power detonated from the man. Misshapen wings burst from his back, one of his arms twisting into a disgusting claw made of flesh. His power doubled. Then tripled.
Kuroka cried out as the shockwave struck her, sending her falling down into the canyon—
"Blue."
Raytherion reappeared in front of her, catching her mid-fall. His arms hooked around her in a princess carry.
"You always fall for me this hard, Neko-chan?" he teased, brushing a smudge of dirt from her cheek with his thumb.
Her ears twitched as she stared at him with wide eyes, unable to respond.
He teleported them to a nearby ridge and set her down gently, keeping his body between her and the battle.
"Don't move," he said with a wink. "I'll be back before you know it, 'kay?"
And then he was gone again.
He reappeared above Andrew, who had finished his grotesque transformation in the time it took to catch Kuroka.
"Damn… you look like shit."
"They told me…only to use that prototype if I had to… now it's too late for you, boy." Andrew chuckled, looking down at his claw-arm with a grin. "You should've never let me finish transforming."
Raytherion shrugged. "Maybe. But I kinda had to… you know… catch her so she wouldn't die."
He allowed his eyes to examine the man's new power. Whatever he had consumed had made him considerably stronger, probably about five times as strong as he had been at the start, but the energy was… extremely unstable.
"Damn," Raytherion muttered. "You make your friend look like a chump… still too weak, though."
Andrew screamed in response, hurling a column of black fire towards Raytherion.
He dodged it with ease.
Andrew spun–
A flick to the temple sent the man flying through the air. He righted himself, though, launching a counterattack in the form of a blade made of necrotic energy.
Raytherion passed by it untouched, whispering from behind Andrew's shoulder…
"You're really slow."
The close proximity to Raytherion was just what the man needed to lunge with his claw, aiming directly at Raytherion's heart… only for it to stop millimeters from piercing his chest.
"W-what…"
"Infinity," Raytherion said softly, his Six Eyes aglow. "That's the distance between your strength… and mine."
Then he struck. One blow, straight to the man's chest.
The abomination screamed as it was sent into the ground, sending a cloud of dust into the air from the crater his impact created.
Raytherion hovered above the impact zone, laughing quietly to himself.
"This was fun. Little one-sided, but hey, I needed to blow off some steam."
He brought his hands together.
Red and Blue.
"Hollow Purple."
The world dimmed. The purple orb hit the crater and then kept going, burrowing deep. When the purple light faded, there was no trace of the man.
"…Way too weak to waste a Hollow Purple on," he muttered, rubbing the back of his neck.
He turned toward the ridge in the distance, where Kuroka was looking at him with shock in her eyes. He teleported once more, reappearing in front of her.
Raytherion grinned. "Now… where were we, Neko-chan?"
"…Who are you?" She finally spoke.
Raytherion placed a hand over his chest in mock offense. "Seriously? I just saved your life! Didn't you hear me earlier?"
She blinked.
"I'm your savior, obviously," he said, grinning.
Kuroka snorted. "Right."
Her gaze drifted past him, from Peter's crumbled body to the crater. Her voice cooled.
"…Are you here to collect the bounty on me?"
Raytherion clicked his tongue. "Come on. I literally just said I was here to save you."
She didn't look convinced.
He didn't stop. "Your sister, Shirone? She's safe. Under my family's protection."
Kuroka froze. Her eyes narrowed into slits. "What?"
Raytherion raised his hands in mock surrender. "Relax. She's fine. Totally safe. My aunt's with her. Nothing's gonna happen."
Kuroka stayed tense, but her ears twitched forward. "Your… aunt?"
"Rias," Raytherion clarified. "Rias Gremory. Your sister actually joined her peerage not too long ago."
Raytherion crouched in front of her, elbows resting on his knees.
"You were pardoned of your crimes… all thanks to yours truly!" He grinned, pointing a thumb to his chest. "And my team's Grade-A investigative work. We found the truth about Naberius, the experiments, everything. One of the hair clips from your sister was full of their files. It blew the whole thing wide open."
Kuroka's gaze flickered, but she said nothing. She looked away instead, the fight draining from her shoulders. Her voice cracked. "It doesn't matter. She thinks I went insane. That I lost control… that I killed innocent people."
Raytherion was silent for a beat.
Then he groaned, dragging a hand down his face. "Neko-chan, that's such a dumb reason not to go back."
Her glare snapped toward him, but he kept going.
"If I take you to her right now, and she sees you're not insane, everything will be fine!"
He leaned forward slightly, meeting her eyes. "She'll understand. It'll be okay."
Kuroka swallowed hard. Her voice trembled. "…Really?"
Raytherion gave her a thumbs-up, his grin softer now. "Really, really."
She hesitated, then nodded. "Then… take me to her."
He straightened up as he moved a hand to his ear. "Alright. Just need to check in with my Queen first."
A red sigil formed near his ear as he began to speak. "Tia, you good?"
Tiamat's reply came through the sigil, voice sharp with mild irritation. "Raytherion. Next time you drag me on an 'excursion,' there better be opponents who can actually offer me a challenge."
He laughed. "So that's a yes on 'everyone's alive.' Great. Appreciate the feedback."
"You owe me sweets."
"Deal."
The sigil vanished with a flick of his fingers.
He turned back to Kuroka and held out a hand.
"Well then, Neko-chan. Ready to go?"
Kuroka nodded and slowly pushed herself to her feet, wincing slightly. Her eyes met his again, searching.
"…What's your name?"
He slipped his glasses back on with a little flourish.
"Raytherion Gremory."
She studied him for another beat.
Then gave a small, cautious nod.
"…Kuroka."
"Are…you sure this is a good idea, Raytherion?"
"What? Of course I am! Don't you trust your savior, Neko-chan?"
"...fine."
The door creaked open.
Raytherion strolled in with his usual grin, except this time, he wasn't empty-handed. He was pushing a trolley. And on it?
A large, ominously taped box. Bright red. With a comically oversized bow.
Rias, seated on a chair by the window, looked up with immediate suspicion. "Ray… what's with the box?"
Shirone, still curled up beside her, blinked. "Red Velvet Cake… what's inside?"
Raytherion halted just inside the room. The last rays of sunlight framed him perfectly as he struck a dramatic pose, one hand to his chest, the other gesturing like a stage magician about to unveil a miracle.
"I… have returned! And I bring with me the greatest of gifts!"
Shirone stared, completely deadpan. "Is it my hair clip?"
Raytherion twitched. Visibly. "Hey. Rude." He wagged a finger at her. "You wound me, Snowball."
Rias squinted. "Raytherion, if you brought something weird again—"
But he was already popping the clasps on the box with theatrical flair.
"Ladies!" he announced. "Prepare yourselves for the greatest emotional reunion since the invention of tragic family backstories!"
Click. Click. Thunk.
The box flaps burst open…
And Kuroka jumped out, tails flicking, her ears perked.
Raytherion threw his arms wide. "It's your long-lost sister–Kuroka!"
Silence.
Shirone's brain took exactly two seconds to process what she was seeing.
Then—
"AHHHHHHHHHHH!"
In hindsight, he supposed that repeating the same trick he once used with Yuji—wheeling someone presumed dangerous or dead into a room inside a box—probably wasn't the brightest idea.
But he did it anyway.
And, remarkably, it worked.
After the initial screaming and Shirone wedging herself firmly beneath Rias's bed like a startled kitten, things started to calm down.
With some gentle coaxing from Rias, a few soft reassurances from Akeno, and, of course, the ever-persistent efforts of a smug, smiling him, they managed to get her to crawl out.
When Shirone finally laid eyes on her sister again, seeing that Kuroka wasn't deranged or monstrous, but simply standing there with arms open and eyes glassy, it didn't take long.
The little girl's lip quivered. Her breath hitched.
Then she ran to her sister.
The two collided, clutching each other tightly. Kuroka whispered apologies through her sobs, while Shirone cried too hard to form coherent words. Whatever she had said before, about never wanting to see Kuroka again, was forgotten. It didn't matter anymore.
Raytherion, Rias, and Akeno quietly slipped out of the room, leaving the sisters to their reunion.
The door had barely closed before Rias turned and smacked Raytherion on the back of the head.
"OW—what was that for?" he grumbled, rubbing the spot.
"What made you think that was a good idea?!" she snapped, scowling at him like he'd just done the stupidest thing.
Raytherion pouted. "It was theatrical."
Rias looked moments away from smacking him again.
Akeno, meanwhile, just covered her mouth with her fingers, laughing quietly. "You really are impossible sometimes, Raytherion-kun."
"I try," he said proudly.
"That wasn't a compliment." Still smiling, Akeno stepped closer, her voice gentler now. "But... it was a very sweet thing you did."
Rias crossed her arms, still miffed, but the edges of her expression softened. After a second, she muttered, "Yeah. I guess it was."
Raytherion's grin returned at full power.
"I agree."
The girls rolled their eyes in perfect synchrony.
A knock came late in the night.
Raytherion was lying back on his bed. He didn't look up when the door creaked open.
He already knew who it was.
Kuroka stood at the door for a moment, then she stepped in, tails flicking with purpose. She looked much better, having been given a Phenex tear by him earlier. He had no need for the vials ever since he had unlocked his Reverse Demonic Energy.
"You're still awake," she said.
Raytherion turned his head, a faint smirk tugging at his lips. "Wasn't planning to be… what's up?"
Kuroka chuckled softly. "The ceiling, nya."
He snorted, pushing himself up a little. "You've got jokes, Neko-chan. And… was that a meow?"
She giggled softly, walking further into the room, her bare feet silent against the floor. As she reached the bed, she paused.
"…Can we talk?" she asked.
Raytherion nodded and motioned lazily. "Sure."
She sat on the edge of his bed, folding her legs beneath her. Her posture was relaxed, but her golden eyes held a sincerity that caught him off guard.
"I wanted to thank you," she said quietly.
Raytherion waved it off with a shrug. "You don't have to. It wasn't just me. It was a group effort. Sona, Seekvaira, Sairaorg… hell, even Ajuka. I was just the guy dumb enough to gather them all up."
Kuroka tilted her head, her brows drawing together slightly. "You're strange, nya."
He laughed. "I get that a lot."
"I mean it," she added softly, tails curling around her ankle. "When you showed up to save me, you were all confident and arrogant, talking about being my savior, acting like some dramatic hero." She leaned slightly closer. "But now, when I try to thank you, you brush it off like it was nothing."
Raytherion scratched his cheek, almost sheepish. "Yeah, well… how an actor acts on stage and behind the scenes are two different things…"
Kuroka laughed, soft and musical. "So you admit it was all an act?"
"Some of it," he said. "Not the part where I saved you. That was real."
Her expression softened, her gaze thoughtful now. The room fell into a comfortable quiet.
Then she spoke again, this time slower.
"…Would you allow me to join your peerage?"
Raytherion blinked, caught off guard. "You're serious?"
She nodded. "I want to stay with my sister. Shirone confirmed to me that she already joined your aunt's peerage… and I want to stay close to her." Her tail twitched. "But that's not the only reason."
He raised a brow. "Oh?"
"I want to show my gratitude to you."
He exhaled in amusement. "You don't have to masquerade your feelings behind some debt, you know." His voice turned gentler. "You can be selfish, Neko-chan. You don't need to owe me anything to want to stay close to your sister."
Kuroka's lips twitched into a sly smile. "~Nya~… but what if that's not the only reason?"
Before he could react, she leaned in, pressing a hand to his chest.
"What if," she purred, "I want to stick by you, too?"
He blinked as she pushed him backward. He landed with a soft thud on the mattress, still stunned as Kuroka straddled him with ease, her knees framing his hips.
Her arms wrapped slowly around his neck, a lazy smile on her face.
"To repay my savior," she murmured, her breath warm against his ear.
His fingers twitched as she leaned closer.. Then, without warning, her tongue slid from the base of his neck towards his ear. She nibbled on it softly, then whispered…
"Are you a virgin, Ray?"
He froze.
"…That is a highly inappropriate question, Neko-chan," he managed to say, voice dry.
Kuroka giggled. "Don't call me that~." Her lips brushed his ear.
"Call me Kuroka. I want to hear you cry it out as I take your—"
The door slammed open.
"Nee-chan!"
Kuroka froze.
Raytherion blinked.
Shirone barreled into the room, eyes blazing.
"Get off him! I told you he was a pervert! I told you to stay away!"
Kuroka squeaked as she was yanked off Raytherion by her little sister. "Nyaa?! W-wait, Shirone—?!"
"You will not let this white-haired weirdo corrupt you!"
"I wasn't being corrupted!" Kuroka protested, her little sister dragging her off the bed. "I was just being grateful, nya~!"
"That is not how you say thank you!"
Raytherion sat up slowly, face blank.
"…This is starting to feel weirdly familiar," he muttered.
Shirone shot him a glare over her shoulder. "Stay away from my sister!"
Kuroka's tails flicked wildly as she was dragged towards the door. "Come on, Shirone, I was just teasing—"
"No teasing allowed!"
Author's Note:
This is the second "half" of the original chapter, but it's really more like a third.
Another cockblock in the form of Shirone trying to protect her sister from getting corrupted. How ironic.
I wanted to show him fighting Satan-class beings and how if there isn't anything they can do to bypass Infinity they are fodder to him.
Uhhh I also picked their names for a reason. Being named after the First Disciples of Jesus=???
Anyways, this arc is basically over. Next chapter will probably be another big one as I don't think there's any other reason to delay the start of canon. Which means that we will have like a 5 year time skip.
Thus, the chapter will be essentially snippets of what he does in those five years and how his relationships with them all grow. It will probably be the biggest chapter yet. It will allow me to develop his relationship with all of them, even Tiamat who I've kinda lowkey ignored in terms of romance.
From one POV, I would say that there's no way that Kuroka wouldn't try to take his virginity in those five years. And if Rias sees that there is another girl gunning for him with such eagerness, she would probably try to pick up the pace, thus starting a chain reaction with the others.
However, I also wrote out that he isn't really ready for that yet when he talked to Grayfia in another chapter, so would gently turn them down from moving that quickly. Which is kinda funny considering how "far" he "let" Kuroka get in this chapter.
HOWEVER HOWEVER, I can use the next chapter with the snippets over five years to show his mentality changing and him starting to let them in and not just limiting them
I would like to hear what people think about some stuff:
Which of the girls would care about the whole first kiss, first time, etc. side of things? I would assume maybe Rias would care the most?
Would there be jealousy, and if so would it be something small, or would it be an actual problem? Like I assume that Sona/Seekvaira/Rias would still maybe (five years is a long time) resent Tiamat, and Rias might be jealous of Kuroka for being so forward? Idk lol