"Damn this wizard!" Raynare yelled as she turned to me once again, but before I could make a move, she paused for a moment before her scowl deepened and her energy dissipated. I also noted that whatever caught her attention, it was behind me. "Damn, they are here!"
...
… Okay granted, I was a little rusty in the detection department, but I don't think I would have missed out anyone behind me. I focused my senses to the surrounding area, and only after taking a quick whiff did I understand Raynare's agitation, because a few metres behind me, I caught the scent of overwhelming sweetness.
The same scent as the crimson-haired girl.
"Hmph!" Raynare stood a little taller and glared at me. "Count yourself lucky that some interference has arrived. Next time you will be dead." Raynare opened her wings and took off in the air, pausing to look at Dohnaseek. "Get up you oaf! We are leaving!"
The man did not reply and instead looked at me with his good eye. He was certainly not smiling anymore given the damage I gave him. "We will have our rematch boy, mark my words!" With that, he opened his wings and followed Raynare who vanished in a flash of light and feathers.
Oh, like hell I am going to let them go for what they did to Issei!
"Oh no you don't!" I threw both of my blades right at him, cutting off both of his wings and sending him crashing to the ground. "GAGH!" Dohnaseek glared at me as he stabbed the spear into the ground to lift himself up. "Damn you boy! That's it, I don't care about anything else! You will suffer for this!"
Yeah, like I haven't heard that before. Now then, time for some much needed practice.
"Spirit and technique, flawless and firm"
I traced a fresh set of Kanshou and Bakuya and launched them from my arms, the blades flying about sideways. Dohnaseek quickly used his spear to deflect Kanshou while stumbling to avoid Bakuya from stabbing his neck.
"Our strength rips the mountains"
"Our swords split the water"
I traced a second set of blades and charged forward, slashing at him just as the other two blades came back from behind him. With the previous set attacking his back, Dohnaseek panicked and attempted to parry off both attacks. He managed to block the Kanshou in my hand but failed to stop the first Bakuya from slashing his shoulder. He stumbled to block the first Kanshou, thus giving me the opportunity to cut his back with the other Bakuya.
"DAMN YOU BOY!" He screamed as he swung wildly at me. I simply jumped back and threw my blades to the sides to add to the pair flying in the air, while tracing the final set in my hands.
"Our names reach the imperial villa"
"Trace Overedge."
I flooded the blades with my Prana, feeling the blades get heavier as they lengthened and expanded beyond their original size. It was not an even expansion; as they grew, the blades started to crack and splinter from the hilt, until they resembled nothing more than a pair of black and white wings with feathers of broken steel adorning the back.
Dohnaseek, who was busy alternating his attention between the flying blades and myself, turned pale at the sight of my elongated blades as I rushed forward at him. He brought up his spear to try and block the blades.
Too bad he was a second too late.
"The two of us cannot hold the heavens together."
"Crane Wing Three Realms!" I shouted as I slammed the blades into him just as the other two pairs came from behind and made contact with him. With a loud explosion, the blades completely shattered, sending the broken shards of steel straight at him, completely shredding his body and clothes, tearing into his flesh and sending him flying a few feet into the trees and bushes. The attack continued on, sending his already battered corpse crashing into the trees and causing them to topple over him, completely covering his body and leaving behind a smoking wreck.
For a while, I held my stance, waiting to see if he managed to survive the attack. Only when the final tree dropped, I stood up slowly to check the area. When no one else came to avenge him, I quickly turned around and made my way to Issei. It did not take too long to get back to find him still on the ground with the staff disappearing into the wind.
"Oui, Issei! Wake up!" I rushed to him and checked his pulse. I was relieved to see him breathing a little heavily; at least that meant he was alive. But when I checked the wound, relief turned to surprise. I remembered the size of the wound was a lot bigger than it should, yet the wound was a lot smaller now. Even the [Staff of Asclepius] would have trouble closing a large wound like his since I was not its real owner and it was merely a fake that I projected.
But as I checked it again, a scent came from the wound that made me pause in fear.
"Oh no…" I closed my eyes to concentrate on the scent, praying I was wrong. When I talked to him earlier, he was most certainly human. But now as I was tending to him, I could catch a faint scent from him. The same scent that appeared at the Academy.
The same scent that was evident in the Student Council.
The same scent as that crimson-haired girl.
The same scent as the ones behind me!
I traced a few daggers and quickly threw them behind me, sensing the group scattering to avoid them. I bought a new Bakuya in my hand and stood up while talking in a very angry but restrained tone. "I am in a very bad mood right now, so you have 10 seconds to announce and explain yourselves before I give you the same treatment as that guy over there."
A moment of silence, then four figures appeared at both sides of me from the shadows. I already got an idea of who was watching based on their scents, and seeing them in person only confirmed my suspicions and deepened my frown. "Good evening, ladies. I would suspect that this is not a regular walk for you."
"No, it isn't." Rias Gremory flicked her crimson hair lightly as she smiled at me. The most popular girl of the Academy was standing with her hand on her hip, and I must admit, even in the night she was an extremely eye-catching beauty whom one cannot drag their eyes away willingly. She seemed to encompass the western standard of female beauty: long red hair that reached her legs, great facial features and an extremely voluptuous figure that would put models older than her to shame. If anything, she might give Rider a run for her money when she gets older.
"Ufufu, it certainly isn't a regular walk for us." Her black pony-tailed companion remarked as she stood a little away from her. The second most popular girl was also eye-catching based on the eastern standpoint, with her black hair tied in a ponytail and demure manner coupled with another eye-catching figure, she represented the ideal Yamato Nadeshiko that all Japanese girls desire to grow up to.
On my left, Sona and Tsubaki were looking at me and the battle scene with a discerning eye, for a while looking at the blades that were scattered around the battlefield. Wordlessly, I dismissed the tracing, making them disappear back into Prana. I figured they were more or less in the same group, the question that need answering was 'Are they allies?'
"So Shirou Emiya." I turned my head towards Rias who was looking at me with a smile and a look that made me a little uncomfortable. "The Fake Janitor, the Kendo Expert, the Ace Archer, the genius student who got the sixth place in the school exam on his first transfer and skipped a whole year. And now a wizard in hiding, huh?"
"Magus." I automatically corrected her without meaning to. "And I honestly don't think I'm that much of a genius. News of my achievements have been… greatly exaggerated."
Rias let out a light laugh at my dry humour. "You are too modest, Shirou. I know about your work around the school, but still, you have a lot of hidden talents. You have good tactics and no stranger to combat, not to mention your swords…"
Yup, I really do not like the look in her eyes when she was commenting about me. Time to end the conversation.
"Can I confirm something with you all?" I asked everyone in general. "Why did you not step in to save Issei earlier or help me when those creatures attacked us?"
"Ara, but it looked like you got it under control, so we just went to heal the boy while you took on the role of the knight in shining armour." Akeno replied as she loosely took a stance that I recognized as one preparing for sudden confrontations. At the corner of the eye, I could see Tsubaki doing the same thing while standing slightly in front of Sona.
"You did more than that." I raised the blade and pointed at Rias. "You did something else, didn't you? Because whatever you did, I can detect faint traces of the same scent on him as you."
"It's rude to say that a woman smells, Emiya-kun." Rias pouted while as though offended by my words. "I simply defended my newest addition to my Peerage, that's all."
'Peerage?' I frowned as I thought inwardly. I decided to go for broke and just ask straight out. "What are you girls?"
"Oh, you don't know who we are?" Rias tilted her head curiously as she watched me closely. "It seems you really do not know who or what we are, that is rather surprising. It has been quite a while since anyone from the supernatural side knows little of us. Very well then, I shall tell you."
"Rias." Sona spoke with a notable tone of hesitation in her voice.
"I think our secrecy has been blown for quite a while, considering our interactions." Rias replied before turning to me. Then to my unpleasant surprise, two wings resembling that of bats emerged from her back and opened wide while she took a bow. "My name is Rias Gremory, a devil. Pleasure to meet you properly, Shirou Emiya."
Devils?! Wait, as in the actual devils, ones with wings, pitchforks and going around tempting people into giving up their souls and damning them to the seven levels of hell, those devils?! But they were supposed to be fictional characters, and even if they were real, they should not be looking like girls who walked straight out of a modelling magazine?!
Then again it could explain the bit on temptation if they did look that way.
But if what she said was true, and there were devils out and about in the human world, that would mean that all the scents at the school belonged to devils, and that would mean…
"… I see. So you two as well?" I turned slowly to face Sona and Tsubaki, to see them flinch slightly at the possible expression that was on my face. Hardly a surprise, when one finds out that some of their closest relations were devils who preyed on human souls. "Kusaka-san and Tomoe-san?" Sona closed her eyes as she nodded slowly, clearly pained at giving me an answer.
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Hey guys I really need you to throw some power Stones ;)
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