Something stirred inside me, like a creature sleeping deeply inside me was stirring, traces of its drowsiness starting to disappear as it struggled to wake up from its slumber.
That was an unusual feeling and it did not help my uneasiness when I detected the 'thing' in his left arm was seemingly reacting to me in a similar way, like it was starting to wake up. Best to end it now.
...
I removed my hand and took a deep breath to calm my nerves. It was always an unusual feeling to check another body with my abilities, no matter how many times I had done it. But at least the feeling inside me stopped gently.
"Phew! That was an odd feeling." Ise shook his body slightly. "It felt like my body was getting tickled from the inside out." He turned to me with another hopeful expression. "So, did you find anything?"
"Something of sorts." I shook off the feeling that was in me. "It seemed that your body has most of the injury healed from your attack, and the side effects from the treatment was giving you the associated feelings you got at different times of the day."
"I see." Ise lightly clutched his chest with an expression of pain and uncertainty. "Then can you tell me about Yuuma?"
"She called herself Raynare when I found the both of you." I scratched the back of my head uncomfortably. "And in my line of work, other creatures do not use their real names when attacking normal folk or hunting others to ensure no one knows how to kill them."
"But why?" Ise started to get more hysterical. "She asked me out! I planned the date! We were happy! Then why did she have to kill me?!" It seemed he was still hung up more on the fact that he was killed in cold-blood by his date than the notion about Raynare being a non-human that targeted him and killed him.
I sighed heavily, feeling my mental age as I thought about my course of actions. Sometimes it was really tiring work to be a therapist of sorts, even if I absolutely sucked at it.
"Okay, for the time being, you might want to try your luck with another person for your answers." I told him as I stood up. "Try Rias Gremory, she might know something." That seemed to have temporarily knocked him out of his hysteria as he looked at me with a cursory eye.
"Rias Gremory, the top Onee-sama?"
… I'm not going to comment on the student body's choice of titles, and decided to concentrate on other bits. "She was the one who seemed to have saved your life during my fight, so she would be your best bet to get your questions answered."
Ise nodded as he stood up, his expression now replaced with a slightly more determined look on his face. "Okay, I will try to get some answers from her then."
"Hold on a minute." I stopped him from heading off in a hurry. "When you get your answers, mind telling me about it as well. I am missing a few pieces of the puzzle and I hate not knowing everything."
"Are you not coming with me?" Ise turned to me with a slightly disappointed note.
"Currently we had a slight miscommunication, and I feel there are some answers that only you should get alone." I replied to his query. "And I still have to find that girl before she attacks another." I added while feeling one of the feathers in my pocket. "So when you have your talk with them, clue me in on their matters."
"Okay then." Issei started to walk quickly before pausing for a moment. "And Shirou." He turned to me with a complex expression. "Sorry for wasting your efforts to protect me. I blew that up big time, huh?"
I looked at a moment before lighting shaking my head. This kid was really innocent at heart despite being a major pervert. "For now, I'm just glad you are safe. But make sure you don't get your ass in that sort of trouble again please?"
"Haha, I will try." Issei scratched his head while looking embarrassed. "See you around then!" I waved my hand back before walking off in the opposite direction.
I just hope I can get my answers soon.
...
As it were, it did not take too long to get some answers about the devils from Ise, as he came to me a couple of days later to tell me the details after school hours. That seemed to have sparked an unusual rumour among the student body about Ise trying to bring me over to the 'Dark Side', and the girls were particularly distraught about it, if their multiple attempts at dissuading me from meeting him or the constant screams of pain originating from the boy were of any indication.
Anyway, I got my questions answered from him, and it really got my head spinning to say the least. Apparently their methods of ensnaring humans were, well, more 'humane' compared to the Dead Apostles or other creatures of the night that adopted the policy of stealing a person's soul or sucking their blood dry and turning them into the undead. They actually encouraged them to give in to their desires more by offering them services to fulfil their wishes, thus forgoing the direct method of recruiting them.
Secondly, it seemed they used some form of chess as their basis for Peerages, each member being represented by a chess piece which designates both their role and strengths in combat. Ise was apparently designated the 'Pawn', the weakest of the chess piece and seemingly a position which left him in tears for a while. Ignoring his outburst for the moment, I asked him about the other positions that he could enlighten me about. Based on his descriptions, it seemed that the Devils followed a system rather similar to the Servant System from the Holy Grail War. A person being chosen for the Peerage would be given at least one of these pieces to be converted into a Devil, while gaining the traits based on the type used.
There was not much that I could learn, mostly due to his lack of understanding of the system, but also in part to his somewhat sheepish reluctance to tell me more. I chalked that up to Rias telling him not to give me too much info, which was logical since I was technically an unknown variable who could attack them if I knew about the enemy. I placated his worries and asked him about other matters, which was not much considering the mental state he was in.
In return, I told him what I could divulge regarding my search for Raynare. It was safe to assume that her injuries had prevented her from trying to target the both of us, considering we were both still intact with our limbs and no one had been trying to kill us. But I had been keeping track of any unknown occurrences in the town, and one thing I had noted was the odd number of murders that had sprouted for the past few days. With a hint of trepidation, I asked if he and the others knew about them. For his part, he only knew based from the official word from the police, and he was not sure if the others had known about it.
We did not talk much, since there was only so much we can both divulge about our work, and I could tell that he had yet to recover from his experience with Raynare. So we broke it off and went our separate ways.
It was roughly four days now since the attack and I was still no closer to getting Raynare in my grasp. I let out a light sigh of exasperation at the lack of progress I was having. Back in my old world, I had contacts whom I could trade information to get a general location of my target, but here in this world, it was non-existent. At this rate, I would not be surprised if Raynare recovered from her wounds and started trying to find me and Ise at this point.
Whatever thoughts I had got interrupted by the sounds of metal clashing and the scent of blood originating from one of the houses I passed by. As I turned to look, I could see dim flashes of light from one of the windows, before an object resembling a lamp crashed through it and hit the ground. I immediately dashed forward while readying the trigger in my head. Taking cover near the window, I peeked inside and frowned deeply.
It was a typical house with typical furniture, but a dead corpse hanging upside down was certainly not part of the typical décor. In the middle of the trashed living room, I found Ise clutching his leg that was bleeding badly, with the members of his group standing around him protectively while facing a white-haired boy dressed in pale priest clothing who was holding up a sword made of light and a silver gun. On the floor a few feet away from him, a blonde girl dressed in green clothing resembling a nun or one of the sisterhood was holding up a hand to cradle her cheek that was slowly swelling.
Kiba said something that I could not hear, but I could guess based on the reply by the other individual I do not know.
"Yeah, yeah! I'm vulgar! Sorry about that! That's because I stray away! I was kicked out! That's why, screw the Vatican! I'm all right as long as I get to cut Devils whenever I feel like it!" The white haired priest yelled while waving his sword and gun with a huge maniacal grin on his face.
Okay ~ another psycho in town. Oh Joy.
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Hey guys I really need you to throw some power Stones ;)
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