Koneko's expression was filled with shock, mixed with a trace of joy and resistance—complex emotions intertwined.
For Koneko, after her elder sister Kuroka became the familiar of a high-ranking devil, her power rapidly expanded. One day, she killed her master and fled, becoming a stray devil, which caused Koneko to be implicated as well.
Because of this, she endured immense pressure from the outside world, no longer wanting to use her nekomata powers, and gradually became taciturn and withdrawn.
So toward her sister, she felt both the joy of reunion and a sense of rejection toward Kuroka.
"Wait a moment, Shirone. Big sister needs to make some unpleasant turkey disappear first."
Smiling cheerfully as she looked down at Koneko, a trace of gentleness flashed deep in Kuroka's eyes, but it vanished almost immediately, replaced by icy killing intent.
Her gaze had not even turned toward that turkey whose eyes were filled with irritating emotions.
In the blink of an eye, Kuroka casually waved her hand, releasing a complex technique combining senjutsu and magic. Black formation patterns resembling a Bagua array suddenly appeared, and a torrent of energy instantly poured toward Riser like lightning.
Riser's eyes narrowed. Although he was a lecherous villain by character, he still possessed real strength. Just as he was about to counterattack, Grayfia suddenly moved.
"SS-class Stray Devil, Kuroka Tojou. Are you ignoring my presence?"
Grayfia spoke coldly. How could she possibly allow a stray devil to act so recklessly here?
With a raised hand, dozens of magic circles materialized. One of them intercepted Kuroka's attack midair—an attack that could have leveled the entire area—while the remaining circles directly dispersed the energy.
This casual move caused Rias's peerage members to break out in cold sweat. From the energy exchanged in that brief instant, it was enough to instantly kill everyone present except Rias.
"How would I dare, how would I dare~. How could a little girl like me ignore the famous Silver-Haired Queen of Annihilation of the Underworld? But someone just said they were going to kill my little sister, so what I did was only reasonable, right?"
Sitting atop the rooftop, various styles of magic formation patterns suddenly appeared behind Kuroka. With a flash of light, she was transferred to the ground.
Facing Grayfia, who radiated pressure and hostility, Kuroka felt no fear at all. Her beautiful, delicate face still carried that bewitching smile capable of charming anyone to death.
She knew these people did not dare cause major destruction in this area. Now that she had learned her sister's whereabouts, she naturally intended to take Koneko away.
"My cute little Shirone, I came this time to take you with me. Big sister really has so many things she wants to tell you."
Facing her biological sister's intense yet gentle gaze, Koneko's body trembled slightly in fear.
"She… she's Koneko's real sister!?"
Issei looked back and forth between Koneko and Kuroka in disbelief. In the end, his gaze lingered heavily on their figures and busts, and he muttered words that made Koneko want to beat him senseless.
"The difference in figures is huge. Did the big sister absorb all of Koneko's nutrition?"
Hearing this, Kiba's mouth twitched as he glanced at the kouhai beside him. Koneko clenched her fists and glared gloomily at Issei—if the situation weren't wrong, she would have already rushed up to beat him.
Learning that the suddenly appearing Kuroka's target was Koneko, Rias and Akeno expressionlessly stepped in front of Koneko, assuming combat stances as they guarded against Kuroka.
Protected by everyone, Koneko seemed a little less afraid. Summoning her courage, she questioned her sister:
"Kuroka… onee-san. After doing something like that, why did you come back? You clearly abandoned me…"
Koneko's words made Kuroka's smiling expression fade. Her pale golden eyes filled with an icy coldness like tens of thousands of frozen blades, and she let out an extremely sinister laugh as she looked at Rias and Grayfia.
"Hehe. It seems you people never told Shirone the so-called 'truth,' did you?"
"Let me guess—did you push all the responsibility onto me?"
Kuroka and Shirone were truly biological sisters, and Kuroka was an absolute siscon. Just from a few of Koneko's words, she already understood part of what had happened.
For example, these people had concealed key details of the incident back then when telling the young Shirone.
Kuroka's background was somewhat complicated, and her tragic childhood was determined from the moment she was born.
Her and Shirone's father was a human researcher in a secret laboratory run by a branch family of the Naberius clan—the 24th-ranked of the 72 Pillar high-ranking devils—researching the creation of artificial Satans.
For the sake of experiments, he chose Fujimai, an elite of the strongest nekomata species among Japanese yokai, the Nekoshou, and had children with her—Kuroka and Shirone.
Their father regarded both the mother and daughters merely as experimental materials, burying himself entirely in his research.
During a failed experiment, both parents died. After losing their parents, the two sisters depended on each other and were later adopted by a high-ranking devil of the Naberius clan branch—the devil clan behind the experiments.
However, their lives did not improve. Instead, it became even worse.
Because of their outstanding potential, the master used two Bishop pieces to reincarnate the sisters as his servants.
After becoming devils, their talents in yokai arts and senjutsu gradually manifested, and their power spiraled out of control.
Their master continued his experiments to create artificial satans, using extreme methods to stimulate his servants' potential—and even prepared to experiment on Shirone.
To protect her sister from repeating their family's tragedy, Kuroka killed her master and fled alone, becoming a stray devil.
After her escape, the Naberius clan's secret experiments were discovered by the higher-ups of the devil world and were erased and sealed.
Yet no one ever told Koneko the so-called truth. Even Sirzechs, who had "rescued" Koneko, did the same.
"..."
The atmosphere became chaotic and heavy. What Rias and Grayfia—who knew the truth—were thinking, no one knew.
Kuroka responded to their silence with a cold laugh, further strengthening her resolve to take Shirone away.
Snap!
The nekomata girl snapped her fingers, and the sky was instantly covered and surrounded by dense senjutsu formations.
Looking at the sky full of attacks ready to be unleashed, and sensing the immense power within them, Rias and her peerage swallowed hard, tense over whether everything would come crashing down in the next second.
Riser's eyelid twitched, but thinking of his healing ability and Grayfia beside him, he relaxed.
"What do you mean by this?"
Grayfia remained cold as ever. She glanced at several formations in the air that were aimed elsewhere, feeling an ominous sense of unease.
"Hand over my sister. Otherwise, these attacks will instantly affect this school and the city. You should know what kind of place this is, right?"
Kuroka sneered as she threatened them. Naturally, she would not actually do this—after all, Raize was still in this city, along with other otherworldly dragon factions.
She was merely using the terrain to threaten them. This cunning nekomata girl had other plans in mind.
Moreover, facing Grayfia, she had no absolute confidence in safely taking her sister, which was why she resorted to this method.
Just as Kuroka anticipated, those words immediately caused Rias and Grayfia's expressions to change.
If she really did that…
Issei and Kiba subconsciously thought of that man overflowing with crimson killing intent, and those terrifying dragons. They stared nervously at Kuroka.
If those attacks fell, they would surely attract something very bad.
Raize's cold warning from last time was still fresh in their minds.
Grayfia was the same. She could not cause major conflict in this area. If Kuroka did something like that, she was certain that in the next second—
"Kuroka. Put that shit away."
The sudden, indifferent male voice sounded as if it had been there all along. The familiar voice made Rias's eyes widen.
Grayfia was even more shocked, because the voice had come from behind her.
Impossible!?
Within her fully alert perception, someone had bypassed her detection entirely and suddenly appeared behind her.
In that instant, Grayfia knew the newcomer's strength likely far surpassed her own.
Grabbing Riser—she activated a teleportation spell and moved with him to Rias's side, staring at the newcomer with extreme vigilance and gravity.
The man wore casual, comfortable clothes. Beneath his black, slightly messy hair, deep within his pale blue eyes that carried faint white mist, extremely eerie patterns were fading away.
They depicted two serpents entwined around a scepter-like staff, their heads at the top, mouths open toward a dark blue gem engraved with mysterious symbols.
The one who had suddenly appeared was none other than Raize himself.
The instant Kuroka spread the dense formations across the sky, the shadow clone that had been accompanying Mashiro at school sensed it, immediately dispelled itself, allowing Raize's true body at home to appear here in the very next moment.
After completing the Eternal Destruction Ritual at home, Raize and Eu and Sei had been nearly unconscious for an entire day. Fortunately, the Manjuu at home discovered and took care of them.
Now, Sei was sleeping within his body, unresponsive no matter how much he tried to wake her. Eu, however, had awakened together with him.
At that time, seeing the fleeting Twin-Serpent Staff imprint deep in Eu's eyes, Raize felt extremely conflicted.
Now, Sei had become the driving core of the holy relic within his body, sharing life and death with him. Eu's situation with him was even more complex.
He and the girl now shared a far closer connection, as if bound together.
He had also received Eu's insights into "death" as a necromancer.
Moreover, although the girl's soul was still within his body, Raize could already feel that the radiant, beautiful soul had completely become his.
Eu had sensed the aura of her bound divine weapon—the Hell's Scythe—appearing on Raize. That feeling of "one heart, one body; reborn from the same lotus" bound her deeply to him as well.
After understanding the situation, the girl had blushed and shyly glanced at Raize, while Raize himself felt somewhat strange.
When he asked Eu, she hesitated and said nothing.
The Hell's Scythe held extraordinary significance for Eu—it symbolized her surname and was the weapon she used to protect herself. Giving it to another was equivalent to entrusting her very essence.
From now on, this man named Raize would bear the responsibility of protecting her. In the truest sense, they would be together forever…
Seeing Raize, Rias and Akeno cried out inwardly that things were about to go terribly wrong. Yet amid the panic, Rias noticed something unusual about him.
She and Grayfia both focused on Raize's fair neck. There was now a savage scar there—one that could not be ignored, which definitely hadn't been there before.
The scar encircled his neck, crown-like in shape, as if proving that its owner had once been beheaded.
When Kuroka saw Raize, she froze for a moment, then immediately withdrew the senjutsu formations in the sky at lightning speed—so fast it left everyone astonished.
Though rather than saying she hadn't intended to do it, it was better to say she had only wanted to draw out reinforcements.
Thankfully, the one drawn out wasn't some unfamiliar dragon, but Raize.
"Ahh~ Raize-kun, you finally showed up. These people were bullying me here and even kidnapped my little sister, refusing to give her back."
Looking at Raize's indifferent face, Kuroka put on an awkward smile and spoke in an aggrieved tone that made Rias's group want to vomit blood.
Damn it—this framing was way too practiced.
Who the hell bullied you? Who kidnapped Koneko? We're protecting her! Can't you see she doesn't want to go with you!?
But from an outsider's perspective, they had more people, while Kuroka was alone. It really did look like they were bullying her.
"Lord Raize, please don't listen to her nonsense. We—"
Rias tried to explain, not wanting to add yet another enemy that could push the situation out of control.
But Raize suddenly vanished from before their eyes again, and no one reacted. It was like watching a video fast-forward.
"What!?"
Grayfia cried out in utter shock and disbelief, immediately looking beside Kuroka—where Raize had abruptly appeared.
Even Kuroka was startled. There had been no spatial fluctuation, and even with enhanced vision techniques, she hadn't seen his movement.
Not only that—Koneko, who had been protected at the very center, also suddenly appeared beside Kuroka.
She was being held by Raize in a subtle manner—grasped by the scruff of her neck with one hand, like a pet cat, suspended dozens of centimeters off the ground with her feet dangling.
Not only had he appeared there out of nowhere, he had taken Koneko from right beside them!
This was horrifying. None of them had reacted at all. Which meant that if he wanted to kill them, they truly wouldn't have had time to respond.
How did he do it!?
"Time?!"
Rias and Grayfia were the first to react. Since it couldn't be seen, sensed, and involved no spatial fluctuation, the greatest possibility was time.
Grayfia, a devil who had survived countless battlefields, had naturally encountered many strange powers—time powers was among them.
As for Rias, within her own peerage was Gasper Vladi, who possessed the "Forbidden Balor View."
So she was naturally familiar with such phenomena.
"Hurry up and take your cat sister and leave. If you hadn't used this method and it wasn't me who showed up, you'd already be dead."
Raize spoke coldly and mercilessly, holding the pitiful Koneko by the scruff beside Kuroka, whose smile she could no longer suppress.
Raize was no fool. Just by looking at the situation, he understood the general outline and Kuroka's true intent.
He could also see that this scheming cat was simply using him. Considering they had once been teammates, he let it go.