"Are you sure you and Sona can handle this on your own?"
Rias Gremory nodded seriously at her brother's question, even though she did not feel confident on the inside.
Yet, how could this prideful heiress admit to such a lack of confidence and risk getting her freedom taken away under her family's guise of 'protection'?
That is why she chose to follow through with this lie.
"Yes, Onii-sama. I will coordinate with Sona, and we will find out the source of that explosion. Don't worry. We can take care of ourselves."
Sirzechs Lucifer, the strongest Devil and the unrepentant sis-con, nodded reluctantly before the communication cut off, letting Rias sigh in relief and collapse onto her couch.
"....What are you going to do when he finds out the truth?"
"One problem at a time, Akeno. Right now, we need to know just how something like that even happened in the first place."
When Reynare the Fallen had lured in Issei Hyoudou with the pretence of dating him, Rias had already been on guard against the Fallen Angels that were infiltrating her town.
Given the way Grigori always goes around under everyone's noses and takes away the Sacred Gear users to recruit into their faction, Rias did not make any hasty moves lest she end up facing high-level agents from the Fallen faction and complicate the situation further.
That was why she had her familiar hand out her flier to Issei as a last-ditch effort to see if Issei might desire something so deeply that he would invoke her, something that the Fallen might not be able to give him.
Of course, she did not have much hope in that. Knowing the boy's personality that she observed so far, he would probably want beautiful women to sleep with him or something along those lines, a wish that the Fallen would fulfill in a heartbeat. Not to mention that Fallen Angels were formerly Angels of Heaven, and retained their peerless beauty from before they fell.
However, she never imagined things would escalate to this extent.
An explosion that was seen, heard, and felt across the town, forcing her and Sona, along with their peerages and familiars, to work overtime to erase the memory of.
Holy Energy that irradiated the park, so much so that, even now, no devil can even think of approaching the general area before getting a lethal dose. Something that can only be done by a holy weapon on par with Durandel, Galatine, or the original Excalibur could do.
The mysterious disappearance and reappearance of Issei Hyoudou and his subsequent refusal of her invitation into her peerage, much to her dissapointment given that she hoped he was the masked crusader that was going around killing the Stray Devils, which meant he had good potential.
And the even more mysterious disappearance of Raynare the Fallen, after which the rest of her teammates hightailed it out of Kuoh for some reason, along with most of the Stray Exorcists that her familiars had detected in the local Church ruins just that morning.
And then, to add insult to injury, the arrival of Rin Tohsaka and Luvia Edelfelt, who made fun of her after which they left for the Clock Tower, probably to make fun of her and ruin her reputation in their organization, which meant she could never hope to be taken seriously if she ever approached anyone from the Clock Tower to form a contract.
All in all, it was an utter disaster, one that she and Sona were forced to clean up as quickly as possible lest their siblings catch wind of the truth.
So far, Sirzechs and Serafall only knew that there was a huge explosion in Kuoh caused by a confrontation between the Fallen and an unknown adversary of hers.
They knew nothing about the potential Holy Weapon usage, the stray exorcist population until recently, or about the masked crusader, whom they had not identified yet, even though they now had a good guess on who it could be, with the only thing lacking being solid evidence.
If they knew about even one of these truths, there was no doubt in Rias's mind that they would drag her and Sona back to the underworld, kicking and screaming, and maybe even lock them up in their respective territories in the name of 'safety'.
On some level, Rias understood her brother's and Sona's sister's worries. They had lost many family members and loved ones during the civil wars, making them dote heavily on their siblings. But Rias and Sona felt quite suffocated under that smothering love of their elder siblings. Not to mention how Serafall and Sirzechs seem to lack the concept of personal space and privacy, leading to Rias and Sona avoiding their siblings like the plague most of the time.
As Rias lamented her situation, the door to her club was suddenly smashed open, followed by Sona Sitri running in with a rare look of shock.
"Sona? What is it?"
"Kiritsugu Emiya is returning to Kuoh with his wife."
Rias went rigid for a single second before relaxing again.
"And? What does it matter to us? Sona? He lives in this town, remember? And last I remembered, we never got any orders from our siblings to watch his moments."
Sona glared at Rias and smashed her fist on the table with anger and fear.
"He is not returning alone. He is bringing along the Dead Apostles."
That immediately caught Rias's attention as Akeno's breath hitched.
For a long time, Rias believed it to be mere fairy tales. However, ever since she came to know that he was real and was living in her very town, she did not spare any effort in researching his deeds and legends along with Akeno.
And among those legends, the most infamous ones were the Dead Apostles. The title given to the organization of humans led by the Supernatural Killer himself.
Not much is known about them, except that they were nothing more than regular human mages with a few Sacred Gear users mixed in here and there. Yet, just like their leader, they were feared across the supernatural community.
Every time they are spotted, they always wear black tactical gear without any markings that were enchanted through various schools of magic and masks shaped like skulls. Their bodies rigged to detonate the moment they die or they will it. Their magics specialized in killing the supernatural creatures through various rituals and spells.
They were so good at infiltrating that trying to catch them was like trying to catch a ghost, simply impossible. As for trying to turn them away from their group or trying to make them betray their comrades? That was a pipe dream.
Loyal beyond doubt, even beyond the veil of death, as one unfortunate necromancer found out the hard way. That was the kind of will that these Dead Apostels held. Of course, this depended on whether any Dead Apostel would even allow himself or herself to be captured in the first place, since most of the time, when they feel like they are about to be captured, they choose to self-destruct and leave behind nothing but a crater in their wake.
An army of shadows that followed the Supernatural Killer's every order without question. A powerful force all its own in the Supernatural world.
And now, this force was heading to Kuoh along with the leaders.
Rias shot up to her feet and started pacing worriedly.
"How do you even know this, Sona? The Dead Apostles never show themselves unless they want to be seen."
Sona nodded, worry clear in her eyes.
"That is exactly what they are doing. They intentionally exposed themselves to the barriers around the town and...."
"....And?"
Sona took a deep breath and spoke in a worried tone.
"And, they sent a message, addressed to me directly. At my home. My real home."
That sent chills down Rias's spine.
While Sona's official address is listed in the School's registry and was known to those humans that Sona was acquainted with, her real home address was something that only her peerage and Rias knew about.
Not even Serafall knew about it since Sona went to great lengths to hide her real home address from her sister lest the Satan suddenly teleport into her living room out of nowhere and embarrass her in front of her peerage or ruin her peace and quiet.
But now, these Dead Apostels somehow found out this address and sent a message straight to her.
Once again, the terror of the Supernatural Killer and his Dead Apostles was solidified in Rias and Akeno's minds.
"...What did the message say?"
Sona opened the letter and showed it to Rias.
A single paragraph that was packed with threats despite the wording.
[I heard an interesting rumor while I was working overseas with my wife. I hope you and your friend will keep up with your duties and take care of things on your end as per your kind's agreement with the Shinto. If you can't, you know where to find me. Tell Serafall that I said hi.]
[Kiritsugu Emiya]
It was a jab at their incompetence at handling the latest debacle, a reminder of the responsibilities that they carry as part of the deal between the devils and the Shinto, and a threat to take care of things himself should they fail to, and the sheer weight of his connections by mentioning Sona's sister directly, all wrapped up in a single letter.
"....He is really scary."
Akeno nodded at her 'King's words.
"Very scary."
Sona glared at Rias.
"Take this seriously damnit! This is no joking matter."
Sona started to pace just like her friend.
"Everywhere the Dead Apostles go, ruin follows. Entire mage families wiped out. Supernaturals killed and processed into regants for their group's rituals. Entire hidden societies reduced to ash."
"We really cannot allow them to run rampant in Kuoh."
"....What do you suggest?"
"We capture what is left of the stray exorcists in the town and interrogate them for information."
Rias nodded in agreement, knowing that it was probably the only way they could get out of this complicated situation. By extracting information from the strays and get the full picture of what they were doing in their town.
Meanwhile, the boogeyman that they were so worried about was sharing a warm dinner with his family on the other side of the town.
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Author Notes:
So, about Rias's hope that Issei was the masked crusader. In the previous chapters, Sona guessed that Shirou was the masked crusader, but the girls didn't have solid proof that he was the one, so Rias was hoping that Issei was the one instead of Shirou, since she thought he would be easier to recruit. Hope that clears things up.
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