Motohama watched the juice roll off the table's edge and honestly, this was the least chaotic thing happening in his home right now.
Kalawarner slammed both palms onto the table hard enough to rattle the chairs around them.
"What?!" She barked like a guard dog who just spotted the mailman around her home. She shoved herself forward, looking him in the eyes "Are you kicking me out just because you caught the interest of a guy with True Longinus?!"
Motohama held up his hand, utterly unbothered by her understandable outburst.
"Phrasing, Kala" He said with a sigh, glancing at the next room "Asia might get the wrong idea if she hears that" He replies as he looks at her in the eyes "And no, I am not kicking you out"
The aggression drained out of her shoulders slightly but still she didn't let it slide, until he fully revealed what he was thinking.
'Sigh, I can't exactly tell her the guy watching me isn't some random admirer with a holy blessing, it's the leader of the goddamn Hero Faction. The guy obsessed with the Sacred Gear possessors like Ash Ketchum with the pokemons'
'And, if Azazel really spotted Cao Cao keeping tabs on me during the spar with Xenovia, then that smug bastard's going to waltz out of the shadows sooner rather than later'
He leaned back in his couch, throwing one arm over the backrest with a casualness so forced it practically squeaked from the weight like his mind with troubles lately.
"I have a plan though, to deal with our stalker" He scratched his chin, eyes drifting to the ceiling like the words he needed were stuck up there "And to make it work, I want you and Asia separated from me...for some time"
'If the one packing Dimension Lost tagged along for the ride, then I'm not dealing with just one problem, I'm dealing with an entire gift basket of problems, and the ribbon on top is a spear aimed straight at my neck'
Kalawarner crossed her arms, and replied narrowing her eyes.
"No"
Motohama raised a brow as she replied firmly "I swore my loyalty from the day you agreed to give me power!" Her finger jabbed into his chest "Now that your life is in danger, you think I'll just leave you by yourself?!"
"Didn't you say we are a family, huh?!"
Her eyes narrowed into razor-thin slits, blazing with a stubborn fire that could've put out flames of Phenex.
"Either all of us die, or none of us!"
The declaration rang off the room until the silence followed. She held his stare without blinking, portraying herself as a loyal fallen angel daring her own master to forsake her.
Motohama sat frozen, his brain buffering like a cheap laptop loading a heavy file. She just, she actually just told him no? Straight to his face.
She braced herself, clearly waiting for a fist-shaped lesson in obedience to send her through the nearest wall.
Losing herself for his sake, that was a price she'd already signed off on without hearing any of his bullshit.
Family matters, after all.
He raised his arm slowly, and she flinched for a moment. Her body screaming at her to run but her love and loyalty towards him nailing her feet to the couch. The seconds stretched like years. She could hear her own heartbeat within her chest, drowning out everything except the certainty that it was going to hurt.
BONK!
His hand came down on the crown of her head in a chop so gentle it barely qualified as violence.
Kalawarner's eyes snapped open. She blinked once, twice, like an owl staring at a flashlight. Her hand reached up and rubbed the spot where his palm had landed. She looked at him, lips parted, and caught the faintest smile tugging at the corner of his mouth, a sight rarer than getting asked out by your crush.
"With the plans changed, you'll most likely be facing hell for your choice" he said.
She straightened herself, and a faint smirk carved its way across her face.
"Hah, I'm not the same weak Kalawarner you picked from the church!"
Motohama shook his head, the smile still hanging around like a guest who refused to leave.
"We'll see tomorrow" He pushed off the couch, and walked out of there without a glance. His footsteps faded down the hall, leaving Kalawarner standing ankle-deep in a puddle of spilled juice and unanswered questions.
She stared at the empty doorway. Her smirk softened into something she couldn't name.
---
Later that night.
Kalawarner was passed out cold in her room, curled around Asia like a large, fierce cat guarding a kitten. The blanket tangled between their legs. Asia's face pressed into the pillow, lips parted, a thin line of drool escaping her hanging mouth.
Down the hall, behind a closed door, Motohama laid asleep on his back in bed.
FWOOOSH!
A small purple flame phased through the wall without a whisper, sliding through it.
The fire hovered in the dark air above his sleeping form, no bigger than a clenched fist, flickering with tiny embers. It circled him once. Twice. Drifting in a slow orbit like a vulture that had spotted something interesting on the ground below.
Then it stopped, hung motionless for a brief moment, and plunged straight into his chest without leaving so much as a scorch mark on his shirt.
THUMP!
Motohama's eyes blew open.
His heart slammed against his chest like a prisoner trying to break out. He sat bolt upright, hands clutching the sheets, pupils blown wide as he scanned every shadowed corner of the room.
Nothing.
No intruder. No sound except the pathetic wheeze of his own breathing.
He yawned, scratched the back of his head with the lazy disinterest of a man who'd already decided this wasn't worth his time, and flopped back onto the pillow like a sack of rice tossed off a truck.
'Weird dream'
He was snoring again within thirty seconds, completely unaware that his chest had been invaded with the violet glow in the dark.
---
The next day in the evening, the Occult Research Club room.
Motohama was seated at the couch, calm as a man at a tea ceremony, lifting the cup to his lips while every set of eyes in the room was in him.
Rias watched from across the table, fingers laced over her knee. Akeno stood behind her shoulder with a smile. Koneko perched on the couch beside her, nibbling a cookie with the blank, unreadable stare of a cat.
'Why every damn time I pay a visit to Rias, both Issei and Kiba go missing. It's getting suspicious lately'
He set the cup down and looked straight at Rias, who was still processing his request.
"So, would you let Akeno and Koneko train these two?" He tipped his head toward Kalawarner and Asia without looking at them.
Kalawarner fired a side glance at him, while Asia fidgeted like a rabbit surrounded by wolves, her fingers knitting and unknitting in her lap, her gaze darting between the devils.
Rias nodded and gestured to Akeno and Koneko, who nodded their heads as well in agreement like it was the most natural thing for them to do.
"Thanks" Motohama lifted his cup again, hiding the smirk that crept onto his face behind the rim.
'Asia's already got a decent handle on her magic. Koneko can drill her with proper combat instincts into her without accidentally killing her. As for Kalawarner, she did say she'd walk through hell, right? Let's see how she handles Akeno's lightning showers, while running for her dear life'
With Syr packing every hour of his training schedule, he couldn't afford to let Asia and Kalawarner stagnate. Parking them inside Rias's circle was the smartest move he came up with, while keeping them away from him yet safe from Hero faction.
Even those fools know provoking Rias by hurting her peerage would invite the wrath of Lucifer itself.
"You are aware of the Exorcists arriving in town, aren't you?" Rias asked, crossing her arms.
Motohama leaned back, propping his chin "Well, they came knocking at my door and asked to help with the recovery of Excaliburs"
"You approved of it, didn't you?"
"Indeed. Though I doubt they'll ask to intervene, especially the blue-haired one"
Rias sighed at the memory of Xenovia's unreasonable arrogance from yesterday's meeting flickered in her mind. That woman had walked into a room full of devils and spoken like she was a strict teacher addressing a bunch of kids in her class.
"But Motohama kun, you still have to be careful" Akeno chimed from behind Rias "The one behind the disappearance of the Excaliburs is a Cadre"
"She's right, Motohama-kun" Rias nodded and raised a finger "A Cadre wields power equivalent to a Satan-Class devil. While I have trust in your strength, you still need to think twice before engaging a being like that"
'Kokabiel isn't even the main headache here. It's the "heroes of humanity" who haven't bothered showing their faces yet. If that wasn't enough, I'm completely tapped out on life essence potions, so pulling Nothung out of my bag of tricks means pulling a coffin out right after it'
'I can't repeat the stunt I pulled with Riser's Phoenix form. That card's been played, burned, and the ashes scattered in the Underworld'
He closed his eyes for a moment. Behind them, his imagination staged a helpful little scene: Kokabiel standing on his left, Cao Cao on his right, both grinning down at him like two powerful curses laughing at him in a sick maniac laugh.
BAM!
The door of the club room opened all of a sudden, revealing the pawn of Rias, in the most unpredictable way.
Issei collapsed through the doorframe, hitting the floor, while he bled down his face to the whole body.
CRASH!
Chairs shrieked against the floor as every person in the room launched to their feet in the same horrible second. Rias dashed to him, dropping to her knees beside him. Her hands hovered over his body "Issei!"
"What happened?! Who did this to you?!"
Asia arrived next to him, her palms blazed with brilliant green light as she pressed Twilight Healing into the worst of his gaping wounds.
Issei pushed words through the pain "Kiba..." He tried his best, speaking through the drowning gasp "Kiba... He was..."
He fell unconscious but still alive.
The silence stretched for a moment, then Rias's demonic power blazed through the room. A violent crimson aura erupted from her body, whipping her hair upward. The windows rattled in their frames, lights flickering from her outburst.
Motohama glanced at Issei's unconscious form beside Rias's violent one.
'Did Kiba got himself....?'
. . .
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