I stare at Mittelt’s face, my vision tunnelling in as I see the tiny fallen angel collapsed up against a medicine cabinet.
She’s pale, far more than usual, and the reason is plain in the crimson staining her white dress and pooling around her crumpled body.
Her eyes stare back at mine, her mouth moves but no sound comes out, and then her lips curl upwards into a smile I don’t understand at all.
Because the life has left those eyes.
There’s nothing behind them now.
No playful cruelty, no perverted masochism, no recognition of anything at all.
“Oh, not so fast, I want to look at his face now you killed his girlfriend!” “Idiot.” “Help!
Let me go, I can save them!” I’m aware of other voices.
Aware of the other dead or dying fallen angel on the floor nearby.
Aware of Nanael’s commentary as she toys with Raynare.
Aware of the three figures in the corner of the room, a screaming girl held back by a stranger, one of the people who came with Nanael’s group standing there with a blood dripping sword.
But they don’t matter to me.
Because I’m looking at a dead body.
The hole through her chest isn’t anything I can fix with any of my medical knowledge, not without a whole lot of machinery at the ready to substitute her destroyed heart and lungs.
I’d just seen her lose her match, but she was supposed to be safe, supposed to be healed up like everyone else.
The girl who I’d lost my virginity to was now nothing more than a cooling corpse in a blood-spattered wedding dress.
I just wanted to make fun of her a bit.
Give her some of the same discomfort she kept putting on me.
But she wouldn’t hear anything I had to say now, if I could even find any words as I stare at her face and wonder how can you smile when you’re dead?
Not even the screams of another girl still alive and needing help could puncture this nerveless emptiness I felt clawing its way up my body and freezing me into uselessness.
“We’re leaving.” “You’re no fun, Lord Astaroth.” “Help me, Nanael-sama!” There’s a strange sound like on an electric synthesiser, and it’s uncanny enough to jerk my gaze to the side.
I’d heard it before, when Rias had teleported to and from after we’d killed the stray devil.
That’s right, I’ve seen death before.
The stray devil.
Those skeletons.
I should be used to it, I should be able to push it down and focus on what matters.
Mittelt’s frozen death smile stays with me even as I watch three figures vanish.
That albino looking guy, leering at me with his eyes bulging out and his mouth hanging open, tongue lolling.
The cute blonde nun, held firmly against the third’s side and reaching out desperately for salvation that isn’t here.
A stranger I’d never seen before, his narrowed eyes looking down at me with disgust before all three are swallowed into nothingness, the glowing magic circle that had been at their feet fading away a second later.
“Mittelt…” I say, my voice cracking as I look back at her, knowing she can’t hear me, knowing there’s nothing to say, but the name leaving my lips anyway.
It’s too much.
I don’t know what to do, there’s nothing I can do.
She’s dead.
What about the other one?
The thought pushes through the molasses of my mind and I look at the guy in the fedora… well, the fedora’s fallen off, he’s laying in a heap off to the side, face down and with the spreading pool of his blood meeting Mittelt’s.
He’s not moving.
He might still be alive though.
There might be something I can do to save him.
I crawl over and grab him, rolling him over.
He doesn’t respond, no grunt or exhalation.
His face is frozen in uncomprehending shock, a look that makes more sense on someone who just died.
And he’s certainly dead, his chest ripped open, the upper part of his body moving against the rest in a way biology absolutely doesn’t support when I’m rolling him over, organs spilling free of the huge rending tear that’s opened up his flank.
Hot sticky blood coats my hands and I wipe them against his coat before feeling appalled at the disrespect.
It’s pointless anyway, more is covering my knees now, soaking up through my tracksuit pants.
It’s a slaughterhouse in here, the smell of blood thick and metallic.
I remember it from the stray devil too.
It’s like when you have a nosebleed and it’s all you can smell, it’s everywhere.
There’s a flash of light deeper in the room, a thud on one of the beds, and I see that dark-haired fallen angel writhe on the bed, hear her hissing cry of pain as Nanael’s voice from the crystal ball crows about her utterly stupid victory.
They were fighting seriously.
They were expecting prompt magical healing.
But the healer’s just been kidnapped.
What the fuck is even going on?!
She’s not dead.
She’s moving.
She’s crying.
I’m all she has.
I move, a goal in front of me, purpose carrying me past the corpses of Mittelt and Dohnaseek towards the wounded figure of Raynare.
“What are you doing here?
Where’s Asia?” she demands through gritted teeth, her position not having let her see her dead comrades on the floor yet.
“She’s been kidnapped,” I answer tersely, my eyes looking over her to study her wounds.
She’s got a rocking body, and those leather straps don’t hide much especially since they’ve been cut in a few places to go with the bleeding red gashes in her pale skin.
Nanael must have played with her, there’s no singular fatal wound, just an accumulation of them.
Luckily the nurse’s office is well laid out.
Even if one of the shelves has been broken above where Mittelt landed.
I quickly start gathering what I need.
“What do you mean kidnapped?!” she tries to push herself up and look around while I’m rinsing disinfectant over my blood-drenched hands, a gasp coming as she’s able to now see the bodies.
“That fucking white-haired guy!” I don’t even remember his name.
But another name sticks with me.
Lord Astaroth.
That sounds like a supernatural name alright.
Like Lady Gremory or Lady Sitri.
“He betrayed you and took off with some other guy and the nun!” While we’ve been talking and I’ve been gathering what I need, she’s still been bleeding out.
The bed’s soaked with blood, matching the plastic bag full of other bloodied sheets nearby.
They must have been swapping sheets between matches.
It means everything I see now staining the bed has come from this fallen angel at least.
Some of this might need stitches, I’m not sure how well fallen angels heal normally, I know Akeno was fine after a day from when she got her shoulder opened up by Nanael.
For now what matters is binding up the wounds, applying pressure, bandaging her up tight.
It’s basic first aid, but of a kind I would’ve been lost over all the same before all this happened.
She hisses at how tight I’m wrapping her up, but she doesn’t complain, even when I have to touch her in some more intimate areas.
Just having a magical nun cast a spell and fix her up would’ve been a lot nicer for everyone, but this is the best any of us can do right now.
She keeps looking towards the same spot where the three of them vanished from.
Can she sense the after-effects of the teleportation?
Can she track where it went?
My mind’s starting to pull itself together, the simple action of dressing wounds giving me something to focus on besides the sight of Mittelt’s frozen smile.
The tournament doesn’t matter any more, we need to rescue Asia.
We need to get the guys who killed Mittelt.
It’s as I’m coming to this conclusion that the door opens and I glance back, seeing Kalawarner holding Hyoudou by the scruff of the neck.
Both of them freeze at the charnel house inside the nurse’s office before a golden spear forms from one of them and the other collapses to his knees, clutching at his mouth between bulging cheeks.
Fortunately for everyone Hyoudou manages to stagger to his feet and stumble over the sink before he starts emptying his stomach.
“What happened here?!” Kalawarner asks, at least not assuming I’m at fault and trying to stab me while I’m in the middle of bandaging her friend.
“The white-haired guy-” “Freed Selzen,” Raynare interrupts me.
“Yeah him, he betrayed you.
Killed Mittelt and Dohnaseek along with some other guy he called Lord Astaroth.
Then they kidnapped Asia, teleported away.” “Freed?” Hyoudou repeats, his voice raspy and rough, “I knew that guy was bad news.
Oh god, they’re really dead?
And… Asia!
We have to rescue Asia!” his voice firms up, the prospect of a goal helping to settle him like it had for me.
“Lord Astaroth?” Raynare repeats the other name.
“Of course it’s a devil…!” That answers that one.
Then Nanael floats in and freezes like the other two had and we’ve got to repeat the whole thing.
She then announces that something’s happened and predictably everyone descends on the nurse’s office.
With Raynare bandaged up as best I can manage for her, Hanakai takes over as apparently she knows some magical healing even if it’s not as good as what the nun had.
Dohnaseek and Mittelt’s bodies are placed up on other beds with sheets covering them.
I wonder what the school nurse would think if she knew her office as being used as a morgue?
While most of the respective peerages and Saeko are out in the corridor, Rias and Sitri are in here, along with the conveniently small Kaori who’s intently watching Hanakai do her thing without otherwise getting in the way.
“Lord Astaroth?
That’s definitely what you heard, Jiro-kun?” Rias asks me after I’ve repeated what I saw and heard.
“What did he look like?” I had other things on my mind, it’s hard to come up with a good profile.
“He was kind of average height, handsome-ish, I guess?
Narrow eyes, dark green hair with a long fringe?” Her and Sitri trade looks, and neither seems happy.
“That does sound like it could be him,” the student council president says.
“Diodora Astaroth, heir to the Astaroth clan.
A ducal house in the Underworld.” “The current Satan Beelzebub is from one of their branch families, that’s… that’s a problem,” Rias says with a face like she’s bitten into a lemon.
“Astaroth is a duke of hell who gives power over serpents, his domain is mathematical science and handicrafts.
He seduces via self-doubt, laziness, and rationalisation,” Kaori speaks up from the side and I feel a surge of annoyance at her.
“Kaori, shut the fuck up!
No one cares!” I snap at her, none of her shitty occult trivia having been any use in our dealings with devils.
She looks indignant, glaring back at me like I’m a piece of shit who doesn’t know his place, but it’s Rias who speaks up in a gentle voice.
“Jiro-kun…” Fuck.
Don’t look at me like that when I’m lashing out!
Kaori has the right idea, I’m not fishing for sympathy here!
I don’t want to be calmed down!
“Look, it doesn’t fucking matter if he’s the duke of snakebites or whatever!
He kidnapped Asia!
He killed Mittelt!
We’re going after him!” “Onano-kun, I understand you’re angry.
We’re all angry.
Regardless of our feelings towards fallen angels, Diodora has humiliated us by interfering like this,” Sitri says, looking up at me with an intense gaze behind her glasses that forces me to pay attention to her, gives me something to focus on beyond stewing in helpless rage.
“Even if he didn’t attack us directly, it’s not something we can laugh off.
So please save your anger for the one who’s earned it.” Ugh.
God fucking dammit.
Stupid student council president aura of sternness.
Don’t make me feel like a naughty kid having a tantrum.
People are dead, we should be freaking out!
“Great.
Good.
I’m glad we’re on the same page,” my words come out chopped and jerky, I’m still struggling to keep myself under control, I can still smell death and blood and the guy responsible is still fucking out there.
“So what’s the plan?” Rias and Sona look at each other and I can see that all-knowing student council president aura crumbling before my eyes with the hesitation.
Shit, they don’t actually know what to do, do they?
I know my plan of ‘go after him and fuck him up’ isn’t the most complex, but it’s something, right?
“We… we need to speak with our families,” Rias says after that momentary hesitation, fortunately before I can blow up at her.
“My brother will know how to handle this without it blowing up into a war.
We can’t be responsible for starting a deadly fight between devils.” People are already dead though!
Nanael’s just nodding, a carefree voice saying, “See?
These devil princesses have it all in hand, we can just leave it to them.” “Help me, Nanael-sama!” I hear Asia’s voice in my head, that desperation and faith contrasting with the apathy being shown now.
“That’s not good enough!” I snap, glaring at the worthless angel, “Asia was calling your name when she was taken, you’re just going to leave her fate to others?” I expect her to blow me off, I’m venting more than I’m constructing real arguments, but to my surprise Nanael winces like that actually struck a nerve in her withered conscience.
“Augh!
Fine!
Fine!
Alright!” she gets out her own words in a harried tone before she points at Raynare, “Spiked Shoulders, you can track where they went right?
I can just beat that guy up myself, it wouldn’t even be hard for an angel like me.” “I can, Nanael-sama,” she answers, looking again at the spot where they vanished from.
“The rift crossed the boundary between worlds, they’ve gone all the way back to the Underworld but I can follow.” “Angels and fallen angels attacking a devil’s house is just as likely to cause problems,” Sitri says, Rias biting her lip and nodding along.
“Well what about humans?” I counter, hearing a, “Yeah!” from the hallway as Issei speaks up for us representatives of base humanity.
“Look, if your families can handle this more smoothly that’s great, but we don’t even know why he’s kidnapped her.
He might be about to sacrifice her or-” I don’t finish that thought.
She’s a cute girl, but surely it can’t be that, he must have just been interested in her healing magic, they all said it was a big deal, “Or something bad that might happen while we’re stuck talking here!” “Don’t underestimate how fast my big brother can be!” Rias says, and her little sister levels of faith and devotion would be cute under other circumstances.
Right now though I just look at her because she’s still just talking.
Fortunately she seems to get it, an abashed look and a, “R-right!” before her phone drops out of a magic circle and into her hand.
“Well they can do that, but I’m going to make sure my cute Healing Saint is safe in the meantime.
Dragon King, get in here!” Nanael calls, stepping over towards Raynare and Kalawarner over the same spot Diodora abducted Asia from.
Issei barges in past the other devils, and Saeko smoothly follows in his wake.
“Whatever titles may shield this man, devil nobility means nothing to we humans,” she says, and I once more feel grateful that I’ve got someone as cool as her backing me up.
“I’m coming too of course, but you better be grateful and lose the attitude,” Kaori meanwhile says with a huff as she lands back on my shoulder, the miniscule weight of her tiny body nonetheless serving to lift a metaphorical weight off of my shoulders.
“This is still going to be a terrible incident,” Sitri says, a magic circle forming above her palm before a smooth blue stone with a glyph of some sort drops into her grasp and she passes it to Nanael.
“A diplomatic travel pass.
Remember, you brought the traitor here.
Do what you want to him, but give Hell a chance to serve its own justice on Diodora.
We don’t know what allies he has.” While Nanael drops the little stone in her cleavage, I guess because she doesn’t have pockets, Rias glances up from her phone conversation.
“You’re going now anyway?” she looks briefly troubled before she generates a magic circle of her own, a familiar bundle of tentacles sliding out of it.
“Catch!
You need it more, just be safe!” she lobs it towards me, several people making disgusted expressions and recoiling.
Okay.
Yeah.
That’s very useful but I’m not fucking wearing it.
And tactically you know what, I’ve got plenty of advantages between the strength I’m getting from Kaori and her contract plus what I can do with my ero-battery.
So I catch it, feeling a damp squish of yielding tentacles under my fingers, and immediately push it towards Saeko.
“Just press it to your body, it’ll do the rest.” Will probably wreck her clothes, but we really don’t have time for her to get changed, we’ve dicked around here long enough.
There’s no telling what’s on the other side, maybe they’ve just moved on somewhere else already, or maybe they’re already doing something terrible to Asia.
Even if she’s not dying, she still must be scared and alone and I don’t want her to endure that any longer.
It’s a good justification to cover the fact that I just want to fucking murder someone.
I don’t even know what Mittelt was to me, she was undeniably a terrible person.
I’d say comes with the territory for a fallen angel, but having met devils and angels alike it just feels like a label to me.
But Mittelt was a person.
No matter how weird or creepy or twisted she could be, she still had her own life and dreams.
I don’t understand why she was smiling when she died.
Surely it can’t have been a relief, it’s not that kind of emo cursed existence she was glad to escape from, right?
I don’t understand her, and the fact that I never will burns me like nothing I’ve ever felt in my quiet life of going through the motions.
While I’ve been ruminating, Saeko at least has proven she’s a woman of decisive action.
The tentacles unfurl explosively on contact with her, her previous clothes disintegrating into motes of light as gross looking wet appendages cinch tight onto her body and smooth out into something sleek and clean, almost futuristic with its glowing blue highlights and clean silvery armour segments.
It gets her looks of appreciation from everyone who can see, although Nanael gingerly reaches out as if to touch her smooth leotard before thinking better of it.
“Okay Spiked Shoulders, can you teleport us or not?” Amidst our group, Raynare hardly looks the same vision of dark loveliness she presented earlier in the day.
Between my first aid and Hanakai’s own magical healing she’s on her feet, but she’s wrapped up in enough bandages to look like a mummy, and there’s a definite unhappiness in her voice as she says, “I can manage the teleport, but I won’t be able to fight like this on the other side.
You’ll all have to keep me safe.” “Don’t worry Raynare-chan, I’ll protect you!” Issei promises gallantly.
The face Raynare makes in response suggests she’s not eager to be relying on his protection.
Just what can that magic glove of his do anyway?
I guess we’re about to find out.
Regardless she puts aside her unease, a radiant yellow magic circle blooming under our feet, the air around us becoming discoloured and almost like I’m looking through a prism back at Sitri and Rias, one hurriedly conversing into her phone and gesticulating with her other hand, the other staring back at us with an unreadable gaze.
There’s a lightness tugging at me, but something rises to meet it.
The fire inside of my soul surges in response, and I have to rein it back.
Not only can my inner world be manifested into reality as I’d demonstrated the first time I tried it with Kaori and Saeko, but it’s always there deep inside.
Roused by the presence of the supernatural trying to affect my body, I have to consciously tamp down those flames.
I want this spell to work.
I want to save Asia.
I want justice for Mittelt.
Under my conscious control, the hellish flames of Nobunaga’s ambition simmer in their cage, the world around me fading.
Gone is the blood-soaked nurse’s office.
Instead of standing on vinyl flooring, small gravel stones shift under my feet.
The sky overhead is blue, rather than demonic red or an eerie sea of flames that I might have expected when chasing a devil into hell, and we find ourselves before the gates of a mansion up ahead… no, not a mansion.
A cathedral.
Vaulted spires, stained glass windows… it dwarfs that old church in Kuoh where I’d first met Mittelt; a monument to religious grandiosity.
And we’re not alone in front of it.