Author's Note: Hi guys. Just a note here. First, thanks in advance for reading and reviewing.

Second, it has come to my attention that an author called 'nesto_' on Webnovel has a story called 'The Gamer's Arsenal', which is, for lack of any other descriptor, a complete ripoff of this story of mine, a plagiarization. Worse, the chapters are far smaller than mine and he hides them behind a paywall, which is one thing I will never do.

I have sent a message to the moderators and administrators of Webnovel, but nothing has come of it, which I have a favour to ask all of my readers. Don't read his stuff. I only post stories on Fanfiction and Archive of Our Own, and I will NEVER place my work behind a paywall of any sort. If someone claims to be me and there's any sort of paywall involved, it isn't me. Why pay for what is available for free?

Spread the word. Report 'nesto_' and 'The Gamer's Arsenal' to the mods and admins on Webnovel. Post alerts in his comments and reviews. Whatever. Just please, don't give money to someone who lacks the ability to do anything but outright steal someone else's works wholesale.

Check my profile for my writing schedule. Before you PM me or ask me in a review. Seriously, you have to go to my profile in order to send me a PM in the first place and the schedule's right there at the top. You literally can't miss it.

Beta'd by BigCC

Read, Review and check out my other stories.

Disclaimer: I do not own Highschool DXD.

"Let's go!" - Regular Speech

'Oppai!' - Thoughts

[BOOST!] - Sacred Gear/Ddraig Speech

Chapter 23: Inter-Faction Negotiations

A Short Time Later

Azazel's Office, Grigori HQ, Underworld

"Haaa…." the Governor-General of Grigori heaved out a tired sigh. Oh, how he wished he could go back to just tinkering with his Artificial Sacred Gears rather than dealing whatever fresh mess this was!

"So, you have confirmed that they're all the exorcists we assigned to the Kuō mission?" he asked Shemhazai, his second-in-command.

"Barring five members that apparently went missing a day ago, yes Lord Azazel." his fellow Cadre agreed with a nod. "All of them are awake and have either already healed or are recovering. According to the interviews we've conducted, a lone human dressed entirely in red armour, wearing a dragon menpō over his face, stormed the abandoned church that they were using as a base before quickly mowing through them all with little issue using unarmed combat and occasionally bits of fire magic. Oh, and whoever is behind this altercation also informed the first three he encountered that the Grigori were to be 'evicted' from Kuō, effective immediately."

That actually caused Azazel to raise a single eyebrow. While the stray exorcists that he'd assigned to the Kuō mission were by no means 'elite' or even particularly capable examples of their profession, for a single human to have managed to defeat over a dozen of them was still surprising. Even more so that he had done it without killing a single one of them in the process. Then to have the sheer bloody balls to up and order the Grigori to abandon Kuō? This particular human certainly had chutzpah; he'd give him that much at least.

"Could the medics tell us anything else from the injuries that they received?" he asked.

Shemhazai nodded. "Already questioned them, and from what they could find it looks like most of them were felled by a single, incredibly powerful blow." his old comrade answered. "One of the higher-ranked ones look to have taken a second blow before he fell, but the most intriguing thing is that it appears one received a severe injury but it was healed before he was even sent back to us."

Now Azazel's other eyebrow shot up to join its partner. "One blow? Are you serious? And this masked man even went so far to heal one of his opponents after beating them?"

"From what the medics found, it looks like the exorcist in question had originally received second degree burns across over a third of his body." his second answered, absently adjusting his glasses. "Humans these days do tend to be a bit squeamish about dealing that kind of injury to their opponents."

'So, Shemhazai is pretty much convinced that one of the 'old crowd' isn't responsible for this mess, that's something at least. The kind of damage inflicted doesn't match up with what an Exorcist or Holy Swordsman would cause, and any of the Devils in the area wouldn't have hesitated to simply kill off the lot of them and that goes for any Contracted Magician that would be acting on their orders.' the Scapegoat mused seriously, going over everything in his head. Aloud he began to point out to the most obvious points to help himself think. "Right, so obviously this isn't a normal human involved. Likely a Sacred Gear Holder, that makes the most sense for a such dangerous human to seemingly show up out of nowhere. Thing is, why would a Sacred Gear Holder go and pick a fight with our people? And now that I think about it, wasn't that Freed Sellzen brat assigned to lead the exorcists assigned to the Kuō mission? That little nutbar was supposed to be fairly dangerous for a human, wasn't he? So where did he disappear to? Not to mention Raynare's Flock and the Holy Priestess."

[Twilight Healing], sometimes called the [Smile of the Holy Mother], was a very rare and extremely potent Sacred Gear in the right hands; capable of healing literally anything that was by its nature mortal, be it Pure Angels, Fallen, humans, Yōkai, and, as was recently proven, even Devils. As someone with a deep and profound interest in Sacred Gears, the thought of being able to study a Sacred Gear that could apparently heal even the sworn enemies of the Holy Father who had crafted it was an incredibly enticing idea.

Unfortunately, actually getting his hands on a holder of that particular Sacred Gear was easier said than done. Not only was it among the rarer Sacred Gears out there, but the Church was hyper-vigilant in seeking out and recruiting anyone they discovered with that particular 'holy gift' and kept them isolated and guarded enough that he'd never been able to get close enough to try and woo one over to the Grigori before now. He'd honestly never imagined that the sanctimonious old pissants would be arrogant and colossally stupid enough to just throw one away for proving that the Sacred Gear could literally heal anything, Devils included. Still, he wasn't one to turn away from profiting over someone else's fuckups, so he'd quickly dispatched someone to recruit Asia Argento within a few days of her exile, before sending her to Kuō where Raynare's Flock would keep an eye on her until the hunt for her by other interested parties started to die down a bit.

"I'm afraid there's been no sign of Freed Sellzen within HQ itself, and all attempt to contact him or any member of the Flock assigned to the area have failed." Shemhazai responded with a shake of his head. "Of course, Freed was well-known to be further in bed with Kokabiel's faction than ours, so it is possible that he has simply vanished to one of the bases under his control instead."

"Hmmm, that means that the person responsible is at the very least somewhere close to Freed's own level." Azazel considered that for a moment. While Freed was an admittable terror when going after his favourite targets, Devils, against any other opponent he was only moderately capable. Still, he was on the upper level of what an altered human without a Sacred Gear could reach, so there was a chance that whoever had managed to either kill him or scare him off had enough strength to face down a low-ranked Fallen, like one of Raynare's Flock, in combat as well. If he managed to pick them off one by one…

A sudden loud series of knocks against his office door interrupted his line of thought.

"What is it? Lord Azazel and I are in a meeting!" Shemhazai barked out.

"My apologies, Lord Shemhazai, but a communique just arrived via our point of contact in Lilith. Lady Serafall Leviathan is requesting a meeting with Lord Azazel at his earliest convenience." the unfortunate Fallen that had been forced to play messenger replied from the other side of the door. "She says, and I am quoting her message directly, 'It involves that big, beaten-up stack of Strays that were just dumped onto your doorstep.'"

The two Cadre exchanged curious glances. It had been quite a while since the Devils had reached out diplomatically towards them, and now they were trying to establish contact regarding this particular incident?

Something was not adding up.

"Well, this is certainly an intriguing twist." Azazel murmured before raising his voice slightly to call out to the waiting messenger. "You may enter!" The door swung open in an instant and a harried-looking Fallen stumbled in, bearing a letter in one hand. He quickly regained his balance and brought the letter to Shemhazai, who quickly scanned over the contents before handing it across the desk to Azazel.

"Hah! Yeah, this is definitely from Serafall!" the Governor-General guffawed as he quickly read through the short message. "Only she has ever had the sheer stones to call me 'Az-chan' to my face like that! Ah, and it looks like she left the coordinates for a transportation circle, along with a 'requested' time for the meeting itself. Hmmm…looks like…Tokyo! The Akihabara District if I'm not mistaken. Hm, been a while since I've went there, so it'll be a fun distraction if nothing else comes of it."

"Oh Father help me…" Shemhazai groaned out. Whenever Azazel went to that infernal section of the Earth, he always came back absolutely bustling with new and 'interesting' ideas and would inevitably lock himself in his labs for days on end. And he would be the one forced to carry the can until the damned mad scientist he worked for regained control of himself.

"Well, I suppose Serafall's likely got a pretty good reason to want to talk about this in person rather than simply sending it through a letter." Azazel mused aloud before laughing. "Now this is starting to get interesting! I'll head out at the appointed time and see just what she has to say about this. Shemhazai, you get as much information as you can out of those Stray Exorcists about this Sacred Gear Holder that's trying to kick us out of Kuō; fighting style, any other magic he has shown, any ideas or clues on just what his Sacred Gear could be. Anything and everything we can find; I want to know before I head out. Also, see if any of them have any clue on just what happened to Raynare and her subordinates; her suddenly going dark like this isn't like her in the least, particularly after she and Mittelt just reported in."

Azazel was well aware of the torch that little Raynare carried for him. Unfortunately for her, he had no such feeling in return; in point of fact Azazel was utterly and completely incompatible with romantic commitment or exclusivity. To him, she was simply an overeager subordinate and a bit too clingy and mercurial to risk her loyalty for a casual roll in the hay. He was hoping that letting her down gently whenever she finally managed to gather the courage to try her hand at confessing would keep it from harming her overall loyalty to the Grigori and his faction as a whole, but should she choose to leave afterwards, he wouldn't stop her. The Grigori did not force the Fallen to remain as a part of it for their entire lives like some sort of cage; their kind were simply too rebellious for that to ever work out well. If she wanted to fly free for a bit, then she was free to do so.

"Understood. Just please try and stay focused and finish this meeting with Lady Leviathan before you start delving back into your hobbies?" Shemhazai was practically begging near the end.

"Alright, alright, jeez." the Governor-General just rolled his eyes in exasperation. It was like Shemhazai didn't believe he took his job seriously or something. "Nag, nag, nag. For someone who spends so much of his free time in bed with his wife, you could stand to loosen up a bit."

Shemhazai flushed bright red and sputtered. Alone amongst the Grigori he had actually married a woman from an opposing faction, a Devil woman to be precise. The two were very much in love and they were rather…amorous about it whenever they were together. Still, he wasn't about to take that kind of thing from the man who'd created several harems throughout the course of human history.

So he did what he always did whenever Azazel decided to be particularly mouthy or simply did something too outrageous/embarrassing/stupid. He delivered a fist of divine punishment down atop his friend/superior's skull.

WHAM!

"Ow."

Early Morning the Next Day

Maid Café, Akihabara, Tokyo, Japan

"Yo, Az-chan!" Serafall greeted him with a wave from the table she'd already secured. Dressed in her preferred Mahō Shōjo cosplay outfit, she actually blended in quite well in Akihabara, whereas she'd ordinarily stand out like a sore thumb.

"Yo, Sera. You're looking as absolutely delicious as always." Azazel chuckled as he took his seat across from her.

"Ah, ah, ah. Flattery will get you absolutely nowhere with me, Az-chan." the Maō Leviathan responded with a smirk. "Work been keeping you busy lately?"

"Oh, you know how it is. Shemhazai is constantly nagging me that I need to do more and keeps dragging me away from my projects…" the Governor-General replied genially before smirking. "And just yesterday I got a special delivery of trounced Stray Exorcists that were supposed to be looking after a special project of mine in Kuō who had apparently been 'evicted' by some kid in red armour. Either the Sekiryūtei is back and at it again, or the Fallen Flock I had in charge there managed to tick off a newly emerged Sacred Gear Holder."

"You know I'm not all that happy that you snuck some of your minions in so close to my So-tan and Zechs' Ria-tan." Serafall pointed out as she waved over one of the maids to take their order. Once they'd done so, she merely raised an eyebrow at him, silently demanding some form of explanation.

"They weren't supposed to get anywhere near yours and Sirzechs' precious siblings, Serafall. They were supposed to keep their heads down and keep Asia Argento safe and out of sight until the heat died down a bit; Kuō is isolated and your siblings' presences means most of the more troublesome groups give it a rather larger berth." he responded with a pout. "Do you know how long I've been waiting to get a chance to study a holder of [Twilight Healing]? The Church gets so damn greedy when it comes to that particular Sacred Gear that this is the first time I've gotten close to even just meeting one in centuries. And now all of the subordinates that I sent there to keep an eye on her are either incommunicado or were sent back to the Underworld in a beaten heap."

"Well, that right there's your issue, Az-chan. While Raynare and Mitti-whosits were reporting back at Grigori HQ that Asia-chan had safely arrived, the other two dumb-dumbs you had there, Kala-something and Donny-whatever, just let her wander around unsupervised and unprotected and she ended up going on a little date with some human that had helped her find the church when she first arrived in Kuō." the Maō Leviathan informed him, likely deliberately mangling the names of most of the Fallen involved for her own amusement. "While the two were out having their fun, they got ambushed by a group that was apparently hunting for Asia-chan and her Sacred Gear as well. Fortunately, the boy involved has his own connections with the supernatural and managed to hire a merc to retrieve her before anything majorly bad could happen. Apparently, the group involved and said merc have some really bad blood between them, so he decided to go full scorched earth on the place they were holding her and left quite the mess behind. Not, a single one of the offending group looks to have survived."

"Alright." Azazel hummed. That was a bit at odds with the guy not killing any of his Stray Exorcists. Did this merc (that he was assuming was likely the same one responsible for the attack on the church) simply have a particularly violent grudge against this other group or was there some other politics involved? "But what does this have to do with my subordinates suddenly going dark on me?"

"Because those four decided to attack the mercenary's base in Kuō…or to be more precise, they decided to attack the base of new Holder of the [Gaia Gamer's Gear]." Serafall stated blandly, smirking slightly as the Cadre jerked in visible surprise. "And no, I do not know exactly who is hiding behind that mask."

Now that was just a blatant lie, but he wasn't paying close enough attention to recognise and call her out on it.

"Well…shit." the dark-haired Fallen lightly facepalmed. His idiot subordinates had charged into a fight against one of the few Sacred Gears that could be held on anything close to the same tier as the Thirteen Longinus. If anything, picking a fight with a Longinus Holder might have even been a safer option; at least the powers of the Longinus Sacred Gears were well-documented and mostly well-known, but the [Gamer's Gear]s tended to be far more…tricky to deal with.

"Yup, Mr. Red went full-on Dungeon Keeper on their asses." the Devil woman offered glibly, waiting for the maid that was coming over to deliver their drinks (hot chocolate for her, black coffee for Azazel) before continuing. "Five Stray Exorcists and one Fallen, Dohnaseek, perished in the ensuing fight. Raynare, Mittelt, and Kalawarner are all currently his captives and he has granted me the authority to negotiate for their safe release with you on his behalf."

"Because whoever this guy is, he's still new to the supernatural world and hasn't managed to build up any political capital of his own." Azazel surmised, a slight pang of sadness passing through him as he registered that one of his subordinates, even one he was not at all fond of, had perished. There were too few Fallen left for him not to mourn each loss, no matter how minor. "I'm guessing that Dohnaseek didn't really give Mr. Mercenary much of a choice in the matter. That boy was the not the type to ever back down from a fight."

"To quote the red man directly, 'He charged head-first into a fight with a Boss Monster that was specifically designed to counter a Fallen's normal powers without a second thought, refused any and every opportunity to surrender, and didn't seem to even realize that he was in over his head until after he was already dead.'" Serafall recounted seriously before taking a sip of her drink and humming happily at the taste. "Our friend has no desire to keep ahold of them for any longer than he has to, so he isn't really asking for much in exchange."

'So the [Gaia Gamer's Gear] Holder likely already realized that Kalawarner is the granddaughter of one of the Cadre and wants her out of his hands, ASAP.' Azazel deduced absently. The exact abilities gained by each generation's [Gamer's Gear] Holders varied and changed with each new host, but they all generally tended to have some kind of ability that let them quickly gain intimate details about any individuals they could perceive directly. Discovering Kalawarner's direct connection to one of the Cadre was easily something that ability could detect.

"Alright. Before we get down to the nitty-gritty of these negotiations, what exactly happened to Asia Argento?" the Fallen pressed, though he could already guess from Serafall's decision to get involved personally.

"She was recently reincarnated as a part of Ria-tan's Peerage." Serafall stated matter-of-factly. "Both her little boyfriend and the mercenary didn't like how she was being treated by your subordinates and Asia-chan wasn't much a fan of them herself, so they were able to talk her into giving the Devil side a fair shot."

'And it is just as I expected.' Azazel thought as he forcibly swallowed down an annoyed groan, feeling his dreams slowly swirl down the toilet bowl. Rias Gremory was the childhood playmate and near life-long friend of Sona Sitri; it was all too easy to see just how easily Serafall could be called on to step in as a favour to her little sister on the behalf of the [Gaia Gamer's Gear] Holder after he provided her friend with such an excellent addition to her Peerage. The give and take involved in this kind of thing was perfectly obvious and sensible, even if he was a bit annoyed that he hadn't even done anything to deserve this kind of suspicion from the kid, whoever he was!

"So what exactly does he want for returning my subordinates?" he asked as he let out a tired sigh, already so done with this day.

"Like I said, not much. He only has two real demands." Serafall answered, absently taking another sip of her hot chocolate. "In exchange for the return of Kalawarner, the Grigori is to formally renounce any and all claim on Asia Argento effective as of today. Granted, you don't really have much of a claim on her in the first place, particularly after the fait-accompli you've been presented with, but he wants it formally done just to remove any doubts or confusion."

"Done." Azazel agreed simply. As Serafall said any claims they had previously had would be paper thin and easily ignored or shredded by the actions of his idiot subordinates. Giving up those flimsy shreds to get back Kalawarner, particularly given just who she was related to, would be an utter pittance. Besides, as much as he wanted to finally get a chance to examine [Twilight Healing], Asia had obviously already made her decision and he needed to look after his own people first and foremost.

"In return for the safe release of Raynare and Mittelt, he simply requests that you refrain from sending any further subordinates to Kuō Town for the foreseeable future. I am going to have to add my own personal weight to this particular request, Azazel." the woman finished, her voice noticeably sharpening at the end. This was not the flighty, slightly whimsical, and playful Serafall he was speaking with right now, but rather the reigning Maō Leviathan, the Lady of Envy, a Super Devil and one of the most powerful Devils currently in existence alongside her peers in the Four Maō. This was the woman who had both helped gather and lead her faction to victory in the Devil Civil War while fighting head-to-head on the front lines against the descendants of the Original Maō.

"Very well, you have my word. No other Grigori assets will be sent to Kuō on my orders without a formal notice." Azazel promised without any argument. Pissing off a Maō-class Devil, let alone two of them since Sirzechs would inevitably get involved as well, was a sure way to cause a diplomatic incident. Sirzechs Lucifer and Serafall Leviathan were both infamous for how much they loved and doted on their much younger sisters, he could easily imagine both being all too willing to start an incident if they believed them to be threatened in any way.

Oh boy, he really should have just negotiated getting a safehouse set up somewhere in Kyoto from Empress Yasaka instead of trying to be smart and hide things in Kuō.

Water under the bridge and just another regret to add to the mountain he'd amassed over the centuries, he supposed.

Damn it, but he'd been so close to finally getting a look at just what made [Twilight Healing] tick too!

"Ah good, you're still a smart boy Az-chan." Serafall happily proclaimed, reverting back to her usual persona. "You should have your subordinates back by the end of the day tomorrow once I finish sending word back to Kuō that you have agreed to everything."

"There's still one matter I need to ask about. What happened to Freed Sellzen?" the Governor-General asked with a frown as he sipped at his own coffee. "He was in charge of the Stray Exorcists deployed to Kuō Town, but he wasn't sent back with them when they were returned to the Underworld. Was he killed in the [Gamer's Gear] Holder's attack on the church?"

"Nnnnope." the Devil dragged out her response as she sipped on her hot chocolate. "He fought Mr. Red and was getting his ass kicked royally before he pulled out some kind of talisman and teleported out of there. We thought he'd ran back to you, but it sounds like that particularly bad puppy is playing at the heels of another master. You might want to keep a closer eye on the more hot-headed xenophobes that you've got in your ranks."

'Tch, in other words, Kokabiel and his brood of warmongers.' Azazel thought irritably. He and Shemhazai had basically come to the same conclusion but it was more than a bit irritating to find out that Serafall had that kind of insight into Grigori's own internal factions and politics.

"Oh, there's another issue we need to bring up on our side as well." Serafall added, eyes locking onto Azazel's own and all her good humour vanishing again. "Just what was a Grigori Sacred Gear Extractor doing in the basement of the Kuō Church?"

"What?" the Fallen replied flatly, before shaking his head and trying to refocus on the matter at hand. "That is…how? I locked up those damned ancient relics away after certain people-" Kokabiel, you utter shit! "-started kicking up a fuss when I wanted to see them all dismantled. Something about 'relics of our glorious history' and 'symbols of our past struggles.' I personally saw to it that every last one of them was placed into the Grigori's secure vaults."

"Then you might want to invest in a better security system for those vaults. Or, y'know, just smash those evil things once and for all." Serafall suggested blandly. "Our friend blew the one that he found in the Kuō Church to pieces, so there's one less to worry about, but I would really suggest you do an inventory or something when you get back unless you want to have your faction involved in a major diplomatic incident when one of those abominations are used on someone important."

Mentally swearing every curse he had learned in his two plus millennia of life at Kokabiel (it had to be him, that monumental bastard was going to get them all killed!) Azazel merely nodded sharply. "Rest assured, I intend to do just that."

Sighing, he absently tapped a finger against his cup to quickly reheat his cooling drinking before taking a deep gulp of it. Ah, coffee. If there was one invention that truly earned mankind all of its various blessings, it was coffee. He really hoped that whatever bright spark of a mortal that came up with idea of roasting the beans was getting his just and fair reward in whatever afterlife he ended up in for that stroke of brilliance. Just as much as he hoped that whatever twisted heathen thought defiling perfectly good coffee with cream to 'add flavour' was getting his own well-deserved deserts.

"Haaaaa…." heaving out another sigh, he couldn't help but complain aloud. "Seriously, why the fuck do I have to deal with this kind of shit? I just wanna tinker with Sacred Gears; why is everyone and their mother trying to stir up some new and insane crap at every opportunity!?"

"Welcome to politics, Az-chan." Serafall offered him a sickly-sweet smile. "This just parr for the course with running one of the Three Christian Factions."

"Easy for you to say." Azazel grumbled tiredly. "You and your old friends at least get to split the work between the four of you."

"…Okay, yeah. That's fair." the Maō Leviathan conceded unapologetically.

It wasn't much later that Azazel made his way back to the Grigori HQ, for once in no mood to browse for interesting sights and ideas in Akihabara. Slumping into his seat behind his desk, he quickly ran the waiting Shemhazai through a full debrief of what had happened as he tried to fight off the headaches that were clearing on the horizon.

"Unbelievable." the Vice-Governor stated as he shook his head. "I am honestly rather astounded at the amount of…restraint…that this Sacred Gear Holder demonstrated. It is nothing short of a miracle that we only lost five Exorcists and our claim on the Holy Maiden in this entire debacle. Oh, and Dohnaseek as well I suppose."

"Shemhazai, he might have been an idiot but he was still a fellow member of the Grigori." Azazel reminded his old comrade, his voice muffled from where his face was still firmly planted on the desk's surface.

"He was a battle-crazy moron with no sense of restraint and an ego far too big for him to carry. It was only a matter of time before he bit off more than he could chew and ended paying for it. The only reason he got as far as he did is because he wasn't afraid to sell himself to his female superiors to get ahead." Shemhazai responded with a scoff. "The number of messes that that young fool caused beggars all belief. If he was his usual charming self, I am honestly not surprised that the [Gaia Gamer's Gear] Holder had no other recourse but to eliminate him. That brat would have kept fighting a Cadre and still believed he had a chance to win."

"Fine." the Governor-General grunted as he pushed the subject aside, forcing himself to sit up again. "Have a formal declaration releasing our claim on Asia Argento written up and sent to the Devils before the end of the day. I'll also add a formal letter of apology to her as well, considering it was our own subordinates' fuck up that seems to have started this mess. While you're doing that, I need to start taking a full inventory of the vaults. If Kokabiel already managed to sneak out one of the Sacred Gear Extractors, then who knows what else he might have gotten his hands on."

"Anything you're particularly worried about?" Shemhazai asked, hitching a single eyebrow.

"I kept some of my earlier prototypes for Artificial Sacred Gears in those vaults; the ones I discarded because they were too unstable but wanted to try refurbishing once I got more data on Father's creations." Azazel answered grimly. "If that warmongering imbecile decided to hand those out to his subordinates, then things could go very bad, very quickly."

His right-hand man quickly nodded. Shemhazai clearly remembered several of Azazel's earlier works that he had discarded as 'too unstable' to be used. He'd utterly refused the idea of simply destroying or disposing of them, convinced that his research would eventually reach a point that he could make them safe to use. Shemhazai was still fairly certain that that had simply been his leader's Pride talking rather than any real hope, but hadn't argued. If Kokabiel had stolen those as well, then things would definitely be coming to a head far more swiftly than any of them would have anticipated.

"Oh, and once Kalawarner, Mittelt, and Raynare get sent back, document and heal any injuries that they have before isolating all three of them." the Governor-General added grimly. "I want to debrief them all personally. This situation has turned into an utter and complete clusterfuck and I want to know just how things managed to get to this point."

"By your command, Lord Azazel." Shemhazai acquiesced with a bow. It was frighteningly rare for Azazel to take something this seriously, but when he did the Vice-Governor of Grigori once more saw the leader who had managed to rally together the scattered and fractious Fallen into a cohesive army during the Great War of the Biblical Factions.

"Now, it's time I take a good, long, hard look at those vaults…" Azazel stated heavily, standing up. "And if anything turns up missing…then it might just be time for another Watcher to vanish into the dark…"

With those chilling words, Azazel left the room, leaving Shemhazai behind for a moment as he tried to recover his composure.

Later That Day

Gaol, The Dungeon of the Gamer, Kuō Town, Japan

Issei had just had one hell of a day at school. As he'd expected, Asia had transferred into the school, looking far happier and healthier than he'd left her, which had made him happy in return.

What he'd neglected to take into account was the possibility that she would end up being transferred into his class, but that actually wasn't much of a surprise after he took a moment to consider it. A couple of classmates had to withdraw earlier in the year (one due to an unspecified family emergency, another due to their parents' work) so it was only natural that any new transfers would be added to their class. Another failing of his was failing to consider just how fond of hugging him Asia had gotten since he'd revealed his dual identity to her; which had therefore caused Matsuda and Motohama to practically start crying tears of blood when she'd suddenly glomped him the moment she saw him in class.

Boy, those two were rapidly becoming annoyances. They'd tried to double-punch him right in the balls at lunch for 'not only getting with Kiryū like a normie, but managing to score with the foreign hottie transfer student as well!' in a fit of petty jealousy. Assholes. Fortunately, he was now fast enough to easily dodge the blows with a near-contemptuous ease before delivering a pair of light blows atop their hollow skulls with [Non-Lethal Takedown Mode] activated.

Why was he friends with those idiots again?

Reintroducing Asia to Kiryū, Katase, and Murayama had been fairly easy since he had taken to eating lunch on the roof with his girlfriend, and the two Kendo Club girls had 'chaperoned' them to 'make sure the pervert doesn't try anything funny.' The fact that everyone else in the student body so readily accepted that honestly annoyed Issei more than a bit. Yes, he was a pervert, yes he was a (former) peeper, but he had never been a molester or anything like that!

He had standards! Naughtiness was only sexy when it was consensual, goddammit!

Anyway, aside from watching Kiryū, Murayama, and Katase hugging and chatting with the newly Reincarnated Devil, lunch and the rest of the school day had actually been fairly dull. After school however, he'd sensed the presence of someone following him. A quick, subtle look around had revealed that his stalker was none other than Tōjō Koneko. Evidently, Gremory-sempai had been keeping a close eye on Asia, likely because the former nun literally couldn't tell her anything about the 'Masked Mercenary' thanks to the [Confidentiality Contract] that had Issei had bough from the [Gamer's Store] and Asia had happily signed before she'd left. It prevented her from willingly telling anyone about anything to do with the 'Masked Mercenary' and his base that the questioner didn't already know, regardless of how trickily the questioner phrased their wording.

He had also looked up a [Geas Scroll] but had rapidly noped that idea into a fire when he saw just what would happen to Asia if someone managed to trick the answers out of her while she was under it. So, while there was a slight risk of Asia being tricked into saying something with the [Confidentiality Contract] in place, it was a risk that Issei was willing to take rather than allowing Asia to risk herself to keep his secret.

Anyway, he'd just gone home as normal, had dinner with his parents, done his homework, then gone to his room and drawn the curtains closed as if he was preparing for bed before he set up his decoy and used a talisman to teleport himself to his [Dungeon Core]. Thankfully, he'd known that he was likely going to get some degree of surveillance on him after Asia joined the Devil's side, so he'd used some of his accumulated funds to purchase warding talismans for his room that should block anyone from perceiving magic being used inside its perimeter. Well…anything below a certain threshold, at least.

Now he was armoured up in his combat outfit and gazing at the three captive Fallen in his dungeon's prison room. He was also currently having a bit of trouble believing the sight he was witnessing.

"Alright." he finally offered. "Could one of you please tell me how and why Kalawarner is currently trussed up in a gimp suit and hanging from the ceiling?"

That was indeed what he was seeing; the blue-haired and buxom Fallen that was in dire need of both a popped ego and a full personality transplant was currently wearing a full-body latex bodysuit that clung deliciously to her every curve like a second skin. She was also trussed up in a hog-tie position, her arms crossed behind her back, her legs bound to her arms, her entire body hanging suspended from the ceiling of the prison, and a black face mask completely covering her face. Judging by the utter lack of sound coming from her despite the rather frantic and obvious writhing she was performing, the mask either had an inbuilt gag or some kind of sound-suppressing enchantment.

Raynare and Mittelt were both dressed in their normal outfits, fully repaired thanks to minor display of generosity on his part. They were also both chained to the wall via manacles with chains long enough to allow them to easily stand, sit, or shift around a bit but little else. Kalawarner should have been bound with the same rather than…this.

"She started to lose her shit within a couple of hours of you beating us and sending us here." Mittelt answered, sounding far less confident than she had earlier, likely because the prison was suppressing all forms of racial supernatural abilities, from the various powers granted by Devil Bloodlines to the innate Light Control and Iron Skin of the Angelic races. Right now, she was no more dangerous than a normal human girl of her own body size and build, which was likely a very disconcerting situation for the Fallen. "She started punching at the walls, trying to rip out her chains, screaming at us, and just acting like an utter nutcase. After a few minutes of that…this happened."

"Ah, so this is what happens when my dungeon prevents someone from damaging themselves." Issei nodded in understanding. One thing that he'd noted about his 'gaol' was that no harm was permitted to come to those trapped within it, either from a fellow prisoner or even from themselves. He honestly hadn't expected 'prevent self-harm' would result in turning a prisoner into an expy out of some H-game like this though!

"So, our jailer finally appears before us." Raynare drawled out, folding her arms slightly with a rattle of the chains that were linked to her manacles. "To what do we owe this honour?"

"Just wanted to let you know that you should be heading back to Grigori HQ by this time tomorrow." Issei replied, making the dark-haired Fallen jerk in obvious surprise. "My conditions for the release of the three of you were have already been passed on to Azazel and they are so laughably simple that he'd be an utter fool to refuse them. I expect a positive reply soon enough, and when that happens, I will be teleporting all three of you directly to Grigori's front door."

"What?" Raynare blinked slowly in stupefied surprise. "That's it? You're just letting us leave without doing anything to us?"

"What do you mean?" the Gamer blinked behind his masked helm.

"Normally a captured female Fallen, particularly one whose captor has somehow managed to disempower her, would be concerned about being…ravished." Mittelt offered delicately. "At least by the more unscrupulous members of the supernatural world."

It didn't take him long to connect the dots and Issei barely managed to avoid physically recoiling from the very idea. "That is so wrong that I utterly fail to have words to describe it." he stated in blunt disgust.

"Are we that repulsive to you?" the taller Fallen snapped back harshly at the perceived insult.

"What? No, but consent is the heart and soul of sexy!" Issei retorted passionately, making the two Fallen give him rather odd looks. "All three of you are undeniably gorgeous in one way or another, make no mistake about that, but I personally find absolutely nothing remotely attractive about the idea of raping a woman."

That was the utter and complete truth of the matter. Even before he'd awoken his Sacred Gears, Issei had religiously avoided any H-games that centred on rape and the like; most of his preferred H-games were actually of the Dating Sim subtype. Sure, he like to leer and peep, oppai were a gift to the world and deserved to be properly appreciated, but even then, he made sure that he only did so to people who could protest if they disliked it and he had never once tried to do anything else.

"…you're a very weird guy, has anyone ever told you that?" Mittelt offered after a moment of confused staring. "You have three nubile, female Fallen in your clutches, disempowered and utterly helpless before you, and you have absolutely no interest in taking advantage of us? Most mercs would be openly slavering at the mere opportunity."

"Then I am quite glad that I am not like most mercs then." the Sekiryūtei responded blandly with a shrug. "Now before I leave the three of you for the night, I have a single question that I require an answer to: Why the hell was there a Grigori Sacred Gear Extractor set up in your base under the church?"

"Eh?" the younger Fallen simply tilted her head to one side in confusion. "A what now?"

Raynare's reaction was far more dramatic, her eyes instantly widening. "There shouldn't have been!" she exclaimed. "Lord Azazel ordered that all of those obsolete pieces of junk be sealed up in the Grigori's vaults after the Great War of the Three Biblical Factions was officially ended. Lord Azazel hates those things; he'd sooner rip off one of his own wings than see one of them put back into active use! It certainly wasn't there when my Flock and I left the church to come here! Unless…"

She turned and glared at Kalawarner. "She said something about extracting your Sacred Gear from you yesterday. At the time I thought she was just venting, but she could have known something about it! Damn you, you Father-be-cursed brainless bimbo! What the fuck did you do?! If you've betrayed Lord Azazel, I swear that you'll not live to regret it!"

The bound and gagged Fallen started struggling harder.

"Well, it looks like someone decided to go around Azazel's back and bring one out of retirement. Likely Kokabiel." Issei responded blandly, noting the fact that Kalawarner likely did have something to do with it. "Armârôs the Lesser was a member of Kokabiel's Faction of Grigori as well, you know. It looks like he's trying to move a lot of pieces around the board these days, in a particularly flashy manner to boot. IF he doesn't start an all-out civil war within the Grigori or just strike out on his own with the majority of his Faction soon, I will be quite surprised. Please pass on a message to Azazel for me when you eventually see him; tell him that his mad dog either needs to be collared or put down before it turns on him or starts another war."

Feeling that his message had been sent and he'd gotten the answers that he needed, Issei turned and left the prison; his doorway disappearing behind him as he left and leaving the three Fallen just as they had been before he had arrived.

Walking back to the Core Room, Issei sat himself down in the throne that held his Dungeon's Core and settled in to start a long series of upgrades and improvements for his dungeon. If any good had come from the Fallen's attempted invasion, it was that it had showed off a number of the biggest weaknesses of his dungeon's current layout and monsters.

Now it to get started correcting some of them.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

Next Chapter: Upgrades, Spells and Dungeoneering

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII