It's been two weeks since Amano fought Riser, and to say that things went back to normal was slightly true. Summonings, flyers, executing stray Devils, and much more miscellaneous tasks came across their schedule.
The use of slightly, is in the tense of a sudden arrival on school grounds in the current day.
"They did a great job cleaning the place. Feels like we're getting a fresh start." Rias complimented, sitting on the couch and eyeing the sparkling floor.
Amano had just arrived with Asia, and noticed the lack of the Prince of Kuoh, making him confused.
"Where's Kiba?" He questioned.
"Seems he took the entire day off. He's been acting strange lately. Not sure what happened after that recent stray we killed." Koneko answered.
"I hope he's okay." Asia said with a frown.
Amano thought back to the stray Devil from two nights ago, where Kiba seemed incredibly distracted compared to his usual cool, composed self. He almost got killed from it had Amano not saved him.
"Fantastic. Everyone's here." Akeno said as she arrived.
"What made you late, Akeno?" Rias asked with concern.
"Well, I brought some guests, and was helping them get here." Akeno said with a smile, Sona and Tsubaki entering after her.
"Thank you for having us." Sona greeted. "They said they had something urgent to discuss with you." Akeno exclaimed.
"Rias, would you mind coming with me to my house right away, please." Sona requested. "This isn't something you're going to want to discuss in front of a lot of people, trust me."
"You make it sound dire." Rias commented, standing up from the couch.
"It is. Very dire." Sona replied.
•
Amano was walking home, having recently parted with Asia and Koneko since the President canceled club for such an intense meeting.
Amano was busy racking his brain to sleuth as to why things were getting so ominous as of late.
Kiba was more distant than the Western Hemisphere, and now Sona called Rias away for something that even the club couldn't hear about.
"This could use a nap—"
Amano felt the intense presence of two Holy beings, and suddenly froze as a footstep came from behind him.
It wasn't close, but it was obvious they had began approaching him.
Amano slowly turned around and saw two white cloaks standing down the street, stopped after seeing him acknowledge the two.
Amano summoned his swords, and a noticeable difference was an icy gem in the bottom of the handles
The two cloaked figures saw this as challenge, and were about unravel their own swords slung across their back, but they grew shocked when Amano suddenly turned away.
He used his swords to scratch his back, and began walking away again.
'What the...?' The two wondered, not sure if he had even seen them or not.
But it did confirm he was a supernatural being, the way he summoned swords from thin air.
"We have confirmed that your childhood friend is no longer here. What shall you do?" A woman with a mature voice asked.
"Oh, how tragic! I never thought he would move too!" A more dramatic voice whined. "Well... I guess that leaves only business."
~•~
Amano walked into the club room with a yawn, almost missing the usual time since he took a nap in his last class.
He suddenly froze when he saw the same two cloaks in the club room, sitting across from Rias on the couches, while the others— excluding Kiba, stood behind her.
"Thank you for having us. My name is Xenovia." A woman with short blue hair and a dyed green fringe on the right side. "And I'm Irina Shidou." The girl with brown twin tails greeted.
"It's fascinating. Followers of God, meeting with Devils." Rias mused, motioning Amano to come over.
"It does seem random, but here's the thing," Irina began. "There's six Holy Swords of Excalibur we can account for. Three are still with the church, but we happen to know that the other three were stolen by Fallen Angels."
Amano was about to stand behind Rias' couch, but she grabbed his wrist and pulled him to her side, making him sit.
"These are of what we have left," Xenovia said, gesturing to her wrapped sword, the cloth around it in tatters. "This is mine. It's called the Sword of Destruction."
"And this one is mine!" Irina exclaimed, though she pointed to a ribbon around her bicep. "It's the Holy Sword of Mimicry. It's Excalibur Mimic."
"Then might I ask what you'd like for us to do for you?" Rias asked.
"Stay completely out of it. This is between the Church and Fallen Angles. We would like if the Devils in this town didn't intervene." Xenovia requested.
"You have my word, as the next heir to the House of Gremory." Rias replied, more than happy with staying out of it.
"I see. I didn't expect it to be that easy. They warned us of the Dog of Gremory's vile nature in being told what to do." Xenovia said with a smile.
"Excuse—" Amano was cut off by Asia, Koneko, Akeno, and Rias covering his face and mouth.
"We won't take up anymore of your time." Xenovia continued, standing up.
She and Irina were about to take their leave, but as they neared the door, Xenovia leered back and at Asia.
"You... You're Asia Argento, correct?" She asked, making Amano glare. Asia meekly nodded, "Yes."
"I see... it only makes sense I'd run into a witch in a place like this—"
An abrupt shift in temperature met Xenovia and Irina, who slowly looked down and saw two swords were near their neck.
One, however, wasn't Amano's.
Upon sensing two Excalibur fragments, Kiba had arrived and also brought his blade to Irina's neck.
"Amano! Kiba! Enough!" Rias shouted.
Amano switched to Voltage, just so he could radiate the air that he was ready to throw down, but Kiba reluctantly back away, his sword still aimed at the two.
"Are you two so quick to make enemies of the Church? We'd gladly expect, Devil scum." Xenovia said with a glare.
"Hell yeah." Amano and Kiba agreed, despite Rias' protest.
•
Amano and Kiba stood off against Xenovia and Irina outside of the club room, but under Akeno's barrier.
Xenovia and Irina had tossed aside their cloaks to reveal combat leotards that let for complete circulation of air and flexible movement. Among other things...
Regardless, Amano decided to let the two choose who they'd rather fight, and Irina seemed eager to beat him specifically.
Her reasoning: "You'll be quick." In reference to the speed at which she would defeat him.
Amano knew better than to get frustrated over the comment, seeing as they were indeed wielders of Excalibur Fragments.
"Well, I hope you all will accept that regulations are in place. We will step in the moment any strike or injury seems to dire." Rias announced.
"Let's begin." Xenovia shouted, rushing at Kiba as her sword gleamed with power.
Irina giggled as her ribbon turned into a broadsword, going for the more standard weapon of her imagination.
The two Devils clashed with the Excalibur Holders, the sparks flying almost golden from their attributes.
Amano circled around Irina as she eyed his body, surprisingly able to keep up with superior Devil speed.
Activating Voltage, Amano then sent four afterimages to attack, swiping his swords out. The plasma afterimages were the fruits of his training after unlocking his Balance Breaker during the fight with Riser.
The giant sword of ice wasn't just the cultivation of effort. With the power of eight Pawn pieces, and the boost in power from second hand use of holy attributes, Amano was graced with his Balance Breaker: Absolute Zero.
This didn't refer to temperature either. It was his limits. He released his concurrent full potential upon activation. This was however determined by the wielder of his swords.
This was knowledge only he had figured out.
Others... even Rias, didn't know he had achieved such a state.
The afterimages all flew and slashed at different directions, and Irina parried the first, leading to only be able to block the second. The third and fourth appeared at her sides, making her spin on her heel and turn Excalibur Mimic into a claymore, slashing out and through the afterimages.
Amano was already planted above her, feet on her shoulders from her reckless and heavy slash, his swords aimed down and coated in ice.
Feeling the weight on her, Irina rolled forward, but this was perfect for Amano, who leapt away, flipping upside down and throwing his swords.
They landed on both sides of Irina, and suddenly incased her feet and calves in ice.
"What the—?!" She looked forward and saw a fist nearing her face, making her gasp.
Irregular leaning back, she narrowly dodged the punch, while simultaneously breaking her right leg out with the swing of the claymore.
Using the stable footing, she kneed, Amano in the stomach, before shoving the handle of her sword into his chest, switching from Claymore to Tachi, whereas Amano couldn't escape the horizontal slash from stumbling back.
Amano however, defied this thought as he flipped backwards just high enough for his hair to barely get cut by the slash, sliding back with a pant from the acrobatic feet.
"Wow! You're actually really good! Wait, maybe I shouldn't compliment a Devil... Oh, Lord, please forgive me for gracing a Devil with such positive affirmations." Irina rambled.
Amano stood up and thought about the small bout.
'Holy shit— she is way better than I thought she'd be. They're human, right?' Amano wondered, abruptly jerking his head to the left to dodge a stab aimed at his eye.
Amano began to grin seeing as the abilities he could venture into did however seem to work.
Before he could engage Irina again, he heard a loud crash, and the thud of a tree hitting the ground.
Amano and Irina looked over to see Kiba was against said tree, but before him was uprooted land and dirt from an upward slash by Xenovia, who looked displeased.
"Holy shit!" Amano cursed in disbelief.
Luckily, Kiba wasn't physically harmed by the Excalibur, so he didn't sustain any lasting injury but the pain from crashing into a tree.
Xenovia turned to Amano and slowly began to return to Irina's side.
"Uh oh..." He muttered, the rest of the Occult Research Club gulping as well seeing Kiba out of commission.
Xenovia and Irina grew mischievous smiles as Amano slowly rose his hands, but grew confused as he slowly began to crouch.
"Hope you can handle the heat." Amano smirked.
With a wink, he disappeared, and only a trail of fire was left in his place.
The two's eyes almost burst from their head as they felt intense heat behind them, Amano threw with his arms and swords coated in flames.
The two dove as fast as they could away from the attack, but he caught one leg each for both as he slashed down.
With the sudden switch of attributes, the slash wasn't enhanced by Blaze, but Voltage.
Two Afterimages chased down the two's dive, and slashed them in their sides, sending them sliding back to Occult Research Club.
Amano panted, realizing that his experimenting was draining his Mana quicker than norma. It was the only drawback of his Balance Breaker since it was technically only an increased in your own abilities, not your "stats."
Example: A status buff powering up your skill's damage, and not your attack stat.
Amano knew he only had one attack of the same scale left, but didn't want to reveal it, so he put away his swords, and sighed.
Raising his hands, he announced, "I yield. That's about all I've got in me."
Xenovia and Irina were shocked at the claim, and thought the same thing.
'What do you mean that's all?!'
The two groaned a bit as they stood up, luckily that the rapid change in temperatures and slashed from his swords didn't actually pierce their clothes.
"I see. Well, this was a bountiful battle nonetheless." Xenovia replied. "Yeah! This at least gives us a good idea of who's the biggest threat." Irina agreed.
"Threat?" Amano mumbled.
"Well, if that is all, I'll reinstate that we shall not get involved." Rias interrupted.
Kiba grit his teeth in rage as he roused, seeing that Xenovia and Irina were departing. He slammed his down and trotted away, but Rias quickly stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.
"Where do you think you're going?" Rias asked sternly.
"I have business." Kiba answered.
Rias saw through the obvious lie, "You cannot leave me. I won't permit it. You are a Knight of the House of Gremory."
"I know," Kiba slowly removed her hand from his shoulder. "So I'm sorry." He whispered, before leaving with a purpose.
Rias looked in disbelief, shocked he'd make a decision of the sort with no hesitation.
The others walked up to her, and Amano stayed in place, knowing just what he had to do to rope the Knight back in.
He had to throw himself out.
•
Amano opened the door to his apartment with a yawn, but saw the lights on already, which wasn't normal for him.
Due to his lack of mana and drowsiness, he had only just felt the Holy disturbance of two Excalibur swords placed neatly against the wall before his kitchen.
Amano walked to the door and glanced in, seeing Irina rummaging through his fridge as Xenovia checked cabinets.
"Are you two robbing me?" He asked, making them both scream in shock.
•
"Wow. Two followers of the church taking handouts from a Devil. What has the world come to...?" Amano sarcastically remarked as he took a seat on his couch, beside the feasting Xenovia.
"Shut your," Xenovia paused to take a helping of noodles from her bowl, "mouth. We are extorting you— this is no handout." She declared, making him stifle a laugh.
"Yeah. Extortion." Amano said, letting a chuckle escape.
He would have been much colder to the duo, but seeing them so helpless was pretty funny, so he had to rub it in.
"Hey, question." Amano began.
"What is it?" Irina asked, walking out of the kitchen with a second helping of a microwave meal of mac n' cheese.
"Do you mind if I help you destroy the Excalibur fragments?" Amano asked politely.
Xenovia stopped eating, and Irina stopped walking. The two glanced at each other, and Xenovia cleared her throat as she stood up.
"Would you allow us a moment to discuss?" Xenovia asked.
"Uh... sure. Just don't go into the first room on the left." Amano replied, waving them off.
•
"We shall accept your aid. On one condition." Xenovia requested.
"That is?"
"We shall also be extorting you of your bed... and food, of course... continuously." Xenovia said with a huff, crossing her arms.
"Housing and food. Sure. I've got the room since my Dad's in Korea. You've got a deal." Amano said extending his hand.
Irina swiftly grabbed it and prayed, "Oh, God, please bless this wretched Devil in his uncharacteristic act of kindness—"
"OW OW OW OW!"