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TAMCG Chapter 34: Irrationality
🕑 Added 2024-08-26 06:32:50 +0000 UTCRyuichi P.O.V
"I'm going to ask you to stop right there." I said, standing in front of the angry redhead who was looking at the scared blonde behind me.
"Get out of the way." She said, and to be honest, I was more than a little intimidated, her eyes were vacant, and she seemed ready to... I don't know, do whatever demons did to those they didn't like.
"She didn't do anything, if you really care as much about Issei as you seem to want to show, you won't hurt her, it wasn't much, but the short time I saw them he seemed very worried about her, how do you think he would react if he found out that you hurt her?" I said, and although I had had a rough start with demons, at this point I didn't consider them enemies or believe they were evil, at least the ones I knew, and preferred to maintain a cordial relationship with them.
Rias looked at me menacingly, and for a second, I thought I would be sent flying, whether it was her who would do it or one of those who made up her group, who were watching me from behind her, was another enigma, one that I preferred not to solve.
Luckily, my words seemed to make her see reason, and she inhaled sharply before looking the nun in the eyes again before speaking again, although her tone was still harsh, this time it was not cold or threatening, but rather dominant, like that of a sergeant giving an order to a subordinate.
"Tell me what happened, everything." She said, and even though she was now speaking in Italian, I was able to understand her thanks to the spell I asked to be used on me before this conversation started.
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Ryuichi P.O.V
"So everything is clear now?" I asked after Asia finished telling them everything that had happened.
Rias just glanced for a second at me before turning to her peerage and speaking. "Let's go, we have a church and a group of fallen people to destroy." She said with a serious tone.
And from the looks that everyone in her group had, I could understand that everyone was more than in agreement and willing to fulfill that task.
"And you." She said, turning to look at Asia. "You are coming with us"
"Wait, are you listening to what you're saying? She already said that the only thing she can do is heal, and yet you are going to take her to what will be a battlefield?"
"Yes." She said before looking at me, and it was clear that she was being serious about it. "I'm going to be clear, I don't trust her, that she ran into Issei when he was doing a job, and that she did it now doesn't seem like a coincidence in the slightest, but I'm willing to give her the benefit of the doubt, if she helps us with any injuries we get during this fight and Issei confirms what she says then we will all be in peace"
"Still, this doesn't seem like-" I was saying when the little blonde spoke.
"I will go!" She said, and when everyone's gazes turned to her she cringed a little, but she still continued talking. "Issei-san was always kind to me, he even offered to help me when I had nothing to repay him with, I want to repay all that kindness even if it's dangerous, please let me help him." She finished saying before bowing to Rias.
Well, there went any argument I could have made, if she said something like that and was willing to go I would be the bad guy if I stopped her, but still... I didn't understand why, this, this whole situation, felt so... wrong, so mistaken.
I had no idea why that was the case, and the idea that came to my mind felt stupid viewed from so many different points that I almost thought someone had been messing with my mind somehow.
"I will go too." I finished saying.
Rias looked at me with a surprised expression. "Why?" She asked after a few seconds.
That was a good question, one I had no real answer to, so I was left to make up a reason.
"That doesn't matter, right? Also, I told Issei that I owed him a favor, so I will take advantage of this situation, and when everything is over I will be able to say that I no longer owe him anything." I finished explaining, and the looks that all the demons gave me made it clear that my answer did not convince them.
"Anyway, I'm going to go change, I'll be back in a couple of minutes." I said, turning around, and leaving the roof of my building towards my apartment with a single thought.
'Why am I doing this?'
######
Ryuichi P.O.V
"The 4 are inside the church." I said before looking at the demons and the nun behind me. "But there is something strange." I warned when I saw that they were about to advance. "The energies of the 4 are considerably weaker than they were the last time I felt them, in addition to that there are 2 others that are stronger than the first 4 were before"
Rias's gaze narrowed. "And Issei?"
"He is also in there, his energy is calm, perhaps he is still unconscious"
"And the exorcists?" The blonde swordsman, Kiba Yuuto, asked this time.
"I can sense several inside the church, about 70% of them, the rest are patrolling the surroundings." I responded, and he nodded.
"Come on Akeno." She said the redhead before standing up and walking without hesitation forward along with the ponytailed girl she had called. "We will draw attention to the front so that you can sneak behind, find Issei, and leave the church with him as quickly as possible, when you do, let us know, and after that, we will retreat." She said securing an earpiece to her ear.
"Understood." Kiba said touching the receiver to his ear before we walked away to go around the church and enter another place.
As we walked away I saw red energy forming in Rias's hand and some lightning crackling down Akeno's arm.
"What's that?" I asked without stopping.
"Rias-sama and Akeno-san's specialties, one is very good at lightning magic, and the other can use the power of destruction." Kiba explained.
"Power of destruction?" I asked, I didn't like the sound of that, especially since the name reminded me of a certain purple cat, the redhead's power couldn't be like the power of a Hakaishin, right? I wasn't getting involved in the affairs of people capable of erasing me from existence, right?
An explosion was heard where Rias and Akeno were, making Kiba not answer my question, and when I was about to ask once again, I looked ahead and saw how several of the so-called exorcists were running in the direction of all the commotion.
"That was everyone?" Kiba asked when the last one passed a few meters from us, on the other side of the bush where we had been.
I concentrated for a moment before nodding. "All the guards that were outside the church are heading towards the 2 of them, plus the 4 weakest fallen are still in the church, the 2 strongest have just met Rias and Akeno, but the guards inside, a portion of them haven't moved from their position." I explained, and he nodded before we all continued moving forward.
######
Third Person P.O.V
Reynare was in a state of anticipation, excitement, and nervousness, sweat fell from her forehead like that of her group, everyone had had to give some of their energy to speed up the ritual at least a little.
It was fortunate that the Sacred Gears' extraction artifact had been accumulating energy for a while before this mission was assigned to them, because if not, with the horrible energy conversion rate that this thing has, she could tell that she and the others would be drier than an old raisin before they could get the device to charge even a significant portion of what it needed.
And that was a problem because by doing that they would be exposed to any attack by the demons to try to recover this valuable object, that was precisely the reason why she had to ask for some support in the form of 2 fallen angels with 4 wings that she knew they owed her a favor and were relatively close to protect them until everything was done.
Obviously, she didn't tell them what Sacred Gear they were trying to get, she wasn't stupid enough to do it, after all, no matter how many favors they owed her, they would turn her and her group into light spear pincushions before trying to kill each other if it meant that one of them would get something like the Boosted Gear.
But they didn't deserve it, she had done the job, she had intercepted this demon when he was still human, it was her luck, not theirs, and that was why she was the one who deserved to obtain this power.
She could already imagine it, a red-armored, black-winged empress, and the amount of attention Azazel had given that white-haired brat now directed at her.
"It's ready." Kalawarner's voice rang out, and Reynare couldn't help but smile as her eyes shone with anticipation.
And just at that moment, an explosion sounded in the distance, drawing the attention of the four fallen.
"Now what?" Donaseth growled clearly fed up with all this and taking deep breaths in an attempt to catch his breath.
"Surely it's the demons that come looking for him." Reynare said pointing to the unconscious Issei that he was tied to the cross.
"And what do we do? We don't have much energy left, so we won't be able to fight." Mitelt asked.
"The cross has enough energy, I will activate it now, it will only take 10 minutes to concentrate the collected energy to break the connection between the Sacred Gear and the brat's soul, I have to stand still here to guide the process, but after that I will take it and we will go for Arasnel and Krugas to get out of this place." She said before looking at a man standing in the doorway of the room they were in. "Hey, Zelsen, go and kill anyone who gets close"
The man who was staring at the door with a manic expression began to laugh. "Hahahaha, oh yeah, I can finally get some action with those fucking demons, you said 10 minutes, right? That's enough for me to fill one with holes and cut another into pieces, I'm going to have so much fun!!" He shouted grabbing a gun from his belt in one hand and a lightsaber in the other before opening the door and running out.
"What a nasty guy." Mitelt said.
"He can be used, and at this moment, that is all that matters, once the 10 minutes are up it doesn't matter if they kill him or he is alive, he will serve as a distraction to our escape." Reynare responded before activating the Sacred Gears extractor.
######
Third Person P.O.V
"This will be the first and only chance I will give you, give up and get out of my way." Rias said looking at the two fallen angels in front of her.
The first one, one with short blonde hair raised an eyebrow while the other one, one with magenta hair started to laugh. "Haha, a spoiled brat huh? Perfect!!! That's how I like them, I will have fun when you're begging for mercy!" He shouted throwing a spear of violet light towards the redhead.
Rias did not move, and before the spear touched her, it was intercepted by a bolt of lightning, the clash lasting a couple of seconds before both attacks were canceled.
"Ara ara, it seems like this is a feisty one, it's no problem if I punish him a little, right Rias?" Akeno, dressed in a miko outfit, stepped forward.
"Do as you like, but don't delay, the sooner they are eliminated, the sooner we can catch up with the rest and go after Issei." She said without taking her eyes off the fallen blonde of hers.
"Understand." The black-haired girl replied before moving forward. "Now, your friends hurt my kouhai, so I'm a little upset, I would have liked to give you an exemplary lesson, but since we're in a hurry I'm going to ask you not to resist, and maybe it will hurt a little less." She said, pointing her finger at the fallen magenta-haired angel, then a bolt of lightning shot out.
The fallen one dodged the beam and frowned at Akeno. "Meddling women aren't popular, you know?!" He shouted in annoyance before launching a pair of light spears.
"Ara, you must not know many women, because we are all nosy when a creep tries to flirt with a friend." The girl in the miko suit responded as a barrier materialized before her, effectively blocking both attacks, although some cracks appeared after blocking the blows.
"You are a member of the Gremory family, right?" The fallen blonde asked, ignoring the fight that was taking place a few meters away from him.
"Oh? Are you going to give up if I say yes?"
"I'm just wondering what trouble Reynare got into this time to piss off someone like you, it must be something very important if you seem so desperate to avoid it, and it has to do with this so-called kouhai, right?" He asked her as he brought his palms together cracking his knuckles.
"I don't have the time, the desire, or the patience to talk about any topic with you." Rias looked at him with cold eyes as a red aura covered her.
"It doesn't matter, I have a slight idea, but to check it first I will have to exterminate you, after all, it seems that they also sent some intruders from behind to surround the church, right?" He asked as a small smile made its way onto his expression.
"Those are your last words?!" Rias shouted, sending a cluster of power of destruction to the blonde, she disliked him, not only because he was part of those who had hurt her precious pawn, but also because this fallen man reminded her of the man she disliked the most, that smug smile, those eyes that seemed to look at everything as if they looked down on it, Rias wanted to send this enemy into oblivion.
The fallen blonde's fists were covered with a golden light, and he threw a punch at the sphere of destruction that was coming towards him, as soon as they made contact, the glow that covered his fist flickered and dimmed, but the sphere of destruction was returned to Rias, who opened her eyes a little in surprise, but quickly regained her calm, waving her hand and sending another sphere of destruction that consumed the first one before disappearing.
######
Third Person P.O.V
As everyone advanced they found a window that connected to one side of the church after a few minutes, so without hesitation, Kiba destroyed the glass in the most silent way possible using a sword.
But unfortunately, whether it was because Asia stepped on a glass or simply bad luck, shortly after 2 guards saw them, and while they drew what looked like an imitation of the Star Wars lightsabers, they shouted the word intruders repeatedly.
That led to the situation they were in now, with 15 guards with those same swords surrounding them all.
"Danm it." Ryuichi growled in a low voice, he had seen situations like this several times in animes, but experiencing the situation of being surrounded by enemies who outnumbered you 5 to 1, because he refused to count the trembling nun next to him as a combatant, was very intimidating, especially because each of the exorcists had a weapon that he was sure would cause a fatal wound if they managed to hit him squarely.
"Koneko-chan, I will take the 6 on the right, please take care of the 6 on your side, Kaname-san, you will have to deal with the remaining 3 and protect Asia-san." Kiba said, the small girl behind Ryuichi nodded, and before he responded, they both jumped to intercept the exorcists who ran towards them.
"Fu-!" He cursed, jumping back, rolling, and managing to evade a horizontal slash aimed at his face.
"Hya!!!" He heard a feminine scream next to her and saw how, a couple of meters from where she was, Asia was covering her head while the exorcist swung at her.
"!!!!" His pupils dilated, and his mind raced at super speed, he had to do something or that sword was going to pierce the nun's head, he couldn't reach her before the blow hit him, so his hand moved and picked up a piece of debris that was on the ground before throwing it towards the attacker.
The object flew quickly, hitting the exorcist's hand, causing him to drop the sword and preventing Asia from dying.
"Uf." He exhaled in relief, but his expression turned to one of alarm as he felt cold run down his back and jumped to the side.
"Urgh." A growl escaped his mouth as he received a lightsaber slash across his arm.
Without a rest, Ryuichi had to move again when the exorcist who had attacked Asia now attacked him along with the first one he had managed to dodge, and the second one who managed to cut him on the arm.
Ryuichi's nervousness grew even more seeing 3 guys throwing themselves at him with swords in their hands. "To hell with this!" He screamed, raising his hands to his face. "Taiyoken!!"
The technique took effect as soon as the first sound left Ryuichi's mouth, and a glow of light originated inside the church.
"My eyes!!" The 3 exorcists screamed, dropping their weapons and falling to their knees on the ground while holding their faces.
"Go to sleep." Ryuichi ran at full speed, reinforcing his body with ki and hitting the 3 enemies in the head with enough force to knock them unconscious.
"Mm." The boy gritted his teeth holding his injured arm as he looked behind him noticing how Koneko threw a bench at the last of her opponents, knocking him out, and Kiba slashed the chest of another, sending him to the ground while a considerable amount of red liquid fell from his wound.
Ryuichi looked away without wanting to see anything of this scene, he understood that this situation was incredibly serious and that these exorcists tried to kill them, so he wouldn't be an idiot and demand that they not be killed, but that didn't mean that he liked seeing them die or think about doing that.
Until recently he was a normal teenager, and even with everything that had happened to him in this relatively short period, he didn't like the idea of murdering someone.
And taking as an example the situation he was in now, he knew that sooner or later he would have to do it, but even so, the idea did not excite him in the least, after all, any human raised in modern society who was excited by the idea to kill or that could stay indifferent after his first murder would clearly have more than one screw loose.
"Are you ok?" He asked Asia approaching where she was standing.
"Ah, you're hurt!" Without answering the question, the blonde nun got up, and seeing that there were no enemies and that Ryuichi's arm was bleeding, she quickly approached to put her hands near the wound, her hands glowed green, and he could see how the wound closed quickly.
'I know I shouldn't be surprised, but it's much faster than my self-healing with ki.' He noticed, and when she finished, she took a step back.
"You are better?" She asked looking at the other 2, probably trying to figure out if any of them were hurt.
"Yes, thanks." He responded and noticed how Asia looked at the deceased with a look of pity and resignation before looking away.
For his part, Ryuichi looked at Kiba and the white-haired girl, and wondered if has anyone ever told him her name or if she had introduced herself, he didn't remember something like that having happened.
"Are you-!!!" Ryuichi was asking when he saw Kiba move to the side as the sound of 3 explosions reached his ears.
Ryuichi turned his head and saw a gray-haired man dressed as a priest instead of the hooded robes that the other exorcists had, in one hand he held a sword similar to the one those who were now unconscious or dead on the ground had, but the handle seemed a little more ornate and the blade longer, while in the other hand he held a pistol, the firearm pointing at where Kiba was before.
When Ryuichi saw his expression he felt a slight chill, this guy had the biggest, most disgusting smile he had ever seen in his entire life, and he flinched again when the man moved his hand, this time pointing the gun at him.
"Ah, I have so many shooting targets." He chanted before pulling the trigger.
With his body still reinforced with ki, Ryuichi moved as fast as he could, but he still felt how a projectile went through the skin and muscles of his shoulder.
He had heard that when they shot you, the most painful part was always after the shot and came from the fact that a small piece of very hot metal was inside your body.
Ryuichi didn't feel that while he kept moving, he grabbed Asia with his uninjured arm and ran, dragging her until they were behind one of the columns, although as he did, so he could see out of the corner of his eye how the little white-haired girl grabbed one of the church pews with one hand before throwing it towards the crazy man with the gun as easily as if it were made of styrofoam or paper, making the guy stop trying to turn Ryuichi into a sieve and swing his sword to cut the bank.
Only when his back hit the concrete column Ryuichi allowed himself to let go of the blonde and squeeze his injured limb as a pitiful moan escaped between his clenched teeth.
He heard Asia say something, but he couldn't understand what was, Ryuichi was too focused on enduring the pain to pay her attention, although a second later, the pain subsided thanks to the green glow that the girl's hands emitted.
Once he stopped feeling enough pain to allow me to open his eyes, Ryuichi noticed that the blood had stopped coming out, but to clear up any doubt, his hand took the sleeve of the shirt and tore it off suddenly, there he could see that, although there was red liquid along my arm, the wound seemed to have closed.
"Did you close the wound with the bullet still inside?" He asked catching his breath.
"Ah, t-the bullets of the light guns s-are constructions of l-light magic that disappear after passing through the target to spread it in the body of demons or evil beings to damage them from the inside, b-but don't worry, it will do nothing because you are not one." She stammered, clearly nervous about the whole situation they were in.
With the fear of having a bullet inside him dissipated, Ryuichi finally allowed himself to focus on his surroundings, and only then did he hear the sound of metal clashing with metal.
Poking his head out, Ryuichi watched as Kiba clashed swords with the psychopath-looking guy after making him drop his gun to grab his sword with both hands and block a downward slash.
"Come on, come on, you fucking demons!! Let's have fun, we're going to have so much fun that you'll die of excitement if I don't cut you into pieces first!!" He screamed, moving and ending the clash of swords, blocking or dodging Kiba's slashes as more exorcists emerged from what looked like an underground passage near the altar.
"Asia, stay here, if things continue like this, this will never end, Issei's ki feels strange, so I'll try something, don't go out until everything is clear or they could shoot you." He spoke as quickly as possible, and as soon as he noticed that she understood what he said, he started moving.
X-X-X-X
There is not much to say about this chapter, just one thing, please remember the phrase: "I almost thought someone had been messing with my mind somehow"
It will be very important for the future of history.
Even the title of this chapter is related to that phrase.
