Ch.44
I was pacing.
My room. Kuoh. We'd gotten back from the villa two hours ago and Asia was downstairs making tea because Asia made tea when the world was ending and the others were in the ORC clubroom and I was pacing.
The Boosted Gear was gone. I'd dismissed it on the train ride back because a glowing gauntlet on the Kuoh express line would have caused problems. My left hand still tingled where the gem had been. The energy was there, coiled, waiting. Ten seconds.
Akeno was in the clubroom. She'd been healed by the Rating Game's automatic recovery system, her body whole, her bruises gone, and she'd sat on the couch and stared at the wall and hadn't spoken. Kiba was there too. He'd smiled when we walked in and the smile was wrong, too wide, too even. Koneko was curled in the corner chair with her knees up and a box of pocky untouched on the armrest.
Rias was gone. Transported directly to the Underworld after the forfeit. To the Phenex estate. To the engagement party that was already underway. To a dress and a ceremony and a man who regrew his arms for fun.
I paced. The floor of my room was six steps across. Six steps back. My fists were in my pockets and my jaw was tight and the plan was simple and the plan was stupid and I was going to do it anyway.
A silver magic circle appeared on my floor.
The light was cold and precise, nothing like the warm red of Rias's Gremory circles or the green of the Boosted Gear. Silver-white. The Lucifer seal. It hummed for a second, then a figure stepped through and the circle faded behind her.
Grayfia Lucifuge.
Maid uniform. She'd chosen the attendant's outfit over combat attire or formal dress. Her silver hair was pulled back. Her posture was perfect. Her face was a mask of professional neutrality.
She was carrying a folded piece of paper.
"Hyoudou Issei," she said. Her voice was level. She looked at my room, the unmade futon, the pacing tracks I'd worn into the floor, the open window. If she had opinions about any of it, her face didn't show them.
"Grayfia."
She walked to my desk. Set the paper down. Unfolded it. Inside was a magic circle drawn in precise lines, the ink dark and fresh. I didn't recognize the specific seal but I recognized the style. Transport circle. Point-to-point.
"This circle leads to the Phenex-Gremory engagement reception hall," she said. "It will activate with demonic energy or, in your case, dragon energy channeled through the Boosted Gear."
I looked at the paper. At her. At the paper.
"Who sent you?"
"I am here in my capacity as Rias Gremory's household attendant." Her voice was perfectly even. "In that capacity, I was made aware that a concerned party wished to ensure that all relevant individuals had the option to attend the engagement reception."
"A concerned party."
"Someone believes you should have the option."
Her fingers were still on the edge of the paper. She hadn't pulled them away. The paper sat between her hand and mine on the desk. I reached for it.
Her fingers brushed mine.
Brief. Light. Her fingertips against the back of my hand as I took the paper. She didn't pull away instantly. One second. Her eyes met mine. Red meeting brown. Her face didn't change. Her composure didn't crack. But in that second, the maid performance dropped and the woman underneath looked at me and her eyes were steady and certain.
She was betting on me.
The contact ended. Her hand withdrew. She straightened.
I held the transport circle. The paper was heavy, the ink precise.
"Asia," I called toward the hallway.
Footsteps. Asia appeared in my doorway. She was holding two mugs of tea. She saw Grayfia and her eyes went wide and she started to bow and the tea sloshed.
"Leave the tea," I said.
She set both mugs on the hallway floor. Walked in. Looked at the paper in my hand. Looked at Grayfia. Looked at me.
"You're going," she said. Not a question.
"Tonight."
She nodded. She left the room. Came back fifteen seconds later.
She was holding a small glass vial and a cross necklace. The vial was old, the glass clouded, the holy water inside catching the lamplight. The cross was tarnished silver on a thin chain. Both were from her convent in Italy. Both hurt her to touch. She was holding them in her bare hands and her fingers were red where the holy items burned her Devil skin and she held them out to me without flinching.
"I knew you'd need them," she said. Her voice trembled. Her hands were steady.
I took them from her. Her fingers were raw where the cross had touched. I pocketed the vial and the necklace and I hugged her. Quick. Tight. Her arms went around my waist and she pressed her face into my chest for two seconds and then she stepped back and her eyes were wet but her chin was up.
I turned to Grayfia. She hadn't moved. Her composure was back. The maid mask seamless.
"When I get there," I said. "Will Sirzechs support me?"
Her face changed.
I'd been watching people my whole life, in this body and the one before it, and I saw it. The faintest relaxation at the corner of her mouth. The micro-shift in her jaw.
"I am not at liberty to confirm that," she said.
Confirmation.
I looked at the transport circle in my hand. The ink was dark. The seal was precise. On the other side of this piece of paper was a ballroom full of the most powerful Devils in the Underworld, a man who couldn't die, and Rias.
"Asia."
"Yes."
"Stay here. Heal the others. They need you more than I do right now."
Her mouth opened. The protest was there, her chin coming up, the determined line forming. Then she looked at Grayfia. At the transport circle. At me. She swallowed the protest.
"Come back," she said.
"I will."
"Promise."
"I promise."
She looked at me. Green eyes. Wet. Chin up. She stepped back.
I set the transport circle on the floor. The paper lay flat, the ink seal dark against the wood. I put my left hand over it. The Boosted Gear manifested, the gauntlet forming on my arm, the green gem blazing. Dragon energy pulsed from the gem into the circle and the lines lit up, green-white, and the room hummed.
"Partner." Ddraig's voice. Steady. "Ten seconds. That's what we have."
"That's what we have."
Grayfia stepped back. Asia stepped back. The circle blazed. The light filled the room. The floor opened under me and the green swallowed everything.
I fell through.