Black Pawn's Promotion.

Downward spiral, countdown to chaos

I raced—no, slithered through the terrain, and as I did, I crushed anything and everything in my path like a downpour itself.

Right now, I don't know who I am or where I came from, but I know one thing:

that I am fighting someone.

You know, the more I think about it, I was never really a fan of fighting.

Even back then.

But right now...

I feel like I'm about to hit my climax.

I rampaged through the land, covering it with my power and flexing my scales with a wide toothy grin. All to prepare myself to fight that man.

He stood facing me with an unreadable expression. With no fanfare, he raised his finger in the sky, and the clouds cracked with almighty power.

With a loud boom, lighting came down to smite us.

Each bolt is armed with a weapon. Axes, spears, swords, darts, and draggers all came raining down on me.

It felt like each strike could crack the world itself.

But to me now, there are nothing but mosquito bites!

We pushed through the deplorable storm, widening our mouths to devour him whole, but the bastard dodged my every blow, flying upwards and chasing him in kind.

At this moment, one thought went through my mind. Honestly, this thought felt stronger than any other before.

That's my desire. It's not a wish or a fantasy... It's akin to hunger. A burning thirst.

A passion warped by greed in the starry heavens.

Kill him.

Kill him. Kill him. Kill him. Kill him. Kill him. Kill him. Kill him. Kill him. Kill him. Kill him. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill.
I must kill him.

Rip out his organs with my fangs, tear his limbs off with my claws, and gorge his eyes out! Discard his body and scatter it to the wind, leaving nothing behind!

Our flesh– our entire being clashed with his lightning once more over and over again

Yes like it always have been

and always will be.

My fangs were connected to his spear until we knocked it away, almost getting the finishing blow!

As it was thrown out of his hand, another one appeared, a slightly different one.

But it's too late!

Yes yes yes!!"

"▅▅▅▅!!!"

...

Flames erupted into my vision, and the hero god and terrain vanished, leaving only a lonely void.

I am now on fire.

"GGGAAAA—"

X-X-X

"-AAA!!"

The blond now wakes up screaming from his very lucid dream, and it takes him all but three seconds to realize that it is a dream and shut his mouth. He sits there, heavily breathing to himself, reflecting on the experience and the feelings he is still feeling.

"...!!"

Something clicks in his mind in realization as the pawn lifts up the sheets to intensely stare under them. only to lower it and sigh in relief.

"All right, the coast is clear now that that's do–"

Before finishing this thought, he immediately turns to catch an oh-so-familiar cane going straight for the reincarnated devil's head.

The young man stares at his sister, and she gives him a blank stare in return. This goes on for several minutes until the older one speaks up.

"Why is your first thought when I'm sleeping too long or screaming to hit me on the head?"

"...???"

Oh, don't give me that stupid look! Answer me Kahou! "

"Ni-san doesn't stink anymore."

"Don't change the subject!"

X-X-X

It's a typical morning outside, and as students pass by on their way to class, they give someone a funny look before shrugging and continuing on with their busy days. The individual is a young, blonde man who keeps sniffing himself as if someone has told him he stinks and becomes more excited with each sniff.

"Wow, she's right, I don't stink anymore!" As he says this, the boy laughs to himself. In all honesty, he considers jumping up and crying tears of joy, but social conventions tell him to restrain himself.

He utters the mantra to himself, "Two weeks, two weeks, two weeks!" in utter joy because of how long he had to put up with that revolting smell due to his first contract.

X-X-X

When the light dimmed, the young student was standing in what looked like an abandoned house, but despite the vibe it seemed to have, it was surprisingly well kept and in overall decent condition.

When first opening his eyes, Saji found himself being stared down by a large knight.

He will admit that he made a small eep at that time

But he soon discovered that he was being stared down, because when Saji tried to get a good look at his face, he discovered that he lacked one.
With this sight, Sona's words came back to him.

"Unlike the Gremory's, we usually get the more unusual characters of this town, so prepare yourself."

"So this is what she means, huh?" he said under his breath as he tried to gather his thoughts by coughing because he was being asked to do something and should be asking the question.

"S-so you're the one who summoned a devil? Well, I'm here to fulfill all of your desires for a fee." Saji tried and failed to not let his voice break; fortunately, it seemed to go unnoticed by the suit of armor as it gestured to follow him.

As they walked through the rundown mansion, they went in silence, partly because neither one really had anything to say and partly because Saji himself wasn't exactly sure if he could speak in the first place.

As they approached their destination, Saji idly considered what he would be tasked with doing until a foul stench entered his nose.

"That smells—is that a stable?"

As he said, what the two were standing in front of was a stable that seemed to have been built in what was originally a garage and was emitting an awful stench. Looking at it, it became clear to Saji what the headless man wanted him to do.

"You want me to clean this?" He inquired, and the other nodded, which the high schooler could only gulp at.

How in the hell does he think I could clean this all up in one night? What does he think I am magi-"

"...You want me to use magic to clean this?" as he got another nod, it caused the boy to sigh and starch the back of his head.

"Yeah, I'm new at this, so I haven't been taught any magic that could help with this; all I know how to do is blow stuff up."

Surprisingly, the knight didn't seem mad; he just stopped pondering what to do as placed his hand on his imaginary chin.

Seeing that reaction made the devil feel even worse.

"Well, there's nothing I can do about it-"

"No."

Without asking, he looks around the stable, ignoring the stench, for a shovel, which draws the knight's attention and causes him to wave his hands, expressing to the boy that he doesn't have to, but he still went on before saying.

"I made a promise, right? A devil doesn't turn its back on a contract, and more importantly, a man always keeps his vows!"

Saji took after the student uniform blouse, only wearing his black undershirt and clearly intending to go through it. Due to it seeming obvious that the boy wouldn't say no, the knight paused and then walked to the same place where Saji is and grabbed another shovel.

This caused the pawn's eyes to widen, followed by a grin, and he began to see his headless contractor in a new light as he hyped himself up, all while wondering one thing.

"How does an undead horse need to poop anyway?"

"Alright, we're wasting the night; let's do th-!!"

X-x-X

"-Damnit!! Why is it so hard?"

Out of nowhere the headless figures glowed and began tracing air

"They harden against physical stimuli? The hell?"

(...)

"This is impossible..."

The knight once again started to write in the air.

"Huh?"

As words slowly came across, Saji read them out loud.

"...Watch out for the magical maggots- crap."

(...)

"I got it I can just use my absorption line. Okay, first, we need to..."

(...)

"Fuck, okay, now I have to find a place to dump this. Maybe I can turn this into pure energy..."

(...)

"Phew, now that that's done, all we have to do is wash the stables; we just need to find a water source."

This caused the dullahan to pause and change his direction, which he smirked in response to.

"Oh, you thought I wasn't in it for the long haul? Naw, we're doing this shit together."

In turn, the knight slams his armor in agreement and points to his horse.

"Oh, you want me to ride your horse to find a source? Fuck yeah!"

X-x-X

As the two individuals and a horse stood in a clear stable, Saji slowly nodded after deciphering the explanation.

"So you don't want to make a contract because you don't want me to go through it all over again." With great reluctance, Saji sighs in agreement. "Fair enough, but promise me that once I learn some magic for this, you'll have a contract ready and waiting, and I'll be satisfied if you just tell your horse my hair isn't hay."

Instead of doing anything complex, the knight just raised his fist, which caused the young man to smile, and they gave each other a fist bump.

X-x-X

"It would've been fine if it was just that, but apparently ghost horse manure has a supernatural stench, and nobody wanted to go near me!"

Thinking back, Saji remembers how, for the entire last two weeks, everyone stayed clear of him to the point that both Tomoe and Tsubaki were just about to vomit in his presence.

The memory of how it's all in the past causes the formation of small tears of relief in his eyes.

"Finally now that it's over I can back to-"

X-x-X
"Hey there, deputy shitlord!"

"She's never going to let this go."

The nickname causes Saji to tense up, but by breathing through his nose, he calms down and continues walking, ignoring the wide grin that Tsubasa had.

"Or do you prefer the atomic gasnator?" The second insult being more than enough for Saji to lose his cool.

"That's it!" Saji raises his fist, ready to brawl.

"Bring it on, pleb!" Tsubasa spread her arms wide, welcoming him.

"Bring on what I may ask?"

The new, cold voice cut through the conversation, with the two pausing to stare at their president, who's holding a folder, with fear as clear as day on their faces and immediately lowering their fists to pretend the last few minutes didn't happen.

"Nothing, just telling my good friend to bring in some papers, h-ha ha!" Tsubasa responds, her voice strangely pitched.

"Well, good thing today we don't have time for that and Saji." Sona's voice causes the young man to eep, but her expression turns more thoughtful. "Glad to have you back."

The pawn's face turns crimson as they are unable to respond appropriately as she walks by them.

This sets off a chain reaction of Momo sonorting, which Reya lightly taps on her head, causing her to let out a small "ow," and then Tomoe looks at them and the scene in front of her and is about to say what's on everyone's mind out loud. Before Ruruko shuts her down by covering her mouth. Finally, Tsubaki just sighs and places her hand on her forehead upon seeing the entire chain.

Apparently not even bothering to acknowledge the debacle, Sona marches to the front of the room, capturing everyone's attention, and immediately goes into work mode.

"Now then," she says as she places the folder she's holding on a table and walks over to a whiteboard. "I was planning to do this a few more days later but now since our little has been solved, we finally move on to our scheduled stray hunt"

With those words, the two newest members became more astute.

"But," the first and second years then froze, "we made a promise that we would only take the newest members who had to be at a certain level of knowledge." At that, she then grabs the folders she left on the table and pulls out two sheets. "With this, I asked, are you two prepared for this?"

Unlike before, both of their answers are immediate.

"Yes, Kaichou!" The two both answering in clear confidence, with Saji surprising Tsubasa and Momo.

But Sona smiles and says, "Good, now don't worry about the length; I made it with that in mind. Now I'll give you 30 minutes; after that, we will begin."

"Yes kaichou!"

X-X-X

Ruruko and Saji lock their gaze on Sona as she examines their papers before looking up with a blank face, which they gulp at before she smiles.

"I'm proud of you two. You both passed."

Ruruko is the first to react, leaping to embrace Saji. "Woohoo!"

"Fuc- I mean yes!"

"Is Saji cursing our signal for us to come in?"

"Tsubasa..." Reya chides her.

"Fine."

With that, the rest of the group enters, eager to listen.

"Two of our newest members thankfully passed that test," She says, puffing out her chest in a not so humble brag. "Obviously, thanks to my study guides... what?"

The full-blooded devil looks at her two pawns in confusion since the two of them did not look her in the eyes after what she said.

"N-nothing," the devil says slightly hesitantly.

Sona, being the person she is, begins to stare harder at the two.

"We can't tell her that it was Tsubkai who really helped us!"

Thankfully, said person coughs, which snaps Sona out of scrutinizing the two as she turns to the taller girl.

"Aren't you going to say anything about how we're doing things differently today?"

"Indeed, you're correct. I'm to blame for putting too much emphasis on the minor details."

Rururko and Saji let out an internal sigh of relief and thanks as Tsubaki gives a knowing smile.

Sona, as has been said many times before, is a genius, capable of devising an entire curriculum to introduce reincarnated devils to a society devoid of supernatural knowledge.

However, this is a double-edged sword, made more so by the fact that different species—where some logic or connections come naturally to her—may be completely absent from others. While this is something that wouldn't be a big deal because she is at least self-aware enough to model things in a manner suited for others. Both pawns are particular cases, having not studied for at least three years and only recently starting back up last year, so they were at a loss.

"Until Tsubkai came in and helped me..."

Saji reminisce to the time the long hair girl was taking came him after one of his bouts with Tomoe

"It's sometimes hard to be a genius. Our king does not always get what most people do. So as her queen, it's my job to cover for her small lack of common sense. Now give me the guide and let me sort out the details for you."

"Not to mention also,"

"Oh, but one more thing. Don't tell this to Sona; she's kind of prideful about these things."

With that, Saji glances at Tsubaki, who gives him a wink before quickly looking away and putting his focus back on the explanation.

"With both of our newest members partaking in their first contract, I hope that was a good experience for you two, success or otherwise."

At the mention of his lack of success in his first contract, Saji laughs and Ruruko speaks up.

"Y-yes, Verpar-san was very accommodating to my lack of experience," she says slowly, "and... also very pretty."

"Quite," Sona responds, "but these two experiences, whether successful or unsuccessful, make me feel confident in bringing you along on our next stray hunt."

"As previously stated, the majority of our work is divided between our peerage and the Gremory peerage; our side typically receives the majority of the paper and office work, such as meeting with individuals who went to pass through an area or documenting supernatural beings who made their home here, while the Germory's are focused on field work, such as stray devils and contracts."

"Yeah, and it's unfair," Tomoe says under her breath, pouting.

"And boring," Tsubasa adds.

"No whining," Tsubaki lightly chides them, not even looking back at them.

"Yes, ma'am," is heard in unison without alerting Sona.

Understandably, the relative battle junkie and smack talker prefers combat over paperwork.

For the rest of the peerage, it varies. Momo and Reya both clearly prefer the paperwork, which might have to do with their nature as bishops, but with the vice president and president, they are undeterred in both areas. And the newest recruits are currently undecided about which option they prefer.

Sona continues, "Due to recent events, like our recruitment of new members among other things, we had to put a lot of our hunts on hold, and thanks to that, they have been piling up."
Momo raises her hand, and her king indicates that she may speak.

"Is it about those fallen angels stored away in Kouh for the last month?"

The two rookies and Tsubasa snap their heads at the white-haired girl, while everyone else is relatively calm about this information, with Sona herself sighing.
"Yes that was one the issues which also lead into another one but we avoided telling anyone to avoid panic like you are doing right now"

"O-oh..."

"I understand that your nature as a bishop would have figured it out anyway, but if you wanted to ask me, you should've tried in private like Reya."

Momo, beet red, turns to glare at her fellow bishop, who is no longer even trying to keep her muffled giggles down.

"Youshould'vetoldme!" The flushed girl says this to her friend in the headband, which made her giggle even harder.

Tomoe then perks up. "Wait when you mean by other incident do you mean when that per-"

Reya, without warning, uncharacteristically grabs the girl's head and slams into the desk without a change in her expression, before she could finish.

Tsubasa, unlike the last speaker, raises her hand to Sona, to whom she nods, and everyone just ignores that very violent moment that occurred between the two other pieces.

"So, I'm assuming that bug has been fixed?"

"Yes, around last week, but due to such a long month, unlike normal where it's just a single hunt a month for the next three weeks, we will go on one stray hunt each."

Ignoring the high five from the rook and knight (whose face is still planted firmly in the desk), she went on with Tsubkai sighing once more.

"On the top of our list of places is an underground mall complex on the outskirts of the town that was abandoned due to multiple earthquakes; now that it was left to its own devices, it became a place for delinquents and the homeless to hang out."

Saji, Tusbasa, and Ruruko all twitch at the word "delinquents" for no apparent reason, which went unnoticed.

"This went by most people's notice until these people started to vanish. As a result of this, as well as the uniqueness of this situation, I've decided to start with the area."

Now it's Saji's turn to ask a question.

"Well, you see a change occurring this past week; for some reason, some of the disappeared people have come back."

Saji gives her a perplexed expression. "Isn't that a good thing?"

This question causes the king to push up her glasses. "If they weren't stuck in magical commas, yes."

This statement causes all of the peerages expressions to turn serious.

"There's multiple theories me and Rias have but this could also be..."

The student council president trails off in thought before snapping herself back to normal.

"But in the end that does matter as long as we crush the problem at the source. So we leave at seven o'clock, so be prepared!"

A "yes, kaichou!" is heard in unison before they begin to prepare.

Apart from a certain someone who approaches the Sitri and said king twitches at her queen's perspective eyes.

"Is there anything you want to talk about?"

Sona breathes out of her nose, and for the first time since she enters the room, she winds down.

"I really hope not."

Tsubaki then gives out a rare chuckle and leaves it at that.

Letting out another sigh, she watches all her peerage thinking back to the call she got from her best friend days ago.

X-X-X

Sona's voice was dry when she started speaking after her friends explanation

"So what you're telling me is..."

"Is that Issei Hyoudou accidentally died"

"Uhm"

"You revived him"

"Yep"The pop at the end made the black hair girl twitch a little bit.

"And since it took you eight pawns you choose to remake the entire raiding plan at the last minute just so you can fully see his sacred gear in action?"

Whether the stress in her voice it seems to not bother the red hair. "Affirmative!"

"And it worked. It turns out he is a longious, and along with getting another bishop,

"Yea!"

Despite the joy and pride coming from her voice, Sona herself was unamused:
"Rias stopped being so excited about the scenario that started because one of our students died."

The blunt retort was like a cold splash on the ruin princess, who fell silent.

"My apologies," Rias apologized as curtly as he could, which Sona accepted, but knowing her best friend was sulking, she rolled her eyes.

"I know we let each other be open with our feelings when we personally talk to each other, but we shouldn't ignore the fact that these people's lives are in our hands."

"...yes ma'am"

"Stop that."

"Sorry."

After a small prep talk, Sona relaxed her shoulder snags and her face became less tense.

"But seriously... Hyoudou?"

Sona's question was more for herself than for Rias.

"He's cute," was Rias' simple answer.

"He's a pervert," Sona snaps back.

"And that's just a quirk." Rias stands her ground.

"So this so-called quirk makes it fine for him to peep at girls changing?!" Without realizing it, Sona raised her voice.

"Well then, the girls need to grow thicker skin; they're not even naked for the most part."

"Rias, I keep on telling you not to think everyone has your standards!"

"Isn't that a bit hypocritical of you?"

"Geh"

"Not to mention, if you weren't being stingy with the budget, you could've just fixed the peephole anyway."

"Says the one who has an entire building for her and her four other members!"

"Six now."

"Doesn't matter!!"

"..."

"..."

"...hehehe,"

"...pfffttt,"

Rias started laughing, and Sona did too, and after a few minutes of both having a laughing fit, she wiped her tears, seeing that the two needed it. The raid of the fallen was always on their minds because if they slipped even slightly, it would summon their older siblings. So the stress had been building up for a while, and this ended up being the best way to relieve it.

"Ah, but I'm serious here." Ria's tone changed in an unexpected way. "He's special, you know? He awakened his sacred gear and beat a fallen one among the four of them within a week without any interaction with the supernatural.He'll definitely become something in time for-"

"Rias" Sona cuts her off, "While I do agree it is impressive, are you not focusing on the abilities of the person themselves? I know you have a-"

Now it was Sona's turn to get cut off.

"I would never!" Rias sounded somewhat angry for the first time since this conversation started."... I really mean it when he's something special."

Her voice changed back to that strange tone, which this time Sona clearly heard, raising an eyebrow in response as she let her continue.

"Whenever he comes into the room, he always brightens it up with his unabashed honesty and his energy.He makes my peerage act in ways I can't even imagine as they gradually open up to him. Not to mention how much he'll sacrifice everything for someone he believes is worth it... In such a down-home way, he'd probably make a girl feel special."

"Rias..."

"Oh, sorry, did I ramble for a bit?" The girl with the red hair laughs awkwardly.

Soan was conflicted; on the one hand, she could say whatever she wanted, consequences be damned, but it didn't feel like her place.
The decision she made was one for the sake of her friend.

"Most importantly, I am relieved that we have finally gotten rid of those fallen." Sona moves on to a different topic.

"Hear, hear to that." Rias agreed, "Thankfully, we timed it right to get all four fallen in the same place."

This caused Sona to take a breather before tensing up again.

"Four? No, I know there were five."

This question came back with a confused answer.

"No, you said there were five individuals to look out for, one being the priest?"

"I was talking about fallen..."

The dead silence was now haunted as questions landed in both of their minds.

"Where was the fifth one?"

X-X-X

"Rias, I swear to Satan that your twisted luck doesn't rub off on me now of all times."

With emotions high the clean up of the complex is near.