Pawn to E4 (Highschool DxD)

Nun, Gun, Fun

I wasn't expecting things to go as smoothly as it did. Sona gave me a fake driver's license and let me borrow a fancy sports car to pick Asia up in. Sure, I had to drive a few hours all the way to Haneda airport in Tokyo, but I made it. Finding Asia was easier than I thought it'd be. All I had to do was stand around for about an hour holding up a large white sign with her name on it.

"H-Hello?" A soft voice greeted me. "Are you here to pick me up?"

Asia Argento was someone that practically radiated kindness and innocence with her presence alone. Her blonde hair shimmered like gold, and her emerald eyes stared in mine with a look of wonder and curiosity. She was five foot one, tiny, adorable, and I wanted to wrap her up in a little blanket burrito and spoil her. She wore a dark teal nun's habit with light blue accents, a white veil over her head with light blue accents, with a silver cross necklace around her neck, and brown boots with black straps in an X-shaped pattern. She peered up at me from under her veil, mildly nervous, but ultimately trustingly.

"Hi," I gave the former nun a warm smile, "You must be Ms. Argento. My name is Kawakami Sora, feel free to just call me Sora. And yes, I'll be your chauffeur to Kuoh."

Asia gave a relieved sigh. "Thank goodness, I was really worried since I wasn't told how I would get to Kuoh on my own."

What? They...didn't tell her how to get to...excuse me, what the fuck!? Who the fuck do I blame for this? Azazel? Kokabiel? Raynare? Probably Ray-Ray, she just that fuckin' incompetent.

I filed that tidbit for later when spank her senseless after this whole mess is done. "Well, seems like you had a long flight, are you hungry? There are a few restaurants nearby."

Her face lit up at the mention of food, it melted my heart. "Y-Yes! That sounds lovely."

I rolled my shoulders. "So, what sounds better to you, pizza, or burgers?"

Asia tilted her head adorably. "Burgers?"

I blinked. I had forgotten that Asia was from the anime archetype of 'foreigner' that had no clue what fast food was. "You've never had a burger before, have you?"

She lowered her head. "I was never really permitted to leave the premises of the Vatican unless it was a special occasion."

"Ah, I supposed that makes sense," I knew Asia's backstory like the back of my hand; I had read about it in so many stories retelling it over and over again that what she explained to Issei was practically burned into my frontal lobe. But, that wasn't any excuse to not take our time; she needed to know she had a friend and someone genuinely looking out for her. "Come, I saw a decent burger place not too far from here, I'd love to know more about my new friend."

She gave an audible gasp as I saw her face light up like a thousand suns. Lord six feet under, she was too damn precious!

...I wondered how Rias was dealing with Sona railing her for keeping her in the dark for two weeks.

[-]

"Two weeks Rias. Two. Weeks." Rias barely resisted the urge to wilt under her best friend's furious gaze. "Fallen Angels, stray exorcists, and a total of five clients that I've discovered so far have been butchered, Rias. And Kawakami-san...oh maou, Kawakami-san."

They were in the ORC clubroom, Akeno was making tea for them, Kiba and Koneko were out on contracts.

Rias nearly shot up in alarm. "Did something happen to Sora!?"

Sona sighed. "Kawakami-san is fine, he's running an errand for me. Picking up a special client at Haneda airport."

Rias sighed in relief but raised an eyebrow. "All the way in Tokyo? Why?"

"To keep him out of this talk." Sona pushed up her glasses with a stern expression. "And because he needs something to do; from our little chat yesterday, it's clear he's going more than a little stir crazy."

Of course she knew. She of all people knew that well. But it was for his own good! Sora didn't have a Sacred Gear like Kiba and Gasper, he didn't have Koneko's heritage or Rook Strength, and while he made some incredible progress with magic, he was nowhere near Akeno or herself.

Sora was worth only a single pawn. Rias felt that it was an insult; an insult to everything that he had done for them, what he meant to them... what he meant to her.

"We're supposed to be running this territory together, Rias," Sona stressed. "This isn't your territory, this isn't my territory, it's our territory. I know we can get competitive at times, Rias, but we're a team."

Every word from Sona felt like an arrow through Rias's heart. She messed up. She knew damn well she messed up.

"I know, but-"

Sona held her ground. "You should've told me about this, Rias. Maou's sake, you should've told your brother! Even if the Fallen are here illegally, Freed alone is enough to-"

Rias slammed her hands on the table. "He killed Sora!" Her voice was shrill, she was practically screaming. "He tortured him!"

Sona was stunned for a moment, this was the first time she had heard Rias raise her voice at her in... years. It was obvious that the whole situation was eating her up inside, but she didn't expect it would be to this extent. Not even the engagement with Riser caused her this much distress, she could see tears in the corners of her eyes. Her expression was a combination of anger, guilt, self-loathing... fear.

She was missing a piece to this puzzle. "Rias... what happened?"

Rias shuddered. "...We were helpless."

She could see it all so clearly. Freed gave them a chase all throughout Kuoh, until he led them into a particular building, then speakers blared to life, wailing verses from the bible that stunned them with an excruciating migraine. Kiba was the first to go, he was shot through his knees then knocked out. Koneko was next, her Rook durability made it tough for things like bullets or light swords to really hurt her... so he poured a bucket of holy water on her. Akeno had her power drained through holy seals, Freed pinned her to the ground by driving large nails through her hands. Rias herself was also subjected to the holy seals, her powers drained to the point she could barely move, and she had a gun loaded with holy bullets shoved in her face.

It all happened in a single minute.

"Woah there, Tiddy Monster, I must've really pissed you off by killing that brat, eh?" Freed's voice echoed in her head. "Guess that lumbering jackass was right, you fuckers really do care. You want to know something funny, Gremory? You were so close to finding him that evening, we could see you and the bimbo next to you out the window; he tried so hard to scream for help. I mean sure, I cheated a bit, but the look on his face when you left? When he saw you leave him to die? Priceless."

Sona sat there speechless for a few seconds. "I... I see."

"I don't know why he let us live, but..." Rias shook her head.

Her mind flashed back to when he woke up after being reincarnated. She had never seen his face wrought with so much despair and terror before, he looked just about to scream before she made him look at her. The complete and utter look of disbelief on his face just as tears began falling would be forever etched into her mind. She didn't remember how long she held him as he sobbed, muttering 'thank you' over and over again before he cried himself back to sleep. She failed him. She failed him as a friend, as one of the owners of Kuoh Town, and as someone who loved him.

"I can't let Sora go through that. Not again. I refuse."

Sona gave her a leveled stare. "He's not going to sit back and let you go after Freed yourselves, you know that right?"

"He's only been a devil for two weeks, Sona! He's not ready for... any of this yet!"

Sona nodded. "And I agree with you."

"I-" Rias blinked. "What?"

"Rias, I'm...worried." Sona let out a long sigh. "What happened to him changed him. It really changed him. But it's clear from the talk we had, he's lost his patience. I think he might do something reckless."

The redhead felt anxiety grow in her heart. "I...I'll talk to him."

"He's out for blood, Rias. Far more than I think you understand."

Rias gave her a look. "Sona, come on, this is Sora we're talking about here. He'd talk things out rather than fight."

"He fought a Fallen Angel, didn't he?" Sona pointed out.

"Only to save one of his classmates." Rias shot back. "He had no idea Hyoudou-san's date was a Fallen Angel until she revealed herself, and he even tried reason first as foolish as it was, before being pushed to violence. And even then he only used rubber bullets."

Sona's brows furrowed in confusion. Had Rias not seen any hint of the changes going on with Sora yet? No, obviously not if she thought the notion of Sora going rouge was completely out of the question. She didn't truly see what Sora had become; the way his eyes practically turned into pools of solid ice. The cold, near-robotic pragmatism... he was unrecognizable.

But then... Why didn't he show that side of himself to Rias?

Her phone began ringing.

She checked the caller ID, she glanced at Rias. "It's Sora." The redhead across from her leaned in as she watched her answer the phone, she hit the speaker. "Hello, Sona Sitri speaking."

[Sitri-san, it's ya boy, Sora.] His carefree voice came out of the phone. [I got into a bit of a situation here.]

"What happened? Is Argento-san alright?"

[Asia's fine, it's just...] They could hear the sound of a car's door opening and closing, and then the sound of a car speeding off into the distance. [The thirty or so exorcists and four fallen angels in the middle of the road that I'm having issue with. Looks like they figured out my plan.]

Sona felt her blood turn to ice.

"What!?" Rias shouted. "Sora, get out of there now!"

[I have a charm on the car, it's coming right to Kuoh Academy with Miss Argento. Call up everyone from the Contracts and get ready to defend.] He cleared his throat. [You all hear that! Your precious healing nun is heading straight to the devil's den, you can either chase her or waste time dealing with me. Your choice!]

[WHAT!?] Another voice screamed on the other side.

Then he hung up.

As Sona stared at Rias's distraught face, time seemed to slow down.

'Looks like they figured out my plan.'

There was no way there could be any kind of information leak. Not only did these Fallen have but a single pair of wings, but she had listened into some of the records Sora had of their conversations... and quite frankly those idiots were completely incompetent. Sona had even looked over the spell Sora used to track and eavesdrop on them, and it was very solid work.

How in the world would they-

Sora's bravado at the end there, he seemed... aggressive, excited even. Not to mention he was far too calm during the entire situation.

...Maou fucking dammit!

The moment Sora came to her with his plan was the moment she already became another cog in it. He knew she'd come to Rias with this. He knew she'd try to slow him down. Sona was expecting a few days at the very least in order to fortify their defenses and get ready before revealing that they had Asia.

It wasn't just Asia that was bait. They were all bait.

The chess game, the cold calculation, everything! He pulled the same damn trick he did to checkmate her; pulled wool over her eyes to mask his true scheme.

...All so Sora could get his golden moment to face Freed Sellzen alone.

"Akeno! Call Kiba, and Koneko, Freed's back and he's got Sora cornered!"

Rias's panicked words were white noise in the background and Sona retraced all of the facts. Nothing was adding up. Was the cold pragmatism an act too? If they all worked together, Freed would've stood no chance, but this all pointed to a plan fueled solely by emotion.

What was that braindead, utterly stupid, and suicidal idiot thinking?

[-]