The Holy Swords pt2

Atop Kuoh Academy's rooftop.

"Eating the Pits made me sleepy," Tatsumi grumbled, leisurely resting during a long break on the school roof, his back against a ventilation pipe. "Weird, I was expecting indigestion. Although, from a pit of decay, this lizard's plan has turned into a tropical forest. Progress indeed. Hmm, what's next? And why do I feel like I've forgotten something?"

"Do you always talk to yourself, Tatsumi-kun?"

"Momo, how did you find me?" He inquired of the girl who had just smoothed her skirt and taken a seat beside him.

"You used to unwind on the roof near the water tank in middle school."

"How did you know that? Were you spying on me?"

"You told me yourself," Momo responded, reinforcing Tatsumi's suspicion that he had a prior acquaintance with this girl. "What are you doing?"

"Sit still," he instructed the girl, pulling her silver hair into two pigtails on either side of her head, "Something's missing..."

"Tatsumi?"

"Ah, here it is," Tatsumi nodded, pulling out a pair of glasses from his pocket, the result of his first enchantment experiment.

"Those were confiscated," Momo protested as Tatsumi put the glasses on her, "The president said they were a very dangerous magical artifact and forbade everyone from touching them, especially Genshirou-san."

"I used my official position to get my glasses back," Tatsumi retorted, re-doing the pigtails on Momo's head. "Nice to see you again, Megane-chan."

"Did you recognize me just now?"

"Without the glasses and pigtails, you're hard to recognize. And i never even found out your real name," Tatsumi responded, leaving the girl's head alone and putting on the glasses, "But you've become more attractive. And by a lot. Has anyone been bothering you?"

"Thank you," Momo smiled, "Except for your brother, everyone was put off that one time when you nearly shoved Miyabi-san into the incinerator."

"It's a pity you stopped me that day," Tatsumi sighed, remembering that episode from his middle school life.

That day, he was especially angry at the world due to his failures at the School of Alteration and was ready to snap at any moment. An ideal opportunity for this presented itself. As he walked past the sports equipment storeroom, he heard loud laughter and sobs. Realizing this was his chance to calm his nerves, Alduin went around the storage area and saw four boys and a senior girl teasing a girl from their grade. Two boys held their victim while the girl poured milk over her head, much to the amusement of the other two boys.

Generally, Alduin couldn't care less about the relationships between mortals; he could either walk past delinquents terrorizing their victim or beat everyone up, depending on his mood. But in Momo's case, he was infuriated by the fact that one female had brought a support group to pick a fight with another female. As a result, after four broken noses, Momo was dragging Alduin away from an open garbage incinerator, albeit long extinguished, into which he was trying to stuff the senior girl who had been bullying her. The next day, Momo found Alduin to thank him for his help, but he was still in a foul mood, leading to an argument. One word led to another, and their exchange of pleasantries escalated to the point where Momo Hanakai became the third person whose presence he could tolerate.

'Hmm, when did I stop calling girls "mortal females"? Am I actually missing the old times when Nords were drunk, there were two moons in the sky, and Sheogorath threw burning dogs at Khajiit villages?' the thought crossed Tatsumi's mind as he looked again at his conversational partner.

"Miyabi certainly deserved to be stuffed into that incinerator and set alight. So, how did you wind up at Kuoh? Sure, I anticipated most girls from our school would flock to Kuo, and all the boys would try to infiltrate it, but I didn't expect to see you here."

"I decided to take charge of my life. You were saying something about it when I tried to stop you from putting Miyabi-san into the incinerator."

"I don't remember that. I said a lot of things back then."

"Well, - Momo blushed - That was the gist of it. And what about you? I thought you were heading to Boei Daigakkoo or somewhere else. You wanted to be a soldier."

"Two factors intervened. My mother doesn't want me in the military. Managed to negotiate it down to becoming a lawyer, and even that wasn't easy," Tatsumi sighed.

The cries from below drew Tatsumi's attention and he rose from the floor to approach the rooftop railing. Below, along the stadium, his older brother ran, chased by an enraged girls from the kendo club. From the looks of it, he was losing the race. Removing his glasses, Tatsumi began rubbing his eyes, trying to unsee the spectacle of half-naked kendo girls, mentally drafting a training schedule for Issei to at least give him a fighting chance at evading their wrath.

"Doesn't he get tired of that?" Momo asked, stepping up to the railing and observing the procession that had now surrounded a stumbling Issei.

'Lucky for him someone hasn't regained their angelic powers yet,' Tatsumi thought. 'In the past, I'd have suggested the kendo club report him to the police. But now he's a servant of that Gremory, so she'll cover him up.

"Sometimes, I even think he's a masochist. Wait, what just happened?!" He exclaimed as all the kendo girls clothes, from which Issei had been dodging blows, ripped apart, revealing their toned, young bodies.

"I need to warn the president," Momo stated, rushing towards the door. "See you later, Tatsumi!"

"Yeah," he yelled after her, tearing a hole in the wire fence and hurling his glasses at his brother like a throwing knife. Overcoming the distance between the school building's rooftop and Issei's head, the glasses landed squarely on the forehead of the boy who was basking in the spectacle.

"They're back! My precious!!" Issei cried, recognizing the glasses that had landed on him and instantly forgetting about the screaming, nude girls of the kendo club.

Ajuka Beelzebub's Residence.

"Have you learned anything about the attack, Ajuka?" a young man, resembling a male version of Rias Gremory, asked his friend. He surveyed the countless monitors and devices crowding Ajuka Beelzebub's laboratory, one of the four lords of the underworld.

"Yes, Sirzechs, and it's not good news. Take a look," Ajuka pointed to a monitor, which replayed footage of the attack by four dragons on their laboratory - a bright red one attacked with fire from a distance, like any typical dragon.

"I see. Apart from its appearance, it doesn't seem to differ from other dragons," replied Sirzechs Lucifer, another ruler of the Underworld.

"That's the problem. These three," he pointed to two red dragons and one white one, "resemble the Great Red, but they are much smaller. But that's not the worst part."

"And what is?"

"It's this black dragon. It can assume a humanoid form. Among dragons, only a few can do that..."

"Are you suggesting a new breed of dragon has emerged?"

"I don't know, Sirzechs, we don't have enough information. These four acted decisively and quickly, as if they knew their purpose," Ajuka said, nervously pacing. "This suggests a high degree of intelligence." He paused and looked at Sirzechs.

"The black one seems to be their leader," Sirzechs replied thoughtfully.

"I noticed it too. And I'm concerned about their spells."

"Spells? From dragons?"

"Yes, look. The same dragon, but different episodes. Here it breathes fire, and an entire building instantly ignites, but the next time..." Ajuka found the right moment in the recording and started playback.

"Yol Toor Shul!" the black dragon shouted, and its flame evaporated a nine-story complex. Ajuka paused the video and began to speak.

"Do you see what I mean? That was definitely a spell, and so was this..."

The screen again showed the black dragon, but it seemed to be yelling at a wall.

"Fus Ro Dah!" the dragon shouted, and the building was swept away like a house of cards.

"And I can't identify the nature of these spells. Even with the Kankara Formula."

"Are you saying that this dragon is as powerful as or stronger than Heavenly Dragons?" Sirzechs asked, looking grimly at the frozen image of the black dragon, readying itself for an attack.

"Most likely, but there's one catch..."

"Dragons like this don't just appear out of nowhere. Especially not in such numbers," Sirzechs finished for his friend.

"Exactly. A normal dragon needs at least eighty years to mature, but even that is not enough for it to reach its peak power," Ajuka began to explain, nodding at the paused video, which showed all four dragons. "These ones, however, are definitely at the peak of their power. And if they were this powerful, we would have known about them a long time ago."

"Children of Ouroboros?"

"Quite possible. Maybe she found a way to read that scroll, thinking it would help her defeat the Great Red."

"It's not getting any easier, is it?" Sirzechs sighed. "What have we learned about the destruction of Inca Mythology?"

"Nothing. Their world seems to have been cut out of the Universe. As if it ceased to exist in a moment, as if it was never there. And considering this," Ajuka nodded towards the monitor with the dragons, "worrying thoughts arise. I dare to suggest that Hyodo Tatsumi, who managed to do the impossible and completely and irreversibly change the sex of a high devil, is somehow related to Ouroboros."

"Do you think she's involved?" Sirzechs waved his hand toward a blurry image of a girl in gothic attire on one of the monitors.

"Maybe. She would do anything to achieve her 'silence'," Ajuka concluded, and they exchanged understanding glances.

"Try to find out more about the disappearance of the Inca Mythology, Ajuka. I've asked Rias to keep an eye on Hyodo Tatsumi. But besides me, Sitri and Phenex have shown their interest, with Sitri being the first."

"Sirzechs, don't tell Serafall about this. Who knows how she will behave if she thinks her 'So-chan' is in danger." Said Ajuka and Sirzechs nodded in approval.