Chapter 53: Cicadas and Utsusemi

Tobio shook in fear as he looked at Mordred who had glowing green eyes. 'I-is this guy their boss? But he looks to be the same age as me?'

He was sweating bullets as Mordred looked at the corpses on the ground and waved his hands. Burning them, leaving no traces whatsoever.

Mordred closed his eyes for a bit and he gestured for Tobio to follow him.

They went to the living room and everybody sat down in front of the table.

"S-so... Do you know what's happening around us?" Tobio was deathly scared and the puppy in his arms was shivering in fear as well.

"Yes and no. All we know is that you're most likely being hunted down as you are a survivor of the supposed trip you missed." Mordred shrugged.

He then tapped on the table and looked at him in the eyes. "Well, how about I explain to you what we know first."

Tobio immediately nodded, thinking of the monsters that were attacking him. And if Mordred knew where Sae was.

"These things that attacked you, accompanied by those young people who you surely recognize as students of your school. Are sacred gear wielders." Mordred pointed at him and the dog.

"Sacred gears? What's all this crap?" Tobio furrowed his brows at what he means by pointing at him.

"That dog you're holding is one. It's one of the 13 Longinus. Godslaying weapons that were created to help humanity." Mordred gave the dog a curious stare.

They both gulped and Tobio thought that was insane. "It's the dog god of the black blade. It controls shadows and uses blades to attack, pretty neat right?" Mordred smirked.

"H-how is that neat?" He wanted to shout, but he smartly held his tongue.

"You have power, ain't that nice? A lot of people will be hunting you down for it, kid." Mo-chan commented and Tobio went wide eyed.

"I-I'll be hunted down?" His mouth went dry at that revelation and they all nodded.

"You're not just going to be hunted down, they'll tear your soul apart so they could get him." Ise pointed at the dog and Tobio didn't breathe for a second.

"It's connected to your soul, just like ours. Saw my blue wings earlier? That's also a sacred gear." Vali shrugged.

"And not only that, being a rogue sacred gear user. You're being kept tabs on already." Mordred noticed some other sources of magic in his apartment.

Someone is already watching him. It was old, but Mordred could smell it. It was the fallen. And they had Intel that the fallen produced a device that could take sacred gears from others.

"R-really? T-then what should I do? Do you guys know where the others are?" Tobio got nervous.

"Don't be afraid, as long as we're here. You won't get in trouble. Well, we'll use you as bait. But that's about it." Mordred revealed bluntly.

Tobio didn't know how to feel about that. "Will you find my friend Sae if you use me as bait to lure them out?" He suddenly had a determined expression and Mo-chan grinned at him.

"Hoh? It seems that you have some balls in you, kid. A girl? You've got some spunk in you." Mo-chan laughed.

"How about we make a deal?" Mordred put his hand on his head and Tobio suddenly found himself having memories.

And it was what Mordred was working on. "I... Can you give Sae protection too?" Tobio negotiated and Mordred smiled at him.

"Hmm, a good price for your cooperation. I won't take her in exactly, but I'll entrust her to another party that would care for her like family." Mordred thought about one of his devil friends.

Though he would have to check her personality first. Seekvaira, Latia, and Sona are the serious types. While Sairaorg and Rias were more carefree.

And an individual has to match their king so they wouldn't clash with their personalities.

"But she'll be turned into a devil, do you agree with that?" Mordred let him think and Tobio frowned.

"Will she be happy and safe?" He asked seriously and Mordred nodded without hesitation.

"Then we have a deal, you can use me as bait as much as you want. I'll also join your group, anything to protect and find her." Tobio shook his hand firmly.

"Kuahaha, I like this kid, master." Mo-chan laughed boisterously.

"Then we have a deal, Tobio Ikuse. You'll be my kin, your official joining of our family will be later once we meet up with mom." Mordred was pleased that they had another lucky find.

"Thanks Yasaka, Amaterasu. I'll give you guys some extra service later.' Mordred thought and the two felt something ominous, yet they got excited.

"Okay, so how are we going to do this?" Tobio was ready to cooperate immediately.

"We need to investigate the ones responsible for this. They call themselves the Utsusemi agency. You know of the five principal clans yes? They're exiles of those families." Mordred already implanted the knowledge of the supernatural to him.

Tobio nodded and he already had a target for the ones who had his friend.

"Freeze! I have a magic familiar and I'm not afraid to use th-" A brunette suddenly crashed through the window, but Mo-chan caught her and pinned her on the ground while pointing a sword at the said familiar which is a bird. (pic)

"Ikuse! Run! They're targeting the survivors of the accident!" The brunette shouted and she struggled against Mo-chan's hand on her throat.

"Shut up, you're so noisy." Mo-chan clicked her tongue like a thug.

"Yes, Utsusemi agency is hunting you people down. And they have experimented on the high school students from the ship. Giving them artificial sacred gears." Mordred explained and Tobio nodded.

"Aren't you Minagawa Natsume?" Tobio remembered her and she was a school mate of theirs.

"Wait, are you guys chummy?" Natsume blinked and she thought that it would devolve into a fight immediately.

"Of course, we would have kidnapped him from here already otherwise." Ise rolled her eyes.

"Oh..." She went quiet and Mo-chan let go of her and sheathed her sword.

"Ummm... This is awkward, as you know. I'm Minagawa Natsume. And I'm one of the people that they couldn't kidnap." She introduced herself, taking a seat as well.

"You have decent control of your sacred gear, who's your backer?" Mordred raised a brow.

"Ahhh, you got me there. He calls himself the governor or something. There's only two of us right now. The other is a thug called Samejima Kouki." Natsume revealed.

"There's only two of you? And I guess that you also missed the trip?" Vali theorized and she nodded.

"That guy also missed the trip. Then, we were just suddenly guided by someone. He helped though, and he's the only one that was willing to do so." Natsume frowned.

"Azazel... I knew it, trouble is always there as long as he is involved." Mordred squinted his eyes.

"So his name is Azazel?" Natsume hummed at that information and Mordred nodded.

"He's a pedophile, so he must be helping you to get his filthy hands on you. Azazel almost got his grubby hands on Vali years ago." Mordred huffed.

"Ooh! Can I fight this guy master? Test myself?" Mo-chan wanted to battle a strong guy.

"You'd lose to him. He has thousands of years of experience. And you're weaker than him too." Mordred shot her down immediately and she got depressed.

"Okay..." Mo-chan crouched down and started drawing circles on the ground.

"Then we need to meet up with Kouki immediately. We're in danger if that's the case." Natsume started sweating bullets.

"Indeed, we can fend him off if we're with you. Skoll, Hati, can you smell this Kouki person on her?" Mordred asked the two wolves.

The high schoolers were surprised as two small wolves appeared from his shadow.

And the avatar of Canis Lycaon looked at them as rivals.

Skoll and Hati barked with a nod and Mordred stood up.

"Come on, we need to get all of you out of Azazel's influence. You never know, he might also be interested in men." Mordred didn't deny the possibility.

The two wolf brothers then started guiding them to Natsume's friend in arms.

And after travelling for a bit, they found themselves in a mall. "It's closed." Ise saw the metal sliding covers.

Mo-chan slashed them and opened it up with a gentle kick. "That's going to be paid for with your salary..." Mordred deadpanned at her and she gasped.

"Nooo! Not the delicious food you make, master!" Mo-chan was honestly distraught, but he had to be firm, even with his 'sister'.

They entered the mall and the wolves guided them towards Kouki.

"Huh? Natsume, what the hell are you doing here?" Kouki raised a brow and saw that another one of them was there.

"Shut up, stupid. What the hell are you doing? Going to a place like this alone? You might be ambushed by the Cicadas." Natsume argued.

"Heh, those guys with their crappy monsters? I'll take care of them." He looked at his partner, a cat.

"And I recognize you." Kouki looked at Tobio. "Isn't this guy the one that gets killed easily?" Mo-chan pointed at him.

She then realized that he sounded just like her. "Ugh, so I'm that annoying?" Mo-chan cringed.

"Honestly, you're more cocky than him." Ise commented. "Yeah, challenging a dragon with your strength? You're lucky that Shirone is gentle." Vali shrugged.

She flinched at that. "How can you call that gentle? Shirone flattened me to the ground like a bug!" Mo-chan argued, but they ignored her.

"Something's coming." Mordred suddenly felt movement and his wolves also bristled.

"You also feel them, boy?" Tobio looked at his puppy that was growling.

More high schoolers with monsters appeared and Mordred frowned. "Take care of the sacred gears only, incapacitate the wielders and send them to Lavinia. She will get rid of their brain washing and subordination magic." Mordred clicked his tongue.

"Yes master!" His companions immediately answered.

Skoll and Hati howled and they disappeared from their place. Tearing the monsters apart.

Vali and Ise incapacitated the wielders and Mo-chan looked like gusts of wind as the sacred gears fell. Streaks of red lightning arcing on her body.

"This isn't enough to give me a nice warm up!" Mo-chan grinned. Mordred sighed and just let her be.

But he would definitely tell her to be more serious when the enemies are stronger.

"So, tell me more about what Azazel told you?" Morded asked Natsume who was watching what was happening in awe.

Hordes of monsters were being torn apart by his team. She then sobered up and remembered all the details.

"He said that the Utsusemi agency was backed up by an insider in Grigori. The knowledge of making artificial sacred gears came from them." Natsume explained.

Tobio gritted his teeth upon learning that. Thinking that it was their fault that Sae was kidnapped.

"The Grigori has too many traitors. This is because Azazel doesn't want to kill them as much as possible." Mordred clicked his tongue.

Traitors should be taken care of instantly. They just create problems.

"Anything more?" Morded raised a brow and Natsume thought about it.

"He also said to be careful, because the five principal clans will start moving if we make big moves." Kouki clicked his tongue.

"Then why don't they try to do something right now?" Tobio got angry.

"Hah, politics. They're most likely also the ones that made the families of the victims disappear. They like to appear 'clean'." Mordred squinted his eyes.

"Don't worry, I'll be having a word with Amaterasu after this. The five principal clans are going out of control. Change must be done." Mordred snorted.

"All done, master!" Mo-chan tossed the unconscious wielders to Ise and Vali as they opened a teleportation circle to Lavinia.

"Good work, come on. Let's make a base of operations and try to find their headquarters." Mordred sent a message to Yasaka and Amaterasu that the Utsusemi agency is to be exterminated.

"Hoh? It seems that you did the work for me." A douchey looking guy appeared. With his hair all spiked up too.

"Bringing children and other teens in this mess, you seem to be desperate. I, Doumon Kazuhisa will be taking you." He smirked at them cockily.

Mo-chan was about to blast him to oblivion, but Mordred got amused and just let him monologue for now.

"It would have been much easier if you all went to the cruise ship, now. You made us work a little harder to get the four fiends." He sighed wistfully.

"Ahhh, the top tier independent avatar sacred gears huh? So that's your goal?" Mordred read about them before.

"That's right! You're a smart kid, too bad. You won't be getting out of here. Hehe~ you see, they are as strong as the divine beasts of the principal clans." The douchebag explained their plans to them of his own accord.

'See? He told us their plans. They want to rebel against the clans.' Mordred gave them a telepathic message and they nodded at him.

"Tch, so your plan is to create an army of artificial sacred gears! And then you'll overwhelm the clans!" Mordred acted surprised and troubled by that information.

"Kuahaha! Exactly! Those pricks exiled us because we only have partial amounts of the house's powers. That will change soon, so don't resist." He started taking out some paper talismans.

And after a pretty cool chant that Vali started to write down. He created some golems made of stone.

Mo-chan yawned and looked at Mordred for further orders. "Kuahahaha! Witness my golems, they're harder than rocks!" He laughed.

Mordred looked at Tobio and his group and they nodded. "Sacred gears react to the wielders emotions..." Tobio felt for the connection with his sacred gear.

"Slash them apart boy!" He ordered and the little puppy started bouncing off the walls to build momentum.

"Gryphon! Attack them!" Natsume ordered her sacred gear to attack as well.

"Let's do this, Byakusa!" Kouki's cat turned into a lance that enveloped his arm.

They attacked the golems, but their attacks bounced off of them.

"Useless!" The two bit villain smirked at them and Mordred thought that sacred gear users really needed to be polished first.

Analyzing what normal humans can do with their sacred gears. And he frowned. 'I really am at a disadvantage. There must be something I could do to keep them up to speed.'

After uselessly trying to scratch the golems, they got pinned to the ground and the douchebag looked at Mordred and his group.

"Play time's over." He smirked at them and Mordred shrugged. "Drop him." Mo-chan grinned and he thought that something terribly wrong was going to happen.

Doumon then saw a headless body and he gaped like a goldfish for a few seconds before his decapitated body fell to the ground.

The high schoolers created some rainbows and even the thug; Kouki did so. He killed some of the Cicadas that tried to hunt them down with their artificial sacred gears.

But a husk of a person was much much more different than a guy who got his head cut off and was like a fish out of water on the ground.

'W-who are these people?' A person in hiding sweated bullets and he teleported away immediately after the dragons looked in his direction.

"That's that." Mordred snapped his fingers and the guy's corpse got burned.

"D-did you really have to kill him?" Natsume asked and Mordred patted her head.

"What do you prefer? Turn yourself into a mindless slave? Or put him six feet under?" Mordred returned a question and she went quiet.

"That's right, this is the supernatural world. A dog eat dog world. And you guys would have died or be mindless drones if we weren't here. Terrifying, isn't it?" They shuddered, imagining that exact scenario.

"It's the reason why I'm trying to inform humanity. Ignorance is bliss they say, not until these people come and kill you or take everything you love." Mordred sighed at humanity's carefree attitude.

As long as it doesn't affect them, they don't give a single fuck. And that's going to change.

Tobio gritted his teeth and thought of Sae. Turning into a brainwashed slave by those guys.

"I'll kill them if they do something to Sae..." Tobio hissed.

"Good, because they think of you as less than dirt. Just toys that can help them with their agenda. You aren't even human in their eyes." Mordred helped them up and they got determined.

"We have to help our classmates..." Kouki remembered a friend of his and he clicked his tongue for being powerless.

"Don't worry, I tagged someone that was here moments ago. We've got the location of their base. Or at least one of them. We'll sweep them later. Right now, you're useless." Mordred wanted them to get used to combat as fast as possible.

"Independent avatar sacred gears can be used from afar. But you have an obvious weakpoint. Yourselves, I want you to be able to dodge as much as possible before we go there." Mordred looked at Ise and Vali.

"Yes sir!" They saluted and the duo grinned at them maliciously.

"Kukuku, ever heard of evasion training? You better dodge, your life depends on it." Vali created a fireball on her fingers.

"Ummm, is it too late to back out?" Natsume gulped. "Unless you want to die. This is technically a freebie from us. We're not your babysitters, except Tobio who has an agreement with us." Mo-chan pointed at Tobio.

They nodded gravely and the heavenly dragons began pelting them with spells.

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Thanks for reading everyone, ciao.