DxD : Emiya Shirou

Before I could even think of stopping him, he took off his cross and placed it around my neck.

I reflexively grimaced, shut my eyes and braced myself for the burning pain…that never came? I slowly pried open my eyes and looked down on the silver cross that rested on my chest, glinting innocuously in the sunlight.

OK. That should have hurt me, a lot at that.

...

Ever since my reincarnation as a Devil I had been warned repeatedly not to touch any holy objects and crosses were on the very top of the list. Even if held through gloves, indirect physical contact is enough to burn any Devil. Even the Maous are not immune to it.

While there weren't any holy objects in the Underworld for obvious reasons so I never had the chance to personally touch a cross, if I had ever been masochistic enough to want to, I know for a fact that I'm supposed to be feeling a lot of searing pain at this moment.

Cautiously, I poked the cross with a finger before quickly pulling my hand back as if it would grow teeth and bite me. Seeing that nothing happened I touched it again, before cradling the cross in the palm of my hand and staring it in wonder.

I looked back up at the Angel before me, smiling radiantly down at my no doubt confused face.

"Why does the cross not burn you?" He spoke my unasked question. "Even I do not know for sure. Is it due to that thing you hold inside of you? The one that radiates such a familiar warmth. 

Or perhaps it's just you, Child of Adam; perhaps there is something just so unique about you. Or maybe it is something else entirely.

"I do not know for sure, all I do know is that when I look into you I do not see a soul corrupted by the Devil's taint, even though it wears the flesh of one. I see an untouched human soul that still holds mankind's limitless potential. So in every way that matters Shirou, you are human."

Giving me one more radiant smile he turned and walked away. Once again a breeze rippled throughout the park, this time strong enough to lift the Angel's hair momentarily, revealing long pointed elf-like ears.

After walking several paces away he half-turned back towards me, "Emiya Shirou, you who are one of Adam's children, allow me the honor of introducing myself to you."

Ten bird-like wings erupted out of his back, confirming my suspicion that he was an Angel. Unfortunately I was wrong about what kind.

The smile he gave me was one of unconditional benevolence and compassion, before he placed his right hand over his heart and bent his waist into a small bow, as all the while raven colored feathers gently drifted in the air around us. 

"I am Kokabiel, the Fallen Noble of the Stars, one of the Lords of Girgori," straightening out his bow he sent me one final smile, "And I shall be the one to deliver the will of God upon the earth."

Then in a flutter of feathers, he was gone.

For a long while I just stared at the spot he was last standing in, as black feathers danced in the breeze, before I collapsed back onto the bench and let out a frustrated sigh.

So… that was Kokabiel. The same Kokabiel that I was sent to guard against, that I was to protect the children from, the Fallen that wishes to start a war and the one who I was ordered to kill if deemed necessary. That Kokabiel.

 … Well, that sucks.

...

Kicking off the ground, I spun in my chair as I stared up at my room's ceiling. It had been three days since I met Kokabiel and I have used up every resource I had available to try and find him ever since. I failed.

That shouldn't have been possible. I was already keyed into the Bounded Fields in the Devil's territory so I would now be alerted to each and every magical presence passing the through the Fields. 

I've also had every familiar in the city looking out for him and the guards keeping an eye out for any traces of the Fallen.

All for nothing it seems. As far as I could tell, Kokabiel was gone. There was no trace of him in the city whatsoever, which was supposed to be impossible. 

The crows, due to their small reserves, were especially sensitive to any form of magical presence. Even the weakest of Fallen could not hide from them, hell they were even able to sense Issei.

One of the Bounded fields that the guards place over the city prevented anyone from teleporting themselves in unless they were Devils or someone in the city summoned them. 

While it was feasible for someone to summon Kokabiel out of the city the reverse shouldn't have been possible, simply because there was no one in city who could have done it.

We checked, I had the guards' familiar follow all known magic users in the city or anyone who had enough magic reverse to pull it off and all of them were cleared. Not one of them could have summoned Kokabiel. So how did he get in here? And if he really left how does he expect to get back in?

At this point I was tempted to call in all the guards patrolling the city and have them guard the kids directly, secret or no secret, but I ruled it off as a stupid idea. 

This was Kokabiel, a Fallen that fought and flourished during the Great War, where he distinguished enough that he was named in the Bible. If rumors of his strength were in anyway accurate, than the guards would barely slow him down before he massacres them.

My other reason is that there is always the small possibility of the heightened security scaring him off. 

I'm under no delusion that if he leaves this city alone he would just stop his quest for war. No, he would simply go and try somewhere else, someplace where we're less prepared. Despite the risks, it would be better for everyone involved if he was dealt with here and now.

My chair's spinning slowed to a stop so I kicked off the floor again. I have already ordered the guards not to inform anybody of Kokabiel's sighting, not even the Maous. 

Or perhaps I should say especially not the Maous. If either Sirzechs or Serafall even caught wind that someone as dangerous as Kokabiel had gotten so close to their sisters entirely undetected they would charge in here guns blazing.

For a group of people claiming to desire peace the Maous can be a surprisingly trigger happy bunch. Well that's not true only half of them are like that, the other half are more than happy to ignore the world around them in favor of their own little hobbies…How the hell did these people became leaders of an entire race again?

Either way I had no intention of any of them catching wind of this until I had dealt with everything. It was a good thing I was given direct command of the guards or else I wasn't sure if they would have listened to my orders.

As my chairs slowed to a halt my eyes caught sight of the cross that sat in the middle of my desk. Then there was that thing. I had no idea how it happened but it appeared I was immune to anything holy.

I tested myself with everything from other holy crosses to holy water and even prayer. I went as far as traveling to a small chapel in a nearby town and tried praying to god while holding a Bible and having a priest bless me. Nothing, I felt not a single damn thing, not so much as a heart burn.

I did make sure to keep this a secret, not because I feared how other Devils may react so much as I was terrified of Asia's reaction. I had no idea what she would do if she ever found out I could pray to God and she couldn't, but I had no intention of ever finding out.

Shaking my head, I pushed off the ground and rolled my chair towards the desk where a small stack of files waited for me. They were reports on both Sona's and the Gremory's Peerage. While I had already received basic profiles about them before I had even arrived here, it was clear that it wasn't enough.

I still remember Koneko's look of abject terror just from my unexpected touch. How she shivered in place, ready to bolt at even the smallest sign of aggression. No, it clearly wasn't enough.

I had intended to look into her past far earlier but I had been delayed by the Kokabiel issue. However since everything to do with him has led to a dead end so far I have found myself with enough spare time to get back to it.

Reaching out towards the files, I searched for Koneko's and pulled it out of the pile before opening it and pouring the pages onto the desk before me. 

Ignoring the information about her combat abilities, something I already knew, and her time with the Gremorys, I quickly sought out the information about her early history.

When I finally found the pages I was looking for, I separated them form the rest and leaned back on my chair as I began reading the report. But as soon as I glance at the first paragraph I almost leapt out of my chair in surprise.

What the hell? This can't be right!

Almost the entirety of the first page had been censored out. Sentences and entire paragraphs were crossed out with thick black lines. I quickly skimmed through the rest of the pages and had found nearly half of the file had been censored.

But that doesn't make any sense. I didn't withdraw these files from the public archive, I used my authority as a Maou's Queen to get them. I had access to more classified information that even the Clan heads of the 72 Pillars. 

I was even allowed to know about God's death and most of the Underworld's dirty secrets. There shouldn't be anything here that I wasn't allowed to see.

So why was this censored out, a mistake? I picked up Koneko's folder and looked at the front cover. Printed out in large red fonts was 'Authorized to be read by Emiya Shirou's eyes only'. So no, it wasn't a mistake.

Setting the folder back down, I frowned at the new mystery that I had ended up stumbling over. As if I needed another. It seems that there is more to our little cat than I thought. I picked up her file again and began reading. 

For now, I'll have to make do with what I have on hand. But what I get back to the Underworld, I'm gonna be having a few words with whoever was censoring these files.

I began to read about what was available on Koneko's history, and the further I read about her the darker it seemed to get. Toujou Koneko, born as Shirone, was a Nekomata who was a part of a rare and dying sub-species known as Nekoshou. 

Orphaned at young age, she and her sister, Kuroka, were forced to live on the streets for several years before they were taken in by a Devil named Alexander Shax, who recruited Kuroka into his peerage as a Bishop.

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