Chapter 323: Agent K
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Deep within the Japanese mountains far from prying eyes sat a single grand manor, a place that no normal human would ever be able to set foot within and hope to leave alive, their only fate being to become food for those that lived inside. Well, except for one particular formerly human woman.
Shizuku practically held her breath as she creeped through the halls of the expansive manor, desperately willing herself to not get caught by the vampires walking mere feet away from her as she used Gravity magic to stay on the ceiling above them. She had been sent to infiltrate the Shuzen family home, stronghold of the most powerful vampire faction in all of Asia, and home to the most dangerous woman in the world, Gyokuro.
Though she had several things she needed to do here, Shizuku's biggest objective was to avoid being caught by Gyokuro since she was said to be one of the most perspective people on the planet, being able to pick out a single person with hostility towards her amongst a crowd of thousands, which was why a part of her orders were to return to Asora the second she felt as if her location had been compromised. As for her objectives in such a dangerous place though, Shizuku's mission was to retrieve everything from Akua and Kokoa's rooms since they would both be staying with Moka from now on, even when they changed world's; but the most important things she had to do was finding and destroying Gyokuro's research, and searching for Intel regarding where the girl's father Issa was being held prisoner.
Even though Alex could've easily found out where Issa was with the use of the magic compass, he considered this a good chance for Shizuku to work on her ability to infiltrate an enemy base and search them for information at the poor mans expense. Though it could be said that it was cruel of Alex to not put forth more effort into finding the father of two of his lovers, he simply considered it the result of the negligence of Issa himself for letting all of this happen in the first place, as all of Gyokuro's actions resulted from her petty jealousy when Issa cared more for Moka and Akasha than herself, which even Issa himself readily admitted when he was finally freed in the original timeline.
And so, with her objectives in mind and her 'Stealth' skill in full effect, Shizuku continued making her way through the halls until she finally managed to find a door that had a sign saying, 'KOKOA'S ROOM' on it. Letting out a slight sigh of relief at locating her first objective, Shizuku then used her Tontō and Spatial magic to open a tear in space to slip into the room without even opening the door. The second Shizuku was inside she let out a small sigh of relief, until she saw what was actually in front of her.
"That's not weird at all...." Shizuku muttered to herself, as she looked at a large board in the room that was covered in pictures of Moka, each with notes and strings connecting them as Kokoa had desperately tried to locate where her sister was. Choosing to ignore the evidence of Kokoa's obsession with her sister, Shizuku took out a small ring and activated it, causing the entire contents of the room to suddenly disappear as it was all sucked into the storage ring. Her job here done, Shizuku opened another tear in space to leave the room, heading now to find Akua's room within the Shuzen mansion.
Even though she had a room in both the Shuzen home and the Fairy Tale floating headquarters, that one was more of a temporary boarding for her while most of her possessions had remained in the Shuzen home. It didn't take her long to find this room either, as it was relatively close to Kokoa's and also had a sign on its door saying 'AKUA'S ROOM' on it. When Shizuku entered this room however she noticed an open book sitting on Akua's bed with what seemed to be her handwriting in it, something that didn't take much guesswork to identify as Akua's journal, or diary.
"What is with these girls?" Shizuku muttered out loud, as, with her accelerated perception, her very brief glance had accidentally given her more than enough time to read the last entry that Akua had apparently written before she traveled to Youkai Academy.
'Finally, I'll finally be able to see my beloved Moka again after all these years! How does she look now? I can only imagine her beauty becoming even more prominent and mature since I saw her last, maybe even breathtakingly so! My biggest concern now is what to wear when we see each other again, should I dress up, or will that be too weird? Maybe I will use that s.e.xy black thong Kahlua got me for my last birthday, you never know.'
Shaking her head slightly, partially at herself for accidentally peeping and partially at Akua for what she wrote, Shizuku slowly closed the open journal and then took out a second ring to store the contents of the room away. She then sent the two rings back to Asora, where Grayfia readily received them to give to the two girls. The first part of her mission done with, Shizuku then turned her attention towards locating Gyokuro's lab where Akua stated she was doing experiments and researching Alucard's body, which had been stored under the Shuzen family manor after Issa managed to unseal Akasha from its body, until Gyokuro later moved it to the Fairy Tale headquarters.
As Shizuku left the room using another spatial tear, she was somewhat surprised to find a small black cat waiting for her, while sitting casually on the ceiling. It was yet another one of Kuroka's familiars that she had sent to assist Shizuku while she was on her own mission, and had been exploring the manor while she was searching for Kokoa and Akua's rooms. While it couldn't use magic itself, Kuroka had used Spirit magic to increase its intelligence, allowing it to be able to carry out any objectives given to it, and had used Gravity magic to allow the cat to walk on walls and ceilings without any problem. Naturally, as with all of her cats, Kuroka was also able to look through its eyes as well to see what it'd see in the event that Shizuku was somehow in trouble, allowing her to try and help without abandoning her own mission.
"Nya!" The cat called out, before turning around and trotting away while Shizuku helplessly followed along behind it, knowing that it probably came to find her due to having accomplished what it had set out to do. The cat slowly led Shizuku through the winding halls of the expansive manor, going this way and that, until it finally led her to some stairs. Figuring there was no real point in staying up on the ceiling while traveling down stairs, Shizuku checked to make sure no one was nearby before she dropped down lightly and started making her way down, while the cat leading the way continued on the ceiling, not even giving a backward glance to see if she was still following.
Down and down the stairs went, until they eventually opened up into a large underground cavern with giant chains hanging from the ceiling. Seeing them, and knowing that this must have been where Alucard was once housed, Shizuku couldn't help but wonder what kind of being it was to have required such measures to hold it, even with it being in a deep slumber.
Taking her mind off of such an ominous creature, Shizuku then followed the cats lead to a small door at the side of the cavern that led presumably to Gyokuro's research lab. Though she had half expected what she was going to find inside, when Shizuku opened the door however she was filled with the slight urge to vomit at what she saw inside.
Lining the vast majority of shelves within the lab were dozens of jars filled with hideous looking things that had no right to have been created. The vast majority of which appeared to have originally been rats or mice, along with even a few other slightly larger animals such as cats or dogs, but the results of Gyokuro's experiments had twisted them into unrecognizable existences. The majority had lost their fur and their skin had turned pitch black or gray, along with this there were several protrusions coming off of their flesh, turning into tentacles or spikes, while there were also several growth-like things that made their flesh protrude outward unnaturally. This was before you even got to their faces, which had even grown several extra eyes or twisted their mouths, extending them back along their own body and filling them with razor sharp teeth.
As revolting as these seemed however, they paled in comparison to the larger vats, each housing what was obviously originally people that were either human or monster, until Gyokuro had placed a piece of Alucard's flesh within their body as well. Even though Alex had warned her that Gyokuro was experimenting with Alucard's body and other creatures, it did little to prepare her for the actual results of such experiments, which were so grotesque that even Frankenstein's monster would have nightmares from them.
"Nya!" Shizuku was startled from her nausea at the scene before her by the cat calling her, prompting her to look over and see it standing proudly over a dead, thankfully normal, mouse. Smiling wryly at the cats normal behavior, even with her face still a little green, Shizuku tried not to look at the failed experiments as she quickly placed a series of paper talismans around the lab, each containing a magic circle that would erupt with Alex's 'Demonic Dragon's Flames' when activated, which would effectively destroy the lab and everything in it.
Even though she would have liked nothing better than to destroy the lab at that very second, Shizuku had yet one last thing she needed to do, which was looking for any clues as to where Issa Shuzen was being held captive. Shizuku then started pouring through the various drawers and cabinets of the lab, searching for anything that might hint at where he was, finding only doc.u.ments regarding Gyokuro's research instead, most detailing the rate that each of her subjects were corroded by Alucard's taint until they either finally died, or went mad and had to be put down. These she just tossed away behind her to be turned to ash once the talismans were activated, however even after nearly an hour of searching she unable to find even so much as a mention of Issa. Turning back to look at the cat, which was just enjoying its meal of mice, Shizuku muttered,
"There's nothing here to find, I guess we should go back?" Though she didn't want to leave empty handed, Shizuku crept out of the lab and worked her way back up to the rest of the manor, thinking that she'd see if there was anything up there instead. What she found however was a beautiful blonde haired woman with dark skin, leading someone who could have been a younger version of her and a man with black hair that was slicked back, and a cigarette in his mouth. Immediately recognizing all of them from the descriptions Akua gave them, Shizuku crept forward to follow them when Gyokuro stopped, and checked around her suspiciously while giving off a slight killing intent.
"Is something wrong mother?" Kahlua asked in a subdued tone, to which Gyokuro irritably responded,
"No, I just thought I sensed something. It's nothing." As she said so the trio turned to leave, leaving Shizuku with her chest heaving from feeling as if she had almost been caught. After spending several minutes calming herself, and swearing that she'll redouble training her stealth skills once she went home, Shizuku retreated into a nearby closet and then took her tontō and poked the space in front of her. Instead of dragging it down to create a tear for her to go through however, this time Shizuku simply poke a hole in the space before her, allowing her to peer through it and watch the trio as they moved through the manor. Eventually they made their way into what appeared to Gyokuro's office, where Shizuku poked a hole above them and watched as she demanded,
"So, why are you two back already? You couldn't have possibly finished your task that quickly." Kahlua looked nervous at her mother's question, while Miyabi simply took a drag off of his cigarette before tossing a folder down onto the table in front of her and saying,
"The phoenixes are all gone, that's why we came back so early." What followed was Gyokuro's utter disbelief as Miyabi told her about him and Kahlua visiting no less than ten Phoenix roosts, all of which were empty. Naturally there were more than ten phoenixes in the world, however when not a single one of the ten they had visited were there, then it meant that something big must have happened with them.
The phoenixes were proud and insanely powerful, making them a real pain in the ass to deal with, to the point that when they had sent envoys to some of them before the great birds had simply laughed in their face due to the fact that they would never lower themselves to work for them. Despite how much of a pain in the ass they were though no sane person would ever pester a Phoenix or get on their bad side, as, even if you did manage to kill one, the immortal birds would just keep coming back to life until they had their revenge. That was why Gyokuro had left them alone after their initial refusal, until the recent events forced them to have to replenish their fighting strength. Instead of taking her anger out on the messengers though, she seriously asked,
"And what of the other two?" Miyabi held up the other two folders and replied,
"We're going to start heading to their mountain village today before something else happens, we only stopped in to report the situation." Nodding in understanding, a rare trait for Gyokuro to show, she then shooed her daughter and Miyabi on their way, lest something happen to the Yuuki-Onna as well.
***
"Doo-bee-doo-bee-doo-bah,
Doo-bee-doo-bee-doo-bah-"
"Are you really singing a theme song right now?"
"That depends~Nya."
"On what?"
"Is your head as popable as it looks~Nya?"
"..."
"I'm not quite sure I want to answer that in any way..."
"So you're not a complete idiot~Nya?"
With the way they were bantering back and forth, you'd never had thought that Kuroka and Endou were both deep within the floating fortress that was the headquarters of Fairy Tale. Their mission was more or less the same as Shizuku's in the Shuzen manor, except they had been sent together since Rias felt as if it would be a good training experience for Endou, a sentiment not shared by the two that now had to put up with the other. Promising herself to punch Rias at least once when she got home for getting her stuck with Endou, Kuroka continued creeping her way through the halls of the floating fortress while singing a certain special agent's theme music, and Endou followed along silently lest Kuroka actually try to pop his head. Eventually they came to a fork and Kuroka eagerly suggested,
"You go that way and I'll go this way~Nya, then we can cover more ground!" Keeping his mouth shut despite a knowing that she had just wanted to be rid of him, Endou did as she commanded and started walking down the hallway without even trying to hide himself, while the various monsters around him completely ignored his presence as if he wasn't there.
"It doesn't bug me that they aren't noticing me even though I'm not actually sneaking..... Nope, not at all..." While repeating similar things to himself over and over Endou left Kuroka, and the nekomata turned herself into a cat and started making her way down the halls on the ceiling like her familiar had, humming a little tune to herself along the way.
Using the disgustingly malicious thing she could sense hidden within the depths of the floating fortress as a guide, Kuroka weaved through the hallways until she finally entered a large open cavern, and froze when she saw what lay within.
"That...is our opponent~Nya?" She muttered dumbfoundedly, as she looked upon a mass of flesh and bone that would rival several skyscr.a.p.ers in terms of size, with long spike-like protrusions all along its body, arms and legs, and even several whiplike tentacles hanging limply from its back. Now Kuroka could say she understood Mikogami and Touhou's fear as she recalled Trihexia's rampage before it was finally sealed by the Gods, Maou, and Seraphs of their world. However, the current Kuroka, and everyone else that was there at that time, were nothing like they had been before, and she couldn't see them losing to Trihexia a second time, let alone this second hand knockoff.
"Hmph!" Scoffing at Alucard's body as she walked by, Kuroka continued on her way until she found a secret passage leading off of Alucard's chamber, where, similarly to Shizuku, she was filled with disgust at what she found.
Kuroka had spent several years as a part of the underground after killing her former master, time during which she had witnessed all manner of horrible atrocities being performed, and as such she wasn't as affected by what she saw as Shizuku, however that didn't prevent a scowl from forming on her face from what she saw. There were several large vats filled with liquid and test subjects similarly to the lab in the Shuzen manor, however, unlike the Shuzen lab that was barely ever in use after Alucard's body was moved, the specimens that were in these vats were still moving while some even stared at her through half closed eyelids.
"How distasteful~ Nya..." Kuroka muttered as she watched the vampires trapped within the tanks barely function, each of them being unable to free themselves due to the vampires inherent weakness against water. She then went to the first tank and broke it open suddenly, allowing the contents to spill out as the vampires body was sprawled out in front of her, making Kuroka wrinkle her nose from the smell as she knelt down to examine them.
As she probed her Touki into their body to examine the inner working of their organs, Kuroka was appalled at what she found as the vampires inner organs were showing an alarming amount of determination, which was only sped up due to her freeing them from the tank. Normally this wouldn't be enough to alarm her, but as the vampires organs deteriorated the corruption of Alucard's flesh within them was spreading as well, turning the vampire into a mindless abomination. While she had no obligation to help these vampires, since her mission was only to sabotage Gyokuro's research, Kuroka decided to do so out of pure spite for Gyokuro's methods since, during her own experiments with her cat familiars, she had never treated them as if they were disposable and they had all been more than happy to become more useful to her.
As she would learn later however, these were all vampires of the Shuzen family who held more loyalty towards Issa or Akasha over Gyokuro, and so she had decided to turn them into her Guinea pigs for her experiments on pieces of Alucard's body. Normally the damage would have already been too much to repair by that world's standards, however Kuroka was practically a master of Time manipulation magic at this point, and her Spirit magic was already better than most of those who had also gotten the age of gods magic due to her work with her familiars. And so, she spent more than an hour repairing the damage done to Gyokuro's test subjects bodies and minds, using her Touki to keep them unconscious as she began her work on the next one.
Eventually, when all of them were purged of Alucard's taint, Kuroka used her black fire Kasha Wheels to burn all of Gyokuro's research data before using Spatial magic to teleport herself and the freed test subjects to the place where she was to meet up with Shizuku. As she left a series of alarms went off throughout the floating fortress as Kuroka's black flames raged out of control within the laboratory, triggering a massive response while several of the monsters there were also debating who was gonna be the one to break the news to Gyokuro. Meanwhile, in a completely different part of the fortress,
"Did she get caught? I don't think so but it could be possible, I should stay on my toes..." At that second Endou pressed himself up against the walls as several more monsters rushed by him.
"Damnit, who started the fire?!" One of the shouted, before another stated,
"Who knows, but I know for a fact that lady Shuzen is gonna be furious when she finds out her lab was torched!" Endou missed whatever else was being said, as the duo continued rushing to help put out the fire, but a cold sweat started forming on his brow as he muttered to himself,
"The fire was supposed to be set right before we leave..... Don't tell me she forgot me....?"
***
Not yet aware that she did indeed forget her partner, Kuroka was now looking at a wide eyed Shizuku who sputtered, "W-who are all of them?!" Kuroka however rolled her eyes and said,
"They're that bitches test subjects that were still alive, I figured that instead of killing why not fix them~Nya?" Shizuku narrowed her eyes when heard Kuroka's explanation, before asking with suspicion,
"And why exactly did you go out of your way to save them? You're not exactly a Good Samaritan." This made Kuroka snort before she retorted,
"I can do something good every once in a while~Nya, and if nothing else then I'll have a bunch of super powerful vampires in my debt!" This made Shizuku roll her eyes, as it wasn't really a good deed if you had ulterior motives for helping people, however this did mean that there was about a dozen more people that wouldn't die due to Gyokuro's actions. Choosing to ignore Kuroka for the time being, Shizuku used magic and called Alex, who immediately answered and asked,
"Hey, did everything go alright?" Shizuku paused briefly when Alex asked how things went, before answering,
"Fine, except that I couldn't find anything about Issa, and Gyokuro nearly caught me...." Though she was slightly worried Alex would be disappointed, he merely nodded and stated,
"Then it's good you weren't hurt, and don't worry about it since Gyokuro is especially known for her sensory abilities." Shizuku let out a sigh in relief at Alex's words, until he continued, "By the way, where is Endou and who are those people on the ground behind you?" This made both Shizuku and Kuroka pause as the realization that they had forgotten Endou hit them, before Kuroka awkwardly answered,
"He said that he'd stay behind to keep a set of eyes inside the fortress in case they do something unexpected, and we definitely didn't forget him, nyahahaha..." Ending in an awkward chuckle, Kuroka watched Alex's expression for any signs of how he felt at them leaving Endou behind, until he finally laughed lightly and said,
"Yeah, it really is 'brave' of Endou to do that, I'll let Rias know what happened so don't worry, but what is with that group of people?" With Alex not caring about Endou being left behind, Kuroka let out her sigh of relief before explaining who the vampires around them were, and why they were there. When he heard what Gyokuro had done to them Alex's expression hardened, even though he had already known about her turning most of the Shuzen house into ghouls, it was another thing to see the people that were directly experimented on. He then said,
"I'm not too sure about taking in a dozen random vampires that we know nothing about, so just take them with you to your next location and see what Issa says about them." Without giving either of the girls a chance to argue, Alex then pulled out the magic compass and searched for the coordinates of where Issa was being held, before relaying the information back to them.
"But I don't want to go~Nya..... We already did so much work today!" Though Shizuku glared at Kuroka slightly, she couldn't help but agree since trying to sneak around enemy territory without being caught had mentally drained her more than she had thought it would. Alex however smiled wryly, and said,
"Is that so? Then I guess you guys are too tired for the fun night activities I had planned for tonight then...?" When she heard this Kuroka was immediately to attention, and she said while mock saluting,
"Find the worthless vampire father, got it~Nya!" Her reaction made Shizuku dumbfounded, while Alex couldn't help but internally remark about how simple Kuroka was. He then sent the duo a couple dozen vials of his blood for Issa and the vampires behind them, before ending the call to prepare for the night activities he had promised them, while Kuroka immediately opened a portal with Spatial magic to the location he had just given them.
Once the duo stepped through the portal and found themselves on a cliff overlooking the ocean, Shizuku couldn't help but turn towards kuroka and ask, "Are you really that desperate for affection?" Kuroka however snickered and replied,
"Of course not~Nya," She then turned around and pulled up her black kimono before wiggling her exposed butt at Shizuku while shamelessly saying, "This horny little kitty just loves her 'milk'!" This made Shizuku dumbfounded, before she used her speed to rush by kuroka suddenly while using the flat side of her blade to smack her exposed rump.
SMACK!
"NYAN!!!"
Kuroka let out a sharp cry as Shizuku smacked her, the force of which was enhanced by her extreme speed as a long red welt swiftly appeared on Kuroka's butt cheeks. Kuroka then tenderly rubbed her rump while glaring at Shizuku with slightly teary eyes, which the latter ignored as she looked down the cliff before and mused to herself,
"This is the place, but where is Issa?" As she tried to ponder the location of Issa's prison, Shizuku was unaware of Kuroka creeping up on her until the naughty nekomata suddenly threw an arm around her shoulder and said,
"It's obvious isn't it? The vampires of this world are weak to water, so Issa's prison would be under the WATER!" As she finished speaking Kuroka hurled both herself and Shizuku off of the edge of the cliff, earning her a terrified scream from Shizuku as she found herself suddenly falling through the open air.
"KYAAAAAAAAA-"
"NYAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Kuroka laughed gleefully as she separated from Shizuku, before making herself fall even faster towards the surface of the water as she created a portal right above the crashing waves, falling through to the hidden room deep below the water surface. Immediately she made to close the portal above her, however Shizuku quickly recovered from the startling experience and swung her sword to reopen the portal, and allow herself to fall through as well right next to Kuroka. Immediately she materialized the sheathe of her black katana, and swung it at the back of Kuroka's head in anger as the mischievous nekomata snickered while dodging the attack with ease.
"Don't ever do that again!" Shizuku shrieked, as she tried to calm her still thundering heart from the recent experience. Kuroka smirked at her once more while saying,
"What's wrong~Nya? It's not like you would have actually been hurt by that fall, and you could've just flown if need be~Nya?" Shizuku's cheeks turned a light shade of red as she recalled the truth in Kuroka's words, however, as she had been raised as a normal human and her supernatural capabilities were still a rather recent thing for her, that didn't mean she would remain calm after being thrown off of a cliff.
"Humph!" Huffing slightly, Shizuku turned away from Kuroka and looked towards the only thing in the underground room they had found themselves in, a raggedy looking man with long black hair that had both of his arms stretched out to the side by a series of chains, upon which there were several rosaries to restrain his strength. As if a testament to the vampires power however that wasn't all, as water dripped from his body due to the faucet above him, which was currently off, to further reduce his powers to prevent his escape.
"Wow..." Kuroka muttered, as she unceremoniously grabbed a fistful of the vampires hair and tilted his head back, revealing his sunken in gaunt face to the two women, showing that along with the measures to ensure his imprisonment, he had also been starved of blood to weaken him further. Despite all of this and the fact that he was unconscious though, an aura of power and authority radiated off of him as if to say he was still dangerous, despite his current state. After being in contact with him for several seconds, Kuroka stated,
"He seems to have put himself in a deep sleep to conserve his strength~Nya, it would explain why he's survived this long under these conditions." Nodding her head in affirmation, Shizuku prepared her katana before slicing cleanly through one side of Issa's chains, letting his right arm dangle freely as she prepared to cut through the other side as well.
As she raised her katana a second time however, Kuroka suddenly stepped back and shouted, "WAIT-" right as Issa's eyes suddenly shot open, an almost feral hunger in them as he looked directly at the two girls.
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Deep within the Japanese mountains far from prying eyes sat a single grand manor, a place that no normal human would ever be able to set foot within and hope to leave alive, their only fate being to become food for those that lived inside. Well, except for one particular formerly human woman.
Shizuku practically held her breath as she creeped through the halls of the expansive manor, desperately willing herself to not get caught by the vampires walking mere feet away from her as she used Gravity magic to stay on the ceiling above them. She had been sent to infiltrate the Shuzen family home, stronghold of the most powerful vampire faction in all of Asia, and home to the most dangerous woman in the world, Gyokuro.
Though she had several things she needed to do here, Shizuku's biggest objective was to avoid being caught by Gyokuro since she was said to be one of the most perspective people on the planet, being able to pick out a single person with hostility towards her amongst a crowd of thousands, which was why a part of her orders were to return to Asora the second she felt as if her location had been compromised. As for her objectives in such a dangerous place though, Shizuku's mission was to retrieve everything from Akua and Kokoa's rooms since they would both be staying with Moka from now on, even when they changed world's; but the most important things she had to do was finding and destroying Gyokuro's research, and searching for Intel regarding where the girl's father Issa was being held prisoner.
Even though Alex could've easily found out where Issa was with the use of the magic compass, he considered this a good chance for Shizuku to work on her ability to infiltrate an enemy base and search them for information at the poor mans expense. Though it could be said that it was cruel of Alex to not put forth more effort into finding the father of two of his lovers, he simply considered it the result of the negligence of Issa himself for letting all of this happen in the first place, as all of Gyokuro's actions resulted from her petty jealousy when Issa cared more for Moka and Akasha than herself, which even Issa himself readily admitted when he was finally freed in the original timeline.
And so, with her objectives in mind and her 'Stealth' skill in full effect, Shizuku continued making her way through the halls until she finally managed to find a door that had a sign saying, 'KOKOA'S ROOM' on it. Letting out a slight sigh of relief at locating her first objective, Shizuku then used her Tontō and Spatial magic to open a tear in space to slip into the room without even opening the door. The second Shizuku was inside she let out a small sigh of relief, until she saw what was actually in front of her.
"That's not weird at all...." Shizuku muttered to herself, as she looked at a large board in the room that was covered in pictures of Moka, each with notes and strings connecting them as Kokoa had desperately tried to locate where her sister was. Choosing to ignore the evidence of Kokoa's obsession with her sister, Shizuku took out a small ring and activated it, causing the entire contents of the room to suddenly disappear as it was all sucked into the storage ring. Her job here done, Shizuku opened another tear in space to leave the room, heading now to find Akua's room within the Shuzen mansion.
Even though she had a room in both the Shuzen home and the Fairy Tale floating headquarters, that one was more of a temporary boarding for her while most of her possessions had remained in the Shuzen home. It didn't take her long to find this room either, as it was relatively close to Kokoa's and also had a sign on its door saying 'AKUA'S ROOM' on it. When Shizuku entered this room however she noticed an open book sitting on Akua's bed with what seemed to be her handwriting in it, something that didn't take much guesswork to identify as Akua's journal, or diary.
"What is with these girls?" Shizuku muttered out loud, as, with her accelerated perception, her very brief glance had accidentally given her more than enough time to read the last entry that Akua had apparently written before she traveled to Youkai Academy.
'Finally, I'll finally be able to see my beloved Moka again after all these years! How does she look now? I can only imagine her beauty becoming even more prominent and mature since I saw her last, maybe even breathtakingly so! My biggest concern now is what to wear when we see each other again, should I dress up, or will that be too weird? Maybe I will use that s.e.xy black thong Kahlua got me for my last birthday, you never know.'
Shaking her head slightly, partially at herself for accidentally peeping and partially at Akua for what she wrote, Shizuku slowly closed the open journal and then took out a second ring to store the contents of the room away. She then sent the two rings back to Asora, where Grayfia readily received them to give to the two girls. The first part of her mission done with, Shizuku then turned her attention towards locating Gyokuro's lab where Akua stated she was doing experiments and researching Alucard's body, which had been stored under the Shuzen family manor after Issa managed to unseal Akasha from its body, until Gyokuro later moved it to the Fairy Tale headquarters.
As Shizuku left the room using another spatial tear, she was somewhat surprised to find a small black cat waiting for her, while sitting casually on the ceiling. It was yet another one of Kuroka's familiars that she had sent to assist Shizuku while she was on her own mission, and had been exploring the manor while she was searching for Kokoa and Akua's rooms. While it couldn't use magic itself, Kuroka had used Spirit magic to increase its intelligence, allowing it to be able to carry out any objectives given to it, and had used Gravity magic to allow the cat to walk on walls and ceilings without any problem. Naturally, as with all of her cats, Kuroka was also able to look through its eyes as well to see what it'd see in the event that Shizuku was somehow in trouble, allowing her to try and help without abandoning her own mission.
"Nya!" The cat called out, before turning around and trotting away while Shizuku helplessly followed along behind it, knowing that it probably came to find her due to having accomplished what it had set out to do. The cat slowly led Shizuku through the winding halls of the expansive manor, going this way and that, until it finally led her to some stairs. Figuring there was no real point in staying up on the ceiling while traveling down stairs, Shizuku checked to make sure no one was nearby before she dropped down lightly and started making her way down, while the cat leading the way continued on the ceiling, not even giving a backward glance to see if she was still following.
Down and down the stairs went, until they eventually opened up into a large underground cavern with giant chains hanging from the ceiling. Seeing them, and knowing that this must have been where Alucard was once housed, Shizuku couldn't help but wonder what kind of being it was to have required such measures to hold it, even with it being in a deep slumber.
Taking her mind off of such an ominous creature, Shizuku then followed the cats lead to a small door at the side of the cavern that led presumably to Gyokuro's research lab. Though she had half expected what she was going to find inside, when Shizuku opened the door however she was filled with the slight urge to vomit at what she saw inside.
Lining the vast majority of shelves within the lab were dozens of jars filled with hideous looking things that had no right to have been created. The vast majority of which appeared to have originally been rats or mice, along with even a few other slightly larger animals such as cats or dogs, but the results of Gyokuro's experiments had twisted them into unrecognizable existences. The majority had lost their fur and their skin had turned pitch black or gray, along with this there were several protrusions coming off of their flesh, turning into tentacles or spikes, while there were also several growth-like things that made their flesh protrude outward unnaturally. This was before you even got to their faces, which had even grown several extra eyes or twisted their mouths, extending them back along their own body and filling them with razor sharp teeth.
As revolting as these seemed however, they paled in comparison to the larger vats, each housing what was obviously originally people that were either human or monster, until Gyokuro had placed a piece of Alucard's flesh within their body as well. Even though Alex had warned her that Gyokuro was experimenting with Alucard's body and other creatures, it did little to prepare her for the actual results of such experiments, which were so grotesque that even Frankenstein's monster would have nightmares from them.
"Nya!" Shizuku was startled from her nausea at the scene before her by the cat calling her, prompting her to look over and see it standing proudly over a dead, thankfully normal, mouse. Smiling wryly at the cats normal behavior, even with her face still a little green, Shizuku tried not to look at the failed experiments as she quickly placed a series of paper talismans around the lab, each containing a magic circle that would erupt with Alex's 'Demonic Dragon's Flames' when activated, which would effectively destroy the lab and everything in it.
Even though she would have liked nothing better than to destroy the lab at that very second, Shizuku had yet one last thing she needed to do, which was looking for any clues as to where Issa Shuzen was being held captive. Shizuku then started pouring through the various drawers and cabinets of the lab, searching for anything that might hint at where he was, finding only doc.u.ments regarding Gyokuro's research instead, most detailing the rate that each of her subjects were corroded by Alucard's taint until they either finally died, or went mad and had to be put down. These she just tossed away behind her to be turned to ash once the talismans were activated, however even after nearly an hour of searching she unable to find even so much as a mention of Issa. Turning back to look at the cat, which was just enjoying its meal of mice, Shizuku muttered,
"There's nothing here to find, I guess we should go back?" Though she didn't want to leave empty handed, Shizuku crept out of the lab and worked her way back up to the rest of the manor, thinking that she'd see if there was anything up there instead. What she found however was a beautiful blonde haired woman with dark skin, leading someone who could have been a younger version of her and a man with black hair that was slicked back, and a cigarette in his mouth. Immediately recognizing all of them from the descriptions Akua gave them, Shizuku crept forward to follow them when Gyokuro stopped, and checked around her suspiciously while giving off a slight killing intent.
"Is something wrong mother?" Kahlua asked in a subdued tone, to which Gyokuro irritably responded,
"No, I just thought I sensed something. It's nothing." As she said so the trio turned to leave, leaving Shizuku with her chest heaving from feeling as if she had almost been caught. After spending several minutes calming herself, and swearing that she'll redouble training her stealth skills once she went home, Shizuku retreated into a nearby closet and then took her tontō and poked the space in front of her. Instead of dragging it down to create a tear for her to go through however, this time Shizuku simply poke a hole in the space before her, allowing her to peer through it and watch the trio as they moved through the manor. Eventually they made their way into what appeared to Gyokuro's office, where Shizuku poked a hole above them and watched as she demanded,
"So, why are you two back already? You couldn't have possibly finished your task that quickly." Kahlua looked nervous at her mother's question, while Miyabi simply took a drag off of his cigarette before tossing a folder down onto the table in front of her and saying,
"The phoenixes are all gone, that's why we came back so early." What followed was Gyokuro's utter disbelief as Miyabi told her about him and Kahlua visiting no less than ten Phoenix roosts, all of which were empty. Naturally there were more than ten phoenixes in the world, however when not a single one of the ten they had visited were there, then it meant that something big must have happened with them.
The phoenixes were proud and insanely powerful, making them a real pain in the ass to deal with, to the point that when they had sent envoys to some of them before the great birds had simply laughed in their face due to the fact that they would never lower themselves to work for them. Despite how much of a pain in the ass they were though no sane person would ever pester a Phoenix or get on their bad side, as, even if you did manage to kill one, the immortal birds would just keep coming back to life until they had their revenge. That was why Gyokuro had left them alone after their initial refusal, until the recent events forced them to have to replenish their fighting strength. Instead of taking her anger out on the messengers though, she seriously asked,
"And what of the other two?" Miyabi held up the other two folders and replied,
"We're going to start heading to their mountain village today before something else happens, we only stopped in to report the situation." Nodding in understanding, a rare trait for Gyokuro to show, she then shooed her daughter and Miyabi on their way, lest something happen to the Yuuki-Onna as well.
***
"Doo-bee-doo-bee-doo-bah,
Doo-bee-doo-bee-doo-bah-"
"Are you really singing a theme song right now?"
"That depends~Nya."
"On what?"
"Is your head as popable as it looks~Nya?"
"..."
"I'm not quite sure I want to answer that in any way..."
"So you're not a complete idiot~Nya?"
With the way they were bantering back and forth, you'd never had thought that Kuroka and Endou were both deep within the floating fortress that was the headquarters of Fairy Tale. Their mission was more or less the same as Shizuku's in the Shuzen manor, except they had been sent together since Rias felt as if it would be a good training experience for Endou, a sentiment not shared by the two that now had to put up with the other. Promising herself to punch Rias at least once when she got home for getting her stuck with Endou, Kuroka continued creeping her way through the halls of the floating fortress while singing a certain special agent's theme music, and Endou followed along silently lest Kuroka actually try to pop his head. Eventually they came to a fork and Kuroka eagerly suggested,
"You go that way and I'll go this way~Nya, then we can cover more ground!" Keeping his mouth shut despite a knowing that she had just wanted to be rid of him, Endou did as she commanded and started walking down the hallway without even trying to hide himself, while the various monsters around him completely ignored his presence as if he wasn't there.
"It doesn't bug me that they aren't noticing me even though I'm not actually sneaking..... Nope, not at all..." While repeating similar things to himself over and over Endou left Kuroka, and the nekomata turned herself into a cat and started making her way down the halls on the ceiling like her familiar had, humming a little tune to herself along the way.
Using the disgustingly malicious thing she could sense hidden within the depths of the floating fortress as a guide, Kuroka weaved through the hallways until she finally entered a large open cavern, and froze when she saw what lay within.
"That...is our opponent~Nya?" She muttered dumbfoundedly, as she looked upon a mass of flesh and bone that would rival several skyscr.a.p.ers in terms of size, with long spike-like protrusions all along its body, arms and legs, and even several whiplike tentacles hanging limply from its back. Now Kuroka could say she understood Mikogami and Touhou's fear as she recalled Trihexia's rampage before it was finally sealed by the Gods, Maou, and Seraphs of their world. However, the current Kuroka, and everyone else that was there at that time, were nothing like they had been before, and she couldn't see them losing to Trihexia a second time, let alone this second hand knockoff.
"Hmph!" Scoffing at Alucard's body as she walked by, Kuroka continued on her way until she found a secret passage leading off of Alucard's chamber, where, similarly to Shizuku, she was filled with disgust at what she found.
Kuroka had spent several years as a part of the underground after killing her former master, time during which she had witnessed all manner of horrible atrocities being performed, and as such she wasn't as affected by what she saw as Shizuku, however that didn't prevent a scowl from forming on her face from what she saw. There were several large vats filled with liquid and test subjects similarly to the lab in the Shuzen manor, however, unlike the Shuzen lab that was barely ever in use after Alucard's body was moved, the specimens that were in these vats were still moving while some even stared at her through half closed eyelids.
"How distasteful~ Nya..." Kuroka muttered as she watched the vampires trapped within the tanks barely function, each of them being unable to free themselves due to the vampires inherent weakness against water. She then went to the first tank and broke it open suddenly, allowing the contents to spill out as the vampires body was sprawled out in front of her, making Kuroka wrinkle her nose from the smell as she knelt down to examine them.
As she probed her Touki into their body to examine the inner working of their organs, Kuroka was appalled at what she found as the vampires inner organs were showing an alarming amount of determination, which was only sped up due to her freeing them from the tank. Normally this wouldn't be enough to alarm her, but as the vampires organs deteriorated the corruption of Alucard's flesh within them was spreading as well, turning the vampire into a mindless abomination. While she had no obligation to help these vampires, since her mission was only to sabotage Gyokuro's research, Kuroka decided to do so out of pure spite for Gyokuro's methods since, during her own experiments with her cat familiars, she had never treated them as if they were disposable and they had all been more than happy to become more useful to her.
As she would learn later however, these were all vampires of the Shuzen family who held more loyalty towards Issa or Akasha over Gyokuro, and so she had decided to turn them into her Guinea pigs for her experiments on pieces of Alucard's body. Normally the damage would have already been too much to repair by that world's standards, however Kuroka was practically a master of Time manipulation magic at this point, and her Spirit magic was already better than most of those who had also gotten the age of gods magic due to her work with her familiars. And so, she spent more than an hour repairing the damage done to Gyokuro's test subjects bodies and minds, using her Touki to keep them unconscious as she began her work on the next one.
Eventually, when all of them were purged of Alucard's taint, Kuroka used her black fire Kasha Wheels to burn all of Gyokuro's research data before using Spatial magic to teleport herself and the freed test subjects to the place where she was to meet up with Shizuku. As she left a series of alarms went off throughout the floating fortress as Kuroka's black flames raged out of control within the laboratory, triggering a massive response while several of the monsters there were also debating who was gonna be the one to break the news to Gyokuro. Meanwhile, in a completely different part of the fortress,
"Did she get caught? I don't think so but it could be possible, I should stay on my toes..." At that second Endou pressed himself up against the walls as several more monsters rushed by him.
"Damnit, who started the fire?!" One of the shouted, before another stated,
"Who knows, but I know for a fact that lady Shuzen is gonna be furious when she finds out her lab was torched!" Endou missed whatever else was being said, as the duo continued rushing to help put out the fire, but a cold sweat started forming on his brow as he muttered to himself,
"The fire was supposed to be set right before we leave..... Don't tell me she forgot me....?"
***
Not yet aware that she did indeed forget her partner, Kuroka was now looking at a wide eyed Shizuku who sputtered, "W-who are all of them?!" Kuroka however rolled her eyes and said,
"They're that bitches test subjects that were still alive, I figured that instead of killing why not fix them~Nya?" Shizuku narrowed her eyes when heard Kuroka's explanation, before asking with suspicion,
"And why exactly did you go out of your way to save them? You're not exactly a Good Samaritan." This made Kuroka snort before she retorted,
"I can do something good every once in a while~Nya, and if nothing else then I'll have a bunch of super powerful vampires in my debt!" This made Shizuku roll her eyes, as it wasn't really a good deed if you had ulterior motives for helping people, however this did mean that there was about a dozen more people that wouldn't die due to Gyokuro's actions. Choosing to ignore Kuroka for the time being, Shizuku used magic and called Alex, who immediately answered and asked,
"Hey, did everything go alright?" Shizuku paused briefly when Alex asked how things went, before answering,
"Fine, except that I couldn't find anything about Issa, and Gyokuro nearly caught me...." Though she was slightly worried Alex would be disappointed, he merely nodded and stated,
"Then it's good you weren't hurt, and don't worry about it since Gyokuro is especially known for her sensory abilities." Shizuku let out a sigh in relief at Alex's words, until he continued, "By the way, where is Endou and who are those people on the ground behind you?" This made both Shizuku and Kuroka pause as the realization that they had forgotten Endou hit them, before Kuroka awkwardly answered,
"He said that he'd stay behind to keep a set of eyes inside the fortress in case they do something unexpected, and we definitely didn't forget him, nyahahaha..." Ending in an awkward chuckle, Kuroka watched Alex's expression for any signs of how he felt at them leaving Endou behind, until he finally laughed lightly and said,
"Yeah, it really is 'brave' of Endou to do that, I'll let Rias know what happened so don't worry, but what is with that group of people?" With Alex not caring about Endou being left behind, Kuroka let out her sigh of relief before explaining who the vampires around them were, and why they were there. When he heard what Gyokuro had done to them Alex's expression hardened, even though he had already known about her turning most of the Shuzen house into ghouls, it was another thing to see the people that were directly experimented on. He then said,
"I'm not too sure about taking in a dozen random vampires that we know nothing about, so just take them with you to your next location and see what Issa says about them." Without giving either of the girls a chance to argue, Alex then pulled out the magic compass and searched for the coordinates of where Issa was being held, before relaying the information back to them.
"But I don't want to go~Nya..... We already did so much work today!" Though Shizuku glared at Kuroka slightly, she couldn't help but agree since trying to sneak around enemy territory without being caught had mentally drained her more than she had thought it would. Alex however smiled wryly, and said,
"Is that so? Then I guess you guys are too tired for the fun night activities I had planned for tonight then...?" When she heard this Kuroka was immediately to attention, and she said while mock saluting,
"Find the worthless vampire father, got it~Nya!" Her reaction made Shizuku dumbfounded, while Alex couldn't help but internally remark about how simple Kuroka was. He then sent the duo a couple dozen vials of his blood for Issa and the vampires behind them, before ending the call to prepare for the night activities he had promised them, while Kuroka immediately opened a portal with Spatial magic to the location he had just given them.
Once the duo stepped through the portal and found themselves on a cliff overlooking the ocean, Shizuku couldn't help but turn towards kuroka and ask, "Are you really that desperate for affection?" Kuroka however snickered and replied,
"Of course not~Nya," She then turned around and pulled up her black kimono before wiggling her exposed butt at Shizuku while shamelessly saying, "This horny little kitty just loves her 'milk'!" This made Shizuku dumbfounded, before she used her speed to rush by kuroka suddenly while using the flat side of her blade to smack her exposed rump.
SMACK!
"NYAN!!!"
Kuroka let out a sharp cry as Shizuku smacked her, the force of which was enhanced by her extreme speed as a long red welt swiftly appeared on Kuroka's butt cheeks. Kuroka then tenderly rubbed her rump while glaring at Shizuku with slightly teary eyes, which the latter ignored as she looked down the cliff before and mused to herself,
"This is the place, but where is Issa?" As she tried to ponder the location of Issa's prison, Shizuku was unaware of Kuroka creeping up on her until the naughty nekomata suddenly threw an arm around her shoulder and said,
"It's obvious isn't it? The vampires of this world are weak to water, so Issa's prison would be under the WATER!" As she finished speaking Kuroka hurled both herself and Shizuku off of the edge of the cliff, earning her a terrified scream from Shizuku as she found herself suddenly falling through the open air.
"KYAAAAAAAAA-"
"NYAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Kuroka laughed gleefully as she separated from Shizuku, before making herself fall even faster towards the surface of the water as she created a portal right above the crashing waves, falling through to the hidden room deep below the water surface. Immediately she made to close the portal above her, however Shizuku quickly recovered from the startling experience and swung her sword to reopen the portal, and allow herself to fall through as well right next to Kuroka. Immediately she materialized the sheathe of her black katana, and swung it at the back of Kuroka's head in anger as the mischievous nekomata snickered while dodging the attack with ease.
"Don't ever do that again!" Shizuku shrieked, as she tried to calm her still thundering heart from the recent experience. Kuroka smirked at her once more while saying,
"What's wrong~Nya? It's not like you would have actually been hurt by that fall, and you could've just flown if need be~Nya?" Shizuku's cheeks turned a light shade of red as she recalled the truth in Kuroka's words, however, as she had been raised as a normal human and her supernatural capabilities were still a rather recent thing for her, that didn't mean she would remain calm after being thrown off of a cliff.
"Humph!" Huffing slightly, Shizuku turned away from Kuroka and looked towards the only thing in the underground room they had found themselves in, a raggedy looking man with long black hair that had both of his arms stretched out to the side by a series of chains, upon which there were several rosaries to restrain his strength. As if a testament to the vampires power however that wasn't all, as water dripped from his body due to the faucet above him, which was currently off, to further reduce his powers to prevent his escape.
"Wow..." Kuroka muttered, as she unceremoniously grabbed a fistful of the vampires hair and tilted his head back, revealing his sunken in gaunt face to the two women, showing that along with the measures to ensure his imprisonment, he had also been starved of blood to weaken him further. Despite all of this and the fact that he was unconscious though, an aura of power and authority radiated off of him as if to say he was still dangerous, despite his current state. After being in contact with him for several seconds, Kuroka stated,
"He seems to have put himself in a deep sleep to conserve his strength~Nya, it would explain why he's survived this long under these conditions." Nodding her head in affirmation, Shizuku prepared her katana before slicing cleanly through one side of Issa's chains, letting his right arm dangle freely as she prepared to cut through the other side as well.
As she raised her katana a second time however, Kuroka suddenly stepped back and shouted, "WAIT-" right as Issa's eyes suddenly shot open, an almost feral hunger in them as he looked directly at the two girls.
Deep within the Japanese mountains far from prying eyes sat a single grand manor, a place that no normal human would ever be able to set foot within and hope to leave alive, their only fate being to become food for those that lived inside. Well, except for one particular formerly human woman. Shizuku practically held her breath as she creeped through the halls of the expansive manor, desperately willing herself to not get caught by the vampires walking mere feet away from her as she used Gravity magic to stay on the ceiling above them. She had been sent to infiltrate the Shuzen family home, stronghold of the most powerful vampire faction in all of Asia, and home to the most dangerous woman in the world, Gyokuro. Though she had several things she needed to do here, Shizuku's biggest objective was to avoid being caught by Gyokuro since she was said to be one of the most perspective people on the planet, being able to pick out a single person with hostility towards her amongst a crowd of thousands, which was why a part of her orders were to return to Asora the second she felt as if her location had been compromised. As for her objectives in such a dangerous place though, Shizuku's mission was to retrieve everything from Akua and Kokoa's rooms since they would both be staying with Moka from now on, even when they changed world's; but the most important things she had to do was finding and destroying Gyokuro's research, and searching for Intel regarding where the girl's father Issa was being held prisoner. Even though Alex could've easily found out where Issa was with the use of the magic compass, he considered this a good chance for Shizuku to work on her ability to infiltrate an enemy base and search them for information at the poor mans expense. Though it could be said that it was cruel of Alex to not put forth more effort into finding the father of two of his lovers, he simply considered it the result of the negligence of Issa himself for letting all of this happen in the first place, as all of Gyokuro's actions resulted from her petty jealousy when Issa cared more for Moka and Akasha than herself, which even Issa himself readily admitted when he was finally freed in the original timeline. And so, with her objectives in mind and her 'Stealth' skill in full effect, Shizuku continued making her way through the halls until she finally managed to find a door that had a sign saying, 'KOKOA'S ROOM' on it. Letting out a slight sigh of relief at locating her first objective, Shizuku then used her Tont and Spatial magic to open a tear in space to slip into the room without even opening the door. The second Shizuku was inside she let out a small sigh of relief, until she saw what was actually in front of her. "That's not weird at all...." Shizuku muttered to herself, as she looked at a large board in the room that was covered in pictures of Moka, each with notes and strings connecting them as Kokoa had desperately tried to locate where her sister was. Choosing to ignore the evidence of Kokoa's obsession with her sister, Shizuku took out a small ring and activated it, causing the entire contents of the room to suddenly disappear as it was all sucked into the storage ring. Her job here done, Shizuku opened another tear in space to leave the room, heading now to find Akua's room within the Shuzen mansion. Even though she had a room in both the Shuzen home and the Fairy Tale floating headquarters, that one was more of a temporary boarding for her while most of her possessions had remained in the Shuzen home. It didn't take her long to find this room either, as it was relatively close to Kokoa's and also had a sign on its door saying 'AKUA'S ROOM' on it. When Shizuku entered this room however she noticed an open book sitting on Akua's bed with what seemed to be her handwriting in it, something that didn't take much guesswork to identify as Akua's journal, or diary. "What is with these girls?" Shizuku muttered out loud, as, with her accelerated perception, her very brief glance had accidentally given her more than enough time to read the last entry that Akua had apparently written before she traveled to Youkai Academy. 'Finally, I'll finally be able to see my beloved Moka again after all these years! How does she look now? I can only imagine her beauty becoming even more prominent and mature since I saw her last, maybe even breathtakingly so! My biggest concern now is what to wear when we see each other again, should I dress up, or will that be too weird? Maybe I will use that s.e.xy black thong Kahlua got me for my last birthday, you never know.' Shaking her head slightly, partially at herself for accidentally peeping and partially at Akua for what she wrote, Shizuku slowly closed the open journal and then took out a second ring to store the contents of the room away. She then sent the two rings back to Asora, where Grayfia readily received them to give to the two girls. The first part of her mission done with, Shizuku then turned her attention towards locating Gyokuro's lab where Akua stated she was doing experiments and researching Alucard's body, which had been stored under the Shuzen family manor after Issa managed to unseal Akasha from its body, until Gyokuro later moved it to the Fairy Tale headquarters. As Shizuku left the room using another spatial tear, she was somewhat surprised to find a small black cat waiting for her, while sitting casually on the ceiling. It was yet another one of Kuroka's familiars that she had sent to assist Shizuku while she was on her own mission, and had been exploring the manor while she was searching for Kokoa and Akua's rooms. While it couldn't use magic itself, Kuroka had used Spirit magic to increase its intelligence, allowing it to be able to carry out any objectives given to it, and had used Gravity magic to allow the cat to walk on walls and ceilings without any problem. Naturally, as with all of her cats, Kuroka was also able to look through its eyes as well to see what it'd see in the event that Shizuku was somehow in trouble, allowing her to try and help without abandoning her own mission. "Nya!" The cat called out, before turning around and trotting away while Shizuku helplessly followed along behind it, knowing that it probably came to find her due to having accomplished what it had set out to do. The cat slowly led Shizuku through the winding halls of the expansive manor, going this way and that, until it finally led her to some stairs. Figuring there was no real point in staying up on the ceiling while traveling down stairs, Shizuku checked to make sure no one was nearby before she dropped down lightly and started making her way down, while the cat leading the way continued on the ceiling, not even giving a backward glance to see if she was still following. Down and down the stairs went, until they eventually opened up into a large underground cavern with giant chains hanging from the ceiling. Seeing them, and knowing that this must have been where Alucard was once housed, Shizuku couldn't help but wonder what kind of being it was to have required such measures to hold it, even with it being in a deep slumber. Taking her mind off of such an ominous creature, Shizuku then followed the cats lead to a small door at the side of the cavern that led presumably to Gyokuro's research lab. Though she had half expected what she was going to find inside, when Shizuku opened the door however she was filled with the slight urge to vomit at what she saw inside. Lining the vast majority of shelves within the lab were dozens of jars filled with hideous looking things that had no right to have been created. The vast majority of which appeared to have originally been rats or mice, along with even a few other slightly larger animals such as cats or dogs, but the results of Gyokuro's experiments had twisted them into unrecognizable existences. The majority had lost their fur and their skin had turned pitch black or gray, along with this there were several protrusions coming off of their flesh, turning into tentacles or spikes, while there were also several growth-like things that made their flesh protrude outward unnaturally. This was before you even got to their faces, which had even grown several extra eyes or twisted their mouths, extending them back along their own body and filling them with razor sharp teeth. As revolting as these seemed however, they paled in comparison to the larger vats, each housing what was obviously originally people that were either human or monster, until Gyokuro had placed a piece of Alucard's flesh within their body as well. Even though Alex had warned her that Gyokuro was experimenting with Alucard's body and other creatures, it did little to prepare her for the actual results of such experiments, which were so grotesque that even Frankenstein's monster would have nightmares from them. "Nya!" Shizuku was startled from her nausea at the scene before her by the cat calling her, prompting her to look over and see it standing proudly over a dead, thankfully normal, mouse. Smiling wryly at the cats normal behavior, even with her face still a little green, Shizuku tried not to look at the failed experiments as she quickly placed a series of paper talismans around the lab, each containing a magic circle that would erupt with Alex's 'Demonic Dragon's Flames' when activated, which would effectively destroy the lab and everything in it. Even though she would have liked nothing better than to destroy the lab at that very second, Shizuku had yet one last thing she needed to do, which was looking for any clues as to where Issa Shuzen was being held captive. Shizuku then started pouring through the various drawers and cabinets of the lab, searching for anything that might hint at where he was, finding only doc.u.ments regarding Gyokuro's research instead, most detailing the rate that each of her subjects were corroded by Alucard's taint until they either finally died, or went mad and had to be put down. These she just tossed away behind her to be turned to ash once the talismans were activated, however even after nearly an hour of searching she unable to find even so much as a mention of Issa. Turning back to look at the cat, which was just enjoying its meal of mice, Shizuku muttered, "There's nothing here to find, I guess we should go back?" Though she didn't want to leave empty handed, Shizuku crept out of the lab and worked her way back up to the rest of the manor, thinking that she'd see if there was anything up there instead. What she found however was a beautiful blonde haired woman with dark skin, leading someone who could have been a younger version of her and a man with black hair that was slicked back, and a cigarette in his mouth. Immediately recognizing all of them from the descriptions Akua gave them, Shizuku crept forward to follow them when Gyokuro stopped, and checked around her suspiciously while giving off a slight killing intent. "Is something wrong mother?" Kahlua asked in a subdued tone, to which Gyokuro irritably responded, "No, I just thought I sensed something. It's nothing." As she said so the trio turned to leave, leaving Shizuku with her chest heaving from feeling as if she had almost been caught. After spending several minutes calming herself, and swearing that she'll redouble training her stealth skills once she went home, Shizuku retreated into a nearby closet and then took her tont and poked the space in front of her. Instead of dragging it down to create a tear for her to go through however, this time Shizuku simply poke a hole in the space before her, allowing her to peer through it and watch the trio as they moved through the manor. Eventually they made their way into what appeared to Gyokuro's office, where Shizuku poked a hole above them and watched as she demanded, "So, why are you two back already? You couldn't have possibly finished your task that quickly." Kahlua looked nervous at her mother's question, while Miyabi simply took a drag off of his cigarette before tossing a folder down onto the table in front of her and saying, "The phoenixes are all gone, that's why we came back so early." What followed was Gyokuro's utter disbelief as Miyabi told her about him and Kahlua visiting no less than ten Phoenix roosts, all of which were empty. Naturally there were more than ten phoenixes in the world, however when not a single one of the ten they had visited were there, then it meant that something big must have happened with them. The phoenixes were proud and insanely powerful, making them a real pain in the ass to deal with, to the point that when they had sent envoys to some of them before the great birds had simply laughed in their face due to the fact that they would never lower themselves to work for them. Despite how much of a pain in the ass they were though no sane person would ever pester a Phoenix or get on their bad side, as, even if you did manage to kill one, the immortal birds would just keep coming back to life until they had their revenge. That was why Gyokuro had left them alone after their initial refusal, until the recent events forced them to have to replenish their fighting strength. Instead of taking her anger out on the messengers though, she seriously asked, "And what of the other two?" Miyabi held up the other two folders and replied, "We're going to start heading to their mountain village today before something else happens, we only stopped in to report the situation." Nodding in understanding, a rare trait for Gyokuro to show, she then shooed her daughter and Miyabi on their way, lest something happen to the Yuuki-Onna as well. *** "Doo-bee-doo-bee-doo-bah, Doo-bee-doo-bee-doo-bah-" "Are you really singing a theme song right now?" "That depends~Nya." "On what?" "Is your head as popable as it looks~Nya?" "..." "I'm not quite sure I want to answer that in any way..." "So you're not a complete idiot~Nya?" With the way they were bantering back and forth, you'd never had thought that Kuroka and Endou were both deep within the floating fortress that was the headquarters of Fairy Tale. Their mission was more or less the same as Shizuku's in the Shuzen manor, except they had been sent together since Rias felt as if it would be a good training experience for Endou, a sentiment not shared by the two that now had to put up with the other. Promising herself to punch Rias at least once when she got home for getting her stuck with Endou, Kuroka continued creeping her way through the halls of the floating fortress while singing a certain special agent's theme music, and Endou followed along silently lest Kuroka actually try to pop his head. Eventually they came to a fork and Kuroka eagerly suggested, "You go that way and I'll go this way~Nya, then we can cover more ground!" Keeping his mouth shut despite a knowing that she had just wanted to be rid of him, Endou did as she commanded and started walking down the hallway without even trying to hide himself, while the various monsters around him completely ignored his presence as if he wasn't there. "It doesn't bug me that they aren't noticing me even though I'm not actually sneaking..... Nope, not at all..." While repeating similar things to himself over and over Endou left Kuroka, and the nekomata turned herself into a cat and started making her way down the halls on the ceiling like her familiar had, humming a little tune to herself along the way. Using the disgustingly malicious thing she could sense hidden within the depths of the floating fortress as a guide, Kuroka weaved through the hallways until she finally entered a large open cavern, and froze when she saw what lay within. "That...is our opponent~Nya?" She muttered dumbfoundedly, as she looked upon a mass of flesh and bone that would rival several skyscr.a.p.ers in terms of size, with long spike-like protrusions all along its body, arms and legs, and even several whiplike tentacles hanging limply from its back. Now Kuroka could say she understood Mikogami and Touhou's fear as she recalled Trihexia's rampage before it was finally sealed by the Gods, Maou, and Seraphs of their world. However, the current Kuroka, and everyone else that was there at that time, were nothing like they had been before, and she couldn't see them losing to Trihexia a second time, let alone this second hand knockoff. "Hmph!" Scoffing at Alucard's body as she walked by, Kuroka continued on her way until she found a secret passage leading off of Alucard's chamber, where, similarly to Shizuku, she was filled with disgust at what she found. Kuroka had spent several years as a part of the underground after killing her former master, time during which she had witnessed all manner of horrible atrocities being performed, and as such she wasn't as affected by what she saw as Shizuku, however that didn't prevent a scowl from forming on her face from what she saw. There were several large vats filled with liquid and test subjects similarly to the lab in the Shuzen manor, however, unlike the Shuzen lab that was barely ever in use after Alucard's body was moved, the specimens that were in these vats were still moving while some even stared at her through half closed eyelids. "How distasteful~ Nya..." Kuroka muttered as she watched the vampires trapped within the tanks barely function, each of them being unable to free themselves due to the vampires inherent weakness against water. She then went to the first tank and broke it open suddenly, allowing the contents to spill out as the vampires body was sprawled out in front of her, making Kuroka wrinkle her nose from the smell as she knelt down to examine them. As she probed her Touki into their body to examine the inner working of their organs, Kuroka was appalled at what she found as the vampires inner organs were showing an alarming amount of determination, which was only sped up due to her freeing them from the tank. Normally this wouldn't be enough to alarm her, but as the vampires organs deteriorated the corruption of Alucard's flesh within them was spreading as well, turning the vampire into a mindless abomination. While she had no obligation to help these vampires, since her mission was only to sabotage Gyokuro's research, Kuroka decided to do so out of pure spite for Gyokuro's methods since, during her own experiments with her cat familiars, she had never treated them as if they were disposable and they had all been more than happy to become more useful to her. As she would learn later however, these were all vampires of the Shuzen family who held more loyalty towards Issa or Akasha over Gyokuro, and so she had decided to turn them into her Guinea pigs for her experiments on pieces of Alucard's body. Normally the damage would have already been too much to repair by that world's standards, however Kuroka was practically a master of Time manipulation magic at this point, and her Spirit magic was already better than most of those who had also gotten the age of gods magic due to her work with her familiars. And so, she spent more than an hour repairing the damage done to Gyokuro's test subjects bodies and minds, using her Touki to keep them unconscious as she began her work on the next one. Eventually, when all of them were purged of Alucard's taint, Kuroka used her black fire Kasha Wheels to burn all of Gyokuro's research data before using Spatial magic to teleport herself and the freed test subjects to the place where she was to meet up with Shizuku. As she left a series of alarms went off throughout the floating fortress as Kuroka's black flames raged out of control within the laboratory, triggering a massive response while several of the monsters there were also debating who was gonna be the one to break the news to Gyokuro. Meanwhile, in a completely different part of the fortress, "Did she get caught? I don't think so but it could be possible, I should stay on my toes..." At that second Endou pressed himself up against the walls as several more monsters rushed by him. "Damnit, who started the fire?!" One of the shouted, before another stated, "Who knows, but I know for a fact that lady Shuzen is gonna be furious when she finds out her lab was torched!" Endou missed whatever else was being said, as the duo continued rushing to help put out the fire, but a cold sweat started forming on his brow as he muttered to himself, "The fire was supposed to be set right before we leave..... Don't tell me she forgot me....?" *** Not yet aware that she did indeed forget her partner, Kuroka was now looking at a wide eyed Shizuku who sputtered, "W-who are all of them?!" Kuroka however rolled her eyes and said, "They're that bitches test subjects that were still alive, I figured that instead of killing why not fix them~Nya?" Shizuku narrowed her eyes when heard Kuroka's explanation, before asking with suspicion, "And why exactly did you go out of your way to save them? You're not exactly a Good Samaritan." This made Kuroka snort before she retorted, "I can do something good every once in a while~Nya, and if nothing else then I'll have a bunch of super powerful vampires in my debt!" This made Shizuku roll her eyes, as it wasn't really a good deed if you had ulterior motives for helping people, however this did mean that there was about a dozen more people that wouldn't die due to Gyokuro's actions. Choosing to ignore Kuroka for the time being, Shizuku used magic and called Alex, who immediately answered and asked, "Hey, did everything go alright?" Shizuku paused briefly when Alex asked how things went, before answering, "Fine, except that I couldn't find anything about Issa, and Gyokuro nearly caught me...." Though she was slightly worried Alex would be disappointed, he merely nodded and stated, "Then it's good you weren't hurt, and don't worry about it since Gyokuro is especially known for her sensory abilities." Shizuku let out a sigh in relief at Alex's words, until he continued, "By the way, where is Endou and who are those people on the ground behind you?" This made both Shizuku and Kuroka pause as the realization that they had forgotten Endou hit them, before Kuroka awkwardly answered, "He said that he'd stay behind to keep a set of eyes inside the fortress in case they do something unexpected, and we definitely didn't forget him, nyahahaha..." Ending in an awkward chuckle, Kuroka watched Alex's expression for any signs of how he felt at them leaving Endou behind, until he finally laughed lightly and said, "Yeah, it really is 'brave' of Endou to do that, I'll let Rias know what happened so don't worry, but what is with that group of people?" With Alex not caring about Endou being left behind, Kuroka let out her sigh of relief before explaining who the vampires around them were, and why they were there. When he heard what Gyokuro had done to them Alex's expression hardened, even though he had already known about her turning most of the Shuzen house into ghouls, it was another thing to see the people that were directly experimented on. He then said, "I'm not too sure about taking in a dozen random vampires that we know nothing about, so just take them with you to your next location and see what Issa says about them." Without giving either of the girls a chance to argue, Alex then pulled out the magic compass and searched for the coordinates of where Issa was being held, before relaying the information back to them. "But I don't want to go~Nya..... We already did so much work today!" Though Shizuku glared at Kuroka slightly, she couldn't help but agree since trying to sneak around enemy territory without being caught had mentally drained her more than she had thought it would. Alex however smiled wryly, and said, "Is that so? Then I guess you guys are too tired for the fun night activities I had planned for tonight then...?" When she heard this Kuroka was immediately to attention, and she said while mock saluting, "Find the worthless vampire father, got it~Nya!" Her reaction made Shizuku dumbfounded, while Alex couldn't help but internally remark about how simple Kuroka was. He then sent the duo a couple dozen vials of his blood for Issa and the vampires behind them, before ending the call to prepare for the night activities he had promised them, while Kuroka immediately opened a portal with Spatial magic to the location he had just given them. Once the duo stepped through the portal and found themselves on a cliff overlooking the ocean, Shizuku couldn't help but turn towards kuroka and ask, "Are you really that desperate for affection?" Kuroka however snickered and replied, "Of course not~Nya," She then turned around and pulled up her black kimono before wiggling her exposed butt at Shizuku while shamelessly saying, "This horny little kitty just loves her 'milk'!" This made Shizuku dumbfounded, before she used her speed to rush by kuroka suddenly while using the flat side of her blade to smack her exposed rump. SMACK! "NYAN!!!" Kuroka let out a sharp cry as Shizuku smacked her, the force of which was enhanced by her extreme speed as a long red welt swiftly appeared on Kuroka's butt cheeks. Kuroka then tenderly rubbed her rump while glaring at Shizuku with slightly teary eyes, which the latter ignored as she looked down the cliff before and mused to herself, "This is the place, but where is Issa?" As she tried to ponder the location of Issa's prison, Shizuku was unaware of Kuroka creeping up on her until the naughty nekomata suddenly threw an arm around her shoulder and said, "It's obvious isn't it? The vampires of this world are weak to water, so Issa's prison would be under the WATER!" As she finished speaking Kuroka hurled both herself and Shizuku off of the edge of the cliff, earning her a terrified scream from Shizuku as she found herself suddenly falling through the open air. "KYAAAAAAAAA-" "NYAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Kuroka laughed gleefully as she separated from Shizuku, before making herself fall even faster towards the surface of the water as she created a portal right above the crashing waves, falling through to the hidden room deep below the water surface. Immediately she made to close the portal above her, however Shizuku quickly recovered from the startling experience and swung her sword to reopen the portal, and allow herself to fall through as well right next to Kuroka. Immediately she materialized the sheathe of her black katana, and swung it at the back of Kuroka's head in anger as the mischievous nekomata snickered while dodging the attack with ease. "Don't ever do that again!" Shizuku shrieked, as she tried to calm her still thundering heart from the recent experience. Kuroka smirked at her once more while saying, "What's wrong~Nya? It's not like you would have actually been hurt by that fall, and you could've just flown if need be~Nya?" Shizuku's cheeks turned a light shade of red as she recalled the truth in Kuroka's words, however, as she had been raised as a normal human and her supernatural capabilities were still a rather recent thing for her, that didn't mean she would remain calm after being thrown off of a cliff. "Humph!" Huffing slightly, Shizuku turned away from Kuroka and looked towards the only thing in the underground room they had found themselves in, a raggedy looking man with long black hair that had both of his arms stretched out to the side by a series of chains, upon which there were several rosaries to restrain his strength. As if a testament to the vampires power however that wasn't all, as water dripped from his body due to the faucet above him, which was currently off, to further reduce his powers to prevent his escape. "Wow..." Kuroka muttered, as she unceremoniously grabbed a fistful of the vampires hair and tilted his head back, revealing his sunken in gaunt face to the two women, showing that along with the measures to ensure his imprisonment, he had also been starved of blood to weaken him further. Despite all of this and the fact that he was unconscious though, an aura of power and authority radiated off of him as if to say he was still dangerous, despite his current state. After being in contact with him for several seconds, Kuroka stated, "He seems to have put himself in a deep sleep to conserve his strength~Nya, it would explain why he's survived this long under these conditions." Nodding her head in affirmation, Shizuku prepared her katana before slicing cleanly through one side of Issa's chains, letting his right arm dangle freely as she prepared to cut through the other side as well. As she raised her katana a second time however, Kuroka suddenly stepped back and shouted, "WAIT-" right as Issa's eyes suddenly shot open, an almost feral hunger in them as he looked directly at the two girls.
