Chapter 44 — Heretics and Hunger

Kusari

We found them after twenty minutes.

Which was less a credit to our searching and more a matter of dumb luck.

They stood near the road in their white robes with a hand-lettered board between them, praying loudly enough to draw stares from every passerby within earshot.

If one wanted to disappear into a town, begging in Church robes was not the method I would have recommended.

Xenovia-san looked murderous.

Irina-san looked determined.

Both looked hungry.

“Please give blessings to the lost lamb—!”

“Please give charity to us on behalf of the father in heaven!”

Saji-san stopped walking.

“No.”

He sounded defeated.

Issei did not answer. He was too busy staring.

Koneko stood beside me, expression flat. That, in this case, suggested she was trying not to laugh.

I watched the two Church girls for another second and revised my earlier judgment.

They did not merely look hungry.

They looked like people performing dignity from habit while their bodies were losing the argument.

Xenovia-san glared down at the ground. “How can this be? Is the country of Japan that lacking in faith? That is why I dislike places that lack our beliefs.”

Irina-san shot back immediately, “Don’t say that, Xenovia. We need to rely on the charity of others since we lost our money. If we don’t get donations from these heretics we won’t even be able to buy a single meal!”

The word heretics did not seem to bother Issei nearly as much as it should have.

Probably because the phrase lost our money had taken priority.

Xenovia-san pointed accusingly at the object leaning against the wall beside them.

It was a painting.

Or perhaps an attempt at one.

Something badly rendered and aggressively pious, with a man who might have been a saint if one were charitable and an angel in the background who looked as if it had been painted by somebody with an uncertain recollection of wings.

“We didn’t lose our money. This,” Xenovia-san said, “happened because you bought that fake painting.”

Irina-san recoiled as if struck. “What do you mean it’s my fault? The exhibition we stopped at had this painting of a saint! The person who sold it to me said so!

“Then do you know which saint it’s supposed to be?”

Irina-san hesitated.

The silence that followed was fatal.

Xenovia-san narrowed her eyes. “Exactly.”

Irina-san recovered with admirable stubbornness. “Saint Peter.”

“No.”

“It could be!”

“It could not.”

“Your faith is poor.”

“Your judgment is poor.”

Their foreheads hit.

Once.

“Heretic!”

They both shouted at each other.

Then their foreheads met again.

Koneko looked up at me. “This is Devil-kind's enemy.”

“Yes,” I said.

“Disappointing.”

“Profoundly.”

The next sound was not another headbutt.

It was their stomachs.

Both at once.

The two girls went rigid for a second, then folded in opposite directions with enough misery that the scene stopped being absurd and became difficult to watch.

Xenovia-san pressed a hand to her abdomen. 

“First we need to find a meal. We won’t be able to search for Excalibur if we are starving.”

Irina-san, still half-hunched, nodded with painful seriousness. “You’re right Xenovia. Should we threaten the heretics for money? God will forgive us since they’re heretics.”

Saji-san made a sound of disbelief.

Issei pinched the bridge of his nose.

Koneko’s face did not move.

I decided I had found the limit of what my afternoon was prepared to handle.

“No,” I said.

All of them turned.

Irina-san blinked at me, then at Koneko, then at Issei and Saji-san, apparently only now realizing the audience to her crisis had expanded.

Xenovia-san straightened with more dignity than the situation deserved.

“You.”

“Astute,” I said.

Irina-san’s eyes moved over us. Recognition came in pieces. “What are you Devils doing here?.”

“I don’t want to be here,” Saji-san muttered.

Issei stepped forward because of course he did.

“You’re hungry,” he said.

The answer to that was visible.

Irina-san lifted her chin anyway. “We are on a mission.”

“While starving,” I said.

Xenovia-san glared. “That is a temporary inconvenience.”

Then her stomach betrayed her again.

Koneko looked at Issei. “Feed them before they start a robbery.”

“That was exactly my thought.”

Saji-san looked horrified. “No, wait, that is not our first move.”

Irina-san, infuriatingly shameless, brightened. “So you’re buying?”

Saji-san turned to Issei as if witnessing personal betrayal.

“This is going to get Kaichou to kill me.”

Issei ignored him and looked at the two girls.

“Come on. We’ll eat first.”

Xenovia-san hesitated.

Irina-san did not.

“Okay.”

“Irina.”

“What? Starving with pride is still starving.”

We ended up walking toward a nearby family restaurant in a group that looked like it had been assembled by a god with a poor sense of humor.

Issei in front, acting like this was his plan and not a disaster in motion.

Saji-san beside him, muttering under his breath about Kaichou finding out and skinning him alive.

Koneko and I behind them.

Irina-san and Xenovia-san walking with us because hunger apparently overruled theology faster than I had expected.

Koneko spoke only once while we walked.

Quiet enough that nobody else heard.

“….Thank you.”

“What for?”

“You stayed.”

I looked ahead instead of at her.

“You asked.”

That was all.

Saji

I was going to die.

Not in battle.

Not gloriously.

Not even because of Excalibur.

I was going to die because if Kaichou found out I was sitting in a family restaurant with Hyoudou, Koneko-chan, Kusari-san, and two Church assassins while discussing holy swords without permission, she was going to erase me from the earth.

Kaichou was seriously strict.

Hyoudou said this would work out fine.

He didn’t understand.

Kaichou would end me.

We got seated somehow.

I still don’t know how.

Maybe the universe wanted witnesses for my downfall.

The family restaurant was bright, warm, and full of harmless people eating normal meals.

Which made our table look even more wrong. Church girls on one side. Devils on the other.

Koneko-chan expressionless.

Hyoudou trying to act like he had this under control.

Kusari-san sitting with the kind of quiet posture that made it obvious she was observing everybody.

And then the Church girls started ordering.

No.

That doesn’t describe it properly.

They attacked the menu.

Irina-san pointed at item after item like she was making up for her previous suffering with calories.

Xenovia-san was quieter, but only because she ate with military efficiency rather than cheer.

By the time the drinks arrived, I already knew Hyoudou was going to regret every decision that brought us here.

He knew it too.

He just wouldn’t admit it.

Koneko-chan, traitor that she was, had calmly said she’d help pay when Hyoudou started to look pale.

That somehow made the whole thing more humiliating for him.

Manly pride versus economic reality.

Reality was winning.

The food arrived. It disappeared.

I watched Xenovia-san work through a meal that could have fed two normal people, looked at Hyoudou’s face, and nearly laughed despite the fact that I was doomed.

Kusari-san didn’t laugh.

She watched them eat the same way she seemed to watch most things—quietly, like she expected some secret truth to reveal itself if she looked long enough.

Maybe one did.

Maybe the truth was simply that people became much easier to understand when starving.

Or maybe I was just reading too far into it while I looked at Kusari-san.

Irina-san finished a drink, breathed out happily, and then used her cross to offer thanks.

Every devil at the table flinched.

I grabbed my head instantly.

Koneko-chan did too.

Hyoudou winced like he’d just been struck. 

Kusari-san’s brows knit before smoothing again.

Irina-san looked up, startled. “Ah. Sorry. I did it without thinking.”

“You keep saying things like that,” I muttered, “and somehow they never make me feel better.”

She smiled at me.

That was a mistake.

I looked away.

Not because I was weak.

Because I preferred living.

Xenovia-san drank water, set the glass down, and got straight to the point.

“So. Why did you come to us?”

There it was.

No circling. No soft lead-in.

That was probably better.

Hyoudou leaned forward before I could stop him.

“You came to this country to retrieve the Excaliburs, right?”

“That’s what we said in the clubroom,” Xenovia-san replied.

I checked the exits automatically.

Not because I planned to run right then.

Because if the conversation went bad, I wanted options.

Kaichou would still find me.

But maybe I could make it difficult.

Hyoudou took a breath.

Then dropped the sentence that officially ended whatever remained of my peace.

“And if you can’t retrieve them you’re allowed to destroy them. We want to help you destroy the Excaliburs.”

I closed my eyes.

Just for a second.

When I opened them, both Church girls were staring at him.

Koneko-chan didn’t move.

Kusari-san did not react.

Because we had already known exactly where his stupidity was headed.

I muttered under my breath, “I’m dead.”

Hyoudou ignored me.

Of course he did.

The silence at the table stretched.

Long enough that I actually started wondering if Xenovia-san was about to draw her sword in a family restaurant and make my execution immediate instead of delayed.

Instead, she said, “Maybe that’s acceptable.”

I looked up so fast I almost threw my neck out.

Hyoudou looked just as shocked.

Koneko-chan’s eyes narrowed.

Kusari-san didn’t seem to react, but then I noticed that some hidden tension had left her shoulders slightly. As if she had been ready for them to react poorly to Hyoudou’s idea.

Irina-san reacted like the only sane person present. “Xenovia. Are you serious?”

“Yes.”

That one word did more damage to my nerves than anything else in the conversation so far.

Because if Xenovia-san was serious, then this was no longer one idiot’s impossible idea.

It was becoming a plan.

A bad one.

Still a plan.

And every step past that point made my eventual punishment from Kaichou more vivid in my imagination.

I swallowed.

It tasted like fear.

Issei

I didn’t expect Xenovia to agree so quickly.

Honestly, I expected either a lecture, a holy sword in my face, or both.

Instead she sat there across from me in a family restaurant, after demolishing an amount of food that should have been physically impossible, and acted like giving devils partial permission to destroy one of the Church’s most important weapons was just a simple tactical choice.

Maybe it was.

Still weird.

Irina leaned on the table. “Wait. Really? But they’re Devils!”

Xenovia nodded once.

“To tell the truth, retrieving all three stolen Excaliburs and opposing Kokabiel with only the two of us is close to impossible. Plus our higher ups never forbid us from working with a dragon user, or Yokai for that matter.”

There it was again.

The Fallen Angel leader behind all this.

Excalibur, dead priests, Yuuto’s past, and now a named Fallen Angel commander in the middle of it all.

This thing just kept getting worse.

“Even so…”

Irina frowned, glancing at us across the table. Her eyes lingered on Kusari-san for a moment.

Xenovia didn’t back off.

“Our minimum objective is to recover the stolen Excaliburs or destroy them before they can be used further. If that cannot be done cleanly, then sacrificing even our own swords is preferable to letting the mission fail.”

Koneko-chan’s eyes narrowed.

Saji looked like he wanted to be anywhere else on earth.

Kusari-san’s gaze sharpened at the word sacrifice the same way it had sharpened in the clubroom when they talked about disposal and holy weapon projects.

I noticed because I’d started picking up her reactions more.

Which was probably a bad sign.

Xenovia kept going.

“If we continue as we are, our chance of success is low. Very low. We came prepared to die if necessary. So borrowing the power of a Yokai, and a Dragon, especially the famous Sekiryuuti should be acceptable. I believe God caused our meeting.”

The restaurant noise around us seemed farther away for a second. Plates. Glasses. Other people’s conversations. All of it faded behind that sentence.

Irina looked unhappy but not surprised.

“That may be true,” she admitted. “But trusting Devils still feels wrong.”

Saji snorted before he could stop himself. “Good. It should.”

Nobody smiled at the comment.

Because if the Church girls were desperate enough to cooperate with us, then the Excalibur situation was already worse than I’d hoped.

I leaned forward anyway.

“Look,” I said, “I’m not saying we’ll become friends. I’m saying our goals overlap.”

They both looked at me.

I kept going, because if I stopped I’d start thinking about how insane this sounded.

“Yuuto-san wants revenge against Excalibur. You want to recover or destroy the stolen swords. We want to stop this from getting worse in our town. Those things line up enough to work with.”

Kusari-san’s eyes shifted toward me.

I could feel it without looking fully.

Not approval.

Not disagreement either.

Saji pinched the bridge of his nose. “You make it sound so simple.”

“It’s not simple,” I said. “It’s just still the best option.”

“Bold statement from someone who got us into this.”

“Thanks, Saji.”

“You’re welcome.”

Xenovia-san sat back slightly.

“If we allow you to help, then one condition is absolute.”

I nodded. “Name it.”

“Our identities are not to be revealed. Neither to your school nor to your side’s higher authorities if it can be avoided. We did not come here to create a political alliance.”

Saji made a strangled sound.

Kaichou.

He had been thinking about her for half the meal, and this just made it worse.

“That,” he said, “is exactly what's going to get me killed.”

Irina tilted her head. “Your superior is that frightening?”

“Yes.”

Koneko-chan answered at the same time. “Yes.”

I almost laughed.

Irina looked intrigued.

Xenovia did not.

Kusari-san finally spoke then.

“What do you expect from us specifically?”

All four of us turned toward her.

She sat very straight, one hand near her glass, expression calm enough that only someone paying attention would notice how carefully she was choosing every word.

“If one sword is left to us,” she continued, “what does ‘help’ mean? Information? A coordinated strike? A battlefield distraction? Or are you assuming we can simply destroy a holy sword because you’d prefer not to risk your own?”

Irina blinked.

Saji looked both impressed and surprised.

Koneko-chan didn’t move, but I knew she was listening closely now.

Xenovia answered Kusari-san directly.

“You will not receive one of our swords as a gift. Do not misunderstand.”

“I didn’t.”

“We will engage the stolen Excaliburs together,” Xenovia said. “If you can destroy one, then do so. If not, stay out of the if we need to.”

Kusari-san’s face didn’t change.

“That’s clearer.”

Irina looked between Xenovia and Kusari-san, then asked, “Are you always this severe?”

Kusari-san took a sip of water before answering.

“Only when I’m trying to understand a bad plan.”

That got Koneko-chan’s mouth to twitch.

Saji looked down at the table like he was trying not to let out a panicked laugh. 

I definitely wanted to laugh.

I also wanted this deal.

Because every second we spent here was a second closer to maybe fixing things for Yuuto-san.

That part mattered more.

I leaned in again.

“So we agree to work together?”

Xenovia held my gaze for a long second.

Then nodded once.

“Yes. One sword.”

Irina still looked uneasy, but she didn’t object again.

That was enough for me.

A pulse of relief ran through my body so fast I almost sagged.

We had something.

Not trust.

Not friendship.

Not even a stable alliance.

But something.

And if that “something” gave Yuuto-san a way to face Excalibur without doing it alone, I’d take it.

Across the table, Saji muttered, “I can already see Kaichou’s face when she finds out.”

That nearly killed my relief on the spot.

Koneko-chan looked at him. “Then don’t let her find out yet.”

“That is not how Kaichou works.”

Irina tilted her head again. “I want to meet this Kaichou.”

“No,” Saji said immediately. “You absolutely do not.”

That time I did laugh.

Just a little.

Enough that the tension around the table loosened.

Because even with food, even with a working deal, even with the Church girls sitting across from us instead of trying to cut us down, Yuuto-san was still out there chasing Excalibur.

And every promise we made here was really about that, at least for us.

I looked at Koneko-chan first.

Then Kusari-san.

Then Saji.

“Let’s do this right.”

Koneko-chan nodded once.

Saji groaned like a condemned man.

Kusari-san met my eyes.

“We’ll do it carefully,” she said. “That’s the best I’m offering.”

Saji stared at all of us like he was already being haunted by Kaichou’s future expression.

“That sentence,” he said, voice hollow, “is not making me feel better. Nothing about this is making me feel better.”

Irina looked at him with bright curiosity. “You really are terrified of your President.”

“She’s strict,” Saji muttered. “You don’t understand. Rias-senpai is strict but kind. Kaichou is strict and strict. There is no safe half.”

Koneko-chan glanced at him. “That sounds like your problem.”

“It’s not my fault that she has standards!”

“….It might be….”

That nearly got a laugh out of me, but the knot in my chest was still too tight for it.

Because now that Xenovia and Irina had actually agreed, there was one person missing from the table.

One person this was all really for.

Yuuto-san.

My hand went to my pocket before I thought too hard about it.

The phone felt heavier than it should have.

Kusari-san noticed first.

Her eyes dropped to my hand and then lifted back to my face.

“You’re calling her.”

It wasn’t a question.

I nodded once. “She has to hear this.”

Saji looked alarmed again. “Wait. Right now?”

“When else?”

“In a world where I still have plausible deniability?”

“You never had that.”

“That’s cruel, Hyoudou.”

“…You’re too loud,” Koneko-chan said.

Irina leaned forward slightly over the table. “Your partner with the demonic swords?”

Yuuto-san’s fake smile in the rain flashed through my head.

Then her real face in the clubroom when Xenovia said Excalibur Destruction.

“Yeah,” I said. “Her.”

Xenovia didn’t object.

That told me enough.

I took the phone out and called.

The first ring felt too loud.

The second made Saji look like he was considering escape again.

By the third, even Irina had gone quiet.

Then Yuuto-san picked up.

“……Yes?”

Her voice was calm.

Too calm.

“Yuuto-san,” I said, sitting up straighter without meaning to. “It’s me.”

“I know.”

Right. Stupid opening.

I drew a breath. “Can you come to the family restaurant by the station?”

Silence.

Then:

“Why?”

I looked at Xenovia and Irina across the table.

At Koneko-chan beside me.

At Kusari-san, who was watching with calm interest.

At Saji, who looked like he was trying to hear both my side of the call and the footsteps of his approaching death.

“Because,” I said carefully, “I’m with them.”

I heard Yuuto’s breath shift on the other end.

“With the excalibur wielders?”

“Yeah.”

Another pause.

Then, much lower, “Explain.”

So I did.

Not everything. Not while sitting in public. But enough.

Enough to say we found them.

Enough to say they were willing to let one sword be left to us if we could destroy it.

Enough to say this could become a way for her to reach Excalibur without doing it alone.

The table stayed silent while I talked.

Even Xenovia listened.

When I finished, Yuuto-san didn’t answer immediately.

When she did, her voice had lost some of that dangerous emptiness and become something else.

Careful. Sharp.

“……You’re serious.”

“Yeah.”

“And they agreed?”

“Yeah.”

That earned a breath on the line that sounded almost like disbelief.

Then: “I’ll be there soon.”

The call ended.