[Hajime POV]
It took several weeks to prepare for one of the major pre-canon events, but I was finally done.
What was this canon event?
The Nekoshou Incident.
The Nebiros clan used Kuroka as a test subject to create an artificial Super Devil.
As one of the Six Extra Houses of Lucifer, they were loyal to the Old Satan Faction.
However, even with Rizevim's support, fighting Sirzechs and Ajuka is impossible.
Of all Super Devils currently alive, Rizevim is by far the weakest of them.
He was the oldest, but he preferred causing chaos over anything else.
The whole reason why he built the Khaos Brigade was to draw in all the unstable magicians from every faction and let them loose on the world, using Ophis' power to give them an edge against the many faction leaders.
Even still, he didn't act himself until Issei helped him learn about ExE, preferring to watch his minions wreak havoc.
For his special magic, it was far weaker than either Sirzechs' or Ajuka's.
Sirzechs' Power of Destruction was so powerful that it was believed he was born on the verge of ultimate-class. From there, he led the Anti-Satan faction in the Devil Civil War, further sharpening his edge until he reached his current level.
After the civil war, fights at his level were much harder to come by, but by then, Sirzechs was already a firmly established transcendent-class.
Ajuka was different. While he was born with large reserves, they were less than Sirzechs' by an entire level. What made him so powerful was his enhanced brain.
For Ajuka, he absorbed knowledge like he was an Oxiclean.
He delved into the secrets of magic from the moment he learned to read, having similar magic knowledge to the average 100-year-old peak high-class when he was only 10.
During the civil war, he pushed himself further, eventually discovering the beginnings of what would become the Kankara Formula. This special magic used an individual's knowledge to manipulate reality at a fundamental level.
In simpler terms, it was human calculation magic mixed with devil imagination magic on steroids.
Remaking the Kankara Formula wasn't impossible; countless people had tried over the centuries, but Ajuka's brain was so much more advanced that, among those with enough knowledge to use even the most rudimentary technique, few could withstand the strain for even a second.
He was literally built different.
Comparing them to Rizevim, and he honestly didn't compare. His grand technique, the Sacred Gear Canceller, was simple in concept but difficult to execute.
It was simply a large barrier that cut off the connection to Heaven that all sacred gears had, preventing the users from accessing them, which required some knowledge about how the system worked.
Aside from that, Rizevim was just a more talented mage.
He had centuries of knowledge and practice, and he was one of the more talented devils in existence.
Still, he wasn't the most capable.
During both the Great War and the Devil's Civil War, Rizevim sat it out. Some called him a coward, but he found the wars pointless. Either way, it would be him fighting for others, something he rejected entirely.
Bringing the subject back to the Nebiros clan, with Rizevim unwilling to fight, their side needed a Super Devil or two to compete with the New Satans.
His tests involving Kuroka centered on her species' innate talent for Youjutsu and Senjutsu, a rare trait among yokai.
With her talent and abilities, the Nebiros clan believed they could turn Kuroka into a Super Devil.
After a certain point, the Nebiros clan needed a new test subject, which led to Kuroka's estrangement from her sister.
I, obviously, was planning on intervening.
I knew where the data would be (Shirone's hairpin), which meant my focus would be on saving the two catgirls.
Ignoring the morality of the experiments, if they succeeded, the Old Satan Faction would get a major power-up.
There was a reason why every faction leader and their mother had experiments bent on copying sacred gears. Their dominance in power and usability was unmatched, and managing to replicate even twice critical would drastically change how any war was fought.
Clans like the Nebiros, though more focused on living experiments, like Kuroka, still prioritized strengthening themselves.
Even if the data were inaccurate or incomplete, leaving it would simplify future research for whoever could access it.
I was setting off with Monet and Jenny to the Underworld Transit Hub.
Monet was nearly an ultimate-class, and I figured that one good life-or-death fight would push her over the edge.
For Jenny, I imagined that all the lab's technology would make good takeovers. Even though I planned to steal everything I could, it was better to bring her so that she could takeover whatever we needed to destroy before we left.
At the Underworld Transit Hub, located under Tokyo, it was quite busy.
Teleporting to and from the underworld was strictly prohibited due to potentially ending up in devil, fallen, or other territory.
It wasn't banned, per se, but for those who weren't associated with the territory, it was considered an act of espionage.
Rias' and Sona's peerages were able to teleport in due to the rating game, but during the summer, they had to enter legally to register themselves within their respective territories.
Of course, there were wild areas filled with magical beasts that were unclaimed, but they were dangerous, so teleporting there was only for those confident in survival.
Monet, Jenny, and I got on the train headed for Lilith, the devil's capital.
The distance between Lilith and the Nebiros' territory was far, but I wasn't going to head directly there anyway.
For my first time in the underworld, I planned to have a somewhat normal 'vacation'. Go sightseeing, eat local foods, you know, tourist stuff.
From there, we'd go from territory to territory until we reached Nebiros' lands, free the two Nekoshou and anyone else they might experiment on, then continue the vacation for a little longer so it wasn't as if we left immediately after the final stop on our trip had a crisis.
-----
The train ride was long, taking 10 hours, which is more time than it takes to fly over the Atlantic Ocean.
I got the three of us a private compartment so I could stop any devils from trying to reincarnate Jenny and Monet.
Though Monet and I were disguised, using our assimilations to transform ourselves, Monet was still a beautiful woman, as was Jenny.
In recent years, Sirzechs and the other Satans have tried stopping forced reincarnation, but it's still a common occurrence.
The main person against it is Serafall, who constantly has to deal with other factions angered that a devil took someone away from their designated afterlife by turning them into a devil.
Still, despite their attempts, some nobles simply don't care.
After all, in their eyes, devils are the only true superior species, so they consider their actions like giving someone a blessing.
Even trusting the two of them being able to handle themselves, attacking someone trying to reincarnate them meant attacking a noble, which carried political problems I'm not sure Monet or Jenny would think about in the moment.
As we set our bags down, Jenny hopped onto one of the beds and lay back.
"Ahhh, it's been a while since I've ridden a train for a big mission. Last time was back in Blue Pegasus when I took a mission in the south of Fiore for a client who needed a muse for their book."
"Was it a good book?"
"Nope, just some cliche romance novel with a passive protagonist. It's surprising how bad it was compared to some of the stuff I've read here.
I mean, I thought I'd seen romance novels before, but the stuff Japan has is insane! Honestly, I'm kind of glad most of it doesn't exist back home, otherwise who knows what kind of freeaky stuff people would ask me to transform into." Jenny shuddered in disgust at the thought. "What about you two?"
Monet was the first to respond. "There wasn't anything like this back in my world. The closest thing to this train would be the sea train at Water 7, and that wasn't exactly for pirates like me. Most of our time was spent on boats, sailing for days if not weeks. It's shocking how advanced this world is by comparison, traveling between dimensions in only a few hours."
"I have memories of long trips, but this'll probably be the longest one I've personally been on."
"Speaking of, I've been wondering about those assimilations of yours. What are they like? Is it like having someone talking to you in your head or something?" Jenny asked.
"No, it's more like deja vu, like you've already done something before and are experiencing it again," Monet nodded, agreeing with the explanation. "It doesn't change who you are or what you've experienced, at least not in a way that permanently affects you, but it can consume you if you let it.
One of my assimilations was Monet's former boss, Doflamingo. The guy has something called Conqueror's Haki, a spiritual domination ability that can suppress anyone weaker than you.
When I was assimilating him, there were a few times when I felt I was losing control after I unlocked it. To progress in the assimilation, I need to display his power and personality in my actions, so past a certain point, you almost feel like you're becoming them. If not for the fact that it's like method acting, assimilating him would've been much harder."
"Lyon was the same. His hatred for demons was consuming at times. At one point, when hunting a stray devil, I nearly went berserk when attacking it, and nearly got pierced through the stomach for it if not for Hajime sending a clone with me."
"So that's what that was? I thought it just enraged you with its taunts."
"While I won't deny I was upset, it was more about the rage toward demons Lyon had that caused it."
"And I wasn't told because?"
"You were busy, and nothing happened, so I didn't feel it was necessary."
Hearing that, I got up to flick Monet in the head.
"Don't do something that dumb again," I said flatly.
"But Hajime-sama-"
"No buts. If something has a chance of compromising your fighting ability, you tell me. I thought that it was a unique thing to me, potentially something dangerous, but unrelated to the assimilations. What would happen if someone else died because of the assimilations in the future?"
Monet sighed, "Yes, Hajime-sama, I understand."
"Good."
-----
An hour passed, and the three of us were in the middle of a game of Uno using house rules.
"Ugh! This is so dumb! How is it that both of you keep managing to skip my turn!" Jenny yelled.
"Have you ever considered getting better cards?" I joked.
"That's all I've been doing! I can't play them, though, because someone," she turned to glare at Monet, "keeps skipping my turn!"
As she said that, Monet slowly placed another skip card down. "Uno."
"Aaaggghh!"
-----
Two more hours had passed since Jenny threw the cards out the window and insisted on something else.
After learning that one of her new favorite stories had an anime, she demanded we watch it after putting her through so much suffering.
We were halfway through the only season when one of the more emotional scenes came on, prompting Jenny to hug Monet and me while crying, talking about how touching it was.
"And then when the dog came back with a new friend, UWAAAH!"
Monet seemed to enjoy the story as well, though given that her facial expression was as cool as her devil fruit, it was difficult to tell.
I personally wasn't the biggest fan since the story felt similar to a movie I'd seen with Yasaka and Kunou, but it was drawn out over an entire season.
-----
Halfway through the trip, Jenny and Monet had fallen asleep.
I was still up, keeping watch.
Just because we paid to enter devil territory doesn't mean I believe they'll leave us alone.
Even disguised, they should be able to tell I'm ultimate-class at the bare minimum, while Monet and Jenny's strength is more measurable.
While it may seem extreme to take so many precautions, I don't want to get on the devil's radar before our mission starts.
To pass the time, I played a few games of solitaire, only winning a single game out of over a dozen before calling it quits and switching to Angry Birds on my phone.
-----
When Monet woke up an hour later, she offered to switch shifts with me, something I accepted to get some rest before entering Lilith.
Shutting my eyes, I fell asleep in minutes, resting until I heard the loud sound of a horn telling the passengers we arrived.
Jenny had just woken up with me.
Groggily rubbing her eyes, Jenny sat up on her bed, her hair looking extremely messy.
"Are we there yet?" Jenny's voice slurred. One thing they had learned over the last year was that she hated mornings.
A few months ago, Monet had knocked on Jenny's dorm, asking her to accompany her on a mission. It was early in the morning, though, and Jenny was particularly crabby after being unnecessarily woken.
If not for Monet's elementalization, she would've been hit by a laser from one of Jenny's takeovers.
"We're pulling into the station now," Monet responded. "You might want to start brushing your hair now before you leave," she teased.
Jenny turned to her mirror and shrieked at her bedhead.
It was one thing to have messy hair in private, but now Monet and Hajime had seen it.
Her only saving grace was that it was only them, rather than the train of people she was on.
Hurriedly grabbing a brush, Jenny quickly started to smooth out her hair while Hajime put everything that wasn't a carry-on away, and Monet put away everything else.
__________
Author's Note:
Thanks for reading; I'll see you next time!