Sona, wearing a somber look on her face, looked down as she was suspended in mid-air, wings out.
What was she staring at?
Well, that would be the very wasteland that was left of Kuoh Park.
She watched as the remaining golden dust on the ground slowly scattered into the wind.
'He's gone,' she thought as she then adjusted the unconscious body of Gasper as if he were a sack of potatoes and sighed.
'A now-dead assassin…'
'And an unknown brown-haired boy…'
"Why couldn't it just be a normal night?" She said, feeling the exhaustion slowly creeping up.
'The boy is easy to deal with...but what would the Old Satan faction even be achieving with my death other than big sister's wrath?'
Her eyes narrowed. 'No matter how you look at this… the whole thing is stupid.'
Her sister would mourn if she died, but after she was done, she was bound to go on a warpath to find the one responsible.
Her eyes widened slightly. 'Unless that's what they want… diverting attention maybe? But to divert it from what exactl—'
Rattle!
Sona's eyes immediately snapped onto a tree trunk lying on the ground—
BOOM!
—the trunk exploded outward as a white blur went straight through it, sending splinters everywhere!
Sona's eyes turned sharp. 'Another enemy?!'
She put up her left hand, a blue magic circle coming to life.
.
.
.
Then she blinked as she stared...
And two non-human golden eyes stared back at her.
"A...….cat?"
.
..
*****
"Urrrrrrgh~" Gasper slowly opened his eyes, only to see a wall of white as wind blew across his entire being.
"Am I...…dead?"
As soon as he said that, a long appendage came from the wall of white and slapped him right in the nose.
"Mrrrrrrrrrrreaw~" Shiro meowed as the wind blew through his fur while he rested on Gasper's head.
"..."
Gasper tossed his head back—
"MERAW!!!" Shiro yelled as he almost went flying to his imminent demise, luckily digging his claws into the end of Gasper's sailor suit.
As the wall of white fur retracted, Gasper blinked.
"Huh…the sky?" Gasper looked right at a cloud he was somehow passing.
"Oh! You're finally awake," a voice said from above.
Gasper's eyebrows furrowed.
Then he slowly looked up, and saw a blurry face illuminated by the moon.
"God?" he said, ignoring the headache that only got worse because of it.
Sona blinked. 'Awake, but maybe not fully there…'
"Sorry to say, but I am not the big man upstairs."
"Wait, that voice…Sona?"
She nodded.
Then Gasper finally realized something…
He was flying… no.
They were flying, and Sona was carrying him by the armpits!
"Oh man… did I… pass out?" Gasper said, looking away from her.
"Yes."
'That's… SO embarrassing!' Gasper could practically feel the blush forming before it even hit his face.
He nodded multiple times. "Cool, cool, cool… so how long was I out?"
"Only a couple minutes."
"Oh, well, that's not that bad…" he said.
Sona glanced down at him. "Honestly, with how you look right now, it's a surprise you're even able to open your eyes… not to mention you're running on empty."
A devil pushed to their limit like Gasper had would be out cold for hours at minimum.
And yet here he was.
Talking.
Gasper grinned. "Well... I'm kinda built different."
"…Sure," Sona said, looking forward.
'Built different, huh…'
She exhaled quietly.
'Either way… he was a serious help tonight.'
A sour expression made its way on her face. '…which means I owe Rias one, doesn't it.'
Gasper, completely unbothered by her silence, had already turned his gaze outward—staring at the streetlights of Kuoh sprawling beneath them as they cut through the night air at cloud level.
'Man… people really do look small from up here.'
It never really got old, no matter how many times he'd seen it while flying.
'Yep… small…'
.
.
.
".....OH SHIT!!!!!!!"
Sona flinched at the sound, almost dropping him. "What's wrong?!"
He snapped his head back up toward Sona.
"I….I LEFT SHIRO BEHIND!"
She looked at him in utter confusion. "Oh...I picked him up before we lef—"
"Koneko's gonna be pissed!"
Sona sighed. 'He didn't even try to hear a single word I just said, did he.'
"MERAW!!!!!!!" Shiro called out from somewhere behind him.
Gasper craned his neck around to find the cat barely hanging onto the back of his sailor suit by his claws, fur whipping in the wind.
"Woah.....Shiro, that's not safe, you know."
"MEAW, MEAW, MEAW!!!!!(ARE YOU SERIOUS RIGHT NOW!!!!!!)"
"Yeah, man, you could fall," he said. Completely seriously.
Shiro ground his teeth. "MEAW!!!! (AND WHOSE FAULT IS THAT!!!!)"
"Man, I don't know, but you really do have a habit of putting yourself in weird situations…ACTUALLY NOW that I think about it, where the hell were you?!"
Shiro's face went dead serious. "Meow (I was where I was)."
Gasper just looked at him, not in anger…just disappointment. "Dude… I gave you ONE job…"
"Meow...MEAW! (Well, you see… all's well that ends well, but here you go, always bringing up the past. See, THIS is why Sirzechs gives you bad pulls!!!)" Shiro said, averting his gaze as a cold sweat broke out.
"HEY—I TOLD YOU THAT IN CONFIDENCE!"
Sona blinked slowly as the two of them descended into full chaos below her.
'…What are they even fighting about.'
Unlike Gasper, who had somewhere along the way learned to understand whatever language cats speak…
Sona had not been blessed with the same curse.
So she did the only reasonable thing available to her.
She tuned them out entirely and focused on getting back to Kuoh Academy—
"Whoa, that's not cool, man!"
Blue energy surrounded Gasper as a silver hand, with a glove embroidered with a heart, extended straight out of his chest and grabbed Shiro by the nape.
Shiro, now dangling in front of Gasper's face, looked him dead in the eye.
"Meraw (I meant what I said and I won't take it back.)"
"MHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!" Gasper's eyes bore into Shiro's as his face twisted into something deeply unsettling.
And Shiro matched it perfectly.
They didn't blink.
But even so, both refused to budge.
As this completely normal interaction unfolded, Sona stared at the floating cat with the flat expression of a woman who had already used up her capacity for surprises tonight.
Then she blinked. '…How is the cat floating....?'
"MMMMMMMMMHH!!" Gasper's bloodshot eyes stared right at Shiro.
"MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMRR!!" And Shiro's own bloodshot eyes stared right back!
This was going to take a while…wasn't it…
.
..
*****
Crunch!
Gasper's feet landed softly on the grassy ground, crushing a VERY crunchy leaf under it.
He tried taking a step…
And almost lost his balance as he completed it, his arms waving wildly as he regained his balance.
"Are you sure you're good to walk?" Sona called from behind him.
Gasper took another step. "Ye—ah, I'm sure I just need to gather my strength."
Sona sighed… but she let him be and turned her gaze to the Occult Research Club building they were slowly approaching.
As they got to the front entrance, Shiro hopped on Gasper's shoulder and meowed at him.
Gasper blinked.
And a look of recognition flashed on his face.
He turned to Sona, "Well, this is where we part ways."
Sona looked at him for a second, then nodded.
Gasper turned to walk by the side of the building and gave a one-handed wave without looking back as he took multiple steps forward…
Sona watched him go.
.
.
.
But then he stopped.
"Oh, by the way, about the boy from earlier..." He tilted his head, looking back at her. "Just, um, if you can, do me a favor and leave it to me."
Sona raised a brow.
"It's just I know where to find him, so it would just be faster if I went to deal with it. " Gasper said, cool as a cucumber.
Sona didn't believe a single word that just came out of his mouth…
but.
"Alright... but it would be better if it were done swiftly, Gasper."
The truth of the matter was that she owed him a debt, and if it meant letting one human pass to repay it, then that was fine… After all, she didn't sense anything out of the ordinary about the boy back there, so it should be fine… right?
She turned and pushed open one of the two white doors at the entrance, still looking at Gasper.
Then she opened her mouth. "Do keep this conversation between us."
Gasper nodded. "My lips are sealed. May the wrath of the rock fall upon me if this contract is broken… and all that."
Sona just looked away, a small smile tugging on her lips.
"Right," she said, walking into the building; the doors closed behind her.
Seeing the doors close, Gasper let out a sigh he didn't even know he was holding in, as he stood there staring at the door for a second.
Eventually he turned back around and began walking, his red eyes darkening.
He lifted his head up as he walked, looking at the moon hanging overhead. 'Would it have been better to just have Sona deal with the Issei situation?'
He shook his head. 'Maybe… But Hestia knows I've never been the one to choose the easy path, huh?'
He took a deep breath, the night air pulling at his clothes.
Then slowly he broke into a toothy smile.
"Oh, what to do?"
His eyes burned crimson.
"What to do?"
"I could just wipe his mind…but that's boring~" he sighed. "And kinda a waste of time; after all he'll just get dragged into the supernatural eventually anyway knowing his luck…"
.
.
.
Gasper stopped in place…
'Hold on a second.'
A certain British man popped into his mind.
"Oh… well, yeah, that could work." He continued his walk.
'Well, it could work if Issei wanted it to, that is. He has a Sacred Gear—a strong one at that... but he has an eccentric personality, but then again so does Saji…'
Even with the Sacred Gear unwoken—
—There was no doubt that British bastard would take Issei in!
"MUAHAHAHAH!! IT'S—!… ahem." Gasper stopped himself as he saw the look Shiro was giving him.
"It's perfect. Let the old man do the hard work for me." Gasper said, his voice for some reason going dark and baritone.
He nodded repeatedly as his smile only grew.
Not bad if he said so himself, after all he did say…
He would take care of it.
If Issei said no… then he'd just clean things up and leave him alone…
Gasper was hoping he would say yes...
After all, Torturin—I mean, training Saji was starting to get a bit boring.
Making it to his window, Gasper crouched low and, with a leap—
—He jumped through the open window, parting the dark purple curtains.
'Truly I'm a genius.'
←—TO BE CONTINUED—
*****
AN: mhm, maybe longer might be better...
On a side note...
Thank you netflix...Take your time :)