"Hahahahahaha!"
"Can you stop laughing?" Yuuji asked, embarrassed.
"Hahaha, but, Yuuji..." said Lala, stopping her laughter as she wiped away her tears. "You forgot that teenagers study in the morning, basically that whole fight earlier was pointless haha."
"In my defense, we arrived at sunset. How was I supposed to know it's morning here?"
"By looking at the sky?" Lala asked with such naturalness that it made it difficult for Yuuji to tell whether she was teasing him or being serious.
"What about you? Why didn't you look at the sky?"
"But I did?" said Lala. "It's just that you never told me we were looking for a teenager or I would've reminded you."
"We're here" said Yuuji, choosing to avoid answering.
"Hehe" Lala giggled before looking at the imposing-looking high school in front of them. "So, do we just go in?"
"Impossible, this place is controlled by two powerful demon families."
"And since we directly caused the current world situation, which, even though we don't know exactly what it is, includes an organization called the Anti-Demonic Alliance... they definitely hate us, right?"
"I love how smart you are" Yuuji nodded in satisfaction.
"Hehe." Lala smiled proudly before pulling out two small hairpins identical to the one she wore in her hair. "Here, they'll hide our auras so we can blend in."
"Useful as always" Yuuji smiled, putting on the hairpin and walking straight through the front gate.
...
"Hahahahahaha!"
Less than ten minutes later, Lala was laughing out loud again, unable to stop.
"You find this situation amusing?" asked a teenage girl with short shoulder-length black hair and glasses, sitting across from them.
Yuuji looked at the scene and sighed to himself.
'I'm really not functioning properly today, huh? Between whatever I did in this world and the group in the other world, I have too much on my mind.'
"It seems like you have a lot on your mind?" the girl asked, noticing.
"Yeah."
"I see. Perhaps you can tell us about it right after explaining why you entered a private institution without permission despite not being a student or a relative of anyone here."
"I came to see a relative" Yuuji tried to say, but was interrupted more firmly than before.
"Impossible, you're not related to any of the students at this school" she said with a confidence only possible if she truly knew the faces of all the relatives here.
Yuuji wouldn't believe it from anyone else, but considering she was the responsible student council president as well as a high-ranking demon from one of the 72 noble families of Hell, Sona Sitri... the situation changed.
"Relative is just a figure of speech, he's a very close friend" Yuuji immediately corrected himself.
"And this couldn't wait until that person leaves this afternoon?" Sona asked suspiciously.
"It's urgent."
"You don't look like someone with anything urgent to communicate" Sona raised an eyebrow.
"It's not that kind of urgent" said Yuuji, no longer having any idea what he was saying.
"..."
"Fine, I'll take you there and the three of us can talk. Who is this person?"
"It's... can't I go alone?"
Yuuji nodded in satisfaction when Sona finally seemed to believe him, at least a little, until he realized that bringing Sona along would ruin the entire objective.
"No, you can't" Sona smiled more firmly than before.
"Hah." Yuuji sighed tiredly before extending a hand toward Lala, who was still watching the situation while holding back her laughter.
"Eh? Yuuji?"
"We're leaving" said Yuuji.
"What are yo..." Sona didn't finish speaking when she saw a black cloth suddenly attack her.
She jumped backward to dodge it, stopping easily in midair thanks to her wings.
"Tsubaki!"
Tsubaki Shinra, the vice president, didn't wait for orders from her king before attacking, but with a single strike from Lala she was sent flying and crashed into the wall behind her.
Before they could react and move, the two had already disappeared from the scene.
"Tsubaki, are you alright?!" Seeing they were gone, Sona went to check on her queen.
"Yeah, but..." said Tsubaki as she stood up. "Who were they?"
"I don't know, but I'll find out" Sona replied without taking her eyes off the office's open window.
...
"Hahaha, Yuuji, how can you forget that it's illegal to enter a school without permission?" Lala laughed.
"Ugh, don't ask, I just forgot" Yuuji complained.
"By the way, Yuuji, I thought of something."
"What is it?"
"Well, if that girl is from one of those two noble families you mentioned earlier, why don't we just tell her we came for Issei?"
"Why would we do that?" Yuuji asked, confused.
"Well, I don't know exactly how it works, but since the school is controlled by both of them, they should have the same position, right? And if there were someone here, wouldn't both of them want to recruit him?
In the end, the decision would be Issei's, and since you said Rias is the most popular girl in the school, wouldn't the pervert Issei choose her?"
"..." Yuuji said nothing, simply staring at Lala in surprise without even blinking.
"Alright, you get to do the planning from now on. I'm not thinking very clearly today" he decided immediately.
"Oh?" Lala smiled before deciding. "Alright then, let's just disguise ourselves and go back in."
But Yuuji stopped her.
"Impossible, trust me, if there's anyone capable of figuring out our identities in seconds based on their memories, it's Sona. That girl spends more time with books than people, and if there are records of us in human history, there'll be even more in demonic records.
With our identities exposed, Sona won't let anyone in from now on, and besides..." Yuuji wanted to continue explaining but saw Lala looking at him in frustration and closed his mouth.
"It's my turn to make the plan" she said with a pout before starting to explain. "It doesn't matter if they discover us, even better. Since she knows who we are, she'll ask the other family that controls this school for help, which is our target, right? Let's just tell them in front of everyone that we came for Issei like I said before."
Yuuji hesitated. "But won't they think it's a trap? That Issei is some kind of spy?"
"Yuuji!" Lala said through clenched teeth.
"Alright, alright, sorry, let's go with your plan." Yuuji raised his hands in surrender and decided to follow her instructions.
...
Minutes later, after spending some time sitting nearby without going too far away, Lala looked up at the sky above the school and smiled.
"Let's go."
"Yeah" Yuuji nodded.
After passing through the obvious barrier around the place and entering the building completely isolated from the school, Yuuji and Lala saw a group appear in front of them immediately.
'Wasn't this thing only used as an illusion in the original anime? How is it separating space here?' he wondered mentally.
"So you came back" said Sona as if merely confirming the obvious.
"Are those them?" asked a red-haired girl with impressive curves standing beside her.
Besides those two, there were several other people present. However, on Rias's side there was only one more person, while Sona's side had many more.
But Yuuji paid attention to none of them. He only looked at Lala, waiting for her next move.
"Yes, they're the Outsiders. The ones who brought our race to its current situation" Sona replied with hatred.
"Over here, over here." Lala interrupted the conversation between the two, raising her hand like a student who wanted to speak. "We just came back to tell you something."
"And why would we listen to anything you have to say? The Maou will be here soon and you'll die" said Sona.
Without being intimidated by the anger directed at them, Lala continued speaking. "So, Issei Hyoudou is pretty powerful. You should recruit him."
"Why..."
"Bye bye!" Before Sona could repeat her question about why they should listen, Lala said goodbye and grabbed Yuuji before starting to run.
"Stop!" Sona shouted without success.
Seeing that they truly intended to leave, she attacked immediately. The attack was repelled by a wall of earth that suddenly appeared, separating the two sides.
"Why didn't any of you attack? Now they've escaped?" she asked angrily toward the others.
"Sona, calm down, they were acting way too strange. Who knows what they were planning?" Rias tried to calm her.
"It doesn't matter what they were planning! If your older brother had arrived, he could've captured them and... and... clear my sister's name."
"Sona, I..."
"It's fine" Sona interrupted. "Sorry, I got too emotional."
"It's alright. Your lifelong goal is to clear Serafall's name, so I understand how you feel when facing the culprits."
"You don't understand. You don't know what it's like to hear people whispering behind my sister's back, cursing her, saying she's responsible for the demons' current situation, saying she should die, that she deserves the worst. You don't know what it feels like to see her smile every time she looks at me, knowing it's not real, knowing how much she's suffering."
"I... I'm sorry" Rias apologized, not knowing what else to say.
The place fell silent for several seconds until Rias spoke again.
"About Issei Hyoudou..."
"Don't even think about it!" Sona snapped. "It has to be some kind of trap."
...
"Seriously? That was your entire plan?" Yuuji said incredulously.
Lala simply laughed before walking over to Yuuji and kissing him.
"Trust me" she said with a confident smile.
______________________________________
+15 chapters in advance on Patreon.
p-atreon.com/IAMME26
(just delete the hyphen)
80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)