Volume 7 Chapter 396 - Cooperation (DxD Side)
"I wanted to see that." Serafall started chuckling while imagining Azazel's and Grayfia's frustrated faces compared to Kisuke's grinning face.
Akeno maintained her poker face because she really saw that scene and wanted to laugh out loud. Despite not being there, he still seemed capable of upsetting someone with his methods.
Akeno then continued her story. Sirzechs renovated Issei's house and asked everyone from Rias' peerage to move in for security purposes. With them living in one place, it would be easier to guard and monitor their surroundings.
However, Akeno somehow felt uncomfortable with that and rejected the Devil King's offer. Since they wouldn't accept it without any good reason, Akeno told them that she would be staying at Kisuke's shop so, in case he came back, she would be able to inform them immediately.
After a bit of persuasion, pleading, and help from her best friend, Rias, Sirzechs, and Azazel accepted her proposal.
When Akeno first came a few days ago, she was shocked to see Ophis quietly standing in the middle of the living area. She felt conflicted for a while but ultimately decided not to report it and just took care of her by giving her some snacks that she seemed to never get bored with.
These past few days, Ophis would silently come and Akeno too would silently bring out some snacks, both handmade and store-bought, "And that's how I came here. I didn't really take care of her as I was just giving her some food. Most of the time, she's not here."
Serafall smiled and said, "No. You've been taking care of her and I thank you for that. Besides, you also did a great job of keeping her existence here a secret. She's our only chance if we want to find Ki-tan and the rest." Serafall patted Ophis while saying so.
Then suddenly, Ophis gave a follow-up, "And Idiot-Red… He can…" As painful for her to admit, only Great Red could assist them in finding her favorite worshipper as his domain was the dreams and he probably had a way to find his real location through the dreams.
Serafall and Akeno were both shocked when Ophis suddenly spoke but they stayed quiet because of her words. A few seconds later, Serafall asked Ophis, "Idiot-Red… Do you mean the Great Red?"
Ophis only nodded at her and continued her snacking.
Serafall and Akeno looked at each other to see how they could use this information. But they shook their heads a few seconds later as they didn't have a way to contact the mysterious True Dragon.
"How about this, Akeno-chan?" Serafall suddenly said, "Could you help me searching for them?"
"Of course. I've been searching for them too, assisting you is only natural."
"No. Not that. Your search will be different this time around because you won't be reporting any of your findings to anyone except for me."
"…" Akeno stayed silent for a while before nodding, "Understood. I think that would be for the best."
"Great~. I can cast some illusionary spells so that others would think that we're not doing anything suspicious here, but we'll need a base of operations outside of their monitoring." Serafall started thinking of places they could use and Akeno also helped her with it, but every place seemed to be traceable, and only in the Dimensional Gap, would they be able to hide effectively.
While they were in a dilemma, Ophis suddenly grabbed the hem of their clothes. As they looked towards her, Ophis suddenly tapped her foot on the floor and a magic circle suddenly came into being, engulfing the whole shop.
While they were confused and shocked at what was happening, Ophis suddenly teleported out with the two of them in tow and reappeared in the familiar desolated scenery of the underground training facility, "This is…" Akeno muttered in surprise.
"W-what? Where is this?" Meanwhile, Serafall could only look around in confusion as this was the first time she came to this place.
"Urahara-kun's secret base," Akeno answered her.
"Secret base!? This big!? And where exactly is this?" Serafall asked as she flew up to observe the surroundings.
Akeno snapped out of her dazzlement then took out her wings and flew in the direction of the living quarters.
"Where are you going?" Serafall asked while following her.
"To their living quarters! We might be able to find some clues!"
Leaving Ophis behind, the two of them arrived at the ruins where the house was supposed to have stood up, "It's been destroyed…" Akeno muttered at the scene.
Serafall, on the other hand, hurriedly dug up the scene using her magic to investigate it but didn't find anything useful aside from the space itself around it being incredibly disturbed, "Just what happened here?"
Sighing, Serafall immediately changed gears and faced Akeno, "Either way, we found a good place where we could gather things without anyone knowing."
Ophis then reappeared beside them and stared at the rubble. It was unknown what was on her mind.
"Ophis-chan, what was that magic from earlier before we left?" Serafall asked as she arrived beside her.
"Concealment… The Hat taught me how to activate it… When I'm eating cookies there without them." Ophis answered simply.
'A large concealment magic so that someone could eat some cookies in private? What the hell?' Serafall thought but immediately shook the outrageousness away as it wasn't needed right now.
Turning back to Akeno, Serafall gave her first instruction, "Akeno-chan, for your first mission, I want you to go to the Underworld and get into contact with someone. My peerage is under scrutiny so they can't move freely and I don't know which one of my underlings I can trust so I can only ask you."
"I would like to follow your orders, but what about summer vacation? We plan to go to the Underworld to train and I doubt I can get away from all the eyes."
"That's easy~. Don't join them~."
"But…"
"Since they'll discover that I came to Ki-tan's shop sooner, you can just say that I'll be the one training you in exchange for you doing the household chores. Even though I don't have authority anymore, I don't think they'll ignore my request."
Akeno's eyes widened and she smiled, "I see. Then I will inform Rias later."
"Great~. For your first assignment, I would like you to go to the Belial territory and try to contact Diehauser Belial."
"Belial? What for?"
"It seems that Ki-tan trusts them. I wanted to contact them earlier, but with all the monitoring on me, I couldn't compromise that connection."
"Got it. I'll immediately make my preparations."
Editors:
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