Mitelt looked at me with a complicated expression before directing her eyes at the Devils behind me, then with an exasperated sigh, she turned her tired eyes at me, clearly having no more physical energy or mental capacity to deal with the situation. "Okay, I accept your conditions."
...
Nodding lightly, I placed the make-shift stone tablet in between us and placed both our hands on it. Upon contact, the runes started to glow lightly, then similar markings glowed at the back of our hands. I then spoke the words that would be my oath towards this angel and I honestly prayed hard that I did not leave any loopholes in my words.
"I, Emiya Shirou, hereby swear in exchange for the oaths you swore upon this tablet, that I shall bestow my protection on you on the grounds that you abide by your own oaths, and I will ensure that you are safe from threats I deemed unjust and see to your needs as honour dictates."
At that moment, the runes on tablet glowed brighter and light started to literally flow out of my end of the tablet and swirl around my hand, quickly settling on my skin and enforcing the rune on my hand. Once I felt the process ending, I motioned to her to do the same. After a moment with an expression that could be considered as 'thoughtful', she nodded and spoke her words.
"I, Mitelt, Fallen Angel of third ranks and former agent of Grigori, hereby swear to be an honourable guest whilst under your protection, and I would avoid taking actions that would be detrimental to you or your allies, and I shall aid you in your time of need. That I shall swear by my name and blood."
Once more, I saw the runes glowed brightly before the one on her hand glowed brightly. A faint shiver from her was all I needed for confirmation that the oath had taken place inside her. I took the makeshift tablet and placed it into my dimensional pocket for safe keeping. Now it would seem that I had to deal with a supernatural creature of the biblical type staying with me, and I had to rethink on getting a place for her.
"The contract is complete. You are safe, for now as least." I stood up and faced the Devils who were looking at the scene with a mixture of surprise and thoughtfulness.
"… I suppose we cannot object." Rias nodded as she relaxed her stance. "I will however have to notify Sona about this, since this took place on our grounds and it is a very delicate situation when dealing with outside factions."
"If you need a witness and some paperwork done, you know where to find me." I waved my hand as I offered the other to Mitelt for her to get up from the floor. "Just as long as I am not asked to pay for damages."
"Ah, Shirou!" I turned to face Ise who was now lifting Asia from the bench. "Thank you for saving Asia. It really means a lot to me." Ise bowed his head with a big smile of gratefulness on his face. I let out a small smile of my own as I pointed at him and the girl. "Make sure you stay out of trouble okay?" After that, I made my way out of the wrecked church with the blond Fallen Angel following me behind.
Well, I could say this would be a job well done, just one last thing to then.
...
I stood before the very gates of doom, taking a few deep breaths to steady myself. Come on Shirou, you have done more difficult jobs and more dangerous missions than this! I mean, you had to go against some of the strongest Servants in both your old world and other parallel universes. You had to go toe to toe with some of the more outrageous Magus, some extremely deranged Executors, particularly persistent Enforcers, and political backstabbing's courtesy of the most influential clans around like the Einzberns. You hunted down Sealing Designations, fended off hordes of the undead, took on some of the Twenty-Seven Apostles, and oh, before I forget, had to fight off in one of the alternate worlds, the FREAKING ROOT BE DAMNED ORT?!
But of course, all that paled to my most risky job of all, one that made every single Magus, True Ancestor, Dead Apostle and other sane individuals' quake in their knees when they heard about it, one which Rin and Luvia were quick to yell at me for even thinking of such a thing, one that made Waver do the most epic face palming in the history of the Association, and it even made the Queen of the Clock Tower raise her eyebrow at me. That task was something so dangerous and so ludicrous that I felt even Archer would need a change of pants if he found out about it.
That particular job in question involved me having to fight against Zelretch, and placing a few spells that would send cream pies to his face, send him into a temporary dimension with laughing gas creatures, and one spell to dance like a mad man.
Yup, you heard it correctly. I, Shirou Emiya, am the only other person apart from Waver to go against Zelretch with some major attitude, sparred against him a few times and also the only guy who dared to prank the Wizard Marshall.
Hah, good times.
My thoughts were interrupted when the door in front of me opened to reveal Ise holding the handle. "Ah, Shirou! Just in time." He beckoned me inside while moving to make room. I let out a light sigh and made my way inside.
I decided a couple of days later after the incident to give an apology to the two groups of Devils considering my outburst back then, but I was not sure how to approach them without setting them off the wrong way. In the end I had to ask Ise to help me arrange a meeting with them so that I could talk face to face. Ise on his part was quite willing to help me; indeed his attitude towards me seemed to have changed over the week and he came to me every now and then just to have a chat, though he would only do so when none of the female student body were around. Apparently they really did a number on him when they heard about him coming to me.
I stepped through the door to find myself feeling an odd sense of Deja-vu, seeing the tables pushed back again to allow room for more people inside. This time though, the environment was a lot more relaxed and cheerful, with new faces added into the mix. From the Student Council group, I saw a blue-haired girl whose name I barely recalled was Yura Tsubasa, a girl who apparently has the reputation for being the 'bishounen' for the ladies due to her somewhat pretty boy facial appearance, a younger girl with twin tails who was apparently the most junior of the lot, and the rough looking boy who was the only male in the group. From the Gremory Group, Ise stood next to the blonde haired girl who recently entered the entourage, with Akeno, Kiba and Rias standing nearby.
"Hello, Emiya-kun. How may we help you?" Sona greeted me as I stopped in front of the table in front of me. She seemed pretty calm considering our previous discussion, but I guess that calm attitude was what made her the Student Council President.
"I have come to offer a peaceful resolution to our previous encounter." I lifted up the small basket I brought along and placed it on the table. "I admit I was a little hasty in my judgement regarding you guys, and after a little research and the events that had occurred over the past week, I guessed you are not quite the evil creatures I had envisioned you to be."
"Hmm… Well as least you understand that." Sona nodded her head lightly. "And thanks to your efforts, much of the fiasco was handled a lot more smoothly if we did not have the evidence to prove that the Fallen Angels have been running loose in our areas of jurisdiction. Though I must question your decision to take in one of the Fallen Angels in question."
"Just because she was one of the enemy agents who had attacked Asia and Ise, that doesn't mean that she cannot be given a second chance." I maintained my stance on that matter. "And let's not forget that I am technically still a little uncertain of the current status quo, so I would need some info from other sources to get the whole picture. No offence to you all, but I will decide based on the views of others as well."
Much to my surprise, Sona actually let out a wry smile and nodded at my decision. "Cautious yet open to reason, and willing to see past other stories to get the whole truth while maintaining a close eye on everyone. I was right about you being a neutral for this situation. Very well, I shall let you take custody of the Fallen Angel Mitelt, provided you keep a close eye on her."
"Glad to help." I offered a grin before turning to the others. "So on that note." I bowed my head really low with my body a perfect 45 degree angle. "I apologised for my outburst and misunderstanding." Some of the members turned to each other with surprised expressions, which was saying something considering I never seen them do that, then again the sight of me doing this was perhaps new to them.
"It is okay, Emiya-kun." Reya said as she offered a smile. "I supposed it is also partially our fault that we gave you that type of misunderstanding."
"For my part, I don't know much about the argument between you guys, but I do know that Shirou is a good guy!" Ise threw in his comment. "Heck, he saved both mine and Asia's, and that is more than enough to trust him." The blonde girl next to him nodded happily while looking at me with such a radiant smile that it made all my worries disappear.
"Well, now that we got it all sorted out, what say we eat these treats?" Rias motioned to the food basket. "I for one am curious of the food that is making Koneko here looking at the basket with such longing." She added while raising an amused eyebrow at the little girl who was looking at it with a very intense stare, and unless I was imagining it, there are a bit of drool threatening to drip from her mouth.
Best not to make the little one wait too long. I opened up the basket to reveal a small array of sandwiches and snacks for everyone to eat, and I made doubly sure to make extras for Koneko. From what I have seen, she would certainly give Saber a run for her money in the food-eating department. I couldn't help spouting a smile at the sight of Koneko jumping forward and grabbing each of everything before everyone else, and making her way back to her small corner where she dumped her stash on the table and started to work her way through.
"Oh man, this is so good!" Ise was literally crying tears of bliss as he worked through the sandwiches that he got his hands on. The others showed varying expressions to show their happiness as they sampled each of the items I procured.
"Hmm, so not only a wizard in hiding, you are also a talented cook? So many talents indeed." Rias mused as she sampled a macaroon. "Rias, don't even think about it." Sona adjusted her glasses while looking impossibly adorable with a piece of chiffon cake on her plate. "I have my eye on him for some time, and you are not taking him without a fight."
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Hey guys I really need you to throw some power Stones ;)
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