DxD: Celeste 10

DxD: Celeste 10

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Commissioned by Althero and Chaosbrain

Wordcount: 2000

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“I’ll be honest, from your stories about the Hero Faction, I thought that you’d kill them.”

“I thought about it, but they’re younger than I thought, so there might be some hope for them.”

I met with Azazel in a swanky little place in Napa Valley. We were going through several courses of food over five or so hours in private. I’d asked Hyoudou if he wanted to tag along, but he apparently looked the place up on what this world called the internet, and refused after seeing the price tag. Next time, I was just going to drag the kid along. It’s fun ruining his sensibilities with the high life, and it’ll help him out later in life when he gets his checks.

I believed in the Sheridan Creighton style of hiring Sacred Gear users.

The stronger they are, the more money you throw at them.

I bet the kid’ll faint when he turns eighteen and finds out he’s a millionaire.

Not in Yen, either.

Dollars.

I’d pay him in credits if I could, but that didn’t exist here.

What was I talking about again?

Oh, right.

Taking on one of the greatest threats to world stability in an afternoon and not even coming close to dying, while having a nice meal.

“I think I liked it better when you were afraid and worried. Now, you look giddy and it's terrifying.” Azazel complained and shook his head. He was enjoying his meal, but I could tell he was trying to pierce my mind and discern my true intentions. I messed with him by noticing and pulling my specially-curated plate of food closer. No. Our relationship is a lot better now, but I’m not sharing my duck consommé. “Do I want to know what you’re planning to do next, and get stressed trying to help, or can I just take a step back and let you handle everything?”

“You’re my kid, so I think it’s impossible for you to just step back.”

“Damn. Beaten the moment I was born.” Azazel grumbled and let his plate get taken away and replaced with another. It was our fifteenth little dish for the day and we both had different ones precisely crafted according to our tastes. A symphony of indulgence, made with seasonal ingredients at their absolute best, that I really wanted to share with my friends back home. “So, what’s your plan, father?”

I cut into my filets of duck for a second, before answering.

“I think I’ll extract their Sacred Gears and store them for a rainy day. I’ll fix up the extraction system, so that they don’t die of course. Then, we can see about getting them situated and maybe lead productive lives in the future.” I brainstormed aloud and Azazel raised an eyebrow. “Hm? What’s the issue?”

“Monitoring a bunch of extremely talented humans for the rest of their lives would be difficult. Not only that, but you gave out Sacred Gears to people who are already excellent… and who could get other humans to join them.” Azazel pointed out the little flaw in my plan. My surprise at his words must’ve been obvious, since he sighed. “Now’s the part where you tell me that you’ve somehow solved that problem in your dimension by putting thousands of cameras everywhere.”

“We respect people’s privacy in their homes, but criminals out of rehabilitation facilities are monitored by AI for a few years. They also have to meet with an assigned handler every week to talk about things.” The Hero Faction were bunch of miscreants who’ve broken a few laws. They didn’t get their combat experience from nowhere, and I was sure that they subscribed to the same superiority complex as the one in my world. It’s perfectly valid for them to be monitored and have their ability to use weapons taken from them. “Also, we can seal away their magic. I’m sure that you have that ability. When our soldiers are on leave or are going to retire, we give them civilian augmentations and seal anything above self-defense magic. Having post-duty people walking around with military-grade magic and assets would be stupid.”

Azazel’s eye twitched a little at my statements, probably because I was dropping more than a few facts on him that he’d rather do without.

“…We can do what you’re asking for with sealing magic away, but we’ll need help establishing the surveillance system you want… and that’ll probably be illegal here, or at least get a lot of resistance from the public.”

“There’s no laws against it yet and there’ll only be resistance if people find out, before they realize how much it helps them.”

“And, I forgot that you were raised by a secret organization that operated without any checks and balances.”

Azazel shook his head, before laying out his true thoughts on the issue.

“Look, I’m all for sealing their magic, but I think that going to monitor their every move like you’ve planned, then we might as well lock them up.” Azazel laid out his point. He thought his words through thoroughly, so I knew that he was being series about the situation. “How about just banding them together and putting them somewhere we can personally watch them? What about Hyoudou’s school?”

“The school with two heiresses to Pillar Families?”

“The school that’s being monitored by Hell, and where Hyoudou goes to class every day. And, the school in the town where you keep all your stuff.”

“That sounds like a bad idea out of some anime. It’d work if I was the principal of the school or something, but I’m too busy.” I waved that idea aside, but considered Azazel words while gratefully accepting my latest dish. Venison and a light salad. It smelled amazing and I looked forward to eating something I could’ve never hoped to otherwise. “Alright, then, how about go a bit easier on them. Passive surveillance through a mark, just so we could ping them if we can’t find them, and they check in with someone you trust every week or two. They get separated, put into schools, and we see that they get housed and fed.”

Azazel considered the idea, and I could tell that he didn’t like it, but I spoke up.

“Hey, it’s better than continuous surveillance and it doesn’t get them jailed. It’s honestly the lightest punishment I’m willing to give.”

Azazel relented at that and grudgingly nodded.

However, instead of letting him bottle it up, I gave him a nod to continue talking.

I was willing to listen.

“… They’re just kids. That’s why I was thinking about what we should do. They didn’t decide to become human supremacists or wanted to be born with their talent” Azazel made a good point and I readily nodded with it. “Do you really think they’ll be as terrible as the Hero Faction in your world? There’s no way these kids have the funds to capture and dominate multiple species and hunt them for sport. Let alone create Demons. Treating them like the monsters you fought is almost the same as punishing them for what they can be, instead of who they are.”

Hah.

Yeah.

I see why Azazel would fall when my Old Testament self was in charge.

My kid was too nice.

“You have a good point, but it’s still too dangerous to keep them together in one place and give them too much freedom. How about a meeting every month and a phone call that they need to answer every few days instead of a tracker?” I could still track them through the line. Heck, I could track them through the phone I planned on giving them, but Azazel seemed relieved when I took the magical marking off the table. “Still, don’t you think you’re treating them too nicely? They’ve killed people who were just minding their own business. These are a bunch of people who kill just to get more power, you know?”’

Azazel laughed and shook his head at that.

“Yeah. I know. I’ve met a lot of people who do that… and I’ve even helped a few of them try and be better. Everyone and everything eventually changes, father. I think you’re the best example of that.” Azazel raised his wine glass at me, before taking a sip after I raised my own. Sharp, acidic, and smooth. It complemented my meal very well. Azazel smirked at my lack of response. “What? No comment about changing more than a “bit” down below?”

I considered my next set of words towards my son very thoroughly, weighing my relationship with him on one hand and the hilarity that was sure to ensue on the other.

Ah, well, it was time for some humor after all the serious negotiations we undertook.

“Keep talking like that, and I’ll make your gender-changing ray gun permanent and use it on you.”

“I sincerely apologize for my foolish words.”

“Apology accepted… and just to be clear: my sex life back home is fantastic.”

“… can you make my memory-erasing ray gun permanent and use THAT one me?”

“Yes, but I don’t want to.”

“I thought you moved past Old Testament punishments!”

Azazel groaned and shook his head, but he and I soon shared a chuckle and soon returned to our meal.

The Hero Faction was dealt with and we could celebrate.

Up next was Lucifer, which I wasn’t looking forward too, but thankfully I had time for that.

At least, I hoped that I had time for that.

…

Azazel and I went over how to deal with the Hero Faction using our original discussion as a template. We took their Sacred Gears from them and sealed their magic, which was a complicated affair, but Azazel had all sorts of things up his sleeve and I was present to fix up the gaps between my world and his.

Surprisingly, though, our investigations on a few of the kids we captured turned up interesting results.

Le Fay Pendragon and Jeanne were recent members or just vaguely affiliated. The former was just present to look after her brother and the latter recently joined to fight with fellow Sacred Gear users. Granted, Jeanne might’ve eventually killed someone since she was looking for a fight, she hadn’t and essentially joined up with her peers. Le Fay Pendragon followed along just to make sure her brother didn’t die.

So, while all the others were going to be scattered, there was some hope for those two.

Le Fay Pendragon had decent enough skill and was willing to work with us in exchange for leniency on her brother’s sentencing.

Jeanne, meanwhile, had a strong Sacred Gear that could create Holy Swords and create Holy Constructs from those swords.

A budding mage with a great lineage and an anti-Devil Sacred Gear were both hard to pass up with my plans… and Azazel’s suggestion during our meal came to mind and gave me a fun idea.

Hyoudou could look after two girls his age who I could train alongside him into a fighting force, right?

The more I thought about it, the better it sounded, and when I told Azazel he called me a conniving bastard… and asked what he could do to help.

Heh.

The kid wanted a harem, right?

Well, as his teacher, I should help him try and reach his dreams!