Who Da Boss Lady? 8

Commissioned by InfiniteChaosRai

Who Da Boss Lady?

Chapter 8

-VB-

Sona took in a deep breath and let it out. 

She had to do this. 

If she didn’t do this and her sister found out later, then she was in for a lot of trouble. Once the rest of the Satans found out, she was going to get a visit from Satan Sirzechs Lucifer himself for daring to put his sister, Rias, in danger.

Because she, as one of the owners of the devil territory here in Kuoh Town, was mandated by law to report incidents of “Stray Devils”. 

Except she knew they weren’t “true” devils like she, Rias, Trueborns, and Reincarnated Devils were. They used to be something else native to Japan but the recent influx of devils into Japan, one of the safer nations for them due to the inherent anti-Christian nature of its culture and history, had increased the background devil energy. They were “devil-adjacent” monsters that were transformed human souls that had too much interaction with that background level devil energy. 

Or in a place like Kuoh Town, where that devil energy was the strongest of all background energies. 

Whatever it was that the devil energy did to the unknown souls, it turned them into a “devil” but also a monster that cared for very little and nothing at all. They represented the worst of what true devils were.

Pride without caution. 

Gluttony without moderation. 

Lust without love. 

Wrath without restraint. 

Sloth without motivation. 

Envy without reason. 

Greed without limits. 

For all of the human lores about devils indulging in sins, devils weren’t that much different from more extreme humans. According to devil lore, they were made to be the replacements of humanity, after all, not that they succeeded. It was because of this that devils knew how to control themselves if they wished. It was simply that most chose not to because they saw no reason to because concepts like “community,” “comradery,” and the like were weak in the minds of devils, especially in older devils who had a taste of ultimate power. 

But these “Stray Devils” who weren’t really Stray Devils?

They didn’t know how to control themselves. There were debates on whether or not they were creatures closer to animals than humans or other thinking creatures like the yokai. 

Most of them didn’t bother to talk. All they did was indulge in whatever sin had gripped them. 

Worse, unlike regular Stray Devils, these “Stray Devils” weren’t limited by one sin.

And the more they indulged in their sins, the more “consistent” they became. It generally took a lot of spellpower to counter any of the “Stray Devil” spells. 

It was because of this that she was required to report any of their presence. 

An unattended “Stray Devil” population could and will grow from being a pest into a real threat that destabilizes the entire area. 

That’s how half of the Ainu people died even before the Tokugawa Shogunate began an earnest colonization of Hokkaido. 

And where there was one “Stray Devil,” there were both more “Stray Devils” and Stray Devils. 

As for why their names were the same, as far as she understood it, the term Stray Devil was used by non-reincarnated monsters first, but then once Reincarnated Devils became a thing, the Trueborn Devils started to use derisively against the runaway Reincarnated Devils, which wasn’t helped by the fact that most Stray Reincarnated Devils warped into monsters that made them look not that different from the original Stray Devils. But because the original Stray Devils had been mostly cleared from where Devils liked to visit and do their business, the latter Stray Devils became more populous and frequently encountered, which spoke at length about the kind of treatment Reincarnated Devils experienced.

She picked up her LilithVX 6 phone and called her sister. 

Truu… Truu…

Click. 

“Sona-chan~-!” 

“Sera-nee, I found traces of a Stray Devil.”

Whatever spiel her sister had been about to spout abruptly stopped. 

Silence extended, and Sona started to feel a little queasy.

And a little sorry for whoever was currently in the room with her sister.

“How strong?”

She was going to regret this. 

“Ultimate-class…”

Silence.

A really deep silence. 

The kind of silence where the lack of sound started to cause tinnitus. 

“Okay! I’ll talk to Sirzeches about this.”

Yeah, she was already regretting it. If there was a siscon to outdo every other siscons out there including her sister, then it was Sirzechs Lucifer, Rias’s older brother. 

“Please don’t overreact? It’s already been dealt with by a third party.”

“...Oh? Tell me about it!”

Whatever edge she had before this softened a little. 

“I don’t know anything about them aside from the fact that one of their familiars was stronger than any one of my peerage, myself included.”

Because that flying doll had been strong enough and fast enough to ignore most things they’d thrown at it. 

“Tell me more.”

-VB-

Ring ring.

Ring ring. 

Ring ring.

Ring ring.

“ANSWER THE PHONE ALREADY!” 

“I’M BUSY, HONEY!” 

“I’M NOT YOUR HONEY! I’M YOUR COUSIN!” 

“YOU KNOW WHAT THEY-!”

Thwack! 

Stomp stomp stomp stomp STOMP!

Clack.

A deep breath in.

A deep breath out. 

“This is Urahara’s Confectionaries. How may I help you?”

“...”

“Oh, hey, Sera! How have you been, girl~?”

“...!”

“A Devilified Hollow? Over where?”

“...!” 

“Yikes… And it was an Ultimate-class? Isn’t that basically on par with a Gillian-class Menos?” 

“...”

“Alright. I’ll have Kisuke send someone over.”

“...!”

“You’re welcome, girl~. Alright, bye.” A pause. “URAHARA, I NEED A TEAM OVER IN KUOH TOWN!”

-VB-

‘Well, Mari seems like she’s getting better,’ I thought to myself as the magical girl slept peacefully. 

But my focus was less on her and more on her parents and the mysterious healer. 

I hadn’t known any of this when I chose Mari. I chose her because she was … there! 

It made me realize that I had been lazying too much if I didn’t know what was going on right underneath my nose. 

It was time for me to get off my ass and start doing some … investigation. 

Yes.

I will be an investigator, looking into everything that was even remotely connected to Mari! That way, I’ll know even more leverage to use to trigger her! 

Yes! I see it now! 

I’ll be able to sway her to do more EVIL MAGICAL STUFF if -.

Pink light flared up underneath me and Mari.

I stopped.

And slowly, ever so slowly, turned to look at the trio of adults. 

And the trio of adults were staring right back at me. 

“... Ah. Hello!” 

I learned very quickly that Mari’s dad had a very strong punch.