"Look at this. There are more research facilities aside from this…" After an entire minute of roaming around, Kenshin stumbled upon an office.
Inside, he found several documents and reports, including several materials indicating the involvement of a man named Zekram Bael and several other figures.
Kenshin doesn't know who that is, but he likes mystery, so he'll try his best to uncover it during his time in the Underworld.
"Interesting…" Kenshin murmured to himself. Apparently, the Naberius facilities didn't just experiment on Yokais, they also included other species such as humans, vampires, and to his surprise, even their own kind—devils.
Kenshin reeled in disgust at the discovery, "Seriously, devils and humans are alike in terms of evil, the only difference between the two is power."
"You're right…" Yasaka stepped in beside him, clenching her fists as he anger cannot be hidden by her voice.
They just secured the prisoned Yokais, Kuroka, Shirone, Kimmy, and Loke back to Yasaka's palace, currently being attended by her servants. Kenshin also sent Ophis back to the Narnia universe inside his cabinet after realizing that she fell asleep through it all.
Loke and Kuroka were a bit distrustful at first, thinking that the teleportation circle would just bring them to another prison but after seeing the real sun and feeling its sunlight for the first time, they soon started to trust Yasaka.
On the other hand, Kenshin and Yasaka stayed to gather more information about the Naberius clan's illegal activities, uncovering more than five research facilities—each engaging in illegal experiments involving not just the Yokais but also other races.
"If we do this, we're going to attract attention not only to ourselves but also to the Yokai faction. Are you sure you don't want a disguise?"
After memorizing all the locations and gathering every evidence they could put their hands on, it's time for some action. However, Yasaka's reckless decision to let her presence as the Kyoto Yokai Queen be known forced Kenshin to try and convince her to think twice.
Unfortunately, she seemed resolute on doing it, "I want them to know. Remind them that the Yokais don't tolerate this kind of mistreatment against our kind. Let myself be a message to them." With determination filling her voice, Kenshin knew talking her out of it was impossible.
"Nothing I say will convince you, isn't it?" With a sigh of defeat, Kenshin relented and decided to let her do what she wanted. A small part of him understands her feelings, if he were in her situation and his own kind was being mistreated by the very same species that she has always hated, no doubt he might even do something worse than what she's currently doing.
Unfortunately, his other part of being cautious and wary of the unpredictability of the future says otherwise. Better to enact revenge in the shadows than outside the shade of it.
Yasaka replied with a huff and a nod.
Now that there's nothing he can do, it's time to move on, "Alright then. Pick which one we strike first. With the Naberius clan head out of the picture, we'll be having a hard time destroying all the facilities and rescuing the experimental subjects before the Underworld notices that the Naberius Head has gone quiet all of a sudden." He advised, acting as Yasaka's supervisor.
The Yokai Queen understood his words and nodded her head, pointing at the nearest facility marked on the map. Kenshin agreed with her decision. Even if they did run out of time and the Underworld discovered what they did, at least they were able to destroy as many facilities as they could.
They can just fight back again but in another way, and Kenshin's head is filled with many emergency plans just to finish what they started.
"Let's go then…"
———
"This is a bit disturbing…" Sirzechs squinted his eyes as the scene in front of him looked as if it had been razed to the ground, leaving nothing but burnt rubble and a scorched crater on the ground where the structure was supposed to be standing.
Yesterday, he received an ominous report from the Naberius family, reporting that their head suddenly went outside and never came back. According to the lady of the house, the Naberius Head's wife—Lucius Naberius, the Naberius clan's head cannot be contacted via any means.
At first, Sirzechs was a bit skeptical, devils were inherently bearers of the seven infamous sins whereas each devil can possess all of them but only one would stand out among the others, practicing the said dominant sin is one of the easy ways to increase a devil's strength. And for the Naberius clan?
They're infamous for most of their members having the Sin of Greed, greedy for everything, be it power, women, wealth, and everything. So when Sirzechs got the report of the missing Lucius, he just assumed that the man must've been engaging in an activity related to his Sin of Greed. Perhaps, gathering and forcing some women to become his slaves or simply visiting the human world to gather wealth.
Anything can be possible. So Sirzechs wanted to dismiss the report, guessing that Lucius might come back soon.
That is until the Naberius clan went quiet for tens of hours and he received a report from one of his spy servants that there was a disturbance in the Naberius clan territory.
That's when he knew that the situation must be grave, especially when he submitted a request form to enter Naberius territory under the guise of investigation and check-ups. He was refused, and the Naberius clan suddenly went from asking for his help to denying it, which in itself is quite a bit suspicious.
Too bad, as one of the Maou, the strongest one at that, he was able to bypass their rejection, basically refusing their refusal, and sent a team of investigators.
When he received the report a few hours later, he instantly launched a teleportation circle to see it for himself.
And that's the story of how he got here when he wasn't supposed to in the first place.
"Sherlock, what am I looking at?" His brows furrowed, Sirzechs had his arms crossed as he raised a question to the current team leader of the investigation.
"Based on the nits and bits we gathered from the wreckage, it seems like a research facility, or at least what's left of it…" Sherlock, in his full glory of wearing a long brown coat and a brown deerstalker hat, along with his tiny mustache stepped forward, explaining what they had uncovered so far.
"By looking at the footprints I found just a few meters away from what I assume to be the supposed front door of the research facility, I can tell that two people are behind this. I retraced the steps, ran a scan on them, and based on how one side of the footsteps is deeper and more straightforward than the other whose footsteps are light and require two steps to match the first step of the first one. It's a man and a woman who did this." Casually showcasing his detective skills, Sherlock arrogantly puffed on his smoking pipe.
Sirzechs smiled and nodded his head, he's not regretting that he spent two of his Pawns to reincarnate the world's greatest detective as a devil, effectively adding him to his ranks. The British man may not be strong physically or magically, but his mind is his true strength, capable of making up strategies and even discovering an enemy's weakness just by watching him for an entire minute.
"Spend as many resources as you need, I want to know the intention of whoever did all this. As for me, I have a clan to handle." Turning around, Sirzechs flared his long cape before striding forward.
"You can count on me…" Sherlock grinned under his deerstalker hat, it's been a while since he had such an interesting case after his last confrontation with his lifelong nemesis, Moriarty whom he discovered as a reincarnated devil years ago when he was still a human.
That's also how he caught the attention of the strongest Devil in the Underworld. There was no case of a human beating a devil without using magic or a Sacred Gear.
———
"That was the fifth one. Three more to go…" Kenshin huffed, instantly recovering his energy after spending all of it in a single attack that devastated the entire area around them, estimated to be around the size of a small city.
This fifth facility was by far the largest one they ever encountered, forcing even Yasaka to take on her Nine-Tailed Fox form when hundreds of seemingly prepared High-class devils and thousands of middle to low-class devils were waiting for their arrival.
Of course, they survived. Kenshin wouldn't be talking if they perished under the might of thousands of the devil army, right?
Yasaka was deeply huffing and puffing behind him, unlike Kenshin, Yasaka doesn't have anything to instantly recover her lost Ki reserves. At least here in this place. Since they're technically in the Underworld, obviously the influence of her Leylines cannot be reached from here, so Yasaka had to resort to using her personal reserves in the meantime.
Maybe I should find a way to give her access to my Nuclear Energy Fusion Reactor skill? Hmm…
As Kenshin contemplated to himself, his sharp senses suddenly caught a familiar devil magic spell gathering not far from them—a teleportation spell to be exact.
"Yasaka, it seems like your intended message has been received. We have company." He warned the Yokai Queen while turning around to face whoever walked out of that teleportation circle.
As soon as the magic circle dispersed, revealing three unknown figures that immediately started walking in their direction, Kenshin turned to Yasaka, "Looks like they're indeed here for us. Didn't expect them to actually solve the small pieces of clues we left behind…"
That's right, Kenshin has been purposely leaving clues of their whereabouts, who they are, and how many they are. Obviously, he's not doing it for fun and gimmicks. Its purpose is to simply support Yasaka's decision to send a message.
How would the message be received if the devils don't know who's sending them, right?
"Finding you two took longer than I thought.." Stepping out of the lush thick trees, Sherlock revealed himself, following behind him were two of his fellow devils in the Investigation team. Though they're just here to serve as his protection, his intellect is enough to serve as the brains of the team.
Kenshin squinted his eyes at the slightly familiar-looking man, "Hold on, you're a Brit, aren't you?" The eerie smile on Kenshin's face suddenly made Sherlock a bit uncomfortable.
"Oh? What gave it away?" He curiously asked.
"Your clothing and…your accent. Say, before we begin with whatever reason you're looking for us, do you mind doing me a little favour?"
Sherlock's brows furrowed, for some reason, his guts were telling him that something really bad was about to happen, "…Depending on what it's about." The tone of his voice reeks of cautiousness.
However, Kenshin's next words caused him to freeze and go deadpan.
"Do you mind repeating after me? 'Bottle of Water' "
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[Next Chapter: Ch. 89 - Bo'oh oh' wo'oh!]