Dark clouds blanketed the sky above Kuoh Town, lightning flashing, and thunder rumbling—a tempestuous scene.
Behind a isolated shrine, before a ticulously maintained tombstone, Akeno Hijima stood, her heart heavy with conflicting emotions.
Torrential rain poured down, soaking her pristine white Miko attire, but she seed oblivious to the cold, the water plastering the thin fabric against her skin. Slowly, she picked up a shovel.
The tombstone marked the grave of her mother—a grave dug by the father she resented.
And her purpose here today was to unearth her mother's remains.
As Akeno's shovel struck the earth, turning over the first clod of soil, a sudden change occurred in the sky above.
The dark clouds swirled into a vortex, and a bolt of lightning, thick as a tree trunk, crackled down towards her.
A flash of light, a surge of power—unstoppable.
The lightning, re inches from striking the seemingly defenseless Akeno, abruptly shifted course, blasting a nearby patch of earth.
Black feathers rained down from the sky.
Whoosh!
The beat of powerful wings echoed through the air as a figure, adorned with five pairs of black Fallen Angel wings, descended, hovering above Akeno.
A man with a stern face, frad by a black goatee and thick, dark eyebrows, his bronzed skin suggesting years spent beneath a harsh sun—a figure of imposing strength and authority.
Baraqiel, one of the Fallen Angel Cadres, wielder of the power of lightning, one of the strongest among the Fallen Angels, had arrived.
His expression was grim, his eyes narrowed, a three-ter spear of crackling lightning held tightly in his hand, the tip pointed nacingly towards Akeno.
Watching Akeno's seemingly indifferent actions, Baraqiel repeatedly raised the spear, then hesitated, lowering it with a frustrated growl.
"Do you even realize what you're doing, Akeno?! That's your mother's grave!"
Akeno's hand tightened around the shovel's handle. "I know what I'm doing. Leave alone..."
Baraqiel's face flushed with anger. "You... ungrateful child! Stop this instant!"
He cursed, but he didn't dare attack, his spear remaining poised but inactive. He couldn't risk damaging his deceased wife's resting place.
Ten years ago, Baraqiel had left ho for what he thought was a routine mission, leaving his wife, Shuri Hijima, and their six-year-old daughter, Akeno, behind.
He hadn't known it was a trap.
The mont he left, his enemies, along with elders from the Hijima clan who opposed their union, had stord his ho, forcing Shuri to take her own life before Akeno's eyes.
That day, Akeno's heart filled with hatred for Baraqiel. 'How could he, a Fallen Angel Cadre, renowned for his speed and power, fail to protect his wife? How could he allow her to be murdered by her own clan?'
The Hijima, one of the Five Principal Clans Families, had accused Shuri of consorting with a Fallen Angel, a taboo that led to her tragic end.
Even though Baraqiel had arrived just as Akeno was about to share her mother's fate, even though he'd avenged Shuri's death, the damage was done. A rift had ford between father and daughter.
Akeno began to resent her Fallen Angel heritage, questioning the circumstances of her birth. 'Had she not been born, her mother wouldn't have died.'
For ten long years, they remained estranged. Akeno, desperate to sever her connection to her Fallen Angel bloodline, even chose to reincarnate as a Devil.
Baraqiel, consud by guilt and regret, unable to protect his wife or nd his daughter's broken heart, didn't even try to stop her.
But now, watching Akeno unearth Shuri's magically preserved body, his composure shattered.
With a powerful beat of his wings, he appeared beside Akeno, reaching for the body.
"Don't touch her!" Akeno's voice was ice-cold. "If you try to take her, I'll kill myself."
Baraqiel froze, his hands hovering inches from the body, unable to move.
Akeno, her face etched with sorrow, cradled her mother's remains, shielding them from the rain with a protective barrier of magical energy, and slowly walked away.
Baraqiel clenched his fists, his anger barely contained. He sighed. "At least tell ... as her husband... what you intend to do with Shuri's body..."
Akeno paused, then turned to face Baraqiel. After a long silence, she spoke.
"...Resurrect her."
Baraqiel's eyes widened in shock. He, too, had desperately sought a way to bring his wife back. He'd even found a lead—the current wielder of the Sephiroth Graal, the Sacred Gear capable of manipulating life and death.
But the wielder had revealed a harsh truth: resurrection was impossible for soone who had been dead for ten years. Defeated, Baraqiel had abandoned all hope.
If even the Sephiroth Graal, couldn't bring Shuri back, what other thod could possibly succeed? Lichdom, or other forms of unnatural resurrection, were aningless. The resurrected being wouldn't be the sa. Better to protect her remains and cherish their daughter.
But now... Akeno was claiming she could resurrect Shuri?
"Are you insane?!" Baraqiel roared. "The result would be an abomination, not even worthy of being called undead!"
Akeno's gaze flickered. "Haru said it's possible... if there's a body... He wouldn't lie to ... he wouldn't!"
"Haru? The Devil King from another world? Azazel ntioned him," Baraqiel said, his voice calr now.
"But even the Sephiroth Graal, couldn't resurrect Shuri. Even if that Devil King is as powerful as the Ouroboros Dragon, he can't defy the laws of the world."
Akeno's face serious, her hands trembling as she clutched her mother's remains. She took a deep breath, then pulled out a crystal and crushed it.
It was a summoning crystal Haru had given her, modified using Verethragna's Wind Authority. No incantation was needed; simply crushing it would alert Haru, who could then teleport to her side.
A gust of wind swept through the shrine, and Haru, who had been examining his status within the System Core in Heaven, appeared before Akeno.
Seeing Akeno and the other woman in her arms—another Akeno?—Haru blinked in surprise. "A clone? No... Akeno's mother? What's going on?"
Akeno looked at Haru with pleading eyes. "Please... help bring my mother back."
Baraqiel's face paled. He tried to move, but an invisible force, held him captive, suppressing even his magical energy. He could only watch helplessly as he roared at Haru.
"Akeno, stop! Don't do this!"
"Resurrection is impossible! He's just trying to trick you! Don't destroy Shuri's remains!"
Then, Baraqiel's jaw dropped, his eyes widening in disbelief as he watched Shuri's body stir, her eyes fluttering open, a look of confusion on her face as Akeno rushed into her arms.
Snap! His jaw dislocated from the force of his surprise.
"Impossible...!" he whispered.
Haru, a wry smile on his face as he watched Akeno embrace her resurrected mother, walked over to Baraqiel.
"So, father-in-law, what were you saying?"
Baraqiel, snapping his jaw back into place, stared at Haru, his eyes wide with shock. "She... she's actually alive..."
"May I have Akeno's hand in marriage?" Haru asked, his voice casual.
"Yes! of course! Anything!"
"I already have several wives. Akeno would have to... share . Is that acceptable?"
"Yes! Just... release ! Let talk to my wife!"
Haru grinned, enjoying Baraqiel's desperate pleas.
...
In the Underworld, Sirzechs looked at the docunt in his hand with a troubled expression. It was the proposal for the upcoming Young Devils Gathering.
"Sirzechs-sama, why the hesitation? It's just a routine gathering," his subordinate asked.
Sirzechs stamped the docunt, a sigh escaping his lips. "That Devil King from another world is technically Rias's servant... Well, it shouldn't cause too much trouble."
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