Chapter Text
Chapter 1: Meetings and Interruptions
*Kyoto*
The sound of rapid footsteps was heard throughout the halls of a massive old-fashioned, traditional Japanese mansion.
Rounding the corner of a hall was a rather odd individual. The individual was breathing heavily while stumble running down the hall.
He was a rather portly older man with grey hair and a beard, he was clearly in the later years of his life with even the fox ears and seven tails coming out of his tailbone being grey in color due to age.
Reaching the end of a large elaborate hall he stumbled into the closed doors, pushing them open and almost tumbling over his own feet and falling to the ground. "Lady… huff huff… Yasaka!… huff huff."
Inside the room, three younger individuals sat, two on one side of the desk and one on the other.
Sitting on the left was a young-looking black-haired girl with pink eyes and significantly large "assets". She was seated with her body leaning forward and her hands in her lap with an excited but still confused look on her face, wearing a fancy and expensive women's business suit. This was Serafall Leviathan, formerly Sitri, one of the four Devil Kings.
On the right was a young-looking man with crimson red hair and blue-green eyes, wearing an opulent men's suit and leaning back in his chair trying to look casual while his crimson eyebrow rose. This was Sirzechs Lucifer, formerly Gremory, another one of the four Great Satans.
Sitting on the other side of the desk was a regal and beautiful woman with long blonde hair done up in a fancy ponytail, golden eyes, and even larger "assets".
Unlike the other two occupants who appeared "human" this woman possessed golden fox ears and nine fluffy fox tails that waved behind her body.
She wore a fancy shrine maiden outfit in yellow with a black and yellow skull covered shall wrap over her arms.
This was Yasaka, a Kyuubi Yokai and current leader of the Yokai faction and close friend to the Shinto Pantheon.
Currently, her clipped royal eyebrow twitched as her face struggled between anger and exasperation at the intrusion, especially in front of two representatives of an outside faction.
"What is the meaning of this interruption, Grengou-san?"
The now-named Grengou took a few deep breaths and straightened his posture after taking in the two other individuals in the room.
"I… I apologize for the interruption Yasaka-Sama and… guests." He said with slight venom in his voice aimed at the devils. "The outer barrier surrounding Shukaku-Sama's temple has been breached, my lady!"
The two devils glanced at each other confused while Yasaka gasped before she stood with her eyes blowing wide before hardening.
"What! How!" Yasaka yelled in an almost frantic tone shocking the devils while releasing a significant amount of power.
"M-m-my Lady! The barrier was breached. We believe we have a traitor. A three tails named Mizuki hasn't shown up to his position recently and has been reportedly acting strange recently."
Yasaka slammed her hands down on her desk while continuing to release a large amount of power, surprising the devils with its potency. "Find him and if he did betray us, kill him immediately."
The devils again looked at each other in shock.
"Get some of our forces to the temple immediately and get into contact with Amaterasu-Sama! Do we know who breached the barrier? Or what they are planning?"
The two devils looked at each other awkwardly realizing they essentially had been forgotten.
"Yasaka-Sama, a team we already sent, hasn't responded…. I fear they are most likely dead. But… but we do know that it is a group of Fallen Angels. With what reports we have indicated at least three seven wing fallen and a large number of other various fallen and even some humans possibly with sacred gears."
Grengou lowered his head throughout his response feeling ashamed for his failure in his duty of protecting the temple.
"Damnit! Sirzechs-dono, Serafall-dono." The two devils sat up straighter slightly after being addressed by a furious-looking Kyuubi.
"You wished to have permission to rent the territory of Kuoh. If you should come with me now and repel these fallen and sacred gear users from my land I will relent and allow your sisters to manage the territory. You will also sign a deal to never reveal the information that you will discover regarding the temple. If you prove to be trustworthy I shall consider an alliance with your faction even after the massacre committed by your faction."
The two devil kings perked up significantly at her words, gaining, at least temporary control of the territory of Kuoh for their sisters, plus a potential alliance was significantly better than what they expected from this meeting. They expected to get turned down hard due to the almost hostile relations between devils and yokai after the devil's massacre of the Nekoshou and other various Nekomata that lived in the underworld.
Fighting Fallen Angels was risky with the tense peace between factions, however, they could claim that they were assisting their new ally in dealing with Fallen who breached a barrier around some apparent special Yokai temple, that they had never heard of if questioned which should stave off any backlash since what the Fallen were doing could be seen as an extreme violation of Yokai territory, even though the Fallen probably wouldn't care about doing something bad given their less than trustworthy and honorable reputation.
Sirzechs and Serafall looked at each other for a moment before nodding to each other. "Very well Yasaka-dono. We will assist you with these Fallen and possible Sacred Gear users. But we would like to know more about this temple that was apparently breached."
Yasaka signed before lowering her shoulders slightly before nodding and walking around her desk.
"Very well. It will take us some time to get to the teleportation circle that will take us there anyway. Follow me please."
The devils obliged but grew confused. Couldn't they just teleport from where they were? Serafall voiced their question while following the Kyuubi.
"The temple is protected by many barriers. More than just the simple field barrier that was broken by the fallen angels. It is completely impossible to teleport into, out of, or near the temple without using a special ancient teleportation circle located deep in this compound, with the circle itself being heavily warded as well." Yasaka spoke much to their surprise.
Anti-teleportation barriers were rare and very difficult to create, with their fellow Satan Ajuka complaining numerous times about how difficult it was to create them for the devil Rating Game arenas.
"As for information about the temple itself…. You should know it is not the only one." Yasaka spoke reluctantly, trusting the devils with information hidden by the Yokai faction and her ancestors specifically for generations.
"What do you mean… I have never heard of any hidden Yokai temples." Sirzechs let his surprise leak into his voice.
"That is the point of them being hidden. My ancestors and the Yokai faction have hidden the existence of these temples for generations. *Sigh* It was some of the very first members of my family who first figured out how to link themselves to the leylines.
When they did they felt odd signatures scattered far across the world. When they tracked them and traveled to the locations they found areas that were absolutely covered in protective barriers and other symbols that we believe to be other types of protection but are too advanced even for our best." Yasaka briefly paused her words, remembering the journals and even stone tablets left behind by her ancestors.
"At first, they could not even approach, with the barriers blocking them and hiding their view of what was behind them. Eventually, they figured out how to send some chakra into the barriers and the barriers let them in without any resistance.
Apparently, according to the records, it almost felt like the barriers were pleased with the chakra that was sent through it. They traveled to all of the locations where they felt a disturbance and discovered the teleportation circle here in Kyoto and ten temples spread throughout the world."
Serafall and Sirzechs listened to the story with all of their attention intrigued and shocked at the story.
"I'm just going to say it… the temples make no sense." Yasaka sighed while unlocking another sealed door.
"What do you mean Yasaka-dono?" Serafall asked while looking around at the old and mosaic-covered hallway they were now walking through.
"The temples are old. Ancient really. From what we have been able to find out through writing found in the temples and even through modern scientific age determination techniques the temples and even the teleportation circle are far older than any Yokai and even older than any other human or supernatural that we have knowledge of throughout history."
Serafall and Sirzechs looked at the beautiful Kyuubi with their mouths gaping.
"Yes, that's about the response I gave when my father told me about the temples. It doesn't make sense but centuries of investigation all point to the temples, barriers, and teleportation circle, everything being far older than anything else on the planet. Perhaps older than the Biblical God and Ophis themselves."
The devils gaped. Any member of the church would call blasphemy but many high-ranking supernatural beings knew that the Biblical God didn't actually create the universe, he did create many things including humans, but not the universe itself so it was possible, but extremely unlikely, for these temples to exist on earth before even God or Ophis, who appeared to be around the same age as God, came to be.
"You don't have to believe me but that is what all the evidence we have gathered shows. Anyway, there is the teleportation circle here in Kyoto, and ten temples spread throughout the world. Each temple is different with nine of them being somewhat similar and the tenth being completely different from the rest."
"The first nine are themed and we assume they are meant to be honoring who they were created for. Each temple is dedicated to one individual or in reality I should say one Yokai or at least something close to being a Yokai. The temple that was breached was the first discovered; it is dedicated from what we've learned to Shukaku the One-Tailed Tanuki. The second is dedicated to Matatabi the Two-Tailed Cat or Bakeneko. The third to Isobu, the Three-Tailed Tortoise Shrimp or Umibozu. Fourth to Son Goku, the Four-Tailed Monkey. The fifth to Kokou, the Five-Tailed Horse Whale or Sagari Kujira. Sixth to Saiken, the Six-Tailed Slug. The seventh to Chomei, the Seven Tailed Rhinoceros Beetle. Eighth to Gyuki, the Eight Tailed Octopus Ox or Ushi-Oni. And the Ninth to Kurama, the Nine-Tailed Fox. Each temple even houses a massive statue depicting them in what we assume to be life-size. With Kurama being the largest and almost four times the size of even myself in my fox form and around three times the size of Inari-Sama in her fox form."
The two devils almost tripped over their feet at that comment since the temples must be truly massive if they could hold statues that large.
"The tenth temple is different. It's still the same massive size as the other temples but it doesn't have a massive statue inside it. Unfortunately, it's the one we know the least about too since it doesn't have anything to let us know who it is dedicated to. All we really know about the tenth temple is that it has a small statue at the back of the temple on top of a throne. It depicts someone who almost looks human. The only thing making it look different from a human sitting on a throne is the two horns jutting out of his head, whisker marks on his cheeks, and a strange third eye in the middle of his forehead."
Yasaka blushed slightly thinking about the first time she saw the statue when she was young. She still remembered how embarrassed she was when her parents and Amatarasu-Sama took her there for the first time and caught her frozen in place with her tails drooping down behind her and a line of drool falling from her open mouth.
The teasing she had to suffer due to her young hormonal crush on the statue man still haunted her to this day.
"He is quite handsome looking though." Yasaka mumbled and was happy that the devil envoys were behind her and unable to see the red shine of her cheeks.