Chapter 50

Castiel P.O.V.

Ah, morning. Why do you arrive so early whenever someone wants to stay in bed for some more time?

In the end, I sleep in the same room as Tsubaki as her house was very simple. There were only one room, one bathroom, and a kitchen. It was basic and practical for someone living alone.

As I got up from the futon (lucky me that there was an extra one in here) I noticed that Tsubaki was not on her bed (I put her there yesterday after she had passed out). Wondering if she had already left I went out of the room and saw her cooking.

Her serious face was not stern and the way that she fixed her hair and the apron she was wearing was quite the beautiful visage. It reminded me of the pictures and videos I saw of how a wife did breakfast. Back in the Tower, it was quite a rare sight as most meals are made by a team of Sisters and the rare times' others do it most often than not end up in disaster.

And now that I take a good look I realized that not only is she looking good like that the smell of the food she is making is also quite wonderful. But I will not let myself be cheated, I saw more than once wonderful looking and great smelly dishes that in the end tasted like a chemical residue of one of Caster's experiments.

Tsubaki looked at me and gave a thin smile and said.

"You can sit down; breakfast will be ready soon. I hope you like it."

As I set down I decided to observe her cooking. She knew her stuff, that is for sure. She moved all around the kitchen non-stop but none of her movements seemed forced. It was all naturally born from experience, something I appreciate.

After no more than 3 minutes she finished making the breakfast we started eating in silence, enjoying the atmosphere. It was nothing that special, bread, eggs, coffee, and some cookies that she finished baking just now, but despite the simplicity the food was delicious

"It is all delicious, Tsubaki-chan. I am sure that whoever marries you will be a happy man if you are this good as a cook." I said sincerely.

Strange, why is she getting all red up until her ears? And her eyes are a bit feverish. Is it possible?

Oh God, it is. I am making a sick girl cook for me.

No, I cannot allow her to keep doing all this to me and even go to school after if she is feeling bad. She passed out cold yesterday and is clearly forcing herself, I should try to help her.

"Is everything alright? Tsubaki you should lay down; I will take care of you." I said, imagining what sort of blessing I should use on her and imagined what sort of problem she might be having.

Strangely enough, as soon as I said that her eye bulged and she started trembling with a weird smile. Soon enough her nose started bleeding again and she passed out cold just like yesterday, but stronger.

I instantly appeared beside her downed body and used a blessing of good health. It is not that powerful of a blessing, but it alleviates the pain somewhat and even makes the person feel some amount of pleasure, like taking a warm bath on a cold day. After that, I started doing some structural grasping to see if there was a problem, and strangely enough, I could not see any.

Following that, I took her again to her bed and called the one person that could help me with this.

"Who is it, and it is better to be good." A female voice said on the other side of the line.

"Hello, Sona-Kaichou. I need your help." I said. Instantly after her tone of voice got much sterner as she asked.

"What is going on? Is there any danger on town?" She asked. She was a bit jumpy, strangely enough, but it makes sense. I normally would never call her and utter this words and if I did she probably would be worried that something like Iscariots might be involved. Since I talked to her and Rias about that organization the two have been quite worried, which explains why they raised the town's security considerably and are training so much in comparison to before.

"Well, it is about Tsubaki."

"WHAT IS HAPPENING TO MY QUEEN?!" Sona almost screamed at the phone. She might be more cool-headed than Rias but she already is quite a bit stressed so imagining that Tsubaki might be in a bad condition is terrifying to her.

"It is like this; I came here at her house late last night-"

"Wait, you are at her house? Why are you in her house?" Sona interrupted me.

"I ended up coming here as my house was too full and there was no place for me to sleep so I decided that I might capitalize on the contract and sleep here tonight."

An exasperate and quite a loud sigh escaped Sona's mouth. She then said.

"Go on."

"As I was saying, I came here at her place but as soon as I asked her if she would mind me sleeping here with her she passed out. She even got two thin streams of blood escaping her nose." I said.

This time an annoyed grunt escaped Sona's mouth. She must be pissed at someone for doing something stupid, I heard she did that exact same noise more than once when she caught Saji lazing around when he was supposed to be training.

I decided that I should just finish the story.

"I then took her to her bed and let her lay there to rest as she must have been quite tired if she passed out just like that." Another grunt. "I sleep on an extra futon and when it was the morning I woke up to her making breakfast. We ate and I complimented her, and as soon as I did that she passed out cold again. Maybe she is sick or something." I said.

There was no response for some time and after a while, Sona asked me with a completely even tone.

"What did you say to her exactly?"

Strange, I don't think what I said was anything much. Oh well, let's just answer her.

"I said: 'It is all delicious, Tsubaki-chan. I am sure that whoever marries you will be a happy man if you are this good as a cook' and then I also said: 'Is everything alright? Tsubaki you should lay down; I will take care of you'. And after I said those two phrases she was down for the count." I explained, thanking my spirit noes for making my memory be so good. "What is wrong with her?"

This time she yelled out of sheer frustration.

"WHAT IS WRONG WITH HER? NO, I ASKED THE WRONG QUESTION. WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU TWO, THAT IS WHAT I SHOULD BE ASKING! FOR MAOUS SAKE YOU TWO ARE TO SLOW FOR YOUR OWN GOOD!"

Okay… what is going on with her? And how am I slow here? I did catch her before she fell every time she passed out so it is not like I am slow. So why is she saying that?

Sona then took a deep breath and said.

"You know what, frustrating as you two may be, I will leave you two alone for now. You are to stay put right there and NO going out of the house until she wakes up!" She said with so much steel in her voice that if there was more she might have cut the call short (Writer's note: the lame joke is lame).

"But what about school?" I asked, wondering what she would say.

"You can leave this to me, you already missed that many days and one more will not make a difference. I will ask Tsubaki to help you study later." Sona said hanging up in me.

Well, now what? I suppose I could leave, but Sona demanded that I stayed here, also I can't on good consciousness leave Tsubaki here alone when she is so sick.

Let's just call the others back home and inform them that I will be here in the morning and ask about what happened to that dude.

Unfortunately, they did not answer as it was already close to the time to go to school. Oh well, at least I will talk with them later and if things had taken a bad turn they would have called. Also, I know that there is no way that I will not see one of them soon enough. I mean, at least one person will be here soon.

I stayed there watching over Tsubaki, the excessive color on her face receded but she was still sleeping peacefully. Seeing no point in keep staring at her I took out one of my books about witchcraft that I got from Caster and started studying it. I am trying to see if I can combine some witchcraft rituals with my curses. It is promising and I am making some progress. It will be fun to see.

Around 25 minutes later a voice came from my side.

"Is everything okay with you, Castiel-sama?"

Looking at my back I saw Serenity, fully dressed in her assassin's clothes. She clearly arrived not long ago, but again who knows how long she has been here actually.

"Everything is fine Serenity. It is just that Tsubaki passed out and I decided to take care of her until she got better. And with you and the others, is everything okay? And did that dude wake up?" I asked while closing the book for a while.

"Everything was mostly fine, except that there was no breakfast to anyone due to the bounded field you put before leaving yesterday." Was what she said, and I do not regret the use of the bounded field. Who knows what disaster those people could do in the kitchen while I was away. "Well, everyone except Lugh. She managed to bypass the barrier and walked out eating some cookies and caring a pudding."

I am going to have to order her to NOT enter my kitchen, huh. I mean, she is even DARING to steal my primary source of joy when I arrive after training. Those are MY SWEETS!

Again, I must chant some of those Buddhist chants. It is the best way for me to not go out to hunt that evil thief that I for some reason consider a friend.

I then asked a serious question.

"Did the passed out dude woke up."

"We do believe so, the one to talk to him was Emily. He admitted to being part of the Russian Orthodox Church, and when he heard that we are from the Tower he escaped before we could ask anything about what happened." Serenity explained.

I wanted to say I am surprised, but I honestly ain't. His energy was clearly holy, making him a likely to be an exorcist, and considering that the Tower and the angel/church factions are not that friendly towards each other he running away like that is expected.

Although, he could have at least not run away like that. We did save his life after all.

What a rude fellow.

After that, I and Serenity continued to talk for a while more before settling down in silence. I continued to try and imagine how to combine the things I know about witchcraft, runes, and curses while Serenity sat down and started meditating. It apparently helps in connecting more with the heroic spirit she fused with, learn its techniques and integrating more of its skills. It seems that right now she may be fused spiritually but there is still quite some distance until she can claim its full power.

///---///

A few hours later Tsubaki woke up and we decided to go to school as it was close to lunch hour so there wouldn't be much of an issue (especially since Sona was the one to tell us to stay put).

We were talking in the way… is what I want to say, but considering how Tsubaki and Serenity both usually like to just stare at me it was an uncomfortable walk. At least Serenity accepted walking closer and take my hand, I know it may be to intimate as we are not in a relationship but she wanted to and I saw no reason to say no.

Also, she smelled nice.

Tsubaki was as silent as ever while she decided to walk closer to us by positioning herself close enough to my side to our shoulders touch.

And in this form, we approached the school. The fact that people looked at me with venom in their eyes while muttering 'another one fell to this beast' was unnerving.

"DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!"

I heard, knowing who it was before said purple missile hit me squarely on my belly. Looking at Miku's smiling face I could not help but smile back a bit. This smile she is showing more and more now is truly different from the one before, so honest and truthful.

Looking at her like this made me want to keep the promise I did to her, to always protect her as long as she is by my side.

Even though I suddenly feel that the one that is in need of protection is me considering how those previously venomous eyes are now murderous.

GULP

Trying to not pay attention to the crowd (which clearly was planning my death at this instant) I talked to Miku.

"Is everything alright with you?"

"Better now that you are with me. I was feeling so… unsafe without you." Was what Miku said.

Well, it seems like she also is creating quite the dependency in me. I may need to watch that carefully. (she squeezes her boobs in my chest) Look very carefully, some other time.

As I stood up again I saw that Tsubaki was looking at Miku with quite the intense glare, is she envious? Nah, that is impossible. She doesn't like me or anything so why would she be jealous? It is probably due to Miku causing a scene at school. Yep, that is definitely right.

I then sad goodbye to Tsubaki as she needed to go see Sona, apparently, they had talked while Tsubaki was in the bathroom right after waking up.

I then went toward the rooftop with Serenity and Emily to eat lunch, to say it would be whatever I could buy in the cafeteria. We sat down and started talking about whatever passed through our minds, clearing our heads of all the stressful talks about the fallen angel that appeared yesterday. It was clear that the two were quite tense, even though I noticed that they did relax a bit more after Tsubaki went to go see Sona.

If anyone can tell me why I would appreciate.

Huh, what is this feeling? Suddenly I smell hypocrisy in the air. As I look outside I saw the reason for that, it is the Catholic church. Or to be more exact it is four people using vests that are common for the church to use. If you add the fact that I feel that one of them is the same dude I healed yesterday than the fact that they are exorcists is almost guaranteed. As he is here while dressed like that it must mean that he ran away to go and see his comrades as fast as possible

Not that I care, anything related to devils and the church sounds like 'not my business'. Especially since if there is any problem Rias will notify me and request for help.

As I am feeling the presences of the other three members, mostly to see if any of them could be a threat. I saw that two of them are caring over rated tooth sticks that they had the brain-dead idea of calling Excalibur fragment. One of those two is also caring a sword that I actually can respect, one that is equal to a noble phantasm when used right. Well, carrying it in a compact dimension but for someone like me who is learning and had to deal with space magic so much it isn't even hidden.

Finishing looking at the first two my eyes glanced over to the last one, decided to check and see who it was. As soon as I started to feel for her presence I identified who it was. My blood boiled in righteous rage when I realized who it was.

Now she will not escape and she will pay what she owes me!

With this thought in my mind, I contacted Emily, Okuyasu and Lugh. When I said that I needed everyone with me right now there was a clear sound of disapproval, but when I said to them who it was that was here both Lugh and Emily yelled at me for not saying so earlier.

In less than one minute the three appeared by my side, both girls looking all around for that person while Okuyasu was confused about what was going on.

I just pointed toward where HER went and so the six of us started walking to our destination, the old school building where Rias and her club are. When I approached the building enough for it to enter my detection range I realized that all of Rias and her peerage as well as Sona, Tsubaki and Saji are there.

Not waiting, for fear of that person running I entered the building and the room where a meeting was happening.

"Oh, Castiel-san. I was about to ask Akeno to ask you to be here."

"Yeah, yeah just wait a minute Rias. I have someone that I must see right now." I said dismissively to Rias, her pouting at my answer was dully noted and ignored right away.

I have something more important to take care of, like demanding what should have been mine for a very long time.

And as one I, Emily and Lugh turned to the same person. She had white wavy long hair, golden eyes, and a voluptuous body. Her face was pretty and she looked to be in her late twenties and a bored expression on her face.

She is Karen Hortensia, the daughter of the murderous psycho priest Kotomine Kirei and she is also well known for her healing and sealing techniques. She has also come from the same dimension than my father and the others from the Tower and she.

"'"PAY BACK THE MONEY YOU OWE US!"""

Is owing money for the three of us.