Chapter Eight - Cliche Thugs?

Reginleif a young Valkyrie of Asgard was already not having a very good day and it had barely even begun.

Early in the wee hours of the morning, she was called to Odin who gave her a very specific mission. Of course, she was honored that THE Odin called on her for a personal request however based on how her Valkyrie sisters talked about him she knew he was a bit... of an odd case.

Because of his knowledge of the future, none of his decisions in the present made much sense to anyone, and his tendency to be vague or intentionally misleading in his actions leaves much to be desired.

Such as when he gave her the extremely vague task of "Awakening the Sleeping Avalon." Then pointed her to some shady back alley in some backwater town claiming she'd find all her answers there.

She could be studying right now. She was already behind all of the other Valkyrie at this point because of her age and very much didn't need to be wasting her time with a quest like this. However it was indeed still from Odin so she thought there must be some profound reasoning for it.

That belief in him shattered the moment she got to Kuoh town as she took out and read the paper she was given by him it just said, "dark alleyway" as the alleyway she was supposed to go to.

She stared at the paper in disbelief as she read over it again and again her teeth clenched in agitation.

"Ugh, am I really going to have to check every dark alleyway in this place?" She looked around the Kuoh Town square since the sun hadn't even risen yet in such a simple town only a few people were buying things.

"That clock tower can make for a good guide post, haaa~" Reginleif let out a deep sigh of discontentment.

Walking around Reginleif passed a child with short blue hair, glasses which somewhat hid her blue eyes, and her bangs were held up on either side of her head making her forehead look like a fivehead. One could almost see their reflection in it like a bald man's scalp.

"Excuse me?" Reginleif called out to the blue haired girl as she held up a sign for a small family restaurant gaining her attention.

"Yes?" The child responds just as she was about to take a bite out of a deer biscuit.

"Uhh... err..."

(What am I supposed to ask? "Oh can you tell me where the dark alleyway is?" I literally have no leads on where I want to go!) Reginleif thought in her head sarcastically. She had meant to ask the child for directions since she looked like she lived in the town, but mid way through she realized just how foolish this was.

"Uh... nevermind."

"By any chance are you lost?" The child questions as politely as possible.

"Yeah..."

Hearing Reginleif's affirmation the blue haired child pointed towards a large board near the center of the plaza, "That's a directory it'll tell you what's around and where to find it."

"Oh... I see, thank you." Reginleif thanked the child before going towards the directory as they had suggested, she wasn't exactly sure if it would lead anywhere or not but it was a better start then just walking around aimlessly.

(For me not to have noticed something so simple, I definitely need more training...) She thought while readjusting her glasses.

Upon arriving at the directory however there was something she definitely didn't miss, a spell on it which hid an image underneath.

Reginleif couldn't help but smile, if it was magic then she could decode it easily. Magic was the reason that despite being so young and physically weak Reginleif was accepted into the Valkyries. People always called her a genius but in truth she worked extremely hard to get where she is now and still planned to work even harder.

With the tip of her index finger glowing a bit she wrote a simple Norse rune meaning 'reveal' on the map and instantly it changed to an entirely different map.

"'Alleycat Map'" She read aloud in interest. The map was a very detailed route to the Hidden Plaza of Kuoh Town. It seemed to be a place where one could purchase a great deal of various magical items ranging from normal household items to weapons and exotic foods.

(If I take the alley to the left then take a right when I hit the dead end I'll end up in front of a store called "Sis Cross Kiss," what a... unique name...) Since it was the fastest route into the back alleys, Reginleif decided to take this path. If it was a part of Odin's plan then just as she managed to find her way into the back alleys she would find whatever it was he wanted her to find there as well.

Unfortunately Reginleif's bad day seemed like it only wanted to get worse as the moment she entered the alley she found herself surrounded by four adult men wearing strange dog masks and black cloaks.

"H-Huh?!?" She exclaimed in surprise. Based on how quickly they came to her it was likely they had been watching her from the moment she stepped into the shopping district.

"To think we'd find a Valkyrie in training here of all places, Lord Lucifer was right!" One of them exclaimed.

"Tsk!" Reginleif quickly lifted her hand to write another rune in the air but instantly found herself grabbed from behind by one of the men, her hands restrained behind her back with strange purple energy in the shape of handcuffs.

"UGH!" She found herself collapsed to the floor her energy draining from her body as it was eaten up by her restraints ruthlessly.

(What kind of magic is this?)

Slowly one of the men pushes her over with his foot so that she's laying on her back instead of her front and begins inspecting her.

"So what do you think?" One of them asks.

"Well the fact that she's a Valkyrie in training is more than enough to earn quite a bit of money, but she's not even bad looking." The man who answers puts a hand on his chin, "The costs and prices of these sorts of things tend to fluctuate a lot so we'll just have to ask Lord Lucifer."

(What are they planning to do? I have to escape, but how-) As she was just about to begin trying in desperation to come up with some kind of escape plan she was shocked as white feathers began falling around them.

"The hell?" One of them reach out catching a feather in their hand but it burns them instantly forcing them to let go, "Guys we've got an Ange-"

He didn't get to finish his words as a shadow fell onto him with such force his body was instantly embedded into the ground and his consciousness was lost, surprising all of the other mask wearing Devils as they stepped back in fright.

"W-What! Why would an Angel be here?"

"I don't know! Just draw your weapon already!"

"I'm out!" One of the Devils instead of drawing replica demon swords like his two companions turned tail and attempted to run only to find his leg bound by a whip.

"Eh?" Was the only word he could let out before his entire body was slammed into a wall where it stayed twitching like a bug.

"..." The two Devils looked at one another then looked at the cloud of dust that was clearing from the Angels flashy entrance, their grips on their swords tightening.

The dust settled and what they saw was a child with white hair and yellow eyes staring at them with a lollipop in her mouth and several stickers on her dress.

"Bro, it's just a kid! If we can capture both of these brats-"

"Shut up man! Did you not just see her turn two of our buddies into contemporary art pieces? Don't let your guard down!"

"..." Cebrail stared at them for a little while longer then turned away and moved towards Reginleif to stand in front of her in a protective manner.

(If we run she might attack our backs, but if we fight I'm not sure-) One of the grunts began thinking only to have his thoughts interrupted as a white beam of light shot past him and straight into his friend's abdomen.

He looked back at his friend to find the other man was already collapsing in pain, since they were low-class Devils their weakness to light power was far more severe than the nobles. Even just a little bit could completely tear them apart.

Unfortunately he made a huge mistake taking his eyes off of Cebrail as when he turned back around what he found was a shadow blocking his view as her foot slammed into his face sending him into the wall.

"Well that was easy." Cebrail comments in a flat tone.

(Next time I'll quote a wise man when I do that.) Cebrail thought upon realizing she missed a good opportunity to quote a character from a show she started watching recently.

Reginleif stared at the Angel child in front of her with wide eyes. She wasn't surprised by the fact that Cebrail was capable of beating the four low-class Devils that had attacked her, it was a bad matchup for them after all.

No, what she was surprised about was the energy she saw from the Angel.

(Is she really an Angel?) Reginleif couldn't help but think as Cebrail crouched down in front of her. (For her to have such a low amount of light power but such an immense amount of magical power... was one of her parents some kind of 1000 year old mage?)

Reginleif's thoughts began frantically shooting from this way to that and Cebrail mistaking the young Valkyries look for fear and in an effort to comfort the child takes the lollipop out of her mouth and plopped it into Reginleif's.

"Eh?"

"I got it along with these stickers from a few people I helped on the way here."

"Eh? Eh???"

(How is that information relevant???)

Cebrail gripped the magical handcuffs without a second look towards Reginleif and began trying to pull it apart.

"You can't just force magic bindings like this apart you have to-" Before she could even finish speaking the magic handcuffs shattered like glass and Cebrail looked at her with a quizzical expression.

(She can just dump raw magical power into it and overload it?!?) Reginleif instantly understood what the Angel princess had done and could easily guess that it probably wasn't even intentional.

In front of Cebrail the fact that people would often call Reginleif a magic genius felt almost like some twisted joke.

"Are you alright?" Cebrail asks Reginleif in concern helping her to stand.

Reginleif stays quiet and moves the lollipop in her mouth lightly with her tongue. It was sweet but... she still took it out of her mouth with a small blush on her face.

"You were just eating this..."

"And?" Cebrail didn't seem to get what the problem was and simply turned around to leave.

"Ah, wait! You're headed to the back alleys as well?"

"Yup, a drunk woman with an eye patch told me to go to a suspiciously named store."

(A drunk woman with an eye patch?)

"Did she by chance know a lot of things about you?"

"Indeed, and asked a bunch of questions."

(That's definitely Odin!) Reginleif's suspicions were confirmed and she knew the wise old king had planned for this to happen. If he planned for the two of them to meet then this was the path she had to take.

"May I by chance come with you?"

"...I'm not a babysitter..." Cebrail responded to Reginleif's polite words with a flat out insult and ran away.

"..." Reginleif stared after the girl as the formerly elegant princess in her rush to escape tripped over the man she first embedded into the ground and slammed her head into ground.

"Alright, you can come with me..." Cebrail said in defeat from her position on the floor.

(Suddenly I don't feel inferior to her anymore...)