Yorokobe, Shounen

"Thanks for the assistance, Professor," Arriving at Cherkasy, Noa let down Lavinia and Griselda, saluting Professor.

"...No problem, Captain." Professor saluted back as she dematerialized.

"So what are we going to do now? Or do we need another map?" Noa teased Griselda.

Griselda ignored his jab. "I know the way to Saint Michael's Cathedral. It's one of the Eastern Orthodox's biggest churches in Ukraine." She explained.

"Then we go immediately to the Vatican, right?"

Griselda shook her head.

"I have to report to the clergy at the church first, get authorization to use the Teleportation Circle, and before that we have to get you two ID's."

Noa and Lavinia nodded. "Then how long is that going to take?" Noa asked, already planning on trying to scam as many people as possible before he left the city.

Maybe he could even get an achievement from it. Before that, he would need to pull right now just in case there were any enemies nearby. He had 3 Free Pulls from talking to people and earning money by scamm- talking to people.

He inwardly started praying to a different servant, one of his GOATs, Arash.

"It could take around 2-4 hours." Griselda guessed. She also had to convince the higher ups to somehow take Noa in and not force him to stay when they saw his holy energy, unless Noa himself could overpower the entirety of the Vatican.

Those chances to her were extremely slim, with people like her swordsmanship instructor Cardinal Deacon Ewald Cristaldi, current wielder of Excalibur Transparency and Excalibur Rapidly, and Cardinal Priest and the one closest to Roland as a Durandal Wielder, Vasco Strada.

Each could kill High-Class Devils and even Ultimate-Class Beings, with Cardinal Priest Vasco Strada being able to corner Kokabiel during the Second World War.

This wasn't even considering Dulio Gesualdo, who while around the same age as Noa, was the wielder of the Second Strongest Longinus, Zenith Tempest, and while still in training due to his age, he was considered a future powerhouse by a majority of the Vatican's higher ups.

Noa on the other hand, didn't really care. Not because he was stronger than them, but it was because he had Skills and Noble Phantasms that could probably defeat them.

Unfortunately Noa, who was dependent on such skills, neglected his physical training, confident in escaping no matter who the enemy was due to his Furthest Earth skill, allowing for Perfect Movement.

Noa's crucial weakness was his lack of reaction time, vulnerable against enemies that could potentially defeat him before he had the opportunity to even use his Skills.

Noa, originating from modern society and more of a shut-in than most, was rather against pain, as he disliked it, and it was a rather normal thing considering his origins. His lack of reaction when murdering Glenda stemmed from the detachment Noa had from this so called 'fictional world', as it felt too apart from his own, with inhumane people all around, and the existence of a system was a constant reminder that everything could be fake.

However, even with this thinking, his disdain for pain led him to unconsciously avoid situations where he could get injured, preferring to fight from a distance, where a majority of his skills could be used effectively, and due to his Gacha System constantly adding more abilities, it made it hard to specialize on one specific ability, inadvertently making Noa someone like Counter Guardian Emiya, someone who couldn't defeat someone who had honed their craft to the pinnacle.

A modern human's thinking like Noa's in terms of battle was one-dimensional, but due to the sheer strength of his abilities, Noa's strength was bloated in one direction, being able to defeat much weaker enemies like Glenda and the Stray Devil solely due to his skills, not his innate combat abilities.

'Pull!'

[Personal Skill - Instinct - A Rank -> A+++ Rank due to Protection of the Faith]

However, Noa was a lucky bastard.

Holy Shit!

Noa looked at his newest pull.

If he remembered correctly, Artoria had that skill, allowing her to predict attack trajectory, and in her case it even allowed her to see into the future to some extent.

Let's fucking go!!!

With his current abilities, he felt that while his attack power was through the fucking roof, he was basically a glass cannon, but now?

Why wear armor if you aren't planning on getting hit?

That's all the skills he needed at this point.

Arash, you are truly my goat.

However, since he still had 2 pulls remaining, why not continue?

'Pull!'

[Craft Essence - Splatter Rainbow]

Into the inventory it went.

Because it was a Craft Essence, it was probably an object.

'Pull!'

[Stat Points (Large) - +10 Luck]

That was pretty good~ Now his luck should be pretty high, seeing as he started off with 80 points in Luck in the first place.

...All his physical stats are so low but his luck is high...

Well, nothing he could particularly do about that.

At least he got Instinct.

"Then where do we meet? I don't really want to wait 2-4 hours to do absolutely nothing but wait." Noa said.

"Well, we actually need pictures of you two for the ID, but after that yeah you guys can explore the city." Griselda responded, leading them to the nearby church.

"There's camera's in 1993?" Noa asked, with both Lavinia and Griselda looking at him in confusion.

"...Are you joking?" Lavinia slowly asked.

Noa was going to be 100% honest. Anytime before 2010 was a mystery for him.

If one asked him when colored TV was a thing, he would ask back since when was there black and white?

"Uh, yeah." Noa nodded. No reason for the two girls to be aware of his underlying genius. He was acting the fool if you know you know.

"...Wait, didn't you ask what year it was a few days ago?" Lavinia thought back. "Were you hiding under a rock or something?"

Griselda looked at Noa in suspicion. While it would make sense to not remember the day, and maybe even what month if it was early or late in the month, but year? It wasn't even near the end of the year.

Noa, who had zero qualms about bullshitting his way out of anything, didn't bother telling the truth. After all, what use was it to know that he came from the future? Well was it really the future if it was a future in a parallel universe?

"I was cultivating in seclusion."

Griselda looked at him like she was looking at an idiot. How would someone farming by themselves forget what year it was?

"...How long?"

It seemed Lavinia didn't really believe him either.

"Very long."

But Noa didn't falter in the slightest! He was as steadfast as Mount Tai!

Griselda and Lavinia gave up.

As Griselda led them to the church, Noa looked around the city. As a full-blown American(?) who never bothered to leave his own home, he could say that this type of architecture was very unfamiliar. Who knew his first time leaving the country would be to a different universe, where perverts ran rampant and boobs had an anti-gravity effect.

Arriving at St. Michael's Cathedral, instead of entering through the main entrance, Noa and Lavinia followed Griselda through a side door.

Walking through the door, a Clergyman who seemed to be on break looked at Griselda in confusion.

"Sister Griselda, what happened with the Stray Devil? We hadn't gotten a Signal from the Magic Compass yet. Did the Stray Devil relocate before you arrived?"

As the biggest church in Ukraine, St. Michael's Cathedral was the Head Regional Headquarters, and as a Headquarters, they naturally had magic to detect any spells targeted towards them, and Griselda's Magic Compass naturally had a tracking spell placed on it towards the Headquarters.

"Well, that's cause I didn't kill it."

"So it escaped?"

Griselda shook her head.

"No, this kid here killed it before I arrived." Griselda gestured towards Noa, who looked at the Clergyman.

"Yorokobe, Shounen." Noa spread his hands out with a poor impression of a deeper voice. Naturally this wasn't a very good first impression. "...This child?" 

The Clergyman looked at Noa with concern.

"So you got kids in your basement?"

Griselda slapped her hand across Noa's mouth. "...Father Bayrak, this child may be a little... special in the head. I hope he hasn't offended you..."

Bayrak looked at Griselda and Noa with amusement. As someone who was around 4 times as older than Griselda, he looked at her like a grandchild, and likewise, saw Noa the same. He knew children could be a bit... whimsical.

Griselda was about to continue, but she felt a wet sensation on her hand, and she immediately recoiled, her hand whipping back. "You brat!"

"You covered my mouth first?"

"That's cause...!" Griselda trailed off before sighing. "Can't you at least show some basic respect...?"

"You heard her Lavinia, show some basic respect," Noa nudged to Lavinia next to him, who had been watching the interaction with a faint amusement. Naturally seeing Noa as someone rather... special, but reliable, leaving negotiations to Noa would be much better than herself.

Noa was also someone who liked taking in all possible opinions before making a decision. Not because he was kind, but because if the decision as shit he could blame everyone else but himself.

He was just like that.

Well, not that Noa would do that in this case, cause doing that shit to a 9 year old was just stupid and petty. He wasn't ageist or something like that but he believed that an adult should at least have some accountability when taking care of a child, even if the adult was also 9 years old.

Damn that system.

"...Me?" Lavinia looked at Noa in dismay.

Noa nodded.

"Yeah, she's taking to both of us. Weren't we the Winter Duet? Why am I the only one talking?"

...She was regretting leaving 'negotiations' to Noa.

"I wasn't talking to Lavinia, you rascal!"

Griselda glared at Noa, who hid behind Lavinia.

A chuckle from Bayrak cut into the conversation.

"It's nice to see children acting like children." Bayrak mused. While he hadn't known Sister Griselda for long, seeing as she was only sent here for one mission instead of being stationed here like some Exorcists, his conversations with Griselda were professional. 

While Griselda seemed mature, Bayrak with his experience knew that Griselda only knew how to act mature and be mature, and while he understood that while the fake could one day be real, Griselda didn't have that experience.

How could one truly be mature if they were never immature?

Children should act like children, and it seemed with this child Griselda brought in, could she truly experience childhood. No ulterior motives, no impossible goal to strive for, just living in the moment.

"F-Father Bayrak, I sincerely apologize for Noa's actions-"

"So the child's name is Noa," Bayrak interrupted.

"Yeah, the name's Noa and I'm going to be Hokage, believe it!"

...Was the child okay?

Was today's youth so advanced that the old one's couldn't even understand what they were saying? Maybe he should take the time to talk with today's youth more if this was the new norm.

"Father Bayrak it isn't your fault that you don't understand him, I don't understand him either." Griselda explained, looking at Bayrak's lost expression.

"Ah... I see. So this child is the one that killed the Stray Devil?"

Griselda nodded, inwardly relieved that the conversation was finally getting back on track.

"Well... I may not have much experience in killing Stray Devils, it's hard to believe that someone so young could defeat a Stray Devil without as much as a scratch... If Sister Griselda had witnessed it it would have been fine, but, you said that the boy killed it before you arrived, is that correct?"

"...Yes." Griselda looked at Noa. Now that she thought about it, while Griselda had witnessed Noa's movement abilities, she hadn't witnessed Noa's combat abilities.

Why had she even believed Noa? Was it the confidence in which he said it?

"So you want me to show you how I did it?"

Bayrak shook his head.

"I understand that showing one's abilities is in some way a breach of privacy. I would be satisfied if you had any piece of evidence that you killed the Stray Devil."

Noa froze. Damn... Maybe he shouldn't have integrated that devil into the renovated church.

Well, Noa had the same feeling he had with Griselda with the Bayrak guy, so his Protection of the Faith probably saw that this Bayrak guy was trustworthy. He didn't know how to explain it. It was like a feeling of underlying trust like they had been comrades.

But the real question was what to showcase.

While he could just manifest his Ice Abilities and call it a day, looking at Augusta's reaction when he used his Skill, it seemed to be working on a concept that didn't exist in this world.

He should probably just use an ability that was from High School DxD. The Sacred Gear that he swiped from the witch Augusta, Incinerate Anthem.

It could also explain why there was no evidence of killing the Stray Devil.

"Can I get a few minutes of contemplation?" Noa asked.

"...Is there no evidence?" Bayrak asked.

The silence was rather telling. Bayrak looked apologetic.

"My apologies. While I would like to just believe you, a majority of the people in the Vatican probably wouldn't, and a report needs to be written."

"Yeah, so I need some time to decide."

Bayrak nodded in understanding before leaving the room.

"Please knock on the door if you need my assistance, child and company."

As Bayrak left the room, Noa looked at Griselda.

"Just making sure, but Lavinia can also just 'visit' the Vatican, right?"

Griselda paused. "...I don't actually know. While I believe entering is fine if she's associated with you, getting benefits without any visible abilities would be difficult."

Noa nodded in understanding. While Griselda probably brought him from the Protection of the Faith skill, he also needed the ability to be by himself and not get chained to the Vatican cause that would be a pain in the ass.

If someone's wondering why he just doesn't dip, that was because... because there was probably some plot reason that the author couldn't think up yet.

However, Noa knew that the church was rather shitty, with stuff like the Holy Sword Project occurring, and who would he be if he didn't save the lot.

While his life here didn't really feel real, saving children and people who didn't deserve it was something he wanted to do at least once in his life. Lavinia didn't count. He met her coincidentally but decided to protect her nonetheless.

If he was sent here with a golden finger, why not spend his time changing what he wants to change?

Maybe he could get a honorary high ranking and kill that guy Valper Galilei. But here's the thing. The Holy Sword Project was probably authorized by a higher being than that.

While Noa knew that Angels didn't really have much to do with the church until later in the plot, if an Angel really approved that shit he would be surprised if they didn't fall.

So he would do this under the assumption that there was a higher guy who approved Valper's bullshittery.

Hence, his plan was to stop it like a true Hero of Justice(tentative).

Even though Noa was someone who didn't really care much for the plot, he wanted to be one of those characters who at the start of the story was like stated offhandedly as 'Super Strong' and 'Considered the Strongest Human'.

Wouldn't that be sick as fuck?

If he had to be Pope to do that, then there was nothing stopping the A-Train.

Well, that was for future him to worry about. For now, getting into the Vatican for some benefits was key. If his future self decided to save the children from getting experimented on, then that was that.

Anything after that was fair game.

Wait. Was the experiment even happening right now...? His sense of time was rather skewed.

Well he could at least kill Valper Galilei, right?

...Maybe he should just join the church and retire early.

After all, if he was strong enough, who could force him to do anything? The Church was probably a better place for Lavinia to train to be stronger too...

...Why did he say he didn't want to join the church again?

"Lavinia."

"Hmm?" Noa had been thinking for a while, but if Lavinia had to show her doll as long as it was for Noa she would.

"You wanna just join the church with me?"

""Huh?"" Both Lavinia and Griselda looked at Noa with confusion. Noa was the last person any of them expected to join the church.

"Don't look at me like that. Griselda, if we joined the Church to be Exorcists, Lavinia can get training right?"

Griselda nodded, realizing why Noa was asking. She looked at the kid in a new light.

"I-I don't need training! If you don't want to join Noa, then-"

"Wait." Noa interrupted Lavinia.

"I was thinking, while I'm strong, and I'm fine with being the Winter Duet, I still want you to get an education. I was thinking that I needed to up my game too."

"...So you're also planning to join?" Griselda asked.

"Well I wouldn't have asked if I wasn't. But I want something from you."

"...What?"

"Could you keep everything about the trip here a secret?" While Noa told Griselda about his abilities, that was because of the gut feeling originating from Protection of the Faith, having an effect similar to how Fairy Eyes could see the 'truth', Noa speculated that Protection of the Faith could see 'Pure and Just Faith'.

This didn't account about Griselda's actions, but rather told him that she was trustworthy.

"...Okay." Griselda didn't press further. Getting Noa into the Vatican was more important.

"...Thank you."

That made Griselda blink. This might have been the first time she heard a thank you from Noa.

Noa looked at Lavinia with an uncharacteristic serious expression on his face. "So, will you join the Church with me?"

"I'll go wherever you go, Noa." Lavinia nodded, with a small blush on her face. That kind of sounded like a proposal...

"Good. Since one of the most important things in the social world is respect, and respect is born from strength, Lavinia it would be better for you to reveal that."

If the Church knew that Lavinia had a Sacred Gear, they would probably both invest and not pressure her into doing something she doesn't explicitly want to do. But if they did, well, Noa had a wide range of lethal abilities to choose from.

"That...?" Griselda asked. When she first interacted with Lavinia at the renovated church, there was an underlying feeling of danger. Was 'that' that?

Lavinia consented.

"Okay, Griselda."

"Uh... yeah?"

"Are you decently experienced with Sacred Gears?"

"...To some extent. Are you saying that Lavinia has a Sacred Gear?" Griselda asked. Sacred Gears, or God's Artifacts were well known at the Vatican, and some exorcists were wielders of such weapons, with the most notable being Dulio Gesualdo, the wielder of Zenith Tempest, who was currently still in training.

"Yeah. But we don't know what Sacred Gear she has."

"...I see. While I don't know all of them, I know most of the previously identified ones."

Noa nodded towards Lavinia, who manifested a towering doll made of ice.

Griselda blinked in surprise. An Independent-Avatar Type Sacred Gear made of Ice...

"...A Longinus?"

Now it was Noa's turn to blink in surprise.

A Longinus? That doll was a Longinus? Noa had just thought it was just a stronger Sacred Gear...

"...If I'm not mistaken, it's the 11th Longinus, Absolute Demise."

"...Longinus?" Lavinia asked in confusion.

Griselda quickly explained, and Lavinia looked at the doll in wonder. The doll who had been following her for a majority of her life was one of the strongest Sacred Gears...?

Lavinia dematerialized the doll.

"Well, you're probably going to get some respect for that," Noa mused.

"Some...? She would probably get a lot more than just 'some'." Griselda joked.

Lavinia nodded. That was good. She probably wouldn't get forced into anything.

"So, Noa I know you said to keep your abilities a secret, then what are you going to show? Because while your holy aura might allow you to wield Holy Swords, that isn't much compared to Lavinia," Griselda had only seen the abilities of creating clothes out of nowhere, a brazier out of nowhere, perfect movement, and manifesting clones.

None other than the movement could have any battle applications.

"Oh I have a Sacred Gear too."

""...What?"" Both Lavinia and Griselda looked at him with surprise.

"...Why didn't you tell me when I showed you mine?" Lavinia looked down. Did he not trust her? 

"Wait. I got it just it earlier today while I went hunting." Noa quickly explained how another Witch appeared so he started fighting her, then all of a sudden her Sacred Gear just left the Witch's body and entered his.

"..." Griselda was speechless. In the span of when he was hunting he got into a fight and left with a Sacred Gear?

"...From the descriptions, I believe that it's the Independent-Avatar Type Longinus Incinerate Anthem, but could you show it so we can make sure?"

"Sure." While Noa had played around with the purple flames, he hadn't actually manifested his Sacred Gear yet, so he was also in the dark.

In the magically largened room, a purple flame appeared in the air, before coalescing into a bright purple Cross, but as if it was a bit lonely, a buxom woman with 4 large horns, and a wolf tail and ears, and a large Grail made of flames above her materialized.

If Noa played Fate/Grand Order Arcade, he would recognize her as the Whore of Babylon. But he didn't.

The cross slowly rose, before stabbing itself into the woman's chest diagonally, and the woman made of flame rose her arms and hugged the Cross, staying in that pose. While the pose should have looked tragic and graphic, it looked rather... sensual?

Griselda looked at it in both surprise and awe. While the cross was how Incinerate Anthem looked, was that a Sub-Species...?

"...Is that really Incinerate Anthem?"

--+--

A/N: I am so sorry for not updating broskis, the flight was shitty, and my computer took an entire day to catch up on it's drivers, then I started playing zzz.

The grammar's probably more ass because I wanted this chapter out quickly.

Also, One day has lasted 4 goddamn chapters...

I actually haven't seen much fanfics on the church in DxD, but if you have seen them PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE Recommend me some.