Sona was silent for some time before she finally spoke, "Are you messing with me?"
"Nope. Too good to be true? Probably, but for someone with no standing like me, your cooperation would be more than enough to benefit my future activities."
Sona furrowed her brows. "You're someone with great power. Everywhere you go, you'll be accepted and, quite frankly, even worshipped." She still believed he was pulling her leg and thought, 'There must be a trap somewhere. Maybe he only mentioned my father to work me up emotionally.'
After she 'figured out' Kisuke's aim, she calmed down but still decided to entertain him since they were already talking. "Of all people, you just had to choose me, someone who has no say in things and only controls an Academy where Low-Mid Class Devils attend."
Kisuke watched her expression and could approximately guess what she was thinking, 'I guess there's no point tiptoeing around.'
He thought for a moment before settling on a more confrontational approach to speed things up, "In exchange, you're someone who has a lot of freedom. Besides, your former relationships and connections still add a lot of value to you. Isn't that the reason you're still getting proposals in the first place?
"As I find those attributes quite attractive and it's easy enough for me to offer solutions to your problems, I am now sitting in front of you." Kisuke then leaned forward, and Sona could feel the intensity behind his gaze had changed. "And this may sound threatening, but aren't you worried about your father's declining condition?"
Killing intent once again seeped out of Sona. "And here I thought I hid that well. Do you still expect me to believe you're not working for someone else?"
Kisuke was surprised that Sona didn't immediately come running in to kill him and turned away from her to look in a certain direction. "Well, even from here, I can smell a familiar but very nasty trace of Spiritual Power, so I have some idea what's happening."
Something had been bothering Kisuke ever since he arrived in the room, and he finally figured out what it was. 'This is bad. Although this is a secret and abrupt meeting, there could be eyes closely monitoring Sona. If they think this isn't worth it, they may do something drastic.'
Kisuke shared the 'smell' he got with Benihime and Tiamat, making them aware of the situation.
Now that he knew what was at stake, he had no choice but to force his way through.
Sona was wondering what he meant by a nasty trace of Spiritual Power when Kisuke suddenly audibly sighed before the shadow beneath his feet expanded and swallowed him whole.
Sona's eyes widened in shock as she watched the shadow retract back to the floor. At the same time, the 'Death God's' presence completely disappeared, making her frantically look for him.
But the next moment, she froze when she felt his presence once again, this time in a place she never wanted anyone to set foot— "What!?"
She hurriedly stood up and ran toward the door.
Having made that room secure from any unauthorized entry or spatial manipulation, she was confident no one could enter as long as she or her mother was around. 'How!?'
But right now, it was clear that the unknown man had breached those restrictions and was probably already standing beside the person inside that room, her father. "How!?"
She made a mad dash, shocking everyone she passed by, but she had no time to explain.
It didn't take a minute for her to reach the room, and now she was sure she wasn't hallucinating. There was indeed another presence inside.
She nearly smashed the door open with how forcefully she pushed it forward, but the sight that greeted her made her mind go blank.
Laying on the king-sized bed and peacefully sleeping was her father, Dylan Sitri. Beside him, however, was the unknown man who was just talking to her, with his right hand deep inside her father's chest.
"Nooo!!!" Her shrill cry sent everyone into a panic.
Sona intended to smash the man away from her father and blast his head open.
However, the man was prepared, pointing his finger in her direction and muttering, "Rikujoukourou (Six Rods of Light Prison)."
In an instant, six thin but wide beams of light appeared around Sona, slamming into her midsection and arms, holding her in place.
The Magic she was about to cast was interrupted, her Demonic Power halted. Sona knew she could force her way out of this unknown spell by intensifying her Demonic Power, but, as if time had slowed, she realized it would already be too late.
She watched as the man's hand dug into her father's chest, and tears started falling. "Please! No! Stop it!" She had been stoic for decades in the face of all the tragedies she had endured, but that didn't mean she had killed her emotions.
Because of the unknown man's sudden and drastic actions that put her father's life in danger, she couldn't hold back anymore and started pleading like a helpless, powerless girl. "Please! I beg you... stop..."
Kisuke, who was rummaging around Dylan's soul, felt guilty, but it was hard to explain his actions now without a concrete result. Since he didn't have the time or patience to play with words, the easiest way for him to move forward was to push through.
Soon, the people of the Sitri Household began descending into the room, intent on punishing the person who had made Sona cry. Fortunately for Kisuke, he didn't have to wait long; he found what he was looking for and pulled out a thin strand of silver hair. "Nasty bastards... Maybe I should make something that can reliably detect these things."
It was the same hair that Aizen extracted from Koneko, which had put her into a coma.
Kisuke then disintegrated the hair by concentrating his Spiritual Power into his fingertips. Once he was sure it was gone, he turned his attention back to Dylan, estimating the required power and frequency needed to achieve balance between body and soul.
As someone with insane control over his Reiatsu, it was easy for him to figure that out. This time, instead of digging into Dylan's soul, Kisuke slammed Dylan's chest, sending the required Spiritual Power for him to recover naturally.
Once that was done, he used his [Shadow] to leave the place.
The now-free Sona had already conjured several spears of water, but as she sent them over in rage, the unknown man had disappeared, leaving behind words that only she could hear: [I don't want to disturb your reunion, so I'll return some other time. By the way, be careful of any Etouldes that approach you.]
Naturally, Sona didn't care about any of that and sharpened her senses to figure out where he might appear next.
"...Sona?" But the moment she heard that voice, her head instantly cooled down, and a rush of memories flooded her.