Chapter 36: Accretion 9 - Aftermath
Koneko
Waking up in an unfamiliar bed that I don't remember falling asleep in wasn't a new experience for me, but it didn't happen often.
I've seen it happen to a lot of main characters in anime and manga– mostly in battle shounen series after a fight, or in an isekai where the MC wakes up in a new world– but the actual experience was completely different than what was usually depicted. For one, there wasn't any grogginess or confusion when I opened my eyes. I didn't need to blink away any blurriness and look around the room to figure out what happened.
I simply woke up and opened my eyes, head clear and with perfect awareness of the chain of events that led up to this point.
The other difference?
I'm a Devil. One that is Rias Gremory's friend and servant.
Sterile white walls and bright lights of an infirmary after a tough battle left me injured and on the mend? The cracked ceiling of an orphanage to greet me as I start my new life?
Screw that, we have money.
I sat up and looked at the new room I found myself in.
The bed I found myself on wasn't some crappy cot or a stiff-mattress'd bed with rails like the school Nurse had available, it was closer in comfort to the bed I had back home at the peerage mansion. Similarly soft silk sheets and similarly ridiculously comfortable mattress, only it was much smaller and without my canopy frame.
While not as large as our mansion's entrance lobby, the room I woke up in was pretty spacious, and almost as finely decorated. It was more on the long side instead of being square and boxy, and the walls were a warm but muted burgundy. A natural wood trim that looked like it would cost ridiculous amounts of money just for some pieces of carved wood, stretched down the length of the room with periodic breaks where it stretched from floor to ceiling. The ceiling itself was a creamy off-white, with multiple sparkling chandeliers hanging down to light the room.
All in all, the only reason it could be called an infirmary was because there were multiple other identical beds on either side of me, with two of them supporting Kiba and Hyoudou while Asia hovered over the brown-haired teen on my left. She had a look of concentration on her face, her tongue sticking out slightly with [Twilight Healing] hard at work. From the heavy breathing and slight tremble in her arms as she held them over the boy, she was nearing the end of her stamina.
"I see you've woken up now too, Koneko-chan."
I turned to my right to see Kiba looking my way from his own bed, with a tired smile and crinkled eyes. "How are you feeling?" He asked.
I took stock of the state of my body, lifting an arm and clenching my fist a couple times as well as some other similar little checks…
'Nope, nothing wrong.'
As expected, Asia's healing was perfect.
I pushed myself up and swung my legs over the edge of the bed to face him.
'I guess I'm not at one-hundred percent yet.' I felt a tiny bit of weakness in my limbs as my feet just barely touched the floor, reminding me that [Twilight Healing] didn't fix exhaustion. Oh well. Aside from my chakra reserves slowly climbing back up from near-empty, and an amount of physical fatigue that was about the same as having a worse than usual sleep…
Now that I was facing him directly, I responded. "Mm, I'm good." My stomach rumbled monstrously now that I was upright, and I tilted my head. "Could use some lunch. Used up a lot of power."
I watched as he pushed himself up with a chuckle, though he stayed in the bed and just leaned gingerly against the ornate backboard.
"You need to work more on your stamina, Yuuto-senpai," I observed, only semi-jokingly. "You're like a cheetah. all speed, no gas."
Kiba rolled his eyes. "I don't want to hear that from someone with [Rook] endurance, least of all you," he said dryly, the corner of his mouth quirking upwards in amusement. "The rest of us don't have a second pool of energy to draw from, you know. [Sword Birth] isn't exactly free to use," he smiled ruefully. "And Riser made plentysure I had to pay that price over and over again with how quickly he destroyed my swords."
"Sounds like a skill issue to me," I replied mercilessly.
He laughed, before glancing to the side. I followed his gaze.
There was a TV recessed into the center of the opposite wall, showing highlights from the match with the volume turned off. It was currently playing a clip of Kiba racing around a practical firestorm with his Flame Delete sword in one hand and Repression Calm– his wind-absorbing sword– in the other. Using Repression Calm to steal away the winds that fanned the flames, he would then use Flame Delete to freeze the slowed fireballs and tendrils that reached out for him, just for the overwhelming amount of fire Riser could bring to bear to quickly overwhelm them both, shattering the swords in his hands.
He cycled through different combinations of demonic blades while Rias and Riser threw their family's magic at each other, before finally landing on a combination of Flame Delete and his new sword, Impulse Stealer.
With a quick and low dash towards a side of the storm where the fire was thinner, the Kiba on screen slashed Flame Delete downward, flash-freezing a line of flames towards Riser, immediately followed by stabbing the pitch-black blade of Impulse Stealer into the ice before it could melt. In practically an instant, the barely visible form of Riser froze in place in the center of his fire-storm, a thin thread of black piercing through his neck, and the flames themselves seemed to die down a bit.
Then less than a second later, the ice that Impulse Stealer stabbed through basically exploded in a burst of steam, followed by the sword's hilt glowing red hot and being dropped by Kiba out of pain, where it promptly broke apart into motes of light. The fires got even brighter and larger than before.
The clip cut off there, switching to showing Hyoudou barely managing to dodge a right hook from Ni, alongside a zoomed-in shot of the scene showing his fingers brush against her incredibly lewd version of a sailor-fuku uniform, and an almost unnoticeable magic circle appear where his fingers touched before it disappeared.
The scene cut to him snapping his fingers with a lewd grin, and his opponents clothes all bursting apart into scraps of cloth, leaving them standing in the nude with black bars covering their privates.
I gave another silent apology to the girls for directing the Perv their way. 'At least it got censored...'
Another cut, the next scene showing one of my own fights.
I ignored it and turned back to Kiba, a certain topic on my mind.
He picked up on the shift and seemed prepared for the unspoken question, even though I know for a fact my expression didn't shift.
I asked it bluntly.
"Did we win?"
Kiba's default smile twitched slightly, becoming more of an awkward half-grimace.
"Not… exactly…"
The door to the room opened.
"Man, this is so bullshit…" Hyoudou grumbled as our group walked through the main hall of the Gremory estate, lightly fiddling with his collar to undo the top button. It was a little more than two hours after I woke up, and only three hours after the Rating game itself had finished.
"Language."
Hyoudou stiffened at the one word reprimand from the silver-haired maid leading us to our destination.
"It's unfortunate, yes-" Kiba agreed, "-but it is far from the worst outcome," he reminded his friend with a thin smile.
The two boys were both wearing soft white, button-up dress shirts and black slacks. Not all that different from their school uniforms, but without the jacket or undershirt, and more well fitting.
Rias's dad had sent Grayfia to collect our peerage for a "what happens next" meeting of some sort. We were given enough time to recover an acceptable amount as well as clean ourselves up, and provided suitable semi-formal wear for a small gathering, all already perfectly tailored to our sizes.
Technically, all new devils and other visitors like Hyoudou and Asia were required to use the Lilith-Rail train line to enter the Devil's section of the Underworld for the first time, for security and census purposes or whatever. In reality, not a single person involved would ever go against the arguably sixth-most powerful person in Underworld politics and father of the reigning Lucifer, just to enforce a minor border law.
Grayfia had arrived at the infirmary with Akeno in tow to explain the situation as it stood, waiting until after Akeno assisted Asia's healing of Hyoudou so that everyone could be awake to hear. While the two girls were finishing up with the boy, the TV had continued playing clips from the game, with one of them being from after I had been eliminated.
It'd shown in slow motion Hyoudou going toe-to-toe physically with Riser for a few seconds, relying on his Boosted defense to survive the heat while Akeno rained precision lightning strikes on the Phenex, before speeding back up to normal showing that the fighters were practically a blur. Eventually the strain of his Boosts became too much for the [Pawn, and he was Retired within moments of his stamina failing him.
With Riser already visibly pissed off at being pushed so far and struggling to stay on the attack while simultaneously regenerating the nerve damage Akeno was constantly inflicting with a sustained stream of lightning, he focused the entirety of his visible aura into a massive fireball– so big that it almost looked like the Supernova attack Friezer used to destroy Planet Vegetable– which he sent at an exhausted Rias, at the temporary cost of his own defense. Rias tried to fly around the edge, but she clearly wouldn't be able to avoid the whole thing in time; the attack was just too wide and approaching her too fast, so she instead decided to hunker down and use the last of her demonic power to throw up a shell of black Destruction as a shield.
A second before the fireball impacted the school, Akeno's body exploded in a burst of pure white lightning, different from her usual yellow or higher-powered blue.
The clip cut off there, before she became fully visible again.
Her shoulders had been tense the whole time the clip was playing.
Akeno-senpai stayed silent as we walked, eyes lowered while walking a step behind everyone, offering only a weakly strained smile when I fell back enough to softly bump my shoulder against her arm, walking beside her the rest of the way even as I ignored the new instinct telling me to get far away from her. A uniquely searing smell of ozone clung around her now.
She was wearing a purple dress just a shade lighter than her eyes, with ruffled shoulders and a small amount of cleavage showing, while I had on a sky-blue dress with short sleeves that fully covered my chest snuggly, emphasizing my… lack of a chest. I wasn't even bothered by that fact, surprisingly.
My tail tried to twitch, despite it being hidden under transformation for convenience.
'Okay, maybe it still bothers me. Just a little.'
Grayfia finally led us to a stop, turning to address our group as we stood in front of a pair of tall and wide, ornately carved and gilded doors. There was a gray-haired butler with a refined mustache standing by one of the doors, his wrinkled eyes closed and hands held clasped behind his waist as he waited patiently.
"As a reminder, you are about to be in the presence of Lords Gremory and Phenex in their capacities as heads of their respective Pillars," Grayfia stated warningly. "While it is not technically required of you all to be on your absolute best behavior due to the dispositions of the Lords, and the private nature of this gathering, you are to mind your manners at all times and refrain from directing vulgar language towards others, regardless of your personal feelings towards any guests."
"We understand, Ms. Grayfia!" Asia nodded rapidly, wearing a classic yellow sundress and hat combo.
While it was mostly aimed at Hyoudou, Grayfia eyed me in particular when she mentioned "vulgar language".
I couldn't imagine why.
'Heh. 'Rotisserie chicken'.'
I felt my lips curl upwards in a tiny smile at the memory, and Grayfia's eyes narrowed in response, staring me down.
With one last sweep of her eyes across our group, she gave a final satisfied nod, and turned to grasp one door handle while her subordinate grabbed the other. The two Gremory servants pulled open the heavy double doors in sync, stepping to the sides and bowing their heads as they did so.
The moment the doors cracked open even a little, my ears began picking up soft music and snippets of conversation from vaguely recognizable voices on the other side, the doors having been sound-proofed with magic. Akeno and I followed Kiba into the mansion's smaller "great hall", the larger one on the other side of the property reserved for more "public" formal events, while this one was used for smaller private gatherings, meant to be more comfortable while with closer allies instead of the general nobility. We stepped around the two newest members, who had both slowed to a pause in the doorway, taking in the room.
While Asia seemed to be looking around in awe at the understated but lavish wealth on display in the large room– floor-to-ceiling glass doors leading out to balconies, velvet-cushioned benches and couches lining the walls, a fully stocked and staffed high-class bar, a grand piano to the side with a maid playing ambient music softly, and more– Hyoudou instead seemed to be stunlocked, torn between the instinct to ogle the full peerage of women in various levels of formal dress milling around the room, and the instinct to shout in surprise.
Rias's mom and a blonde lady that I assumed was Lady Phenex were both sitting comfortably in a more private corner of the room, holding half-empty wine glasses as they chatted together and glancing our way as we entered the hall.
"Close your mouth, idiot," I said as I walked past Hyoudou, not sparing him another glance as I began heading towards one of the refreshments tables. "You'll make us look bad."
Who cared that by ignoring Riser's peerage for food I'd arguably do the same thing?
I was fucking hungry.
I didn't waste any time, immediately grabbing one of those little snack plates and stacking a pile of tiny hot dogs on it in a tower. They were the kind with a flaky little pastry-wrapping around the middle, 'pigs-in-a-blanket' is what most people called them.
Forget making us look bad, it was probably already a bit awkward for Riser's peerage when they arrived before us, the ones unofficially meant to play host to the guests while the heads and their children discussed the politics of the situation in a side room.
It couldn't be helped though, since it took longer for magic to heal serious burns than it did to heal bruised and broken bones, and Asia was only able to take over in place of the usual healers after the game ended.
That, and being tied to the family responsible for the production of Phenex tears, they were always going to recover from their injuries faster than us no matter how things went.
I sat down on a bench next to the snack table and began tossing the little sausages back like tic-tacs, barely chewing the mini franks just long enough for the distinctly savory juices and buttery flakes to reach my taste buds before swallowing.
A shadow fell over my tower of wieners, as a pair of white-stockinged legs stepped into my vision while I was looking down at my food, wearing a pair of black short-heeled pumps.
I didn't look up, preferring to pop another of my meaty treats into my mouth to chew. And then another.
And another.
One of the shoes began to tap.
My fingers grabbed another 'pig' by the 'blanket' and brought it up to my open mouth.
The tapping foot came to a stop, just short of a stomp. "Will you stop ignoring me?!"
I paused looking up to see a red-faced Ravel Phenex in a pink lolita-style dress, her ringlets swaying as she practically vibrated in place, her blue eyes narrowed down at me in a pathetic looking pout that she probably meant to look regal and intimidating. Or something.
My mouth closed, and I thought about it for a moment.
"Nope." I popped the dog– pig?– snack into my mouth and began chewing, staring into her shocked eyes as I reached for another from my dwindling tower.
My fingers touched ceramic, so I looked back down.
'Ah, only one more.'
I picked up the final piggy.
She– Ravel, not the hot dog– sputtered as I prioritized snack over talk, standing up and walking past her to refill my plate with a different appetizer.
"T-take back what you said, before! I will not stand for such… such demeaning insults against me and my family, and demand that you apologize!"
I hummed in acknowledgement, but didn't turn towards the girl who kept trying to interrupt my food-time. "Okay." I nodded, before turning to face her. "I don't know what you're talking about though." I didn't know but I had a pretty good guess. "Tell me what I said, and I'll say sorry."
I wanted to hear her say it herself, out loud, in the same room as the rest of her brother's peerage where there were definitely going to be others listening in on us. Such as the two nekomata twins whose ears were blatantly aimed in this direction.
The suddenly uneasy girl at least partially realized what was happening, and shifted on her feet in embarrassment as she glanced around.
I took the moment to look at what everyone else was doing.
Hyoudou and Asia were sitting together near one of the other food tables, sharing a plate of appetizers. The look on the nun's face as she looked at the nervously smiling boy was disgustingly sweet, and I was surprised at how little it shocked me that the Perv was actually managing to not perv out for more than half a minute. It made sense in hindsight though, because looking back on it, every time the boy had ever had a genuinely "cool" or heroic moment, Asia had been involved somehow.
She seemed to bring the good in him to the surface.
Completely opposite to those two's little bubble of sunshine, Akeno stood near the bar, Idly swirling a drink around in her glass with a dull expression while trading barely disguised verbal barbs with Yubelluna. Akeno's clear disinterest in everything at the moment, let alone engaging with the other [Queen, just made Yubelluna all that much more annoyed.
Kiba, as always, was smiling politely as he was accosted by two women. On the one hand, he was probably relieved because it wasn't like his usual fangirls, who wanted his romantic attention. On the other hand, Karlamine and Siris seemed to be genuine sword fanatics, and Kiba didn't particularly care for the things more than any usual swordsman. Hell, he tended to treat his real training swords like crap because he was so used to just making new swords with his sacred gear whenever he actually needed them.
Ravel finally answered, small streaks of red appearing on her cheeks as she glared at me. "Y-you called me... fried ch-chicken…" she mumbled.
I almost wanted to make chicken sounds at her, just to see the resulting fireworks, but that would be too antagonistic for no real reason. Under her expectant eyes I opened my mouth to say sorry for the insult ("sorry that you can't handle competitive banter."), when a pair of doors on the other side of the room opened up, and four people stepped out of an adjacent meeting room.
When she noticed my pause, Ravel turned to see what grabbed my attention.
Rias and Riser entered the gathering hall, Rias with a relaxed slump to her shoulders and tired smile on her face, and Riser with his hands stuffed in his pocket and eyes narrowed in slight irritation. Trailing behind them, talking to each other easily with amicable smiles like they were old friends (which was entirely possible), were Zeoticus and someone who I guessed was Lord Phenex from context.
With Lady Phenex looking exactly like an aged up Ravel and Lord Phenex looking like an aged up Riser, I was beginning to wonder if all full-blooded Devils looked exactly like their parents. Rias and her mom would look like identical twins if it weren't for their different eye and hair colors, and Sirzechs…
Okay, Sirzechs doesn't really look that much like Zeoticus, but he does look like a taller, gender-bent version of Rias, which meant he looked like a gender-bent recoloring of Venelana as well.
"-ld that thought for a moment, while I address everyone." I picked the smooth voice of Rias's dad out of the room's noise when conversations lulled with the group's entrance, and Lord Phenex nodded at the crimson-haired man with a smile and a wave of his hand.
Zeoticus held his fist over his mouth and cleared his throat. With a subtle hand gesture that I only noticed because I was already paying attention to him, the maid playing the piano subtly came to a stop.
"Excuse me, I would have everyone's attention for just a moment." Lord Gremory spoke up, his strong voice easily cutting the room's noise without having to be raised all that much. It wasn't a request, it was a statement, and everyone quieted down to focus on him just like he said.
"I would like to announce that our houses have come to an agreement regarding the results of the contest, and have revised our plans to strengthen our families ties in a mutually beneficial way that all parties can agree upon." The man paused, smiling wryly. "That is to say, we've been… enlightened, so to speak, on the changing times and the mindset of the new generation." The man chuckled lightheartedly. "Us old-folk will no longer make deals without getting all involved parties' consent first. It is our wish that any animosity from before can be forgiven and forgotten, moving forward."
He clapped his hands together.
"With that matter out of the way, drink! Eat! Mingle and have some fun after a well-fought battle!" He said boisterously. "If you have any specific meal requests, one of the servants will gladly bring it to our chefs. That's all for now."
Ravel turned back to face me now that Lord Gremory had dismissed our attention, but I was already walking away, speed-walking as fast as possible without actually breaking into a jog to reach my [King]. I saw the others were doing the same, all of us wanted to know if we succeeded in our goal.
Rias bee-lined straight for Akeno since she was the closest of us, and going by the giant smile on our [King]s face when she rushed forward to glomp the [Queen], I think it was safe to say we had our answer anyway.
Naruto
(Kuoh Academy Computer Club)
KAOMessenger (Signed in as: UN_Predictable)
VG_LaDOS: Here's a video that should help show the importance of what I was talking about.
VG_LaDOS: [Link]
VG_LaDOS: It's pretty short and is more focused on the artistic aspect of 3D lighting, but an alright intro for the surface details.
VG_LaDOS: Give it a watch, and I'll answer any technical questions you have.
I felt my phone buzz in my pocket with a text and pulled it out, looking away from the school website's messenger screen on my monitor to see who it was.
I grinned when I saw it was exactly the person I'd been hoping for, and rushed to type out a response.
Today 4:07 PM
Koneko1123: we're back, u free?
9SageNaruto: waht happened u guys win? im at computrer club right now.
(Koneko1123 is typing)
I had been in the middle of working with another student online when I'd gotten the text. President Four-Eyes had decided to test my "commitment" to being part of the club after my unannounced two-week trip, and challenged me to prove my dedication to learning about computers, letting me choose a topic out of a selection to write a research report showing my understanding of the topic.
He didn't actually have the authority to assign me punishment work, especially for absences the school signed off on, but I refused to let the jackass talk down on me like that. Uzumaki Naruto never turns down a challenge!
Knowing basically nothing about anything involving computer's– aside from how to use a browser– I'd picked one at random and landed on "Digital editing: including but not limited to video, audio, image, and 3D modeling."
Whatever the hell all that really meant.
Within five minutes of me blankly scrolling through google pages, Vice-pres Tatsu noticed how lost I was, and put me into contact with another student he knew through the school's internal social network. While Tatsu seemed to know his way around all the physical tech and basic programs, this other student was apparently like a wizard with everything on the software side of things. They weren't even part of the computer club, and apparently did all of their classes online, getting an online reputation as a mysterious student no one had ever met in person.
The only thing people knew about them other than their skill were their name's initials at the beginning, which were part of the school's minimum requirement for a username.
"Huh."
The moment I saw Koneko-chan's text though, all of that fell away from my mind. The only thing in my head the moment I read her next string of texts was impatient excitement, barely holding back the urge to rush over and get all the details.
Koneko1123: we tied, double knockout, but the marriage was canceled anyway
Koneko1123: family politics we had more pieces at the end, so they gave us the win
Koneko1123: we're all relaxing at the mansion the rest of today, gonna throw a party tomorrow. Want to join?
Chapter 37: Multi-Interlude 4
Phenex Clan Territory, Underworld
(Shortly after the Gremory-Phenex gathering)
Riser leaned back onto the massive half-bed/half-sofa that sat in the center of his private wing's entertainment hall, just a few moments after he and his peerage had arrived with a teleport. With his head tilted back, one of his forearms came up to rest across his eyes with an annoyed click of his teeth. His girls all began plopping themselves around him in varying states of composure and mental exhaustion, now that keeping up appearances stopped mattering.
Spanning almost a dozen meters wide, some would say that the deep-purple velvet monstrosity was oversized as hell and clashed horribly with the rest of the fine mahogany décor, but he would call them idiots.
How the hell else was he supposed to fit all fifteen of his girls together with him on movie nights?
He paused at that thought.
'Fourteen,' he corrected himself mentally. While he liked having the 'little sister' role in his harem filled, and would be absolutely down for it if Ravel decided to join his girls for real, his sister wasn't actually into that type of play, and had indeed retreated to her own wing of the mansion upon arrival.
His lovely [Queen] flopped down next to him, laying herself across his chest with a groan, prompting him to wrap an arm around her waist. On his other flank, Mihae snuggled into his side, so he lowered the arm from his eyes to drape around his [Bishop]'s shoulders and idly grope at her modest chest, getting an embarrassed but pleased sigh to escape her lips.
While his family were among the best healers in the Underworld alongside their production of Tears, able to restore a being to near-perfect condition, their healers' magics fell far short of a true Phoenix Tear, a pale imitation that did nothing to help with mental fatigue, the stress that accumulated throughout a day of dealing with the expectations of a Pillar noble.
Not that he actually had to do that often, being the third son.
"..."
"... You're very tense right now," Yubelluna said after a few moments, shifting her head to glance up at him understandingly, a similar frustration in her eyes. "I can likely guess, but what's troubling you?"
Unlike the rest of his peerage, Riser had none of that same mental fatigue. Unlike the rest of his peerage, Riser had required a Phoenix Tear to be healed after he'd been Retired from the match, given the residual Holy element sparking throughout his system that resisted all other forms of Devil-based healing– including his own innate regeneration failing him.
Mihae gave a small but sharp inhale when his hand clenched a little too tightly, and he relaxed his grip.
"Tch…" He clicked his tongue, not at anyone in particular, but just thinking about the situation left him wanting to do something about it. To rectify some mistake. "I don't particularly mind that the marriage was canceled. It's a little irritating, and it would have been nice having the excuse to bring a woman like Rias to our bed, but not something I felt very strongly about either way."
What was one girl who greatly disliked him compared to his loyal women who loved him dearly?
He shook his head, ignoring the appreciative noises some of his girls made. As enticing as the idea of getting with the Ruin-Princess was, realistically, even if the marriage went through, she would have made the prospect of interacting with her on a regular basis an absolute pain in his ass. In the end, the whole thing was their parents' endeavor, and it could be argued that he had, as the humans put it, "dodged a bullet" when he decided to concede the draw as her victory behind closed-doors.
The real issue…
He could still feel the way his entire body locked up, the agony of his every nerve feeling like it was dying, like his very self was being torn apart in a way like nothing else had until then. Riser had felt his limbs be erased by Destruction itself and not flinched, been showered by currents of electricity and barely slowed, gone toe to toe
with the newest Red Dragon Emperor and defeated him in a battle of strength, speed, and stamina– yet that one bolt of holy lightning was enough to make Riser black out from the pain and feel it even in his dreams.
Even the pain and humiliation of having been skewered by the little youkai girl was minor in comparison, a footnote of the battle that he could admit in his own mind he'd likely find amusement in when looking back on it years down the line. At least, once she inevitably grew into her own as a respectable powerhouse on the scene, and the incident coming to light wouldn't harm his reputation too much.
Regardless, the fact remained that he had lost against those that, by all rights, would not have beaten him two weeks ago.
"... I wasn't strong enough."
After administering a Phoenix Tear to wake him up, his father had taken him aside and told him that he recognized lightning like that which struck him in the end, from one of the original Fallers no less.
The Lightning of Heaven, Baraqiel.
His father had pulled him close and hugged him tight, warned him that if it hadn't been for the Retirement system, if that had been a real battle, he would have died. That even with all the safeguards in place in a Rating game, accidents still sometimes happened, and that he'd been lucky he wasn't one of those cases. He didn't say anything else, but Riser wasn't stupid. The message was clear.
An undying Phenex, as mortal as any other Devil against the wrong opponent. Their family's birthright couldn't protect them from everything.
He would need to be able to stand on his own in the future, without relying on his regeneration.
For a brief moment, a vague impression of the strange human with blond hair and six whisker-like markings appeared in his mind. At the time, Riser hadn't bothered remembering the human's face, but those particular features and his impertinence had stood out nonetheless.
"Yubelluna."
"Yes, my lord?"
"I'll need you to create a new schedule for everyone, and increase the amount of time set aside for the girls' training." He paused for effect. "Naturally, I'll be joining you all."
The human boy had been right about one thing, at least. In the end, the two weeks had been enough for Rias to win, even if by technicality.
'If only two weeks of training got a few reincarnated devils strong enough to stand against me, what progress would be made if I, a pure-blood, began training?'
Kuoh Academy
(Thursday, May 17th)
"Hey, are those leftovers from the party?"
"Mhm."
"Damn rich people! Even leftovers look better than the lunch I brought with me today!"
A pause.
"... Can I have some?"
"If you try to take my food I'll throw you over the railing."
"So stingy!"
Amatsu Norika felt her lips lift into a small smile, while she watched from behind her glasses as her strange new friends argued over something as normal as food.
"Oh yeah, you two did mention going to a party or something yesterday, huh," Mitsuri mused from her own seat on the roof tile, idly picking at her own bento while leaning back against the guard rail. "Was it part of that thing you guys were gone for?"
Despite everything that made the tomboy stand out from the rest of her classmates, Norika felt like the redhead was the most normal person in their little group of four, something she was grateful for. The taller girl's casual disregard for the social norm compared to other girls their age was, ironically, a far more normal behavior than the other two's personality quirks.
Norika was grateful, in a strange way.
While she'd never had any trouble making friends and acquaintances, she'd always found herself ending up in the role of being that one friend that everyone knew, but nobody knew. And as much as she enjoyed interacting with everyone, watching how friend groups merged and split as interests crossed or parted ways, it still left her feeling on the outside, no matter how readily any of those groups would integrate the kind girl.
But then Ueda Mitsuri– the tomboy with a straightforward attitude, and surrounded by rumors of delinquent-adjacent behavior– had come to her in private, and shyly asked her to join the tea ceremony club with her. Despite standing over a head taller than Norika, the girl hadn't been able to look her in the eyes, nervously looking around while struggling to get out her request without stuttering or mumbling.
It was impossible for Norika to refuse the request. It felt like the beginning of a shoujo manga! The "normal" girl being approached by the classmate with an intimidating exterior, only to find out that exterior hid a soft and vulnerable heart? She jumped at the chance to develop a true friendship of her own, accepting with a wide smile and no second thoughts.
It was only shortly after that, that she remembered whoexactly Mitsuri tended to hang out with at school.
"Mm." Koneko's simple answer was accompanied by a single nod. Norika's smile didn't shift as the sun bounced off of her glasses lenses.
"Yep." Uzumaki's answer was a lot more verbal– "Remember how I said they hired me? It was for training. They wanted to break a contract they didn't agree to, and the other guy agreed to a physical contest to settle things, which they won." –but left out so much context that it just created more questions.
The conversation quickly moved on after that, and she chimed in once or twice when it got to the topic of recent club activities.
Knowing how these sorts of things usually went from her research (manga), Norika wasn't surprised. She didn't expect the boy to volunteer more details on what was obviously one of "those" things that normal people like herself didn't know about.
And while at first glance it might have seemed like the Koneko wasn't all that engaged with the conversation thanks to her usual blank expression and focus on her food, Norika was well aware that the girl was paying plenty of attention.
The slight twitch of her pure white tail at the boy's answer was a dead giveaway, not that the others could see anything.
Sometimes, it was really hard not to let her eyes roam where they shouldn't. Like she'd said two weeks ago, she was used to ignoring the "weird" things she sees, but Koneko was just unfairly cute! The way her ears would swivel and twitch to track distant sounds Norika couldn't hear herself?
She wanted to pet them. Just once!
"Wait, people actually use the online portal?" Mitsuri asked in surprise after Naruto explained his current project. "I thought it was just something the school was trying to push to show they're modernizing."
"Mm." Koneko nodded in confirmation. "It's mostly just upper years, though I have a friend that uses it. Does all his classes on it."
Norika's smile became brittle. "A-ah Mitsuri… do you… not check our club's message board for event notices?" She asked the tomboy. "Is that why I always have to remind you when it's one of our ceremony days? Why I have to keep dragging you to the club that you asked me to join with you?" Her smile strained as she spoke.
The awkward shifting of hazel eyes to avoid meeting her own, as well as the nervous wince, told her all she needed to know.
"What's their username?" Naruto asked the cat girl with a bright grin while ignoring their byplay, a grin that did a lot to offset his intimidating… everything else. "Maybe I can send them a message. A friend of Koneko-chan's is a friend of mine."
"It's a reference to a videogame; Vee-dot–" She cut herself off when her ears flicked to the roof access door suddenly just as the door was pushed open, revealing the recognizable figure of one of the Two Great Ladies of the school.
The familiar dark red aura pulsing in her chest that she shared with Koneko was significantly lighter than she remembered it being, brightened by a jaggedly radiant white glow that was almost similar, but distinctly different to Koneko's own full-body shine. The ephemeral, barely-there bat-like wings she also shared with Koneko, as well as a few other notable students in the school, were joined by a pair of beautiful, full-feathered black wings reminiscent of a raven.
'It's just like a manga!' Norika squealed excitedly inside her own head. 'A two-week training arc that unlocked a new powerup!'
Her face didn't show even a single hint of her thoughts despite her desire to see what they would look like for real, her natural small smile slotting into place without any effort. After all, she'd gone her entire life seeing things that no one else could. Even something "new" like this was still within her own sense of "normal", even if she couldn't share it with others.
"Ara ara~" Himejima Akeno brought a hand up to cup her cheek with soft eyes and a gentle smile, her other hand holding a suspiciously large bento box tied shut with a delicate bow. "So this is where the two of you have been running off to, Uzumaki-kun, Koneko-chan~"
Koneko relaxed with her tail slowly swishing behind her, the only visible sign of her having tensed in the first place being that same appendage having stiffened.
Naruto, on the other hand, snorted. "What do you want with us, ya witch?"
The upperclassman turned her gaze on Mitsuri and Norika for a moment, ignoring the boy's rude greeting entirely with a smile. "I don't believe we've been introduced. My name is Himejima Akeno." She gave a quick bow.
"It's nice to meet you, senpai," Norika replied with a polite but genuine smile. "My name is Amatsu Norika."
"Ueda Mitsuri."
Norika would have elbowed the girl for her un-ladylike greeting, but that would have been even more so, so she settled for staring judgingly at the tomboy who continued to avoid eye contact with her.
For someone who joined the Tea Ceremony club to become more feminine, the redhead certainly didn't seem to put any effort into that goal outside the club.
"Don't let her appearance fool you," Naruto spoke out with an exaggerated warning tone, "This woman is dangerous."
Even though he was clearly joking, Norika didn't doubt the statement's face value anyway.
"Rude." Akeno pouted. "I guess that means you don't want to share the bento I put together for you." She poked a fingertip to her lip while shifting in a way to emphasize the large container in her grasp. "And I made sure it had all your favorites from yesterday, too…" She sighed dramatically and turned back towards the door. "Oh well, I can tell when I'm not welcome."
"Wait wait wait! Hold on now…" Naruto, who had begun eying the bento with a greedy, hungry look, immediately panicked and began running damage control. "Why don't you join us for a little bit, and we can talk about this like civilized adults?"
Akeno smiled angelically and walked over, elegantly seating herself in a kneeling position on the other side of Naruto from Koneko, between the boy and Mitsuri.
Tellingly, the whiskered boy's eyes were still locked onto the bento.
Norika hid a laugh behind her hand, and Mitsuri snorted in amusement.
"And for your information," Akeno began as she placed the bento in front of him and rotated it deliberately, "I wanted to thank you in some way for all the help you gave us, something a little more personal than a check to be cashed." The senior student watched his face as he began untying the bento's ribbon in a hurry, a gluttonous grin on his face.
"We couldn't have done it without your help," Akeno said with a soft smile. "So thank you, truly."
Something about the way she said it put a weird feeling in Norika's belly, one that had her sending a worried glance at Koneko, though the white-haired girl only tilted her head slightly, looking curious.
The lid came off and Naruto leaned over to peer into the box with a grin, only to pause and blink.
His expression shifted to one of confusion for a moment, before a look of surprise and realization entered his eyes.
"Huh. I guess… it really has been a whole year since I got here." His new smile was complicated, like he couldn't decide whether he was more happy or sad, and it was the first time Norika had seen an expression like it on his face. "... Huh. Thank you."
It took a moment for her to figure out the significance of his reaction, after she finally realized what was in the bento. There were a variety of finger-foods packed in around the edges– most of which looked like meaty western snacks that she couldn't name– that surrounded what looked like a homemade omurice, complete with a personalized ketchup garnish
From her position across from him, Norika saw that the red sauce took the upside-down form of the kanji for "Happy birthday".
After school let out, Norika found herself deep in thought as she walked through the thin crowds of the town's mall to do some shopping.
It seemed that out of all five of them on the roof at the time, the ninja was more surprised than anyone else about his gift, like he hadn't even remembered it was his own birthday until after he opened the bento.
Norika idly shifted to one side of the path, leaving plenty of room for a somewhat familiar older Inugami hanyou with hands full of bags pass by her, not even sparing a glance at the half-human man's dog ears. The weirder– but still unfortunately familiar– sight was the fact that the man was also holding the leash of an actual Inugami that trotted patiently by his side. That, she had to force herself to try not to stare at.
'I wish Yashamaru-san would stop taking his mother for walks in busy spaces like this… it's so off-putting to see…'
Although, it wasn't as if the man who lived in her neighborhood realized anyone knew about him like that. Norika knew better than to blab to people about her ability, even if it was hard to ignore it whenever she passed by the man on her walks to school, and had to listen to his "dog" scolding him for not spending enough time with her anymore.
She shook the thought from her mind a moment later, and refocused on the topic of her classmate, the one that didn't belong.
For as long as she's known, there's been a specific identifier, something that people either had, or didn't. A 'quality' that had no visual tells, but that she was able to notice inherently, on a fundamental level. From the majority of her teachers and classmates, to every identifiable youkai she's ever seen, from the mister who ran the convenience store she went to when she visited Tokyo, to her parents, to most of the people around her at this very moment. It took her a few years to pinpoint exactly what it meant, but she'd understood what it meant in the end; they were all children of Japan.
Even the first time visitors of their ancestors' home, the hafu's who'd never even set foot in the country before, were welcomed back by Nihon.
Shitori Souna, Yuuto Kiba, and Rias Gremory were all examples of people who didn't fall under that umbrella. The American and European tourists she sometimes saw were the same.
So why didn't Uzumaki Naruto fit into either of those categories?
It had unnerved her at first, being in the same class as a boy so different from everything she'd seen before. She was too used to seeing oddities to stare, but even in a world full of oddities, he was still somehow… alien to her.
Regular people didn't have any auras, any unexplained glow or features, nothing like that. They were simply a product of biology, and the natural world.
Supernatural people did have things like that. As a normal person, her sight notwithstanding, Norika didn't know if this was because something like magic existed or not, or if there was some more logical explanation, but she wouldn't be too surprised either way. She just didn't know, and never bothered inserting herself into a world that would probably put her and her family's lives in danger, like some sort of anime.
With Naruto though, there was nothing, but in a way that made her realize that there was something, and she just couldn't comprehend it.
There shouldn't have been anything to make her think this. For all intents and purposes, he seemed like a kind– if intimidating-looking– normal person to her, never mind the fact that he didn't have that Japanese identifier despite his clear hafu appearance. But all it took to make her notice the discrepancy, was seeing how Koneko's own aura latched on to his "nothing" one day, when the girl had been poking at him after class.
Despite her initial hesitance though, she didn't need to interact with him for long in order to realize that he wasn't actually scary at all, and that he was just a bit of a weirdo with very little common sense.
In other words, nothing she needed to worry about!
Instead, she would worry about what would be appropriate to get for her recent friend as a late birthday present!
… Plus some other shopping she needed to get done.
Before anything though, she needed to use the restroom first, so that she wouldn't have to interrupt her shopping trip later and shuffle into the bathroom with a handful of bags.
As she was walking down the side hallway to where the women's restroom was, she was shocked when a young looking girl with messy medium-length golden pigtails rushed out of the door next to her in a hurry, and bumped shoulders with her while tugging unkempt pieces of clothing back into their correct places.
It wasn't the girl's sudden grinning appearance that shocked Norika, despite the gothic-lolita style of dress, nor was it the pair of ethereal raven wings that curled behind the girl, so similar to Akeno's.
'Why was a girl like that in the men's room?!'
A second later, another person stepped out of the same bathroom with a sleazy smile.
"Ugly Bastard" was the first descriptor to pop into Norika's head.
It took a moment for the dots to connect.
'I should… call the police, right?' Norika wondered, torn between alarm, suspicion, and uncertainty as the man walked away with an off-key whistle. The lolita was clearly someone from that side of the world, and was probably older than she looked based on what Norika knew from manga tropes… but then again, that was manga and hardly represented real life, so if that girl was as young as she seemed and that man really…
Her face twisted in disgust and she pulled out her phone. 'Ugh… I think I'm going to be sick…'
Kuoh Mall
(Seconds later)
"Ohohoh~" Mittelt giggled to herself behind a raised palm as she strutted away from her latest 'playdate', fully satisfied. The practically visible revulsion and concern flowing off of that human girl filled her with a debauched sort of delight.
Unfortunately for her most recent toy, the man had begun taking glances at other, actual children recently, which was a big no-no according to their little 'arrangement'.
That, and the laws of basically every civilized country on the planet.
Thus, she had decided to let a bystander become suspicious of his depravity to draw the mortal police forces in his direction. By the time he would be caught, she'll have been long gone, on to find a new little piggy to play with until they outgrew her mercy.
This not-so-little piggy had likely believed himself above his "conquest's" rules, for whatever reason.
The only thing that saved him from painful death via her cleansing spear was that he hadn't yet acted on his growing urges to diversify. Mittelt was already tainted, so she was a fine target, but an actual innocent? She would have had him begging for the release of death within an hour.
"That girl though…" Mittelt muttered under her breath, the condemned man's ultimate fate, both in life and in spirit, already out of her mind. 'She hesitated too long.'
The glasses-wearing teenager hadn't even blinked at the sight of her, just the sign above the men's bathroom. The girl wasn't even phased by the sight of a pre-pubescent dressed the way she did, a very rare style that was almost entirely relegated to cosplay-tier, that thus tended to generate a lot of attention. Despite that, it had taken longer than expected for the girl to finally decide to call the authorities.
'Her body was that of a normal human's, no magic potential at all.' Mittelt mused. 'Her eyes though… Did she see through me?'
The Fallen lolita shrugged, not really caring that much anymore, and quickly found a secluded place to take flight from after wiping the memories of anyone who'd seen her nearby.
She had a meeting with her new minder/parole officer to get to, and the four-winged asshole wouldn't hesitate to toss her in the slammer for a couple weeks if she was a minute late. Info-sec officers were uptight bastards like that, and deviant pervert she might be, but she wasn't into abandonment play.
Mittelt idly wondered how her old team were doing back at Headquarters as she flew through the slowly darkening sky. Unlike herself, who had surrendered pretty easily and cooperated with her captors, Raynare's actions and refusal to cooperate beyond admitting her defeat had threatened a fragile political balance, and landed her in a bit more hot water with both factions. Kalawarner, being the useless lesbian she was, had followed her girl-crush's lead in unintentionally making things harder for everyone involved, not just their Devil captors.
"Eh, who cares." Mittelt, once more, didn't really care that much. "Fuck them."
'I'm sure Raynare's probably stoked to be Azazel's disposable lab rat or whatever anyway, the psycho.'
Grigori HQ Barracks, Punishment Block A-3
(Same time)
'This is fucking awful! I can't believe I Fell for that creepy nerd bastard!' Raynare wordlessly screamed into her thin pillow, lying face down on her assigned cot after another soul-crushing day of work.
Raynare was not stoked to be working under Azazel in his Sacred Gear research department for her punishment, even though her position was that of a secretary and not as a test subject. As good as that was for her continued health, her past self would have undoubtedly preferredbeing a test subject, because at least then the object of her devotion would have noticed her!
Instead, unless it was for the purpose of foisting off all his neglected paperwork onto his overworked staff, the man seemed to have a pathological need to avoid, ignore, and talk down to the entirety of his staff. For a man who Fell due to Lust, he certainly didn't seem to make any effort to positively interact with his female staff, and instead appeared to actively turn them away with sleazy comments and verbal abuse.
And Raynare would have been fine with that, would have thrived even, with the delusional belief that she was 'easing his burden' and he was simply 'venting his stress onto her' whenever he decided he wanted to spend more time tinkering instead of running his government.
But he didn't know her name.
The man who she Fell for, one of the first to follow him in abandoning their home in Heaven forever, and he didn't even bother remembering her name.
That stung, but wasn't unexpected. He was a busy man and the leader of all Fallen, and she was a lowly two-wing foot soldier, and it had been thousands of years since they'd forsaken the Light of their Father, so surely she just needed to remind him.
So she did.
His response?
"Listen, unless you have a Sacred Gear that can make me a perfect cup of coffee, I literally do not care. Anyways, here's a budget proposal that Penemue needs from me in the next hour, so get to it."
She screamed into her pillow again at the memory in a mixture of humiliation and rage.
'This is fucking awful…' she reiterated in her mind, feeling drained after many minutes of venting her impotent frustration into her bunk. 'I'd even take continuing to be that pervert's pretend-girlfriend over more of this bullshit.'
She snorted at the ridiculous thought. Even though she'd be free and not have to deal with watching her hopes and dreams die in front of her in real-time, that would mean she'd have to deal with dating a perverted human– or Devil, rather, since he'd been reincarnated after she'd killed him– and that would be a hassle that was completely beneath her, a former Angel.
'Although, he did act like a perfect gentleman on the date itself…'
She giggled. Of course he acted like a gentleman. The weak little virgin was on his first date and was nervous he might fuck it up, so he had to be on his best behavior if he didn't want to scare away a seemingly-normal human girl with his usual antics.
'Actually, can I even call him weak still? Even though I wasn't taking him seriously, he did overpower me." Raynare began running her fingers through her long black hair to smooth out the mess she'd made of it with her thrashing around. Going to sleep with messy hair was just a recipe for knots in the morning. 'And I'm not a human, so it was kindafunny to see Issei struggle to suppress his Lust… with his looks he'd only need a little bit of self-control, and then he'd-'
Raynare's totally-rational thought process continued down this spiraling path, deep into the night. It was hours after mandatory lights-out time that she broke out of her delusional fantasies of spending more time in Kuoh, just enough to momentarily wonder about the fate of her most loyal former-teammate before finally being ready to sleep.
'I wonder what Kalawarner's punishment duties are?' She mused as she closed her eyes at last, her thoughts on her sort-of friend that had been remanded to a different punishment detail. 'Whatever they've got her doing, I doubt it's worse than this.'
She absentmindedly scratched an itch coming from her shoulder blades, thinking nothing of it before she drifted off.
Grigori HQ Barracks, Punishment Block A-2
(Past midnight)
"Hey, wake up."
The lights flickered on and Kalawarner woke up in a confused daze, the bored voice of the barracks night warden and footfalls of the night shift guards entering her room rousing her.
"Wha-?" She muttered drowsily after an exhausting day of running drills with lowest-tier foot soldiers, like some sort of cadet that got punished for talking back to their sergeant. "What's going on…?"
The warden– a six-winged man with slicked back brown hair– watched her as the guards took their places on either side of the door.
"Beats me," he shrugged apathetically, eyes dull. All I know is we got an order from high up to bring you to meeting room five. Seems like someone wants to have a chat with little old you."
It pissed her off that this needed to be done during sleeping hours, and the barely hidden leering of one of the guards as she changed was annoying, but it was her fault for being in this position in the first place. If she hadn't failed Raynare those weeks ago…
The blue-haired Fallen shook those thoughts from her mind as she walked into the meeting room, the guards closing the door behind her.
She looked around, not seeing anyone else in the dimly lit room with her, just a large oval table surrounded by empty chairs.
"Tch." She clicked her tongue. "Can't even show up on time to your own meeting…" she muttered, before sighing and pulling out a chair to sit and wait.
"And I thought patience was something that Father gifted to all His children."
She shot up in surprise as she was in the process of sitting down, a voice speaking up from the side of the room.
"I suppose that's something that doesn't pass down to the natural-borns, though I'm hardly an expert of the flesh."
Stepping out of the shadows in a spot she was certain she had checked and found empty, was a tall, thin, pale-face man in dark robes with aristocratic high-cheekbones and elfin ears, long and wavy black hair, and blood-red eyes.
"Then again, I find my own patience withering by the day."
Kalawarner was quick to bow as lowly as she could, not having expected to be called in by one of the leaders of the entire Grigori. Especially not the most bloodthirsty one of them all. "M-my apologies L-Lord Kokabiel, sir!"
The man's smile twitched in disgust at the show of weakness, not that she could see it.
"There's no need for any of that," he said smoothly instead. "Please, take a seat. I heard about the circumstances of your mission in Kuoh, and simply wanted to hear more about it from one of the sources."
Kalawarner straightened up and sat down stiffly, not relaxing in the slightest as the man walked towards the table. When a Cadre asked you to take a seat, they weren't asking.
He hummed, stopping across from her. "I overheard one of your teammates was killed?"
"Yes, sir. Dohnaseek was his name. I didn't see it happen, but apparently he was Destroyed by the Devil's Ruin Princess." She answered. "I was unconscious at the time. I…" She hesitated. "I was defeated by a human, sir."
He smiled and began slowly circling around the table. "And your leader, Raynare, was it? Where is she now, how is she doing? I understand you hold her in high regard."
A bad feeling began forming in her gut as he crept closer and closer to her side. Everyone about the man in front of her set off alarm bells in her head, one of the leaders of the Grigori or not. In fact, that little detail was probably a major contributor to it.
That feeling almost made her consider not answering the question, but she knew that if she didn't, it would likely just make things worse for both herself, and Raynare.
"S-she's in block A-3 I believe. Serving her punishment just like me."
"And your final teammate?"
But fuck Mittelt, the traitorous bitch.
"... Still in Kuoh, I think."
"I see." Kokabiel stopped just behind her, and placed his hands on her shoulders in a parody of a comforting gesture.
Her pulse pounded through her ears as she felt his hands squeeze.
"I have a little task for you, Kalawarner." His rich voice almost seemed to drip into her head like poison. "You will be excused from your current circumstances, and you will head to Kuoh. Once there, an agent will deliver you further orders."
He leaned down so that his mouth was closer to her ear.
"You follow your orders, Kalawarner, and I will ensure your friend Raynare doesn't have any, ah, 'incidents' during her punishment. Do you understand?"
Kalawarner's heart skipped a beat and she gave a shaky nod.
"I didn't hear an answer." His hands squeezed a little tighter, and her breath caught in her throat. "Is that a yes, or are you denying my generosity?"
"Y-yes, sir, I und-understand sir," she barely managed to gasp out.
Kokabiel released her with a chuckle and a couple light pats, and she sucked in much needed air, feeling like a crushing pressure she hadn't even known was there had been lifted from her whole body.
"Good. I'd hate to be disappointed." He stepped away with a chuckle. "Oh, and do remember to keep this arrangement to yourself. Betrayal is one of the greatest of sins, after all."
Kalawarner didn't know how long she sat there before she was retrieved, but when it happened, she knew it wasn't one of the Punishment Block guards.
The masked Fallen wore the combat uniform of the Angel of the Stars' personal army. Despite being reduced in number to just a few hundred from the original three hundred sixty-five thousand, all the remaining survivors from past wars were rumored to have gotten to six wings.
Even the weakest of his men were at least a dozen times stronger than even Dohnaseek was, and they were all totally loyal to a vocal warhawk.
Whatever she had just been conscripted into, was seeming more and more like something she wanted absolutely no part in. She'd prefer scrubbing the HQ toilets for a decade over it, even.
But if it was to protect Raynare, she would do it no matter what it meant for herself.