'Just what exactly… am I going to do with that boy?'
Rias Gremory, as of this very moment, could not, with confidence, answer the question that rolled around in her mind.
Her eyes narrowed in hidden frustration at a red bishop sitting on the chessboard in front of her. It had been five days, and as of tonight, it had also been five nights since she had last spoken with her wayward bishop.
In truth, she was worried about his absence, especially with the argument that they had… no, to call it an argument would be far too generous, even she knew that. She had let her emotions get the better of her and berated him; that was not how a leader should ever act… let alone a king.
A King— it was almost funny how much that word had come up this month alone compared to the entirety of her life.
No matter how much her sister figure, Grayfia Lucifuge, tried to break down the meaning of it for her to learn, she could not bring herself to agree with such a notion. To claim that those who would follow you did so only because you had power was a conclusion far too cold to be true in her eyes.
A True King does not need to assert her dominance over her subjects to gain the right to lead them; if strength is all they seek, then they can never be called subjects; at best, they were nothing more than mere assassins hiding in the shadow of a king. If strength is all a king has to offer, then they are not a king at all! They are nothing more than a shield that will one day fall and be forgotten by their retainers.
To even imagine a king in that position made her blood boil… that very notion of a false king was nothing more than disrespect to her, and to the man who had molded her very way of kingship.
Kindness, warmth, and care, to be a beacon and a guiding light to others— that is what it meant to be a TRUE KING… and the evidence of her belief was the very man she had grown to admire from the very beginning of her life, her brother, the Embodiment of Destruction, otherwise known as the Crimson Satan…
…not that she would ever tell him that of course, even just thinking about it drowned her in a sense of dread of how her brother would cry tears of joy for what would probably be a month straight because of it.
But even if she did detest what Grayfia was trying to do, she couldn't lie to herself and say that her sister figure was entirely wrong; after all, she did bring up a great point— A king must bear the weight of their subjects as if it were their own.
That notion, she would admit, needed something from her… something that had become very apparent that she did not possess in spades as she had originally believed… and in a way made Grayfia completely correct.
What she lacked was power.
Her mind almost every day would repeat the same scene over and over without fail, her cute little servant, whom she thought of as a little brother she wished she had earlier, fighting the wretched abomination that he called Freak as she stood in the sidelines doing nothing… In him, she did not see the warmth, or even the teasing chaos that he seemed to live by…
…his eyes were hollow, utterly devoid of anything that she had learnt to love about him; in his place was a shell with one goal, a goal that it would do anything to achieve.
Death was something that was commonplace within the supernatural, so it was only natural to have to kill at least once in your life; it was even the expectation, but at that very moment, it was like he was ready to kill everything about himself to kill the very man that stood in front of him.
Her heart ached at the very memory, and the feeling only intensified as she remembered that even now, with some of Gasper's secrets coming to light, she still did not know everything; he was still hiding things from her… and she could understand why.
He didn't trust her, and in some of the deepest parts of her mind, she told herself that he had every right to even hate her for what she had allowed to transpire.
But even if he hated her, she could not, WOULD NOT, let him go.
Rias closed her eyes gently.
She would never allow him to walk the path of life alone again… she swears on her very pride, on her very existence…
…She will never make it necessary for him to wear those same eyes ever again—
"Rias?" Her thoughts were broken at the sound of Akeno's voice.
Rias opened her eyes once more, the figure of Akeno sitting across from her filling her vision.
"It's your turn," Akeno said, smiling as she motioned for Rias to move a piece on the chessboard.
Rias blinked at her as she realized that she had let her thoughts spiral out of control. She looked at the board and simply moved the bishop she had been staring at for the majority of the time.
"Check… and mate," Rias said, leaving Akeno utterly confused.
Rias got up and began to make her way to the center of the room, unbutton her shirt as she went.
"Ah, I see…" Akeno let out a defeated sigh; on the board, it was clear as day, she had lost. The rook on the king's side blocked the path forward, and should she choose to move left, a knight would take her, and the final nail in the coffin was that very bishop, killing any hope for escape, as the pieces that could help her had been taken long ago.
She knew she shouldn't have played so aggressively at the start… oh well.
"And here I thought I put on a good challenge this time." Akeno flashed her master a sly grin. "You really know how to crush a girl's dreams."
Rias looked back at the queen of thunder and smirked, "You did well, Akeno. Thank you."
As her master turned away and dropped her shirt, Akeno dropped her smile as worry seeped into her expression.
Akeno at times played the fool, but by no means was she one.
Gasper Vladi, the very boy she had been mentoring for the last couple of months, was what ailed her master, and she knew that.
Rias entered the bath in the club room.
Akeno sighed once more as the sound of running water filled the room.
She stood up and made her way to the side door of the club room and opened it, revealing a bedroom, one clearly meant for guests as it was practically vacant except for the bed and some drawers.
She opened one of the drawers at the side of the bed and began preparing a set of clothes for Rias.
She could admit that Rias's patience was far greater than hers; if it were up to her, after the second day of Gasper's absence, she would have dragged him back by the ear.
After all, even with him not showing his face at the club building, he still had a soft heart; he wouldn't just up and vanish, so he showed up to practice day by day, but it was strange; he was focused not on himself or even Kiba, his attention fully belonged to Koneko for whatever reason… but that was nothing of concern after all those two were practically inseparable.
Where one was, the other was most likely to be found as well, that was what she accepted to be an undeniable truth of life.
But Rias, well…
"She's far too lenient with him," Akeno muttered under her breath. She knew that the only way the boy learnt was the HARD way; she was speaking from experience, of course, he was far too hard-headed to listen to reason most of the time.
Akeno closed the drawer, a new pair of clothes hanging on her arm.
Rias's patience was greater than her own, but in no way was it infinite.
A smile overtook her face.
And once it reached its end… her smile dropped as she realized something.
She actually never had seen it reach its end, wasn't that quite curious?
****
Gray storm clouds covered the town as torrents of rain pelted the earth below. The streets were empty, with rivers of water rushing along the roads before disappearing into storm drains. Anyone unfortunate enough to venture outside would find little to see beyond the blurred outlines of buildings and streetlights, obscured by the relentless downpour.
Yes, without a doubt, anyone willing to try their luck out here would be nothing but a fool—
A white blur leapt from the roof of one building, landing on the roof of a lower one. As if not feeling the impact of the landing, the blur continued forward; their movements, even in the rain, produced no sound.
The blur jumped off once more, not caring about the monumental distance of very street that they aimed to clear! The open umbrella in their hand pulled back as the harsh wind caught it, revealing a black cat hairpin on the left side of her face.
Koneko Toujou landed gracefully and continued on her path as if the street she cleared was nothing more than an afterthought.
Her nostrils flared as her pupils slit in a way that could only be described as feline.
'Got it…' As soon as she picked up the scent, she stopped and turned exactly ninety degrees.
With no hesitation she took off once again, jumping off the roof of the building she was on, only this time with much more urgency in her step.
In this endless sea of rain, it was practically impossible to follow a scent; the rain completely washes it away, and what would be left would not even be close to what would be needed, even if the scent was completely familiar.
Koneko kept hopping from building to building; the buildings slowly becoming smaller as she approached the more residential district of town.
She jumped once more, only to land in a small street as she ran out of tall buildings to leap across.
Keeping her head down, she began making her way down the much narrower street, well, at least compared to the streets of the more commercial district—
SPLASH!
.
.
.
"..." Koneko's eyebrow twitched uncontrollably as she watched a car blur away, the same car responsible for the now soaked shirt sticking to her skin.
'I… forgot just how much I hate the rain…
And worst of all, Shiro, that stupid lazy cat, he just couldn't be bothered, could he?
But then again…'
She continued her way down the street, the sound of the falling rain filling her silent thoughts.
It was her idea to come out here; after all, she was after one person, and one person alone.
She didn't know exactly what happened, just that Rias and Gasper got into a fight. About what? Frankly, she didn't want to know, but whatever happened was surely the reason for the dark cloud hanging over Gasper and the look of frustration that Buchou always seemed to try to hide from her.
There was truly no end in sight for their affliction; even when they were training, Gasper was not fully there, she could tell, especially with how much he had been sticking with her during training; it was almost as if all he could see was her. At first, she chalked it up to him just wanting to gauge exactly where she was in power to try to help her… but now…
…she could tell that all he felt was guilt when he looked at her. It was clear that he was making up for lost time.
The thought of it alone just made her want to smack him upside the head.
'He didn't show up for a couple of nights, so what? Did he really think that was something to be guilty about, that I would get mad at him for something so simple as not showing up without saying anything in advance?'
The time they would usually spend together was gone, that was true, but she was not blind; she could clearly see that Rias was obviously giving him time to process whatever had happened between them… and yet…
…'Why would he think his best friend wouldn't get that he needed time?'
If it was up to her, she would have made him leave training altogether and have him focus on fixing himself up… and truly, that was what she was planning to do once she saw him on that first day of training, but she —against her better judgment— decided not to go through with it as she saw just how much joy it brought him to help her and Kiba train…
Actually, she would even say that he was enjoying himself a LITTLE too much.
An image flashed to the forefront of her mind, one of Kiba being smacked on the head with the flat end of a blade that he made, with Gasper cackling maniacally as he readied to smack him again.
A smile crept onto her face as she repositioned her umbrella.
Without a doubt, he enjoyed it quite a bit.
Whoosh!!!!!!
An extraordinarily strong breeze rolled over the area!!! She instinctively clutched the handle of the umbrella, and as the wind died down…
…Rain began falling onto her once-dry hair.
Koneko looked up at her umbrella, only to find its ribs completely broken. The canopy that once provided shelter was now nothing more than pierced fabric.
She let out a deep sigh.
"I really hate rain."
<--–TO BE CONTINUED—
*****
An: I was planing on actualy making this WAY longer but, I didn't up finishing it so yeah…
Well I'll give yall the rest this week, probably on Thursday.
Also tried a new more descriptive writing style for this chapter so let me now what y'all thoughts on it is.