Sanko Sitri
AN: Sorry I haven't uploaded in a while. My reasons have been stated in my One Shot called Finality. This update was Brain Bowl Exclusive, Chapters 32-38 so use that previous button. I will not be doing regular updates but I hope to have at least six of my stories updated tomorrow (My Original Stories so sorry for fans of my Reading Story)
Sanko Sitri was the name I was born with. I was once thought of as a miracle birth as not many Devils could get pregnant twice in three years. That went downhill as soon as they realised that I didn't have much power and that the pregnancy had ruined Verona's Womb keeping her from trying for more children. That last fact alone set my fate in stone as far as my family was concerned. The only one that didn't hold it against me was Sona but given her dream she couldn't truly associate with me as much as she would like. I didn't hold it against her as I liked her dream and hoped it would come true.
TSS
I grit my teeth as Diodora put more weight on my shoulder causing it to pop out of the socket thanks to the grip he had it in. it didn't help that the older boy had his Rook keeping me in place after he had attacked me. Despite the pain I was in I didn't cry out and kept fighting against the two making the Astaroth growl in anger and annoyance.
"Why do you even bother, trash?" Diodora said as he slammed me into the ground hard. I managed to turn enough to glare at him with a feral grin on my face.
"You would like that wouldn't you?" I asked knowing exactly what the idiot thought like. "Here's the thing…if I stop fighting then that means I would accept this bullshit as reality, as a fact of life, but as long as I fight back it doesn't matter how bruised or broken I am. You still lose." I watched as his face turned a nasty shade of red before he and his Rook proceeded to lay into me as hard as they could without killing me. My Clan would be forced to do something if that did happen.
"You really shouldn't provoke him." A familiar voice said once the beating was over and Diodora had left. I slowly rolled myself onto my back and looked up at the girl. "You know that you will eventually face him in a Rating Game and deaths, while rare, do happen."
"By then I'll have a good Peerage and some training under my belt." I said with a grin making the dark green haired girl roll her eyes since I had offered her a place in it since her branch was banned from having Evil Pieces. "Once that happens your Cousin and his drones will know what true defeat is. So how are things at your end, Medusa?"
"It would be better if I wasn't dragging your beaten body to the nurse all the time." She said before proceeding to do just that. "How did he manage to catch you this time? I know for a fact that you're faster than his Knight by now."
"I'm wearing weights and I wasn't expecting his Rook to strengthen the door in a way that kept it from opening when I walked around the moron." I would have shrugged if I had the energy to. I was already struggling to keep my eyes open. Of course my eyes were wide open when the Nurse stabbed me with a needle filled with adrenaline.
"Why don't you fight back?" The nurse asked shaking his head in annoyance as he started patching me up. "I know you aren't as weak as people think and half of them barely know how to use the power they have yet." I sighed at the all too common discussion.
"I have no proper training outside of Magic Circles, The Familiar Spell and Storage Dimensions. While I can run circles around them I don't really know how to use it properly either and no one is willing to teach me." The Bear Yokai/Reincarnated Devil sighed before writing something down. I blinked as he handed it to me.
"That's the name of a White Tiger Yokai looking for students. He's hosting a tournament to find some and winning it is no guarantee of a place." I took it and nodded my thanks, curious about it.
TSS
"Aren't you supposed to be a High Class Devil?" The Nekomata on guard asked as I showed him my ID to get into the tournament which was filled with fellow hopefuls who all looked to be eight like me.
"A lot of things are supposed to be in the world and yet we all have to live with disappointment. Me, I have to wonder if I'll ever have enough magic to destroy a training post but do I look like I'm going to let that stop me." I said with a glare while he winced at the clear reprimand.
"Well…Nick did say it was open to all species." He said slowly as if to reaffirm that he wouldn't be breaking any conditions as he let me in. I shook my head at him and headed for the Registration, who gave me no trouble at all, before settling down for the first bout. I was amused at the fight between the Toad-Like Yokai and the cheerful Dhamphir, names weren't used in the Public announcements but the Species was, that was first despite it being clear that neither really knew how to fight.
"You find their attempts to fight amusing." The white haired guy next to me stated as the fight waged on with the Dhamphir slowly gaining the upper hand.
"Yes, their enthusiasm and playfulness reminds me of some of my happier times. It is nice to see." I said honestly as the bout was called in the Dhamphir's favour.
"And do you think that either of them will be one of Master Nick's students?" He asked making me blink before I sighed as the next two started to fight with none of the playfulness of the other two.
"I can't speak for him but I would teach them or help them find someone that would bring out their potential." I saw his raised eyebrow so I explained. "While they were playful both had an undercurrent of seriousness and were eager to learn. If I wanted to teach people then that's what I would look for in a student rather than how quickly they could pick up on things. It is like my Mother's Bishop says 'Teaching a Genius is boring while teaching a non-Genius is a pleasure when they try their best'." I missed the old woman but she died fighting Kokabiel in a recent skirmish that almost caused a war.
"That's a good way to look at things. What do you say about these two?" He gestured to the current fighters that looked like they had been mauled by a dragon.
"No, they seem to care only about power and that would dirty anything I would teach them." I was here to learn how to defend myself and eventually my Peerage. I knew people put too much stock in power and if Sirzechs wasn't such a compassionate person, for a devil at least, then things would be a lot worse for everyone. It was then that I noticed that the match had ended and that I was being called up to fight.
"Good luck, kid." The man said as I got up. I gave him a slight smile before jumping into the arena. What I didn't expect was to see my opponent cowering before me clearly not wanting to be here.
"Are you okay?" I asked with a worried frown.
"If I don't win this fight I'll be kicked out the house." The female Tanuki stuttered as she glanced into the crowd. I glanced at the same place to see a couple that were clearly her parents and neither looked amused at her cowering. "But I don't want to fight." Given the fact it was clear she wouldn't attack I sighed and jumped out of the arena surprising the audience.
"There, you win. My advice is find something you enjoy and do your best to make a living with it." I said before starting to walk out before the man from before handed me a flier. I blinked in confusion before gaping as it stated I was now a student of Nick the White Tiger.
"I look forward to teaching you." He said with an amused smirk.
TSS
"Good morning my students." Nick said with an insufferable smirk on his face as if he hadn't just gone and woke us up before the sun rose. There were ten of us in total and I used this time to get a proper look at my fellow students. "Now one by one I want you to step forward and give me your name before I tell you what I will be focusing on with you in particular as you are all different."
"Sanko Sitri." I said as I was the one at the end of the line getting a nod from Master Nick.
"You have already found your niche with speed. I will teach you to improve on that, unarmed and a few extras to round you off until you can make your own techniques." He said as I then stepped back for the next person.
"Rita Vladi." The Dhamphir said with a twinkle in her pink eyes while she adjusted the braid she had put her white blonde hair in. She carried a staff, much to Nick's approval, and was already becoming a woman.
"You will learn to use that staff to its full potential as a weapon and focus. I will teach you to use magic as well as unarmed. In fact, I'm just going to flat out say you will all be learning unarmed no matter your specialties." I could see that a couple of people looked unhappy with that as the next person spoke.
"Molly August." The Toad Yokai said brushing her brown hair out of the way of her amber eyes. Her hair was loose but short, just to the shoulders.
"I will teach you how to fully utilise your kinds leg strength and some dagger play with a couple more things to round you off." He said impressing me with how different he was allowing us all to be. Most would only teach what they wanted to teach and you would like it or lump it.
"Millie Gopher." The Tanuki girl I had 'fought' stuttered getting a gentle smile in return. She had Lavender hair that was kept in a ponytail while she used two bangs to hide her face.
"You will be taught the same way as Sanko. I'm sure he knows the basic exercises I want to teach you so you'll learn them from him while I get everyone else situated." It continued like this until we had all been told an impressive variety of lessons we would get.
"Right, first things first. Stretching." I said as I took the subtle hint to take Millie a little off to the side to start her lessons while Nick got everyone else started and grabbed the wooden weapons he was going to use to teach us that hadn't brought our own. "It is good that we won't be alone in learning the sword. I've heard that it is difficult to learn alone."
"I'll try not to hold you back." She said with a blush making me sigh. I had no idea what her deal was but I didn't think it was her fault. People did not become mice for no reason.
"You won't, in fact I'm sure that we're going to be skilled sword masters in a few years." I said with a grin making her blush grow for some reason. I shrugged it off knowing that I wasn't likely to ever understand women, one of the few nuggets of wisdom that my Father had deigned to give me over the years. I was just glad that I didn't have any responsibilities that would keep me from giving these lessons my all.
TSS
"Hello Sona, what brings you here?" I asked as I entered my room to get some reading done before bed. I had been taking lessons for a month now and no one had mentioned anything so I was fairly sure I wasn't in trouble. I turned to Sona, the only person I was willing to claim as family, with a frown as she was silent for a minute only to be shocked as tears ran down her face. I opened my arms and she wasted no time in closing the gap and crying into my shoulder. "Let it all out." I don't know how long we were like that before she let me know what was wrong.
"They've engaged me to Leo Paimon." She said holding me tightly for comfort while my eye twitched as I reigned in my fury. There were few people in our age bracket that I respected but there were several I absolutely despised even more than the Sitri who hated me. There weren't any good rumours about him and he was currently nineteen to Sona's ten I doubted that Sona would survive any of the boy's 'games'.
"We'll get you out of it." I said with conviction making her still in her sobbing. "No contract is ironclad nowadays thanks to people willing to slit throats to get out of them." I was not going to mention the suicides. There was no divorce for devils after all. I then allowed an evil grin to appear on my face as I thought of Sona's greatest strength. I grabbed the remote for the TV and quickly switched to the channel that showed the Chess Tournaments in the Underworld.
"Chess, you don't even…" She said before trailing off as she saw who was playing and how he was playing. "Sanko, you're a genius! Do you mind if I watch this now?" I shook my head as she let go of me and grabbed a nearby notebook and pen to write down notes on his strategies. I smiled, glad that she was no longer so depressed, before I slipped out of the room and stormed towards my Father's study which is likely were they would both be. They were.
"Have you come…" Francis started to say before he was cut off by me slamming the door making him look up from the papers he was looking at. Verona just glared as she stood by her husband's chair.
"You know, I put up with a lot of your shit because if you died from a slit throat I would be the first suspect and most likely the one charged with your murder even if I wasn't the one to put you out of my misery. But engaging Sona to Leo fucking Paimon is really testing my self control." I said barely keeping from shouting as they looked at me with distain.
"You do not…" He started to say before I moved and slammed them into the wall with his reinforced table between us. While they were both currently stronger than me physically neither of them could position themselves in a way to take advantage of it.
"BE QUIET! For once in your snivelling excuse of a life shut that trap of yours!" I snapped with a growl and a knee that crushed them against the wall more for a second. "Now while I would like nothing more than you to outright cancel this stupidity of yours I know you can't. So here's what's going to happen. At some point in the near future Sona is going to make a bet. If she wins then she is no longer engaged to that bastard but if she loses she makes no fuss."
"You're against the person, not the arranged marriage." Verona commented sounding quite off to me making me roll my eyes.
"As Heiress of one of the 72 Pillars it was obvious that she could eventually end up in one to ensure the line remains pure. Neither Sona nor I have any issue with that as we understand there is a need for it, even if Reincarnated Devils would likely do better for our species fertility. The problem is the fact you chose someone who would not care for this and would merely use the marriage for his own means. That doesn't even count the fact that he's an Heir of his own Family and is unlikely to want more than one child to carry on the name."
"Fine, we won't interfere but if you try something like…" Francis started to say before I kneed the table again knocking the wind out of him.
"You lost your right to threaten me when you went after the only person in this family worth a damn." I growled at him making him scowl. "From now on I will retaliate with the escalation principle. Tell me how far you think someone with essentially nothing to lose is going to go to make their point." Seeing that he understood I let go of the table and left. I would have to do everything I could to help get Sona out of her engagement.