Good Evening All!
Hope everyone is ready for the weekend, I know that I certainly am. As I like to warn people, this is a bit of a "setting the stage" chapter with very little action to speak of but there is some choice dialogue at times you won't want to miss. The whole chapter is pretty much self explanatory but I'll put a few notes at the bottom to clarify what happened in the text and what is to come next time around.
As always, please do enjoy yourself :)
A soft chiming sound awoke Sasuke as he stirred in his massive king sized bed; thankfully he had upgraded from that god awful alarm shortly after coming into significantly more money. Stretching in place, Sasuke marveled at the joys of having a young body once more. Even without Asia's miraculous healing, a full nights sleep had already worked wonders for his natural recovery to kick in. Sasuke chuckled to himself as he languidly rose out of his incredibly comfortable bed, shaking his head as he shambled towards the shower. Turning it on, he let his thoughts drift as he allowed the superheated water to ease some of the knots and bruises that had formed while he slept.
Taking his time, Sasuke eventually finished in the shower and examined his rippling physique in the mirror. Sasuke had never been particularly vain, but he knew that girls and later women had found his broody good looks and perfectly conditioned body to be quite enticing. Between that and being the last scion of a legendary clan, Sakura had been forced to ruthlessly defend her territory from some hopeful admirers more than once over the years they had been married. As Sasuke's idle gaze hovered over his torso and lack of major scarring, Sasuke was suddenly overtaken by a flashback.
Back in Konoha, he was once again an old man looking in the mirror. He could definitely tell that his better years were long behind him; his raven black hair that was once so thick and lustrous had become patchy in some places and was snow white. He looked his body up and down, barely noticing his missing arm since he had done without it since he was barely 16. He was in better shape than many people half his age; a lifetime of active service had installed habits of diet and exercise that even his enfeebled body wouldn't shake. Grimacing in place, Sasuke rubbed his stump and winced; even after all these years he still got phantom pains sometimes. What young people never understood was that half the reason older folks were constantly grumpy was due to the thousand aches and pains they had accumulated over the years that were slow to heal; a lifetime of active service had left Sasuke's old body more battered than most. Then again though, reaching old age was a rarity in and of itself in the ninja profession; the Third must have been a true monster in his youth to have survived as long as he did during such a turbulent time in the ninja world. As the elder Sasuke turned away from the mirror slowly, Sasuke gasped and gripped the sink as he came back to himself.
Taking a minute to wash his face, Sasuke grimaced as he saw a brief image of his elder self before it returned back to his present visage. There were so many questions that he had when he first found himself on this world that he had ruthlessly buried at the time in the name of survival. Reverting back to his training, he had immediately sought the major players and established a working knowledge of the gameboard before anything else. Then he had haphazardly thrown himself into the Supernatural presence of this world, plowing through every obstacle in his path. Now that he had carved out a persona for himself in the Underworld and a semi routine in Kuoh Town, he was starting to entertain some of the early thoughts once more. Ruthlessly, those same thoughts were shoved down once more as Sasuke began dressing for the day. None of the contacts he made would have any answers for him, and he may never have answers to most of his more existential questions regarding his baffling state of reincarnation to this reality. Thus, it was a waste of time and energy to fret over such things when there were present things for him to attend to. Finished dressing and grunting in satisfaction at his image in the mirror, Sasuke grabbed his bag and opened the front door to begin his walk to Kuoh Academy.
"Good Morning Saint-sama!"
A smiling Asia awaited him as was her usual custom, an amused looking Tobio raising a hand in greeting as well.
"A pleasant morning to you Lord Andromalius, I hope you don't mind if I join you today since I will be needed later this afternoon at the meeting."
Sasuke nodded in agreement as he motioned them to get moving.
"That is acceptable; it is probably best that I be the one to introduce you to Issei since you will be spending time together."
Asia turned her beaming smile Tobio's way.
"You didn't mention that you would be spending time with Issei, Tobio-san! Are you going to be his new senpai?"
Tobio nodded gravely as Asia squealed in excitement.
"That is the plan at this stage. Lord Andromalius has asked me to spend time with young Issei and hopefully raise his level of combat to something more acceptable. Unfortunately, Vali was never very gifted at teaching given his overly impatient and bloodthirsty nature."
Sasuke snorted; that was a very kind way of putting it. Vali's "training" was usually just a heaping of verbal and physical abuse upon his "student" in the hopes that they would get strong enough to fight him at some stage.
The walk to school was mostly uneventful as the group split up at the main gate. Sasuke and Tobio went to the front office to get all the paperwork started while Asia continued to her homeroom. Sona narrowed her eyes as soon as she saw the pair of boys enter her office area.
"Sasuke-san, what a pleasant surprise. Let me guess; you have another stray you would like me to induct into our already full body of students?"
Sasuke smirked.
"Don't pretend that the people I have brought in haven't boosted school prestige. Asia is one of the top students in her class while Xenovia has single handedly shaped the kendo team into a National contender from just a few lessons."
Sona pushed her glasses up in a nervous tic.
"Be that as it may, I hope this doesn't become too regular of an occurrence. Our arrangement allows for certain leeway on my part, but even I answer to a board of parents and faculty that would speak out if too many new students were being allowed in."
Sasuke chuckled briefly.
"I don't anticipate their being too many more, but don't play coy Sona. Your family is fully in charge of this school, of that I have no doubt. If the parents or faculty got too vocal about something i'm sure that they would very soon be changing their minds...as if by magic."
Sona gave a quick half smile.
"Very well, you have me there Sasuke-san. Most of my distaste comes from the mountains of paperwork that must be done every time we change the cap limit on the school, which was exceeded when we first started letting your strays in. I'll let a few more slide, but if we reach another population cap I will be assigning the extra cost and paperwork to you. Are we clear?"
"Completely."
Sona nodded as she looked Tobio up and down clinically.
"Well, at least his presence will likely help placate our mostly female population since you removed yourself from the market Sasuke-san. Are there any clubs that you would like to participate in Tobio-san?"
Tobio gave a languid smile in return.
"I noticed that there are not any host clubs on campus; I don't suppose creating one would be possible?"
Sona's attitude immediately did a complete 180 as she realized just how valuable of an addition to the school Tobio would be. Sasuke excused himself for class as he left the two of them brainstorming in Sona's office, both of them utterly unaware of his presence at this point as they obsessively debated the finer points behind what would doubtless quickly become the most popular club in school.
The day went by fairly predictably; Sasuke easily tuned out the teachers as he took class time to outline various future projects and ideas he had moving forward, both for the Yakuza and his peerage. Frowning, Sasuke looked down to Tsarmina as she moved from his back to his arm, once again resembling a Yakuza boss tattoo as if guided by his thoughts. Rolling his eyes, Sasuke ignored her childish antics as he began his patrolling rounds at lunch. They were fully unnecessary at this point given his knowledge of both the supernatural and Kuoh town as a whole, but he enjoyed having something to do besides mindlessly chit chat for an hour.
As he wrapped up his patrol around the lunch area, he soon saw Rias and Akeno heading his way. Sasuke was surprised as he noticed Rias didn't appear to be slowing down as she approached him, while Akeno slowed to a stop with a mischievous look on her face as she watched Rias approach Sasuke. Sasuke raised an eyebrow as Rias pressed her body up against him, firing his young hormones to life as she captured his lips in a heated kiss that had the entire lunch crowd gawking. Excited titters broke out as the Rias fangirls sighed whereas the hardcore Sasuke fans ground their teeth in frustration. Rias began to end the kiss as Sasuke pulled her back towards him and deepened it instead; if she was going to assault him out of nowhere with something like this he wouldn't let it end quite so soon!
Rias finally pulled back gasping, her face flushed deep red but with a very satisfied look as the entire lunch crowd began to audibly buzz with excited gossip.
"While that was quite invigorating, I assume that there was more to it than you being madly overcome with lust in public?"
Akeno gave a low chuckle.
"Don't stop now, things were just starting to get interesting."
Rias stuck her tongue out at both of them once they had moved out of the public eye before clearing her throat.
"Yes Sasuke, there was a point to that, though I must say that was a pleasant surprise when you pulled me back for more."
Sasuke smirked at her and made a motion for her to continue.
"Let's just say some of your fangirls have been making noise and I wanted to shut them up; I assumed that a demonstration would be the most effective method."
Sasuke rolled his eyes.
"Yes, they have likely become quite discontent what with both Kiba and myself moving off the market. There is good news on that front though..."
Sasuke proceeded to briefly explain Tobio's presence and subsequent transfer to the school. Both Rias an Akeno laughed uproariously at Tobio's suggestion to open a host club, though they did agree that it would help significantly placate the unrest among the recently "jilted" fangirls in the school. Promising to give more details at the Occult club meeting, Sasuke left for his final class of the day.
Sasuke was able to finish his Yakuza plans as the teacher droned on, knowing better than to call on an obviously distracted Sasuke. One teacher had make the mistake of calling out Sasuke for not paying attention and had been found the next day on the roof, stark naked and clucking like a chicken. While none of the faculty could prove that Sasuke was involved, they had taken the unspoken threat for what it was and left him alone so long as he continued scoring perfectly in all his classes.
Classes completed for the day, Sasuke made his way to the Occult research club and nodded at everyone as he made his way to the main table situated in the middle of the room. As per usual, Sona was chairing the meeting and waited for everyone to show before beginning.
"I'm glad everyone could make it today; we have a new student to introduce."
Tobio took this as his cue and introduced himself to the crowd, Vali smirking at the shell-shocked faces among the devils.
Lione was the first to comment.
"This is getting out of hand. First Vali Lucifer, now Tobio Ikuse "Slash Dog" is joining Sasuke-san's group?!"
Koneko nodded her head in agreement as she munched on an oreo.
"It is unusual for so many high ranking devils to group under any banner not part of the big three."
Sasuke chuckled briefly.
"Well technically neither of them are devils; Vali is only half devil and Tobio is fully human."
A pin could have been heard dropping in the silence that followed.
Lione gave out an exasperated sigh.
"Could we really have been so wrong in our assumptions, in our arrogance as devils? For so long we have held such an exalted place over humanity, yet these three are living proof that humans are not so weak as we once thought. Sasuke-san in particular is causing an uproar in devil society by becoming a fully inherited Pillar Lord, arguably one of the strongest in recent history."
Sasuke held up a hand.
"While I despise the way the supernatural world treats humans, I will admit it is not completely without cause. It is far less than one percent of humans that even know of the supernatural world, much less can defend themselves from it. In time, I would like to change that, but for now let the supernatural factions remain comfortable in their smug superiority. It will be all the more satisfying when I take it away from them."
There were multiple raised eyebrows across the room but no true objections. Vali let out a belly laugh.
"You tell them King! I'm in all the way so long as I get to lead the charge, bwhahahaha!"
Everyone but an amused Tobio rolled their eyes as Sona banged her gavel to restore order.
"Yes, well greetings from all of us to our newest member Tobio. In the coming weeks, Tobio and I hope to give you an announcement of great excitement and import, but we will shelf that for today's meeting until we can hammer out all the details. In other news, the Southside activity we detected last meeting was nothing more than..."
Sasuke tuned out as the usual business was discussed, only chiming in when his expertise or opinion was specifically requested. As the meeting drew to a close, Sasuke caught Sona's eye as she nodded for him to proceed.
"As some of you are aware, I recently acquired a powerful familiar that I would like to introduce: Her name is Tsarmina."
Tsarmina grumbled as Sasuke mentally prodded her to appear but dutifully materialized draped around his shoulders to the audible gasps of everyone present. Everyone got closer to get a better view, causing Tsarmina to hiss in displeasure at the crowding.
"As I'm certain you noticed, she is not the same as most familiars. She is able to speak into your mind if she chooses, and is generally more intelligent and powerful on the whole."
Tsarmina eyed Sasuke as she mentally contacted him.
"Are you sure it is wise to differentiate me from other familiars? It would have been very simple to just pretend I am some dumb beast rather than risk them discovering the truth of my nature."
Sasuke shook his head minutely.
"The rewards outweigh the risk; your ability to telepathically communicate and relay my instructions in battle is priceless. Besides that, the odds of them realizing that you are a divine beast I feel is low; Andromalius and Brutus only knew because of their incredible age and knowledge base. I feel it unlikely that information on Divine beasts is nearly so common as it used to be when your kind was more prolific thousands of years ago."
Tsarmina sent a wordless acknowledgement before addressing the group for the first time.
"Is the female with fiery fur my Father's main mating partner?"
The temperature in the room instantly dropped into the negative values as the two females instantly squared off with each other.
Rias gave a smile that failed to reach her eyes.
"How unfortunate that Sasuke's familiar had to be such a slimy and inferior creature; if only he could have had a civilized pet instead."
Tsarmina practically foamed at the mouth.
"You insolent wretch! How dare you insult my divi-"
Sasuke wordlessly thumped Tsarmina on the head. Twice.
Hissing in annoyance, everyone laughed as Tsarmina locked eyes with Sasuke.
"It is not your place to get in between a female's fight for dominance Father!"
Sasuke eyed her speculatively.
"Perhaps not, but you will not reveal your true nature as a divine beast until I say so. Am I perfectly clear, Tsarmina?"
Tsarmina hissed sullenly.
"Yes, Father."
Rias looked on with no little amusement at the wordless exchange before suddenly turning a severe gaze to Sasuke.
"What did she mean when she called you Father?"
Sasuke waved away her fierce expression.
"It is what she has called me since we bonded; I can only assume that she is very young and latched on to the first parental figure that appeared."
Tsarmina chuckled in his mind.
"You are a talented liar Father."
Sasuke mentally rolled his eyes at her as Sona banged the gavel once more to restore order.
"I do believe that is enough excitement for this week's meeting. Am I to understand that both Sasuke and Rias will be out of town the next few days visiting the Gremory Estate?"
Rias nodded, finally taking her fierce gaze off the offending Tsarmina as she smugly tightened her coils around Sasuke's neck.
"That is correct Sona; both of our peerages will also be attending, as is customary."
Sona nodded in acceptance.
"Indeed, I only wish that my schedule permitted me to attend as well, but unfortunately I just had a rather large pile of paperwork fall into my lap."
Sasuke innocently received Sona's glare as if he had no idea to what she referred, Tobio silently snickering over to the side.
"If there are no other items on the docket for this week...?"
The room was silent as Sona panned for a minute before nodding.
"Very well, I wish the both of you a very happy next few days at the Gremory estate. Meeting adjourned!"
This felt like a good stopping place, so Issei and Tobio will be formally introduced at a later date. I would rather have a decent dialogue between them than squeezing it in at the end of a chapter as an afterthought anyways, so this works out better in the end. It was only when I was reviewing this chapter that I realized it read a good bit like an Episode of Saved By the Bell (props if you get the reference), but I suppose some slice of life every now and then isn't the worst thing. Luckily we are having the long awaited Meeting with The Gremory's next time so that should be a bit more eventful.