Chapter 15: Time to get to work
Honestly, it was a little jarring a couple of days before school was utterly devoid of adventure. This might have been due to Aris, with the unknowing assistance of Kaija, "convinced" me to take it easy. No threats of violence here, no, siree. I find my mind wandering a bit wandering through the normal motions of wash, brush, dress, and the works. Mostly it's just me going through a mental checklist of the gifts and my plans of ingratiating myself with the two devil heiresses I even played with the thought of world domination. But that's not really viable for a while. It was about halfway to school when I noticed my tail had finally found me. Heh… Get it because it's a cat. Anyway, I tactfully ignore the following feline. When the gates came into sight, I saw what I was expecting, "Sonia" was waiting for me. This wasn't unexpected because I had Kaija call ahead and inform them of my return the next day. After all, it was the right thing to do; if nothing else, I am a good student. The look on Sonia's face when she finally recognized me was priceless.
Name: Sona Sitri
Affection: 5% 25% (As a reaction to the new you.)
"Is that really you, Mr. Morgan? You've certainly… changed." I give her a thousand-watt smile while shifting my backpack on my shoulder.
"Yeah, sorry I was gone so long. I recently found out about an experimental treatment in Germany. It, in my humble opinion, was the difference between me getting better… and spending the rest of my life in constant pain." She gave me a look, concern, and maybe pity? It's hard to tell I got a lot of both when I looked like I was a stiff breeze from biting the dust. "Oh, sorry if I seemed a little blase about my situation." I give her a noncommittal shrug. "I'm better now; that's what matters." I close that up with a warm smile. She seems to want to talk more about it, but I've more or less left her in the dust moving to class. If people weren't staring at me when I entered the room, they were when I got to my seat. The whispers started almost immediately. I had the common decency to ignore them. This is a school, after all, gossip is important to mortals… let alone children. The glares I'm receiving from the trio and glasses girl's open drooling do well to make all the extra drama worth it.
Classes were well... classes, nothing too interesting until lunch. At lunch, however, I found myself with a hanger-on. Koneko Toujou, I believe a normal human being probably wouldn't notice her. But as above and beyond as my stats have been getting, I've more than noticed. Either that or she's just using magic to make the mortals not notice her. But for now, I'll pay little mind; I got me my sammich to eat. Finishing lunch while pretending not to notice my feline stalker. I get up, brushing myself off a bit. Making my way back inside to get back to the rest of my day. School is school, so I don't have much to say in regards to that. But hey, working a little to raise the relations with the class was alright getting opinion into the fifty-five to sixty range.
'Hmm, time to get on that whole first arc thing…' It was interesting; for someone who is the center of many of my plans, I don't think I've actually seen, let alone interacted with Rias. Of course, this would be when Issei would make eye contact with Rias… but Issei has been out of action ever since I took Ddraig from him. I checked in on him, and he'll live, but he just went through some pretty massive soul surgery. 'Hmmm… direct approach? … Direct approach.'
"Eeeh, chicks dig honesty, right?" I shrug, walking to the old school building. "I'm sure it'll be fine."
I was wrong. It turns out shaking my tail, climbing through a third-story window, and sneaking into the club meeting room and sitting on one of their couches with a smug look on my face was frowned upon considering the magic sword and a set of absolutely adorable kitten MMA gloves pointed at me right now.
"Alright… I'll admit this probably wasn't the most well thought out move of mine." This earned me a raised brow from the Gremory heiress.
"Truly? You've worked that out all on your own?" With that, the ball of swirling death in her hand comes ever so slightly closer to my face. Hmm, this could be fun. Yeah… that'll work. Twenty-four points into buying three new companions, time to collect Fallen-Wing-Dumbass, sorry… but that's what they are in the story. Yes, I bought Dohanseek as well as Mittelt and Kalawarner.
Name: Mittelt
Affection: 50% (For offering her a way to get out of this situation alive without having to kill you.)
Name: Kalawarner
Affection: 25% (For having the strength to Draw not only Mittelt but Raynare to your side)
Name: Dohnaseek
Loyalty: 25% (For opening his eyes to the lies of Kokabiel)
'Hmm, nice descriptions Aris, What do you mean by Dohnaseeks?'
*He now has the memories of you walking him through every moment where Kokabiel was very obviously manipulating him into a suicide mission. He took offense at that.*
Alright, problem one down… current problem still evident. Slowly I raise my hands in surrender before slowly rising to my feet. My movements followed with an uncomfortably close… and armed observation.
"Well… let's start with introductions." I give them a flourishing over-the-top bow. "My name is William Morgen, wizard extraordinaire, and I'm here to offer you my services." The flippant nature of my introduction was very obviously off-putting to the gathered devils as my movements without regard to the obvious threat to my life causing them to take a step back though they're still defensive.
"And what makes you think I need the services of a… wizard? Assuming, of course, we're all on the same page on who exactly is in this room, how exactly could one little spell slinger offer… unless, of course, you're offering to join the 'Occult Research Club'?" She asked with an oh-so innocent tilt of her head.
"Sorry, I'm not one for dealing with Devils, after all, I said wizard, not a warlock. Joining a peerage is sadly not on my bucket list." She looks like she's about to speak up with a dismissive look crossing her face. "Before you just send me away, I can offer some boons in exchange for allowing me to remain in this territory and acting as a neutral party." This makes her pause for a moment before she waves for me to carry on. "I'd be more than willing to help with odd jobs to earn my keep." Time for the big one. "I'm also aware of your personal situation as well, I have a suggestion I've little bearing on the rules of rating games, but I would say it wouldn't be unbelievable for there to be a stipulation for alternates for missing peerage members?" This earned me a widened-eyed look from the redheaded heiress before I received a tentative nod. "Good, now tell me, is there any ruling that says that said alternate has to be a reincarnated Devil in particular?" This got her thinking.
"I'm not sure, but then again, none of that would be necessary if you simply joined my peerage." I sigh at that. "I'm sure you've heard a lot about how peerages are treated, but I promise you we of House Gremory treat our peerage members as nothing less than family, not to mention if you're as powerful as you say, you'll likely be promoted to a high-class devil before too long." That makes me pause.
'Damn devils and their deal-making abilities… doesn't help that she's hot but still.' I sigh, rubbing my neck. "I can't…" She looks like she's about to try to push further, but I hold my hand up. "Not yet, at the very least, I've a means of making myself much more powerful… but I don't know how they would affect me if I were a devil. All of the research up until this point has been based around a human body and soul." It's not a lie either. I have no idea if any of the methods of necromantic immortality would be negatively affected by becoming a devil. I know that the pieces can make just about anything a reincarnated devil version, but I might not be able to do it if I do them in the wrong order, i.e., devil first, then lich, or whatever have you. She doesn't look pleased about it, but I know she knows she doesn't have much time.
"Alright, but I need a solemn vow that you'll hold up your part of the bargain." She says, holding out her hand with a serious look on her face.
"Very well," I take her hand and shake; she smiles before I tighten my grip with a severe look on my face. "I swear on my life and magic that I'll do everything within my power to break your marriage contract." As soon as I say that, I flare my magic in a flickering of green fire from the back of my hand before I release her own. Her eyes widen in shock as she recoils her hand as if she were burned. I couldn't help a bit of a smile at that. "Not so much fun when you're on the receiving end of the spooky handshake, is it?" This seemed to knock her out of her shock though it didn't get a laugh. Taking a moment to read the room, I find the same flavor of shock on everyone else's faces.
*Ping*
Major relation shift
Rias Gremory: -5% 55%
Akeno Himejima: -20% 30%
Koneko Tojo: -5% 45%
Kiba Yuuto: -15 20%
'Damn, is Kiba slow to trust or what' I'm pulled out of my mulling that over by Rias finally speaking up.
"I… I can't believe you did that." She sounded pretty weak at the moment… as the relation shift put it, my do-or-die decision probably really shook up some feelings… this also probably just made her desperate to get me into her peerage.
"Hey…" I say, putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "I'm a very all or nothing sort of person. You were willing to humor my request, and this is obviously something that affects you greatly." She smiled up at me while giving her shoulder one least encouraging squeeze before I turned to the rest of her peerage. "I want you all to know that I'm on your side, and as a sign of this new friendship, I have gifts for all of you." This got me a few curious looks that only got worse as I pulled three small boxes out of a pocket it obviously shouldn't have fit in. "First for Koneko," I opened the smallest box to reveal the little bracelet with its snacco charms, chocolates, donuts, and the like. "I've heard you love your sweets." She actually blushes when I help her put it on. Moving on to the next one, I open Rias' opal necklace; it's set in a silver setting with some old-fashioned patterning; it's a little on the larger side but nothing too gaudy. She gave me a sweet smile as she held her hair out of the way while I latched it for her. "Finally," I open Akeno's four onyx feathers interspaced with pears before the beautifully cut oval rhodolite again complimenting her eyes. Her eyes widened seeing it; it was, after all, the best of the lot. One last clasp, and all three are wearing their new jewelry. I give Kiba an apologetic look. "Sadly, your gift is taking me longer to procure the materials for, but if you'd like, I can make something for you in the short term until I can find everything I need." He gives me that peaceful smile of his that would have your average high school girl or suburban housewife week at the knees.
"Honestly, I'm just glad I was thought of." By now, all weapons have been stored and spells extinguished. I finally let my hand drift away from the summon companion button in my head. Yeah, a high-level vampire and four fallen angels probably wouldn't have helped this situation.
"I'm not gonna lie to you, the biggest roadblock in designing your gift was coming up with something that wouldn't immediately make half the school's female population ship us if you told them I gave it to you." This, of course, earned me some giggles from the room—everything petered off after that as the Devils wheat on to their daily business. A little while after that, I exchanged contact information (which was weird for me… Devils on speed dial) and said my goodbyes.
I walk home using the time to fall deep into thought. 'All in all… it's a task failed successfully. I really didn't want the rough start, but I'm getting somewhat uppity for a mortal. Might be time to look into stepping it up… maybe William should look into some long-term solutions to mortality.' I start running through the bevy of information my mastery of all things undead has granted me. 'A potion to grant first-generation vampirism… I wonder if it would upgrade a pre-existing vampire..., the long and complex rituals to become a Lich, the careful embalming and enchantments of becoming a mummy, the various curses and binding ceremonies from across all the books.' That made me pause. 'Hmm, maybe when I go back to Star Wars, I should put a little more effort into building a personal flesh shaping lab. I wouldn't want to muscle in on Kira's space. The methods of cloning in the Promæn Caro are interesting. I'd like to see the advancements I could make in a technology-rich universe Altered Carbon comes to mind. Could I even use it to make space marines… I'll have to go over the functions of their various organs and augmentation. I'm getting off-topic; I'll need a lab here if I do anything from the Promæn Caro.
It was almost dawn the next day before I realized that I completely fazed out before I looked on a drafting desk covered with a horrifying combination of several of the ideas. 'Space Marines… cloning and perpetuity.' The first design was for a multi-purpose cloning array capable of growing anything smaller than a Primarch, almost infinitely scalable for production needs. The next was my Space Marines. I'm not a gene-smith (a skill I hope to pick up when I eventually open that Pandora's Box), so a lot of it is jerry-rigged together using my advanced fleshcraft. I can make them, but the outcome is nowhere near as powerful as the original. This is combined with cloning, but a big part of the process in the lore is the time put into each neophyte they grow and reinforce with surgeries and training. But I would need a team of fleshcrafters at my skill level working in tandem to keep up that kind of quality. These will be like marines that never progress past scout level, maybe even never progressing past neophyte. Don't even get me started on the Black Carapace, a semi biological port system capable of interacting with the central nervous system and translating its information to make the lag between one's movements and the movements of powered combat armor and allowing the effective use of all of the suits integrated systems. 'I'm going to have to shelf my space marine program for a while.' Looking at the last whole idea, it's two things. The first is a customized lichdom ritual that any form of magic can power if you can manage to gather enough, i.e., this will allow my friends to help shave down the massive mana cost. The second is mummy embalming and resurrection rights a toddler could follow and understand… as long as they had multiple esoteric artifacts… and only wanted to resurrect me. 'Well… This definitely does not make my choice any easier… another for the maybe later shelf then.'
({[oooooh weeee, it's been a while yall. But here it is; it was a little on the tough side to get this one out. This chapter didn't want to exist, and I'm still not 100% on how I feel about it. But let's hope things improve from here. Live long and prosper.]})