Kuro groaned as she walked back to school with her brother next to her, so-called protecting her from a pretty boy. Any chance of her kissing girls at school would be long gone by the time they got to school. Everyone would know they were brother and sister.
Kuro wondered if she could play it off as a tragedy and get some of the girls to pity her and then kiss them?
No one had ever compiled once she had kissed them as she was a master at kissing people. She often wondered if she had Kissing as a class skill at EX rank.
To be fair, she did have the skill Kiss Demon and B++ rank, so it made sense that no one could compare against her kisses. Maybe if she had taken Rias' offer, she would have become a Succubus.
But today was an important day on many different accounts. First, she was going to ask Kiba on a date not only because she wanted to go on a date with him but to tease Akeno after the fact.
Next, she would have to make sure that her brother heard about it as what kind of sister would she be if she didn't tease her younger brother.
She had the whole date planned out as long as Kiba was okay with it. If nothing else, it would be a fun day after school together. She wasn't sure what she would do with Koneko and Akeno, but she would no doubt find something they could do together or maybe in a group.
"You hear me, Kuro. Stay away from him," Issei said, breaking her out of her thought.
"Ya, ya ya," Kuro said, waving off what her brother was saying.
"I am serious stay away from the pretty boy," Issei said, seeing that Kuro wasn't paying attention.
"You have been complaining about Kiba for the last two weeks, and he isn't even that bad if you would give him a chance," Kuro said, rolling her eyes.
"No, he stands in the way of me becoming the Harem King!" Issei shouted.
"I think you are standing in your own way of being a Harem King," Kuro said bluntly.
"You don't have to be so blunt with it," Issei said, slumped over, and Kuro could imagine anime rain clouds pouring down on him.
"What is Kuro doing with him? Do you think he forced her to walk with him? Maybe she needs help?" Whispering voices erupted as they walked into school together.
"Would it be evil of me to scream for help right now?" Kuro asked her brother with a devious smile.
"No, don't you dare," Issei said, looking around fearfully.
Kuro wondered if he realized how guilty he looked looking around like that and adding in what everyone was whispering about.
"Well, good luck with that, brother, but I have got class cya," Kuro said, running off.
"Don't run off. It makes me look guilty," her brother shouted after her.
Kuro ignored him and ran to her classroom. She was looking forward to seeing Kiba in the last two weeks. The two of them had spared almost daily, and Kiba had improved quite a lot.
It took Kuro a few days, but she had finally gotten Kiba to use somewhat underhanded tactics. He must have also been training at home or where ever he lived as he had gotten a little bit faster in the last two weeks as well.
There wasn't much she could do in training with Akeno or Koneko as she wasn't much of a hand-to-hand fighter, and she used magecraft, not magic, so she couldn't really help Akeno with that.
"Morning, Kiba," Kuro greeted as she walked into the classroom.
"Good morning Kuro," Kiba greeted back, giving her a wave and smile.
Kuro walked to her desk, ignoring the stares of jealousy and envy from the other girls in the class and the other boys in the class complaining about the pretty boy.
As classes started, Kuro thought when the best time to ask Kiba on a date was. On the one hand, if she asked in front of people, he would feel more pressure to say yes, but it would also make him more uncomfortable.
So maybe the best time was to ask on the way to the Occult club at lunch when they would be alone. A small part of her was worried that her brother would try and come to her homeroom at lunch to stop her from having lunch with the Occult club.
Or worse, he would want to try and eat lunch with her and the Occult club, which was even more worrying. She doubted that Koneko would be able to last the entire lunch break without punching him at least once.
And she would feel even worse if he ended up in Akeno's hands.
The morning lessons quickly passed, with Kuro paying them very little attention as she had all of Illya's memories, so she knew all of this stuff, making school very dull.
Kuro teased the idea of toying with Kiba during class, but he seemed to be listening and taking detailed notes. Kuro wasn't exactly sure why, given he was a devil, so it wasn't like he would be getting a 9 to 5 job after school.
Then again, Rias and Akeno did really well in school, with the head of the student council doing amazingly on every test she took. Kuro chalked it up to a pride thing that they wouldn't let humans look smarter than them.
Once the dinner bell had rung, Kuro jumped out of her seat and rushed over to Kiba, pushing him out the door as fast as she could as the girls in the class either cried about Kiba being taken or that she was too pushy and bossy and he could find someone better.
Of course, neither of those was the truth. She hadn't even asked Kiba out, so how could he be taken? She wasn't pushy, and she just wanted to avoid her brother showing up to her class and embarrassing her.
She may love her brother, but she wanted her school life to be as stress-free as possible, and once everyone knew that was gone forever.
"What's the rush?" Kiba asked, confused as Kuro pushed/pulled him along.
"I am avoiding my brother." Kuro said as they got out of the main school building, "he hates pretty boys, and I want a social life," Kuro explained.
In truth, she knew it was but a matter of time and had already made her peace with the fact that it would stop her from making friends with most girls. After all, they wouldn't want to hang around her with her brother near them.
The first week of school was when she hoped to make friends with other girls and draw them in before they learned about her brother, and in the end, she had made good friends with everyone in the Occult Club, even if they were devils.
"Is he really that bad?" Kiba asked, sounding slightly concerned.
"Hmm, yes and no. He really wants a harem, but he won't ever force himself on someone," Kuro said, knowing full well that Issei was far too gentle and kind ever to do such a thing.
Peak on girls getting changed, sure, but he wouldn't ever go beyond that.
"Best not let Koneko near him then," Kiba said with a smile.
"Koneko is still in middle school, so he is safe for a year," Kuro said as they walked into the Occult club that still didn't have a fully working kitchen yet.
Kuro hoped that Rias would have a kitchen installed over the upcoming summer so she could cook inside the club at lunch.
"Hello, Kuro, Kiba", Rias greeted them as they walked inside the club room.
"Hello, Rias, Akeno," Kuro greeted, giving Akeno a wink.
Kuro wouldn't ever get bored of teasing Akeno, but in truth, she would have to kiss her again, maybe in front of the entire school. After all, it wouldn't take long for Akeno to get over her embarrassment.
Even now, Akeno wasn't blushing anywhere as much as she was after the first few days and didn't need to urgently go and make tea as she did in the first two days.
So some more embarrassment was in order, maybe another fight, and she could take the chance to feel Akeno's quite frankly amazing chest. She could understand why Rias sometimes glared at Akeno's breasts. They did make other girls feel inadequate.
After sitting down and everyone pulling out lunch, the devils started talking to each other about their contracts with humans. Something that Kuro found interesting to listen to.
They had jobs that covered from just helping people with homework all the way up to removing curses from items found in tombs but for the most part. It seemed that the people who summoned devils were lonely and wanted someone around.
Kiba's contracts were mainly with older female clients that just wanted a handsome man around. Akeno's contracts seemed to be with wealthy businessmen that wanted to unwind, as she put it.
Though Kuro guessed that she meant that she was a dominatrix for the older men, given the sadistic smile she was showing as she talked about the last client.
She was most jealous of Koneko's clients as they just seemed to want to eat sweets with her, which seemed like the best jobs ever. Not only did they pay Koneko to spend time with them they also provided sweets to eat.
"Do you have any jobs tonight, Kiba?" Kuro asked.
"Err, no, not tonight," Kiba said, looking a little confused.
"Excellent, then would you like to go on a date tonight," Kuro asked.
The rest of the occult club looked shocked at what Kuro had just asked of Kiba, with Akeno having a flash of envy before the shock took over.
"A date as in me and you?" Kiba asked.
"Yep, you and me," Kuro confirmed.
"I err ya sure," Kiba said after thinking about it for a moment with a small blush on his face.
Kuro couldn't help but find his current look adorable. She was sure that even in the underworld, he had been asked on dates before, and seeing him embarrassed about accepting one was cute.
"Excellent, then we can go after school," Kuro said smiling.
"Sure," Kiba agreed as they both returned to their dinner with the other people in the room looking at them, confused.
"I think you will have just become public enemy number one, Kuro," Akeno said, giggling.
"Ah, just to the girls," Kuro agreed, knowing that the whole school would know about it very quickly, and the girls would either be mad or envious. Kuro even suspected that some of them would try and bully her into staying away from Kiba.
But if they tried that, they would get hurt. She wasn't someone that could be walked over and defiantly not by children. She had lived over twice their lifetimes and faced world-destroying enemies, so there wasn't a single chance she would ever allow herself to be bullied.
The rest of lunch was slightly more awkward than Kuro had imagined, with Koneko being unsure how to act to the point that she had stopped talking entirely and was just eating.
Rias looked worried throughout the rest of lunch, which Kuro could understand. After all, if the date went bad, it could cause problems for the entire peerage down the line.
Kuro liked to think that even if the date did go bad, she believed both she and Kiba would be adult enough just to move on and put it behind them. Or, at the very least, she knew that she would be able to do that.
And Akeno was jealous while she did an excellent job hiding it.
Kuro and Kiba said bye to Rias, Akeno and Koneko as lunch came to an end and made their way back to class under the constant scrutinizing gaze of the rest of the school.
Kiba seemed used to people staring at him and was able to ignore it, and Kuro didn't really care what people thought other than her family and friends. And the random people that went to the same school as her didn't fit into either category.
"I can't go anywhere with you, can I?" Kuro asked teasingly.
"Maybe they are staring at you?" Kiba shot back with a soft smile.
Kuro smiled as they walked back into the class and greeted the other three devils from Sona's peerage as she walked back to her desk.
Kuro was glad that they had a friendly relationship. It would have been a major downer if they were on bad terms, given that three of them were in the same classroom.
Kuro made a note to try and find some time to hand out with them as well. Maybe after summer, when the kitchen was installed, both Rias and Sona's peerage could have a day where they all meet up for lunch.
She was sure that both Rias and Sona were childhood friends, and there were still lots of things that she didn't know about both the peerages. For example, she still didn't know what Rias and Sona's dreams for the future were.
She had spent most of the last two weeks getting to know the roles of devils and getting used to her job with the devils. Surprisingly there wasn't much that she had to do other than help deal with strays, and most of the strays she hadn't even needed to help to with.
Other than that, she had spent the last two weeks learning all about the history of the Gremory family and the history of the devil race, which had taken nearly a week in total for her to read it all.
As boring as it was, Kuro knew that as a contracted magician, she would somewhat represent Rias at times, and it would be unacceptable if she didn't know the basics of the family she was contracted to. It would be embarrassing not only for her but for Rias and her family as well.
As the rest of the students got back to class, Kuro was surprised that Issei apparently hadn't come to the classroom looking for her until she heard that he and his two friends had been caught trying to sneak into the girls changing room.
Kuro rolled her eyes at what her brother had tried to do and wondered what Irina would say when she learned how Issei turned out. A smile formed on her face at what she imagined would be Irina's reaction. Then again, it had already been many years since she had moved away, and they hadn't heard a single peep from her.
Kuro let a groan out as the last lesson of the day finally finished before walking over to Kiba.
"You ready to go?" Kuro asked as most of the class watched on.
Kuro felt a little annoyed with everyone watching them as if they were some show. Kuro knew that almost all the girls wanted to talk to Kiba but were too shy to even try, and the few boys in the class disliked him due to how much the girls liked him.
"Yes, do you have a plan?" Kiba asked.
"I had planned some of it out," Kuro admitted.
"Okay, then let's go," Kiba said with a charming smile as they both left the classroom.
"You not in a rush like at lunch?" Kiba asked as they got out of the classroom and walked down the hall as the other students either looked on or stepped to the side.
"Nope, my brother will no doubt be far too busy to peak on girls like he does after every school day to come to my classroom," Kuro explained.
"I hope you don't have anything against ice cream?" Kuro asked, wanting to know if they needed to change where they were going for food.
"Err, no, I don't have anything against ice cream. I like sweets a lot, just not as much as Koneko," Kiba joked.
"Excellent, and I don't think anyone likes food in general as much as Koneko. I really need to learn the magic she uses not to put on any weight," Kuro said, jealous of how Koneko could get away with eating so much food.
"It's just the way she is as long as I have known her," Kiba said, looking a little sad.
Kuro had long guessed that all the people in Rias' peerage had either hard lives or tragic pasts, but she wasn't really sure what she could do about them. After all, she had only known them for just over three weeks, so it wasn't right for her to push about their past.
In the end, she could only hope as their friendship gets deeper that they would trust her enough to confide about their pasts.
"Well, then I was thinking of going to an Ice-cream and dessert cafe for some food, and then there is a new exhibition at the museum about samurai that looked interesting?" Kuro asked, seeing what Kiba thought.
"That sounds fun. A former member of the Shinsengumi actually taught me swordsmanship, so I would really like to see the new exhibition," Kiba said.
Kuro looked down at Kiba's hand as they walked out of the school building and was sure that it was far too soon for them to be holding hands.
Kuro realized this was her first-ever actual date. She had kissed a lot of people before, but she had never actually been on a date with someone before. The thought brought butterflies to her as it dawned on her.
The walk over to the cafe was quiet but not in an uncomfortable way as both she and Kiba didn't mind the quiet or feel the need to fill the quiet with talk.
Kuro smiled as they got to the cafe, and Kiba opened the door for her. She wondered how Issei would blow up if she offered him lessons from Kiba. Sitting down at the table, one of the waitresses brought them both a menu.
Kuro had to hold back a glare at how the waitresses seemed to only have eyes for Kiba and almost wholly ignored Kuro. She guessed that it was something that she would have to get used to if she did start dating Kiba, and it was something that Kiba clearly noticed as he gave her an apologetic smile when he noticed her mood.
"Thank you, but we can manage ourselves," Kuro said as she projected her hate at the waitresses. The waitresses stiffened up as her instincts kicked in, and she quickly left under Kuro's glare.
"Hmm, what to get?" Kuro asked as she looked over the menu as Kiba looked amused.
"I never asked. Your magic seems to be one of a kind," Kiba asked.
"Err ya, it is one of a kind," Kuro said as she pondered on how to explain her magic before deciding to just dump all the blame on Schweinorg, given no one would be able to question him, and most of it was his fault.
"So my magic is broken down into two different things. My Kaleidostick and the Cards I use are known as Second magic, which is something that only Schweinorg can use, and I can use it due to the Kaleidostick.
It is known as Kaleidoscope or the Operation of Parallel Worlds. It allows the user to observe and interact with Parallel Worlds. It can be used to give the user infinite magic, or in the case of the cards I use, they have the souls of legendary people infused in them.
They are spread throughout the world by using the Kaleidostick, and you can gain their skills and abilities." Kuro explained as well as she could.
In truth, she was sure the Class Cards were a combination of 2nd true magic and 3rd true magic. Still, it would be far too complex for Kuro to explain the history of the magic system of her original world, given that she herself didn't exactly understand it all herself.
"Do the cards hold any danger for normal people?" Kiba asked as he glanced at her thigh where she had her cards hidden.
"Not really if left alone for a long time, then there is a small chance that the soul inside the card could gather enough mana to materialize itself, but that would require an area with a large amount of mana," Kuro explained.
She left out that places like Kuoh Town were perfect places for Class Cards to gather mana and materialize themselves, but she doubted anything more than a one, or two-star card would be able to do so.
The card at the church was the best example. It had taken years for that card to gather the required mana, and he was only a two-star card.
"No one else can use the cards?" Kiba asked.
"Well, I can't say that no one would ever be able to find a way to use the cards, but it's doubtful. The only other way to use the cards is if the soul inside the card was to resonate with the person that wanted to use the card, but even then, I doubt they could ever bring out the full power of the card," Kuro said.
"You said a former member of the Shinsengumi actually taught you swordsmanship?" Kuro asked, having never been taught swordsmanship herself and just inheriting the swordsmanship of Archer, which she then modified to fit her as she was much smaller than Archer.
"Yes, I was taught by Souji Okita. He was the captain of the first unit of the Shinsengumi, a special police force in Kyoto during the late shogunate period." Kiba explained.
"An actual samurai taught you," Kuro said, amused and interested. "I am sure the girls in the Kendo club would have killed for a chance to learn from a real samurai," Kuro said, smiling.
"Im sure they would be hard to explain how someone from the 1800s taught me, though," Kiba said jokingly.
"Yes, I guess it would be hard to explain that. Well, im ready to order you?" Kuro asked.
"Yes, im ready to order," Kiba as, putting down the menu and catching the attention of one of the waitresses, who quickly made her way over in such a way that Kuro was sure that she was watching them the entire time and just waiting for them to order.
"Hello, what can I get you both?" the waitresses asked the both of them.
Kuro was surprised that the waitresses actually asked the both of them what they wanted and weren't paying any special attention to Kiba. Sure every now and again, her eyes would take a peek at Kiba, but Kiba was really good-looking, so it wasn't that big of a surprise.
"Hi, could I get a brownie and matcha Parfait," Kuro ordered.
"Okay, one brownie and matcha Parfait for the lady and you, sir?"
"Can I get the Mango and Coconut Parfait," Kiba asked?
"Okay, so One Brownie and Matcha Parfait and One Mango and Coconut Parfait, the waitresses confirmed.
"Yes, please," Kuro said.
"I heard your brother got in trouble over lunch," Kiba said as the waitresses went to put their orders in.
"Yep, that isn't surprising. He had wanted to build a harem ever since he was 7 or 8, I think. One day he just came home and was talking about the glory of girl's chests," Kuro said with a shrug.
"Your parents didn't say anything about it?" Kiba asked.
"Hmm, not from what I remember, but my dad and grandfather both wanted Harems as well, I think, Kuro said, thinking about her dad and grandfather's dreams once upon a time.
"So it's a family dream," Kiba asked.
"I guess it is but to date, it's gone unfulfilled. What about devils? I can only imagine that devils have harems," Kuro said before asking what devils think about harems.
"Hmm, it depends on the rank of the devil, to be honest. None of the satans has Harems, but that is to stop families from having people marry them in order to sway them to their side.
But most high-ranking devils have harems in general, there are some that don't, but that is rare, with usually the main wife being in charge of the harem," Kiba explained.
"Oh, only the main wife. What if the wife builds the harem?" Kuro asked.
"That is very rare. There are some female devils with harems but not that many, and they are usually made up of females rather than males," Kiba said as their desserts arrived.
"That's a shame," Kuro said.
"Most of the heads of families are male, and devils are a dying race, so even if female devils prefer other females, they will end up getting married to male devils to have kids.
It is possible that they still have harems after getting married, but it wouldn't be public knowledge," Kiba said, thinking about it.
"But Rias is the head of the Gremory family, so she could have a harem," Kuro asked, slowly eating her ice cream.
"Yes, at the moment, Rias is the next head of the Gremory family, given the person she has a marriage contract with is the 3rd son of a noble family, so she could technically have a harem if she wanted," Kiba said.
Kuro was sure she could pick up some deep dislike in his voice as he talked about the marriage contract making Kuro guess that Rias didn't really want to marry this 3rd son.
She wasn't exactly sure the reason behind the dislike, but given that the Gremory clan is a noble family, she guessed the contract must have been around since she was a child and resentment built up from there, which would be hard to get over.
But there was also the chance that the person she was due to marry was a scumbag.
"You ready to go to the museum?" Kiba asked as he ate the last of his ice cream.
"Yep, let me just pay the bill, and we can go," Kuro said, pulling out her card.
It always gave her a thrill to be able to buy her own things with her own money. Her family wasn't poor, but money was a little tight given that only their dad worked, and they had two kids to support.
"You sure we can split the bill," Kiba said.
"No, the bill is only 1200 yen," Kuro said, not seeing the point of splitting such a small amount as she walked up to the counter to pay their bill.
"Did you hear about all of the people being found in comas," Kiba and Kuro heard the people at the next table talking as they started to walk out of the cafe.
The topic made them stop as they listened in for more information.
"Ya, they have found a total of eleven people so far, with one of them dying," the other woman said.
"I hope it's just a strange coincidence," the first woman said.
"It has to be there isn't a way to put people into comas, and the police said there were no signs of a struggle, and some of them were found in their houses."
Kuro and Kiba walked out of the cafe after listening in on the conversation.
"That isn't something to do with strays, is it?" Kuro asked.
"No strays eat their prey, and I have never heard of them leaving prey alive, and in comas, it wouldn't serve any point. And it doesn't sound like something that fallen would do; they would either remove their memories if they needed to or kill them. The whole coma thing is bizarre," Kiba said.
"Well, we should mention it to Rias just in case im sure many people must be watching her waiting for her to make a mistake of some kind," Kuro said as she tried to think what was causing all the people to enter comas.
It was bizarre, and Kuro was sure that it had some kind of supernatural reason behind it as so many people falling into comas was just not natural.
"Well, we can tell Rias in the morning, or I can tell her after the date," Kiba offered.
"You should tell her when you get back, but for now, let's continue on our date," Kuro said as she pulled Kiba towards the museum.
The local museum was relatively small and only had a total of 8 exhibitions in total. Kuro and Kiba walked around the exhibitions, not really paying attention to the first seven as they didn't interest either of them.
Before they finally got the new exhibition on the local Samurai. It showed that Samurai had lived in this area since the late 1700s. There were even a few sets of old armour and swords.
Kuro took a look around before she traced the swords as she was interested in the history of the swords.
"The swords have been passed through a total of 15 people's hands, but other than small fights, they didn't see any real battles," Kuro explained to Kiba.
"How do you know?" Kiba asked, looking at the information sign for the swords that had no real detail in it other than how old the sword was.
"One of my magics is called tracing. It allows me to copy swords, and that includes the history of the swords. Not that it was much help in my spars against you given you make your swords as you need them, and it would be the same for fallen and angels," Kuro said a little sulky.
"Wow, that is cool magic wish I had that magic," Kiba said, looking at the two old swords.
"Well, as I was saying, they never saw any real battle, but they were used to kill other people, but even then, it was a very small amount of people.
However, that was mainly because, in the 1700s, Kuoh was much smaller, and they only had a small garrison of Tokugawa Samurai. Mostly because they could just come from Tokyo if they needed more," Kuro explained.
"Shame it would have been nice if they had seen an important battle or some historic moment," Kiba said, lamenting.
"What about the armour?" Kiba asked.
"Same thing. They saw some small fights, but that was all, " Kuro said with a shrug.
Other than the swords and the armour, there was not a lot in the exhibition, only a few books, one showing the laws in Japan and the other being a record of people in the area.
After looking at everything in the exhibition, they both decided to leave and had a nice slow walk through the city, ending up in the park not far from school or Kuro's house.
"Thank you for a nice time," Kuro said as Kiba took a seat down on the bench, making him a bit shorter than Kuro, who was still standing.
"Yes, it was very nice. I would like to do something like this again," Kiba said.
Kuro could feel a strange tenseness in the air after Kiba had said that they had both enjoyed their first date, and Kuro was sure that it wouldn't be their last.
Kuro knew she would need to bring up that she wanted a harem, but she felt like she had given him a very large hint given she had asked about how devils feel about harems and asked about a female having a harem.
Acting on instinct, Kuro leaned in and kissed Kiba while making sure she didn't activate her Kiss Demon skill as she didn't want to drain his demonic power.
Kuro could tell that this was definitely Kiba's first kiss as he didn't really seem to know what to do. Kuro became more passionate and domineering in her kiss, making Kiba just surrender and follow her lead.
Kuro pulled away from Kiba with a trace of saliva from the kiss.
"See you tomorrow," Kuro said, smiling at Kiba, who was still a little dazed from her kiss and quickly making her way back home.
"How was your date?" Akeno asked as Kiba walked back into the Occult club room.
"It was nice," Kiba said with a slight blush, thinking about the kiss they had shared.
"Maybe I will have to ask her on a date," Akeno teased in a way that made Kiba unsure if she was joking or not.
"We did hear something that we should look into just in case. A string of people has been found in comas in the last week or so. In total, 11 people with one dying," Kiba informed Rias and Akeno.
"That doesn't sound like the behaviour of a stray devil or fallen," Rias said, sinking into thought.
"Was there any kind of pattern?" Akeno asked.
"Im not sure we only heard them talking about it but given that humans had noticed it, then it must be strange, or it wouldn't be worth talking about," Kiba said.
"We should keep an eye out during our night paroles, and we can ask Kuro tomorrow if she has anything that could help us determine if this was natural or done by the supernatural," Rias said after thinking about it.
"Oh, and we should inform Sona as well if it is done by something supernatural, then the fact it has been able to do so for the past week without use detecting it is a big problem," Rias added.