And so, in a week, Sona's first Rating Game—both officially and unofficially—shall take place in the Underworld. It was essential to note that Sona didn't need her peerage's help to win the game. After all, it was not a rating game where she absolutely needed peerage to win; it was a normal rating game: a battle between two peerages to defeat the opposite's king within 90 minutes—just like a normal chess. The difference, the kings were not limited.
However, it didn't mean Sona didn't want to prepare her peerage. After all, they're now devil. They deserved a chance to get promoted to a High Class Devil—so that they could have a better status and rights that were only given to the devil of high class. …So that they could have their own peerage.
Of course Naruto was not one of them who wanted to be promoted; the blond had refused each offer given to him either by Sirzech or Ajuka. And Sona didn't think the blond would change his mind. When she asked, the answer always the same: "I have no interest in it; status means nothing to me. You have never seen me kneeled before anyone, have you? And I have not bowed my head toward anyone either, save for the one time I did to Ajuka out of my gratitude and respect."
…And so, here stood Sona and her peerage in an empty small island together with Rias and her peerage. Unfortunately, there was no Naruto among them. He was gone to a different place with Saji. Saji had a unique sacred gear—a sacred gear that's consisted of four. The blond wanted to see what Saji could do. That's a good thing, and Sona knew for a certain that Saji would improve significantly under the eyes of the blond.
"The rules are simple," Sona stated. "No killing move. One wins when the opponent either gives up or unable to stand anymore."
Rias nodded her head in understanding. Her peerage stood on her both side—minus another bishop who was training to control his sacred gear in the Gremory Mansion in the underworld.
"Then, let's begin!"
—Naruto's Dimension—
"…I see. At the moment you can only use one of your sacred gears at a time." Naruto said after witnessing what Saji could do with his sacred gear. "While the abilities of your sacred gears are impressive, at the moment you lack control over your demonic power and physical strength to utilize it to the fullest."
"Yeah, Kaichou and Tsubaki-senpai said I need to work on my stamina and physical strength."
Naruto nodded his head. "Good that you acknowledge it. However, we're not going to start with that. For the first four days, you will work to control your demonic power and utilize each of your sacred gears. Only after that we can work on your physical prowess. For today, you will focus on [Blaze Black Flare]. By the end of the day, I want you to be able to fire your black flame as easy as flipping your hand."
"Then I will be in your care, Senpai. Please don't go easy on me. I want to be strong too so that I can help Kaichou and protect the others."
Naruto smiled. "That's the spirit! Then, Saji, I will start attacking you with many small fireballs." Numerous orange magic circles appeared on Naruto's right and left side. "Your goal is to protect yourself from my small fireballs by burning it with your black flame. Now, here I go!"
—
Sona didn't lift a single finger, but Rias's peerage was down already. The only one left standing was Rias herself. On her side, only Reya and Momo were down. Akeno and Yuuto simultaneously defeated those two. Yuuto was defeated right after that by Tsubasa, while Akeno fell by the hand of Tsubaki after her queen managed to force Koneko to surrender.
While the fight between Akeno and Tsubaki was interesting, more so with all the lightning Akeno created, there was a big disappointment in the form of Hyoudou Issei. He hold [Boosted Gear]—one of the longinus, yet he was nothing but annoyance in this practice. His perverted nature was out of the world. He was fainted after Ruruko accidentally touched his manhood—and he was still unconscious with his thing pointed upward. Thanks to Asia who was covering the pervert from the other's eyes, otherwise Sona would have buried him into the earth.
To be honest, his thing's rather average. It was almost twice smaller than Naruto's size that she saw in her previous dream, a naughty dre—Sona widened her eyes in both horror and embarrassment. Her face was already colored in pink.
Damn that dream, cursed Sona inside her head. No, it was not because she hated it, damn no! Sona would happily embrace that dream if it decided to delude her mind again. She cursed the dream because it made her stared at Naruto more often…and that she was curious to find out whether the dream held any truth. The feeling in the dream was full of ecstasy. … Will it be the same in the real world?
Oh, girl! Sona was ashamed to admit that she felt hot down there. All these embarrassing things would not dominate her mind if she had not kissed the blond last night. Oh, for the devil sake! Sona really, really hoped that the blond didn't feel the kiss. Otherwise, she'd like to die just to erase the embarrassment.
On the bright side, it proved that she was a normal healthy girl—unlike her BIG sister. Yeah, that was the solace she could take at the moment.
"Kaichou, your face is red." Tsubaki stated. "I will not ask why, but you may want to give Rias-san a response. She wishes to face you one on one."
Sona blinked twice. "It is not," she said replying Tsubaki's first sentence. "Alright, I accept her challenge. You can rest, Tsubaki." With that, Sona stood a few meters before the crimson—haired devil.
"I didn't expect your peerage to be so strong, Sona. And I certainly didn't think that one of your peerages would take advantage of my pawn's perverted nature. But, alas, today I learn that we have to use everything in order to win; we have to do everything in order to defeat our opponent."
"I'm sure that Ruruko didn't plan to do that: it was purely accident." Sona shook her head. "Nevertheless, let's get this over with. Come, Rias, give me your all! Don't hesitate, or you'll end up embarrassing yourself."
"Heh, the last time we fought, i show you who the boss was. Have your confident deludes your mind into thinking that you can beat me?"
Sona sighed. They both knew that Rias was just trying to boost her confidence. Besides, their last fight happened when they were twelfth. Things were different now. Nevertheless, Sona said nothing and motioned the Gremory Heiress to attack her.
…Rias didn't wait for another provocation. Her power of destruction came to life. Small orbs of dark energy shrouded by crimson aura appeared around her. That orb would turn all things into ashes, or so they said. But Sona knew that was not the truth. Indeed it could do that, but depending on someone strength, resisting the power of destruction was not impossible. After all, it was still made of demonic energy. After all, if power of destruction could reduce everything into ashes, why was Sirzech Lucifer not the strongest being in the world?
"Here I go!"
…Sona blasted the orbs of power of destruction with her concentrated demonic energy. It caused the ground to shatter, and Rias to widen her eyes in surprise. The orbs of power of destruction didn't get destroyed, it were pushed ‒ Rias could still launch it back toward Sona. However, Sona was no longer standing at the crack on the ground. She was already behind Rias with dozen hundreds water bullets.
"…You need to train seriously, Rias, or you will never get the chance to claim Rating Game Championship. After all, I'm the one who will sit at the very top. You are talented, and you have more demonic energy than I. But, as of now, you're wasting your potential. Learn from this defeat!"
—7 Days Later, Underworld—
The day had finally come. Naruto found himself standing next to Sona and her peerage inside a large arena—waiting to be teleported into the rating game arena. Before them stood Riser Phenex and his peerage; they were all wearing confident face, looking down on their opponent. Their arrogance was something else, but that's to be expected from young devil coming from elite family.
Naruto sighed inwardly, didn't understand why he didn't use a clone to take his place. He knew Ajuka, he was his student after all. It was not difficult to fool the rating game system so that it would read his clone as himself despite not having evil piece inside. However, here he found himself in his real body. Oh, well, it was too late to change his mind. People would notice if he started to change place with a clone.
"Having a smart wife isn't bad at all. I like to collect different type of woman. You and Rias… I'm sure I'd be happy having you joining my harem. That stoic face you have, I wonder what kind of expression you have when we play together on my bed."
…Naruto didn't want to show off in front of the whole devil society—or even the whole supernatural world. It was better for his strength to be hidden. However, he changed his mind. Hearing how smugly Riser vomited those words… Knowing how disgusting the words he uttered… Naruto had to admit he felt annoyed. So annoyed that he felt glad he was here.
"Sona, I'm sorry to be this selfish," whispered Naruto (but his voice was loud enough to be heard by all the devils inside arena), "but let me handle this little devil. Have Tsubaki by your side; let Saji become the main piece for you to destroy his pieces. We will let the devil society know that you are first in line to win Rating Game Championship."
Riser face was distorted in fury, but contrary to him, a beautiful smile graced Sona's lips. "You are my knights," she said.
"Indeed I am."
…And the scenery suddenly changed into that of the hot desert, the rating game had just begun.
