- Is it a draw again, Miss Sitri? - The young brown-haired fellow adjusted his rectangular glasses and set aside the black pawn he had been twirling thoughtfully in his hands up to that moment.
An ordinary guy in a dark academy uniform. That was the only thing you could say about him.
He didn't stand out in any way. Except... that's what was odd.
A perfectly pressed uniform, tidy medium-length brown hair falling over rectangular black-rimmed glasses, a slightly pale face, and kind dark eyes that appealed to the eye - practically a gray mouse. He would have easily gotten lost in the crowd.
The girl sitting in front of him, considered one of the idols of the academy, had caught herself more than once in the strangeness of her thoughts and actions. She wanted to smile as she looked into those calm, dark eyes that gave off a kind of... care and kindness.
Sona Sitri was drawn to this guy. The slender, dark-haired girl wearing oval glasses with dark frames, noticed this strange student almost immediately. For some unknown reason, he was of interest to a not quite human... Demoness.
But what or why? On the face of an ordinary mortal, yes, quite intelligent, but something about him was wrong. Her intuition screamed it out!
He entered the former academy for girls, which only recently became joint, on the first exam he scored the highest in the tests, equaling the smartest girl of the academy and the head of the student council - Sona Sitri, who was now sitting in front of the guy and stupidly clapped her eyes.
He has a perfect reputation among both the few guys and the girls, if he wanted to, he could easily become the school's idol, like Gremori the horse, but the guy just didn't care about that.
But he had a secret fan club of like thirty or so girls.
I wonder if he knows about it. What are those eye-catching eyes thinking? Why can't one of the smartest Demonesses of her time beat him at chess, since she's the best at the game? What does her intuition signal?
Hundreds of questions swiftly alternated in Sona's mind, her mind drawing lines and noting oddities that were immediately shut down by facts from the boy's personnel file collected by the bloodhounds.
The perfect family. The father is a musician and the mother is a very famous artist who came to this town six months ago, immediately settling into an acquired estate near an abandoned church.
The reason for the change of residence was that they heard about one of the best academies in Japan, which had begun to recruit young men. The personnel file says that the parents interviewed under hypnosis simply wanted their child to get the best education possible.
That's not strange... as if in mockery!
Eighteen-year-old Neo Mori had never been in trouble with the law. There was even a report that he once saved a girl from a truck, breaking her arm in the process from a bad landing. This was written about three years ago in the city paper of the guy's last place of residence, the city of Oita.
He had no problems at school. Everything is quiet, no conflicts with teachers or students impossible.
How could it possibly be? Sona got the feeling that there was an invisible zone of calm hovering around Neo, as if his very presence calmed him down.
Could it be his charisma? Sitri had sensed a similar thing from the current Satan and brother of her best, as Rias sometimes repeated, friend, Sirzechs Lucifer.
Or what? Maybe it's all magic... no, nonsense. Sona sensed nothing from the boy. Yes, like every living thing, she sensed a faint vein of energy in him, but not at the level of a mage.
What's wrong with you?
- Is there something on my face? - Neo frowned his thin eyebrows lightly and pulled out a rectangular phone from the inside pocket of his black jacket, smiling apologetically at Sonya and turning on the front camera, fixing his hair. - Excuse me, Ms. Sitri. Do you think I should get a haircut?
- No... - Sona replied thoughtfully, then cleared her mind of the flood of questions. - No, it's fine. Your hair length is quite in line with the rules of the academy.
The boy nodded silently, closing his eyes and hiding the phone back in his jacket, then he adjusted his glasses and put a pawn back on the chessboard, squeezing his king:
- Another game, Miss Sitry? I must confess, playing with you gives me indescribable pleasure.
Something didn't please Sonja in Neo's strange intonation, as if it were mocking, but the girl dismissed these silly thoughts.
- You see, nowadays it's rare to find a good chess player. - the boy went on, carefully placing the pieces on the board. - It's a pity that people stopped respecting such an interesting game with deep sense.
- Deep sense? - Sona asked with interest, noting in her mind that she had never agreed to another game... But she wasn't against it.
A strong adversary, how rare is it to find such a sensible one? The demoness was even willing to close her eyes to the fact that the guy sitting in front of her was human.
- A very deep sense. - He nodded, crossing his fingers and closing his eyes. - Chess is our life. The pawns, the knights, the towers, even the kings and queens are all us humans.
Sona squinted her eyes, drawing a parallel to the Devil's Figures. For a second she thought the boy had said it on purpose, but his intonation didn't change, remaining as thoughtful and dreamy as ever.
- But we can dig a little deeper... - he walked the black pawn first. - Do you mind if I change the rules a little bit? Let black go first.
- I don't mind. - Citri agreed, slowly realizing what Neo was getting at.
- The real king in chess is the player. Only the player can change the rules. Change reality. The player controls the king and the queen. - The guy ran his finger over his pieces. - What color do you think the Player is? White, black, or any other color?
- ... - Sona pondered, biting her lower lip, and then blushing a little, aware that an outsider had noticed her silly habit, but decided not to change it; in her opinion it would be foolish. - Gray. I believe the color of the Player is gray.
- Like a cardinal?
- Exactly. - It was an easy question, the answer to which Demoness found almost immediately.
- Do you believe in the Gods, Miss Sona? - Neo abruptly changed the subject and took his eyes off the girl for a second, moving the tower a few cells forward. - Do you believe in higher beings who rule over us mortals?
- No. She was getting more and more confused by the conversation with the strange guy.
As if in mockery, he spoke on subjects that directly concerned the sitting demoness. But he did it in such a way... He was bringing the conversation down to the fact that they were quite ordinary, meaningless words.
She wanted to spit on everything and put the guy under hypnosis, forcing him to tell everything about himself, Sona was ready to turn a blind eye to the prohibition and the consequences that such an action could bring, but...
Neo is a mystery. And the girl loved riddles with puzzles. She sensed something in him, some potential and something else, the girl had thought a hundred times about making the guy her pawn... Even if he was weak and nothing of himself, in a few centuries with an intelligence like his, he could become a very strong mage, and if he tried, he could enter the Demon nobility.
That and a few other reasons kept Sonja from putting the guy under hypnosis and asking him a good deal about everything he knew.
And, in the end, it wasn't interesting.
Who is she? Sona of the Sitri clan, one of the seventy-two demonic Pillars, and in the human world quite a respected head of the student council-Sona Sitri!
Sitri. The elite, one of the highest ranking clans in the Demon world! Her sister, whom the girl tries to avoid, though she loves, has been awarded the title "Leviathan"!
And for Sona to "snap" for some mortal boy? That was completely unlike her and only brought more questions to the black-haired girl's head.
No... she will solve this strange equation under the name of Neo Mori. Solve it and solve its mysteries!
- Of course they don't exist. - The boy agreed, moving his queen two squares away. - People sent spacecraft into space long ago and no "God" was found there. Perhaps he hid in the clouds... Oh, I'm sorry, Miss Sitori, are you possibly a believer? I shouldn't joke like that?
- I come from a religious family. - The girl said slowly, grinning at her own words in her mind. - But such humor does not make me angry, please continue your thought.
- Thank you. So... God. People didn't find him. - The guy adjusted his glasses and gave his queen to Sitri's pawn with ease. - Maybe he's hiding out there somewhere, right in the fluffy white clouds... Does this mean that God's color is white, since he hides so perfectly from our eyes? Is he the player that leads his army of pawns, bishops, towers, and queens with kings? - Neo rearranged his pawn, making "check" to Sona's king, but the demoness easily ate her opponent's pawn and made exactly the same "check" to Neo's king after a couple of moves. - I went a little off topic, thinking about "colors and Players. Miss Sona, it always seemed to me that my opinion on this subject was... special. Would you listen to me?
The girl nodded, looking into the dark abyss hidden inside the boy's eyes.
- The players are gone, and so are their colors. - He moved the king off the board, dropping it on the brownish wooden table. - I surrender, Miss Sona, the game with you has given me unthinkable pleasure.
- Surrender? - It burst out of the girl. She could not understand why such a strong opponent abruptly decided to surrender, he could easily defend the king with a rook or the last knight. And what was the point of this conversation? What was the last phrase? Riddles again...
- I give up. - Neo repeated, rising from his chair and pointing to the wall clock to his left. - I have a calligraphy class in half an hour, so I don't want to miss out on such a fascinating activity. - He said in an apologetic tone, shifting his gaze to the chess set. - Let me help you clean it up.
- Don't trouble yourself. - Sitri slowly, as if she were a lord, imitating her friend Rias, got up from the table and held out her hand to her companion. - It was a pleasure to meet you, Neo Mori. If you don't mind, come see me tomorrow at the same time. I hope I can persuade you to join the student council, though. It'll add to your record and help you get a job, especially since I have... one suggestion I'd like to discuss with you tomorrow.
- I'll be there for sure. - He nodded, shook my outstretched hand, and turned to leave. - See you later, Miss Sona.
As soon as the door closed behind Neo, Sitri immediately turned to her assistant and the "queen" - a tall long-haired girl with black as night hair, drinking tea:
- Tsubaki, keep an eye on Neo. Record all his actions, and report any oddities to me. Understood?
- Yes, President. - She nodded as she set the porcelain cup aside. - I'll go right away, and... Are you that interested in him? He's an ordinary fellow, isn't it worth giving up a pawn for him?
Though she was Sona's servant, practically a slave, the young demoness hated such comparisons. She regarded Tsubaki as her friend who could give sound advice and treated her as an equal.
- Something wasn't right about him. And the conversations he was having? Aren't they strange?
- He's smart. - Shrugged Tsubaki, fixing a long strand of hair. - Managed to draw games with you. Probably a genius. You're a genius too, aren't you? I don't mean to be rude, but all geniuses are strange. Demons, too.
- Something doesn't connect. - Sona continued, ignoring her friend's words and slowly sitting back in her chair, shifting her gaze to her vice-president. - A genius isn't a genius, but he's strange.
- You know better. - The girl agreed, heading for the door.
Meanwhile, Neo walked slowly to the exit of the academy. He was attracted by some noise, and stopped for a moment at the window, watching a mob of angry girls beating up one of the three notorious perverts of the academy - Issei, a brown-haired boy with a cheeky smile.
Mori shook his head and went on his way out, then turned behind the academy and walked over to the stick-beaten guy with a black eye and a busted lip:
- Issei, you've been beaten again. - Neo smiled good-naturedly and took the local pervert under his arm, helping him up. - Did your friends run away again?
- Ugh, man... Ooh, my war wounds were worth it, hehehehe, you should have seen the boobs I was looking at! - The lewd smile on Issei's face practically glowed, making the surrounding students cringe.
- Neo, why are you helping this pervert?! Let him keep lying around, he deserves it! - One of the girls in a Kendo Club uniform crossed her arms in disapproval under her voluminous chest.
- Well, well, Miss Mio, he could have picked up some kind of contagion, and then you would have had problems. - Mori answered calmly, steering his legs and the languidly waddling "sick man" toward the infirmary. - It's no trouble to me.
There were whispers through the crowd of onlookers, with words like "Holy," "How kind," "Let's date," and other nonsense ignored by Neo. He didn't care...
After all, every one of his actions and words were done for a reason. Everything he did had meaning and some subtext.
Entering this academy, his "friendship" and conversations, even helping this scum led to some kind of goal... to the end of the play that awaited him in the near future.
Sitri, just as he had hoped, began following him. Interesting enough intelligent girl was easy, just drop a couple of "meaningless" phrases, give a few vague hints of the guy's "possible" knowledge, and intrigue him with her actions and... that was it.
He read her like an open book, saw all her actions and thoughts. He didn't need superpowers or local "magic" to do that, no, he'd been weaving the delicate threads of intrigue for hundreds of years, playing with not the dumbest people like puppets, so why wouldn't a young demoness buy the game?
Lies was his middle name. The first remained in the past world, along with most of his former powers, but...
It was more interesting without powers. Especially since all of his actions were leading up to the moment when he, like a phoenix, would rise again from the ashes.
The Player.
All the nonsense he had said to Sonya was nothing but lies. There was only one player in the world, and that was him, Neo Mori.
What color was he? Colorless. A player doesn't need color, the best player is the one whose pieces don't see the truth until the last. They don't notice the strings attached to their arms, legs and head.
And he was just that... a man. A weak creature without much strength or ability.
Though not exactly in the case of Neo.
When his existence in the past world ended, he realized one crucial truth-people are not as weak as they seem. They have the special property of disrupting the Player's unbreakable plans by destroying the party.
It seemed that what could go wrong last time? Everything had been thought out for centuries, all the pre-arranged pieces were doing what was originally planned. The party was in full swing, he just had to wait and occasionally pull the right strings, but...
What went wrong? How, albeit not exactly an ordinary man, created by the Player and having gone through all the planned battles, managed to surpass him... surpass the Supreme Being. The last stage of evolution.
TO SURPASS A GOD?!
The mighty soul, captive in a mortal shell, knew not...
It was the first time in his entire life that his plans had given way. Yes, there were many situations where the party could have gone awry, but there were thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of possible roads to fixing them.
Everything was on the Player's side. All the fallen pieces, immortality, and unthinkable power that surpassed all living and non-living beings from the three worlds.
And man managed to defeat God...
Neo's thoughts were not reflected on his face. He calmly walked into his house, greeted his "parents," checked the illusion spell hanging on them that the boy had created over years of research into local magical energy, and then looked curiously at the magical beacon mark attached to his arm by Sitri, and modified it by hinging his illusion spell on the spell.
Now anyone watching the guy will assume that he has gone to his room and is doing his homework. He would even see it if he wanted to look.
Neo himself went into the bathroom and removed the most powerful mojo from the hidden secret passage to the lab he had created, then leaped down into a spacious, bright room with hundreds of flasks, tables, and sleeping test subjects, among them mutated humans, demons, angels, and spirits collected by Neo from neighboring cities.
He quickly threw on a lab coat over his uniform and made his way to the spirit computer recreated in this world. He had to modify it to make it work in the local realities, but it didn't take a week.
- So... - Neo quickly ran through the computer reports, fixing his glasses. - Failure again... need more material. - The boy looked up to see the naked Fallen One floating in a flask with long black hair, a big bust and a pair of black wings visible from behind. - Why doesn't it come out...? It's as if Hogyoku refuses to incarnate in this world. I'm doing something wrong. Hmmm, maybe it's the need for a stronger soul? Or is it because this world is more material than the world of people from my past world?
The guy's gaze fell on the blonde-haired girl with snow-white wings:
- There's a lot of light-colored energy in you... No, you can affect it, you can't. How sometimes you lack an extra pair of hands. - Neo shook his head, picking up a scalpel from the table. - Perhaps I should mix you up? A stronger body, a stronger soul, it would all contribute to the incarnation of Hogyoku.
He stared blankly at the three girls floating in the transparent substance for a few moments, then smiled faintly.
- Two different souls are easier to mix than three almost identical ones. It's a strange paradox, but we can get around it. Yes, that would help... - He nodded and walked briskly over to the computer, beginning to type in hundreds of pieces of data. - It'll work.
In a past world, his name was Aizen Sousuke. The self-proclaimed last rung of evolution, practically a God whose plans were ruined by man. "Temporary Shinigami."
Well, this world has yet to meet Aizen... the time has not yet come.
A strange world where Gods, Demons, Angels and many other powerful souls exist. They stand above everyone else, believing that they are the ones who have the right to be at the throne of God.
But the truth is that heaven has always been free. No one occupies them. Not the Demons, not the Fallen, not the Angels, not even the Gods of the local mythologies... not even me.
- And even you, my precious observer, have no right to stand on top. - Aizen wiped the blood splattered on his cheek from his still-living subject and looked up at the ceiling. - The god of this world is dead, and no one is taking his place. But the time has come to fill this unbearable void of heaven. Soon... I will rule them.
The guy smiled and adjusted his glasses, setting the scalpel aside on the table.
After all, he's the one who's going to step beyond any laws again. Even if the world tries to stop him, Eisen will not back down.
He will surely rise to the Face of God. He will become the king that people will believe in.
And then the world will tremble.