Chapter 13

Raynare found herself growing more and more excited as she walked deeper into the park while arm-in-arm with Junichiro. Oh, she was so looking forward to ripping him to shreds! She'd scouted this place previously and found the area by the fountain to be surprisingly empty most early evenings. She'd originally picked it because it was the perfect romantic spot to end a great date and fill her target with despair as she stabbed him to death.

Now it was just a spot she'd scouted and knew she would be able to use to torture him for a good while before killing him. Part of her wanted to just kidnap him and torture him for days but with the devils watching him, she couldn't risk drawing them to her location. So, she would settle for what she could get and she was so excited about the pain she would soon inflict on him!

Junichiro saw how much happier and more excited Raynare was getting as they moved closer to the center of the small park. He saw the open area with the water fountain ahead of them and couldn't help smiling. He couldn't wait to see the look on her face when he surprised her once more.

As they approached the fountain, Raynare turned to look at Junichiro with a sweet smile on her face. As she looked into his eyes she asked in a matching sweet voice, "Can I ask something of you, Junichiro-kun?"

"Sure, Yuuma-chan."

Raynare continued to smile sweetly at him as she asked in a soft voice, "Then, would you die for me?"

Junichiro had to fight down the instinct to laugh in her face. The first time he ran into a fallen angel, he'd been terrified and felt like dying was a real possibility. Since then he'd grown massively in personal strength and had actually trained and learned how to fight a little. All of this combined made Raynare seem like 'Minion A' to him. She was a weak low tier trash mob and thought she could kill him? Still, he had decided on a role to play to truly terrify her and he was going to stick with it.

That meant faking confusion and surprise, "What was that Yuuma-chan?"

Raynare shoved Junichiro away from herself while taking a leap back. As she flew through the air, her body underwent a drastic change. Her clothing exploded off of her body to reveal her naked flesh for just a brief moment before she was covered in what could only be described as a BDSM outfit. At the same time, the 'young' image of Yuuma was replaced with a much more mature version sporting a pair of pitch-black feathered wings on her back.

The newly released Raynare wore an outfit that could loosely be described as bikini armor made of black leather. Beneath the two straps that covered her nipples and little else was a waistcoat of black leather belts. Her arms were covered in gloves that reached all the way to her shoulders while her legs had high-heeled boots up to just above her knees. She even had honest to god pauldrons on her shoulders!

Junichiro did his best to fake a look of absolute shock at the transformation. There was just something he absolutely couldn't resist saying though and it just slipped out without him meaning to, "Oh my god! Are you a magical girl?!"

He could see the physical manifestation of the mental damage he just did to her when she jerked back in shock at his question. She was instantly enraged, her face morphing from something relatively beautiful into a visage of wrath and hatred, "I'm going to fucking kill you in the slowest way possible! I am going to rip your guts out and feed them to you while you're still alive! If I could have my way, I would torture you for months after what you put me through today!"

As she raged, she summoned a spear of purplish-colored light. It was long, wavy, had thorns, and ended in a barbed tip. With a scream of raw rage, she threw the spear directly at a shocked-looking Junichiro. It only took a moment for the spear to cross the distance between them and stab into Junichiro's stomach.

Junichiro bent over as the spear stabbed into him, blood instantly pooling around the wound and staining his clothing. He looked up at Raynare as blood leaked from the corner of his mouth and down his chin, "W-why?"

"Blame god, he's the one who gave it to you and why you have to die. We can't have someone potentially powerful messing with our plans!"

"Ah! So that's why. I figured but I wanted to make sure."

As he spoke, Junichiro straightened up and smiled brightly at a suddenly very confused Raynare. The spear of light was still sticking into his body but he was acting as if it hadn't done anything to him. She could see the blood so why was he acting fine? She watched in shock as Junichiro lifted up his right hand which was suddenly covered in a black cloth glove she didn't remember him wearing. Even odder, there was an expensive-looking deep purple gemstone on the back of his hand.

Junichiro snapped his fingers and suddenly everything changed. Every sound around them vanished as if it had never existed. Every sight was removed, and the park was completely gone from sight. The pair found themselves in a perfect cube of black walls, yet they could still see perfectly fine. Raynare looked around in shock and couldn't comprehend what was happening. She turned to glare at Junichiro, "What did you do?!"

Junichiro just smirked at her as he grabbed her light spear with his gloved hand a pulled on it. From her point of view, it appeared as if he was casually pulling her spear out of his body without a care. Worse, she couldn't see a wound and the blood on his clothing and chin had vanished. What she didn't know was that he'd simply tricked her. The spear had hit a small portal and gotten stuck at the edge of it, never touching him. The blood was just his nanites color shifted to red. He was certain he deserved an Oscar for his performance now!

He casually tossed the light spear to the side as his whole demeanor changed. He stood tall and proud as his clothing shifted into a new outfit. His school uniform was quickly replaced from the ground up. His shoes became converse style high tops. His pants became black slacks. His shirt became a pure white long-sleeved button-up covered in a black vest with a blood-red tie around his neck and tucked under the vest. His hands were covered in thin black gloves that glittered with six different colored gems each. Lastly, he ran his hand through his hair to smooth it back while leaving only a single black lock to hang over his forehead.

He smirked at Raynare as confidence came rolling off of him in waves that send shivers of fear down her spine. She felt like a small animal in front of an apex predator. When he spoke his voice was teasing and more than a little condescending, "You're not the only one with a transformation sequence, Raynare."

Shock at him knowing her real name quickly became fear, "How do you know my name?"

He laughed, "Please, I'm not some cheap villain that will monologue to his enemies. Suffice it to say, I know enough about enough."

Raynare screamed and summoned another light spear and immediately threw it at him while shouting, "Tell me, you bastard! You've been playing and torturing me this entire time, haven't you?!"

Junichiro casually swatted the light spear away with the back of his hand, sending it careening off to the side, "Of course I was! I mean honestly. Just walking up to a stranger and professing that you like them and want a date? Then getting all desperate when turned down? Suspicious! Suspicious in the extreme! Not to mention you were wearing an unfamiliar school uniform that's clearly not from this area! I mean, c'mon! Only an absolute idiot would fall for something like that!"

Somewhere Issei Hyoudou sneezed.

He shook his head in disappointment at the dumbfounded look on Raynare's face. He decided to twist the knife a bit, "You want to know why you're still a low-level mook and will never be promoted? It's not because you're weak. It's because you're so STUPID. Everyone who knows anything about Azazel knows that he is a Sacred Gear nut. So, his wanting to keep an eye on a possibly powerful sacred gear makes total sense. Especially if he wanted to possibly recruit the wielder! So what do you do? You try to kill him!"

Junichiro rolled his eyes so hard it felt like a physical blow to Raynare. He continued without mercy, "You know what a SMART person would do? They would recruit the powerful individual and increase the strength of the Grigori! That would get some recognition. But killing the person and sending the gear back into the cycle of reincarnation? You are a fucking MORON. I honestly can't even begin to comprehend your thinking process because I simply can't lower my IQ that much. I can't even pretend to be that stupid. Even attempting to comprehend it hurts my brain."

Raynare didn't look so certain about her course of action now. If she knew how much worse her situation was about to get...

Junichiro smirked at her, "It gets worse though."

Raynare grimaced and took a step back from him. When she spoke her voice was quivering in fear, "H-how can it get worse?"

He smirked, "Because, not only did you fail to kill me, you've compounded that failure by pissing me off and making me an enemy of the Grigori. Do you know what your abject failure will mean? Do you know what will happen to you even if I just let you go? What will happen to you when other fallen angels are slaughtered ruthlessly in droves because of your idiocy?"

Raynare put up a front of false bravado, "Even if you can kill me and a few others there's no way you..."

Junichiro cut her off, "Aura suppression level zero."

The moment he spoke, and yes he knew how chuuni he sounded but he couldn't resist, his aura-hiding bracelet was disabled. While there was no outward change to his appearance or anything else, his magical power instantly went from 'meh for a human' to 'just below a dragon king.' To add to the pressure Raynare was suddenly metaphorically under, Junichiro began to cycle his magical power in a way that Ddraig had taught him. As his magic churned an aura of power flared to life around him and took on the form of raging red flames. An indescribable literal pressure suddenly slammed into the area and forced Raynare to her knees, painfully.

Junichiro looked down at Raynare with eyes that were suddenly golden with slits like a reptile's. A cosmetic look thanks to his nanites. She could hardly breathe and was covered in sweat while trembling in abject terror. That terror only grew worse as a pair of red gauntlets with green orbs appeared on his hands. She recognized them the moment she saw the green orbs flash and heard a single terrifying word.

[Boost!]

The 'slightly below dragon king' level of power Junichiro was emitting instantly became 'totally a dragon king.' The pressure Raynare was under doubled as well and crushed her onto her hands and knees, barely supporting herself. Junichiro walked up to her while taking his sweet time about it, yet every step seemed to echo in her ears like a funeral dirge. He stopped just in front of her, "Do you understand now Raynare? Do you finally understand just how much of an idiot and abject failure you are?"

Raynare struggled to move, let alone speak. Her mouth opened and closed but nothing came out.

[Boost!]

The pressure on her suddenly doubling once again and practically crushing her prostrate body into the solid black of the ground didn't help matters. Junichiro knelt next to her as he whispered to her in a voice filled with menace and a promise of pain if she didn't answer him, "I asked you a question."

Raynare trembled in terror as tears streamed from her eyes. It took every last ounce of her willpower to finally scream out in desperation, "YES!"

[Reset!]

As soon as she spoke, all the power pressing on her vanished as if it had never been there. There was silence and blessed peace as she tried to recover from her ordeal. For his part, Junichiro had simply let his boosts go away and re-engaged his aura-hiding device. Only his clothing remained unchanged as he stood in front of the limp body of Raynare. He loudly clapped his hands together once, scaring the hell out of Raynare with the sudden and unexpected noise, "Good! Then you're free to go!"

With a snap of his fingers, the pitch-black area they'd been inside of, up to that point, vanished. They were once more inside the park leaving Raynare on the rough concrete. She slowly looked around before her eyes ended up on Junichiro. He gave her a bright smile and a jaunty wave, "Goodnight, Ray-chan!"

With that, he turned around and happily walked away toward his home. He wanted to get there quickly so he could watch what happened when she got to the abandoned church that acted as the base for the fallen. He'd given her one last present thanks to the bright pink gem that was fading from view as his glove swallowed it and moved it elsewhere. He was excited to see if she would like that final gift of his.

Rias was having a small panic attack. First, that idiot Junichiro went and accepted a date with a fallen angel. One that, according to Koneko, smelled of blood, anger, and murderous intentions. Second, he ignored the flier that her familiar tried to pass to him! How was she supposed to come to his rescue if he didn't have the damned summoning circle! Third, after their dinner, they went to the park. Parks are great for dates, they're also a great place to murder someone in the dark and fly away! Fourth, the pair of them went into the park and vanished completely! Not even Koneko could track their scent after it vanished from near the water fountain.

She had all of her available peerage out looking for any sign of the two missing people. Koneko was frantically scouring the area trying to find him. If she didn't know better, she would think Koneko was actually worried about Junichiro, instead of his food. Speaking of the cat devil, her phone rang and the caller ID let her know it was Koneko. She flipped the phone open to answer it. Before she could say anything, Koneko's voice came through, "I found him. He's fine."

"Where is he?!"

"Walking home."

Rias sighed in relief. She didn't know what she would do if something happened to the man that could bring anime weapons to life! Not only was that super freaking cool, but it was also potentially super freaking powerful! She could imagine the things he could do if he could create copies of the really powerful weapons from some anime and video games! Could he make dimension-cutting swords?! A gun that can blow up planets?! MECHA?! Her greed and otaku both agreed, Junichiro needed to be a member of her peerage!

"I'm on my way, Koneko."

She hung up her phone and started flying toward Junichiro's home. She wanted to make sure he was fine with her own eyes. She was certain now, she had to recruit him to her peerage tomorrow! She'd offer whatever deal she needed in exchange for him joining up!

Koneko looked to the side as Rias landed next to her. Once her wings were tucked away, Rias addressed Koneko, "He's home?"

Koneko just pointed to a window that had some light coming out of it through thick drawn shades. The two of them could see his shadow passing by it on occasion as he moved around. Rias let out a sigh of relief then addressed her rook, "Do you know what happened?"

Koneko shook her head, "I circled back around to the park and spotted him coming out of it. I checked inside and could smell the fallen's terror. Whatever happened, Arai-sempai terrified that fallen. All I could smell from him was amusement and excitement." She looked at Rias with her golden eyes, "I don't know what it means."

Rias frowned as she tried to figure it out herself but she could only come to one conclusion. For the fallen angel to be terrified of Junichiro had to mean that he was much stronger than the fallen. Only a threat of imminent death really seemed to get through the layers of pride and stupidity that low-ranked fallen seemed to cloak themselves in. In order to terrify her, he would have to be significantly stronger than her. That didn't make sense though, they could all feel his unrestrained magical power. It was alright for a newbie human but nothing impressive by any stretch.

There was also the problem of the disappearing act. If he was strong enough to terrify the fallen, then where the hell had they vanished to? Did the fallen take him somewhere and then he terrified her into taking him back? Rias let out a small growl of frustration. She had no real idea what had happened and she wanted to know! Her curiosity was killing her! She wanted to storm up there, kick his door in, and demand answers from him!

Rias sighed and her shoulders slumped. She couldn't force answers out of him. Not until he joined her peerage, at least. If she annoyed him too much or pissed him off, he might refuse to join her. Unlike others, she wouldn't force him into her peerage, no matter how desperate or curious about him she was. Rias reached down and pat Koneko on the shoulder, "Come on, let's go. He's home safe and we'll see him tomorrow at school.

After arriving home, Junichiro opened his laptop and spoke to the surveillance VI, "Show me the feed for Raynare after I left her."

The screen quickly switched to showing the park, Raynare still laying on the ground in a puddle of sweat. It was a good minute after he left that she finally managed to push herself up and unsteadily take to the air. She was clearly not at her best as she wobbled through her flight and made it to the church. As she landed, the other two fallen angels noticed her and the state she was in.

His grin grew as he ordered a tub of popcorn to munch on. The show was just about to get interesting.

AN

Okay so something I wanted to address a bit from some comments here and there. First and foremost, Junichiro is not and never will be a super logical super genius who will do everything perfectly. He also doesn't know everything that you, the readers, know. He knows just about everything I know and that's about it. I'd also like to point out that while he does have memories of being older, he is still just a seventeen-year-old and prone to fall to his hormones. I dunno about you all but at 17 I was not very put together. Sure, he will be more mature, but he'll also have plenty of moments of immaturity. Normal average guys, like myself, aren't exactly paragons of maturity. I dunno about anyone else my age (approaching 40 rapidly) but I still laugh my ass off at potty humor. I am not super mature. Thankfully, I'm also not a slave to teenage hormones anymore. Expect Junichiro to continue to do silly things that don't necessarily make a ton of sense just because I find them amusing to do.

Also, I've seen some comments that have prompted me to want to point some things out about The Workshop. While it is an exceptionally powerful sacred gear in the hands of Junichiro, it DOES have limits that Junichiro is UNAWARE of. Try to keep in mind that things done from his perspective are just what he THINKS not necessarily reality. Minor Spoiler to prove my point. His Infinite Mana Generator is NOT as infinite as it seems. It does have a hard limit on just how much it can generate and give him, he simply hasn't reached that point yet. When he does, it will requite the balance breaker of The Workshop to improve on it. Same with things like his armor. He THINKS it can become immune to anything with enough time but that's simply not true. Enough power will overcome his defense, he simply hasn't run into anything but mooks so far. Do not assume the limits of his items based on the cannon fodder characters from the beginning of the series. Junichiro's items are strong, they just have limits.

Now I shall be shameless. If you're interested in supporting me and reading unedited chapters I do have a pat-reon you can join for a couple of bucks. Pat-reon slash thomasdarkrose where Birth of a Legend chapter 5 is up and Fabricator is going to get chapter 18 later today.