Chapter 3: Contracts, and Lore
Colton had woken up and got ready for school.
School went like normal.
After school was done, everyone of the ORC met up at the ORC building.
Once everyone was there, Rias spoke up.
"Alright. Colton, Issei, hold out you hands."
The two comply.
Rias holds a hand over each of their's and a red magic circle appears on the back of their hands.
"This is the mark of Gremory. With it, you'll be able to access the Gremory household teleportation circle on you own. For Colton's case, while being able to use your own is great, its best that you use this one so your not mistaken as a stray."
"Thank you President." Colton said.
"Yeah, thanks." Issei said.
"Now, Colton. May you bring us to your place?"
"Yes Ma'am."
Colton then summoned a red magic circle around everyone and they teleported away.
They arrived inside Colton's house.
"Nice place." Koneko commented.
"It's very clean here." Kiba observed.
"I like to keep my house clean. Just because I live alone doesn't give me the excuse to be messy." Colton explained.
"Anyway, I'm gonna prepare some snacks. Make yourselves comfortable."
Colton walked into the kitchen.
Everyone looked around to explore the house.
"This is actually a pretty big place for one person." Issei commented.
"His family must visit time to time, so that could explain the size" Kiba theorized.
The living room itself was of a decent size, having two couches surrounding a coffee table. There was a recliner a little off to the side, with its own small coffee table next to it.
The two couches and the recliner were positioned to have a decently sized TV in view.
By the TV, was a few retro game consoles.
Koneko walked up stairs and noticed a few open rooms.
She walked in one realizing it was Colton's.
She looked around and saw it was a very normal bedroom. She looked under his bed, curious to find anything. She found nothing.
"Ara, ara. Poking around your best friend's room?"
Koneko jumped a little. Turning around she saw Akeno in the doorway.
"Akeno don't scare me."
"You know, I find it cute that he attempted to invite only you last night."
"Wait... If you knew that, then why did you insist on everyone being here?" Koneko asked, irritated.
"Because I haven't had a way to tease you until learning that your close to Colton. Now, I can get reactions out of you as long as he is included in a way." Akeno said with a small smirk.
Koneko gave her a glare.
Back with Issei, Kiba and Rias, they were still exploring the first floor.
Kiba noticed a particular symbol carved on a plaque above the electric fireplace in the living room.
The symbol looked like a cross between an 'X' and the infinity symbol. Below the symbol said the words: "Even time can be broken".
Rias also took notice of the symbol. "Well, that's peculiar." She said.
Issei was poking around Colton's bookshelf, trying to find anything interesting.
Issei didn't find anything he was looking for. 'He's too normal. Sure the comics are kinda cool, but the non-fiction stuff is boring. Where's the spicy stuff?'
Suddenly Colton shouted from the kitchen. "Issei, if the gut feeling I just got is true, then get you mind out of the gutter, will ya?"
Issei paled a little. 'How'd he know!'
A few minutes later, Everyone was gathered in the living room. Colton walks in with a tray of snacks and drinks. The snacks ranged from simple snacks like chips and pretzels, to other snacks like cheese and crackers, or even a few slices of deli. The drinks were all tea and water.
He then walks back to the kitchen only to walk back in with a separate tray full of sweets and chocolate milk for Koneko, setting it beside her.
Koneko looks at the tray with sparkles in her eyes.
Koneko digs into her tray, as everyone else takes food from the main tray.
Rias then spoke up, getting to business.
"Now before we get on with the meeting. Colton, what's with the symbol above the fireplace?"
"Oh, that. I'm not entirely sure what it is." Colton replied.
"Your not?" Akeno questioned.
"All I know is that it's the symbol for my Mother's second job, whatever it is."
"You don't know?" Issei asked.
"All I know is that my mother has two jobs, the one I know about and the one I'm not told about. I even tried asking my Stepdad and my brother, but they don't give me answers either. Not that I expect my brother to anyway." Colton said, grumbling the last part.
"You have a brother?" Kiba inquired.
"Yeah, I don't get along with him that much. Honestly, interacting with him is more stressful than anything."
Colton reached for his glass of tea, only to not touch anything. He turns to where his glass was, and saw a very small portal where his glass should've been.
The portal was starting to close, so Colton surrounded his hand with magic and reached over and grabbed the side of the portal.
"Case in point, he just stole my drink."
Colton pulled hard on the portal, forcing it to open more. He moved his other hand over to the portal holding a fireball. He threw the fireball through the portal before pushing the sides of the portal together, forcing it closed.
"That'll teach him." Colton said as the portal fully disappeared.
"Anyway, yeah. I don't know what the symbol means."
"What about the words below it? 'Even time can be broken'" Koneko asked.
"My guess, multiverse theory. Existence of alternate timelines and such."
"So, you think your mother has a second job dealing with alternate timelines?" Rias asked.
"She very well could be researching them. Again, I don't really know."
Rias seemed to accept that answer.
"Onto business, let me explain contracts to you and Issei. Basically, contracts are made when you and the client agree to form one. Typically, the client will agree to the contract if you prove that you're a real devil, typically by completing the request. These contracts are a great way to ascend the ranking system."
"Ranking system?" Issei asked.
"Basically there are four types of devils. Low class, mid class, high class, and ultimate class. Everyone in this room, besides myself, is a low class devil, while I am a high class devil. Low class devils are able to raise their class through various means, such as through forming many contracts. There can be other ways such as having a relationship with a higher class devil."
Colton and Issei nod. Issei had a face when Rias mentioned the relationship part.
Colton noticed the face and zapped him from across the room. "No perverted thoughts in my house, thank you very much."
"Anyway." Rias continued. "There are some summoning requests that I have here, I'd like you to take the request and use a magic circle to warp to the location of the summoner. It helps convince clients that we are real devils if we teleport in."
"Now, here's a pile of different requests. Take some, and try to get some contracts."
Rias then put a pile of paper on the coffee table.
Colton took a few of them. "Some of these are... interesting." He said, reading a few of them.
One particular request he was looking at detailed about how a client wanted to pull of a prank on their friend.
'Who would want to summon a devil just to pull a prank?'
Colton then began sorting through the requests, taking the few that he felt he could handle.
Colton then walked over to a part of the living room where a black magic circle could be faintly seen. He used magic and soon it turned red, with the Gremory mark on it.
Once everyone went through the requests, Issei walked up to the circle.
"So, how does this work?" He asked.
"You stand in the circle and pour some magic into it. Then you focus on where you want to go. Luckily it doesn't have to be specific, as you can just focus on being teleported to a client, even if you don't know their exact location." Rias explained.
"Alright, I'll try it." Issei said as he walked into the circle.
Issei stood there for a few seconds with nothing happening.
"Is something supposed to happen?" Issei asked.
"Did you try pouring magic into it?" Colton asked.
"Yeah, I did. I even tried focusing on teleporting to the location of a client, but nothing happened."
"That's odd. You should've fulfilled all the requirements for using the circle on your own, unless..." then Colton realized.
Colton put a hand to his mouth, trying to hold in laughter.
Everyone was confused why you were like that, until Koneko realized as well.
She also tried to hold in laughter.
Soon Rias, Akeno, and Kiba all realized as well.
"Seriously what's going on?" Issei asked, confused.
Everyone then broke out laughing, with various degrees of laughter around the room.
Koneko was chuckling to herself, Kiba was also chuckling although a bit louder.
Rias and Akeno were giggling.
Colton was on the floor, laughing hard.
"Seriously, what's going on!?" Issei asked, now annoyed.
Colton eventually calmed down enough to talk. "It's just that." He began as he started to laugh a little again. "You don't have enough magic to make the jump." Colton said as he broke down into laughter again.
"I... what?" Issei said as he deflated to the floor.
"How am I supposed to get to clients then?" Issei complained.
"Luckily, the papers that hold the requests come with magic that track the client. You'd just have to get there without teleporting." Rias said.
"You could borrow my old bike." Colton suggested.
Issei looked up at him. "Really!?" He asked, hope in his eyes.
"Sure, just don't crash it."
"You have my word. Now, to get some contracts!" Issei said as he ran towards the door.
"Issei, wait! You don't have the bike yet!" Colton called out.
Issei walked back, embarrassed.
In the background, Koneko was laughing quietly at Issei making a fool out of himself.
Colton then led Issei over to his garage, and brought him over to the bike.
It wasn't anything special, but it wasn't that bad either.
They take it outside, and Issei takes off on it.
Colton then walked back inside to the others.
"Bet a chocolate bar he's not gonna make any contracts." Koneko said.
"Alright, bet." Colton replied.
Everyone else began to use the circle to complete the requests.
Colton had just gotten back from completing a few requests, these requests were really easy for him.
He managed to acquire a few contracts along the way. Thanks to him showing off magic, the clients actually believed he was a devil.
Once Colton had gotten back to the ORC building, which everyone agreed to meet up there, he found just Koneko there.
"Where's everyone else?" He asked, while sitting down next to her.
"Apparently Issei got in trouble. They'll be back soon." She answered.
Not too long later, a red magic circle appeared and Issei, Kiba, Rias and Akeno all warped in.
"You okay Issei? I heard you got in trouble."
"Yeah, I'm fine. I was attacked by a fallen angel. Luckily I finally unlocked my sacred gear."
Colton perked up from that. "You did!? Can I see!?" He asked enthusiastically.
"Someone's excited." Akeno commented.
"Hey, this is a big step forward for Issei. Plus I'm curious to see what it is."
Issei then summoned his sacred gear. It was red fingerless glove, with a gem.
Colton recognized the gear. "That gear... Issei you are lucky."
"In what way?" Issei asked.
"That gear is the boosted gear. It belongs to the Welsh Dragon: Ddraig, otherwise known as the Red Dragon Emperor."
"My gear is a dragon!?" Issei exclaimed.
"Yeah, although the gear doesn't look like how it should. It's normally a gauntlet that covers the whole arm, but this only covers your palm. Maybe it hasn't fully manifested due to your low power."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Issei asked confused.
"Your not strong enough for the real power of the gear. You'll have to train so your body can handle the full manifestation."
Issei deflated.
"There's always room for improvement." Rias spoke up.
"Yeah, and besides, once you full manifest the gauntlet, then you can actually start using its power." Colton said.
"What kind of power does it give me?" Issei asked.
"The power of boost. Basically, every ten or so seconds, your power will double. Although if the boost goes up to what your body can physically handle, then it's going to cause some strain. From there, going further will cause pain, and going even further then that will most likely cause your body to explode."
"Explode?!"
"Yeah, it is a powerful sacred gear after all. Although Ddraig himself is only in the top 15 when it comes to powerful dragons."
Issei's arm burned a little. "Gah. Why does my arm burn?"
Colton laughed a little. "I think I offended your gear."
"Sacred gears can get offended?"
"Not all, just the ones that directly house souls, such as your booster gear, and Ddraig's soul.
"You sure know your stuff." Kiba commented.
Colton scratches the back of his head. "I've... read a lot when I was younger."
"Which dragon is in the number one spot?" Koneko asked.
"Hard to say. There's a lot of contenders for that spot, and it's not exactly clear as not all of them have actually fought. There's the True Red Dragon God: Great Red, the Ouroboros Dragon: Ophis, the many different Heavenly Dragons, and more."
"Many different? I thought there were just two." Rias said.
"Oh, there's more. The majority just have been forgotten. In fact, the two current Heavenly Dragons aren't actually Heavenly Dragons. They just started calling themselves that due to them being taught their main abilities from some of the others. Like the Vanishing Dragon being taught the Divine Dividing from the Pitch-Black Dragon Dark Rebellion. Or Ddraig being taught the boost from the Odd-Eyed Dragon."
In the far reaches of Issei's mind Ddraig thought to himself. 'How does he know!?'
"I'm starting to think that you didn't learn from just books." Akeno spoke up.
Colton looked away.
"Colton..." Koneko said with some authority.
Colton slowly looked back over. Koneko have him a look.
"I... may have been taken to meet a few Dragons as a child."
"What!?" Was the collective response from the others.
"Which ones!?" Rias inquired.
"Well, there was Ophis, she was nice, I guess. There was the 4 original Heavenly Dragons, the Sun God Dragon, the Sky Dragon-"
"You met, Slifer and Ra!?" Rias exclaimed.
Colton shrunk in his seat. "Yes. My mother wanted me to see what a divine beast looked like. Although they were a little aggressive towards me."
"Just who is your mother?" Akeno asked,
"I'm... not ready to share that information yet."
Rias then sighs. "Very well."
Rias then looked at Issei. "By the way, Issei, did you manage to get a contract?"
Issei deflated again. "Unfortunately not. The client didn't believe I was a devil."
Colton placed a chocolate bar in Koneko's outstretched hand.
"What about you, Colton. Did you get any contracts?"
"A few actually. They were relatively easy requests, and it was easy to prove I was a devil by not only teleporting in front of them, but also showing off a bit of magic."
"Hey man, congrats. Getting a few contracts from your first time is definitely an achievement. Most new devils take a while to get even one." Kiba congratulated.
"Thanks man."
"Anyway." Rias said, getting everyone's attention. "It's getting late, so let's call it quits for today."
Everyone agreed. Issei walked out, while everyone else used the magic circle to teleport home.
With Rias she was getting ready for bed as she reflected on the day. 'You are a very interesting person, Colton. To have met divine beings as well as have so much knowledge about the dragons. I'll ask Sirzechs what he knows about that symbol... Even time can be broken. Just what does that mean?'
Rias cleared her head of her thoughts and went to bed.