The Chaos that consumes the world
I
Something smelt as though it was burning, it was a faint scent that moved into his nose but one that was enough for his eyes to snap open the moment he realised what it was. His body jerked upwards a moment later as the scent got stronger and stronger, he turned to the side to alert the other who shared his bed only to pause at the lack of a presence from them.
Twice blinking, he snapped his head from the bed to the direction of the bedroom door and frowned to himself. It wasn't like Leo to walk out like this and he was certain their fire alarm would have gone off if they were in actual trouble. Then again, who could really say what was going on anymore.
Swinging his legs over the side of the bed, he rushed across the room and grabbed hold of his dressing gown. Slipping it over himself and tying it up before throwing the door open and bolting out of it.
"Leo?"
He called out as he rushed through the hall and towards the stairs, moving down them very nearly two at a time in order to get to the very bottom. Calling out the name repeatedly and being met with silence each time, all while the smell of burning got so intense that he found himself covering his mouth to avoid coughing into the air, it was both rather offensive to his senses and vaguely familiar. He knew what the burnt smell was but he couldn't quite place it.
Rushing through the hallway towards the door to the living room, he swung the door open and immediately started to wave his hand in front of his face as he was attacked by a thin cloud of grey smoke, if the smell had been bad before then it was very nearly unbearable now. Not even bothering to fight back the coughing fit that struck him now, heaving into the air as he staggered forwards into the lounge and turned to the direction of the kitchen.
"L-Leo?" He managed to get out between coughs, stepping towards the thickest parts of the smoke cloud and already feeling his mind running right into the worst possible situations, the idea that she had passed out from smoke inhalation or that she had fallen and knocked herself out or some other sort of terrible scenario. They played on his mind in repeat as he got closer and closer.
A pair of shapes stumbled out from around the corner, both of them coughing loudly and waving their hands in front of their faces to blast the smoke out of their lungs as well, the taller of the two stepped into his line of sight and was the first to speak. "Maybe next time we should do something a little more slowly. I didn't think it would do that."
The smaller of the two coughed twice before nodding their head up and down, bringing their hand towards their throat and rubbing it as they spoke, a rather hoarse tone of voice to their speech at this point. "I-I think you're right, Mrs Archaman. I didn't know that oil could do so much…they never explained any of that in the books I read…I'm sorry-"
"No, no, that was my bad for not explaining it to you." Leo waved her hand from side to side, both to dismiss the argument and the results it had created in the form of the cloud of smoke. "Truth be told, I always just did all my cooking on the fly and made it up as I went along…rules are just suggestions to be broken and all that." the woman quietly muttered before clearing her throat and stepping away from the kitchen a bit more. "Now let's get a window open and get this smoke out before Roman…"
She trailed off, pausing mid-step as she turned in his direction and blanked her expression immediately. Her silence was soon followed by the confused sounds of the smaller of the two before they similarly looked in his direction and froze up on the spot, going wide eyed and clamping their jaw shut.
He glanced between the two of them several times before looking over their shoulder, ejecting another cough into the fist covering his mouth before he lowered it down and managed to speak amidst the wheezing he was doing. "W-what on earth were you even doing in there?"
Leona was silent for only a moment, then a beatific smile split across her features as she spread her arms wide and acted as though nothing behind her was of any importance at all. "We thought to surprise you with breakfast in bed and Asia had never done it before so I told her to just go wild and see what worked!"
All he could do was just stare at her in silent horror, there were so many things wrong with that sentence that he couldn't even think of just one thing to pick up upon first. So he settled for another series of coughs into his fist as the smell was finally placed in his mind, it was burnt toast. Though he was horrified at the smell of burnt toast which was a series of orders above whatever he had burned in the past, it was as though they had cremated it with the power of the sun.
"L-Leo-" Coughing twice more, he lowered his fist "How long did you put it in the toaster!?"
She just tilted her head innocently and blinked at him before replying without even missing a beat. "Why would I use a toaster?"
That was both the most on par answer he had ever heard from her and also one of the worst things he had ever heard in his life, well it was approaching one of the worst things he had heard in his life. At the moment they were just situational, this was just bad for the fact he was now breathing in the smell of burnt toast and their house now looked as though someone had just started a fire in the kitchen. Which they apparently had, given what Leona had just told him.
Waving his hand and coughing a couple more times, he turned around and walked towards the windows. Better they get some air into the house and the smoke out before they continued the conversation. He didn't know about Asia and Leona's magic lungs but his were ordinary and smoke inhalation was very unhealthy for them.
It was as though he was staring at a fossil.
Blackened to the point of obsidian and it looked as though it had been welded to the surface of the pan, a few cursory stabs of it with the end of a spatula had revealed the fact it had managed to glue itself to the pan as though they had become one. It barely even occurred to him that this was one of Leona's magic frying pans which were specifically designed to be non-stick.
They managed to break the magic frying pan.
He was marginally horrified by what lay before him.
His eyes lingered on the cremated remains of the bread before he turned around with the pan still in his hands, his expression remained blank as he looked the two women over, neither one of them met his gaze and he felt more guilty on the fact that Asia was looking down towards the ground. It wasn't that he was angry, just a little bit of heads up would have been nice before they tried something like this.
Fighting back the grimace, his eyes fell upon Leona who fidgeted a couple of times before she eventually let out a sigh and dropped her shoulders, placing her hands on her hips and raising her head to look him in the eyes. "Alright, this was my bad. I suggested Asia make you breakfast in bed to surprise you and figured that doing it by the book would have been a little boring…so I just decided to take a step back and let her figure things out."
"Leo."
"Hm?"
"Asia has never been in a kitchen before in her life." He stressed the word and threw his head back, closing his eyes as he did so. "Not everyone can throw themselves into a task like you do and just make things work. It's incredible how you can do that but it just isn't in everyone…I couldn't do it." pausing for a moment, he lowered his head and turned it towards the young blonde, offering her a tiny smile. "Not that I don't appreciate what you were trying to do, Asia. I think it's very sweet that the two of you wanted to do this…and I look forward to when it doesn't wake me up like this."
He hoped he hadn't put her off, thankfully the beaming smile she cracked and the determination in her eyes only confirmed to him that she was not put out of the fight just yet. "I'm not exactly Leo in the kitchen but I can cook up a couple of basic things like toast. I can show you how to make all of those and then Leo can whisk you away to the faraway lands of frying up toast in a pan or…" he paused for a moment, trying to think of something to say then blurting out the first thing that came to mind. "Or making ice cream in a microwave."
It registered with him a second later what he just said.
Closing his eyes, he fought back a sigh and nodded his head once. "Yes, Leo. I realise that doesn't make sense-"
"No, I just thought it sounded very interesting to me, is all."
Oh no.
He knew that tone of voice.
His eyes snapped open a moment later "Leo, no!"
"Leo, yes!~" The woman sang with that crazed inspired look in her eyes, either she was joking or she was being serious and at this point, he could no longer tell which was which. At least until the look vanished and she fell back into a casual stance, placing her hands on her hips and raising an eyebrow at him. "Come on now, Roman. I'm not quite that inspired into trying to make a microwave to create ice cream. That sounds a bit far-fetched, doesn't it? Though I am really touched that you think I could make something like that."
With a roll of his eyes, he turned towards the sink and placed the remnants of breakfast on the side, shaking his head as he did so and shooting her a look. "Quite frankly, I'm not entirely sure what else I'm supposed to be saying at this point. Even before finding out you could do actual magic, there was nothing I wasn't sure you could just disappear into your little craft room and just whip up. I was never really going to question it."
Not that it detracted from anything she did now, it was just that some of her more wacky creations made an awful lot more sense.
"Anyway, I'm just glad it was the two of you and not Rassei that had set something on fire." Because that was now something he had to worry about.
Asia, innocent little girl that she was, tilted her head to the side and looked at him with confusion. "But Rassei doesn't breathe fire."
"He's a little blue dragon." He replied without missing a beat. "I wouldn't put it past him to do anything." because Asia had gone away for an afternoon with her friends in what she had described as a walk for something related to Devil matters, she was happy and promised not to be long.
Then she came back home with a blue dragon tucked under her arms and a smile that would have melted the heart of even the coldest being on earth, or he was certain of that at any rate. It certainly meant that he folded within mere seconds of seeing how pleased she was, though his concerns for how Leona would have reacted were utterly unfounded as she took a liking to the dragon as well and talked about some new inventions or something she could give them or whatever.
He just wondered why they couldn't have gotten her a pet dog, at least something like that couldn't kill him because he got too close to Asia.
They also stole food from his plate and took up his spot on the sofa, forcing him to sit elsewhere. He wasn't even allowed within a foot of Asia before it sent him a rather heated glare and crackled with lightning. Whether he was approaching her or the other way around. He wouldn't call it a silver lining that both Issei and Kiba were also victims of the little creature, who may or may not have just disliked males.
Pausing for a moment, he glanced in the direction of Asia "By the way, how is-"
The girl rapidly shook her head from side to side, giving him an apologetic look as she did so. "Sorry, Roman, but I'm still not allowed to tell you. Leo said that it was very important to never reveal anything to the people you want to surprise." balling her hands into fists, she placed them on her hips and gave a single resolute nod. "So no matter how many times you ask me, I won't tell you. You'll need to wait until I'm ready to show you."
His shoulders dropped a touch and he sighed, shaking his head from side to side as he did so. What had he done to deserve this sort of emotional teasing? Between people trying to make him breakfast in bed and Asia making her first little arts and craft project that he wasn't allowed to supervise because it was a secret. It felt as though Leo was the one who was doing all the fun stuff with Asia while he mostly just ended up the guinea pig for the two of them.
Well, there was a slight interest in helping him around the nurse's office but that didn't count. That wasn't exactly fun by his own definition of the word.
"...Fine." He grumbled quietly, though he didn't really expect that much of a change of answer from what she had said the last few times he asked him. Perhaps it was more of a case of being worried as to what was going on with the-why was he hearing a scraping noise?
Turning towards the direction of the sound, he stared in silence at the blue lizard - roughly the size of a cat - trying to eat the burnt toast off the frying pan. Blinking twice at it, he brought his hands up and rubbed his temple once more as a new wave of headaches went off inside of him. Not least of all because now he wasn't going to be able to get to the sink.
"Rassei, no!" Asia cried out as she scrambled past him towards the direction of her little dragon pet.
Because that was a sentence that now existed that he could say was not a joke.
"You can't eat that!" Hooking her hands beneath it, she lifted the little monster up without much resistance from it save for a rather pathetic mewling as it was stolen away from its prize of charcoal. Bringing his hand down, he watched the exchange in complete silence as Asia hefted it up and brought it close to herself, its legs dangling downwards as it was propped on her arms. "It's not healthy for you."
Shaking his head, he turned to the direction of the cupboards and moved towards them, waving his hand to the pair behind him. "You all get yourselves seated down and I'll quickly whip up something for breakfast. I'm awake now so I might as well try and make myself useful."
That and giving Rassei some food might convince the little dragon to actually let him sit at his own table without having to worry about being struck with a heart stopping pulse of electricity.
Given how the day was going so far, he was going to indulge himself and whip up some pancakes for breakfast. That and he was all but certain that the same was going to repeat itself today and their house would find itself the centre of attention for a variety of people in the not so distant future. School was starting back up and he fully expected Issei to be dropping around to walk with Asia to school.
Rassei stared at him, he stared right back at the blue gatekeeper.
The plate clinked as it touched the table, sliding it across towards the dragon slowly to ensure it wasn't spooked. As it got closer, he saw its eyes narrow and stopped moving. It lasted for a few seconds before it made a sound that felt as though it was assenting for him to move once more, something he did with the same gradual pace until the plate of smaller pancakes were right in front of it, glazed with honey.
Glancing between the pancakes and him, the dragon leaned forwards and took a single bite of the top pancake before it leaned backwards, chewing slowly and then making a small pleased noise, now throwing itself into eating and fully removing its attention from him.
The plan worked to perfection then.
With a pleased smile, he sat himself down and dragged his own plate closer to him, only to pause when he glanced up and saw that both Leona and Asia were staring at him with equally bemused looks, though Asia's was more innocent while Leona knew exactly what was going on and was just a touch mirthful. He shrugged his shoulders and jerked his head towards the dragon.
"I had to pay the toll or he wouldn't let me sit down."
Leona rolled her eyes and sighed "Roman-"
"Hey, you don't see the way he glares at me." He defended himself "It's like he's daring me to do something just so I can give him a reason. You can see the malicious intent in his eyes."
Rassei let out a weak burp, Asia cooed at them and rubbed their back a couple of times.
He wisely kept silent as Leona raised an eyebrow at him before she exhaled. "Sprite dragons aren't stupid, Roman. He'll not cause you any serious harm because he knows that you're important to Asia. He's just preying on your fear of him and milking you for food because he knows you'll give it to them." now pointing to herself "Have you seen them try and extort anything from me? Nope. Because I show that I'm not afraid of them."
"Yes, but I'm not you." He flatly responded as he turned on his own pancakes. "I don't really look at a dragon, even a small one, and go. 'Yeah, this is fine.' because I'd panic at a loudly barking dog. Rassei over there can electrocute me. No one has electric eels for pets, Leo. That is an electric eel that can walk around on the ground and fly. It is a flying eel. It's dragon Pikachu."
Leona smirked "You do know that Pikachu electrocuted Ash plenty of times and they were the best of friends. Just think of it as the two of you bonding."
"Leo!"
She raised her hands "Relax, I'm only teasing you. I've already asked Asia to see about getting Rassei to stop threatening you. Though these are young animals, Roman. It's the sort of thing that takes some time. Besides, I measured the electrical outburst of the dragon, it's not currently lethal to humans so you're fine."
He might have been more comforted if she hadn't included the 'currently lethal' in the sentence but he supposed it was a dragon at the end of the day, being mostly harmless to people was probably the best he was ever going to get with it. Though one thing that had played upon his mind was how big it was going to get when it was fully grown. It was a baby at the moment but when he thought of dragons he pictured buzz sized dinosaur looking things.
The thought was dismissed from his mind, he wasn't going to worry about it at the moment. Not until he woke up with something the size of a Rhino throwing around thunderstorms in his house at least. He liked to think it wouldn't get to that point.
"So how did the trip to the underworld go anyway?" He asked between bites, it was apparently something they had all been going to do during the brief holiday they had. A couple of days down in basically hell - which took some getting used to sending Asia down to - for something related to Devil sports or along those lines. "You came back all bright and smiley so I take it you won then?"
Leona had stopped eating, then she let out a groan as she slapped the front of her forehead. "I completely forgot to explain rating games to you…"
He closed his eyes and dropped his head forwards. "This is going to be something that will make me really worried, isn't it?"
"Yes."
"...Alright then." Waving his hand, he opened his eyes and gave her the most reassuring smile he could muster while also strengthening his resolve as best he could. He was preparing himself for hearing the worst and given what they apparently did for a job, he could only picture what they did for fun. "Tell me about it, I'll try not to panic too much."
Leona kept her eyes on him before she pursed her lips. "Basically a Rating Game is where they just get two different peerages and have them fight it out-" she raised her hands and waved him down the moment the words registered in his mind. "-In a controlled environment that ensures that no one gets seriously injured and is healed fully. They have an entire system to retire people from the matches if something happens and they're monitored the entire time by a team of Devils who are prepared in the event something happens. It's about as safe as something that involves fighting is going to get…think of it like team boxing?"
"It's fine, Roman." Asia cut into the conversation before he could actually get a word out, he turned towards her as she sent him a confident looking smile. "I wasn't worried, I had my friends with me. Besides…Miss Gremory said that it was very important for Devils so it makes sense that I help out now that I'm part of her peerage. It means I need to try my best."
He tried and failed to picture Asia in the middle of a fight, instead just bringing his free hand up to cradle his head and groan loudly. Despite what he had said, he could not stop himself from worrying but if it was as safe as Leona was making it out to be, then he could stretch himself just enough to be less panicked about it. Though he figured that a little heads up would have been appreciated.
"So it's basically just Devil boxing?" He asked aloud.
Leona made a noise as her head teetered from side to side. "More like Devil Chess but with real people and none of the rules of actual chess. Again, I'm just wondering why they didn't name them after dungeons and dragon pieces or something." she leaned forwards, drumming her fingers on the table as she did so. "I'll say it once and I'll say it again, which sounds more impressive? Bishop or Warlock."
His brows crinkled, he glanced towards Asia and saw that she was looking similarly troubled but he suspected that was more on account of her taking the question seriously and thinking of an answer for it. Awkwardly, she raised her hand as she scooted forwards. "Am I allowed to be a Warlock Bishop?"
Something a mixture of an exhale and a laugh escaped from him, smiling down at his food as he continued to eat it. Leona was much less reserved about her laughter.
A ring at the doorbell, he paused in the middle of his bite and rose up from his seated position. "I'll get that. It'll probably be Issei-kun or something."
Leona nodded and Asia beamed as though he'd just told her it was going to be Christmas every single day or something like that. It was difficult to look at with how blinding it was. Quickly turning around and jogging towards the door, he paused only to glance at his wrist watch and then blinked to himself. It was a bit earlier than he would have thought but at the same time, he supposed Issei might have been a little excited.
Coming to a halt at the door, he swung it open.
"Morning, Roman-sensei." Issei brought his hand up and waved to him, looking rather more excited than usual, but that might have been on account of the person who was standing right next to him with a look in her eyes as though she was going to vibrate at any second. Not at all helped by the fact that if she stood any closer to Issei she would have started to merge with him.
"Morning, Issei-kun…" He nodded to the boy, his eyes lingering on the red haired teen standing at the boy's side. Rolling his jaw and then internally shrugging his shoulders. "Morning to you as well, Rias-san. A bit early for the both of you, isn't it? School won't start for another hour or so and there's plenty of time to get there."
Issei chuckled awkwardly. "Yeah, I know…guess I just got a little too excited to meet up with Asia. Though I met Buchou on my way over here, she said she was coming to see how Asia was getting on after the whole Rating Game." the teen paused and then winced, slowly raising his fingers up as he looked as though he had made a mistake.
He caught on fairly quickly. "Leo explained it to me more or less." He waved off the concern, Issei visibly deflated as the tension left his body. "Something about some sort of team boxing or along those lines?"
His eyes turned to Rias for some elaboration, the redhead blinked at him a couple of times before she chuckled to herself and brought her hand up, covering her mouth until she finished her little wheeze. "A most interesting way of describing it. Though I can certainly see it as a less violent method. But you are quite right that it is a controlled sport where peerages are pitted against one another. Not quite like boxing though…at least not often."
Bringing up his hand, he shook his head. "I get the feeling that if you tried to tell me all of the details I'd probably freak out and start panicking so I'll try and cut you off there before I pass out."
Rias just gave him a knowing, if a little sympathetic, look. "Naturally."
It was still some time before school started and leaving them both on his porch felt as though it would be in bad taste. Though there was also the boundary of what he was going to do, but if they were friends with Asia…
He stepped to the side and gestured to the interior of the house. "Do you want to wait inside until it's time to leave? I'm sure Asia would appreciate the company. That and if you went to school now you'd be staring at basically nothing."
Rias offered a smile as she stepped forwards. "Well, if you're going to invite us in then it would be rude if we…" she trailed off, her brows pinched together as her nostrils flared, sniffing the air a couple of times before she directed a somewhat bemused look towards him. "...Did something catch fire?"
He offered a strained smile. "Just breakfast things…happen's to everyone."
"They do?" Rias asked with complete surprise, Romani just stared at her silently. Unsure of whether or not she was being serious or just demonstrating a high amount of luck. Perhaps she realised a moment later as she moved her hand up to cover her mouth and coughed into it a couple of times while awkwardly swinging her eyes between himself and Issei.
Speaking of the other teen, he was just sagely nodding his head as well. "Yeah, reminds me of that one time I tried to make breakfast myself. I wanted cheese on toast and then decided that the best way to do it was to slap some badly grated cheese onto some bread and then put it in a microwave for like…two minutes?"
He could already see how this was going to end, he cringed a touch while curling his lip ever so slightly. Something Issei caught as he raised his hands in surrender and shook his head from side to side. "Hey, I was younger then and I'm sure I probably wouldn't make the same mistake again. The one silver lining was the cheese melted at least and the microwave didn't explode. So I like to count those as some pretty big successes for a first effort…though the bread turned into a brick."
Romani nodded. "Probably would do. Leo could explain all that science stuff better than I can. All I'll say is that I've been there and done that and the end result is less than ideal." the teenager stepped into the house and removed his shoes, similarly laughing at the result. He turned back to the direction of Rias and raised an eyebrow at her reaction which seemed to be a little subdued, looking as though she had just learned something incredible.
"Something that matter, Rias-san?"
"Hm?" Blinking twice at being called upon, she hastily shook her head from side to side before showing him a winning smile. "No, not at all, Roman-sensei. Just considering something was all…It was just that I was taught the basics of how to make my own food so I suppose I was rather fortunate to never make mistakes such as those…" she trailed off, looking as though she was lamenting the lack of burnt and mangled breakfasts.
It wasn't something he could really understand, if that was the case, he assumed it was but he hoped it wasn't. "I mean, every ruined breakfast is just wasted food at the end of the day so I'd say you were pretty lucky in that regard. Food can be pretty expensive, you know?"
""It is?"" This time it came from the both of them, staring at him with evident surprise, then he remembered that he was speaking to the type of people who generally just looked to their parents when they wanted something and whose experience in buying food ended with just stopping at a corner shop for some sweets.
Also Rias was like some sort of Devil Noble or something which had actually been the least surprising thing he had ever learned.
"You know what? You'll probably find out when you're older." He paused, remembering what Leona had said about the Gremory family. "Probably. Maybe."
They just stared at him, likely on account of how unsure he sounded.
Leading the two of them into the house and around the corner into the living room, granting them a view of the kitchen. He could tell the moment Issei spotted the dragon because he froze up and stopped all movements before grimacing and stepping backwards, turning their head and looking towards him with a baffled expression. He already knew what they were going to ask him.
"You think I'm going to tell the dragon pikachu that he can't sit at the table and eat pancakes?" Issei opened his mouth to respond, then paused as a thoughtful look crossed over his face before he closed his mouth again and nodded his head in understanding. "Didn't think so. I've managed to bribe back my spot at eating on the same table as Asia so with a bit of luck, I should be able to be within a foot of her by the end of the month."
Issei just blinked. "It's not that bad, is it?"
"You're the one who got electrocuted, apparently, you tell me."
"...Okay, you're right. It's that bad." He glanced over his shoulder and then shuddered, Romani noticed that Rassei had stopped eating their pancakes and was now glaring towards the direction of Issei, he could have sworn that there were a couple of sparks dancing across their scales. He took that as a warning and did the only sensible thing.
He stepped about two feet to the left and out of the line of sight, something that Issei didn't notice until he turned back around and double taked at the empty air before swinging their head in the direction he was now standing and throwing their arms wide in shock, though they didn't verbalise it, he could see what he meant on his face.
Romani raised his hands in surrender. "It's nothing against you, Issei-kun. But I'm the one who has to live here and I can't really jeopardise my position when I've only just managed to claw back these privileges."
"Are you being serious right now?" He waved a hand towards the direction of the dragon. "It's like the size of a cat."
He did admit that Issei had a point, but there was one slight flaw with his argument.
"So how come you're standing here and not over there with Asia?"
Issei's expression blanked, then he slowly slipped his hands into his pockets and rocked back and forth on his heels, mutely whistling as he failed to answer the question. Romani just squinted at him for a couple of seconds before he rolled his eyes in amusement at the sheepish look that washed over Issei's face.
"I'm happy to see that you're all getting along so well." Rias chimed in from where she was standing, having been until now. They both turned to her and he noted the amusement on her face within seconds, hands on her hips and leaning on one side, then turning her attention to Asia and brightening her expression. "And I am very pleased to see that you have been enjoying your time here as well. I certainly hope that the only one being bribed around here is little Rassei."
He could tell that it was more aimed towards Leona, something that she called back through within a few moments.
"Ha! Like I would need pancakes for that." Leona sounded moments from laughing. "Besides, word on the street is that something very interesting happened during the Rating Game. I only really caught the tail end of it but it sounded very moving."
Romani had no idea what was happening or why Issei was suddenly blushing and rubbing the back of his head with a giddish smile on his face, or why Rias suddenly rolled her lips inwards and now stared towards the ceiling. It felt as though he was missing something that was going on around here-and now he could see Asia was awkwardly tapping the tips of her fingers together and sending fleeting glances towards the direction of Issei.
"Also, Hyuudou-kun." Issei jolted at being called out by Leona, the woman leaned forwards with a thoughtful look on her face. "Did you come up with that spell all by yourself? Because I have to say that it has some promising applications if you go beyond…you know…potential lawsuits."
Issei looked thoroughly surprised. "Wait, really?"
"Hmmm. I'll leave that to your fellow peerage to discuss with you. I can't help you with everything because I'm sure that your King would probably feel a little jealous at some point." She grinned and returned to her breakfast. "Though I was able to see that my little toys came in handy, so that is always a bonus."
Rias returned to the conversation and chuckled. "I would say they were quite literally something of a game changer and very much ingenious. Especially the rapid drying adhesive grenades. I never would have thought to use something like that."
A shrug from Leona. "Just a few bits and pieces I had lying around…but did you really have to start strangling him with the fireproof blanket?" she looked a touch put off about that. "Because that took me a little while to make up and all."
Romani pinched his brows at the rather violent dialogue, and suddenly Issei looked not all that apologetic.
"I was looking for something and we found it. Actually, I was more surprised it lasted as long as it did." He jerked his thumb to Rias. "Buchou said that fried-chicken flames were pretty much some of the best around so I was thinking it would only last a couple of seconds…what was in those slime balls anyway?"
"Holy Water, that's why I told you all to be extra careful with them." Leona explained with a shrug. "As for the blanket, I just called in some of my connections and got some special metals which could be woven into a blanket. I figured that the Phenex flames would eventually melt through them on account of magical nature so my own enchantments would do so much, but it worked out in the end."
Romani shook his head from side to side. "This suddenly sounds like it's the sort of conversation I shouldn't be around all of you for because this is now sounding disturbingly violent….so what was Asia doing in all of this?"
Rias turned to him and widened her eyes in surprise, then brought her hands up. "Oh, no. You don't need to worry yourself about that. I understand completely that Asia was not suited for combat so her role was purely for healing the actual fighters…but the electric net she was carrying around in her back pocket was a surprise that even caught me off guard." she glanced at Leona and narrowed her eyes. "A secret even from her King?"
Leona continued eating before replying. "If you think she's helpless then your enemies are going to as well. You were dealing with Riser Phenex after all, despite all the boasts he did earn all of his victories in some method or another. To say nothing of his younger sister." she leaned backwards and raised an eyebrow. "Are you going to complain about it though?"
A moment of silence, then a huff of air. "Not at all…it was rather amusing to see the Bomb Queen caught flat footed by that sort of thing. So in light of all that, I shall prove the generous devil and let such a thing slide."
Clearing his throat, the others glanced at him before realising what was going on, he turned on Issei first and clapped his hands together. "So you all went to a magic forest?"
Upon the change of topic, Issei looked as though he had years sucked out of his life, his shoulders started to sag and his expression dropped entirely, bringing his hands up and cradling the side of his head and muttering something about muscles to himself. Romani could only stare in bewilderment before looking up and at Rias, she looked unconcerned as she stared at him before offering him a faint smile.
"Issei is just feeling a touch upset that he wasn't able to get the familiar he wanted from the forest." She paused for a moment and then brought her hand up to cradle her chin. "I still believe we should have gone looking for that hydra…"
Romani might not have been educated all that much, but even he knew what a hydra was and he really hoped that they weren't talking about the same sort of being as the one from the Greek story. Nevertheless, he felt the need to ask, slowly raising his hand and bringing the attention of Rias to himself. "So, when you say 'hydra' do you mean the big multi headed snake thing that could regrow heads and needed Hercules to kill?"
A shameless nod of the head and a smile from the girl was the reply, he was unsure as to whether she was making a joke or not. If she was, then he could admit that it was a little funny. But there was something about the look in her eyes that gave him the distinct impression that she wasn't actually telling a joke.
He glanced down at Issei once again and found himself frowning, he didn't want to put the teen down but at the same time…he really didn't think of Issei as being like Hercules. So that seemed as though it would be a very bad idea. The lack of a hydra at least was good news.
"So did he get anything at all or did he just come back without something?" He paused for a brief moment before he thought of something else. "What about you, by the way? Because I figure that if Asia gets some sort of magic dragon that shoots lightning at people then you would probably have something similar, right?"
The appraising look he got from Rias was rather strange. "You would certainly be correct, though it was only Issei and Asia who required a Familiar, myself and the others obtained our own quite some time ago. If you are curious…" she trailed off as she raised her left hand and held her palm out flat, he stared at it for only a moment before a literal puff of smoke revealed and apple sized…
Romani blinked once.
Then twice.
Glancing between the strange thing that was in the hands of the teenager and the teenager herself, unsure of what he was supposed to make of the proud smile on her face. He settled for smiling just a bit and nodding his head up and down, then glancing out of the corner of his eye to Leona and Asia to see if he was seeing things. The fact neither of them reacted at all didn't help all that much.
It looked like a blob with a face and bat wings slapped on the size of it, roughly the size of a large apple and with reddish coloured skin with blackened wings and fur across the top of its head like hair, two triangular shaped ears and blueish green eyes.
"It's very…eye-catching." He desperately hoped she didn't catch how strained the words sounded, it was all he could to avoid asking why it looked like that. "So…what sort of-uhm familiar is it?"
"A bat."
"...Are…are you being serious right now? Because that is…I don't think…"
"Pfft." He paused at the slight giggle from the teenager, the small thing disappeared in the same puff of smoke as she pulled her hand back and covered her mouth with it as she laughed, he felt his features flatten just a touch. "I'm only joking, Romani-sensei. They're something of a rarity in the form of shape changers. One of the few familiars that can alter their appearance based upon the wishes of the contracted devil. I thought the appearance of the bat would be rather fitting but deemed that it wouldn't be all that cute."
It was supposed to be cute? It looked a little bit strange to him.
He might have been more inclined to ask about the others but he was still slightly weirded out by the fact that Issei was still clutching at his head and muttering to himself like he had been traumatised by something. He didn't think that the little blue dragon had shocked him that hard so it was probably something else. "...So what familiar did you want anyway, Issei-kun?"
Rias expression twisted for a moment as she glanced away, looking slightly off put by something, Issei stopped mumbling long enough to straighten himself out and look him dead in the eyes. "A slime. His name was Slime-taro and he was going to be my partner." he sniffled slightly.
"...A slime?" He wasn't entirely sure what he was supposed to think of when Issei said that but he was trying to picture a sentient blob of jelly.
"Somehow that doesn't surprise me in the least." The comment from Leona turned his head towards her, who was wearing a very unimpressed look and he once again felt like he was missing some context here. A moment later, she turned her eyes towards Rias and brought up a single brow. "Let me guess, one of the common green types of slime that enjoys eating fabric?"
Rias shuffled on the spot and silently nodded her head before she cleared her throat. "Yes, quite. Fortunately for all of us, it was put down by Rassei before it could cause any further harm to us...and I have explicitly forbidden Issei from ever contracting with something like a Slime ever again."
The boy frowned but said nothing.
Romani might not have been the smartest guy around but he could easily put two and two together as to what happened to earn the dislike of the slime. Especially with what Leona had just said about it eating fabric. Quietly groaning to himself, he brought his hands up and covered his face. Shaking his head from side to side as he did so. "Issei-kun…really?"
"He was cute!"
Before he could even attempt to comment on that, there was another knock at the door which turned his head towards it. His brows furrowed just a touch before he looked towards everyone else. "Were we expecting someone, Leo?"
She shook her head. "Not to my knowledge."
"Hmmm." With a hum and a shrug, he turned his attention to the sound and walked back through the doorway towards the entrance to the house. Pulling the door open when he was there.
White hair and amber eyes greeted him. "Morning."
"...Good morning?" He raised his brows at Koneko and then leaned forwards, looking around for a moment and then leaning back into the house. She had said absolutely nothing else since greeting him. "...Can I help you with something?"
"Buchou is here."
"...I'd ask how you know that but I'm sure that it would be some sort of magic answer I'm not going to understand." He paused for a moment while he debated whether or not to do anything before he eventually shrugged. In for a penny, in for a pound as the saying went and all of that. "Yes, she and Issei-kun are currently waiting for Asia to finish breakfast so they can all walk to school."
Koneko nodded her head once, making a small noise of understanding as she did so. "...Can I enter?"
"You can wait with them, sure." He didn't have a problem with it given that Asia would probably be happy, stepping aside he let her come into the house where after wiping her feet and removing her shoes rather swiftly, she waddled her way through to the living room.
He was midway through closing the door before he felt as though he was being watched, stopping his movements and turning his attention towards the foot of the garden and then flattening his features as two more figures darkened the front of his fence. Both Akeno and Kiba raised their hands to wave to him and he could already tell what they were probably all here for, though he was starting to draw a line at this point.
…
He still wasn't that good at drawing it though.
Pulling the door back open, he silently waved a hand for them to enter if they wanted to, which naturally they did. Akeno casually strolled through the front door and paused for only a short moment to speak with him. "Good morning, Roman-sensei. I'm happy to see you're looking so well rested."
"Good morning to you too, Akeno-san." He was still wary of her, there was always something she could end up doing. She wore the same look as Leona at times. The look that you never wanted to let your guard down when you were around. Fortunately she moved past into the living room with the others without saying anything else.
Kiba stepped up and nodded his head, giving a slightly apologetic smile. "I am sorry for all of the commotion so early in the morning, Romani-sensei."
He waved his hand. "It's fine. You're all friends of Asia so it would make sense you'd all want to walk to school together…I mean, preferably starting at someone else's house but I don't know where you all live or whose closer so." shrugging his shoulders, he allowed Kiba to walk past him as he shut the door.
"Hmmm. I believe Buchou was just eager to see what sort of morning Asia would have now that school has started up once more." The blonde replied "Though all the same, it still feels as though we are all troubling you in some capacity."
"This is rather tame compared to the last time we all got together for one reason so to be honest? I really don't mind it."
Kiba offered a strained smile at the attempt to lighten the mood, then relaxed after a moment to hum in agreement. "I suppose that is indeed the case. In any event, I'm wondering how you managed to get on with the newest addition."
"You mean the little dragon?" He shuddered at the mention of it, something Kiba noticed immediately and winced. "Yeah…Asia said that you and Issei-kun weren't exactly their favourite people in the world."
"I would say that we were just unfortunate at the time." Kiba defended with a shake of the head as they stepped through into the living room. "But I can safely mention that it was an experience I would not be so eager to repeat and…" he trailed off the moment he turned his head around, double taking at the fact Rassei was sitting on the table.
Though what Romani noticed was that Rassei was sitting on the table and finishing off the pancakes which he had left behind. His expression slowly started to die as he watched the blue menace consume his food. His arms dropped to his side and his head hung low. At least he managed to get something to eat before it was stolen from him.
"...I see that Rassei has ingratiated himself well into the house?" Kiba ventured with a sympathetic look. "Don't worry, Romani-sensei. All familiars are a little stressful in the beginning, I'm sure that Asia will be able to get them to behave soon enough."
"Hmmm…so what familiar did you have?"
Kiba froze for half a moment before he let out a slightly nervous chuckle and turned his head away, Romani watched the reaction with slightly narrowed eyes and straightened himself out once again. A small puff of smoke on the shoulder of the blonde revealed a rather petite little red bird with bright blue eyes. Looking like a little finch, it tilted its head to the side and cheeped twice at him before settling down and sitting on the shoulder of the teenager.
"...Stressful in the beginning." He parroted the words back to the teenager who remained tellingly silent. "...They are a very cute little bird though."
"Thank you."
He turned his attention back to the living room, watching the students all either engaged in conversations of their own or - in the case of Koneko - just sitting on his sofa and silently staring in the direction of the breakfast with a forlorn expression.
Something about the scene didn't bother him all that much though.
It was rather calm.
A screech of the tires and a shudder brought the plane to a halt.
He could feel it through the compartments, the vibrations of the plane sliding to a halt. That was good enough for him. It meant the long flight was finally at an end.
When the plane finally stopped moving, he rose from his seat and adjusted his coat, stepping around into the walkway through the centre and striding forwards. His eyes remained firmly ahead of himself yet with a mental gesture, he recalled all that he required.
The coat fluttered as the shapes returned to him, feeling the pulse of magical energy through him as he was revitalised by the essence around him. A breath escaped his lips, his slipped his hands into his pockets and strode towards the door, waiting as the plane started to come to a full halt.
A flutter of the coat once more.
The obsidian shape burst from beneath it and rushed towards the cockpit, throwing the door open. Not even a scream was heard, the time was much too swift. Only a wet crunch and a sound of snapping echoed through the now empty plane. A wet thud, scraping at the mass was dragged back towards him, disappearing underneath his coat.
Shuffling to accommodate, he stepped forwards and opened up the door of the plane, finding the attendant staring at him in surprise, likely from not having expected him to be there. The confusion lasted only until they dismissed whatever stray thought they had and fixed him with a look. "Excuse me sir, you cannot be standing until-"
He locked eyes with them, they froze mid-sentence.
"The plane has already been emptied and you can await the next one." With those words quietly repeated back to him, he moved past the individual and only briefly stopped at the light which assailed him, grimacing to himself before shaking his head, moving his hands to his coat and buttoning it up to hide away the parts that would attract attention.
Something he could do without until he was in the right place and the right time.
Though he did not doubt they would eventually realise something happened with the plane, he intended to be long gone before that came to pass.
For now though, he would need to see what the fastest way of getting to Kuoh was that didn't involve moving through the Yokai territories. That would be something he held little interest in, unless he felt as though he could do with a snack. Though that would be for the return trip if nothing else.
After seeing the display of the Rating Game for himself, he was confident that the Gremory Peerage would offer no challenge for him.
The Red Dragon Emperor was as weak as they were ever going to get, perhaps it was rather risky but overlooking this chance to claim them would be foolish to ignore. He paused at the brief crunching sound that came from beneath his coat, he muffled the sound with a magic spell before he resumed walking as though nothing was the matter.
It had been proven he could do it.
It was almost exciting to consider.
