NMHA Ch. 7 - Will to Power (Part 2)
Lunarunn figured that challenging the most powerful Devil alive wasn't a smart idea. She knew full well that if Sirzechs wanted he could snap her like a twig without so much as lifting a finger. To say nothing of if he actually took this seriously. Even the show of power from when they first met in person was still so well beyond what she herself could do that Luna wasn't sure she'd get even close to that point.
Thankfully, this was to be an exam of sorts rather than a life-or-death battle, but it didn't make the prospect any less intimidating.
She rolled her bottom lip between her teeth nervously as the two made their way onto the training grounds, and as Sirzechs looked around before nodding in approval. Clearly he could see that the field had experienced a healthy amount of use.
"We should probably take this into the air, or at the very least into the fields."
Clearly he was taking this seriously judging by the cheery tone of his voi- "Wait, what?"
"This training ground," Sirzechs elaborated, gesturing around to the well-worn dirt and the walls. "It's too small to test if someone has the potential to be in High-Class. It's great as a staging point going forward, but we'll need something bigger."
Oh, well. Considering Luna's area of specialty, she wasn't complaining. "Uhhhh, sure. Let's take this to the sky then, preferably further out, so my parents don't get upset at me crashing through one of the walls."
"I have another idea," the Crimson Satan shut her down, holding a hand to the air as he began to draw what Luna quickly deciphered to be a teleportation circle with lines of his demonic power. "We don't want to accidentally spill the secrets before they can be safely released, so perhaps hosting our fight at my own training grounds would be more prudent."
"...Isn't it against good practice to let the enemy decide the stage of the battle?"
"Am I really an enemy to you, Luna-chan?" he asked, grasping at his chest in mock hurt, an image spoiled by the twinkle in his eye and grin on his face.
She rolled her eyes. "Okay, fine, if you're gonna be like that you're my 'exam' proctor. Same thing, really."
"Ha ha, fair." Sirzechs shook his head as the teleportation circle sprung to life. "But you aren't wrong, usually it is a very bad idea to let your opponent choose when and where to fight. Sometimes it happens regardless though, so the better way to go about it is learning how to turn any environment against your foe."
As the two reappeared in a different building, surrounded by ornate furniture, a certain maid was already in sight, bowing in place as she looked between Luna and Sirzechs, speaking once she affirmed the identity of both. "Welcome to the Lucifer estate, Lunarunn, Lord Sirzechs."
"Lady Grayfia," the brunette intoned, bowing her own head as a gesture of respect. "I am glad to see you well. Do you think you could guide Lord Sirzechs and I to the training grounds?"
That gave her pause, if a minuscule one, before the gray-haired Queen spoke again. "Of course. I should note that Okita Souji is currently using it. What might the reason for your visitation and request?"
"I challenged Sirzechs to prove that I'm strong enough to head into the Young Devil's Rating Game Tournament," Luna cut in as Sirzechs opened his mouth. Incidentally, that got her lifted brows of surprise from them both.
"Ah, you dropped that bomb almost as well as I could have! Such bluntness, such directness!" The Devil himself beamed. "And here I was hoping to mess with my darling wif- ow, ow, ow, my ear!"
"That's quite enough of that nonsense, Lord Sirzechs," Grayfia chastised tartly, giving her husband's ear one more good tug before letting go. "Lunarunn, are you sure you quite sure you wanted to do that? Even if he holds back, Lord Sirzechs will run you ragged."
She shifted in place, glancing to the side before meeting the maid's gaze with a resolute expression. "If it gives him enough confidence to make an exception to how Rating Games tend to go and formally invite me to the Young Devil's Rating Game Tournament, I'm willing to take the risk."
"Believe me, I tried to dissuade her from the idea," Sirzechs backed her up, surprisingly. Though maybe he just felt that explaining the situation would be most prudent in this scenario. "Luna's pretty dead-set, though."
"I'd rather shake things up my way than go through the motions of joining another Peerage," the aforementioned bodyjumper admitted, with some level of contrition. "At least this way, I also get to prove that despite my... unique origins, I can be a mover in society."
Grayfia glanced between Sirzechs and Lunarunn, before closing her eyes and letting out a soft exhale. "Then if you are set on this course of action I shall not oppose it. If you two are ready, I will take you to the training grounds now."
When Luna was thinking of Okita Souji, she was expecting a young man, serious and strict, a man who wore the coat of the Shinsengumi and bore twin blades with devastating skill..
She was half right at least, though she was taken aback when she noted that he only had one blade.
...The brunette may have leaned too heavily on her own manga experiences.
"You seem disappointed," the man in question noted, giving her an easy smile as he cleaned some kicked-up dirt off his haori. "Were you expecting something more, perhaps?"
"...Maybe." She pursed her lips and glanced away, letting out a brief huff before returning to a more amiable demeanor. "But that's beside the point. It's a pleasure to meet a living human legend, Souji-taicho."
"You know a bit of Japanese?" Sirzechs's eyes shifted over to Luna in interest.
"A bit. I'm what you'd call a Japanophile. There's a lot of history in that island nation, plus I quite enjoy the shows they put out."
"Home certainly has changed a lot since the Meiji Restoration," Okita's smile took on a wistful tone. "Though I am glad to see that it is mostly for the better."
"That's progress for you." Luna simply shrugged.
"Indeed, and I shouldn't keep you from doing so yourself any longer." The Knight of the Crimson Satan walked over to one side of the wide training field to help Grayfia set up the wards. "Best of luck in your spar with Lord Sirzechs, Lunarunn!"
The "you're going to need it" was unspoken but still heard, as shown by the smirks on both Sirzechs and Luna - the former being wry, and the latter self-deprecating - as the two made their way onto the field.
"You ready then?" he spoke, getting into a stance as the Maou started leaking out some small portion of his overwhelming strength. Thankfully, it was clear that this was just him simulating what a High-Class Devil would be expected to possess in power, and Luna could tell that she would be able to handle being in at least a one-on-one.
Then she blinked at the way that Sirzechs had gotten into a stance, a deadpan on her face as the brunette. "Hold on, hold on. What the hell is that?"
"What the hell is what? Is something the matter?"
"The way you're standing?"
"What's wrong with it?"
"You ripped that straight from Dragon Ball Z!"
Sirzech's Queen and Knight both turned to see what the commotion was about, one with a dull look while the other was bemused.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," the Crimson Satan said, with a perfectly straight face, in the iconic Turtle Style fighting stance that one would often find Son Goku in at the start of a fight. "Though it says a lot about you that you supposedly know enough to make such an accusation. What do they call those kinds of people? Weebs?"
Grayfia facepalmed, and Okita Souji's chest started spasming with contained laughter, lifting a hand to his mouth to hide his grin.
Luna just groaned and slumped, having walked right into that one. Sirzechs simply grinned.
"But now that you mention it, I was wondering whether or not I should introduce Rias to anime when she gets older. What do you think?"
"Introduce her to it, but let her explore her tastes on her own. As long as she's left to her own devices on that hobby, she'll probably love it."
"Another one of your vaunted 'visions'?" He chuckled, which Luna matched with one of her own.
"No, it's just a matter of selection. There's an entire industry there, genres upon genres, just waiting to be introduced to the world at large. She'll find something, guaranteed."
"I'll be sure to keep that in mind." Sirzechs nodded once, then rushed forward without warning, forcing Lunarunn on the defensive immediately as he threw a fist forward. She slapped it away, pushing in to drive the elbow of her arm against the Crimson Satan's chest. That managed to get him to back off, though Luna knew he was still playing up the 'High-Class' power level.
That was fine, she preferred to have a bit of distance when possible anyhow. Reaching inward to express her vision outward, the brunette swept her arm to the side, causing the air around her to ripple before solidifying into countless needles, rotating to direct each needle's business end at Sirzechs and rushing forward in a torrent.
"Oh ho, that's a new one!" The Devil commented, holding out a hand of his own with palm facing forward to conjure a barrier of magical energy. The needle storm shattered against it, the gleaming shards left hovering before they were dispersed by a return fire. "When did you pick that one up?"
"A little while back," Luna shot back quickly, not bothering to speak any more as the blue bolts of magic few at her, hands twisting as the air shimmered once more, leaving Sirzechs staring at a reflection of himself, almost as though the reflection were a flawless mirror. The bolts of magic that were flying forward slammed into it, and proceeded to explode as they connected with their mirror images.
It also left Sirzechs without visual of Lunarunn. He sped around the reflective barrier in order to rectify this matter, with the woman in question already surrounded with shimmering air. A quick gesture and said air snapped forward, connecting with the Crimson Satan and sending him flying - again because he was clearly humoring her.
So it simultaneously took her by surprise yet was altogether unsurprising when Luna felt something slam into her side and send her crashing into the arena wall. Her immediate response to said action was a yelp followed by a groan as she felt the wall crack behind her due to the force of the impact.
"You did say you wanted to take on the High-Class tournament alone," the Devil commented from where he'd kicked her, lowering his leg back to the ground. "Hope you don't mind if I turn up the heat so it's more like fighting multiple enemies at once. Unless you want to join in, Souji?"
The Knight in question lifted a hand in a dismissive gesture. "Perhaps if she used a blade I would be interested, but I'm quite satisfied watching this from the sidelines for now."
Luna, on the other hand, groaned from her spot over at the wall. 'Ow, ow, ow, ow, I do mind thank you very much! Good lord, I didn't even see that coming!'
Just another testament to how truly beyond her this particular sparring partner was still.
But, it did give her the added benefit of learning how to fight 'multiple' foes rather than having to force one-on-one situations constantly, so...
"Ugh... I feel like complaining 'bout the no warning, that's for sure," Lunarunn started, as she rose back to her feet and took a deep breath, steadying herself. "But I know you've got a point there, so... let's keep going."
She regretted her choice immediately as Sirzechs took to the air to unleash another magic blast, scrambling to the side as the ground she had previously stood upon became little more than airborne rubble as a result of the magical blast.
Indeed, several minutes after he restarted the fight in full, Luna found herself back in that same position, fleeing from another assault from the airborne Satan, this time with more bruises and a few cuts to show her efforts were only partially successful, head pounding as she was hounded by her opponent.
The king of Devils, on the other hand, hardly looked winded in the slightest. Even his clothing was unruffled, despite being knocked away on multiple occasions.
"Oh motherfucker!"
"Language!" Sirzech cheerfully chided, already leveling another condensed blast upward with his hand, prompting Luna to spread her wings and take to the sky, all the better to avoid the next shot.
Almost immediately, she could feel the difference. Now that the bodyjumper was in the air, the euphoria of flight kicked in, and the mounting panic became something else. She couldn't quite tell what it was, but something about the way she weaved through the additional blasts - before Sirzechs rushed in with what looked to be a blade of demonic energy in hand - had her blood thrumming in a way it hadn't back on the ground.
"Oh? That's new." The Crimson Satan repeated one of his prior comments as Luna spiraled around his High-Class attacks, eyes alight and with irises flickering multicolor as more transparent shards of air coalesced around her. Instead of firing them off as a flurry of projectiles though, the shards instead began whirling like the satellite of a planet. "You rallied quite quickly there."
"I dunno. I suppose personally I prefer the air," she admitted, letting the grin she'd been hiding finally break free, the fragments of wind condensing into a smaller, faster-spinning sphere in the palm of her hand, which the bodyjumper used to slap away the magic-formed blade that Sirzechs had been striking at her with. Had she not had to dodge away from another magical blast, which the Crimson Satan had probably fired from the side during Luna's comment, she definitely would have tried striking with it.
Over the last several years Luna had been experimenting with what she could do with manipulating the air, and while she was sure she could have been working on other things, Ulan seemed to have no issues with the way she'd been 'training', including how she imitated some tricks. It was still far from perfect, particularly in the raw power of the original, but the brunette was happy to see that what she'd managed to... appropriate a certain technique.
It was simple in concept, even; create a localized space of a certain radius around her hand where air is solidified and crystallized, ensure that space originated a specific distance offset from her hand, and induce localized high-speed rotations within that space.
And judging by the way he was staring at the sphere warily, Luna had successfully managed to impress Sirzechs with it, even as she willed the localized space to travel within a straight line and shot it towards the Crimson Satan.
He dodged it, easily, but Luna couldn't care, seeing how all parties privy to this attack paused what they were doing, taken aback by how easily it shredded through the ground, eventually pushing against the barrier within the ground and dispersing with a shrill shriek.
She lifted a hand to her forehead and rubbed it, a grin growing on her lips even as she felt her headache intensify.
'That. That was awesome. Even if I technically stole the Rasengan that was still badass. Though, is it really stealing if the guy who originally wrote the series hasn't introduced it yet?'
"Well, if that was any indication, you certainly have the power to be a High-Class Devil," Sirzechs commented, scratching his nose as he viewed the damage to the training ground with a bemused smile on his face. "We'll still need to test your combat awareness and tactical acumen a bit more to see if you can manage in a fight where you're outnumbered, but that... that was rather impressive. Using your abilities to create a sphere of high-speed cutting winds? How did you come up with that?"
"Vision," Lunarunn replied quickly. "I got the idea from a suggestion that I try compressing my powers, and a vision helped... well, visualize it for me."
He stared at her for a long moment, before shrugging. "Well, that's aside from the point I suppose. What matters now is that we see what other things you can do that's expected of a High-Class Devil. Souji!"
"Yes, milord?" the former Shinsengumi captain was up with them in the blink of an eye, one hand on the hilt of his blade as he glanced between the brunette and his King.
"Join me in testing Lunarunn. Now we need to push her to the limits of her endurance, and I think we'll see how much quicker she tires if it's two against one."
The Knight drew his blade, a gleaming katana, and tested it with a flourish. "Getting impatient now, milord? You lasted longer than I expected."
"Am I really that easy to see through?" Sirzechs pouted. "It's not my fault that Luna actually seems to be able to back up her tough talk so far."
"Very well. Since it is an order rather than a request, I will step in."
She couldn't help it, the aforementioned woman preened at that, even as she was filled with a growing sense of dread now that Okita Souji was taking part in this little test.
The glow didn't last long, as it was quickly replaced by a mix of existential dread and 'oh shit oh fuck' as the two now testing her stamina started harrying her, poking away at her defenses while leaving little room for Luna herself to retaliate.
What little holes they did reveal were so clearly faked that she knew better than to exploit them, instead grimacing as more cuts and bruises began to form, magic and blade meeting skin more than once.
Once again Lunarunn thanked her body's improved pain tolerance compared to the last, and how her prior training had hardened it further. Even so, it was getting difficult to keep moving, not even a minute after the two Ultimate-Class Devils began their coordinated assault.
She wasn't sure she quite liked being overwhelmed as she was, and more or less played with atop that. Yes, there was a reason for it, but it still grated at her.
As things stood however, Luna had no openings to truly exploit, and that growing irritation ignited like a spark to a fuel tank as the pounding in her head grew more insistent.
"Enough!" The brunette snarled, the air around her distorting into needles once more, now charging to take Sirzechs, or at least drive him off enough to get Souji off her back.
Big mistake as she would find, the wind driven out of her by something very strong slamming into her solar plexus.
In her rush to handle the 'caster', Sirzechs's Knight took the opportunity presented by Luna's patience finally snapping, and struck with a powerful hammer blow, before following up with a lightning-quick pommel strike to the head.
Her vision went white before she even had the chance to groan out another word.
"You know, you should thank Okita. He technically stopped you from committing a felony."
Luna was starting to really hate that voice, eyes opening again as she noted she was back on the ground.
"Wha...?"
"You did nearly assault a major public figure," Sirzechs supplied his reasoning, though he said it with such a genuine smile on his face that it was hard to stop one from forming on her own.
The brunette groaned. "We were sparring, remember?"
"Ehhh, that's just semantics."
Even if she did want to punch him square in the jaw for the cheek.
...Oh good lord, was this what Grayfia felt like handling him all the time? No wonder she likes humiliating him in public when he gets out of hand.
Luna decided to cut a balance between the exasperation and the amusement with a grimace and a shake of her head, getting back into a sitting position before lifting a hand to her head as the grimace intensified. Her head was pounding something fierce.
"So what happened there?" she then asked, glancing between the Knight now practicing swings over on the other side of the field and the King of said Knight. "Did I drop my guard?"
The Crimson Satan simply chuckled. "I'd more say 'tossed it to the wind and charged me like a berserker' than 'drop' it. I wouldn't have taken you for someone who explodes like that."
"I... sometimes struggle keeping my frustration in check." Luna was put-out admitting that, glancing away whilst puffing out one cheek. "Not being able to exploit any real openings while constantly getting beaten back... ugh."
It reminded her back when she played fighting games, and got thrashed at them repeatedly. That was fun. Not.
"I'm almost glad I got knocked out there, now it's just a little irritating rather than souring my mood entirely."
Sirzechs hummed, lifting a brow slowly before nodding once. "If it's worth anything, you were holding up pretty well until that point. Like I said before, you definitely have the ability to make it as a High-Class Devil."
Something about that comment rankled her the wrong way. "...But...?"
The crimson-haired Maou sighed. "But you're still not quite at the point where you'd be able to succeed in the tournament the way you'd need to. You're not ready yet."
Well, there was the gut punch. Luna momentarily forgot how to breathe as she took in those words, rendered speechless by his roundabout denial of a major step toward actually being able to do something.
"Your one-on-one skills are solid, but it's clear that you haven't faced multiple foes at once, and any reasonably competent King is going to exploit that," he continued, letting his eyes slide shut as he noted the girl's paling expression and drawn pupils. "You might be able to get past the first round with your current degree of strength, but even that is a tossup. As it is, the Young Devil's Rating Game Tournament isn't going to work as a way to introduce you, not in the way we're looking for."
'Oh no... no, no, no.'
His eyes reopened. "Still, it's incredible you've managed to come so far in so little time. I'm sure given another year you'd have a decent chance taking the tournament on your own."
Platitudes. 'Empty fucking platitudes and sweet little lies.'
"It really is a shame, too." Sirzechs's head swiveled from side to side again. "Honestly, I was pretty impressed; until I brought Souji into the mix you were well on your way to convincing me."
Luna's hands started trembling, and she squeezed them shut, to keep them from drawing too much attention.
The Crimson Satan noticed, and breathed out another sigh. "Your inexperience showed after that though. I can't in good faith let you throw yourself into that fire as you are now, not with the potential you've showed today. I'm sorry."
'So you're saying... that my years of training, my countless hours working myself to the bone to hone these powers, that isn't enough for you?'
Oh, she wanted to say these things so badly. Luna was practically trembling from the words the man in front of her was saying.
"...Alright then." Her voice was cold, forcing that rage currently coursing through her down. It was way harder than she would have liked it to be. "Then you come up with an idea how to save your sister from that fucking marriage proposal. I'll even play along like we'd agreed on years ago when I started training, but right now I should probably leave before I do commit a felony."
Okay, so her control wasn't good enough to keep out all the venom she wanted to spit, but at least she had it mostly under control, right?
Grayfia approached, gesturing for Luna to follow her back to the teleportation circle with a stony expression, while Sirzech's own grew unreadable.
'Right?'
"Lord Sirzechs is trying to help you, you know."
Grayfia's words, cold as they were, reached Luna's ears as the two made their way to the array that would send Lunarunn back home.
The brunette herself was still simmering, the heat burning in her veins making it hard to think straight.
"I know," she replied quietly, clenching her fist and unclenching it, gritting her teeth. "And that makes it worse."
"How so?" The worst of Grayfia's own vocalized ice thawed, though she still remained cool and impassive.
"Because I know that he means it with good intentions, so it means that he doesn't think my ability to fight is good enough to win respect in the Rating Game Tournament." Luna hissed through her teeth, shaking her head angrily. "I know I started late, but I've basically thrown the last three years away so that I could become a High-Class Devil."
"You must understand, Lord Sirzechs is the leader of the Maou for a reason. He is able to read the climes unlike anyone perhaps the Great King himself, and if he doesn't want you to join the Tournament on your own then there is a reason for that." Luna liked to think herself a fairly logical person, but right now she had half a mind to throw that same logic Grayfia was explaining to her out the window.
"I know," the brunette growled out.
"Then I fail to understand why you are so hostile to the idea that your well-being is being considered."
"Because I don't have forever to wait and become High-Class by doing requests, Grayfia!" The Underworld didn't. Already she could see stirrings of ideological conflict within the news feeds Luna looked through, and she knew that it'd only get worse. "If I can't get a Peerage then how the hell am I to make a difference in the Underworld when shit hits the fan over the next decades?"
"And you think you're the 'chosen one' who will set things right?" Disbelief, and disdain.
"I might just be a blip in the system, but even a pebble can make a landslide. And in case you didn't notice, I've had prophetic visions, which does set me apart from the others."
"Visions that you could leave to Lord Sirzechs, if just making a difference was truly your intention; you could simply disclose them as they come and live the rest of your life frivolously." The maid's eyes narrowed faintly as she met Luna's. "So let me ask again, Lunarunn: why do you have to be the one to act?"
"Because I have power now!" Luna's own voice dropped to a harsh hiss. "Ability. Capability. Potential. The ear of three political juggernauts, and the blessing of whatever entity the original Luna sold her soul to. I have power, when I had next to none before. How am I supposed to turn away from all that!?"
"Hm." The cool look defrosted a bit further, becoming something more of curiosity.
"Those with power are oft loathe to relinquish it." The bodyjumper shook her head. "Besides, I'm a Devil now. Isn't seeking power our thing, down to our very biological processes?"
"Perhaps," Grayfia finally allowed. "But that isn't everything, is it?"
"...No, it isn't." Luna showed her teeth. "I want to make my mark too, create a legacy, to take my place in history. So I suppose I'm being a bit selfish. Is that really wrong though, if what I want is to personally make the world around me a better place and make a name that way?"
"When we're talking about the fate of the masses, then I think you know the answer to that question already."
The brunette shook her head. "If you want something done right, you do it yourself."
"Which leads back to you suggesting that you're the only one who can use your information correctly," Grayfia accused as they entered the entryway.
"If you want to put it that way... yes. Yes I do." Luna walked up to the teleportation circle as she sharply bit out that admission. "I'm not going to let Sirzechs stop me from getting to High-Class soon, though. If he won't let me into the Tournament, then I'll improvise."
Grayfia's expression darkened at the implied insult to her King. "You could always find another Peerage to join and earn accolades that way."
"Thanks, but no thanks. You know how I feel about that."
The maid shook her head and sighed, a sign of exasperation which was indicative of just how much irritation she felt toward the brunette right now. "Your stubbornness is... remarkable, Lunarunn."
"I like to think I've high standards." The bodyjumper made a 'tsk', and started pouring energy into the teleportation circle for a one-way trip back to her own house. "And frankly, nobody who'd offer is up to my expectations. Later, Grayfia."
She glanced back, and her expression softened slightly, the edge of her ire ebbing. "...Take care."
A flash of light later, and Lunarunn was gone.
"So you got your plans given the crook by Sirzechs." Ajuka slid his hands behind his back, breathing out slowly as he took in Luna's trashed room, having been drawn there by the sounds of smashing furniture. The woman in question was panting, having come out of a tantrum a few minutes earlier. "There are better ways to go about venting your frustrations."
"Please don't start with that, Lord Beelzebub," the bodyjumper grimaced, looking around at the damage she inflicted in her rage. "I know my temper's not the greatest, but it's not every day that years of progress and effort gets thoroughly ignored. He meant well, I get it. It was still a huge slap in the face."
"Welcome to politics. You wondered why I tend to focus on my projects rather than take the reins in the arena." The green-haired Maou lifted a hand to his other shoulder. "At least with experiments it's easy to determine what went wrong and how to fix it."
"You have your own explosions?" Luna peered back at Ajuka with a blinking expression. "Could have fooled me, you've always come off as more or less unflappable."
"Every once in a blue moon or so." Considering the lifespan of Devils, that probably was the literal case. "But it goes to show you can't judge a book by its cover. I had much the same perception of you until I heard you breaking the dresser from the entrance hall."
"...It was getting old anyway."
"It was enchanted with runes to prevent deterioration, Luna. What would your parents think?"
"I'd probably get a chewing out by Dad again." With a sigh, Luna thought back to the past few years. Despite being accepted back into the fold, she and Loedrick... didn't exactly get along. They just seemed to rub each other the wrong way. At least, she did to him; Luna herself didn't really go looking for a fight, but it happened more often than she'd like to admit.
Another reason Luna planned on becoming High-Class was so she could move out, and give both her parents and herself some peace.
"All the more reason I want to get promoted. Sirzechs said it himself; I'm well within the range of power for a High-Class Devil, the only reason I'm not one yet is because I'm not an heir of a Pillar and still am an unknown."
"Have you considered that whatever he comes up with regarding your reveal could play to your strengths more than a Rating Game?"
"I was pretty set on making a name that way," she conceded, looking away with a grimace. "But since that's closed out for me, I'll probably want to look into... different ways of proving my strength."
"It's only a closed option to you this year," Ajuka pointed out. "Sirzechs mentioned, and I agree, that you're growing quickly enough that the next Rating Game Tournament would give you a good chance to make it to the top."
"But how long will it be until the next one?" Luna pressed. "How much will my success impact the political landscape? Sirzechs plans on revealing me some other way now, and as a result the fact that I'm Naturally Reincarnated might just be a footnote to an otherwise unremarkable Tournament.
"And to make a name for myself, I need to do something big," she continued, seeing as Ajuka had nothing to say regarding her words at that point in time. "I don't exactly have the luxury of not having to prove my competence as a Devil. If my star fades too quickly, or isn't bright enough to begin with, Sirzechs's gambit will fall through, and Rias will end up in a marriage proposal anyway."
"You're thinking too small, Lunarunn," the green-haired Maou finally interjected, gesturing for her to follow him to the lab. As they left the previously-irate brunette's room, he continued. "You're only considering the combat aspect of High Class. You also need to consider the strides you've made outside of your ability to throw a punch, or in your case weave the sky."
"Considering that pretty much the entirety of these past three years and some-odd months was spent either training in combat or for the political stage, or otherwise being poked and prodded by an eccentric demon lord, I think I'm going to need a bit more clarification."
"You remember our discussion about Reincarnated Devils and how the Evil Piece they receive helps moderate the increased Id they experience as a side effect for the process of reincarnation, right?"
"Yeah? You mentioned that examining how an initially pureblooded Devil becoming more 'human' spiritually might give you a frame of reference on how to improve the ability for Evil Pieces to help save regularly Reincarnated Devils lost to their emotions." A few moments passed. "Are you saying you've had a breakthrough?"
"Nothing concrete just yet, but a theory," Ajuka confirmed. "Thanks to the generous amounts of time you spent allowing me to run tests on your demonic power and your body, I've been able to narrow down the path to that goal to several methods. I cannot guarantee that all of them work, or even any, but if even one does... your contributions will be rightfully noted and compensated. It will be, as you put it, a breakthrough."
"Well, I suppose being a major player in decreasing the risk of a Reincarnated Devil going Stray is a big achievement," she admitted. "But even so, that's not so much a political or military achievement as it is a scientific one. And as much as Devils like to think they're on top of any game they play, the Fallen tend to be far more appreciative of scientific achievements than Devils are, and it shows in their most prominent leaders."
"The Azazel Effect, as I've coined it." He let out a disappointed 'tsk'. "Though I suppose you're not wrong there. You'd need to have a show of force in addition to such a release in order to get that promotion you're looking for."
"Hence the Rating Game Tournament," Lunarunn finished, gesturing back the way they came with a thumb. "And the reason I got so pissed when Sirzechs more or less flat-out said he'd block my entry into the Tournament this year."
Ajuka opened the door and allowed Luna through into the lab, getting a quick 'thank-you' in return before he continued. "Doesn't have to be a Rating Game Tournament though. Any form of combat where you can see the results would do."
"Sounds like you have something in mind. I hope you're not asking me to start a war," Luna half-joked, to which the green-haired Maou chuckled.
"No, no, no, nothing of the sort. But you wouldn't be against hunting and capturing notably dangerous Strays, would you?"
She froze in place, those particular words bringing up a memory of a particular 'notably dangerous Stray', and reminding her that she was on a clock. Thankfully, there was still several years before that happened, but it did drive home the fact that Luna needed her High-Class status soon.
It was for that reason, even as she got back on the table and manifested her wings for another session of post-ritual study, the brunette mulled over Ajuka's suggestion. "...I'm listening."
A/N
The wiki is a lifesaver, particularly for Sirzechs's peerage and their individual personalities. I know I only used Okita Souji for the moment, but it's still worth mentioning.
Also, this chapter did not come out easy. Not fun. The Grayfia and Ajuka bits came out much easier though, so that was a relief. Hopefully things get easier overall moving on.
Like? Not like? Believable? Not so? Let me know if I can do something better. If I can hone my craft and create a more thoroughly crafted world and character then I'd like to know how.
Anyway, Tempura Wizard out.
