Chapter 17 : Tempus Fugit - Something doesn't add up.
Rias was still very pleased when Kiba came back to the living room after accompanying her guest out.
He barely had the time to step into the room proper before she was already pestering him, to his slight amusement, the Knight having long become inured to his King's true self while in private.
"So!" the crimson headed devil asks, all smiles and clapping her hands semi-excitedly, "What did you think of Prima-chan, Yuuto-kun?"
The sentence makes the blond halt his steps, his eyes narrowing a notch, considering his next words.
"Something doesn't add up." he finally decides to rip out the bandaid, prompting his King to blink, before narrowing her own eyes in turn, waving him down to take a seat on the couch in front of her, Akeno having already taken one side of the plush sofa.
Swiftly, the Knight composes himself while sitting down, crossing his legs and lacing his fingers together under the expectant look of the Gremory heiress.
"Well, don't keep us waiting, Yuuto-kun." the Queen next to him lightly chides, a glint of interest in her own eyes.
"I can tell that she indeed knows her weapons, but not in a conventional manner." he starts, his eyes locked with the blue orbs of his King, "Half of arming sword related techniques rely on stabbing, yet, the concept seems sort of alien to her, as if she learned only to cut with it.
"But it doesn't make any sense if she learned it with an instructor, because that would be like leaving half of the utility of the weapon on the wayside, which a competent teacher would not do.
"Despite that, once I started properly paying attention to something Himejima-san said last week, I noticed that she stood like a warrior when not actively relaxing."
"She said she was raised among the military, though." the crimson headed devil points out, prompting the Knight to slowly shake his head.
"No, that's not it." the blond haired boy rejects easily, "She has the same tells that Sensei has: pay attention the next time you enter a room with her, you'll see that her first instinct is to check every corner as quickly as she can. I only noticed when I was guiding her back outside."
His sentence makes the two girls pause, trading a quick glance between each other.
"...The same kind of tells Souji-san has, huh?" the heiress of destruction slowly trails off, visibly a bit disturbed.
"So, you mean to say that she has knowledge of something akin to a viable combat technique, at least to her," the jade-black haired beauty next to him starts, prompting the Knight to nod in assent, "As well as a warrior's bearing and their kind of habits?"
"That would be my point, yes." the blue eyed boy agrees, "It's almost like she had seen active combat, or something similar."
"But…" the Gremory heiress trails off, exchanging another look with her Queen, only getting a minor shrug in answer, "Nothing indicates that she knows of or belongs to the supernatural world. We checked. Twice."
"I'm afraid that our King is correct, Yuuto-kun," the half-fallen chimes, "Besides being well on her way to becoming a gym-bunny, Hanako-san is, I'm afraid, dreadfully boring."
"Yes, and I'm aware of those previous observations," the blond demures, only to add, "Yet, my own aren't any less valid.
"Something doesn't add up with Hanako-san." he half insists, half concludes, a hint of certainty in his tone.
For a beat, the features of his King's face distort, making her look a little bit constipated, before relaxing as she sinks deeper into the couch, one of her crossed legs kicking up and down in rhythm in a tell-tale sign of annoyance.
"If only Koneko hadn't bowed out in favor of a nap, we could've had another opinion." the crimson headed devil grumbles.
"Well, a certain someone," the purple eyed girl in the room points out, "Convinced you to up our training despite the fact that we were supposed to take it a little bit easier in the human world, and it has been a bit hard on the poor girl.
"Just give her the morning free next time you want us to play tea time with your human friend, she'll happily tell us everything she can feel about our maybe-a-child-soldier acquaintance, hmm?"
Shrugging off the glare of her King with a casual air, the half-fallen settles back a bit more daintily on the couch after saying her piece.
"Fine," Kiba's King grumbles, "We'll do that next time, hopefully finally getting to the bottom of this charade.
"But I'm convinced you're all seeing ghosts here. Even if she looks like a dark-shoujo protagonist, Prima-chan is just a normal girl, if a bit cautious and with a bit of a short fuse."
Kiba trades a long suffering look with his fellow peerage member, before the two of them sigh in concert.
ENTRY: Alpha-007
ANNO:0 - LOCAL:2009
LOCAL DATE: APRIL, 19TH
BEGINNING RECORD
"I honestly do not know as much as I'd like about Psykers in a general manner.
"My lore-fu about the Warhammer 40K universe is more mismatched than a patchwork, full of semi-useful trivia and interesting anecdotes, the general outline of the War in Heavens and what happened between Anno 0 and the Horus Heresy.
"My point is that I have a general idea of what a really powerful Psyker can do, but not necessarily how they'd go about it.
"The 'how to' guide in Skully's database pretends that all of the Imperium-backed spells-like effects it explains are rough, general outlines which have to be personalized to the Sanctioned Psyker, and, in a way, I do concur.
"From what I understand, from my own point of view and my reviewing sessions of the guide, it is because manipulating the Warp is a semi-instinctual art, and, while some processes can be standardized, the true meat of psionics is finding what truly fits your own approach and mind, and trusting the psychic-soul stuff of the universe to follow your semi-babbled commands.
"Off the top of my head, and from my own, admittedly, lacking knowledge, there are a few things I'd like to have access to.
"First is very obviously biokinesis, if only for the self-healing properties of the art, and because it may cut down the time needed to learn Touki on the side.
"After all, if I can regenerate my muscles as soon as they tear due to exertion, I'm willing to bet I'll be crossing the human limits way faster than anyone else.
"I'd still probably have to find a way to stay cute, though, because I refuse to become Butchy McButch because of my burgeoning gym-bunny tendencies.
"I finally like what I see when I look in the mirror, there's no way I'm giving up on that.
"But I digress.
"Next would be the bread and butter of all psionics: telepathy and telekinesis.
"I have… mixed feelings about the former, both because it's a major breach of privacy and I'm not really interested in what goes on people's minds on a daily basis, and because I'm not so sure I can be trusted with mind-whammy capabilities.
"That, plus the fact that I'm leery of overdoing it and exploding someone's head. Again.
"Granted, if push comes to shove, and it's a question between my survival and the sanctity of one or multiple random schmucks' minds, and possibly the integrity of their cranial boxes, I'll take the former in a heartbeat, but I'd rather keep that as a last resort rather than overuse it.
"On the other hand, the utility of low-to-high end telekinesis cannot even be properly articulated.
"It does so much of basically everything, especially at the micro and macro scale if you've got enough power in the tank that it's basically the cheat that trumps all.
"I figure that once I find the proper emotion behind it, it'll quickly become a staple in my powerset.
"Next would be the aura, the kind of presence, a Psyker subconsciously releases around them without really meaning to.
"I have to get a handle on it rather quickly, at least before I meet a certain catgirl, because I'm not sure how I'd 'feel' or even 'smell' to her, and I'd rather keep giving the devils the illusion that I'm just a hardworking, if a bit boring, high-school girl.
"I also have this inkling that this ability can be weaponized. In hindsight, my would-be bully pissing herself in fright may have been due to me subconsciously tapping into it and releasing my Anger at large.
"Now, if I can do the same with, let's say, Fear, and amp it up with telepathy, to do some kind of psychic banshee scream?
"Well, that'd be neat, wouldn't it?
"Speaking about banshees makes me think about the Eldarii, and, more specifically, their warlocks.
"In setting, they are masters of the arts of concealment and illusion, and I'd really, really like to have me some of those.
"There too, I think the process can be kickstarted/facilitated with the proper emotion as a trigger/guiding hand, but I'll have to think about it a bit longer.
"Finally, for the last idea I got since I've landed here, I'd like to try what the shamans of old wanted to do if their own Immaterium hadn't been ruined by robotic pseudo-mummies with a hate boner the size of the galaxy against the Old Ones.
"I'd like to see if I can take more of the Warp in me, gradually, so as to bolster my soul-mind self, and amplify my powers.
"I don't know much about the DxD universe in itself, at least I don't know much about the canon one, but I know for sure that some fuckers can wreck a whole country while fighting.
"Now, if I don't want to be annoyed by some assholes with too much firepower and delusions of grandeur, that means I need to at least punch just as hard as them, potentially, and ideally even harder so they leave me the fuck alone.
"If I manage to pull what the shamans of old didn't, then I'd be a step closer to being free in this death-world masquerading as a light-hearted comedy.
"But, for now, my priority isn't here.
"No, the first thing on my agenda is to see if I can't give myself more time to do all of the above.
"And, since Warp manipulation is supposedly something instinctive, responding to the desires and strength of mind of the Psyker, I figure I have good odds of succeeding.
"My first experiment will then be to see if I can't take some inspiration from DnD, and achieve some kind of Sustaining effect, substituting a full night's rest by a few hours of meditation, hours that I can then use to, for example, emulate the shamans of old and stoke the fire of my potential.
"I'm going to give it a shot these next few days and see how that goes.
"I figure that if I start hallucinating due to a lack of sleep, it'll be a sign that the experiment needs to be shelved."
ENTRY: Alpha-007
ENDING RECORD
[AN: MFW someone asks about Prima's training plans during the day while I was planning to put them on paper this very night, lul.
A bit on the shorter side today, but it's mainly because I didn't want to start on the experimentations right away when I barely put them on paper.
Oh, and Prima is being a sussy baka, I guess. And Rias got some blinders because her fren is a good fren, so nothing should be wrong!
Hope you enjoy, xoxo]