Chapter 56 : Tempus Fugit - That's what's good for ya.

I am a Ward of the state of Japan, an orphan who has yet to finish her secondary education, a pariah in a culture who will never accept me.

And I am alright with that.

Why, you may ask?

"I'm fucking rich." I slowly let out as I stare at the seven figures number in front of my eyes.

Because I'm fucking rich.

See, I thought that Rias had overdone it a little with her payment for her tattoo.

Turns out, she was actually conservative compared to what her sis-con of a brother threw my way for less than three hours of work.

Even better: all of the money is held on an account located in the Bahamas, which means that my lovely compatriots will be able to tax absolutely fuck-all out of it as long as I do not touch it.

Which means that I'm basically set for life -or at least until I buy then equip a proper tattoo parlor- without even having to slog through an apprenticeship I don't really need-

"No way there's no strings attached." I grumble while dropping back my phone next to me on the couch.

-but also that I probably messed up somewhere, because there's no way a fucking Satan threw a few million dollars in my direction just like that.

I mean, it is a possibility, but I find it pretty slim all things considered.

I sink deeper into my couch, arms crossed over my chest as I try to bore a hole through the ceiling with my eyes alone.

It's kinda obvious that Sirzechs is trying to butter me up, especially considering I didn't intend to ask for a payment because I was trying to butter him up in the first place, but the question is what did paying me an absurd amount of money get him?

Fingers drumming against my forearm, I got to thinking, hard.

By now, the two Gremory siblings probably got into a talk about myself, and Rias should have made it clear that she wanted my finely plump ass into her peerage to him, so it could be because he's trying to build some good will for his family as a whole, establishing them as generous or some shit, so that I'd be more inclined to accept the offer when she gets the ovaries to actually ask without this whole song and dance we had from roughly day one.

Or…

…I somehow messed up and revealed myself as supernatural-adjacent at some point.

Then it becomes a massive game of 'what gave me away?', one in which I don't even really know where to start because I was kind of busy not shitting my pants when interacting with his wife and him, two beings who can reduce me to base atoms while sneezing if they stop paying attention.

I scrunch up my nose, still staring at the ceiling, one of my knees bouncing, as I start to replay all of our interactions so far.

Meeting the two, the whole mafioso vibe, me deflecting the fault, the three of us starting to make our way toward Rias' house, Sirzechs probing me about my art-

I groan, eyes shut and visibly deflating against the couch.

I open my mouth, before remembering the probably, possibly, tempered device next to me, and I sigh instead of talking, one hand coming to rub at my temple.

I completely forgot about how he sort-of calmed once I started to pull hard on Beauty to give me a boost in confidence while he had his focus on me.

What are the chances he actually felt something at that moment exactly?

…What are the odds that the devils feel it when I channel the Warp through my body?

…I never really noticed the 'younglings' catch on it, but the old monster did, so it's either a skill issue or a power-level thingie, maybe even both, and the incertitude doesn't fill me with confidence.

Hell, I'm only hypothesizing, I'm not even sure at one hundred percent that I played my hand in some sort of fashion, but it's safer to bet on the fact that I messed up than putting my head in the sand and acting like nothing's wrong.

So, suppose I fucked myself over, the next question is, did he tell Rias about his suspicions?

My fingers resume their drumming against my forearm.

…Considering Akeno and Rias' behavior in the last few days didn't change much and their emotional responses -or at least their echoes in the Empyrean- aren't dissonant with their old ones, I'd go with a tentative and cautionary 'no'.

…Unless, for some reason, I have been 'sus' from day one for the two devils, because it would also explain why their feelings about me didn't change before/after.

…This is a mess.

"This is a mess." I grumble under my breath, brows furrowed and my mood infinitely sourer than before.

I give my phone the stink eye, the device still displaying my new financial status.

I am now rich as fuck, yes, but I feel like I've lost some of my freedom in the trade.

"You've got to be shitting me." I blurt out, not really believing my eyes.

It's been a few weeks by now since I realized that the devils' higher ups were probably onto me, which prompted me to throw myself even harder into my training as a way to cope with the added scrutiny I am now probably under.

Blessedly, things had been quiet on the school and kendo club front, and my lover had managed to make me forget the tenseness of my situation on a few occasions so I wasn't stressing about it that much, but a few tumbles in the sheets can only go so far to make me forget that I have caught the eyes of a Satan for reasons not conductive to my long term freedom.

Hence the slightly longer gym sessions and my newly self-appointed task into mastering the aspect I will need the most out of my telepathy above all the others.

…Which is still pretty much a work in progress kind of thing, considering the increasingly bigger number of rodents I recently blew the brains off, but I digress.

All of that to say that I felt very much like someone kicked my ass back into the grind, and I've been redoubling in my efforts to unlock Touki even harder than before-

I lock eyes with Toroko-san as he flexes a bulging muscle, faint wisps of lights steaming and rising out of his forms, his current 'demonstration' having blown his wife-beater up, shredded pieces of the article of clothing still wafting in the air as a faint aura of something sputtering covers his whole body intermittently.

-only for my teacher to apparently unlock it before me within a few months' time practice, which is absolutely bullshit.

I gesture at his display, internally feeling quite outraged because I started practicing before he did yet the guy still beat me to it.

"H-How?!" I sputter indignantly, arms akimbo and one of my eyebrows ticking off madly, "The fuck?"

"Language, Shoujo-chan." He tuts me patronizingly, before letting go of his stance with a low exhale, something -that I can both see and not-see at the same time- sinking back into his body, "Mah, I just did what you told me to?"

I gear myself for a rant, before clamping my jaws shut, closing my eyes, and exhaling for a few beats.

I beat back the Whispers away by settling back into my meditative breathing pattern, before opening and locking my eyes with his once more.

"I don't understand." I prelude through not-quite gritted teeth, "I started practicing this shit before you did, and yet-"

"I beat ya to it." He hums in understanding, a hand coming to clutch at his chin while I throw him an annoyed glare which slides off him like water off a duck's back, "Maybe we're doing something different, then."

"We don't." I answer, my own hand starting to rub at my temple in an attempt to cast away the headache I'm starting to develop, "Rotten bones, I'm even lifting heavier than you now, which means I broke the same limits you did, except more because I'm a girl-"

"Yes, but no." The mountain of a man interjects, a finger raised skyward, "Ya said it, didn't ya, ya not so human anymore since ya started doing yar xianxia-inspired crap."

I pause, hard, the gears in my head coming to a stop.

"Shit." I swear.

"Ya broke some limits, sure, but those are the human ones, not yours." He carries on mercilessly, his finger now pointed right at me, "And since ya keep getting 'better' that way…"

"It becomes increasingly difficult to reach my own limits with human tools." I groan aloud as I facepalm in dejection, a feeling of dread starting to overtake me as I realize that this plan isn't going to work and that I wasted months practicing something that is becoming increasingly out of reach and-

I yelp as a sharp, stinging pain prompts me to slap a hand on my forehead, locking eyes with the offender who just flicked me-

"Breathe, Shoujo-chan," the bald, seven feet tall man orders me, not unkindly, "Take a deep breath."

-only to see a concerned Toroko-san looking back at me.

I close my eyes shut, forcing the Susurrus away, before settling back once more into my breathing pattern.

It takes me a few beats to get me back into a stable mental space.

"Alright," I say aloud, locking eyes with Toroko-san dark orbs, "I'm alright."

"Yes ya are." He answers genially, "Now, think ya up to thinking a solution for yar predicament?"

I huff, mechanically starting to pace along the length of the gym as I gather my thoughts.

"How did you do it?" I ask aloud, arms crossed under my bust, eyes locked on the ground as I walk in a circle.

"Like ya told me too." He answers easily, settling heavily on the bench, "Kept pushing, harder and harder, with little to no rest and no cheating beyond yar little magic trick."

"All au naturel." I comment.

"Exactly." The mountain of a man admits, and I can almost hear him nodding at my words, "I just kept aiming higher with determination."

It's my turn to nod as I register what he said.

"Maybe I'm lacking determination?" I hazards aloud.

"I don't think that's it." He answers in turn, "But, at the same time, maybe it's because ya don't have anything to protect other than yaself?"

I nod once more, conceding the point, since it's a common shounen trope that the protagonist powers up for his friends' concern and not his.

"Your family." I say.

"Yup." He says, a hint of steel and determination leaking in his tone.

"I don't have that." I drawl.

"Ya have other things." He points out.

Images of a bubbly devil, her closet pervert of a Queen and their little kitten flashes through my mind, and my mouth twists self-depreciatively.

Maybe if it was for their sake instead of an egoistic ideal of wanting to protect myself better, I'd already be here, having reached this goal, but, as it stands?

"...Not really, no." I answer, a little morosely.

I am friends with Rias and her peerage, sure, but not to the point that I'd be willing to sacrifice something of mine to them.

Hell, I'd even argue that it's because I don't trust them fully to leave me the fuck alone that I'm going so far.

"Isn't there another way? Do ya even really need Touki?" Toroko-san probes further, wrenching me out of my musings.

Once again, I pause, before sighing.

"Combat, I guess?" I answer after a beat, "I'd give it good odds to unlock it if I was constantly in battle, but that's not really practical, and Kendo stopped being a challenge for me months ago."

He hums deeply as I keep pacing-

-until he rises suddenly, in one fluid, graceful motion someone his size has no rights to do.

I perk up, intrigued but he is already walking away while gesturing over his shoulder.

"Walk with me, will ya?" He calls.

I follow him after a beat, a bit nonplussed, until we finally reach a door we have never crossed before.

He opens it, flicking the lights on with long-practiced ease as he walks deeper into the room, the ceiling lights flickering above us-

My jaw drops a bit.

-and he gestures in the direction of a dusty ring, almost a relic of a bygone era, a pair of boxing gloves loosely hanging off the railing.

"Way I see it," He preludes, locking eyes with me once more, "I need training, and, unless ya know how to box, ya need it too, so, it'd be two birds with one stone, yes?"

I swallow heavily, my eyes darting over his humongous form.

"And you'd be going all out while I don't?" I hazards.

He scoffs.

"Of course I will, the goal is to put the pressure on ya." He answers matter-of-factly, "Can't do that if ya cheat, so, no funny magic things."

I look back at the ring.

"This is going to suck." I drawl aloud.

I see him smirks at me in the corner of my eyes, faint wisps of something rising out of his hulking form.

"Yup," He answers, popping out the 'P', "But that's what's good for ya."

I very much stopped enjoying my gym sessions afterward.

[AN: I'm back, folks!

So, for those of you who didn't quite follow, I caught a really harsh cold last week-end which more-or-less killed my creativity and motivation both, and ended up binge reading a few things while half-comatose in my bed instead of doing something more productive.

So, kind of sorry for going AWOL, but that's not like I really wanted to or anything, yes?

As for the story, well, Prima realizes that she fucked up at some point and starts getting anxious, Toroko-san proves that he is the GOAT, and her training kicks up another few notches.

Hope you enjoy, xoxo]