Chapter 5 : Two Kings' Summit -at the cafeteria-.

"This table is empty!" Rias chirps aloud, making me huff a little laugh.

Since I had apparently been 'adopted' by the crimson haired devil as her new pocket human/cool fren, I had accepted my fate and resigned myself to being unable to escape the attention of extroverts of all ages, gender, species and interests, even across dimensions.

It was kind of funny that one of the things that followed me along this journey was my mysterious ability to seemingly always draw the interest of the 'odd one' in the crowd and sympathize with them, oftentimes quite unilaterally from their parts, and without any of my say so.

Truly, while I wont be missing my family that much, my friends on the-

I blink, before shaking my head, feeling ThE bUzZiNg rears its ugly head with the loss of my focus and my suddenly worsening mood.

Happy thoughts, happy thoughts.

The rest? Later.

I take a deep breath, hold it for a second, then exhale, doing the whole thing as discreetly as I can while I take a seat.

ThE vOiCeS recedes as I manage to refocus on the still happily chattering Rias in front of me, Akeno sitting herself daintily next to her, in a mirror of yesterday.

"-didn't know that gravity could do that, did you, Prima-chan?" the Gremory heiress ends her question, and I have to jump through a few mental hoops to gather back the broken segments of the conversation.

Right, we were studying friction in physics.

Blergh, my nemesis: complex applied math.

Give me abstracts or economics one every day of the week instead, please.

Don't know why, but that particular brand of algebra just never clicked with me for some goddamn reason.

Neil Degrasse Tyson, I am most assuredly not.

Don't get me wrong, I can talk space-trivia for literally hours, but the logic of the physics behind it? Don't even bother.

I give her a distracted nod while looking at my plate, idly wondering what I should eat first.

"Yeah, I knew," I answer lazily, my attention being mostly taken by the dessert of the day, for some reason, "When you really think about it, there's a reason why no objects can travel indefinitely, even when you launch them at impossible speed. So it's either because they lose speed due to their own weight, so because of the gravity, or because they have to deal with some form of resistance, most often than not the air's, and so because of the friction.

"The only way an object could travel at the same speed for an infinite duration would then be in space, because there's no air, as long as it's away from the gravitational influence of some kind of planetoids. However, extracting yourself from that kind of pull is harder than you might think, since the one of the sun is literally the width of the solar system. And that would only be possible if you don't take into account the influence of micro meteorites or the likes, those impacts could potentially either accelerate or slow it down." I rattle on, before finally caving in, and swallowing the nato based treat in one bite.

Mmh, yummy.

I blink back to the conversation after my short moment of sugary bliss, and am instantly greeted by two slightly amazed looks.

Uh, right, maybe that was a bit too much random knowledge trivia?

I chuckle awkwardly.

"Too nerdy, maybe?" I trail off.

"Are you kidding? That was-" Rias start to gushes, making me quite uncomfortable, because, well, that's just me nerding out-

"Gremory-san, Himejima-san."

-but that's as far as she goes as a voice interrupts her, one that she recognizes instantly -and the half fallen angel at her side too- if the way she perks up is anything to go by.

I watch, a bit amusedly and secretly quite relieved, because I wasn't quite ready for another round of 'you're awesome!' and the likes -Rias can be, let's say, enthused at times in her praises, it turns out- as the Gremory heiress somehow manages to light up almost twice as much as before when her eyes land on Sona Sitri-

-and her Queen, if I recall correctly?

Oh.

Oh.

That's actually quite embarrassing, because I totally forgot her name, as well as anything else about her beyond the fact that she's a Four Principal Clan reject due to her having Sacred Gear -Mirror Alice, if I recall correctly?- and fights with a Naginata?

Maybe a surname would help?

How about 'Lamer Akeno'?

…Maybe that's a bit mean, especially when you consider that, if my knowledge by osmosis doesn't fail me, she's the only Queen in-setting who somehow manages to remember that all her parameters are raised by her evil piece, and not only her magical might.

…But that's also funnier, so, I think I'm going to run along with it in the privacy of my mind.

Of course, by the time I finished dubbing Lamer Akeno, Rias had somehow managed to remember my presence, whirling around in her seat after having invited her two fellow devils for a seat under my slightly 'confused' look.

She sheepishly smiles at me, her own Queen looking quite amused at the happenings -probably because her ditzy and nerdy King did another social oopsie-, before introducing us.

"Right, sorry for that, I didn't even ask if you minded, Prima-chan," she starts, and I watch in the corner of my eyes the minute raise of the eyebrows of the Sitri heiress and her Queen both at the use of the suffix, "It's just, Sona-chan-" I note, amusingly, the almost imperceptible twitch of the dark haired girl's eyebrow, "-and I go way back, we're childhood friends!"

"Understandable," I 'magnanimously allow', the upturn of my lips clearly communicating that I'm paying her social blunders -at least in the eyes of a true-born Japanese- absolutely no mind, before giving a nod to the two newcomers, "Hanako Prima, well met."

"Shitori Sona." the Sitri heiress lies through her teeth.

"Shinra Tsubaki." Lamer Akeno introduces herself, and, right, that was her name.

…I really should be less of a bitch with her, though, because she's kinda cute with her heterochromatic eyes and general 'step on me mommy'-vibe.

Maybe later, for now, I have something extremely important to do.

I 'perk up', before giving Sona a winning smile.

"Two fellow Japanese?" I 'wonder' aloud, making Sona not-quite flinch, but I have to admit that I wouldn't have caught it if I hadn't been carefully paying attention to it, with how fast she caught herself, "My, I wonder how you two met, then," I carry on, darting my eyes in Rias' direction, the crimson headed devil not as good as her friend at hiding her discomfort, "That must be quite the story."

I grin inwardly as I watch them trade a look, the one only long-time friend can do, trying to find a way out of this mess.

Sona, for some reason, choses to take the plunge, and cough daintily.

"Maybe another day," once she manages to find a lie adequate enough is what she doesn't say, but that's what you get when you decide to adopt a Japanese surname to 'blend in', you absolute hack, "For now, I was hoping to catch up with my friend."

I narrow my eyes a notch.

…Did this bitch just send me packing like I was a dirty sock or am I hallucinating?

…If the Disinterest and Disdain wafting from her in the Immaterium is anything to go by, she did.

Alright, I don't care if you're the little sister of the most overpowered MagicalGirl in existence, because I'm going to get back at you for this, mark my fucking words.

I don't know how, but I will find a way to curse you to step on Legos barefoot five times a day, you stuck up-

"Sona!" Rias exclaims, visibly taken aback, and quite upset, "Don't be mean to my friend!"

Sona blinks, straightening slightly in her seat.

Oh?

She trades another look with her fellow King, apparently witnessing something in the two sky blue orbs of the Gremory heiress that makes her almost wince, before exhaling slowly.

"I apologize, that was uncalled for." she demures, but I can see that it costs her, "We will be able to talk later anyway."

Yeah, yeah, don't think you're off the hook yet.

Contrary to mine, Rias' mood instantly does a one eighty, back to her happy, peppy self in a flash.

"So!" she starts, a bit too forcefully and artificially for it not being an unsaid 'be nice, or else!' to her fellow King, "How has school been for you, Sona-chan?"

"It's been well," the glass wearing girl -and I'm almost certain it's a fashion choice more than anything else because I refuse to believe that devils have vision problems worth of note- "The pace is adequate, if a bit slow at times," -which, wow, girl, way to call the people around you dumbasses- "But I'm liking it so far."

Man, if I wasn't aware of the current subtext, I would be quite perplexed by her attitude.

But, as opposed to Rias, she's here mainly for two things: flush out her peerage and learn how to run a school properly because she somehow managed to convince herself that her 'Rating Game Academia' or something wasn't going to be instantly nixed in the bud by the retrograde fossils running the show from the shadows down below.

Quite the blinders on this one.

Or maybe it's the glasses that stop her from seeing the issue, who knows?

Whatever: Devils, everyone.

"No way!" Rias exclaims -she does that quite a lot-, "I had some troubles focusing, though…"

As the Gremory heiress trails off awkwardly, Sona's expression turns a bit complicated.

Yeah, you just offhandedly called your friend a moron, I'd be a bit constipated too in your spot.

"You'll manage, Rias, I believe in you." she swears, and, despite my own misgivings, I can't help my -badly frayed- estimation of her character from raising a few notches, "Oh, did you hear?"

"What?" the crimson headed devil cheers up, and if it is because Sona changed the subject or due to the ancient and arcane art of gossip, I do not know.

"There is a delinquent in our year." the Sitri heiress starts conspiratorially-

-and I almost fall off my chair in laughter, because I swear I can see where this is going and it's going to be absolutely hilarious.

"Oh?" Rias curiously emotes, inching herself forward on her chair, Sona subconsciously mirroring her.

Guess they really are childhood friends if they mimic each other without even realizing it.

"Yeah, there's this girl, I didn't quite catch her name, but quite a few first years were talking about her." Sona pauses dramatically, "You would never guess it…"

She trails off, showing off her intellectual might, making Rias do a little 'umu' of not-quite anticipation, I guess, and the two Queens around drink her words.

…She's a bit of a closeted attention-whore, it'd seem, otherwise she wouldn't put so many airs.

"...But she's tattooed." she drops.

I snort.

Everyone around the table looks at me, Rias absolutely mortified, Akeno's own expression a bit complicated, and the two others throwing me confused looks.

"Actually, Shitori-san," I start mildly, "That would be me you were talking about."

Two jaws drops, the Sitri heiress and her Queen not really knowing what to do at that.

I explode in laughter.

[AN: 'Oopsie'.

I don't really know why, but I got that headcanon that Sona started out quite a bit stronger than we see her in canon on the 'stuck up'-scale.

So, since I was supposed to eventually introduce her, I at least wanted to make the whole thing funny.

Hope you enjoy, xoxo]