Chapter 8 : Fallen musings.
Akeno had to admit it, but the girl her King took a liking to seemingly out of nowhere was probably a little more than meets the eyes.
Now, the half fallen wasn't giving any credits to Rias' fantasies about Hanako Prima being some kind of protagonist or such nonsense, but, nonetheless, the girl was a study in contrasts all by herself, which made her intriguing.
The way she had reacted when provoked by that little, worthless, worm, while she had acted calm and collected -or with humorous self-depreciation when put on the spot by Sona Sitri- at all times with them was an interesting little quirk in itself, but the half-fallen was willing to bet there was some unresolved issues here.
It wasn't common, after all, for a baseline human, to go from zero to one hundred on aggression like that.
It was even odder that she seemingly succeeded in calming herself in barely a few seconds after that.
Granted, her own example of anger issue management was Kiba, and the Knight would only really fly off his handle if you mentioned a certain sword, but maybe that was it?
Everybody had their quirks, after all, so maybe Prima had a bit of a temper that she had learned to manage?
She did seem like she was regularly practicing some kind of meditation, so maybe it was in a bid to curb the problem?
Akeno heavily doubted, after all, that it was some kind of dark, secret power, like her King kept suggesting since yesterday.
It was fantastical, ludicrous even: the girl had barely any mana, even if she had a scarily mean hook.
Akeno would still investigate come the weekend, discreetly, through her familiars, just in case, to be perfectly sure and certain that the odd girl that had caught her King's eye didn't have any kind of nefarious intent toward the, at times, strangely naive for her kind high-class devil.
In the meantime-
"Prima-chan, good morning!" her King's cheerful call wrenches the Queen from her musings, prompting her to look in the direction the teenager redhead is bouncing towards.
Akeno's eyes narrow a notch, as she, quickly and discreetly, gauges her King's human friend.
She seems well kept together, like the two previous days, her uniform straight and kept immaculate, which, considering what she now knew the girl was living by herself, would indicate a modicum of discipline.
Granted, she had mentioned having grown up in an orphanage affiliated with the local military, so that could explain it.
…And, maybe, also put a light on the origin of her tattoos, which the half-fallen still had some trouble wrapping her head around, even if close to a decade lived in Hell had dulled her perception of such things.
But that was her, while living surrounded by creatures of sin, not some random fifteen going on sixteen year old human.
The Queen kept watching, as the oddly straight posture, even when she tried to play it cool while affecting a slouch, of Hanako Prima relaxes as she catches Rias not-quite throwing herself her way, her neutral mien softening into something more amenable.
Inwardly, Akeno chuckles to herself.
Strange how two relatively odd birds would be pulled together like that, she muses.
A devil who made every stereotype of her race lie, and a human who was -allegedly- doing everything in her power to flee her birth country, despite having been raised in an environment that should've fostered some kind of patriotic fiber in her, if only by osmosis.
On paper, especially considering Rias' hobbies and overall fixations with Japan, they should have never meshed, not by a long shot.
Yet, the girl remained accepting, had even volunteered some tips and advices -the same ones Akeno herself had told her King, in truth, and it grated her a bit that the redhead had drank the human's words like honeyed milk while hers were almost dismissed-, and endured a whole lunch break of discussion about how Japan was 'totes awesome' without getting annoyed.
Akeno couldn't wait to see how the human would react to Rias' exuberance when the word 'anime' will get uttered in a ten meters radius around her for the first time.
Nonetheless, her acceptance seemed genuine, and, in a funny way, kind of resigned, as if she almost expected it.
…Which raised a few alarms bells, but, beyond the strange iconography adorning her body -the 'Duty is Forever' one now having an entire new meaning to the half-fallen-, and the fact that she seemed oddly sharp at times -which church inquisitors weren't really rumored to, zealotry tending to numb higher cerebral functions more than anything else-, she behaved more like the token introvert getting swept in the rhythm of their more extroverted peer.
And, ultimately, Akeno suspected that if Rias really wanted to do something Prima didn't, the human would say no without flinching, so at least she wouldn't be some kind of enabler of her worst tendencies.
…The half-fallen would have to have a quick chat with her about those 'conventions' Rias keeps raving about, because she wasn't so hot with the idea of going herself, and if she could have an ally in her corner when the timing was nearby, she'd be quite relieved indeed.
She keeps watching, as the two start to chatter, herself offering a polite greeting, as is proper-
-only barely catching a little wince of discomfort as the human girl takes a step, making her eyebrow shot skyward almost imperceptibly.
Could it be?
"Ufufufu~" she giggles daintily, one hand hiding her mouth, "My, did you strain something yesterday, Hanako-san? Or is there another reason you would be sore, hmm?"
Two dark-blue eyes locks with hers, the dark-brown bangs flowing with the motion-
-and the human girl gives her a bored eyeroll, which would be totally uncouth in polite society.
Akeno was still on the fence about her King's desire to maybe make an offer to the human girl after a while, but she'd pay dearly to see her do the same thing to one of those stuffy -even for Japanese born like herself-, prickly, old devils down there.
"Again with the innuendos, I see." the girl with the side-shave drawls, amusing Akeno greatly, since, for once, someone wasn't getting easily flustered by her 'jabs', "I went back to the gym yesterday, yes. And my coach is still an absolute slave-driver.
"You know…" she carries on, eyes squinted in thought, "I think you two could actually use those, now that I think about it."
The half-fallen greatly doubted it, but decided to bite nonetheless, opening her mouth-
-only for her King to beat her to the punch.
"Oh? Why's that?" the Gremory heiress asks, head tilted and finger on her chin.
"Well, don't tell me you two never have some kind of back problems, with those…" she trails, before gesturing with her free hand at chest level, the other thrown over her shoulder, her school bag dangling from it behind her back.
Akeno watches amusedly as her King blinks, before looking downward, right into her bust.
Alas, Hanako Prima doesn't know that-
"I'm afraid I don't quite get it, Prima-chan."
-as a devil, and with her own body image powered partly through what is colloquially called Imagination Magic, her King would be the last person on Earth to suffer from back pains due to the size of her bust.
Akeno herself too, for that matter.
"I think that Hanako-san is alluding to the possibility of us facing some kind of difficulties in the future due to being slightly more, let's say, top-heavy than the norm." the Queen chimes in politely.
"Oh…" Rias trails, a bit confusedly, before trading a look screaming 'that's a thing with humans?' with her, to which she can only nod her assent back as discreetly as possible.
"I mean," her King starts, chuckling a bit awkwardly, "I never had those?"
"Lucky you, I guess." the human girl answers easily, right as the bell rings, the trio of them starting to make their way through the crowd, "Just keep in mind that it could help if some days it becomes too much.
"Still, as far as I can tell, a bit of exercise can only do you some good."
Once again, Akeno's eyes narrow imperceptibly.
It was, after all, a sentence uttered by the same girl that had ranked the top spot -in her mind, her and Rias were a non-factor- at the sports examination yesterday.
She wouldn't say that the girl was built exactly, more like sporting an overall light definition, which should've indicated that she was used to physical exertion, especially accounting for those kinds of results.
But here, she was speaking like someone who had only recently discovered the concept and begrudgingly accepted it as a fact of life.
"It isn't only about fitness, isn't it?" the half-fallen probes, eager to unravel that particular knot.
Idly, she watches as the human girl pauses, before humming consideringly under her breath.
"Well, no, not really." she admits after a beat, before gesturing with her free hand, "It's also because I want to keep my options open.
"And I figured that a good way to do that would be through the Kendo club." she elaborates, unknowingly startling the crimson headed devil in their midst, "If all else fails, at least I could find a way into the teenager national team. Could be a way to raise some funds before going abroad, I figured."
"You seem oddly confident about your chances to make it, do you have any previous experiences, Hanako-san?" Akeno curiously asks as her King tries to find her words, the half-fallen already having an inkling as to what exactly is troubling her.
"Eh, you could say that." the human girl admits with one of those one shoulder shrugs she seems oddly fond of, "I know my way around the sword, did some kind of HEMA before. Should transfer easily enough to whacking people with a bamboo stick, I figured."
Well, isn't that neat.
Knows her way around a sword, possible anger issues: looks like Kiba and her have more things in common than she would've thought.
Akeno titters.
"'Whacking people with a bamboo stick', my, I hope the club's captain won't hear you say that." she points out amusingly.
"My reputation's probably already shot anyway, so, what's a little bit more fuel to the bonfire at this point." the dark-blue eyed girl answers, visibly nonplussed by the whole thing.
Though she'd be wrong, considering the Queen had graciously done her duty to shield her from possible retaliation, after the delightful little show she had given her.
That, plus the fact that otherwise, her King would've done it herself, considering how mad she had gotten over the whole debacle, going as far as leaking a little of her power instinctually, even if no one had truly noticed it, and that it was her job to anticipate her needs.
"Prima-chan…" her King trails off, a bit awkwardly, prompting her newfound friend to look her way, "You're really going to go for the Kendo club?"
Akeno watches as the dark-brown haired girl blink, before nodding.
"Yeah, I am." she answers simply.
"Oh." the Gremory heiress emotes, a bit lamely.
The half-fallen hesitates, before steeling herself, resolving to-
"Let me guess, you wanted to get in a club with me?" the human girl prompts, halting Akeno's train of thoughts, and making her King blinks in turn, before smiling sheepishly.
"I mean, kinda?" the redhead answers hesitantly.
Her King did, after all, have a plan to set up a club of sorts where their little family would hang out together after class, and it wasn't surprising the half-fallen that much that she had hopped to bring the human girl closer to them this way, to 'ease her into things', probably.
In her own opinion, she was simultaneously both rushing things and taking things too slow at the same time.
Her King should make her proposition in a few months, once they have had time to see if she was truly a proper fit for the peerage.
At the very least, Akeno figured she'd make a more than decent Rook, considering her above average physical capabilities.
"Gremory-, no, Rias: it's not because we don't do everything together that it suddenly means we can't be friends anymore, you know that, right?" the human girl good-humoredly points out, "We're already hanging out during school hours, and I figured we'd eventually do something outside on the weekends, so don't let it bother you that much, alright?"
Akeno watches as her King perks up, as if she hadn't really consider things under that angle until it was properly put into words, before beaming back Prima's way, nodding, and, to the half-fallen's dismay, 'umu'-ing in assent.
She doesn't know when, but she will find the particular mangaka that contaminated her King's mind with this abhorrent quirk and will give them a piece of her mind.
But, at last, her brewing resolve simmer, and all things are good in the world, as Rias' new friend manages to keep her King's mood upbeat.
Really, if anything, she was scarily good at that.
[AN: and cut!
I kept hemming and hawing about what to do next, but then I realized that I should probably do the last PoV that was missing from the base trio, to solidify the characterization.
So, here comes Queen Akeno's own thoughts about all of what has happened recently.
Hope you enjoy, xoxo]