Chapter 15 : Tempus Fugit - Taking the plunge.

"Alright, spill," I finally give up, my curiosity getting the better of me, even if I have the feeling that the following discussion was better not touched with a ten foot pole, "What happened to get you so down, Gremory-san?"

Because seeing the crimson headed devil, usually so peepy and happy that her smile can light up a room, being this downcast, steeped in Sadness, Upset and Regret, as the iconic duo and I sit at one of the cafeteria tables, kind of tugs at my heartstrings.

I mean, I'm still not totally over what happened at the beginning of the week myself, so I'll fully admit that I haven't been a very good friend these last few days, considering how far my head was in my ass, but when I had been down, she had tried to cheer me up.

So basic decency and our friendship dictated that I at least try to understand what the fuck was going on, especially considering that Akeno's own emotions were leaving an imprint way more positive in the Immaterium, which kinda weirded me out.

If anything, I expected their emotional responses to be sort of in tune with each other, considering they had roughly similar interests, bar, let's say, the half-fallen's tendencies and her King's weebiness.

"It's nothing." she mumble-lies, badly, still listlessly poking at her food with her chopsticks, her usual effortlessly regal pose, probably cultivated through hours upon end of etiquette training, completely absent as she rests her head against her hand, half-slouched forward on the table.

I raise an eyebrow at that, before throwing a 'can you believe this shit?' look Akeno's way.

The jade-black haired beauty tries, she really does, to keep quiet, but my stare ends up doing her in a few seconds.

"I'm afraid she got in quite the spat with the other girls, Hanako-san." the purple eyed girl informs me politely, radiating Delight for some god forsaken reasons, her spilling the beans all the impetus needed for Rias to scowl her way, a look of warning in her eyes-

-which apparently does jack-shit as her Queen carries on, unimpeded.

"She overheard them talking about herself behind her back for her choice of hobbies, and that has left her quite upset." she elaborates, ignoring a quiet, indignant, 'mou!' from her King-

-before throwing a 'there, you asked, now find a way to cheer her up if you're so smart' look back my way, prompting me to blink.

Oh.

Oh.

That would explain why the two 'Great ladies' never really interacted with the plebe in canon, uh?

…Now that I really think about it, Akeno probably doesn't really give a shit about this whole 'playing at high school girl'-shtick and must be only going along with it for Rias' sake.

Is that why the two have diametrically opposed reactions to this event?

Alright, let me see if I have this straight: Rias probably befriended the popular crowd, which probably wasn't made of the sharpest knives in the drawer, and considering we're in a richie girl high school…

I wince outwardly, before looking at the despondent heiress of destruction.

They were vapid, shallow bitches, weren't they?

One question remains though: how the fuck the rumor mill still hasn't made her social life a living hell for being the weebiest weeb that ever weebed?

…The answer has to be hypnosis, isn't it?

That would explain the Regret she's wallowing in, then.

I look back at Akeno, not even having to peer through the Immaterium to feel the Smug she's radiating despite her neutral expression.

She must have really hated spending time among that crowd, if even seeing her King so down doesn't at least a little bit annoy her.

I sigh lightly.

"You know," I start conversationally, making Rias very lightly perk up, "If they weren't ready to accept you for who you are once you go past the pretty face and good manners, they probably weren't really good friends material to begin with anyway.

"What I'm trying to say," I carry on as she slowly locks her sky blue eyes with mine, gesturing idly with my own chopsticks, "Is that a true friend doesn't judge you for what you like."

I pause, tilting my head a notch.

"With some exceptions, of course: I'm not gonna lie, but I'm going to run for the hills without looking back if you tell me that you have a craving for baby's flesh." I joke, throwing a wink for emphasis.

That seems to do the trick as Rias looks at me with an absolutely scandalized expression, Akeno next to her laughing daintily behind her hand.

Now that I think about it, casually joking about infants is probably a sort of taboo for a race with a fertility issue, uh.

"N-No!" the Gremory heiress stutters, to my great -albeit a bit tainted due to my darkish humor- amusement, "That's not it! Or anything quite that bad! I mean…"

She trails off, chewing on her words, her expression a tad complicated -which, understandable, the girl just got burnt once not even a day ago if I got the timing right-, before sighing.

"I like manga and anime, alright?" she admits quietly, one hand coming to rub her opposite upper arm in visible discomfort, "...Maybe a tad more than other people."

I slowly blink, throwing a 'and?' look towards Akeno, who can only minutely shrug in answer.

Thank you for the help, not.

"I mean, yeah?" I voice aloud while looking back at the crimson headed devil, playing up my confusion a bit, "Wasn't it kind of obvious?"

"Uh?" Rias answers, a bit taken aback.

"We've been speaking with each other for a bit, yes?" I point out, an eyebrow arched, prompting the heiress of destruction to nod a bit jerkily after a beat, "And despite being friends with Himejima-san," I valiantly hold a snicker as I see the two nearly imperceptibly flinch, "Your views on Japan are a bit romanticized."

I'm downplaying it hard here, because I think I've never talked to someone so in love with the country since my own high-school days a whole life back.

"It isn't that hard to understand that you got most of your knowledge through some kind of media, anime and manga being the two most likely culprits." I end up my explanation, visibly nonplussed.

I mean, I was a bit of a weeb myself more than a decade ago, so I'm not going to throw stones on that particular glass house in the first place, but I'm trying to convey that I don't really give a damn if she spends most of her time watching shounens on her TV screen.

"...You don't find that weird?" she asks, nearly in a whisper.

I throw her a slightly weirded out look.

"No?" I answer, my tone full of cautious disbelief, "You're a European and apparently chose to come here for school. You'd have to either have a very good reason, or some kind of passion to commit the kind of time, money and effort you needed to learn the language, find a place to live in, transfer, and so on, and so on."

Once again, it's a bit hard to stay entirely serious when you can almost catch the slightly panicky looks the two devils trade between themselves, because it sure as hell wasn't as hard as I make it sound for them.

Step 1: learn the written form of Japanese with the help of my Queen who already knows it and my own devil bullshit.

Step 2: beg my Satan brother for a territory in Japan.

Step 3: use hypnosis on the locals to facilitate the whole process.

Step 4: ???

Step 5: Profit.

Or something along those lines, anyway.

"So, yeah, maybe you're a bit of an otaku, but, really, who gives a damn about it?" I carry on easily, "You do what you want with your life."

I pause, before adding.

"Don't force me to watch Drag-so-ball with you next time I come over, though."

"Mou?"

"No, really: I swear that if you try, I'm going to find a way to make you pay."

"Mou!"

"Though if you have some good yuri drama to recommend, by all means: I am all ears."

"M-Mou?!"

I smirk as I watch the heiress of destruction turn a very interesting shade of red while her Queen slowly blinks.

So you can actually fluster devils.

Good to know, good to know.

Besides, now at least she isn't moping anymore, so, task successful!

My mind is open to the flow of the Warp as I'm, once again, in a meditative trance in my Basement, the scent of the incense not even registering at this point.

I lose myself in those alien vistas of coruscant, multi-hued colors, some that exist, others that shouldn't, the emotions, voices and thoughts of a whole universe washing above, under and around me.

I am an immovable pillar, standing stalwart in the sea of maybes and possibilities.

In the real world, my breath is almost mechanical in its cadence, memories-not-my-own still hand holding, guiding me as I make those inherited instincts a proper, deliberate, second nature.

I see-not-see, look-not-look all around in the local Immaterium, its ebbs and flows a thing of beauty, catching glimpses of raw, unfiltered emotions as they surface for but a moment, before they sink back in the soup of primordial psychic-soul stuff that is the Warp.

I'm alone.

Yet, I'm at peace.

In the real world, I exhale, a bit more deeply, before taking the metaphorical step I wanted to today.

Slowly, carefully, I start weaving a proper mental 'rope', for lack of a better word, linking myself and my mindself.

I take my time, partly taking from the Warp, partly from what makes me 'me', matching emotions and feelings with one another, positive, neutral and negative.

It takes a while, but it is expected, since this is my very first time.

An unknown length of time later, I'm done, and proceeds to try all I can think of to test my newly created 'anchor'.

I let part of it float, between me and 'me', in the currents of the Warp, and am quite relieved when no colors seep in, the link now properly isolated.

All of it is me, for as long as I keep holding mentally onto it.

It is done.

I am… not quite ready, if I have to be honest.

But I at least have to try, to see.

To bear witness.

In the material plane, my fists, leaning against my knees, tighten.

I take a deep breath, and I let my mindself sink in.

The currents are stronger when you go deep, when you delve in the flows of the sea of thoughts and souls, but I am pillar, I stand still and strong and unbending.

The currents strengthen, they get faster, more erratic, yet still, my anchor holds, the rope of myself linking me and 'me' holding tight.

I go deeper, always deeper.

It takes minutes, it takes days, it takes seconds, it takes hours-

-until I'm thrown off, almost making me lose my focus, but my mind is better than that, I am better than that-

-and I land, still whole, still connected, into the Lower Stratum, panning a look-not-look around-

-and I can't help but sigh in relief.

The vistas are more alien, riots of colors and not-colors, sounds and not-sounds, feelings and not-feelings, cascading over each other in fractal patterns, repeating infinitely.

It is magnificent, it is eerie.

It is fascinating, it is beautiful.

Yet, I can't help but notice one thing.

Here too, nothing resides.

Here too, I stand alone.

The local Immaterium is empty.

Slowly, back in the material plane, I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding.

ENTRY: Alpha-006

ANNO:0 - LOCAL:2009

LOCAL DATE: APRIL, 17TH

BEGINNING RECORD

"I went for a third stage meditation today, the practice that differentiates the wheat from the chaff back in good ol' 40K.

"In short: it determines your ability to go take a peek in the Lower Stratum before hauling ass back into your body before a daemon munches on your soul.

"If it sounds particularly stupid to you, I assure you: it's the same to me.

"Who the fuck even thought that was a bright idea deserves to be shot with a boltgun, like, seriously.

"I mean, it was already dangerous enough for me, but in a more turbulent sea, not knowing if you'll lose yourself in the Formless Wastes, or, even worse, the Realms of Chaos?

"I honestly do not want to even think about it.

"Though I presume it's a good way to differentiate future astropaths from simple operatives, if anything else.

"Anyway, enough digression, back to the matter at hand.

"The Lower Stratum is as empty as the Upper one, which is both a good and a bad thing.

"Good, because it means that I probably can experiment without inviting undue attention from something way bigger, meaner and more dangerous than me.

"And bad because, well…

"Where are the things that are supposed to live in the Warp, if it is empty?"

ENDING RECORD

ENTRY Alpha-006: ARCHIVED

[AN: We be doin' a little dive today!

Oh, and I guess also concluding the 'why a social butterfly like Rias is playing aloof princess in canon?' arc too.

I'm taking a few liberties with how the Immaterium is constructed here, differentiating between the Upper and Lower stratum, with the Upper one being the one closest to the material plane, and the Lower forcing you to take a dive through the sea of souls and thoughts -like a Warp Engine would do to access FTL- to reach it.

The deeper you go, the thicker the Warp is, and more potent is the energy and power of the place.

Please, don't start throwing stones at me because I adapted a few things to fit better UwU.

Hope you enjoy, xoxo]