Chapter 27 : Tempus Fugit - Oh, wait…
Koneko was sleepy, and she badly wanted a nap after her training session in the morning, followed by having to forgo catching some z at her usual time and maybe eating a little too much cake.
Sadly, her well deserved catnap had to wait, since her King had a few questions for her pertaining to her new, strange, human friend now that she had finally left the manor's premises, two heavy bag filled with art supplies in her hands, and, to the Yokai's distress, the last part of the cake.
"So," Her King's ask, prompting the downtrodden white haired girl to minutely perk up, "What did you feel?"
Koneko raises her head, crossing eyes with her fellow peerage members -bar Gasper, obviously-, before locking eyes with Rias, taking a moment to mull over her words.
"Quiet. Serene." She ends up answering after a beat, idly noticing that her answer makes the sadistic half-fallen and the vengeful Knight slowly blink, even as the Gremory heiress remains focused, "Like a…"
"Yes, Koneko-chan?" The crimson headed devil cajoles as she trails off, looking for the appropriate way to explain what she felt with her supernatural senses.
The golden eyed girl bites her lip, before minutely shrugging when she doesn't find a better comparison.
After all, it was a bit like trying to explain colors to someone born blind, so she had some excuses if she was a little cryptic.
"Like a nap." The Yokai answers bluntly, making her King do a little double-take, "Serene to the point you'd sleep on her thighs better than a pillow."
There.
That was the best she'd probably ever come with, and it was also totally honest.
Especially considering those thighs did look mighty more comfy than even those of her King and Queen, and they were already prime nap spots if you asked for her own unbiased judgment.
That was the other reason why she was so goddam sleepy right now: the human's aura had done a number on her and it had admittedly been a struggle not to just snuggle up on her through sheer instinctual need and go say 'hi' to Morpheus.
"That…" The jade-black beauty in their midst begins, a bit haltingly, prompting the two others to look at her, her brows furrowed, "That was the last thing I expected to hear today."
"Would you care to elaborate?" Kiba politely asks.
"Well," The half-fallen starts, gesturing idly with one of her hand from her position next to their King, "She has all the telltale sign of someone with a really short fuse, between what happened earlier in the year, the general 'think what you want, that's how I think' attitude and the fact that she's always, always doing some kind of breathing exercise, even during PE, I would have bet a lot of money that she was like a coiled snake, always ready to bite or something.
"I expected some marks of aggression carefully hidden deep down, at the very least. Not…" She carries on, her expression scrunched in disbelief as she gestures in Koneko's direction, "Not feeling like a pillow you'd like to sleep on!"
"Unless…" She trails, before gaining an 'ah-ah!' air of enlightenment, complete with a finger snap, "Unless it's because she got laid yesterday!"
The bluntness and crassness of her statement makes Koneko very slowly and disdainfully blink, while her King and the sole boy in the room start to sputter in second-hand embarrassment.
"Pervert." The white haired girl drawls, even as she lets herself fall on her side, still intending to follow the conversation, but at the very least in a comfier position, i.e. leaning on her side and ready to take her well deserved catnap.
"A-Akeno!" The crimson headed devil berates, her face almost as red as her hair, "This is Prima-chan you're talking about!"
"I concur, this is a bit uncouth." The blond haired knight underlines, his own cheeks a little dusted.
If the half-fallen's eye roll is anything to go by, she doesn't really look impressed by the two's remarks.
"Don't give me that look, my King, that afterglow was pretty telling, and she even went as far as to confirm it because she knows that this way, I'll get off her back." The purple eyed girl drawls, "At least, she's both honest and more interesting than all those vapid little waste of space we have to deal with on the regular. Just a shame she never seems to get flustered."
"B-But! Argh!" Rias gears up, cheeks all puffed, only to slump not even a second later, to Koneko's amusement, "Can't you at least be a little less crass, please?"
"Fine, doesn't change my analysis, though."
"Yeah, sure. After all, it's not like you could be wrong, what with all your vaunted experience. Oh, wait…" The heiress bites back, making Kiba and Koneko both boggle-
-and if Akeno's absolutely poleaxed expression is anything to go by, looking like she just got slapped by her King, shutting the half-fallen up for once.
Alas, if the crimson headed devil's own shameful look is anything to go by, she's instantly regretting her overstep.
"I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean-" She babbles, a bit teary eyed-
-only for the jade-black haired beauty to sigh heavily, a hand raised in a halting motion.
"Don't. I get it. You care for the human girl and got angry on her behalf, even if she already demonstrated that she could fend for herself." The purple eyed girl commiserates, "Just, no low blow next time, alright?"
"Y-Yeah, I won't." Her King swears, complete with teary puppy eyes and a frantic nod.
For a bit, silence falls between their 'little family', the previous spat not nearly forgotten, and Koneko finds herself drifting off-
-only to barely repress a groan as the Gremory heiress starts talking again, forcing her to stay awake for a while longer.
"So, serene." Her King starts once more, forcing everyone to look back at her, "What could that possibly mean?"
"If this is so prevalent than Toujou-san felt it before any other kind of emotion…" The blond haired boy starts after a beat, "Could it be, possibly, a Sacred Gear of some sort?"
The statement makes everyone pause all around, Koneko's own brows scrunching a little.
"What?" She ends up asking, her voice slightly muffled through the pillow she's hugging for not-quite dear life, having taken hold of it at some point.
"What kind, huh?" The Gremory heiress elaborates her one-word statement, a hand coming to rub her chin, "Any idea, Akeno, Yuuto-kun?"
"Maybe something tied to the big guy upstairs, my King." The half-fallen hazards after a beat, "Blade Blacksmith, maybe? Could explain her expertise with a blade or interest in Kendo, at least tangentially. Still doesn't solve her rather disappointing mana capacity, though."
"Maybe it's still not activated, but some things still leak through? Yuuto-kun?" The crimson headed devil comments, before half-turning herself her Knight's way, an eyebrow questioningly arched.
"I…" The blue eyed boy starts, his plastic smile firmly locked in place and his knuckle white from tightening his fists too hard as they lay on his legs, "I do not have any idea, my King."
"...I'll look into it." Her King ends up saying after a beat, before making a dismissive gesture, "You're all free to do what you want for the rest of the day."
If some other things were said after that, Koneko would never know, for she was sound asleep not even a second after she got the go ahead.
"You're ahead of schedule, Shoujo-chan." Toroko-san idly remarks as I complete another set of reps under his careful looks, his arms crossed over his muscular chest.
I let go of the dumbbells, plastering my most innocent look on my face, even if I have an inkling as to what he is alluding to.
"What do you mean, Toroko-san?" I 'cluelessly' ask, taking this moment of respite to wipe out the beads of sweat on my forehead accumulated due to exertion, "I'm always at the gym at the same hour?"
The older man built like a shithouse derisively snorts, before giving me a rather hairy eyeball.
"I'm talking about your progress." He points out, one of his hand gesturing at the dumbbells I just let go off, "Even if you already did some fitness before, you barely need to do more than two different days with the same set of weight before being able to take the next step. Don't bullshit me, because I know.
"So, what's your deal? T, or something along those lines?"
At my frankly disgusted expression, his eyebrow raises somehow even higher.
I mull over my words, worryingly biting at my lower lips in thoughts.
I knew this was going to happen at some point, but I had no idea that it would be this soon, and even less with a baseline human.
Now, I could obviously pretend nothing is amiss, but that'd mean I lied to him, and I can probably kiss goodbye to his help, which had been momentous, especially since I unlocked my little bio-kinetic self-heal hack, if the inconsistencies starts pilling on-
-or I could at least offer a modicum of an explanation without going too deep into it.
Another lie, or admitting to something in good faith?
I take a deep breath, casting tHe VoIcEs a little further away, before exhaling.
"...It's my constitution." I admit after a bit, my eyes locked into his ridiculously tiny glasses, "I heal just a tiny bit faster from muscle tears than anyone else, hence…"
As I trail off while gesturing to the dumbbells, he slowly nods.
"...Hence the speed of your gains." He completes the statement, before his look sharpens, "You sure you don't take anything?"
"Nope," I answer, popping the p for emphasis and shaking my head in the negative for good measure, "It's all au naturel, as they say. I don't even recall getting sick even once, as an example."
Which is technically true, since I've never gotten sick since I got this body, and I probably never will as long as I can properly focus for a few minutes every day.
"Damn, Shoujo-chan, looks, smarts, even health. Some would say you've won the lottery or something." The bald man comments, visibly impressed.
My smile is a tad wooden as I answer back to him.
"Let's hope the other shoe never drops, then, eh?"
He snorts a laugh, before shaking his head.
"Whatever. You sure doing this-" he gestures all around us, "-isn't bad for your health, then?"
"I'm positive." I answer a tad more forcefully than is probably appropriate, "I wouldn't do it otherwise."
Not like I really have a choice anyway, since Supernaturals could reach a stupid level of strength and speed both, and being the squishy wizard archetype never was for me in the first place.
If anything, I was always more of a spellblade kind of girl.
Toroko-san keeps staring at me for a while longer, before slowly, decisively nodding at me.
"Well, then, carry on, Shoujo-chan." He states, and I bend over to get back to it-
-only for his next sentence to make me groan inwardly.
"Though we'll still do a T or steroid check, yeah? Not that I don't believe you but it's kinda hard to swallow." He starts seriously, before grinning widely, "Don't worry though, if it comes back as negative as you said it would, I'll only increase your training schedule."
His rotten bones save me from the slave-drivers in my life, I swear.
[AN: Prima-chan is a sussy baka 2: electric boogaloo.
Of course having an unwavering aura broadcasting one emotion on repeat would be a little suspect, and of course her trainer would smell something funky once she starts speeding her way to the gains, the guy isn't a dumbass just because he's made of muscles *roll eyes*
Hope you enjoy, xoxo]