Chapter 43 : Tempus Fugit - At long last
I couldn't help but remark to myself that this, all of this, was getting easier and easier as I looked through half-lidded eyes at all of the projectiles flying, orbiting harmoniously around me.
It was the end of October, the 29th to be precise, and I could now juggle thousands of objects at the same time without much effort.
Skully's reading had me just shy of two percent 'warpiness' as of this morning, and I was really starting to feel the difference.
For one, my range had increased, in a sort of non-linear way, I was now almost covering the whole city when fully relaxed, from what I could deduce.
I wasn't living in downtown proper, after all, my little house being in the north-eastern quadrant of Kuoh, which meant that I tended to expand just as much into the nearby forest as I did into inhabited grounds.
It also meant that I still did not have a full coverage of the warehouse sector, since it was literally at the far off extreme of my own position, and I was kind of dreading the moment where it came fully into my radius of influence.
It wasn't because I only really slept a night or so a week that I wasn't already anticipating my rest getting interrupted on the regular because a supernatural being decided to act up and the subsequent crankiness it would put me in.
Granted, there wasn't a lot of those, since it was a very thin slice of devil territory amid a sea of shinto controlled ones and it was easier for the locals to avoid Satan Sisters Central than to bow to their nepotistically enforced rule, but 'warehouse equal shifty things' is a trope for a reason, all the more in the masquerade-type of setting I was now living in.
So I fully expected to be awakened more regularly once this part of the town would open its secrets to me and the idea really didn't have me sparkling with joy.
Secondly, the progress was apparently subtle enough not to ruin my control, which was a pleasant realization, since it meant that I could keep progressing on my abilities while simultaneously getting more powerful without sacrificing anything.
Considering my current lack of progress on the Touki side of things, something that couldn't be helped since I had to spread myself in multiple directions while my current training buddy, and slave-driver, did not, I was taking any win that I could.
It chafed a little, since I had been the one to get him on track, but Toroko-san was progressing in strides in comparison to me, the fifty something man now able to bench weights he wouldn't have dreamt off three decades earlier, just because he was motivated.
I was motivated too, but, apparently, not enough for it to make a difference.
Finally, the Voices kept getting more and more manageable, the powerful migraines I had been assaulted by each morning -the term debatable, since it was only the case when I went to sleep proper- now reduced to dully annoying headaches, and the Whispers' yammerings less insistent as time went on.
I was making progress, having even run out of ball bearings to train with a few days ago, but the pessimist in me kept telling me that it was too slow and that I wouldn't be ready in time.
Yet, I trudged on, I kept building an unassailable tower of strength to shield me from evil, one day at a time.
I slowly let out a low exhale, before bringing my hands closer together, pulling the orbiting objects -still mainly ball bearings, but with too much of other things now mixed in to properly account for them all- closer together before slowly letting them stream down into a shoebox.
I raise myself from my seated position on my meditation mat, give a friendly head pat to Skully, before going to make myself something to eat, fully intent on reviewing my various schoolworks afterwards, and then go back to the mental grind.
My routine kept going, always, everyday, even as the days went by.
I cannot help the little smug, self-satisfied smirk from quirking up my lips as I look at the results of the midterms.
Seventh spot, again, and for the third time in a row if you accounted for the end of term results too.
It's funny, in a way, since it almost looked like I took a subscription for it, what with the eerie regularity I landed it.
In truth? It was me putting the bare minimum of effort needed to be good academically -I was finally not as lost in history as I started- and what could only be called sheer, dumb luck on my part.
I should have probably felt kind of bad, what with my plump and perky ass exploiting adult maturity and college-level methodology to casually make Japanese education the equivalent of a stroll in the park, but, considering I needed those good grades to have even a smidgen of a hope to get the hell out of Kuoh before canon reared its ugly head, I really did not.
Multiple of my peers were, after all, benefiting from some kind of advantages too, mine just so happened to be a little out of context is all.
"You did it again, Prima-chan!" A certain crimson headed devil happily chirps next to me, moments before swallowing me in a glomping hug, "Congratulations!"
I go to answer, before swallowing my words for a beat, throwing a cursory glance toward the bulletin board-
19th spot: Gremory, Rias.
-before looking back at her, a winning smile etched on my lips too as I hug the excitable heiress back.
"And congratulations back to you, Rias." I tell her sincerely, "You even improved."
"Umu!" She gives me a big, affirmative nod -and I won't acknowledge the sound she just made- before answering, "It's because I was very motivated, and you also helped me!"
I can only smile wanly, feeling the Amusement of a certain nearby Queen, a few more puzzled reaction from the other devils around-
-all of that, amid the general feel of Quiet Awe which had steadily grown in my vicinity during the last few weeks.
I had been a bit in denial at first, but I had to eventually face the music in truth.
Thing is, I hadn't been that far from the spot when I had mused to myself that I was developing into some kind of Pseudo-Primarch as I steadily took more of the Warp into both my body and mind-soul.
And there were obviously a few consequences at that, the first among those being Supernatural Charisma.
To my dismay, I was becoming popular, something that I could mitigate with the proper aura to counterbalance -channeling Apathy, for one- but which was indiscriminate.
Which meant tipping the devils off once they started to notice the inconsistencies.
It was, by consequence, easier to just go with the flow, especially since I kind of entered the same category as Rias and Akeno had by accident, the 'too cool for us lowly mortals' kind.
From what I could decipher from the various imprints on the Immaterium surrounding us, the three of us had started to gather a certain amount of admirers, perfectly happy to watch us from afar, like some kind of odd offshoots of respectful paparazzis, which was confusing to say the least since I still looked like a no-shit given Yakuza offspring, Rias still acted like a nerdy goof most of the time, and Akeno kept to her role of 'I'm so done with school' straight woman persona.
It was as if the narrative conspired to make us some kind of untouchable ideals, even when we were still individually completely flawed.
Or, there was some kind of hypnosis bullshit going on that I wasn't aware of.
Probably, possibly Akeno's doing, just so she didn't have to deal with normies intruding in our little group.
On one hand, it was annoying, since I had to put up with a lot more attention than I ever got used to in both of my lives so far, but, on the other, it also acted as a sort of ultimate social lubricant, something to smooth around the edges of my usually rather blunt persona, so I guess I couldn't complain that much-
-but, at the same time, it wasn't entirely perfect, since I still could feel Envy, Disgust and Hate wafting around some individuals of choice in the crowd-
-and I was paying them not a smidgen of attention.
After all, it wasn't like they could really inconvenience me or something.
They were only baselines, as sad as it was.
They were all eating out of the palm of her hand, all of them, silently being in awe of that shitty, upstart orphan, one which didn't know its place in the world.
They all had been too quick to forget how they viewed her with distrust before the summer's break, before the first midterms results fell, before the Kendo tourneys started-
-and now, she was like a queen, loftily walking among her subjects without paying them any mind, only interacting with her peers and no one else, even going as far as rejecting the generosity of the future –and now elected- StuCo president in public!
No class, no decency, no shame, no propriety-
-and, above all else, the stupid girl had slighted her.
Her, the Yozoroa heiress.
"-san?"
She still remembered Himejima-san's warning, of course, how could she not, but, she also got the time to realize that it was nothing than a paper tiger, a threat with no bite behind it, after all these months -and hundred of thousand of yens spent investigating the dark haired girl's background- and she knew, she just knew, that the other, the Gremory one, was a weak willed, little thing, who wouldn't even defend herself.
So, when the time came to choose between the upstart and the red haired aristocrat, she knew where the servant's loyalty would land.
"Yozoroa-san?" The voice of one of her cronies wrenches her out of her thoughts, prompting her to scowl in her direction, making her stop drilling a hole in the upstart's back.
"What?" She clips, taking delight in watching her subordinate squirm.
"A-Are you alright, Yozoroa-san?" The girl answers, intently looking at one of her hands-
-making the heiress realizes how tightly her fists were clenched.
Relaxing her grip a little, she brings her attention back on the 'popular trio', spearing the upstart with her vicious gaze.
"I'm fine." She hisses-
-and, in a way, she is.
Because she's about to have her revenge, at long last.
[AN: Merry Cliffhanger, hoe hoe hoe~
(pun intended)
Nah, did you really think that I would forget about the little miss 'antagonist material' that I introduced back in Ch. 6?
Of course I didn't! I even made a callback to her sorry ass during the last midterms!
Yes, she's obviously biting more than she could ever hope to chew, but it doesn't mean that it won't make Prima's life difficult.
Hope you enjoy, xoxo]