Chapter 51 : Tempus Fugit - In one fell swoop.

++ENTRY: Alpha-245++
++ANNO:1 - LOCAL:2010++
++LOCAL DATE: JANUARY, 18TH++
++BEGINNING RECORD++

"My latest 'Warpiness checkup' earlier this morning put me at a five and a handful of hundredths percent ratio of body mass affected, indicating that the previously observed trend of additive growth is still holding strong for now.

"I took the opportunity to quickly verify that the psy-matrix of my Force Sword still recognized me, and wasn't able to detect a notable difference.

"In other news, now that my telekinesis practice has more-or-less reached a 'cap', I find myself unable to progress further this path, beyond the incremental progress tied to my rate of conversion.

"I'm still gaining in power each day, mind you, it's just that the gains, be it in number of items or precision, have started to become less and less noticeable.

"Considering how many items I'm able to juggle at the same time without getting overwhelmed, it isn't as distressing a perspective as it seems.

"I even suspect that I'll eventually be able to apply what I learned through my religious practice of the discipline into other fields, like, for example, a less instinctual practice of biomancy.

"Just imagine: building a body, cells by cells, millions of cells at a time, like in a time lapse video. How fucking rad would it be?

"Skully, remind me to brainstorm the actual meaning of this particular gimmick, just in case I'd need to pull it off in an emergency. Wellness will probably be the centerpiece, but I think it'll need to be refined.

"Anyway.

"Considering that my progress with telepathy keeps being as torturously slow as it is, in part because I'm only working on it begrudgingly, the study of the different feelings, or, more aptly put, Meanings associated with different mental images to create spells, is really what has started to take the most of my Warp training time.

"I got the idea two days ago, wanting to see if I'd be able to reproduce the wing-like construct I stumbled upon during my… little purge.

"To my surprise, it wasn't as hard as I thought it'd be.

"The spell has a basis into a broadly defined Hate, with notes of Anger, Rage, a dash of Retribution and a note of Righteousness, and that's it.

"In short, probably everything I was feeling in the moment, which sounds obvious now that I've said it out loud.

"This results bodes well, because it means I'll be able to iterate upon the few known spells I already know from my particular background, and make them something more.

"Until, later on, I'll be able to create my spells from scratch and/or in the heat of the moment."

++ENTRY: Alpha-245++
++ENDING RECORD++

Despite the fact that I more-or-less treated my new DevilPhoneTM like a hot potato, what with the fact that I was intimately aware that everything I did was probably recorded somewhere in one of Akuja Belzebuth's servers, I was extremely happy for Rias' not!Christmas' gift for one, solid reason.

The ability to listen to music where and when I wanted.

Yes, I could've done the same thing with a MP3 player, but those actually cost a pretty penny to a piss-poor orphan like me, and, until very recently -read yesterday- I didn't have the funds to spare to indulge in one of my passions.

Coincidentally, the fact that I now could pirate tunes once more to stuff into my fancy new phone forced me to go not-quite dumpster-dive, but close enough, on MySubway to check if the music scene was as poor as the anime one.

Imagine my surprise when I realized that it was, in fact, not so dissimilar to the one I grew up with.

Now, there were more than a few bands I knew who never formed -oh, the agony of not knowing Deftones' glory, truly a cursed world- or with different members -DxD Slipknot is very mid without his own out-of-this-world drummer- which made the experience feels like a uchronic fever dream.

Little variations here and there made it an intriguing journey.

Until I stumbled upon the German musical scene, and realized that most of my favorite groups dating back from my teenage years in my old-life were, quite literally, carbon copies of those I used to know.

Which is probably a little bit insulting now that I really think about it.

Anyway, I took a trip down nostalgia lane, loaded my new phone with some Rammstein, OOMPH!, the odd Sodom -the recently released eponym album still as good as I remembered- and what I could only think of as 'decent covers' of some of my favorite tunes in English, and have been blasting my ears off during my various commutes since the beginning of the year.

Now, why is all of this relevant with the situation at hands, as I lean against the wall near Kuoh High's entryway, my bag negligently held over my shoulder, a thick scarf shielding me from the cold and earbuds firmly lodged in my ears?

Because it is giving me a most exquisite background track as I relish in the scene happening in front of me.

Rias, bold as ever, accompanied by her ever faithful shadow of a Queen, breaking the mass of assembled bodies separating us like a particularly graceful icebreaker, bouncing all the while in excitement, a wide and happy smile firmly on her face.

And, all around her, people starting to notice that something isn't quite right, as eyes trail down her form, at first with the usual Envy and Awe, then with Confusion, shifting in a mixture of Bafflement and Horror, before, almost every time, zeroing on me with Anger.

Kuoh uniform's skirts are, after all, very short, and the crimson headed devil is extra-bouncy this morning, which means she's giving a show to approximately everyone, since she belongs in the no-tights crowd.

I also belong to her very limited circle of friends, the little black duckling who enticed herself in her good graces, and have allegedly inked myself from start to finish.

Really, the equation isn't really difficult to solve for the peanut gallery. I'm obviously the one responsible for this.

Moods shift all around, a symphony of colors resonating in the Empyrean in rhythm with my music and Rias' happy bounces, and it is beautiful.

I'm even going as far as channeling a trickle of Haste to savor it longer by accelerating my own perception.

It's not everyday that you're able to piss off this many people in one fell swoop, after all.

"Prima-chan!" The Gremory heiress enthusiastically glomps me, "How are you this morning?"

My lips quirk up.

"Peachy, Rias." I answer amusedly, taking the time to exchange a polite nod with an apparently equally as amused as I am Akeno, "Just peachy."

"What did you do?" An irate Sona Sitri hisses at us as soon as she reaches our cafeteria table, prompting Rias, Akeno and I to give her posse and her our full attention.

A quick glance to the other trio almost makes me want to guffaw.

The Sitri heiress looks like she's two seconds away from blowing up a fuse, brows furrowed intensely, her mouth sets dangerously flat, and her fists tightly clenched at her side.

Her Queen, Tsubaki Shinra, wears her disapproval so firmly on her face that I'm pretty sure that even a thick headed girl like me would have been able to pick upon it without my handy empathy blaring in my ears from this up close.

Completing the picture, her white haired bishop, Momo Hanakai, looks simultaneously awkward and anxious, probably because the two Kings are going to but heads on this and it doesn't take a genius to know that any conflict between Kuoh's co-owners is Bad Civilization.

I manage not to smirk, but it's a close call, ultimately smoothing out my expression into polite interest.

"What do you mean, Sona-chan?" Rias asks, her head tilted, chopsticks still in hands.

"What do I mean?!" Her kingly counterpart boggles, "Your latest stunt made you the talk of the whole school, Rias! The. Whole. School!"

I trade a very quick glance with the half-fallen in front of me, noticing that she's also struggling not to break into a laughing fit behind her perfect mien, the little glint of amusement in her eyes speaking miles about what she thinks of the situation.

Probably because she's been exposed to me for months by this point, and realized that, as devils, why would they fucking care about human arbitrary norms?

"Oh!" Rias visibly perks up, happily smiling, "My tattoo? It's no big deal, Sona-chan! Wait, I just realized, I haven't shown you, let me just-"

I admittedly have to bite my lips as my bubbly friend starts to rise herself up and Sona's complexion instantly whittens.

"Don't!" She snaps, her eyes almost half-lidded in anger at the idea of having to endure second handed shame if her childhood friend goes with her idea of flipping up her skirt in the middle of the cafeteria, "Stop making a scene! You've shamed yourself enough already!"

I wince.

When I look back to Rias, her complexion is absolutely poleaxed, her Queen next to her directing a frosty glare in the Sitri heiress' direction.

Who, apparently, isn't done burning bridge today, as she whirls to face me.

"And you!" She points a finger in my direction, making me raise a frankly unimpressed eyebrow, an action that her Queen apparently doesn't appreciate if her scrunching up her nose as if she has just smelled something foul is anything to go by, "You're the one who gave her this harebrained idea, don't deny it!"

My brows furrow.

In the corner of my eyes, I see Rias open her mouth, the hurt on her face still present yet willing to jump to my defense.

"Congratulations, you're making an ass of yourself." I drop flatly even as I set my chopsticks on the table with a resounding click, prompting the already distressed Bishop to cover her face to hide a low whine as the two black-haired devils look like I've just slapped them.

The Sitri heiress reels herself quickly enough, cheeks red with anger and opening her mouth to retort-

"Otherwise, you would have known that this was Rias' parents gift to her, and wouldn't trample on her feelings like so." I elaborate coldly.

-but I cut her mercilessly.

"...What?" She ends up asking after a beat, her eyes darting between the Gremory heiress and I.

"Months ago, Rias asked me to ink her. I said no, citing that I wasn't comfortable tattooing a minor without their parents and close family's express consent." I prelude, my tone still eerily flat, "I did this for two reasons.

"One, because this way I could have a legal shield in case someone got pissy enough to call the cops, what with the legislation being what it is in Japan.

"And two, to gauge her determination and be absolutely certain that it wasn't just a passing fancy."

I let a beat pass, realization flashing on the trio's faces.

"Imagine my surprise when, two weeks ago, she hands me a bonafide contract," I stress out the word to the three devils, Momo having gathered enough of her wits back to at least be able to peek at me between her fingers, "With the signature of both her parents and her brother-" Once more, I stress out the word, "-on it, authorizing me to tattoo their daughter.

"Her family knows and she's European," -Not- "Why would she care about Japanese norms if she wants to get inked exactly, hmm?" I challenge, an eyebrow raised imperiously.

"And, above all else, this is her body, she does whatever the fuck she wants with it." I end up with.

Sona's jaw clicks shut, even as her eyebrow ticks madly.

Deciding that, apparently, the better part of valor is to flee me, she looks back toward her childhood friend.

"This isn't over." She says.

"No," Rias answers, tone emotionless as she locks eyes with her fellow king, "No, it isn't."

It took a while for Akeno and I to comfort the sad heiress back to her peppy self once the Sitri trio backed off.

"I heard an interesting rumor today." A husky voice whispers in my ears, making goosebump runs across my entire back as I stop myself from shrugging off my gi at last after helping cleaning the dojo.

"Oh?" I answer back, radiating innocence and confusion as I look at Sakura over my shoulder, "What kind of rumor?"

The gorgeous brunette gives me an amused smirk, not backing away one inch, her assets almost flush against my back.

"One in which 'a certain delinquent'," She answers with good humor, taking hold of one of my wrist, "Is apparently 'corrupting the youth' with her 'vile ways'."

I snicker a little.

"How loathsome of them." I answer faux-commiseratingly, idly noticing that one of her hands is now holding both of my wrists for some reason, "Whatever shall we do?"

Her grip on my wrist tightens a little.

"Exact retribution of course." She answers seriously.

I quirk an interrogative eyebrow her way-

-only to yelp in surprise as her other hand suddenly finds its way in my panties, second before I get tackled against my locker, my wrists held skyward.

"Resisting arrest," She purrs in my ear, before nibbling it a little, "Will have consequences."

I shiver in delight, only to better faux-tug my wrists free in an attempt to 'escape', a defiant smile on my lips.

The punishment was delightful for the both of us, of course.

[AN: I had a good laugh writing this chapter. :3

I'mnotbashing Sona here, I'm only making her act in character in accord with a critical lack of information. She obviously wouldn't have reacted like that if Rias hadn't wanted to keep the 'surprise' for later.

Miscommunication, everyone.

Hope you enjoy, xoxo]