Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.

Tsubaki stood by her king's side, watching silently as she, in an uncharacteristic display of impatience, rhythmically tapped a finger on her desk, her gaze intense as she focused upon her available evil pieces.

"A pawn?" Sona muttered under her breath as her right hand reached for the pieces, only to stop halfway, retracting it and shaking her head. "He's athletic, is well-versed in combat, and is likely a sacred gear holder, meaning that a single pawn piece wouldn't suffice."

She crossed her legs and arms, drumming her two fingers on her bicep as she thought aloud in a volume Tsubaki wouldn't have been able to hear were she half a foot further from her than she actually was.

"Does that mean that I should use more pawns for him? And how many would suffice? Two? Three, maybe?"

She reached out, and Tsubaki quickly placed a hot cup of tea in her grasp, taking a small sip before placing it down on the saucer held out for her by her queen and getting back to her thoughts.

"Using multiple pawns on him means diminishing the possible number of members my peerage could have in exchange for someone who I'd have to develop later on. Conversely, I could use my remaining knight or either of my rook pieces on him. I'd be giving him an immediate boost to either his speed or his strength and durability, meaning that it'd take less time to have him active, and I'd still have all of my pawns with which to revive more people.

"But reviving him with either of those pieces would slow down his long-term development in the fields unrelated to that piece's specific traits in a way that pawn pieces don't, even if it doesn't bring on the specialized growth of said pieces.

"Do I try to go for quantity or quality? Could I possibly have both?"

She reached for and took another sip of her tea, before leaning back into her seat and crossing her arms over her chest again.

"What about his development potential? Would his natural tendencies synergize better with the gifts of the speedy knight piece, the rugged rook piece, or the jack-of-all-trades pawn? How high is his ceiling, and what sort of investment does this possible peak warrant? Am I just overthinking things?"

"Kaichou."

Sona blinked out of her little fugue, before turning her gaze towards Tsubaki.

"Yes?"

"You sound very intent on recruiting Hyoudou-san."

An eyebrow raised on the student club president's face.

"Yes."

"Are you not worried that Rias-san might move on him first? Not only is he dating Akeno, which is already a big advantage the Gremory peerage holds in terms of recruiting him, but he also has certain… Proclivities, which would likely make the Gremory peerage more appealing to him than ours."

Sona's raised eyebrow twitched when Tsubaki's gaze flickered down to her chest which, while not at all small, especially for the average Asiatic woman of her age and build, was very much small potatoes when compared to a certain redhead's. Taking a deep, calming breath to push aside the uncharitable thoughts said comparison brought about, Sona spoke.

"My ultimatum to Rias held a timescale and I will abide by it, no matter how much I might wish not to do so. I, Sona Sitri, value my word and trustworthiness enough to never go back on a deal, much less doing so at the cost of a childhood friend and the heiress of one of the pillars. Meaning, I might have started regretting those extra days the exact moment I gave them to Rias, but I'll go the distance with this regret. If she doesn't make good on her opportunity, though…"

The student council president's eyes were once more hidden by the glare of light that overtook the lenses of her glasses, even as she rested her elbows on her desk and steepled her fingers in front of her face, once again drawing thoughts of a certain fictional piece of shit to Tsubaki's memories as she finished speaking.

"I will. "

The Queen and vice-head of the student council had to once again stifle the urge to stand at attention and salute her comman- King. Her King.

Said King simply turned her spinning chair over, allowing her to pensively peer out of her window into the world at large.

-X-

Her eyes slowly opened as the sun rose.

Grunting in dissatisfaction at having to part with Morpheus' embrace, the girl stretched as much as she felt it necessary to loosen her body, before slowly stepping down the sides of her bed.

Taking a moment to scratch her head, she then proceeded to pick up her towel and make her way to the bathroom for her daily ablutions.

A moist and recently used toothbrush was engulfed by the curtain of steam that filled the bathroom as a consequence of the stream of hot water rushing out of the shower, within which she greatly luxuriated.

She stepped out of the shower after a 30-minute long relaxation session, toweling herself dry before sitting down in front of a mirror and taking a brush to her hair, brushing until she felt satisfied.

This was followed by putting on her school uniform, eating a quick breakfast, and then making her way to school.

This was Koneko's morning ritual.

Unlike normal, however, was the fact that unlike usual when she ignored the many looks turned her way during her daily commute from her male and female classmates alike, she felt as if those gazes were somehow making her skin crawl.

She now possessed a sense of awareness towards sexual attraction that she had been previously lacking, and it was this awareness that made her know just how much the people around her were seemingly attracted to her.

This skin-crawling sense of being observed persisted throughout the day as pretty much everybody around her fixated on her person, yet Koneko stoically bore all of that attention, acting as she would any other day in the sense that she didn't engage her peers and did her schoolwork to the best of her ability.

Unlike usual, though, she didn't eat her lunch at her desk as was her habit but instead slunk off to find an isolated spot where she wouldn't lose her appetite due to all the attention heaped upon her, winding up on the roof of the middle school building of Kuoh academy.

Opening up her Bento revealed an assortment of cakes and sweets while unscrewing the lid on her thermos revealed it to be full of rich, creamy, and steaming hot whole milk.

The girl picked up a cookie and nibbled on it, a small smile appearing on her face as the sweet treat crumbled inside her mouth in a burst of sweet deliciousness, before following up with a small sip of her milk.

Slouching on her seat, the girl allowed her mind to wander as she ate her lunch, before pausing with a satisfied sigh as she looked up to the rich, blue sky, and its white, fluffy clouds.

Moments like these were usually the highlights of the girl's day.

She watched the sky while enjoying the flavors and textures of her food before a floating cloud brought about a random thought.

'I wonder if a cloud would be as tasty and fluffy as a marshmallow.'

Intellectually, the girl knew that clouds were just masses of water and gas floating in the atmosphere, but her love for sweets allowed her to ignore the constraints of reality and just imagine.

Surprisingly enough, thinking about the texture and taste of a marshmallow cloud brought about a different memory of hers, one involving a brown-haired high schooler picking one of the fluffy treats out of his mug of cocoa and slipping it into her own.

Those thoughts prompted the girl to stand up and make her way towards the edge of the roof which was closed off by a chain-link fence before turning her gaze in the general direction of the high school division building.

For most people, the distance between the two buildings would've been too wide a gap for their eyesight to bridge, but for Koneko, who possessed powerful senses not just due to being a devil but also because of her… Heritage… The sight of high schoolers milling around one of Kuoh's fresh and verdant yards as they enjoyed their own lunch break easily fell within her range of observation.

Her eyes flickered left and right through the crowd, before honing onto a particular group of people.

Her gaze fell immediately upon Issei, who was clutching his gut as he laughed himself silly.

It then went on to the person she was most familiar with in the group, Akeno, who, by the way her shoulders shook and she covered her mouth with her hand, was doing her scary 'Ufufufufufufufufufu' laugh.

After the two of them, her gaze turned towards a glasses-wearing girl with her hair done up in a pair of somewhat unkempt-looking braids, whose own laughter was interspersed with pained grimaces.

Her eyes then turned toward where the first three were looking, falling onto a pair of boys, one of them so bald that the sun gleaming off of his head threatened to blind her, while the other one wore large glasses with squarish lenses.

The bald one had a pair of chopsticks in his nose and was doing some ridiculous face, while the glasses-wearing boy had a deadpan expression on as his mouth moved. Koneko wasn't particularly adept at lip-reading, but the fact that the first three broke out in renewed laughter when the glasses-wearer finished speaking made her believe that he had told a joke of some sort.

An odd feeling welled up in her chest at that, prompting her to walk away from the sight and settle back down right next to her bento for another bite of a sweet followed by a sip of milk.

For whatever reason, though, as she thought about the group of five she had been watching, she felt as if her lunch just wasn't as tasty as before.

Having walked away from the edge of the building, she never saw the way Issei's gaze had turned right towards the roof of the middle school division, a thoughtful frown on his face.

-X-

"What?"

A heavy feeling settled on Koneko's gut as her king repeated herself.

"I said that you don't need to keep watch over Hyoudou Issei anymore, Koneko."

The girl blinked slowly at that, her brain apparently taking some time to process the information, before speaking up.

"Oh." Putting aside the sinking feeling building in her gut, she spoke on. "Why?"

Rias crossed her arms over her chest before responding.

"I no longer need information about Hyoudou Issei because I have decided not to add him to my peerage."

Her words drew surprised blinks from Akeno and Koneko, whereas Yuuto just maintained his usual smile even as his focus on his king intensified. Akeno was the one to speak up after that.

"Buchou?"

"I don't need him, Akeno." Rias turned her gaze towards her Queen. "It's true that he is rather above average as far as the average human not initiated into the supernatural world goes, and he may possess the potential for a sacred gear, but… Does that really make him special?"

She paced for a bit in the silence resulting from these words, walking around her desk and sitting down at her preferred chair, her arms crossed over her chest as she spoke.

"Akeno. Koneko. Yuuto. Gasper. All of you are already exceptional. Strong, skilled, and possessing unique… Abilities of your own. While increasing the size of my peerage could be good, developing and leveraging the power of those already with me would serve me much better both in the short and long term than trying to slot someone else into our dynamic."

"Mhm." The queen nodded at that explanation, before bringing up a problem in her king's line of thought. "How is Gasper-kun to raise his power if he can't even go out into the world to fulfill contracts?"

The redhead softly bit her lower lip in a thoughtful manner at that question. Indeed, Gasper's situation was a problem that had cropped up as she was planning her and her peerage's future, and initially, her response would've been to either go to her brother to help her solve her problem or just indefinitely relegate it to the future while expecting things to work out on their own. However…

'You are completely willing to act at your own pace because as far as you're concerned, things will ultimately 'work themselves out...'

Akeno's words had stuck with her. She looked back at what she considered to be her biggest achievements in life so far, and she found that in one way or another, they were all a result of either who her family was or just plain old luck, and she disliked that conclusion.

She was against the engagement her family arranged for her because she wanted to make her own life and fate, yet she fought against those arrangements while owing pretty much everything in her life to her name, her legacy. She was living a hypocritical lifestyle, and she hated that.

"No need to worry, Akeno. I'll become strong enough to help Gasper control his powers, and then he'll be able to rejoin us."

She made the decision to change things. She wanted to be able to look back on her life in ten, twenty, fifty, or one hundred years, and say that she built herself up with her own two hands. That her and her peerage's strength were as important, if not moreso than her legacy in shaping her life.

"From now on, all of us will be dedicating as much time as feasibly possible to the fulfillment of contracts, so that we can grow stronger as fast as possible."

Turning her chair towards the biggest window of the ORC building in an unknown parallel to Sona, Rias' thoughts held the words she did not say aloud.

'Part of the reason why I gave up on Hyoudou is the fact that I'd rather focus on the members I already have, and part of it is me not wanting to step on Sona's toes, but…'

She discreetly watched her peerage mill around the room through their reflections in the window, her gaze moving towards Akeno.

'I'm not sure it would be wise to have Hyoudou join the peerage, considering the amount of influence he's had on you already. You might have not noticed it, Akeno, but your fake laughter and smiles have become rarer as time passes, and you've had an easier time showing genuine joy. And…'

Her gaze then switched to Koneko's reflection.

'Koneko had never questioned any of my instructions before I had her assigned to watch over him.'

The girl turned her gaze from the reflections of her peerage out into the twilight sky.

'Sona, Akeno, and now Koneko, not to mention Kiryuu Aika and the succubus… Hyoudou Issei seems to be a rather charismatic person. Having someone that capable of influencing others close to my peerage could be troublesome.'

Her thoughts on that settled, Rias turned her focus towards planning for her peerage's wish-fulfillment services. There was much work to be done.

-X-

"We're done for today."

Motohama and Matsuda dropped to the ground like puppets with their strings cut the moment those words left Xinthia's lips. The baldie grit his teeth, spasms ravaging his legs as the adrenaline of sparring and the last dregs of his Tantric Energy left his body at the same time, while the mathemagician raised a trembling hand with bloody, torn fingertips to his face before pushing his glasses up his sweat-drenched nose, the change in angle dispelling the glare that had been previously hiding his eyes, and revealing a pair of bloodshot orbs.

BANG!

"Nope."

THWACK!

Aika dropped right next to them after a gut punch from her boyfriend who, shockingly for the two boys, had seemingly chosen to stop handling her with the kiddie gloves and started laying the pain on her. His rationale for it?

"Going easy on her would be dangerous, and a great disservice to her person. Better that she suffers in training at my hands, rather than die in the field at the hands of the enemy."

Neither of them could say a thing about that, and, considering the fact that she had not complained a single time and had actually become more sanguine and intense during training, Aika seemed to consider this change a net positive.

And, to be fair, the results were showing.

She had yet to hit Issei with a single shot, but her fire rate, endurance, and target acquisition skills had risen to a noticeable degree. Movements that would have previously been all but invisible to her eyes were now trackable by her, even if just barely, and she had tentatively begun to place some shots not where she thought Issei was, but where she expected him to be.

This had resulted in a handful of close calls that had forced Issei to bend, fold and contort in ways that made the boys grimace in pain at the thought that they'd be expected to eventually mimic.

Aika had also shown improvements in positioning, movement, and dodging. She could now easily go from a relaxed conversation to suddenly having her gun in hand, raised and ready to fire, in but a few seconds. She wouldn't hesitate to start running when she felt the opponent had gotten far too close for comfort, all the while covering her own retreat with a barrage of shots meant to lock off the opponent's path of advance. and in the - inevitable - occasions where Issei did manage to get into melee range with her, she did her very best to put on her own show of folding, bending, and contorting out of the way of the incoming blows.

Not all attacks were something she could anticipate the path of and react to adequately, case in point being the punch that floored her, but the number of times she had managed to mitigate the damage she would've previously taken head-on was steadily increasing, with full hits turning into grazes or dodged altogether, or being blocked by her oversized hand-cannon.

Her latest attempt at hitting Issei involved luring him into a close-quarters fight before using her dodging to best position her for a barrage of close-range shots, yet while it did not achieve her full intended effect, the strands of purplish-brown hair now dotting the snow were enough to galvanize the girl into keeping the fight close-quarters.

Which was why she was now laid out next to Xinthia's latest punching bags, her arms and legs covered in a smattering of small bruises, while a big one developed on her stomach.

"This isn't working."

All people in the field turned their focus towards Matsuda as he spoke.

"My specialty is supposed to be striking fast and hard, but I can't do it. I need to focus on channeling Tantric Energy to my legs and lungs to run fast, as well as sending a little bit to the rest of my body in order to make it tough enough to handle the high-speed movement, but then I need to switch gears mid-attack and pull energy from the rest of my body into my legs in order to deal as much damage as I can with my attacks.

"This means that I can either hit fast with little effect or hit hard at the cost of a tremendous slow down at the last second, giving the opponent a chance to avoid it.

"Plus, my legs may be pretty strong, but my hands aren't particularly exceptional, and neither is my body's durability, so using my speed to close the distance means putting myself in range to eat shit and get knocked around. I need…"

He thought back to his first encounter with a supernatural being, and the feel of the broken broom handle sinking into the stray.

"I need a weapon. Something that will let me put the hurt on my opponent without having to ever slow down."

"I second that motion," Motohama spoke up, "Channelling magic through my fingertips is taking a toll on me. I'd really appreciate having something that could serve as a focus, and allow me to not be a useless wizard in close quarters at the same time."

Xinthia gave the two boys appreciative looks at their assessment of their skillsets and needs, whereas Issei rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"Weapons, huh…" He muttered under his breath, before nodding to himself and speaking up loud, "I may know a guy…"

-X-

"Mhm…"

Motohama and Matsuda felt a chill run down their spines. Now somewhat versed in matters of magic and the supernatural, the two teens had gained a sense of awareness - or perhaps, it would be more correct to call it sensitivity - towards the aura of those around them.

Most people they came across on a daily basis generally had such small or unremarkable auras that even individuals that would've previously caused either boy to feel wary or scared, like tattooed delinquents or criminals, completely lost any threat level that they might've previously had.

"You two want weapons, right?"

The bald, black man in a bartending apron that looked them up and down appraisingly, though?

They felt like a single look from him could pierce right through them, and as his eyes moved over their forms, it felt as if they were being peeled bare like as much as a corncob. It was as if they were a baby gazelle being stared down by a resting lion, who didn't pounce on them purely due to the fact that it was already full and lazy.

They let out a relieved breath in unison as the man's gaze turned away from them, causing the pressure they'd been feeling to instantly lift.

"The boss' eyes are looking pretty fierce nowadays."

The two turned their focus towards the speaker, a handsome young adult in a blue-green kimono, with his hair in a ponytail reaching his back, an earring on his left ear, and a nodachi resting on his left hip.

"Really?" The three jumped at the voice that had come out of seemingly nowhere, only to end up turning startled looks towards a rather notable individual. "I don't feel like uncle's any different."

The boy had shaggy, brown hair which was covering his eyes, a regular-sized nose, not too straight and not too crooked, and slightly thick lips. His skin was darker-toned, like someone from southeast Asia, like the southernmost parts of Thailand, and his build utterly eclipsed everybody else at the bar, with a height at around 6'7", and a build that while the slightest bit rotund around the gut, was built up by stacks upon stacks of rippling muscle.

"That's 'cause you're shaping up into a bit of a beast yourself, Daichi."

"Senpai!" The behemoth that Motohama and Matsuda would've believed had he told them that he eats elephant bones for breakfast and engine blocks for dinner blushed, his expression looking much too naive and innocent for the fearsome body that it was attached to. "I-I'm sure you're exaggerating?"

The fact that he had been reaching for a cup as he said those words, making his arm muscles ripple and revealing a bicep that even not in full tension was bigger than the head of any of the present men caused all four to turn deadpan looks his way before Ginei spoke up.

"So, weapons?"

"Weapons." Matsuda nodded, "As someone who is best at closing in with speed but is still a squishy twig, I'd feel way safer with a hunk of metal capable of keeping me outside of spitting distance from danger."

"As someone going for a squishy mage build," Motohama broke in, "I concur with that sentiment. It'll be a while until I can sneeze and set off a magical nuke, so having a good focus in hand to help me with casting would really help. Having that focus be something I can enact close-quarters violence with should also help until I can craft myself some +7 Robes of Personal Protection."

"Heh." Andre, the man in the apron, chuckled at Motohama's words, "Set off a magical nuke with a sneeze? Pretty ambitious, kid."

"Of course." Motohama nodded. "If my role on the team is to be the mage, then I'll run with it to the very top."

"Well, if your goal is to go far with magic, then you could probably start by paying attention to what I'm about to do."

Those words got not only the attention of Motohama, but of all others in the room. Even Aika stopped trying to probe Issei's stance for a weakness to exploit and instead focused on Andre.

"The world is much bigger than you know," The man started, "You already know about earth, which is the world that we live on, but you are likely unaware of the rest of existence. You see, the world is composed of a series of planes, or dimensions. The underworld, the many layers of heaven, purgatory… There are many afterlives, divine dwellings, and likely many more planes that we know little to nothing of.

"Between these many planes is a stretch of effectively infinite space called the Dimensional Gap.

"The Dimensional Gap isn't something to be made light of. Between its innate properties and the push and pull exerted upon it by the traits and properties of all of the realms and planes that it simultaneously surrounds and is surrounded by, most things that get in there get completely torn apart, disintegrated so thoroughly that not even their souls can be salvaged."

Issei's gaze sharpened at those words, while everybody else reacted with a mixture of shock and trepidation.

"While it would be utter suicide to try to go there without high enough levels of strength or protection, the Dimensional Gap is still an asset and resource that many beings make use of regardless of where they fall in the power spectrum.

"That is because the properties of the Dimensional Gap and the ways it interacts with the planes of existence would allow someone with enough creativity and magical skill to get away with all sorts of chicanery, shenanigans, and absolute, utter fucking bullshit.

"Case in point-"

Andre's hands gained a red glow as he started drawing a series of patterns into the air. An intricate magical circle started taking shape before Andre slammed his hand into the center. A wisp of red mist emerged from the circle, causing such potent killing intent to fall upon the bar that other than Issei, all those present couldn't help but hallucinate scenes of carnage on the battlefield.

A flare of Issei's aura caused that hallucination to dispel, leaving the others on their knees and gasping for breath, before the sounds of metal on metal rang out as a big pile of weapons suddenly appeared in front of the magic circle as if materialized out of thin air, before falling to the ground in a heap of clanging metal.

"-dimensional pockets. Alongside Mirror Realities, they're one of the most useful ways of harnessing the power of the Gap." The man then preempted the questions that he knew were likely to be turned his way. "A mirror reality is pretty much a projection of a world. An adept magic-user can stabilize a piece of the gap that is infinitely close to one of the realms in order to create a mirrored copy of said realm, down to the physical structure and objects.

"The more skilled a mage is with magic, the bigger the mirror realities they are capable of crafting.

"Dimensional Pockets, though… Those are much, much tougher to work with. Instead of making use of the natural push-and-pull between naturally existing dimensions and the Gap, you are basically taking a fragment of the dimensional gap and fashioning it for your personal use. Fashioning even the smallest possible dimensional pocket is a horrendously difficult thing to do to the point that even the most powerful people tend to not make them as they see it as a waste of effort and resources.

"I have specific… Circumstances… That make it easier for me to pull something like this off, but even then I can only use an infinitesimally small fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of the gap's space, where I store my… Toys. Theoretically, though, a powerful enough force would be capable of fashioning a structure close to or even equivalent to one of the natural realms, with all sorts of neat options.

"But it's not magical theory you came here for, so on to the toys. I took out everything I feel comfortable putting in the hands of others. You kids can just look through the pile for something that catches your interest."

Motohama wasn't the only one whose gaze seemed to burn with interest at the impromptu magical theory demonstration/lecture, yet they all let the matter lie and turned their focus to the weapon pile in front of them instead.

Swords, axes, maces, flails, and all sorts of melee weapons were visible, each of them markedly different from the others. European Longswords shared space with Chakrams, Kukris, Kris, Jian, Khopesh, Takoba, Tomahawks, and many more different types of weapons of different materials. Some were made of metal, others stone, wood, or even bone. The only thing in common between all of them was the fact that looking at them was enough to make the average person uncomfortable, nauseous, or even fearful.

While Issei, Ginei, and Aika were already satisfied with whatever they were packing and didn't feel a need to go through those weapons, Motohama and Matsuda descended upon the pile with desperate zeal. The battlefield they had hallucinated as a consequence of that strand of concentrated bloodthirst seemed to be prompting them to grow as fast as possible, and they truly wished to rise up to the expectations.

The two started digging through the pile, eyeballing the more interesting-looking weapons and splitting them from the mass in the center before picking them up to test their feel.

Weapon after weapon made its way to their hands before being rejected for one reason or another.

The duo's digging ended up revealing a small glint that fell into Daichi's eyesight.

The gentle giant walked around Motohama's pile of 'test later' weapons and to the source of the glint, before slipping his oversized, meaty claw into the metal pile without any fear of harm. His arm tensed as he grasped something before his eyes widened at the level of difficulty he had lifting the thing.

Taking a deep breath and reaching in with a second hand, Daiki put forth all the strength in his body, causing each and every one of his muscles to bulge almost grotesquely and his face to turn red before he finally managed to pull his target out of the pile.

"Whoa."

There were multiple expressions of surprise when Daichi hefted an oversized hammer, with a handle made of some sort of dark wood with a polished finish, a whopping 5 feet long and half-again as thick as a soda can with a leather-wrapped base, and an oversized head that was bigger and thicker than an adult's thigh, with one end being of a square-ish shape, the other end looking like someone had taken some sandpaper to slightly round out the tip of a triangle and various indistinct grooves all along the thing that might've gone either way on whether they were naturally occurring or artificial.

Frowning in mild discomfort, Daichi's hands glided up and down the hammer's haft in search of the most possibly comfortable position, only for his eyes to widen at a superb feeling that came over him as his fingers seemingly slid into the exact perfect position imaginable, making him feel as if the shaft had grooves hewn into it explicitly for his hand size, preferred grip style, and strength.

Motivated further by this, Motohama and Matsuda kept digging through the pile, until they too found the perfect weapons for them…

-CHAPTER, END!-