Kotomine Shirou's quiet presence seemed to loom in the small space between the door and the gathering behind her, a tension building in the air between them as Rias cursed awful curses under her breath. His deceivingly relaxed hands seemed as if they'd suddenly become something far less comforting.
Each of his fingers seemed to relax before proceeding to curl inwards. The scars on his palms became hidden as the scars on the back of his hand faintly appeared beneath the light.
An eerie gesture.
It certainly wasn't a peaceful gesture, nor was it a distinctly violent one.
Some merely looked at him in confusion. Some grasped their weapons. Sharpened words, pointed daggers, boxing gloves, reinforced polearms, customized chainsaws, the room had some of everything. Peerages were formed for fighting.
Kiba was reacting badly again. The hands he used to hold his black blade were trembling with hate and malice. He didn't react so badly in his fight against Freed, an exorcist that was morally vile in every way.
During the first encounter, he didn't hesitate to aim for the neck. He didn't hesitate during the second encounter either.
Afterwards he'd train like a man possessed whenever he thought he was alone.
She had a few guesses as to why he hated the Executor in particular, but she didn't want to make things worse by being wrong.
Both of Riser's knights, a girl in armor and a girl in a cheongsam, were especially on guard, moving to stand in front of Riser to his shock and confusion. Their gauntleted hands held their blades at the ready.
She'd seen them fight before. In terms of skill level, they were in the same league as Kiba.
Was there something about Kotomine that only swordsmen could sense? Some kind of tell or warning?
She never learned the blade. She wouldn't know.
That first encounter was the one and only time she had seen him in combat. He carried no weapons and used no magic. He took a weapon from someone else and used it like just another instrument.
His actions then were like clockwork.
But outside of that, an outsider would never notice anything strange about him.
Rias, still caught in an awkward pose halfway in the door, half out, with her chest pressed against the frame, held a polite smile, though she could feel her insides twist with frustration. Damn Grayfia and her insistence on manners at the worst possible times… Damn Shirou and his insistence on handling things himself…
This wasn't the moment to let this damn priest any closer to the situation. The moment he stepped into the fray, things would certainly spiral out of control, and if that happened, she'd have to answer to her family how she let this all happen despite all her insistence for independence.
The last thing she needed was for her already delicate position to be upended by Kotomine's indifference or Grayfia's strict decorum.
"I was just handling the matter, Grayfia," she said with forced cheer, her voice trembling with the effort to contain the chaos. "This is Kotomine Shirou, our new instructor for home economics. No need for introductions, really, I'm sure he's just leaving."
She tried closing the door but Grayfia's steady hand wouldn't budge.
She pushed with her legs and put her shoulder into it with no better result.
It was like a kitten trying to overpower a lion.
Rias felt her face redden in embarrassment.
Taking a step into the room, his shoulder brushing against the doorframe, Shirou glanced down at the beautiful lady with silver hair.
He looked quite startled. The line of his lips quirked in an amusing little way that matched the shape of his incongruous eyes.
"You are…"
Rias kept her mouth clamped shut as she felt her heartbeat accelerate.
"-a maid?"
Grayfia held the edges of her black skirt and performed a curtsy without the slightest flaw, her eyes closed and gentle, the reflection off her glossy red lips dimming with the motion. "I am a servant of the Young Miss's family, yes."
Kotomine hurriedly responded in kind, his hand drifting smoothly over the underside of his heart as he mirrored her bow like a well mannered young man who didn't spend his life carving up the supernatural and burning their corpses in the woods. "Sorry, that was rude of me, Miss."
"No offense taken," she calmly assured. "May I ask who you are, young man?"
"Ah, I am Ko-"
"Contracted!" Rias interrupted desperately, forcing herself into the narrow space between the two. "He's contracted to work here for the time being. Our home economics teacher had a baby, so she took leave to take care of it, and he's filling in for her, that's all!"
Her body was pressed between them.
If she had to liken it to something, it was as if she intruded between a jaguar and a tiger while they were encountering each other in the jungle. In other words, something really foolish.
Rias tried backing away, to force Shirou back outside the room. But no matter how much her back forced itself against his body, it wouldn't budge. Instead, the back of her head was just pressing against his chest for no reason.
She was sure that being backed against a wall was supposed to be a metaphor.
Grayfia made no move to budge either. She merely raised her eyebrow lightly, silently judging her as always.
"He teaches stuff like cooking, sewing, and- and cleaning." Rias stammered, thinking of a hundred ways she could close this dilemma, and a hundred reasons why those ways wouldn't work. "He gets along with the students, so he gets called to settle stuff like fights and other problems happening in school!"
She pointed back at his face, the tip of her finger nearly touching his nose. "So um, he probably heard some noise and came to check it out. It'd be rude to bother him more, so we should just wrap things up for today, yes?"
"Young Miss, I was asking for who he is, not what he is. Furthermore, it's very rude to interrupt someone when they are speaking." Being as close as she was, Grayfia's stern face was hardly a centimeter away from Rias's. "I would like to know his name."
She looked away from the shorter redhead to the taller one.
He stiffly rubbed his cheek with his knuckle, "I'm Ko-"
"Enough of this nonsense!"
The room suddenly became scorchingly hot once more. The air almost seemed to turn orange like the sunset.
Riser's face twisted unpleasantly, loudly marching forward despite his knights' efforts to persuade him back. Flames licked at the edges of his clothes.
He was maddened at being ignored.
"Don't waste your time entertaining this human! It's beneath you, and it wastes my time!" He grabbed Shirou's collar violently, threatening to spread the flames to his flesh.
Alarm bells rang in the heads of her peerage, and in response to their response, Riser's peerage was alarmed as well.
The fight seemed as if it would spark right there and then once more.
Though the issue was that nobody there was sure just who they were supposed to fight.
Shirou frowned at Riser, seeming as if he didn't understand his anger. He genuinely spent a second trying to determine if he had done anything wrong. He didn't even look offended, though maybe he was a little bothered. "Are you alright?"
"You!?" A blood vessel looked as if it would burst on his head.
Before he could do anything, Rias grabbed his hand. "Hey, that's enough!" Her own demonic power started to spill out threateningly without her notice.
However…
Neither of them did anything in the end.
Their senses became overwhelmed.
"Calm down."
Without a word, the building heat in the room was instantly canceled out and replaced with a quiet chill.
The upstarts who were so ready to fight were silenced, feeling as if ice was about to form inside their lungs as they experienced the overwhelming difference in power between the maid and the kings.
Between mere high class devils and the strongest Queen of the Underworld.
Riser was all but frozen in place, putting up no resistance when Grayfia removed his hand from the teacher's clothes.
She delicately smoothened the creases in Shirou's collar, brushing him off.
"Today was meant for discussion, not violence. Lose control of yourselves again, and I won't give a mere warning."
She returned her attention back to Kotomine, "Please do not worry yourself with these children any further. I promise to step in before they do anything more foolish."
Shirou found that he could suddenly see his own breath and then collected himself. And then he smiled.
Rias frowned as she saw that his eyes didn't change in the slightest. He was only turning up the corners of his lips.
It was a shame since he'd likely look a lot better with a genuine smile.
A pretend smile you could realize was pretend was worse than a frown.
That's how she felt.
"You have a lot on your hands here, don't you, Miss?" He turned his neck as he loosened his tie. " I used to have a similar job for a young lady myself."
He seemed nostalgic.
"Really?" Grayfia seemed genuinely intrigued by the information. "You seem to have been quite busy."
"Nowhere near as professional as yourself, grownups took care of the important work , but…" He faltered, grabbing his mouth as he measured his words. "Well… with the way things were at home, I found myself taking on a lot of work whenever I could."
"My, how responsible of you."
"It was nothing much, just how I've always been." He lowered his head and brushed his neck-length locks.
He seemed friendlier than he ever had until now.
He also felt more unnerving, like a doll that resembled humans too much.
Shirou lifted up his hand courteously.
The young devils in the room tensed up without realizing it.
"Given that right now, I'm only intruding, I'll save introductions for later. If you feel the need to rest, feel free to stop by my office for snacks."
With a polite nod, the sound of his footsteps gradually faded from the halls.
Grayfia's eyes slightly darkened after he left, the fabric of her apron tightened ever so little. Slowly, she allowed the temperature of the room to return to normal.
Cracks appeared along the transparent, delicate windows.
Narrow lines spread out like the webs of a spider before the window panes shattered from thermal shock. Crystal-like shards ended up fallen like little hills of snow.
And like that, the meeting was quickly dragged to a close.
Nine days.
She tossed and turned under the blankets, her naked body twisting the bedsheets and rubbing unsatisfyingly against the mattress.
Rias couldn't sleep.
Her body and mind were tired, but she still couldn't sleep.
As of now, she wanted to take another scalding hot bath and melt beneath the water until she fell asleep, but she knew that wouldn't work because she already tried it.
Giving up, she slipped off the bed and put on a nightgown, heading towards the kitchen.
She put all her weight against the counter as she prepared coffee, her hair in a messy state of disarray.
Waiting for the kettle to start, Rias stretched her arms above her head as far as they could reach, feeling the tension in her body faintly dissipate.
Doing so nearly caused her to fall off to the ground in her drowsy state. She wasn't in much condition to do anything really.
Ten days…
Either as pity or as courtesy, she was given ten days to train her peerage in preparation for the rating game. Ten days to bring up their power to the fullest before finally clashing with her fiance.
For nine days at a mansion owned by her family in the mountains, they trained everything from combat skills to the most basic theories that might help them.
Issei and Asia continued to learn from the ground up.
Both in terms of fighting ability and demonic power, Issei had no talent whatsoever. Matter of fact, even compared to a child devil, he'd fall short.
However, that is not the case when he uses his sacred gear, the Boosted Gear. It's a weapon that grants its wielder the potential to kill God and Satan, at least according to legend.
The gauntlet allows the user to double their powers every ten seconds until the user reaches their limit, whether it's physical power, demonic power, or whatever else the user may possess.
A single boost will increase the user's power two-fold. Three will increase it eight-fold. Issei's current limit, twelve boosts, will increase it four thousand and ninety-six-fold. When the [Explosion] is used, the accumulated power within the Boosted Gear will be released.
With that release, the user can fight with all of that increased power for a certain time. The amount of time is inversely proportional to the actions taken. The time is shortened with every movement and attack. Stamina also shortens the time limit of the sacred gear. If Issei becomes tired, he'll hardly be able to use the dragon's power.
The greatest risks are when the stored power of the Boosted Gear is drained, [Reset], and when the wielder reaches their physical limit [Burst].
Taking those factors into account, it would be best for Issei to avoid using [Explosion] until right before he uses the increased power for an attack.
He's to be a trump card, an ace in the hole so to speak.
Asia had talent in utilizing demonic power, growing quickly under Akeno's tutelage. But even with that, it was too soon for her to start fighting anyone or anything directly. She was simply too unsuited for it with her gentle personality.
In exchange, she had perhaps a far greater strength, the sacred gear Twilight Healing.
It can heal anyone, even devils, even angels. Its speed and potency will only increase as the user continues to master it.
While it cannot restore stamina nor cure sickness, and extreme injuries may be beyond healing, being able to heal everyone is an extraordinary boon.
Personally she thought the Church must have been run by a band of idiots to abandon her.
She'd be an incredible support.
Kiba, Koneko, and Akeno would be the main fighting power, of course.
Kiba was a master swordsman of incredible talent and potential, having trained from a young age. His speed and technique would put many devils to shame.
His sacred gear, Sword Birth, allows him to create demonic swords of different attributes according to his will, granting him potentially countless options during battle. It's the perfect sacred gear for a swordsman.
The only drawback being that its creations cannot rival true demonic weapons, perhaps due to being dependent on the will and concentration of its wielder.
Nevertheless, she couldn't ask for a better frontline fighter.
Koneko, in spite of her petite size, held startling strength and durability enhanced by the rook evil piece. Even bullets would likely bounce off of her.
With Senjutsu, sage arts, she is able to enhance her physical abilities even further.
She only brings combat gloves to a fight, because there is no better way to utilize her power. That girl might be considered a monster when she reaches adulthood.
But undoubtedly, the strongest in her peerage aside from herself was Akeno.
Holding great potential in using demonic power, there wasn't a high class devil that could deny her strength, not even the most arrogant of them.
She excels in using natural elements, but lightning is her specialty. So long as she lands a strike against any opponent she faces during the game, she will win.
Things were happening sooner than expected, but there was nothing she could do about that. After nine days of training, the tenth day would be for rest. They'd all need to be in peak condition if they wanted to rest, though she suspected that Issei and Kiba were still trying to squeeze in even more training before tomorrow.
What would happen would happen, stressing about it now would just hurt her overall health.
Today, resting was its own training.
She poured the coffee into a white ceramic mug lined with gold and decorated with red roses.
Taking a sip, she frowned. It didn't taste as good as-
She shook her head, she should avoid thinking things like that. Her house skills were good as is, since she'd been living by herself for a while.
If she had time to think of pointless things, she should spend that time strategizing. This match would be six against sixteen. They were greatly outnumbered against opponents who already held experience in such battles.
Rummaging through the cupboards looking for something to eat with the coffee, Rias considered the different matchups.
Taking out Riser's pawns quickly would be imperative to avoiding getting overwhelmed by numbers when they had used up their energy later in the rating game.
Akeno would be suitable for the job if she wasn't also needed for dealing with Riser's queen. Just as Akeno was her strongest, she was Riser's. She didn't know if even Kiba and Koneko would be a match for her.
It might be best to let the other's whittle them down separately.
If Kiba is supporting Issei, he'll have the proper room and time to boost his power to the level of a high class devil.
Should Koneko get the drop on one of Riser's rooks, she can turn the confrontation into a one vs one scenario in her favor.
After taking down his peerage, they can confront Riser by himself.
That was assuming everything goes to plan. Riser had a dangerous strategist on his side as well. If he was putting his arrogance aside to listen to her, that would be bad for her. Though he was more likely to let her do as she pleased out of carelessness rather than out of caution.
While their servants fought, she would be fighting against Riser by herself, a devil in the same league as her.
Could she win by herself?
No, that just wasn't possible. It'd be a different story if she was as talented as her older brother, but she wasn't.
She could certainly stall him, though.
The hand holding the mug trembled, the faint clink of porcelain mirroring the unease she felt. A dull ache bloomed behind her eyes, creeping steadily toward a full-blown headache. She finished the drink in a swift gulp, the bitter taste of coffee biting her tongue, and stuffed the last piece of the castella into her mouth. Crumbs tumbled onto her nightdress.
It was quiet.
Too quiet. Unlike the club, where every moment buzzed with chatter and life, here, she was utterly alone.
Slowly, she fell to the kitchen floor and simply sat there in the dark by herself, hugging her knees, feeling the cold. Tomorrow was a game with her whole life being the prize.
If this were a fairytale, a knight in shining armor might swoop in to save her. But the thought only made her lips twitch in bitter amusement. A knight wouldn't save her. A knight would more likely slay her.
Her corpse would make a trophy.
Hoping for a miracle was immature.
Everything she could have done to prepare, she had already done.
She sighed, the sound soft and lost in the quiet. There was nothing left to prepare. She and her team were as ready as they could be. Could she have sought another knight? Another rook? Perhaps. But no. She refused to grow her family out of desperation.
This was the hand dealt to her, the expectation that came with being the only precious daughter of the Gremory family.
Sitting her by herself, a part of her wanted to run away.
Sitting there by herself, the time passed without her counting. The hours trickled by.
". . ."
Her lips parted in another sigh, soft and weary. The exhaustion was trying to escape as much as it could like a caged lion that knew of freedom.
'This is silly. I'm acting like a child.'
Pushing herself to her feet, Rias took the clinking mug to the sink and rinsed it before leaving it on the drying rack.
'I should try getting some sleep… I need to sleep.'
With the taste of bitter coffee in her mouth, she walked back to her room. Before climbing into bed, she paused before the mirror. The thought of rest felt pointless anyways. Her hands reached for the comb on her dresser, and she began pulling it through her crimson locks. Each stroke smoothed the strands until they gleamed.
As she looked at her red hair, a thought formed in her mind that steadily began to grow, refusing to fade just like an epiphany.
She was going to fight Riser.
Her enemy tomorrow was another devil just as she was.
Who are the natural enemies of devils?
Well that would be god and his angels, of course. Fallen angels are also dangerous. Their light is like poison to devils.
But there is another danger to their kind that lives right here.
Her lips curled into a small, almost reckless smile. Funny how desperation could strangle fear.
She wasn't tired anymore.
If anything, her veins pulsed with restless energy. Maybe she was feeling very abashed as well.
She crossed to her closet, flipping the light switch before rifling through the rows of clothes crammed within. Gowns for galas, outfits for training, casual wear for days of normalcy—she tried them on one by one, studying her reflection. Some outfits felt too modest. Others? Too bold.
She tried on everything in front of a mirror, seeing how it matched her looks and her figure.
She just had to find the right one.
Amid her search, her fingers brushed against her laptop. An idea sparked. Pulling it out, she opened the screen and began typing, her search bar filling with very specific queries. In this age of information, there was advice for everything, and there was something many young people wanted to know.
She multitasked.
By the time she made her decision, her bed was buried under a chaotic pile of rejected outfits. She tossed her chosen ensemble onto the cleared edge before stepping into the shower. The hot water beat against her skin like needles, steam curling into the air as her breath came shallow and fast.
Perhaps this would all be one last rebellious act.
Morning light streamed through the windows, painting her room in gold. She was still sifting through even more research, looking through all sorts of sites, having a hundred tabs open. Rias kept checking the clock for the right time. Timing was everything now.
She checked her clothes, a light blue blouse that accentuated her generous bust and high-waisted jeans with elegantly embroidered pockets.
Rias also made extra sure to wear boots with high heels to boost her height a decent amount. She was already fairly tall for a girl, so this should be good.
The heiress checked her appearance in the mirror a dozen more times before leaving the house, beautiful enough to turn heads and make a statement, but not too dressed up as to look like a honey trap.
It was 12:15.
There are only optional classes on Saturdays at Kuoh Academy, meaning that there were fewer students and classes ended by noon.
She was standing in a route she started avoiding after nearly bumping into someone.
The streets were a blur of colors and motion: families strolling hand in hand, couples laughing softly, vendors flipping yakitori over smoking grills. Scooters zipped by, their engines humming, and a businessman barked orders into his phone.
It was the kind of day that made staying indoors seem criminal.
For such a vibrant Saturday afternoon, it'd be weirder for this place to not be crowded.
With all the hustle and bustle of movement and colors around her, it was easy to tell when someone wasn't moving. Especially when they looked like that.
Rias smiled, with lowered, mischievous eyes and a cunning grin.
"Hey, long time no see," she greeted him coyly as if he were an old friend.
He looked around at his surroundings before nodding his head stiffly. It seemed that he didn't trust her fully. "Taking care of yourself?" he asked with that ever so reliable tone of his.
Rias strolled on up to him, being confident in her movement, at least on the outside. Her hips swayed with each step as her heels clicked against the ground.
"Trying."
She stopped within arm's reach. Close enough to feel his tension, close enough that if he had a weapon, she'd already be dead if he wanted it.
Her hands clasped behind her back as she straightened, her hair catching the sunlight like a blessed halo.
"If you're free," she began, her voice soft and teasing, "anywhere you want to go? Any… requests?"