Shin watched as Rias and her peerage climb up the hill leading to the cabin they would be using a home for the next ten days as they trained. Shin had been waiting for them for about an hour, having already arrived before they even started their climb.

Asia and Yuki were behind him, playing fetch with a tennis ball. It took Yuki a while to catch on, but she did eventually. Although, most of the time, Asia would have to chase Yuki down as she wasn't very good at bringing the ball back.

He watched as Koneko, Kiba, and Issei walked up the hill with weighted bags on their backs, Issei's being the biggest. Although it made sense, Issei had the most raw strength out of them all due to his superpowered rook piece.

Rias and Akeno trailed behind them, no weights, enjoying a talk between the two. Shin frowned at this, not liking how the two were already slacking. He also didn't like the fact that the other three weren't even winded. Obviously, they didn't have enough weight on their backs.

Mentally, he couldn't help but scoff at the idiocy of climbing up a slope with several hundred kilograms of weight on their backs. He couldn't help but wince at the amount of pressure they had been putting on their knees. Oh well, he was sure they would feel it in the morning and regret doing it.

He watched as all three of them dumbed the weight off of their backs, rubbing their shoulders due to the cloth of their backpacks having been harshly rubbed against them for an extended period of time due to the weight they were carrying.

"Nice to see everyone was trying to destroy their knees on this fine morning. I too enjoy put several hundred kilograms on my knees and waiting to see when they decide to give out as my ankles snap like twigs, causing me to tumble down a long slope with several hundred kilograms on my back." Shin said sarcastically, pointing out to them all the idiocy in what they were doing, resulting in Rias looking away in guilt.

Rias cursed mentally to herself as she realized everything that was wrong with what she had made Koneko, Kiba, and Issei do. In hindsight, it definitely wasn't the smartest thing to do. She just thought it would be a good way to get a little training in.

"What are you already doing up here? Why didn't you have to walk up here like us?" Issei asked a bit peeved that he had to walk up that boring slope for half an hour and Shin didn't.

Shin just smiled at Issei. "I walked up it just like you did. You're forgetting however that I wake up much earlier than everyone else. I arrive a little over an hour ago." Shin explained as he put his hand in his pants pockets.

"Yes, well some people enjoy sleep," Rias said, throwing a dig at Shin teasingly, who only smiled in response. "Anyways, now that we're all here, we can go over what we'll be doing for the next ten days," Rias said, clapping her hand to draw everyone's attention.

Shin tuned out most of what Rias said, not seeing the point in training for the next ten days. He found it quite laughable that Rias honestly believed they would be able to make a leap in strength in just ten days.

He tuned back in however when he heard Rias address him. "Shin, you have experience in building physical strength, so I want you to train Issei," Rias said.

"Hard pass," Shin said, drawing confused glances from everyone. Shin sighed. He figured he would have to bring them back to reality. "Look, it's commendable that you think that everyone can make a big leap in strength within ten days, but it's simply not going to happen," Shin said.

By this point, Shin had already proven his word noteworthy to Rias, so she decided to hear Shin out. "Explain," Rias said.

Shin sighed again. "Well, it's just that you have this naive thought that Issei will somehow be able to make a huge leap in physical strength within ten days. Unless you have some super serum that can turn him into a shredded 6'4 brick shithouse, then it's not going to happen. Building physical strengths take months, years even. It requires proper training, nutrition, rest, and most importantly time and dedication. It's not something that can be built in ten days." Shin explained.

Rias sighed; her whole training plan thrown out the window. "Then what do you suggest? If we don't make a leap in strength, then we aren't going to be able to defeat Riser." Rias pointed out the obvious strength difference between her peerage and Riser's.

Shin scratched his cheeks, the prick of his budding facial hair prickling his finger. He really needed to shave he noted absentmindedly. "Instead of chasing our tails, we need to come up with a valid strategy. Now, I'm not suggesting we sit on our hands and do no training; however, we can't rely on it. Our strength is not going to win us this Rating Game." Shin said.

Rias nodded in agreement. "Alright, then were do we start?" Rias asked, everyone now looking at Shin for the answers. Something Shin sighed at once again. He was hoping he would just be able to cruise by for the next ten days.

"Well, we first need to research our opponent, try and find his weaknesses. Luckily, I got a pretty good read on Riser already. He's arrogant, which means he will underestimate us. I bet he won't even bother coming up with a strategy, deciding instead to just brute force through the rating game. We can use that to our advantage. Second, he relies on his phenix immortality. Without his immortality, he would be easily beaten." Shin explained.

Rias nodded, seeing the logic in Shin's statement. She had watched the tapes pertaining to Riser's previous rating games, and he did indeed rely solely on his immortally as a way to outlast the opponent. His arrogance so big that he would willingly get hit by attacks, knowing he would just heal instantly.

"Be that as it may, disabling his immortality isn't easy. Not to mention we have to get through his peerage first. The peerage that outnumbers us 2 to 1. Although most of his peerage isn't anything noteworthy, Ravel and Yubelluna are a different story." Rias explained, Shin nodding.

He remembered Yubelluna from the series, the busty purplette that used some sort of bomb magic. From what he remembered she was very close in strength to Akeno, who was honestly leaps and bounds stronger than Rias. Shin had no doubt that in a fight between Rias and Akeno, that Akeno would win nine times out of ten.

Then there is the matter of Ravel. Ravel didn't do much in the rating game in the series, however, with her immortality she could be a big problem if she decided to participate.

Finally, there was Riser, who was a mystery to him. He had no idea how strong Riser was going to be, however it was safe to assume he was much stronger than the anime version. In fact, the smartest idea would be to overestimate Riser than underestimate him, so he was just going to assume that Riser was an ultimate-class devil. Better safe than sorry.

However, there was one flaw in everything that Shin had not and would not point out. That being the fact that Shin didn't want Rias to win. That's not to say he would sabotage progress; however, he would not actively participate to his best ability in the panning of the fight, and the fight itself.

There was something key that would happen if Rias lost that Shin wanted to take full advantage of. So, he would have to shy away from helping them too much with the planning of the upcoming battle. "Very true Rias. It's much easier said than done to disable the phoenix clans immortally. Only holy magic can disable it, and even then, not completely. Our best bet would be to outlast him." Shin explained, Rias sighing at Shin's conclusion that she had arrived at as well.

"Any ideas as to how to do that?" Rias asked, already haven coming up to a blank. Shin could think of many, using Akeno's holy lightning, using his holy energy, Koneko could use Senjutsu to disrupt his magic and stop him from healing altogether, or even something as simple as a suppressing seal. He has used suppressing chains before, he doubted it would be that much of a stretch to use a suppressing seal that would take away Riser's magic.

Shin, however, shook his head in a negative. "No, I don't." Rias looked down dejected. "However, we have ten days to figure that out." Shin said, purposefully making sure her focus was entirely on Riser. If her focus was on trying to figure out Riser, she wouldn't take into account that both Ravel and Yubelluna posed big threats as well.

Shin didn't see this as sabotage but instead withholding information.

Rias nodded to Shin, regaining some hope. "Alright, come on everyone, let's put our things in our rooms," Rias said as she walked off, everyone except Shin following after her.

Once they left, Asia came up behind Shin and latched onto his arm. "Does Rias and everyone have a chance of winning?" Asia asked, watching as the group left. Shin had explained to her who Rias and her peerage were, as well as Sona and her peerage, so she understood most of what was going on at the moment.

"No," Shin said, turning his focus to Yuki, who at the moment was rubbing her back all over the ball Asia was throwing, trying to rub her scent onto and mark it as hers.

"Can you help them?" Asia asked.

"Yes."

"Are you going to help them?"

Shin shifted his focus back to Asia, looking into her eyes. "No," Shin said, Asia looking down. "Do you disagree with my decision?" Shin asked Asia, making her flinch, refusing to look Shin in the eyes.

However, Shin pulled her gaze back up to his eyes with his finger under her chin. "Do you trust me, Asia?"

"With my life!" Asia replied, unwavering as she nodded viscously. Shin smiled, placing a kiss on her forehead, resulting in a furious blush on Asia's face.

"Then trust me on this Asia. It will be better if they lose this fight." Asia looked hesitant for a second, before nodding, placing her faith in Shin and that he knew what he was doing. She refused to believe that Shin would be as cold-hearted to subject Rias to a fate she didn't want.

(Scene Break)

A week later and they were nearing the end of their ten-day training period. During this time, Rias had Akeno train Issei in using his magic. Shin meanwhile had been experimenting with hypothetical magic attacks and continuing to train his body.

At the current moment, Shin was doing one of his all-time favorite exercises. Sweat dripped off his long black hair, which by now has grown out to the point where it touches his shoulder blades, his coal-like eyes set in determination as he bent down, his hands come up to grip the expansive rubber of his equipment.

His face red from the exertion of the reps he had done previously, chalk covering both his hands and forearms to draw all the moisture out of them and give him a better grip. Using his back and core, Shin explosively stood up, bringing the 500kg tire up with him, the tire being thrown up to the level of his bottom rib.

Expertly sliding his right knee under the tire due to years of experience doing the exercise, his hand coming off the tire and quickly placing them back on in a different position. Sweat dripped onto the ground and tire as his bare chest rise and fall, heavy breaths coming from Shin.

Taking only a moment's rest as the tire rested on his knee, he used his legs, hips, and leverage of his arms to push the tire, successfully push the tire up vertical to the ground. The satisfaction of successfully flipping a 500kg tire filling his entire body. However, he wasn't going to stop there.

Pushing the tire over, the tire hit the ground with a thump, Shin quickly bending down to repeat the process he had done several times already. His concentration was wholly on the tire and the movements he was taking to flip the tire.

So concentrated on the lift, he didn't even notice when the air lit up with crimson magic circles all over, the tell-tale sign of a barrier being procured around him, before disappearing as if nothing ever happened.

At least, not until he finished his rep, the tire once again vertical to the ground, however just as he was about to push it over so he could attack it once again, he could see somebodies body through the hold of the tire, however considering the tire was well over six feet tall, they weren't tall enough for their head to show.

Pausing so he didn't throw a 500kg tire and crush the person, he was about to look around the tire to see who had interrupted his tire flipping session. However, he froze when he finally took notice of the clothes the person was wearing.

From what he could see, they were wearing a white and blue maid outfit, a maid outfit that he recognized, a maid outfit that belonging to someone he pissed off greatly not too long ago. A maid outfit that belongs to someone who likely wanted to kill him at the moment.

Shin's fears were confirmed when he shivered due to the cold air, which considering it was the middle of summer, shouldn't have been there. It only took him a second to come to the conclusion that he was fucked, hurriedly trying to teleport the hell out of there before he was killed. Only to curse when he tried due to the same crimson circles appearing, blocking him from teleporting out.

"Going somewhere?" An icy and emotionless voice called out to him from the side of the tire, the person glaring coldly at Shin.

Shin could feel the sweat covering his form quickly freezing on him as the familiar form of Grayfia glared at him. "As a matter of fact…" Shin threw out his right hand, a cloud of chalk coming out of it and forcing Grayfia to close her eyes and look away to avoid getting any in her eyes as well as to stop herself from inhaling any.

By the time she stepped out of the cloud and could open her eyes again, Shin was already gone, nowhere to be seen. 'Where did he go? He couldn't have gone far.' Grayfia thought as she looked around, confused.

They were in an open area, no trees in sight, no places to hide, and he couldn't have run out of the barrier, not without her noticing at least. She stopped however when her eyes landed on the tire next to her. 'You have got to be kidding me. Surely not.' She thought before a vicious smirk suddenly came to her face.

Shin meanwhile was squished in between the tire, hiding inside of it, thinking he had made a getaway. That was until he felt the tire shift. His eyes widened in horror when he saw Grayfia look down at him with a vicious smirk.

"N-No. Please don't." Shin said, pleading with Grayfia. She however only continued to smirk as her hand landed on the tire, and then shoved it with all her strength.

The tire was sent rolling, Shin inside screaming a long chain of curses as he continuously spun in circles. He continued spinning, and spinning, and spinning, and spinning.

Grayfia watched, satisfied as the tire continued to roll until it met with a hill, in which in just barely had enough to get over it, looking as if it was about to stop until it reached the other side of the hill and started rolling again, this time while gaining more and more momentum.

She followed the tire via flying all the way to the cabin that Rias and her peerage had been staying at for the past week, where everyone was outside enjoying the sun when the heard someone screaming curses.

Look around, they didn't see anything, until suddenly they saw a tire literally launch off a hill, getting some serious airtime. The tire continued to roll, hitting the ground and bouncing, continuing to roll, curses still being screamed.

It rolled all the way until it reached Koneko, who promptly delivered a kick to the side of the tire, causing the tire to fall on its side and slide across the grass, tearing it up the whole way. Not long after it stopped, Shin's head poked out of it, his entire face pale. Before hunching over and vomiting everything he had in his stomach.

Everyone grimaced as Shin continually emptied his stomach unless of course your Akeno and you find the situation highly amusing.

"Having a rough day?" A sudden voice said from above, causing everyone to look up in surprise, only to find Grayfia smiling down in satisfaction at Shin's misfortune. It didn't take long for them all to put the pieces together of what had happened.

"I hate you," Shin said as he went back to vomiting, Asia running over, plugging her nose as she got closer, and then trying to help ease Shin's sickness. It took several minutes of Asia healing Shin before he stopped emptying his stomach.

"Consider us even," Grayfia said, satisfied with her revenge.

Shin slowly and shakily stood up, stepping out of the tire, however having troubles maintaining his balance, resulting in him to stagger for several steps before falling over. "T-This isn't over. I will have revenge." Shin said; however, he was hard to be taken seriously while struggling to stand up.

Fortunately for Shin however, Asia came over and helped him stand, and then allowed him to use her to keep his balance. "Now I need to brush my teeth and take an aspirin. You better be here when I get back!" Shin said before Asia led him to the cabin bathroom.

(Scene Break)

It was now dinner time, and Shin was sitting there eating saltine crackers as everyone else enjoyed a nice dinner prepared by Grayfia. He felt sick after spinning in a tire hundreds, if not thousands, of times and didn't have the appetite to eat anything other than crackers ever since.

"What's wrong Mr. Hyoudou? Something wrong with my cooking?" Grayfia teased, intent on milking this for all it was worth. Shin just glared at her, refusing to answer. Grayfia smirked in satisfaction.

"Laugh it up all you want. I'm going to bed, have a good night Grayfia." Shin said, leaving with a smirk on his face. Shin being Shin, he refused to let Grayfia have the last word, and may have done a few things.

Two hours later, Shin was sitting at a desk in his temporary room, taking notes on something when he heard the stomps of footsteps approaching his room, causing him to smirk in satisfaction. His smirk widened when he heard a yelp come from outside of his door, a trap he had set up.

Not long after, Grayfia threw the door open, furious. She was wearing only a towel, her entire body and hair covered in some kind of red liquid.

Shin turned in his spiny chair and looked at Grayfia with a shit-eating grin. "What's wrong Grayfia? Having a rough night?" Grayfia glared at him, infuriated.

When she was getting ready for her shower, she had sat on the toilet to relieve herself of her bladder beforehand, only to find out much too late that there was saran wrap on the toilet, resulting in her urinating all over herself.

Quickly hopping off the toilet, she jumped into the shower to wash all the pee off, only to find out much too late once again, that Shin had tampered with the showerhead, resulting in the water coming out being died red, dying her hair and her skin red.

She jumped out of the shower, going to the closet to grab a towel, only to find there were no towels, forcing her to go next door to Rias' room, naked, died red, and urine still on her body to get one, utterly humiliated.

She was then going to Shin's room and yell at him, only find that he had trapped his door, his doorknob shocking her with a bolt of electricity when she grabbed it.

Maybe if she wasn't so angry, she would have thought to check if there were any more traps, however, she was clouded by her anger. So she didn't see the bucket over Shin's door slowly tipping over, not until she felt something tiny drop on her head.

Looking up, her eyes widened in horror when she saw a bucket above her tipping over, releasing a multitude of specs, all of different glistening colors. She quickly closed her eyes and mouth, not wanting to get whatever it was in her eyes or mouth.

Shin laughed as he watched Grayfia get covered with tens of thousands of pieces of glitter. Which due to the liquid on her body, stuck to her very easily. She was covered in glitter for head to toe. He did wince however when he saw all the glitter on the floor. That was going to be a pain in the ass to clean up. It would be worth it, however.

Grayfia opened her eyes just in time to see a flash go off, forcing her to close her eyes again. When she opened them, she saw Shin standing there, holding his phone. "Yes, this is a very nice picture. I think I will set it as my background." Shin said Grayfia mortified.

"Well, now you have three options Grayfia. One, you can go outside and wash off in the lake. Two, go ask to use someone else's shower, or you can use my shower and save some of your dignity. Of course, you have no idea what other traps I have set up." Shin said.

Grayfia glared at him, refusing to give Shin the satisfaction of doing what he wanted, she huffed and turned around. Unknow to Grayfia, Shin smiled at her decision. It seems his plan was working out quite well.

He turned and watched out the window as Grayfia approached the lake, stepping into it, only to step back out. He smirked as she used her magic to light up the night, looking closer at the lake, only to find it was completely filled with salt.

Shin's smirk widened as he heard Grayfia release a groan of frustration. Turning around she saw Shin laughing at her from his window as he stared at her. Her only response was to flip him the bird as she walked back inside, going to Rias' room.

She knocked on Rias' door. Rias opened it, looked shocked for a second, before starting to laugh. "What happened to you?!" Rias asked through her laughs, to which Grayfia only glared.

"I'm going to kill that servant of yours," Grayfia said before walking past her without another word, and into her bathroom. This time, she checked to make sure there were no more traps. She checked if there were towels, if there was soap, and if there was shampoo. Seeing there was nothing wrong, she turned the nozzle to the shower to see if it would be died red, only to find the shower wouldn't turn on.

She kept turning, both the cold and hot, however, the shower wouldn't turn on. 'Are you kidding me?! He turned off all the water as well?!' Grayfia screamed in her head, frustrated. She stomped back out of Rias' room, ignoring her comments as she walked past her.

So frustrated was she, that she forgot once again that Shin's door was trapped and ended up electrocuting herself once again. Hearing Shin's chuckles on the other side of the door caused her to see red, barging into the room.

"Come back to use my shower, have you?" Shin said, smirking from his chair, having waited for Grayfia to realize he had turned everybody but his and her rooms water off. "I promise, no pranks in there," Shin said, however, Grayfia didn't really trust his word.

This resulted in her taking one very paranoid shower that lasted several hours due to her struggling to wash all the glitter off. As she came out, wrapped in a new towel, her hair as well wrapped in a towel, she glared at him for a second before leaving his room without a word, much too angry to speak to him. Especially not when he just stared at her with that shit-eating grin.

After she left Shin's room, Shin just smiled and laid down in his bed. Enjoying the frustrated grunts, she kept making when she would realize something else, he did to her room. The first being that he had flipped her comforter, so the tag was at the front and not the bottom. After that was when she noticed he had stolen her sheets, forcing her to come back to his room to get them back.

Then she noticed he had flipped all her pillowcases inside out. Then when she finally thought it was all over with and laid down on her bed, did she notice that Shin had shaved down the legs on one side of her bed frame, making it crooked.

In the end, she had to share a room with Rias for the night, not able to deal with the crooked bed. All the while, Shin just laid in his room and laughed away. He had successfully gotten his revenge. All the planning for it was well worth the reward.

All my stories are published here and are free to read, however, you can support me on my pay-tree-on if you would like, where you get several benefits such as getting early access to my stories, votes in polls, and suggestions for the stories, and to suggest prompts. The choice is yours, like I said you still get to read all my stories for free. You will also be able to commission stories of any kind on my pay-tree-on.