Edited by: Marethyu, Priapus, UwU
– Sirzechs –
After the admittedly stressful treaty only a few days prior, the festival- a rare moment of respite and celebration in their tumultuous lives- felt like much-needed R&R. The conference itself had gone through pretty smoothly, so technically, there wasn't much in the sense of 'stress' there, but before that? Sirzechs had hated every second of it.
He'd spent several days finishing the mountains of paperwork without any rest, hours and hours of running around his province and responding to the concerns of pillar nobles, preparing for the festival, humoring Rias' spontaneous requests involving whatever suited her fancy that particular day, and so much more.
Sirzechs felt like he was at his breaking point. Despite being a devil, he, too, could tire of endless tasks that kept appearing on his desk. He had little time for his son, let alone for himself. This was his reality. He may have been the Satan Lucifer for hundreds of years, but he was still as subject to stress and overwork as any mortal.
Granted, it hadn't always been this bad. It had only gotten immensely more intense after the incident with the Tojo clan, but now, after the treaty, he could expect things to relax a lot, considering they'd just ended a war that had spanned thousands of years with the other two biblical factions.
Things were still a little shaky, however. It wasn't easy to erase all the bad blood between them, a deep-seated animosity that had been brewing for millennia, but all they had to do now was give it some time. Five years, fifty years, a hundred— eventually, true peace will be attained. Hopefully.
As long as they stopped the people who were trying to prevent said peace. Some of whom he knew by name. But if the Old Satans were to do something, it would be the last straw. Sirzechs would not hesitate to destroy Rizevim and his followers, his ties to the throne be damned.
That man was the cause of so many painful headaches for Sirzechs. Besides surpassing every Satan-class combatant he'd seen, making him hard to put down, Rizevim was chaos incarnate. Utterly unpredictable and just straight-up insane.
To this day, Sirzechs couldn't understand what his objective was. He seemed to just be… doing things for the hell of it, causing trouble because he found it hilarious. It never was, but nothing ever stopped him, even if it cost him an arm and an eye.
He didn't know if that old man had been hit on the head as a child, nor did he know if that was how the Great Devil King used to act as well, but Rizevim was probably the most dangerous being alive. To make matters worse, he was a master at hiding. Nothing could get a whiff of him if he didn't want to be found.
Sirzechs needed to be ready for any nasty surprises from him. That bastard had caused too much damage already, and he was probably scheming something to turn this entire treaty upside down.
Now's not the time to think about these things. Sirzechs sighed to himself, watching as his sister's match was about to begin. Focus. Rias would be upset with me if I didn't give her my full attention.
"Father?"
Sirzechs paused and glanced at his son sitting on a chair next to his. They were in a private viewing room alongside a silent Grayfia standing next to him, a very enthusiastic Serafall, a vacant seat belonging to his best friend, and a sleeping Falbium snoring away.
As per usual, the man was always snoozing, even during work. If Sirzechs didn't know any better, he'd think Falbium's bloodline ability had to do with sleeping.
"Are you alright, Father?" His precious son asked. "You look uneasy."
"It's nothing, Millicas." He smiled at his boy. "A little exhausted. That's all."
"Ohohoho! It's finally Rias' turn!" Serafall chirped. "Aren't you excited, Zechs?! Your baby sister is in her very first tournament!"
"I certainly am." He chuckled. "I have faith she'll do wonderfully."
"Course she will. She has Shrublord with her." The Leviathan snorted. "What about you, Milli? How are you feeling?"
"I'm excited, too!" Sirzechs' son answered with a nod, matching Serafall's energy. "I've never seen Aunt Rias in a rating game before. I'm very keen to see how well she'd do."
"Right. You were busy studying when she had her match against Riser," Sera responded, throwing Grayfia a glare. "What a bummer, huh?"
His wife noticed and glared back.
"Something you'd like to say, Lady Leviathan?"
"No. Nothing at all."
Sirzechs felt an exasperated sigh building up, but he resisted the urge. Those two had never seen eye to eye since Grayfia had switched sides. It had been hundreds of years since then, but as hard as they'd tried, they just could never get along.
He could understand Grayfia not liking Serafall— his childhood friend acted like she took nothing seriously, and his wife was someone who took everything seriously. What he didn't understand was Serafall's animosity towards his wife.
Because the Leviathan Satan always treated everyone kindly, whether they were strict or not. Even Azazel, Serafall's 'archnemesis', wasn't hated as much as Grayfia. Was it because she was a former Old Satan member? Who knew.
"Anyway!" She turned to look at the slumbering Asmodeus, deciding to bother him instead. "Oi, Falbium! Wake up and tell us who you think is going to win!"
"Huh?" He opened his eyes as Sera shook him violently. "What? Where am I?"
"Did you forget, silly? It's the festival!" She explained. "Rias' match is about to begin. Do you think she's winning?"
"Ah…" Falbium blinked a few times. "Probably. She's stronger."
"It's never that simple, my friend," Sirzechs responded. "Strength is only one factor."
"Hmm…" He muttered back, clearly not in the mood for discussions.
He was admittedly very interested in his sister's progress. With her being one of the combatants who had stood up against Kokabiel, he was sure that she had grown astronomically since the last time he had seen her fight.
Her peerage's work against Riser's was astounding. All of them – excluding Gasper – had grown from low-mid-class devils to match high-class devils with relative ease, easily overwhelming even Ravel. Sirzechs was very impressed with their growth.
Rias' performance in that match wasn't as good as he had expected—her tactics were sound, but her personal power felt lacking compared to her peerage. But it had been more than a month since then, and after getting the reports about the Warhawk…
To say he was surprised would be an understatement. Then again, reports could only tell him so much. He wanted to see his sister in action and witness just how much she had grown, and this tournament proved to be the perfect opportunity.
He might've had to pull a few strings to put her and Sai in the same group, but he had faith in Rias. Sairaorg was a brilliant kid. A boy with zero talent climbed up the totem poll and became the 'strongest youth' through sheer hard work alone. He would prove to be the perfect test for Rias.
Though, he didn't know about the 'strongest youth' title anymore. After seeing the Sitri team ending their match in less than a minute… Sai definitely had a lot of competition.
The tournament this year was going to be close, wasn't it? He thought to himself, feeling proud of the next generation.
As the door to their private viewing room opened, Sirzechs turned his head to see who it was, spotting Ajuka, as quiet as ever, take his seat. As usual, he didn't say a single thing. A man of few words.
"There you are, you big nerd." Serafall pointed at him. "Where were you? You missed, like, all the other matches!"
Ajuka said nothing for a while, then gave a curt answer.
"Researching."
"As if that answers anything." Sera puffed her cheeks in a pout. "You're always researching."
"Am I?"
"Yes."
"I see," Ajuka responded. "I'm sorry if I upset you. It was something important."
"Pshh, whatever." Serafall rolled her eyes and then smiled. "I'll forgive you since you apologized. You better be grateful that I'm showing you mercy."
"Thank you."
As expressionless as he was, Sirzechs knew he wasn't faking his gratitude… Or his weariness.
Not even Ajuka was safe from her pestering.
– Ichiban –
As he and the rest of his team stepped out into the coliseum, he finally realized how massive the scope of this tournament really was. It was one of the most popular events in devil society and pretty much all the others.
Considering how many different races he had seen when Rias had shown him around after their discussions, it should've been obvious. He was so used to other races looking exactly like humans, barring a few extra features like wings, so he hadn't expected to see llamas or centaurs. Hell, he'd forgotten that dwarves and elves actually existed.
He'd enjoyed the hour he spent with Rias a lot. He'd always found her enthusiasm contagious and her confidence charismatic. Ichiban had never really hung out with her often, but now he understood why her peerage loved her so much. She was a cool person to be around.
The fact that they shared interests like anime and video games made it easy to talk to her.
It was the same with Koneko, who shared the same love for boxing and MMA. He'd always found it weird how a cute and petite girl like her loved these things as much as him, but in a good way, as otherwise, Ichiban felt like she was kind of unapproachable, always having this tired and almost annoyed expression.
Very unlike Kiba, who had a smile plastered on his face almost all the time. And it wasn't fake, at least not entirely, as he clearly had a hard time maintaining it whenever the church was the subject of the conversation. Ichi didn't know how to bring it up— he was curious to know why he hated those two church girls so much, but he didn't want to push any buttons.
As for Akeno, Ichiban felt a bit… on edge whenever he talked with her. She was clearly a lovely lady to Rias and the rest of the peerage, but there was always this hint of anger behind a smiling mask. Said mask would always falter when he spoke to her for some reason.
"Can't believe I'm saying this, but—" Ichi rubbed his neck as he looked at the crowds, tightening his grip on the golden baseball bat Akane had given him during their fight against those Fallen Angels. "I'm feeling kind of nervous now. There's so many people watching…"
It didn't mean that he wasn't extremely excited, though. This was the first-ever competition he'd signed up for, and he wasn't about to put on a boring show. He was going to do everything in his power to win this.
Even though there was a huge chance that Akane was teasing him, Ichiban couldn't lose. Not after what she promised him. He had to win the tournament no matter what.
"It'll be fine, Kasuga." Rias patted him on the back. "Honestly, I agree with Akane. The only trouble here is Sai's and Sona's teams. We'll win this pretty handily."
"And remember, you're the strongest one here," Kiba added. "I'd say in the whole tournament as well. Your Balance Breaker is no joke."
"Superman mode." Koneko quipped with a smile as she looked at him. "Makes you just as invincible."
Ichiban blinked and smiled back.
"You know, 'Superman Mode' sounds way cooler than 'Balance Breaker'." He said. Or cape mode, for that matter. "I'm gonna start calling it that."
"Oh! You think we can make a suit to go with the look?!" Rias suggested excitedly. "Imagine!"
"Er, maybe I shouldn't lean on it too much." Ichi declined. He did not want to wear a spandex. Armor like the Hero from Dragon Quest, though? That was more his style. "Wanna have my own identity, you know?"
"Fair, fair." The redhead nodded as they were teleported to the arena. "We can discuss that later, though. The match is starting."
"Right."
Ichiban looked around and saw that they were inside an old-looking home. Once he took a look outside through a window, he noticed that the theme for this arena was a Japanese-style castle town.
"Kiba." Rias called out.
"Yes, ma'am." He nodded, walking out of the building to scout ahead.
"Alright, here's what we're going to do." Their leader stated. "Or rather, what we won't do. First off, Kasuga, I know you won't need to anyway, but don't go Superman Mode under any circumstances. Everyone thinks you have a normal Balance Breaker, so we're saving that as a surprise for Sai."
"Got it."
"You and Koneko will take charge. They might outnumber us, but you two are too strong to worry about pea shooter magic." She added. "Akeno and I will cover your rear and support from the back regardless. Kiba will go solo and pick off isolated enemies. Any questions?"
"Not at all," Akeno answered for them. "The plan is as clear as day."
"Alright!" Rias smirked. "Let's show them how much we've improved since our match against Riser."
Ichiban nodded and took the lead alongside Koneko, exiting through the front door and walking through the town. If what Rias was saying was true with her 'pea shooter magic' comment, then they were probably under no danger casually wandering like this.
After a while, they encountered four combatants of the enemy team. Three girls and one boy, and while they didn't feel particularly tough, Ichi knew that they could be hiding their energy. They were doing that themselves.
Kind of. Ichiban had the advantage of having extremely low magic, so he didn't have to hide anything. His power only soared when he activated his gear. Who knew having a depressingly low talent for magic gave him an advantage?
And just in case, Ichi activated his Sacred Gear, forming the gauntlet around his right arm. The four opponents flinched as he felt the nice surge of power from it and a teasing look from the short girl next to him.
"Scared?"
"No. Careful." He denied. "I don't want any annoying surprises."
"You're scared~" She said with a soft giggle. "Chicken~"
"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say." He rolled his eyes. Teasing like this was tame relative to what he was used to. "I bet I can take out more than you."
Koneko blinked, then grinned at him, silently accepting the challenge.
"H-hey, how dare you underestimate us?!" The boy shouted at them nervously as they were within earshot. "I don't care if you have a Longinus! We can take you on!"
Before Ichi could respond, Koneko acted first, charging faster than they could react to and knocking out the boy with a single jab to his face before twirling around and kicking one of the other girls into unconsciousness.
"S-send back up!" One of the other girls panicked. "The Nekomata girl is stronger than we thought!"
Not wanting to be outdone, Ichi dashed toward her and put her to sleep with one gut check using his bat, but before he could knock out the other girl, she was zapped by a holy lightning spear courtesy of Akeno, making him click his tongue in annoyance.
"Slowpoke," Koneko said.
"Don't get too cocky." He responded with a smirk, twirling his baseball bat. "The match only just started."
As his gauntlet announced another boost, Ichi took off, looking for more points to score. No shade to their competitors, but he wouldn't lose after challenging her like this. Not when he had a massive advantage in the form of his Boosted Gear.
It would make him look bad.
– Akane –
"You seriously aren't even bothering, are you?" Sona says in exasperation as we walk through the capital's crowded streets.
"Why should I?" I raise a brow. "Everyone knows she's winning. She doesn't need me cheering her on."
"But she would appreciate it." She sighs. "Beyond that, don't you want to know what strategy she could implement? I imagine wanting to know what she might be thinking would net us an advantage."
"You think Rias is stupid enough to expose her cards against cannon fodder?" I argue. "Whatever she's pulling in her current match won't work against us. Like I said a dozen times, we're on a completely different level than the rest of the competition. She's playing the long game."
"I suppose…"
"And this is while assuming she doesn't try to do what I did against our opponent," I add. "It's very likely that the match just ended seconds after it began."
The moment I finish that sentence, the announcer proclaiming Rias' victory over her opponent echoes across the city, which makes me smirk.
"Told you~"
"Okay, fair point. But what about Sai?" She mentions Rias' cousin. "Wouldn't you want to know how he approaches his match?"
"Not really. We'll never meet him in the finals anyway. He's losing to Rias." I shrug. At her judging gaze, I roll my eyes. "I'll watch his match against her. That'll give us a good enough idea if he wins somehow. Happy?"
"I just don't want us getting too reckless or complacent, Akane." She points out. "You being confident is your thing, but I don't want that confidence to end up with us losing."
"Since when were you concerned about winning or losing? I thought you were fine as long as you don't lose the first round." I reply. "And we won that. Not like losing any other match is going to affect you negatively."
I would lose my shit if we did, though. I didn't come here to fail the quest. I'm not missing those rewards, even if it kills me. Seven thousand stat points? Are you out of your mind? A jump like that would propel me above even Ichiban's Balance Breaker. Like hell I'm losing anything.
Considering how 'arrogant' I'm being, it might contradict what I'm telling Sona, but it's not like I'm entirely overconfident. Seekvaira is still a threat with her time powers, so I won't waste any chances with her in case we end up against each other, and I'm still very wary of Diodora.
This hazy memory about him still persists, and the more I think about him, the more I'm convinced that he's bad news. I don't know how, considering his relatively low power, nor do I know if he's relevant in this… 'arc' so to speak. Maybe his importance isn't now, but sometime in the future. I don't know.
I'm just trying to be careful. I had some of my spy bots clinging onto him after his match, and so far, Nemesis hadn't found anything noteworthy. Either he isn't relevant now, or he's also being very cautious. I can't really investigate any further than that unless I want to look suspicious.
I don't like being passive, but all I can realistically do right now is wait until he acts first. Not knowing what he's planning makes me kind of nervous, but what can he even do in front of the most powerful devils in the underworld?
It's good that his next match is against Seekvaria, though. If he really isn't a potential enemy, then he should lose the game, as he's severely outmatched. Winning it somehow would skyrocket the chances of him being someone I should be wary of.
His next match is in three hours after the first preliminary rounds break. This is perfect because if he does win, our match with him will be during the festival's second day, giving me more than enough time to analyze the match and devise a counter plan.
"It would support the fact that we managed to defeat Kokabiel if we could at least reach the finals." She argues. "Which would open up a lot of opportunities for us."
Hmm, I can tell that she doesn't care about that very much. She's trying to get me to stop being overconfident. Which I am only on a surface level. Realistically, I'm being the most careful out of them with my suspicions regarding Diodora.
"I get it," I respond to Sona. But she doesn't need to know that. "But think about it this way. When we were training, we mostly prepared you and Rias to do this tournament on your own. Without my or Ichi's help. And I was still convinced that you had it. Count us in, and it's just overkill. It's gonna be fine, alright? Trust me."
Sona stares at me silently for a moment before sighing.
"Admittedly, your judgment hasn't yet failed us, so I'll take your word for it."
"Exactly what you should be doing. Also, this is a festival, isn't it?" I say, and she nods. "You know what festivals have? Food, and I'm starving. I haven't had anything since waking up."
"We have a reservation at one of the best restaurants in the underworld in a few hours."
"Yeah, but a snack or two wouldn't hurt," I argue, pointing at one of the stalls selling fascinating types of food. "I don't know about you, but I've never had fried cockatrice before. I didn't know these things even existed here."
Or any other mythical creature, for that matter. And the first thing I come across regarding these legendary beasts is them being turned into food, which is on point. I'm not complaining— it's honestly hilarious.
Regarding food, I expected something boring like 'demonic cow steak' or whatever. After all, Rias' family has demonic camels, so a demonic variant of other animals must exist, right? It would make sense. Probably.
Lo and behold, I thought right. Most food stalls around sell that bland stuff, but then there are other interesting vendors with even more interesting products. I mean, seriously, minotaur burgers? Hippocamp fillet? Do they have farms of these things?
"They're nothing special. They don't taste all that different from regular chicken." Sona tells me. "Though, I can understand being fascinated."
"I thought things like that were rare or too dangerous," I say, seeing something that makes me laugh in absurdity. "Basilisk meatballs? You people are insane."
"Most creatures can be tamed and domesticated. Not all of them, of course. The ones that can be are prevalent, seeing how many farms there are." Sona explains. "Then you have the more powerful creatures that are nearly impossible to tame, making them rare. Like hydras, for example. They're considered a delicacy even among nobles."
"Hydras?!" I look at her in shock. "Wait, they're dragons, aren't they? Shouldn't they be pure energy?"
"Not all dragons have bodies made of energy. Some have physical ones." She says. "Hydras, drakes, and dinosaurs are physical dragons. I tried drake meat once, but it's not good. It's too chewy and tough and barely has any flavor."
"…Dinosaurs?" I blink, trying to process what she just said. "Dinosaurs are dragons?"
"Lesser earth dragons, yes. Weakest type, barely on the level of mid-class entities." Sona nods. "It's too bad that they were wiped out on Earth, but if you're interested, there's a zoo that holds a few of them in captivity in my clan's territory. I can take you there if you wish."
I don't even know how to approach the subject anymore. Dinosaurs are fucking dragons? And they're not extinct? Every time I think I've seen everything, the supernatural side of the world keeps surprising me with new shit every single time.
And I love it. It's so fun.
"Maybe after dinner," I respond as we stop by the stall. "I don't think Ichi would want to miss it."
"That's true. Knowing him, he'd be all over it."
"Well, yeah. He's a guy." I snort, standing in front of one of the food stalls as I browse what they have for sale.
I pause as I think about what I want to have. Honestly? I want to try out everything, but I don't want to overeat and miss out on this restaurant Sona has been hyping up. There's no rush, obviously, since I'm here for three days, but still…
"What is it?" Sona asks. "Can't choose?"
"Everything looks good," I confirm. "I don't know what to start with."
"I recommend the hippogriff skewers." Another voice quips. One I recognize almost immediately. "Highly underrated, in my opinion."
I quickly turn around to see my uncle looking at me with his usual relaxed smirk, genuinely surprising me. I haven't seen him since the aftermath of the Kokabiel incident. He suddenly disappeared without saying a word.
…I'm glad he's here, though. Someone has to look after my idiot mom.
"What the hell are you doing here?" I ask bluntly.
"What a pleasant surprise, Akiyama-san. I didn't think you'd be attending the festival." Sona greets him with a smile.
"Like night and day." He sighs to himself. "Well, I had some free time, and after I got word that Akane was joining the tournament, I thought I'd stop by. No way I'd miss this."
"And where did you vanish off to prior?" I cock an eyebrow. "Not even my mother knew where you were."
"Had some urgent matters to attend to in Yokohama. It's fine, though. Everything is taken care of." He answers vaguely, handing the vendor some money. Sure, don't tell me. "Three hippogriff skewers, please."
"Aye, aye."
Right, that Korean Geomijul faction. I forgot that he worked for them. But to leave without saying anything… It must've been really pressing, huh?
"Anyway—" He looks at us. "Saw your match. Good work out there. Brash tactics, though. Charging in like that."
"I wasn't gonna waste my energy on weaklings." I snort.
"That's not an attitude you should be taking with you in a competition as fierce as this." He suggests. "Don't wanna end up losing and embarrassing yourself, right?"
"That's what I've been telling her." Sona huffs. "She can acknowledge being more powerful, but the overconfidence can be irritating. You don't have to call them weaklings or fodder, okay? Show some respect to your rivals. Wouldn't hurt you to be humble."
Being told to be humble by a devil is beyond ironic.
"Alright, alright. Here's what I actually think." I roll my eyes. "I'm keeping my cards close to my chest. I don't want the stronger teams to know what we're capable of."
"Now that's a better answer." Akiyama nods approvingly, taking the skewers off the vendor's hands. "Here."
"For me?" Sona blinks in surprise as he offers one while I snatch mine without hesitating. "Why, thank you."
"Night and day." He repeats, this time with a chuckle. "You know where your mother is, Akane?"
"Why? Are you finally going to ask her out?" I tease him, making him sigh.
"No."
"Then no, I don't," I say cheekily.
"Of course not." He replies with a mixture of exasperation and amusement. "I'll go look for her. Send me a message if you need anything."
With that, he waves goodbye, leaving us alone as Sona and I continue our walk. As I enjoy the delicious and unique flavor of hippogriff meat for the first time, she asks me something… interesting, to say the least.
"I don't want to sound nosy about your personal life, but it feels like you're playing matchmaker." She says. "Regarding Akiyama-san and your mother, I mean. Is it intentional?"
"No, not really." I shrug. "It's fun teasing him about it, though."
"So would you be against it if it does happen?"
"I wouldn't mind, no. I mean, Akiyama's basically my second father." I answer truthfully. "He took care of me ever since my first one passed away, mostly during my mother's deep depression when she was unresponsive."
Sona waits for me to finish.
"Though, I don't really see it happening," I add. "Akiyama isn't attracted to her romantically, regardless of how he reacts to teasing. As for my mom… She's loyal to a fault, and I'm pretty sure she thinks my dad is still alive somehow. Even though she saw his corpse."
Clinging to that 'immortal dragon' title like her sanity depended on it. It's both sad and pathetic. I don't know who had the idea of calling a guy that's very clearly mortal 'immortal', but he's a fucking idiot.
I mean, I'd get it if he was an actual dragon or something like that. But he was a regular human despite his title, wasn't he? A very strong one, mind you, but still human. Was he, like, an unaging type of immortal? That would also kind of make sense.
"I see…" Sona responds. "I'm sorry for your loss, Akane."
"It's fine. I was a kid when it happened." I shrug. "I barely remember anything about him, to be honest. Was easy to get over it."
Dying on my birthday was an asshole move, though. It made it annoying to deal with my mother on that specific day. I don't remember a birthday 'party' where she didn't drown herself with alcohol and promptly passed out.
However, that had its positives, too. What do you think happens when you leave an unsupervised child alone with a credit card that practically has infinite money?
Let's just say that you can party by yourself.
– Mizuki –
"Ah, there you are!" She stopped at the familiar voice from the crowd on the streets. "Over here, Mizuki-san."
"Akiyama-san!" Asia exclaimed happily.
"Aki!" Mizuki smiled widely as she met up with him. "I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw your message saying you're here! How's Seonhee?"
"Haha, she's doing good." He responded. "Bit swamped with work, but she sends her regards."
Seeing him around admittedly made Mizuki feel a lot better. Akiyama was one of the most reliable people she'd known. She knew that with him around, even assuming the worst, Akane would be just okay.
Honestly, she felt safer with him than any of the other yakuza. Even though Akiyama wasn't as strong as Majima or Saejima, he was much closer with her daughter than those two, and not being affiliated with the Tojo clan made him much more flexible.
Since most factions were unaware of Geomijul's existence, they viewed him as a freelancer, and he kept that illusion by doing odd jobs for practically anyone. Devils, Fallen, the Church– even other mythological factions like the Shinto, Olympus, and Asgard. He had friends in many places because of it.
Getting a random message from him asking where she was in Lucifaad was immensely relieving. At least she wouldn't have to be here on her own, especially not with the bad feeling after her encounter with that asshole Astaroth.
"Maybe we should visit Yokohama soon. I bet Akane would like her." Mizuki said. A cool lady like Seonhee? She'd be a role model. "So what's with the surprise? Done with work?"
"More or less. I thought I'd see how you and Akane are doing. You know, after disappearing so abruptly." He replied, sounding a little guilty. "I'm sorry about that, by the way. You will not expect why."
"Is that so?" She hummed, glancing at Asia. "Hey, Asia, mind getting us some drinks from that tea stall? Here."
She gave the blond the money.
"Okay. What would you like?"
"Milk tea." She answered. "Extra sugar."
"I'm fine with unsweetened green tea." Akiyama requested.
"Got it."
With that, she ran off to the stall, feeling significantly more comfortable than before, probably because they were very close to her anyway. Mizuki needed the girl away because she knew what Akiyama was about to say should probably stay between them.
"So?"
He stood next to her as they monitored Asia from afar, lowering his voice as much as possible. Then, after a sigh, he spoke.
"Shiva-sama paid me a visit."
Mizuki froze.
"S-Shiva-sama?" She almost couldn't believe her ears. "What could he possibly want from you?"
She almost called him out on his bullshit, but with how serious he sounded, she knew Akiyama wasn't playing around or messing with her. Shiva, the God of Destruction? The strongest in all the realms? Whatever he could want, he'd get in an instant. He didn't need anyone to do his bidding. Certainly not a random freelancer like the man next to her.
The only reason he'd personally look for someone would be to destroy them, but seeing how Akiyama was still alive and well… What the hell did that mean?
"I don't know the specifics, but he wants me to find someone." He answered, taking out his phone and showing her two pictures. "This. I've never seen anyone or anything that looks like it."
The first picture was a very well-drawn portrait of a hooded figure with short white hair and blood-red eyes. From the looks of it, the young girl with a serene smile and soft features made Mizuki think she was maybe in her early teens. She didn't particularly look special or unusual.
The second picture was another portrait of the same girl, but distorted and highly abnormal. She had a sinister grin with sharp, pointy teeth and what looked like 'cracks' all over her face, almost like a porcelain doll breaking apart. It was unlike anything she had ever seen, and as a former killer for hire, she had seen a lot in her life.
Was it some kind of homunculus or golem? That was the closest thing she could think of, but that wasn't it. It was too different, practically alien.
Mizuki was completely confounded by the sight before her. The creature didn't appear as terrifying as the other monsters she had encountered, but something about it felt inherently wrong. It seemed out of place, as though it defied the natural order of things. A sense of threat nibbled at the edges of her consciousness, intensifying with every passing moment she spent studying the creature.
Why does it suddenly feel like I'm being watched? She thought, deeply concerned.
She didn't understand how she could feel such a way by merely looking at a portrait of this anomaly, but this was clearly not something to be trifled with. Not when Shiva was looking for it.
"I… don't know who or what this is." She answered truthfully, averting her eyes from it. It legitimately creeped her out. "I've never seen anything that looks like this."
"I thought as much." He said with a sigh, closing his phone and pocketing it. "I tried to get some answers, but Shiva didn't explain anything. He told me that I should inform him immediately if I ever see anything that looks like it."
"I see…"
There was a pregnant pause afterward, during which Mizuki collected her thoughts.
"That thing." She said. "Is it just me, or did it look like it was—"
"Staring back?" He finished for her, and she nodded. "Yeah, I felt it too. But I don't understand how. It's just a drawing. It's not magical by any means."
"Even if it was…" Mizuki narrowed her eyes. "…How come we could feel that way through your phone?"
"Wish I could answer that," Akiyama said. "Whatever this thing is, it had even Shiva worried, and after seeing the picture, I can say it's fully warranted. Anything that could have such an effect isn't anything normal, even by supernatural standards."
"What are you going to do now?"
"What else? Look for it." He answered. "Besides it being a request from the God of Destruction himself, I feel almost obligated to take care of it. I don't want something like that running around. If it even exists."
"Wait, why did he even come for you specifically?" She asked. "Wouldn't he have a better time contacting Daigo or something?"
"Not just me." Aki shook his head. "According to him, he requested a lot of people in different parts of the world to look for this entity. Mostly freelancers, though. He's avoiding faction leaders."
"I see," Mizuki said, and after a pause, she added. "Requesting them to look for this thing would be a little odd."
And as powerful and terrifying as he was, it wouldn't be appreciated. Getting people like Akiyama to look for it was an intelligent choice, assuming he explicitly told them not to mention his involvement with this investigation to faction leaders.
"I'll ask Daigo-san for help after the festival." He said. "With his resources, searching for this entity in Japan will be a lot easier."
"Right. Well, I know you wouldn't want this getting out, so my lips are sealed." She said, noticing Asia returning to them with their tea. "And I'll be sure to keep an eye out. Did you ask Akane if she knew anything about it?"
"Nah. I don't want her to concern herself with this stuff." He shook his head. "It doesn't really involve her, does it?"
"I mean, I'd be mad at you for dragging her with you, not asking her if she knew what this thing is," Mizuki replied. "But fair enough. Knowing her, she'd get intrigued and look around herself."
"My point exactly."
"Here's your tea," Asia said, giving them their cups.
"Thank you~" She ruffled the blond's hair. "Now, let's go back. Second preliminary rounds are about to start."
"You think Akane is going to win again?"
"Knowing her? She's winning as fast as the first round." Akiyama answered.
"That's Akane, alright. Always flexing." Mizuki snorted.
Mizuki couldn't explain why, but most of her worries about Diodora had more or less been replaced by thoughts of the girl in the second portrait. She would still share her concerns with Akiyama. This was no excuse to ignore such a thing.
But She couldn't recall the last time she'd had such a strong reaction to anything like that girl.
Mizuki knew deep down that whoever or whatever she was, she was really, really dangerous.
– Diodora –
He knew that what he was doing was grounds for execution, but honestly? Who cared? He was sick and tired of playing Mister Nice Guy with these horrid humans. He was sick of how weak the devils had become after the New Satans had taken control.
Them being individually powerful was one thing, but to go through with that shitty peace treaty? Seriously? The fact that even Ajuka didn't bother to stop it from going through made him disgusted that they were related. Even though his genius was undisputed — being the inventor of the Kankara Formula and the Evil Pieces — it still embarrassed Diodora.
Did they just not get it? Humans were as good as toys for them. They always had been. The fact that they needed to act friendly to them was humiliating. Diodora almost regretted that he hadn't gotten himself caught kidnapping the dumb nun whores in Italy.
Though, he knew it would've gotten him killed. These 'New Satans' were disgustingly righteous.
That was why he decided to get them out of office: by creating a back door for the real Satans to exploit and take control. It was good that Diodora had been able to get Sirzechs' and Serafall's trust. It made it unbelievably easy.
Of course, under any other circumstance, Diodora wouldn't have sided with the Old Satans because he knew that the moment he was caught, it was over for him. As much as he hated to admit it, he was nowhere near powerful enough to be in any position to rebel…
He felt a smile stretch across his face as he looked at the glowing sign of infinity on the back of his hand. To think they had somehow made contact with the Ouroborus Dragon and allied themselves with it…
He didn't believe them at first, but to see it in the flesh was the most convincing proof they could've gotten him. Blessing him with its power was just icing on the cake. It made Diodora feel confident. With immense power like this, he doubted even the leaders could take him down.
Once the symbol's glow died down, he stepped into the coliseum with his harem of broken dolls. Soon. Very soon. And once everything was done and settled, he'd get that blond slut for himself as a bonus.
Maybe after teaching that other human bitch a lesson.
– Akane –
As the match between Seekvaria and Diodora begins, I look around me and notice that after the second preliminary round, it will start feeling empty here. From sixteen teams to only four.
Tomorrow is the semi-finals and then a friendly match between the top-ranking players, which I'm a little interested in, and the last day is the finals and the award ceremony. I'm not sure if I'm gonna get anything from it, seeing that I'm not actually part of the peerage, but oh well.
Winning this would make me pretty famous. Is that bad or good? Both. It is bad because it makes it harder to lay low and make my schemes, and it is good because, like the girls here, it might give me opportunities to work with other factions.
Kind of? I'm not sure what I'd gain from doing that in particular, but to be fair, I haven't thought about it much. Honestly, all I care about, as I've established many times already, are the rewards from the quest—my delicious seven thousand stats.
Everything else? Secondary. I can think about it all later once I'm back home. Actually, I think I'll reward myself with a trip to Hawaii because even though I've barely spent six hours here, I really like not having to be monitored all the fucking time. Also, it's lovely this time of year.
Of course, that may or may not be an excuse to build a secret base there. If I go to Hawaii, I'm spending the entire summer vacation there, and a month is a lot of time to make several breakthroughs in the engineering department. Perhaps I can figure out how to create teleporters like the Tojo clan did.
And considering how Hawaii is just several isolated islands between Japan and the US, it'd make it pretty easy to grind out my Devour skill in America. If I'm never traced, then they'll never figure out where the attacks are coming from.
Who is 'they' I'm talking about? The CIA. They're aware of the supernatural and even have several Sacred Gear users. How do I know this? I simply asked my mother after I heard her slip once upon a time by complaining about them.
Apparently, they don't like her very much for some reason. It's probably the tax thing, which is understandable. And hilarious. Leave it to my mother to somehow piss off a faction that's on the other side of the world and then complain that they're mean. I don't know how she avoided the IRS if that really is the case, but she makes me proud to be her daughter sometimes.
Maybe I should get her a gift. After all, she brought me, the salvation of this loveless and evil world, to life. She blessed the world with perfection; she should be given a gift of equal value. It's only natural that she's given everything she could ask for.
Alas, she's also annoying as fuck, so that's a lot of points deducted. To a point where the best I can offer is a bottle of wine.
"I'll admit, I expected this to be a much closer match," Sairaorg notes as we all watch Seekvaria's team manhandling the fuck out of Diodora and his harem.
"Same concept with her previous opponent," I respond. "Her time ability and her control over it makes her a force to be reckoned with. Unless Dora had a good counter, he'd need more raw power than her. A lot more."
"To be able to either resist her time abilities or outright knock her out before she has a chance to use them." Sona nods. "Unless he pulls a miracle, Diodora has no chance of winning this."
"And her team isn't too shabby either." Sai's queen piece adds. "Especially, her queen."
Yes, her pet dragon. Young, but pretty strong. He isn't as strong as me or anyone here, for that matter, though. Well, except Akeno, I'd imagine. She's kind of the weakest here. And that's saying something because she's pretty powerful herself.
"He seriously had no chance from the beginning, huh?" Rias says. "I feel kind of bad for him. He was such a polite person, too…"
I don't. Considering his weird title and the way he looks at Ichi and me, it makes him look really slimy. Looking down on us like we're beneath him, as if I can't fucking flick him into a bloody paste.
"Still, the more I watch this match, the more odd it is." I hum thoughtfully. "It doesn't feel like he tried to prepare for this match. His strategy was unremarkable, with no specific twists to help him against Seekvaria's time powers. It's like he's intentionally throwing the match or simply doesn't care enough to bother. That…"
We watch as the only one standing is Diodora himself, still smiling politely as he's surrounded by Seekvaria and her peerage. There is no hint of worry on his face or in his attitude. He's simply just smiling at her.
"…Or he's so sure of his victory that he's just not worried." I finish my sentence.
"You believe he has a trump card?" Sona asks.
"That's the only thing that could explain his attitude if we assume he does want to win." I nod. "Whatever trump card this is, it's much more powerful than Seekvaria could hope to compete against."
"Quite the assessment, my dear Akane." Lucifer quips with his usual smile. "Let's see if your intuition is right on the mark."
Of course, I don't respond to him and watch the battle continue in silence, as does everyone else.
"Surrender," Seekvaria tells him. "You have no way out of this, Diodora, and I'd rather not hurt you too much."
"My, how kind of you, Ms. Agares." He chuckles. "But I'm afraid I cannot do that."
"Your entire peerage has been wiped out. You have none left." She reminds him. "You are on your own and are surrounded by a full peerage. You move an inch, and you're bombarded with spells before you can say a single word."
"Well, that is true…" His smile turns vicious. "…But I have one more trick up my sleeve."
Knew it.
"Don't try it," Seekvaria warns him. "Not even you could handle the onslaught. I don't want to hurt you, but I won't waste any chances."
Diodora doesn't listen, and the moment he gets into an offensive position, Seekvaria casts a magic circle that slows him down, and he's instantly flooded with dozens of different spells from every direction. So many that something of this scale could seriously hurt even me.
Thunder, fire, wind, ice, water— every type of element as well as demonic and draconic energy being thrown at him, violently shattering the ground on which he stands, leaving a huge crater behind.
Smoke and dust fill the crater, but I can easily tell that this isn't over yet, and the moment Seekvaria relaxes ever so slightly, a dark green beam of energy comes out of the smoke faster than she could react, piercing her chest.
I hear gasps of shock and surprise from the people around me as Seekvaria falls down on her back, coughing up blood as her team immediately approaches her, dread and terror being cast upon them as they're teleported away, likely to the infirmary, indicating Diodora's victory.
As the dimensional arena shatters and we're shown the coliseum again, Diodora looks… normal. Nothing looks weird about him as he bows to the shocked crowd before they start cheering like crazy.
But I'm not stupid. That wasn't natural.
"What the fuck?" Ichiban is the one who breaks the silence. "What the hell was that?! Is she gonna be okay?!"
"Calm down, she'll be fine." The Abaddon chick responds a little callously. "Although the wound may look severe, devils are way more resilient than humans. It could still take us weeks to die from a wound like that, so she'll be treated with a Phenex Tear as soon as possible."
"R-right…"
"Turns out you were right," Sona says after they've processed what they saw. "I don't know how, but that's definitely something he was saving up."
"It's a damn shame we can't sense what was going on there," Rias adds. "How did he tear through all her defenses like that? What kind of trump card does he have?"
I glance at Lucifer, who looks deep in thought. Once he notices my staring, he responds.
"I'll need time to gather my thoughts and come to a proper conclusion." He says. "Though, I can confirm that that power looked familiar."
Good, a possible lead to what the fuck that might be. And it also confirms that this guy is bad news. I'm glad. Now when he eventually fucks up against me, I can beat the shit out of him. His face pisses me off.
I guess that accidental kill rule might be abused after all.
– Ichiban –
After what he might consider one of the greatest dinners ever, Ichi and Rias' peerage — also Akane and her team — spent the rest of the night hanging out together, seeing no reason to split up like earlier.
After all, they were done with today. All of them had won their respective matches just as easily as their first. Akane, being Akane, did the exact same thing and immediately knocked out the enemy King ten seconds into the round. Faster than her first match, too, as this time, instead of casually strolling over, she immediately rushed toward the enemy base before they even had a chance to spread.
He and Rias had won theirs with a simple strategy, which wasn't special either. Ichi had encountered the enemy King and easily defeated him with two active boosts, the match barely going over two minutes.
As for the final match for this day, Sai had won, as everyone had expected. That guy was really powerful, and Ichi could see that he was hiding a trump card. He didn't know what it was, but he was definitely much stronger than what he was letting on.
Ichi couldn't confirm it, but his gut feeling was telling him that. And Ddraig's warning, which came as a surprise for the boy. The giant lizard, who had been sleeping the entire time, woke up, said something vague like 'look out for the buff devil' without elaborating, then promptly went back to his nap.
Was Ichiban being tested? Maybe. He knew not to get overconfident either way, though. Each time he got cocky, he immediately got his ass handed to him. He wasn't going to let that happen again.
Especially after seeing what had happened to Seekvaria. Just what the hell was that? What kind of power did Diodora have? Whatever he had, he'd put Akane very deep in thought for a good chunk of time while they were hanging out.
He hoped she was going to be okay against his team tomorrow.
After the final match, the devil heiresses took them to all sorts of attractions, even to one of the coolest things he could imagine: Real-life Jurassic Park. He wasn't aware that dinosaurs were still a thing, nor that they had actually been dragons all along. It blew his mind completely.
So, did that mean that dragons were some of the oldest living beings in the universe? They'd existed for millions of years… they were older than many of the gods, right? Maybe? Honestly, knowing that mythological gods were real made his head hurt if he thought about it too much.
Because who'd made the world? Each mythology had its story, but if they were all real, then all stories would be real, but that would mean there's a lot of conflicting information. Did the God of the Bible make the universe? Was there a Big Bang? Was it Gaia? Odin?
…Was that world even that old? Ichiban didn't know; honestly, he wanted to keep it that way. There was probably no true answer anyway— each god would probably say their story was real. Maybe.
Unless it was a very simple answer that everyone knew except him. Admittedly, that would be pretty embarrassing.
As he finished reading the Wiki page on Egyptian mythology, as he'd gotten curious about how each pantheon viewed the birth of the world, Ichi got comfortable on his bed before the door to his bedroom suddenly opened, prompting him to tear his eyes off his phone for a moment to glance at his best friend walking inside in her pajamas with a wet towel over her head. She blinked as they locked eyes, then tilted her head curiously.
"What's up?" She asked, closing the door behind her. "What are you reading about?"
"Oh, I was just wondering." He responded, closing his phone. "How did the world come to be?"
Akane paused.
"Like, you know," Ichi added. "Knowing everything happened. Every ancient mythological story ever made. You'd think one of them gotta be true, right?"
"Isn't it obvious?"
"It is?" He blinked, looking at her signature smirk.
As expected from Akane. She'd know something like that pretty easily. She was, like, the most intelligent person Ichiban knew.
"Everything came to be when I, the main character of the universe and everything else beyond it, came to exist as a concept." She answered. "All to suit my needs and wants."
And the most arrogant. He thought. I should've expected this.
"You know what that means, Ichi." Akane continued, sitting on the side of his bed and giving him a hairbrush. "As my loyal servant and subject, you will obey all of my requests. No complaining."
He stared at the hairbrush with a deadpan stare for a few moments before sighing. It felt like he'd walked right into a trap.
"As you command, your Highness." He played along.
"No. Call me Mistress instead. Or Goddess. 'Your Highness' is too boring." She ordered, throwing her hair towel to the side. "Come on now, stop stalling and do as you're told~"
As he scooted closer to her, sitting right behind her, Ichiban stopped. He realized what he was about to do, and he felt his face go red. She was telling him to brush her hair, and he was going to do it with no hesitation, but wasn't that kind of intimate?
Was this really fine? She didn't seem to find anything wrong with this, so maybe he was just being crazy, but it still felt odd to do something like this… right? He never brushed a girl's hair before.
"What's the holdup?" She asked, glancing at him. "You okay?"
"Uh, yeah, yeah. Just um…" He carefully tried to phrase his next sentence. "Are you really okay with me doing this?"
"What?" She looked at him in confusion. "Why wouldn't I be? I let Rias do it all the time. Why not you?"
"Yeah, but Rias is a girl." He responded. "I'm a dude."
"You're worried about that? Seriously?" Akane raised a brow at him, giving him a slightly annoyed look. "Well, fine. I trust you to do as you're told and not touch me inappropriately. That enough consent?"
"Okay, okay, you don't have to get mad." He relented, getting slightly closer.
Ichiban began brushing her hair, hesitantly at first, until he got more comfortable with his position. What he'd expected to be a very awkward moment between them quickly turned into a surprisingly relaxing endeavor, with the two enjoying the silence for a while.
And the fact that she smelled very nice helped. The instinctual impulse to hug her from behind and take a deep whiff was immediately crushed by the reasonable idea that it would make him look like a huge creep. That and his dick would get frozen off.
"So anyway," She started. "I've been thinking about lots of things, but I wanna hear your opinion about—"
He was hopeless. Every time he thought he had gotten better at forgetting that 'promise' of hers, it came back to haunt him with a vengeance. He couldn't ignore his romantic feelings for her— he had acknowledged them a while ago, but he'd never felt brave enough to tell her that.
Because of all her teasing, Akane acted that way with pretty much everyone she deemed a friend. He wasn't sure she actually felt the way she acted toward him, and Ichi… didn't want to take this risk.
She meant a lot to him. Up there with Arakawa as a person who'd saved him from a pointless, hollow life. Dating her sounded like a dream, but he didn't want his feelings to ruin a friendship that meant the world.
That was how he'd always felt until the suggestive picture she sent him and her promise.
Ichiban wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, but even he wasn't dense enough not to see those huge signs. You don't say or do those things to a 'friend', and Akane wasn't the kind of person to throw herself at random men just for fun. Not to him, at least. Because if that were the case, why not someone who had a more attractive face or better body?
"You're not listening to me, are you?" Akane said, looking back at him with a frown before smirking. "Though, I guess I can forgive you. You must be captivated by my perfect hair, like silk woven by peerless artists. It took two years of proper care, you know? I'm very proud of it."
Perhaps their feelings were mutual after all?
…It was worth a shot.
"...Ichi?" She blinked, noticing his fixated staring at her face.
Ichiban didn't say anything and instead inched closer to her, putting a hand on her chin. Akane seemingly froze in surprise, prompting him to gather enough courage to press his lips against her soft ones…
…Only for her to block his shot by putting her index finger right between them. For a moment, he wasn't sure what to feel, staring silently into Akane's eyes for what felt like ages. His heart was going wild until realization hit him like a bag of bricks.
Ichiban felt his blood run cold— Akane's expressionless look made it hard to understand what she was feeling in that moment, but he knew that he had fucked it up. He fucked it all up. What the hell had he been thinking?!
Why did I do that?! Just because there were signs, it didn't confirm shit! He thought, feeling despair. Oh god, what did I do?! Right after she told me that she trusted me…
"I-I'm sorry." He said, immediately backing away. "Oh, fuck I'm so sorry!"
Akane said nothing and stood up, which unnerved him to no end.
"I-I don't know what came over me. I'm sorry, I didn't mean it." He desperately tried to earn her forgiveness and bowed his head. "I must've been tired or something— Really!"
Once again, no response.
"Look, it'll never happen again, okay? I promise on Arakawa-san's life." He swore. "If you feel the need to beat up for doing that, please do. I shouldn't have done something like that. I deserve everything bad happening to me."
Not knowing what else to say, Ichiban stayed quiet as the dread continued creeping up on him, feeling like the worst thing he had ever experienced.
He felt her getting closer to him— close enough that he could feel her cool body temperature, but until Akane spoke, he remained in place, not moving a muscle.
"Ichi."
"Y-yes?"
"Look at me."
Hesitantly, he raised his head and looked back at her, seeing her usual smirk. Suddenly, she put a hand on his cheek and brought him very close to her face, turning the overwhelming anxiety he was feeling into confusion.
"That was pretty bold of you." She said with a sultry tone. "Got my heart all thumping like crazy. Here, look."
She took his hand and guided it toward her chest, feeling up her impossibly soft breasts as well as her heartbeat. But even with all that, he had one question in his mind.
"See?"
"Y-you're not mad?"
"For shooting your shot? Of course not." She giggled. "I was just a little surprised."
"Ah…" Ichiban felt immense relief at that, giving him enough courage to ask another question. "So uh… Why'd you—"
"Because that'd be too easy, Ichi. And I don't like making things easy." She answered before he could finish asking. "I know how much it means for you, y'know? So I need you to work for it. Remember what we promised? If you beat me, I'll fulfill your wildest dreams."
Hearing her confirm his initial idea that she might share his feelings made him feel extremely joyous. It made nearly all his worries disappear as he imagined deepening their relationship beyond just friends.
Like any other guy his age, he obviously wanted to know what it was like to date someone, to enjoy his youth, even though he was told by the one man he respected most not to count on it because of his duties, and especially considering his lack of experience in romance. But with the chance to experience it with her of all people?
He didn't know what he did to deserve this, but in that moment, he thanked every god he could think of.
"I-is that right?" Ichiban felt himself smile, becoming more confident now that she looked just as enthusiastic as him. "Then you better not chicken out when I win."
"On the contrary, you better win." She said with a dangerous glint in her eyes, which made him shiver. "Or else you won't like what happens to you. Are we clear?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Good." Her smirk got wider as she backed off, taking her hairbrush with her. "Go to bed now. You can't hope to win if you're too tired to throw a punch. Goodnight."
Akane then left the room, closing the door behind her and leaving Ichi shocked, relieved, and very exhilarated. The surge of adrenaline was worse than anything he had gone through thus far.
Good job, partner.
Thanks… Wait, you're awake?
Taking risks really was the way to go.
— Akane —
That asshole nearly gave me a heart attack. Fuck me, I didn't expect him to do something like that. The fact that I kept my cool is a miracle. Where did that come from anyway? He just suddenly decided to do that? Fucking hell.
I glare at the laughing Lucifer with a red face as I walk to my room. And he was not making it easier for me, giving me those weird looks and saying things like 'Seems I should be leaving you two alone' like a piece of shit.
"It's not funny."
"I didn't think you could show these reactions." He responds, still laughing. "But that was on me. You are still a teenage girl, after all."
"Fuck you." I scoff. "Go die again, you piece of shit ghost. And this time, stay dead."
Lucifer isn't offended by my words at all, finding this extremely amusing. It's not. It's really annoying. And his chuckling doesn't make me find the mirth in it. I wish he'd just stop and go do something else with his life.
"Dick," I growl. "Shut up already."
"My apologies if you find me irritating." He says after a moment, clearing his throat. "But I must ask: Why are you against the boy trying to court you? You like him, do you not?"
"I'm not—" I stop myself from arguing.
Against it? No. I'm not against it. In fact, I was so tempted to just let him do it. I want to let things develop from there until I pin him down and ride him until morning. And I don't feel sexual urges very often.
I don't know why I found seeing him trying something with me like that so attractive, but it seriously made me consider just going 'fuck it', ignoring my deal with him, and then fucking him right there and then.
But with those urges suddenly going crazy, at the same time, I, for some reason, felt really…scared? And not scared for myself or anything like that. I trust Ichiban— he's too kind to do anything like that. Even if that were to happen somehow, I could still defend myself just fine. I can move faster than he can activate his Sacred Gear.
No, it'd be more accurate to say that I felt afraid for him. Like something very bad would happen to him if we were to go through with it. But I don't understand. I can't deny the fact that I'm attracted to him, but why did my body react like that? Why do I feel that way?
It'd be so easy to just do it and emotionally manipulate him from there— that's what I'm planning to do after he 'wins' the challenge. He'd be a puppet, and a puppet as strong as he is valuable.
I don't understand. All the teasing prior was fine. His reactions were always hilarious and I enjoyed it a lot, but when things got too close, my chest started to ache.
…Am I scared that I'd hurt him?
"Look, my love life is none of your business, alright?" I say, not wanting to dwell on those confusing thoughts. "Just drop it."
"Alright, alright. As you wish." He chuckles again. God, he's so annoying. "And since I've teased you so much, how about some…compensation?"
I glance at him in confusion.
"That energy Diodora used during his match," Lucifer says. "The Power of Infinity."
I freeze.
"What?"
"Interesting, isn't it?" He continues with a smirk. "It seems that somehow, Ophis has entered the fray."
Well then…
That's definitely nice to know before our match.
…But infinity or not, I'm still beating his ass.
You want more massive chapters? Well, the last three pa tre on chapters are all 10k plus. Packed with progression and lots of actions.