As much as Van enjoyed the openly horny vibes of the AV convention, there were some days when you just needed some time to yourself. And while he could just hole himself up in his room and get to studying again, being cramped in such a space for too long was fuel to go mad.
So, he left the hotel and decided to explore the great forest that surrounded Kuoh Town.
Despite how massive the town was (practically a city), it managed to maintain a great deal of privacy from the rest of the world. Most likely the work of the devils who had first claimed it, working to keep the place as a quiet haven away from other supernatural beings while still taking advantage of the human populace.
Regardless, the large forest was just one of many barriers around the town that kept it secluded. The thick woods kept the sun off of his skin, which was nice as while he was no vampire, the daylight was still capable of weakening him by a small margin. Really, it was just more mildly unpleasant than anything else.
Speaking of mildly unpleasant.
Even as he walked through the shaded woods all on his lonesome, he could feel a new sensation tickling the edge of his senses. Something was following him and had been following him since he left the hotel. It couldn't have been the vampire, it was still daytime, so it had to be something else. It wasn't human, the presence was too… empty, for lack of a better word. That emptiness made it rather unique, and combined with the stench of death, he couldn't help but feel some measure of interest in what it could possibly be.
Still, he chose not to provoke the stalker for now. If his little voyeur had some sort of plan for him, he didn't want to be rude and ruin all their hard work. At least, not before letting them think they had the upper hand.
Thus, he just pretended that he hadn't noticed anything and went about his initial business. Namely, testing out some magic that he had managed to piece together during his research yesterday.
Stopping in front of a sturdy tree, Van stabbed his cane into the ground and cracked his knuckles. He held his hands out, imagining a traditional Napoleonic saber before deciding against it. He was in Japan after all, may as well indulge in the culture a bit.
His Power of Lust took shape, forming a long odachi blade from pure demonic energy. Its form was not solid, with faint mists of fuchsia radiating off of its wavering, specter-like form. Holding the blade in both hands, he adopted a stance that was familiar though not very well practiced.
"Hm, been a while since I've used one of these."
Being of noble blood, he had the opportunity to wield many different kinds of weapons during his time studying combat. swords, axes, spears, lances, halberds, pick a form of weapon and he'd probably toyed around with it once or twice . Though above all others, he always had a preference for single edged blades, taking the time to learn to use a variety of them. He also rather liked the raw power of a large greatsword. Still, he wasn't trying to test raw power, so an odachi fit perfectly.
The biggest flaw of his Power of Lust was its lack of raw damage. The trait just seemed to lack any way to cause direct harm onto someone, likely a tradeoff for its immense flexibility. The Bael's Power of Destruction didn't have much nuance other than deciding if you wanted big damage or just medium damage, but its specialized nature made it exceedingly potent at what it did. His Power of Lust was the opposite, seemingly having a vast number of possible uses but lacking a natural potency in any of them.
Blades of the stuff didn't cut well, hammers didn't smash well, bombs didn't explode well. The only way he could get any measure of direct damage had been to just condense the energy as much as possible and throw it. Energy was energy, and enough of it crammed in one spot would have some weight to it. The fact it took him so long to figure out was somewhat embarrassing, but that was the burden of being confident and well read. Sometimes you overlook the simple things because you already have an idea of what you needed to do.
Raising his arms as he took aim at one of the tree's branches, Van slashed at the branch with demonic speed. The mirage blade shattered on impact, leaving a small cut in the wood that would take a bit of squinting to properly notice.
"That was the control test, now for the real fun."
Focusing on his Power of Lust again, this time he took the time to create a proper magic circle rather than just forcing his energy into a shape. The difference between the two would come in two ways. One, magic circles were just more efficient uses of energy when performing a spell you hadn't mastered. Two, this would allow him to more easily imbue the construct with one of the theories he had found in his ancestor's journals.
The account of the BDSM coven was more than just highly entertaining. You see, out of all the other stories from his ancestor, a woman whose title was literally Marina the Voyeur, this was the first one where she had ever directly met with the targets of her story. That much explained why that section was so much longer than the rest, and it also came with some of the most detailed explorations of their shared magic that he had come across yet.
To cut a very very long story short, the coven had at first been just a group of women whose husbands had done them wrong, each one leaving their homes and working together to take hold of their lives. At first, they had been nothing but novice spellcasters, but they had managed to find a way to summon his ancestor and make a pact with her. From there, they learned to use the Power of Lust through the pact and would create a fascinating school of magic that he had never really thought of before.
A new odachi formed from the magic circle, identical in appearance save for the energy it gave off. The magic was sharper, more dangerous than before. Something that made him feel damn near giddy as he took hold of the mirage blade and fell back into his previous stance.
He slashed down at the branch once more, turning his body to preserve the momentum as he followed it up with another slash from below at the trunk of the tree itself. Twirling the blade, he sheathed it at his side (a muscle memory more than anything) and dispelled the magic as he stared at the tree.
A beat passed, the branch falling as a harsh breeze pressed against the trunk. The tree began to slide down, revealing a clean diagonal line where his blade had cut through.
"…Finally."
The magic those witches had invented had been born from the anger that still lingered in their hearts, a desire to cause their no-good husbands the same pain they had been inflicted with, but tenfold. It was that need, that potent hatred, which gave birth to a dark art that would be the first step towards his goal of mastering himself.
It was the art of sadism.
No wonder he had never managed to figure it out. His mind hadn't been in the right place for it. After all, how could it have been? He adored Raiza too much to ever want to hurt her, and any people he did dislike he tended to avoid. He had never let the disdain fester, never let it sharpen into the ability to gather pleasure from another's pain.
Still, now that he knew how the sadistic art worked, he could replicate its effects through willpower alone. Unlike those witches, he was a natural born wielder of the Power of Lust. It was his birthright to command its power.
"…Raiza would smack me upside the head if she could hear my thoughts now."
His queen was perhaps the strongest force keeping him from spiraling out from the compulsions of his obsession. His will was strong enough to not cave to its influence and become a single-minded beast, but he didn't resist the obsession by ignoring it. No, he resisted it by stepping back and seeing the bigger picture. His ambition was what kept him focused, but it came with its own set of difficulties that he alone couldn't ignore.
He briefly wondered how she was enjoying the convention back at the hotel, using her to remind himself to relax a bit. Life was full of pleasures to indulge, and if he let himself get bogged down by the big picture, he'd lose out on the beauty that the little details often held.
Not that he was able to relax fully, as his stalker's presence continued to nip at his mind.
If they were going to attack, they would have done it by now. He was alone, isolated, and had just dismissed the weapon he had summoned. What else could they want? Were they just going to watch him until they got it? He could deal with a vampire in the hotel, that was a big enough space that he didn't need to think about it constantly. But to have a set of eyes following him? A constant breach in privacy?
That was a disrespect he would not tolerate. "I've indulged your voyeurism long enough. Whoever you are, either make yourself known or leave."
He could practically feel the surprise from the creature, his stalker not even bothering to hide their presence as he felt their tentative movements behind a nearby tree. Not that it would have mattered, as his senses were sharp enough to pierce through most forms of cloaking (though only if he was actively searching for them, admittedly). Had it been Raiza instead of him here, he could imagine the stalker might have surprised her. But that was only because her senses were much less refined than his.
Hm. Something to remind her to work on.
The stalker eventually managed to come to some sort of resolve, stepping out of cover to face him, revealing an unstable looking man. "You sensed me. Sensed me. But it doesn't matter, no no no, it doesn't."
Inspecting the stranger closer, Van couldn't help but notice how sickly the man looked. No, more than sickly. The man was a few days away from looking like a rotting corpse. His hair was stringy and seemed to be falling out, lips so dry there were visible cracks in them. His eyes were sunken in with heavy bags underneath, face slightly bloated in such a way that the skin looked unnaturally stretched. Flies buzzed around the man, not that they seemed to bother him even as a few landed and infiltrated any orifices they could.
One particularly bold fly flipped in between the man's eye and the lid, wriggling around behind the eye itself as the stranger pointed a bloated finger. "You you you, you must die. Die, yesssss. The mistress, the mistress, you stress her. She is perfect. Perfect. I must save her. Save her mind. kill the stress. Kill you."
An eye bulged outward as the stalker glanced down at Van's cane, the frail remnants of his sanity managing to come to the conclusion that it was dangerous. It was, though not any more than any other cane. Sure, it was made from infernal iron and forged in hellfire, but so were the screws in his door back home. The only thing its forging gave it was the ability to channel demonic energy with great efficiency, which was one of the reasons why he had it made.
The other was that it was cool.
Picking his cane out of the ground, he leaned on it with his elbow and fixed the stalker with a dry stare. "Riveting. And how do you plan on doing that, exactly? You don't exactly scream 'danger', outside of being a walking health hazard."
The stalker wriggled as it laughed, making Van's nose wrinkle as the creature reached for the sides of his torn shirt. "With the gift, mistress' gift. Her gift makes me strong, strong strong! Her gift will kill you, hehehehehe!"
Pulling the shirt open, the man revealed a familiar magic circle carved into his chest. It seems the vampire managed to claim another victim, though for what he had no clue. He was skilled with devil magic, not human or vampire magic. "Outside of making me gag, what does this achieve?"
"Looooookkk."
The stalker (likely a malformed ghoul of sorts) grinned as the circle on its chest began to glow. That seemed to be the trigger for over a dozen other magic circles to manifest on the ground around him, rotted arms reaching out of them as more ghouls pulled themselves through the circles.
Hm. The active function of the circle must've been some kind of teleportation spell, likely set to wherever was storing these ghouls was. Though if it was just a teleportation circle, he would've been able to read it more clearly. Those tended to have a lot of commonalities between human and devil magic. The main part of the circle must've been something else. Perhaps it was what allowed this particular ghoul to be as coherent as it was? Ghouls didn't talk and think, not to his recollection, so this ghoul's chatty nature had to be related to the circle.
How interesting.
Holding his cane like a weapon, Van rolled his shoulder and yawned. "Well, if nothing else I'll be able to enjoy testing some magic."
Snarling at his nonchalance, the main ghoul pointed at him once more and screamed. "KILL, KILL HIM!"
Death-scented energy flared as the magic circle glowed, similar marks on the foreheads of the decayed ghouls making themselves known as the zombies mindlessly rushed him.
The first few went down without even a speck of magic, the blunt length of his cane more than strong enough to cave in their skulls with a single swing. However, that method of dispatching them grew boring after the third ghoul crumpled before him, so Van decided to spice things up.
Ducking under a clumsy swing, he held his hand out and flicked his forefinger and middle finger up. A magic circle appeared beneath the ghoul, tentacles launching out from the circle and grabbing hold of the walking corpse. Giving the ghoul a harsh squeeze, the tentacles crushed the creature to its second death and used the remains as a bat to knock several more off their feet.
Letting out a quiet chuckle under his breath at the sight of several ghouls soaring through the air, he snapped his fingers and used his new sadism trick to form three pointed daggers above him. holding his hand out like it was a gun, he closed one eye and took aim before making his hand jump back with a pretend recoil as the three blades shot forward and pierced the foreheads of three ghouls.
Alas, his fun was cut short as he turned his head around and found that not a single ghoul was still kicking.
Damn.
Giving the talkative ghoul a bored look, Van spun his cane and slowly walked towards the creature. "Your friends were quite fragile."
The ghoul snarled, rushing forward and throwing his fist forward in an attempt to get one good lick in. Unfortunately for him, another magic circle appeared just in time for his punch to go through it and out another that had just formed next to his head.
Puss and other oozing fluids splattered out as the ghoul punched himself in the face, making him fall to the ground as Van tutted above with a disappointed sigh. "I suppose I can't blame you for being so mindless, you're barely coherent as is. Still, I can admit that I was hoping for more from you, an error on my part I assure you."
Turning the glaring ghoul over with his cane, Van hummed as he eyed the magic circle still glowing on the creature's chest. "Disappointing as you are, I am rather intrigued by the fact you exist at all. Perhaps if your dear mistress had used a more durable host than some overweight human, you might've been… well, not significant but not useless either."
Deciding that to the victor went the spoils, he pressed his cane into the ghoul's chest and flared his demonic power. "Killing you would be a waste of effort and, frankly, my own time. So, why don't I do you and your little mistress a favor and make you a bit more durable than a wet paper bag?"
Several tiny magic circles appeared on the ghoul's body, a rush of experimental magic flooding its decaying flesh as the creature began to scream.
"AAAAAAUUUUUUGGGHHHHHH!"
The fact it could still feel pain was pretty interesting, and Van decided that he'd ask the vampire how she managed to do it after he'd kicked her around a bit for wasting his time. Still, the fact this magic was causing pain at all was something to take note of. Perhaps it was because of the fact this was still a human body, and not a devil body?
Regardless, he watched with naked curiosity as the current peak of his body transformation magic took hold of the ghoul's very flesh. The sickly skin thickened into a rough hide, the round bloated flesh hardening into strong muscle as the ghoul's bones shattered and shrunk. The skin on the ghoul's face tore as the bone structure took on a more feminine shape, a long snake-like tongue darting out from between its lips as its shoulder blades bulged out and formed two bony wings covered in tattered flesh.
"Now, isn't that a sight to behold."
The newly transformed ghoul panted as her new body twitched with newfound vitality. Her clawed hands and feet carved themselves into the dirt as she tried to crawl away from him, her restored mind allowing her to realize just how badly she messed up. "D-Don't kill me, pleasssssse!"
"It'd be a waste of my efforts if I did."
Giving the pint-sized ghoul a once over, he found himself rather pleased with his work. Sure, outside of the wings most of his changes were fairly simplistic (as simplistic as body transformation could be anyway). But simplicity did not take away from his achievement. By infusing his own demonic power into the ghoul's body, he had basically breathed a new unholy life into its flesh and transformed it into a whole new creature.
This imp ghoul (a simple but effective name) was just a sign of what was possible. Give it a little more time and refinement, and who knows what the limits of his power would be?
Satisfied with his work, Van gestured vaguely towards the direction of the hotel. "Go rejoin your mistress, or not. I don't really care. Just don't do anything stupid and I'll leave you alone. Enjoy your new body, by the way."
Eager to escape, the new imp ghoul got onto two shaky legs and tried to run away. She stumbled, unused to her new body, but fear made for an excellent tutor as she anxiously flapped her bony wings and clumsily flew through the air and away from him.
"Hm, wonder how long it'll be before she gets into trouble?"
He had no clue what effects her new body might have on her mind, but he had figured the only way to know would be to let her loose and find out.
Reaching towards his coat pocket for his pocket watch, Van scowled as he remembered what had happened to it and pulled out his phone instead. Seeing the time, he put his phone away and decided to head back to the hotel.
Best not to be away from his queen for too long, lest she get into trouble.
… … …
"WILL PEDAL RIDER PINKY BE ABLE TO SAVE PEDAL RIDER ROSEY FROM THE CLUTCHES OF THE EVIL MOLESTARA, OR WILL ROSEY FIND HERSELF WITH MORE THAN A STICK UP HER ASS!? FIND OUT NEXT TIME ON PEDAL RIDER DX!"
Raiza screamed her heart out alongside the other Pedal Rider fans in the makeshift theater, wiping a tear from her eyes as she recovered from being exposed to such peak fiction.
The lights in the theater (which was really just the hotel ballroom) flashed back on, a wave of groans going across the room as the room full of anime fans were exposed to light, revealing their sickly pallor. Raiza was one of the few unaffected by the lights, having closed her eyes and slowly creaked them open to better adjust herself. As such, she was also the first to really get a good look at everyone in the room.
Jokes aside, there really was an unusual paleness to some of the guests. They were clapping along and talking amongst each other, but their eyes seemed fatigued, and their skin was almost anemic. In any other circumstance she would have just chalked it up to gooners not getting enough time outside their caves, but this was not any other circumstance.
Lips pursed, Raiza decided to put updating her blog on hold until she did some investigating. Sure, Van was insistent on playing it passively because he wanted to see what they were doing, but it was a bit hard to be passive when people's lives were at stake. It may not have been the most devil-like thing to do, but she wanted to at least try and keep some people safe if she could.
Plus, she could turn this whole experience into a short story on her blog afterwards too. So, benefits.
The ballroom grew disorganized as some of the guests began leaving the area, a few of them holding cameras up to their face as they talked into it enthusiastically. A part of her envied how confident they were in front of a camera, being able to vlog without stuttering or running out of things to say. That was just the difference between an amateur like herself and professionals.
…Damn it! She was getting distracted again.
Slapping her face cheeks and locking in, Raiza tiptoed around several different clusters of people checking out their necks with narrowed eyes. It took a little more work than she would have liked, as it seemed the vampire had shifted their aim from the middle of the neck to near the clavicle, but she managed to catch a few bite wounds still visible on a few victims.
That begged the question, why didn't anyone else seem to notice the wounds? Did vampire bites have a special magic to them that made it impossible to detect unless you were looking for them? She knew of such magics but couldn't be sure if it could be applied with just a bite. Van would know. Something to ask him when he got back from his walk.
She tried to focus her magical senses, but it was much harder than it had been when she was human. She had only been a devil for two years, as that had been when Van first received his Evil Pieces. And while he had done his best to make the transition between using human magic and devil magic easier, there were still some techniques that didn't quite come as easily to her.
Energy sensing was one of them.
Her attempts to focus her senses were so distracting that she didn't even notice the head of pink hair until she had bumped face first into it. Almost stumbling back onto her bum, she blinked and stared forward as her heart seized in her chest. "M-Momo Momozone?"
The Goddess of AV giggled at how starstruck she was, offering a short wave to the girl. "Hello~, you're uh… Raiza, right? I think I kissed your thigh yesterday?"
"Y-Yes!"
Any thoughts of vampirism were thrown right out the window as Raiza's head went fuzzy, her biggest celebrity crush standing right in front of her. "Hi! I uh, the episode previews… I love you!"
…Great Inferno, she wanted to die right then and there.
Thankfully the Queen of Hentai was forgiving of Raiza's cringeworthy display, flashing a smile that had the girl weak on her knees. "Aw, thank you! It's so rare that I meet such a cute fan~"
"C-Cute?"
Her voice was like sneakers on a gym floor, but that just seemed to endear her more to the actress. "Of course. I mean, look at those thighs!"
…This was the best day of her life, it had to be.
It was then that another face popped up, a pale young woman with black and blonde hair with red eyes. "Yo, Momo, don't forget we got that panel in a few minutes. Flirt later."
Raiza was far from offended at being interrupted, far from it. After all, she recognized the other girl too. "Oh my goodness, you're Pedal Rider Shadey!"
The goth girl raised an eyebrow, an aloof stare piercing through Raiza in the most awesome of ways. "Uh huh. And you are?"
Gah! She hadn't introduced herself! "I-I'm Raiza, and I'm a huge fan! Your debut in Pedal Rider: Rev the Engine is one of my favorite episodes of all time!"
Smirking at her pink-haired companion, the goth bumped Momo's arm and grinned. "Her favorite, she says."
Momo rolled her eyes, pausing suddenly before turning her gaze down to the lobby with a sharp gaze. "As much as I'd love to talk with my new favorite fan, Rina was right on the panel thing."
Taking her co-star's arm, the actress gave Raiza a wink. "Don't be a stranger, Raiza."
"Y-Yeah, no problem."
Mind all loopy from the overwhelming joy, Raiza could do nothing but watch as the two women made their way out of the hallway and into the elevator. She stared some more even after they were long gone, hand over her heart as she replayed the encounter over in her mind. "…This is the perfect day."
"I know I'm great company, darling, but isn't that a bit much?"
Glancing at Van as he casually made his way through the lobby over to her, she broke out in a wide grin and threw herself at him for a hug. "The most amazing thing happened! I was just watching the sneak peek of the first three episodes of Pedal Rider DX and then afterwards I left to go investigate vampire stuff and then bumped into the Momo Momozone and she called me cute and then the Rina Domme showed up and then Momo called me her favorite fan and said not to be a stranger and-"
Her lungs ran out of air before she ran out of words, forcing to take a deep gulp in to catch her breath. "I feel like I'm going to die of happiness."
Somehow between starting her rant and pausing to breathe, Van had relocated them onto a nearby chair and adjusted her so that she sat on his lap with her arms around his shoulders. "I'm glad you're having fun. I'll have to see if I can spare the time to do this again next year."
"You mean it!?"
She squeezed his head into her bust, pressing the side of her face against the top of his head. "You're the best, you know that?"
He mumbled something into her boobs, though she didn't need to hear him to know what he said. "I know."
Allowing him to pull away so that she could rest her head in the crook of his neck, she closed her eyes and took in his familiar scent. "Hmmm, I l-love y-you. You know that?"
"Duh. I love you too."
She smiled, but it didn't quite reach her ears. She wasn't sure if it was the difference between their upbringings or if it was just him, but love didn't mean the same thing to him that it did to her. He said it easily, and he meant it too, but she knew better than to get her hopes up. He loved her in the same way that he loved his family, because that was what she was to him. Family, just with a few added benefits. And he was her family too, but…
But that wasn't what she meant when she said she loved him.
"…Hey, Van?"
"Hm?"
His voice was warm, almost as warm as his gentle caressing of her back and thigh. This soft part of his personality was something only she had the privilege to know. The part of him that liked to feel the wind in his hair, or to sit outside in the cold with a hot drink in his hands and a blanket over his shoulders. Only she was allowed to see the part of him that fussed over the color of his tie or the part of him that practiced speaking in the mirror in fear of being looked down on.
Only she got to know the human side of the devil.
"You just going to keep me hanging, Raiza?"
Poking his nose as she snuggled deeper into, she giggled. "Yup. You deserve it for being so mean."
"I'll take your word for it."
Even if she could never feel secure in her place by his side, Raiza resolved to keep her spot in his heart free of anything or anyone else. And though she had been born a human, she vowed to lean into her devil blood and indulge the selfishness of her own heart. Because if he was going to offer his intimate affections to her so freely, then she'd do as any devil ought to.
She'd take advantage.
… … …
I'm enjoying playing with how Van's view of life and Raiza's differ. With Van being a devil through-and-through, his view on relationships and love are much more self-serving than Raiza would see it. At the same time, she can't quite grasp how deep his affections for her go, as his way of showing it are deeply rooted in his heritage as a devil and she lacks the mentality to see it, being a former human. But I think that's enough yapping about that for now.
This has been A Decent Hoonter, and this mini-arc will probably wrap up in the next two chapters or so, don't wanna drag it on.