BronzDeck
patreon
Chapter 10: Meeting the Devil(s)
🕑 Added 2023-05-31 18:24:18 +0000 UTCI truly pity the fool who thinks of annoying me today.
I am an irritated Necromancer and Sorcerer combo running on 2 entire hours of sleep after heavy dungeon diving. Anybody who wants to piss me off today will end up as Issei's neighbor.
And I still have to go to school. And I also have to avoid the fucking gang of imps that run the place.
I would skip but I vaguely remember how strict Soba was. I would rather not lose affection points with Satan 2's sister.
Also, I am fairly certain that they would approach me today anyway so I should be able to gain something from this goddam school.
They aren't the type to strong-arm people to their peerages and are overall quite peaceful so as long as I don't threaten them or trample on their pride I should be fine.
As I reached the I saw Sora and Tsubasa waiting by the gate making me sigh angrily internally.
'Speak of the devil and she shall come. I am too tired to deal with this infernal demon-shit.'
As I was about to pass by them they stopped me. Basically confirming my doubts.
"Good morning Gojo-kun. Would you mind coming with us to the Student Council Room?" Said Sora with a slight confident and charming smile adorning her lips.
Yep, they are at least 80% sure that I am supernatural and are dragging me in for a thinly veiled interrogation. But I can't and won't let them hold the reigns of this conversation.
I didn't flinch or show any sign of nervousness as I casually tilted my head.
"Sure? But what about classes?" I said as if I gave the slightest smidge of a fuck about classes.
"I already talked to your teacher about it. Hurry and follow." She said as she and T something started walking toward the student council room while I remained deep in thought as I followed.
For sure today I would meet Rias as Sona will likely tell her about me and she already most likely knows of me. Even more likely is that she is going to offer me to join her peerage. Question is.
Do I want to join either of their peerages?
...No, not really.
Rias is arrogant and willful while Sona is strict. While there is definitely a humongous benefit to becoming a devil it is not worth collaring myself for.
Now that I think about it, I may have also fucked Rias over heavily as there is not a chance in hell she is winning against Riser. Well, it's not my problem.
But then think about it for a few seconds longer my already pale face paled even further.
Wait fuck it might be.
Without Issei, she will be even more desperate. Since she lacks the assurance that she has a Longinus wielder on her side. And with the sudden disappearance of the person she was going to recruit, she will be more insistent on recruiting a new member.
After all, she was willing to settle for recruiting Issei of all people for fucks sake. Now without him, she will surely be more insistent on recruiting the mysterious transfer student with unique abilities resembling a sacred gear.
After all, if the sacred gear user I wanted to recruit disappeared suddenly before I got a chance to recruit them, I would be far more active in recruiting the second one.
As I was thinking about this stuff we reached the student council room and I sat down in front of Sona while Tsubaki stood attentively at Sona's side.
After we were all settled in Sona interlocked her fingers as she rested her elbows on the desk and leaned forward like Shinji's father from Evangelion.
Honestly, I am rather curious how she will approach this topic.
"Say, Gojo Akira-kun do you believe in the supernatural?" Right into it huh? Can't complain at least it saves me time dancing around the topic.
Although I am no prodigial heiress I do know a bit of politics and negotiations.
"Well, it would be pretty weird for a (self-proclaimed)magician to not believe in the supernatural no?" Leaning back on my chair I shot them a smirk as their eyes widened before Sona returned a little smirk of her own.
[+5 Affection with Sona Sitri]
Yeah, if I remembered correctly she likes honestly.
"I see, then I guess that you are aware of what exactly we are?"
"Of course Miss Sitri. You are one of the two kings of Kuoh if my information is correct at least."
[+2 Affection with Sona Sitri]
"That's correct. I invited you here to ask what you planned on doing in my territory?" She questioned me with a small smirk. Likely enjoying the fact that she could converse with another 'intellectual' who recognized her and respected her.
"Honestly, I wasn't really aware of this place being devil territory until a few weeks ago. Imagine my surprise when I discovered the town I live in is ruled by devils."
Hopefully, she doesn't ask how I became a magician and how I know about devils in the first place, that would be hard to explain.
"That's curious, how did you find out about us Devils?" Dammit.
"Well, a magician has his ways." Which reads in between the lines as 'none of your business'. Honestly a pretty bold move on her part just to straight up demand information from a magician when from what I know magicians like to keep their cards to themselves as their information is the only thing they have when compared to the other races.
She must have realized that too as she sported a very slight blush as he cutely coughed into her hand to regain her composure as Tsubaki smirked behind her before being shot down by Sona's icy glare.
"Right, well I invited you here to know what kind of person you were and what your intentions in this town were."
"I have no particular intentions here honestly. I mostly plan to just continue my own research without trying to bother anyone."
Aka. As long as you don't bother me I won't bother you. And that is precisely what I planned to do. But I also knew that that was probably nothing more than a pipe dream in a world without a protagonist.
"Alright, then that's fine. It isn't like you are the only unaffiliated magician in Kuoh. As long as you do not cause any problems I don't think there will be any issues. It was nice meeting you Gojo-kun."
She let out a charming smile as he extended her hand forward and I shook firmly and gave a smirk of my own.
"Likewise miss Sitri. And you can just call me Akira, I dont really care for formalities." And being called Gojo just didn't fit right with me.
[+5 Affection with Sona Sitri.]
"Alright then you may also refer to me as Sona as well, see you later Akira-kun."
[Sona PoV]
"You have quite a liking to him haven't you President?" Tsubaki said in a teasing tone to Sona, it was rare for her to get an opportunity to tease her king after all.
"Indeed I have. He looks very promising. If not for my agreement with Rias I would have offered him a spot in my peerage. It truly is a shame, I think he would've fit in rather well."
And unaffiliated mage was rare. They usually belonged to established families or joined organizations to get protection. Yet Akira was not like that. And she could sense a unique aura about him as well as his concealment of his true power.
He was also an intellectual like herself.
She wanted him.
Unfortunately, she had already made an agreement with her friend Rias that if she found any potential candidate that she would let Rias have 'dibs'. And she doesn't go back on agreements.
Cruel it may be but a part of her wanted Rias to fail in recruiting Akira so that she could also try her hand.
Unfortunately for Rias, something told her that Akira wouldn't be so easy to be convinced to join her peerage.
That was fine. She liked a challenge.
Hopefully, he liked chess.
[Akira PoV]
That went way better than I expected. A part of me was ready to just ID create as soon as she displayed any sort of hostility. Paranoia is a bitch.
On another note, Sona is surprisingly an easy target to raise it seems. She is already at 18 which can count as friends. She will work as a good target. You just have to be smart, polite, and respectful as well as a bit playful.
But I have a feeling that Rias will not be so easy to shake off my tail what with her currently staring holes into the back of my head from a windowsill says anything.
I am too tired for this army recruitment shit.
..........................................................................
During class, I spent most of my time tinkering with my cursed energy, finding what I can and can't do with my current level of control.
I know Kaiba knew something was off and I was using some sort of magic but I didn't care, they already knew anyway. And as I found out during class, I can't do much with my current level of control.
While the Gamer ability is absurd that doesn't mean it doesn't have downsides no matter how small they are.
I can't improve my mastery skills or stats through conventional training. No matter how much I train my cursed energy control won't go up. But I am fine with that because that doesn't stop me from getting more proficient with my current level of control.
After a few classes of me channeling cursed energy enhancement to level it up Kina finally approached me during the lunch break after presumably getting an order from Rias to do so.
"Hey, you are Gojo-kun, right? Nice to meet you, I'm Kiba." Said Mr. Prince charming as a few of the girls in the cooed. Fucking simps.
"Me neither," I said shaking his hand without getting up from my desk, though my comment seemed to fly right over him as he shook my hand with a friendly smile on his face.
I don't feel like getting involved with the Rheas' peerage especially this sleep deprived but I feel like Kubo here won't give me a choice.
"Say, Gojo-kun. Could you come with me for a second? President of the Occult Club wants to meet you." And there it was. Fucking Christ they couldn't wait a day so that I could get some sleep?
Sighing I pushed my chair back and got up from my seat and noticed that I was decently taller than Kiba which coupled with my filled-out hunched frame and slightly delinquent appearance made it quite a weird sight to those around.
"Fine, lead the way." I see no need to be polite here. Rias is the party that wants something from me. And that something is not something I'm willing to give out.
I followed Kina around the school until we reached the Occult Research Club building. Weird how no one questions that this one obscure club got an entire building.
...Probably devil mindfuck magic.
He led me into the Victorian-style fancy building and I could immediately sense the presence with immense negative energy in one of the rooms that was completely different from demonic power.
Ignoring it Kiba led me to the main room in which I saw a white-haired loli with amber-colored eyes sitting on a couch eating a cookie while looking up at me.
"Ah, thats Koneko she is one grade below us and she is also a member of the Occult Research Club." Koneko ignored Kiba and went back to eating her cook while I sat on the couch opposite to her and crossed my arms as I leaned back.
"So? So where exactly is she?" I asked as I heard the sound running water with my enhanced hearing. I just wanted to confirm.
Kiba looked away and Koneko answered curtly "...Shower."
With how irritated I was already I couldn't exactly hide my displeasure completely. All I wanted to do was go home, take a nap, and go back to Dungeoning.
"So, let me get this straight. In the time between her telling you to get me and me arriving here, she decided to take a shower?" I said rubbing between my eyebrows in irritation. Before Kayaba was about to say something I held up my hand to stop him.
"I'm willing to wait for a few minutes." After I said that Kiba looked relieved muttering a small thanks.
[+3 Affection with Koneko]
[+5 Affection with Kiba]
Honestly, I was also very amused. This is no doubt the singular strategy she had when she was planning to pull Issei to her peerage. Which honestly would have worked perfectly against Issei and his singular brain cell.
Seriously you can convince that man to sell his soul by just flashing a tiddy.
Alright then, let us see what you are planning Miss. Gremory.
A/N: What do you think about this chapter? Do you think the character interactions fit? Please let me know and as always I am always up for suggestions whether they may be what mc should do or what I should add to his arsenal.
Comments
Jabari M Hamilton
Are you spelling the names wrong on purpose? I swear kiba had about 3 different names in this chapter.
Greekfirefly
Like the chapter, and interested in seeing what the friendship rewards with Kiba will be.
