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DxD - Game Master - Chapter 2
🕑 Added 2024-06-30 16:54:51 +0000 UTCRias gently landed on the grass of the small backyard with a near silent flutter. She was quickly joined by her Queen, Himejima Akeno. Akeno was a beautiful young woman with a voluptuous figure, very long black hair and violet eyes. Her hair is tied in a very long ponytail, reaching all the way down to the floor with two strands sticking out from the top and sloping backward, with an orange ribbon keeping it in place. Like Rias, she is wearing the standard Kuoh Academy girls' uniform, though hers is even more strained at the bust than Rias's own.
They were shortly joined by Sona and her own Queen, Shinra Tsubaki. Tsubaki is a young bespectacled woman with long straight black hair that extends all the way down to her knees, with split bangs and heterochromic eyes, with a violet left eye and a light brown right eye both behind blue, semi-rimmed glasses with square lenses.
The four of them are Devil's, one of the three factions of the Abrahamic Religion, and the 'Rulers' of Kuoh with permission from the Japanese Pantheon. It is their job to take care of the town and to do their best to protect its residents from supernatural threats such as Stray Devils, psychopathic excommunicated exorcists, flesh eating Yokai, and more. The entire town was surrounded by a ward meant to detect bursts of magical energy. Sadly, it was rather thin an could be inaccurate due to stretching over and entire city.
However, it did not miss the small burst of magical power emanating from this yard about fifteen minutes ago. They'd gathered, double checked that it wasn't a known location to expect magic. It was only after confirming that it was a mundane home that they'd chosen to fly over. They had the capacity to teleport, but teleporting into an unknown location wasn't the brightest idea in the world.
Now all four of them were staring at a magical portal to who-knew-where. It wasn't like anything they'd ever seen before, a doorway made entirely of swirling blue light. It almost looked like rippling water standing vertically. After looking it over a bit and trying to sense it, Rias gave up and looked over at her fellow King, “Sona, do you have any idea what this is? Aside from the obvious.”
Sona lifted her hand and conjured up a light blue magic circle filled with complex mandalas and containing the symbol for her clan in the center. The mandalas shifted and swirled as she scanned the water-like doorway. After a few moments the magic circle faded and Sona frowned slightly, “It's definitely a portal of some kind, however I cannot detect an signs of it leading to a different destination. If we step into it, we will go... nowhere.”
She frowned in thought as she studied the portal, “I think it's a doorway to a pocket dimension. It's the only thing I can think of to explain the readings.”
Rias was willing to admit, if forced to, that Sona was more intelligent than her and definitely more studious, but even she had read about pocket dimensions. That being the case she didn't feel foolish saying, “I thought something like a pocket dimension, even a small one, would require significantly more power than this portal is putting out.”
Sona nodded in agreement, “You're right. The only thing I can think of is a Sacred Gear. Perhaps one we're unaware of or even a subspecies.”
Rias couldn't help but become a little excited about that thought. Her father had been pushing a lot harder lately for her to just give up and marry Riser Phenex. That was just something she would never willingly do. She would rather kill herself than spread her legs and be bred like a cow, something Riser had threatened to do to her. So the prospect of a potentially powerful Sacred Gear appearing was like a balm to her soul.
His lips curled into a smile as she proposed, “Let's go inside!”
Sona turned to give Rias a flat look of disappointment, “You want to just walk into an unknown possible pocket dimension without any knowledge of what could be inside?”
Rias, looking slightly sheepish, still waved off Sona's concern, “It's not putting out that much magical power, I'm sure that we can easily break out of it. If we even need to.”
She walked closer to the entrance, poking it with her finger as Sona protested, “For all you know it could be a trap! Or the space on the other side might be so small it crushes you!”
Rias waved away Sona's comment, and with a giggle, jumped into the portal. Sona groaned and pinched the bridge of her nose. She knew Rias was smart, if she wasn't then Sona wouldn't be willing to run a territory on Earth with her. The problem was, Rias was also extremely excitable and prone to snap decisions. This wouldn't be the first, and hopefully not the last, time that Rias jumped into something without thinking it through properly.
Sona's woes only magnified when Akeno gave her an apologetic look and followed Rias into the portal. She didn't hold it against her, but Sona was still annoyed by the action. She turned to look at her own Queen and let out a sigh, “Come on Tsubaki, let's go rescue my idiot friend.”
Tsubaki's comforting smile helped a little, but she still planned to slap Rias upside the head after this was all over. Together the pair entered the portal and immediately came to a stop. They had gone from a backyard in Japan to the interior of a pub that wouldn't be out of place in medieval Europe. As they stepped into the building, the blond haired, blue eyed, buxom, woman with a ton of cleavage on display, behind the counter turned from Rias and Akeno to them and smiled, “Oh! Would you look at that, more people coming to visit little 'ole me.”
Sona made her way toward Rias while taking in the period correct looking décor of the room. If she didn't know better, she would think they'd traveled back in time. When she got to Rias, her red headed friend gave her a look filled with enthusiastic excitement, “Sona! You're not going to believe it! But, this is a tavern and the proprietress here is willing to give us a reward if we exterminate some rats for her!”
Sona froze. That sounded awfully familiar and extremely cliché. Like the starting to every bad RPG game that Rias had forced her to play. A cellar, rats, and a reward. The single most cliché of cliche's! And judging by how excited Rias looked, practically vibrating in place, she knew exactly what Rias wanted so she very firmly looked Rias right in the eyes and in her most stern voice said, “No.”
The pout and puppy dog eye counter attack came instantly that Sona would never, ever, even under torture and threat of death, ever, admit was damned adorable. She held firm, at least on the outside, “No.”
“Oh come on! It's just some rats! A baby could beat them!”
The woman behind the counter spoke up, “Well, I don't know about that. A handsome young man came in not too long ago and went to deal with them. The thing is, I heard some screaming and he hasn't come back yet. I even lent the deary my sword.”
That caught everyone by surprise and even put a damper on Rias's excitement. She was the one to address the barmaid, “Someone else came here before us?”
the barmaid nodded, “A cute little guy, like I said. I promised him a nice reward if he cleared out the rats and he seemed so confident. I hope they didn't do anything to him.”
Now that was a problem. Sona might have wanted nothing to do with this, but she couldn't risk leaving a normal human in a place like this. The supernatural world was a secret that all members of every faction worked toward. This was no longer a game. She locked eyes with Rias and they both nodded in understanding.
Rias turned back to the woman, “We'll take care of them and rescue the cutie!”
Sona, meanwhile, continued to observe everything about this place. She'd just been following along with Rias but now things were getting dangerous. She got Rias's attention, “You and Akeno go rescue him, I want to talk to the proprietress a bit more.”
That got a nod from the pair. No time was wasting as the descended the stairs. Sona stepped in front of the woman and immediately cast her hypnotism magic on her. The woman's eyes unfocused as her whole body relaxed. Once she was sure it was in effect, Sona began her interrogation, “What's your name.”
“ Proprietress.”
“Do you have any other names?”
“No.”
“What is this place?”
“This is my tavern.”
“How long have you been here?”
“About two hours.”
“How did you get here?”
“I've always been here.”
Sona frowned at that, suspicious she asked, “How old are you?”
“About two hours.”
That brought her up short. The woman had been here her whole life, a total of about two hours? A pocket dimension with a building inside and a woman that seemed to have been created with it. That tugged at something in her memory. It took some time of silent thinking for it to come to her. She whispered in a bit of awe, “Innovate Clear.”
Seeing the look of curiosity she got from Tsubaki, she explained, “Innovate Clear, a Longinus class Sacred Gear that lets one impersonate God.” She winced at the pain she inflicted on herself and Tsubaki that mentioning him caused but it was important for this, “It's known to have the power to create whole worlds in other dimensions, including near perfect imitations of living things. If someone just awoke it, then this might be the first thing they've made. It would explain why it's so small.”
Sona focused back on the woman, “Do you have a master?”
“Yes.”
“What is their name?”
“Master.”
She grumbled at that, so much for an easy way to find out who they were looking for. Though, she did have a suspicion already. After all, a Gremory lookalike with a decent magical power enrolled into their school just recently with a scholarship given to him by the underworld's more overprotective brother. None of them had sensed a Sacred Gear in him during their interactions, but it could have just been dormant and buried under his normal magical power. They would have to take a closer look at him now. If Okane Ryuji had awoken Innovate Clear, they would know first thing tomorrow!
She looked back to the barmaid and pondered what else she should ask. She continued her interrogation with, “What were your intentions with the boy that came before us?”
“I was made to get him to kill the rats in the cellar. Once he did I was to reward him by flashing him my breasts.”
That dumbfounded Sona for a moment. She shook her head to clear it and asked, “Anything else?”
“No.”
“What about us?”
“I was made to give anyone else that might defeat the rats a least healing potion.”
“A healing potion?”
“No. A least healing potion”
Right, more eloquent questions. If she was a little less intelligent she might have asked what a least healing potion was or did, but she expected it was self evident. Instead she asked, “Will you give me the least healing potion?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“You didn't defeat the rats.”
“So I have to be the one to defeat the rats to get this least healing potion from you?”
“Yes. Or be in the same party as whoever defeats the rats.”
More RPG terms. Whoever had Innovate Clear very obviously was into the same kinds of games that Rias was. Another point in the Okane Ryuji column. Rias brother was known to spoil her, it would be just like him to find someone with a Longinus and a love of RPGs, get him transferred to Kuoh, and let him dangle in front of the desperate girl so she'd snap him up. It was a sneaky way to get around the restrictions he was under when it came to helping his sister.
“How strong is this least healing potion of yours?”
“I don't know.”
“Do you know anything about it?”
“It's a least healing potion.”
Alright, that line of questioning was going nowhere. She paused to think of more questions but was joined by Rias and Akeno once more before she could. The barmaid broke out of the hypnosis and smiled brightly, “Thank you so much for getting rid of those pests for me! As thanks, take this.”
As she finished talking, the barmaid reached deep into her prodigious cleavage and pulled out a small glass vial containing a blood red liquid and the words 'Least Healing Potion' engraved into the glass. She set it on the counter and clapped her hands together in joy.
Sona, seeing the serious look on Rias's face asked, “What is it?”
“It's bad.”
-----Line Break-----
Rias bounced down the stairs into the well lit basement bubbling with excitement. Yes, she was slightly worried for whatever boy had found his way into the pocket dimension, and was likely hurt, but it was so exciting! So many RPG games began with the classic 'rats in the basement' scenario that she'd have to be a complete noob not to recognize it!
Whoever set this up was her kind of people!
Her excitement faded a fair bit as she arrived at the bottom on the stairs and got her first look at the barrel filled basement (classic!). Laying on the ground, no more than ten feet from the stairs, was a badly disfigured body of a male around her age. He was wearing the Kuoh Academy uniform, minus the ribbon and with sneakers instead of the proper shoes, but it was easy enough to recognize.
As she got closer, she grimaced in distaste. The rats, clearly fairly dangerous since they killed a teenager with a sword, had gone after his soft tissues first. His face was an unrecognizable mess of blood and showing his exposed skull. It wasn't the most gruesome thing she'd ever seen, plenty of Stray Devils had much messier methods of murdering and eating their victims, but that didn't make it a pleasant experience.
She couldn't recognize the boy at a glance so she did what she had to do, rolled him for his wallet. A quick check caused her to sigh deeply and prompt Akeno to ask, “Who is it.”
Rias turned the wallet so she could see the student ID while she answered, “Hyoudou Issei, one of the perverted trio. Well, it explains why he was so gung ho to come down here for a 'reward' from that woman.”
Akeno, despite the situation, giggled behind her hand, “Yes, quite. He was always shouting about breasts wasn't he. She definitely had a pair that would drive him to distraction. Why, I bet hers are even bigger than mine!”
Rias rolled her eyes but was prevented from commenting by an enraged sounding squeak coming from the end of the walkway between the barrels. Looking she beheld a rat the size of a small dog. Her eyes widened slightly in surprise. Not at its size, Maou Below knew the Underworld had rats the size of houses. No, it was the fact that she couldn't sense a single bit of magical power from the rat. For a creature to grow beyond its expected mundane size, magical power was required. The rat before her spit on the face of the rules she'd grown up with.
The rat let out a long squeak, like an adorable challenge to her, as it charged at her and Akeno. She didn't even bother moving while Akeno gently flicked her fingertips and sent a small bolt of lightning at the rat. It didn't stand a chance and was instantly fried, falling over dead. Rias moved from the corpse of Issei over to the corpse and the rat and called up a crimson magic circle to begin magically examining it.
She might not be as good as Sona at this sort of thing, but she wasn't completely useless at it either. Yet the results were befuddling. No matter how she tried to interpret the results, they all came back as 'normal'. That was obviously impossible as the rat was clearly many times larger than it could possibly grow naturally. Yet, all the same, she could find no sign of anything out of the ordinary in her scans.
“How weird. It's all mundane. How is that possible?”
Akeno's reply was cut off by two outraged squeaks. They both looked up from the dead rat to see two more rats at the far end of the cellar. One was the same size as the one Akeno had just killed, nothing special. The second one though? It was as big as a medium sized dog, several times bigger than the rat next to it.
The two rats let out surprisingly loud squeaky war cries and charged. It was obvious that the rats didn't have much intelligence if their go to tactic was scream and charge. Their 'attack' was over in seconds as Akeno dealt with them via electrocution. Rias looked from the freshly dead rats to the corpse of Issei with a frown. Her gaze moved back and forth a few times before she asked no one in particular, “How the hell did he die fighting these things? No, seriously. They are pathetically weak and he had a sword! He would either have to be exceptionally weak or the absolute dumbest person to ever live.”
Seriously. The rats were completely mundane, no matter how impossible she found that, and weren't even that big! The biggest one was the size of a medium dog, not even as big as a Rottweiler! It was ludicrous! A good strong kick would easily sent one of them flying and the idiot had a goddamn sword! Even if he didn't know how to use it, it was a heavy piece of metal! Even swinging it like a bat would be enough for a killing blow!
She shook her head and dismissed the thoughts. Regardless of how silly his death was, he was dead from a supernatural incident and it would be up to her an Sona to deal with the fallout. They'd work together to figure out what to do. Later.
She stood tall once more and turned to Akeno, “Come on, let's clear out the rest of this place.” Her eyes widened, “OH! And keep an eye out for anything that might look like a secret passage or opening of some kind! Lots of games like to hide gems, trinkets, or sometimes really useful items in unexpected places like this.”
Akeno gave her King a teasing look, “My my, looting the poor tavern wench of her precious gems and trinkets? How ruthless.”
Rias gave a very mature response, she stuck her tongue out. It didn't take much longer to search the dungeon, apparently they had finished off what rats remained. Rias was also disappointed that she hadn't found any secret stashes. It wasn't a staple of the cliché, but it happened so often that it should have been!
They returned to the entrance and both paused as they looked at the passageway. The dead body if Issei was where they had left it, but the rat corpses were gone. There was no sign of them, not a smudge. Even a scan with magic didn't reveal any clues about here they could have gone. That... was a little disturbing.
They climbed back up the stairs to rejoin Sona.
-----Line Break-----
“And then we came back here. What did you find out?” Rias concluded and turned the discussion over to Sona.
Sona explained everything she discovered and her thoughts on the possibility of Okane Ryuji having Innovate Clear. When she finished, they both looked at the blood red supposed potion of healing. Rias was the one to ask, “Do you think it's real?”
Instead of answering verbally, Sona replied by conjuring her magic circle and scanning the potion with it. She frowned slightly at the feedback she was getting and explained out loud, “I'm getting a weak magical reading from it, but none of the signs I would expect from any sort of healing magic. The only thing I know of even close to a 'healing potion' would be Phoenix Tears from the Phenex clan. This doesn't read anything like that. A Phoenix tear is dozens of times more magically potent that this thing.”
Rias had grimaced at the mention of the Phenex family, but had to agree with Sona on the tears. They were excellent at healing wounds. However, she did point out the obvious, “Well, it is labeled as a 'Least Healing Potion'.”
Sona looked at Rias, “Are you implying there might be stronger versions?”
Rias shrugged her shoulders, “Given the name, and everything else we've seen so far, it would be on theme for their to be stronger versions. Of course, that's assuming this version even works at all. I'd suggest we take it and give it to my brother so he can pass it to Ajuka for testing.”
Sona didn't even need to think about that before nodding her head in agreement, “Right. Grab your potion and let's get out of here. We still need to do something to deal with the death of Issei. We also need to find the person that made this dimension and figure out if they were trying to murder the boy or if it was an accident.”
Given how weak Rias said the rats were, she wasn't above believing that the death of Issei had been a complete accident. Rias grabbed her prize potion, and the four of them made their way to the exit. The moment Akeno, the last one out, crossed the threshold, the portal vanished as if it had never been. At the same time, Akeno's eyes widened slightly, “Oh my.”
All three other girls turned to face her immediately. Rias, concerned for her Queen, was the first to speak, “What? Did something happen?”
Akeno nodded, “Yes. It's strange but, the moment we left the pocket dimension, I felt a very tiny bit of energy enter and merge with my demonic power. It's made me the very smallest bit stronger than I was when we entered it.”
Rias blinked in surprise, then her eyes widened as her body began to vibrate in sheer joy, “Are you saying you got EXPERIENCE POINTS?!”
Sona sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. Tsubaki just shook her head in exasperation. Akeno though, she smirked at her King and nodded imperiously, “I believe I did.”
Rias's excitement changed as she gasped in shock, “I missed out on gaining experience points! That's not fair!”
She'd clearly forgotten the Least Healing Potion she was still holding in her hand as she violently pouted at the missed opportunity. Still this brought up another curiosity about the pocket dimension that Sona brought up, “So, you got stronger, even if its just a tiny amount, by beating the 'monsters' in the 'dungeon' like some sort of RPG game? I mean, it fits the theme of everything else but that's just...”
Rias sighed and nodded, “If just some tiny rats could give enough of a power boost to be noticed, no matter how small, it brings to question whether or not stronger monsters would give a stronger boost. Even if not, just the small, but noticeable, gain would have everyone fighting to get their hands on the person who made all this possible. Even more so than the potion would.” She looked Sona in the eyes, “This could cause a lot of problems.”
Sona nodded in agreement. When word of this got out, it would cause a feeding frenzy in their territory as everyone who wanted to gain power descended on them. She had no doubt that something like this wold get out eventually, it always did. They need to be careful of many things, not least of which was also making sure that random civilians did not happen to wander into the pocket dimensions and die. Speaking of, Sona sighed, “We have a lot of work to do tonight. We need to deal with Hyoudou-san's death.”
As she mentioned that, both of them froze and looked at where the portal entrance had been. Sona groaned and looked accusingly at Rias, “You left his body in there.”
Rias attempted to distract Sona by acting cute, “So much was going on I forgot, teehee pero.”
The flat look of near repulsion she got in reply made Rias sigh, “Alright, I messed up. How about I take care of wiping memories. School hasn't been going long so it should be easy enough to make people forget he even attended and have it so he died over the summer. It will give his parents closure at least.”
Sona sighed but nodded her head, “Fine.” She held her hand out, “Give me the potion then and I'll contact my sister to get it to Ajuka-sama. And don't you EVER teehee pero me again. That was so gross.”
Rias pouted but, reluctantly, gave the potion to Sona who immediately released a pair of wings from her back and took off into the sky. Tsubaki gave her goodbyes to Rias and Akeno before following her King. Rias turned to Akeno and sighed, “Come on, at least we can use the city wide spells for this. Though we'll need to do the details in person.”
Rias and Akeno both released wings from their backs and took off as well. Simple spells made it so people wouldn't notice them as they made their way toward their destination.
-----Line Break-----
Ryuji yawned lightly as he walked toward the entrance to school. His first weekend had been nice and relaxing, minus the homework he'd had to do. He did think he wasn't doing enough to grow his power though. He might not be super familiar with the source material of his new reality, but he did know there were beings within it that could destroy the entirety of the Earth with a misplaced sneeze.
Well, they might not be that strong, but he was sure they were close enough that it didn't matter. So, that meant he needed to make his first scenario, get someone to run it, and have them spread the word so he could run more and more to gain power. He wasn't sure what the limit of his powers were, or even if they had limits. He also had no idea how strong he was compared to others, but he was going to go with 'weak as hell' and be happy if he was wrong.
His first scenario would have to be the classic rats in the basement, it had to be. So, the real question was, where should be set it up? He could open portals to his scenarios anywhere within a certain range, which seemed to be just about the size of Kuoh itself. So he could happily run them from home and not put himself at risk. Still... the best place for it would probably be right here at the high school. It was where the supernatural folks spent most of their time after all!
As he stepped over the threshold of the school gate, a familiar voice called out to him, “Okane-san, a moment please.”
He came to a stop and turned to face Souna, she looked as serious as ever so he politely asked, “Is there something I can do for you Shitori-san?”
He did his best to not laugh at her name. Not because it was fake, but given his knowledge of English and Japanese, he couldn't help noticing that the first part could easily be truncated to 'Shit' while the second half could be truncated to 'Tori', which translated to bird. To his now multilingual mind, he couldn't help reading her chosen fake name as shit-bird. Of course, she could have been going for the much edgier Shi-Tori or Death-Bird. Either way, he found it rather entertaining and it took some effort not to laugh in her face every time he had to say her name.
Souna gave him a polite tilt of her head, “As it's the beginning of your second week here, I wanted to invite you to the student council offices, after classes. Just for a simple chat to see how you're settling in and if you have any questions of concerns.”
Ryuji acknowledged her offer with a nod of his head, “Then I will see you after classes, Shitori-san.”
They parted ways and Ryuji went back to his pondering. Hopefully he hadn't drawn any attention from the Devils yet. He had no intention of ever joining any side. His growth would be significantly better if he could spread it around to all the factions and have all sorts of people running his scenarios. He liked to think that joining any one faction would be the same as cutting his customer base, losing all the members of the other factions as customers.
As a capitalist at heart, he couldn't have that! He wanted to 'sell' his product to everyone!
Aside from that, joining any one faction automatically made him the enemy of the opposing factions. He didn't want any enemies. So, just say no to recruiting attempts was his new motto.
-----Line Break-----
Ryuji knocked on the door to the student council offices. The school day had been sufficiently boring and felt like it had dragged on. He was getting along with most of his class. Though Rias and Akeno seemed aloof, not just to him but to most of the school. He hadn't made any friends yet, and didn't really wish to. He was happy with just some acquaintances.
The door to the offices opened and he spied the white hair of Momo. She gave him a polite smile and stepped aside with a gesture for him to enter. He walked in and spotted the members of the student council, he didn't recognize a couple, which was fine. Souna, which is what he planned to call her at all times, even if he knew her real name, was sitting in a plush chair across from another exactly like it, with a chess board set up between them. Of course, Momo guided him to the empty chair.
Souna gave him a polite smile and gestured to the chess board, “I hope you're willing to indulge me in a game while we talk.”
He just shrugged his shoulders and settled in the chair to get comfortable, “If you'd like.”
Didn't she have some sort of fetish about chess? He remembered hearing something to that effect but couldn't remember the relevance. Not that it mattered much to him. He'd played chess a fair bit as a child against his father. He'd constantly lost, so in a fit of pique, he'd researched famous tactics used by chess masters. Using one of them he'd managed to pummel his father. They'd never played again but he did recall one or two of those tactics. Well, if nothing else, it should provide some entertainment for Souna to pound him into the dirt.
After he settled in, Souna gestured to the board, “You're white, so you move first.”
As he studied the board and tried to recall the moves he was meant to make for The Queen's Gambit. As he did Souna asked, “How are you finding your classes?”
The game began with Ryuji making the first move and already expecting to lose horribly, “They're fine, they're just classes.”
Souna raised an eyebrow at his comment while moving a pawn to counter his, “I see. Do you not find them stimulating?”
Ryuji moved another pawn and shrugged his shoulders, “I've never really found school to be a challenge. At least eighty percent of it is pure memorization for the sole sake of passing a test. The last twenty percent is either maths or science experiments where some actual work might be required. I've always had a decent memory so it's never really been difficult.”
Souna thought over his words and nodded in agreement, he wasn't wrong. Ryuji didn't mention that his memory had been enhanced by his new powers so his already good memory had become great. It wasn't photographic or eidetic by any means, just good. Though it could probably reach the realm of 'perfect' if he upgraded his power enough. Maybe. Souna made another move as she asked, “Have you considered joining any clubs?”
Another white piece moved as Ryuji shook his head, “Not really interested. I have no plans to go to college and this is my last year so it doesn't really matter all that much.”
“A college education is invaluable.”
He snorted at that, “Except in very specific circumstances, it's useless. There are plenty of jobs I can get without wasting four years of my time learning useless information. Many of those jobs even pay well. While others go to college, I'll be getting four years of on the job experience, and really experience is all that matters.”
Souna hummed at that and didn't argue the point. College actually wouldn't mean anything to her or her future plans so she could see his point. She didn't necessarily agree though. The game continued as Souna asked, “If you're not interested in clubs, perhaps you're interested in the student council?”
She had no plans to invite him yet, she was just gauging his reactions and trying to drawn him into more conversation to get a better feel for how his mind worked. It's the same reason she invited him to play chess, beating him meant nothing but learning how he thought was invaluable.
He shook his head, “Not in the least.”
“Oh? Is there something about the student council that repulses you so? Most of the boys in the school would do just about anything to join us.”
“I've got better things to do than join your miniature dystopian regime.”
Souna choked on her own spit as everyone in the room looked at Ryuji in shock, “Excuse me?”
No one commented on Souna's shrill voice so neither did Ryuji, instead he just gave her a bland stare, “What else would you call you unjust totalitarian ruling of the student council?”
Souna scowled darkly at him and glared so hard he thought he might catch on fire, “Explain yourself. Now.”
He just gave her a completely flat look as he returned, “Not exactly proving me wrong.” Her glare intensified so he just shrugged, “Fine. After talking to the other students I've picked up a bit. Let's start with the obvious, the perverted duo.”
Souna scoffed, “I admit they were, rambunctious, at the beginning of last year but their behavior has obviously improved since no complaints have been filed on them. They might be annoying but those two are hardly that big of an issue.”
Ryuji studied her, and seeing she was completely serious, scoffed. Though his look was sharp as he stated, “You're not Japenese are you?”
Souna jerked but rallied, “Of course I am.”
He shook his head and smirked like he'd won something, “No you're not. Oh sure you got the name, and you're looks are Eurasian enough to pass for Japanese. But if you really were born and raised in Japan, then you'd know exactly how ignorant what you just said sounds.” He moved his eyes from Souna, who was gaping like a fish, to the other girls in the room. He absently noticed that the male pervert of their group was missing as he asked, “Were any of you born and raised in Japan?”
All of them raised their hands. He smirked at that, “Then would one of you kindly inform your ignorant president about what she's missing? I don't want her to think I'm making something up.”
Souna looked at all her peerage members in surprise, but she focused on her Queen as she asked, “What does he mean?”
Tsubaki, looking uncomfortable being in the middle of the... conversation, still answered, “He's referring to Japan's extensive decency laws.”
Ryuji picked up from there, “Decency laws so strict, that your refusal to do anything about the perverted duo for all of last year, would make you an accomplice to their crimes. It doesn't end there though. See, after I learned that the duo weren't expelled and prosecuted for an entire year, because you dismissed every complaint, I got curious. You became president by winning the election at the end of your first year, but every person I asked said they didn't vote for you at the end of your second year.”
He looked at her with a raised eyebrow, “Many wondered who in their right mind would vote for the president that not only blatantly allowed perverts to run rampant, but then turned around and gave them punishments for things like skirts being a few centimeters too short, missing parts of their uniform, and other more minor things. Punishing the girls for minor things while letting true law breakers get away with it? Is it any wonder that three out of every five girls I spoke to don't even care to report anything anymore?”
He moved a bishop and continued into the silence, “So, it's obvious that no one voted for you to make you president this year.” He eyed her, “Did you even allow for a vote last year or did you continue to abuse your power? I'm going with option B because I also know, for a fact, that no one else in your 'cabinet' was voted in. They were all hand picked by you, just like you attempted to get me to join.”
All Souna seemed capable of saying was, “I see.” as she moved one of her rooks, “Check.”
He glanced at the board for a moment, then moved his queen piece right into a space diagonal from her king, a space where only the king could possibly take the piece, her knights, bishops, and rooks all out of position to do so. Additionally, half way across the board, his bishop was lined up with his queen meaning the king couldn't take it. In other words, “Checkmate.”
If anything, the awkward silence got even more awkward after the word left his mouth. He climbed to his feet and collected his bag. Once he was prepared to leave, he gave a polite bow, “Thank you for the invite and the game. Let's never do this again. Good day.”
No one tried to stop him from leaving the room.
-----Line Break-----
Ryuji sat at the desk in his personal dimension, he'd gotten changed into comfortable clothes after arriving home and immediately hopped into it. He was really looking forward to designing his first scenario! As he focused on his abilities, a frown crossed his face, “What the fuck?”
He was looking at a scenario that had not only already been made, but run and completed by... Gremory Rias, Himejima Akeno, Shinra Tsubaki, and Sitri Sona, “Again, the fuck?!”
He quickly pulled up the recording of the scenario and watched it from the beginning. As he did his eyes widened, “Hyoudou Issei? Who the fuck...”
Throbbing pain lanced through his skull. His eyes slammed closed while he gripped his head in his hand and screamed in agony. It felt like a rail road spike was being driven into his brain, pulled out, and driven into another spot. Every beat of his racing heart sent a throb through his entire brain that made it feel like it was swelling and trying to break out of his skull.
The torment continued until he felt something literally break within his mind and a flood of memories slammed into his conscious mind. He jerked from the shock causing his chair to tilt over and throw him onto the ground. He groaned on the floor, his body covered in sweat as he breathed heavily. It didn't help with the slowly receding pain, but he knew what had happened.
Fucking memory magic.
He hadn't even thought about it, but clearly he was not immune to one of the most insidious kinds of magic. His memory had been altered, just like everyone else, but seeing the incongruity of the facts presented by his power and his own mind broke the spell, painfully.
It took him a while longer to recover enough to stand and sit his chair back up properly. Once sitting, he resumed watching the recording of his scenario being run. He continued to rub his temples as he reviewed the information. Remembering how weak Issei was managed to raise his blood pressure and cause a throb of pain in his skull until he could get it under control.
Seeing how excited Rias was and how much she enjoyed his scenario brought a smile to his face. He could really grow to like her if she kept that up! He liked his power because it could be fun for everyone! Sure, he could go full villain and make super hard deathtrap scenarios, but then who would run them? He might be able to lure people to them, but the lure could be resisted and he was certain the Devils could easily resist the lure and ignore his dungeons if they were super dangerous. No, he was much better off making scenarios that were challenging but fair.
Once he finished the review, he leaned back in his chair and contemplated what he'd learned. Innovate Clear? He'd never heard of it but if there was a Sacred Gear out there that could do everything he could? Ohhhh he'll be pissed. It took him three Essence's to do what he did and some chump with a cheat code could do it easier? Screw them!
Still, he knew nothing of the Sacred Gear or who had it so he wasn't going to be visiting sweet justice on them anytime soon.
Alternatively, having the Devil's instantly suspecting him was not a good thing. He wanted to stay under the radar and having them staring at him would make it harder. He was also a little disturbed when Sona explained why she was suspicious of him. Calling him a Gremory lookalike and talking about his magical power. He didn't have Innovate Clear so at least there was that.
Unfortunately, he had no idea he was broadcasting his magical power, let alone how to stop doing so. Now, even if he did learn how to mask his power, it would only make them more suspicious because it would clearly show he was aware of it.
He sighed and checked on the energy he'd gained from the scenario being run and completed. The amount wasn't massive, but it was a good amount. He supposed that should be expected from having four powerful beings standing around within it. So, just having people in a scenario doing nothing would give him some energy?
His eyes widened at that thought as a plan came to mind to abuse that little aspect a bit. A smile curls his lips as he gets to work designing his next scenario. This was going to be awesome!
-----Line Break-----
Rias stood still as she stared at a familiar looking portal. It had just opened moments ago, right in the middle of the old school building where she ran her Occult Research Club from. The club room interior is a wood-paneled room with Victorian-style couches and chairs along the walls. One side is set up to be able to be used as a bath, and a large Gremory Family magic circle is also there to allow teleportation to and from clients.
Specifically, it had opened right inside of her bathing area. That, was kind of annoying and clearly targeted specifically at her. She was joined by Akeno within moments and soon after that the remainder of her peerage had joined her. Kiba Yuuto, her Knight and Toujou Koneko, her Rook. She had one more member, a Bishop, but he had severe agoraphobia and trouble controlling his Sacred Gear so he was currently sealed off.
Kiba is a handsome young man with short blond hair, blue eyes, and a mole underneath his left eye. He is the 'prince' of Kuoh Academy and wears the school uniform more often than not. Koneko, on the other hand, is a petite girl with white hair and gold eyes. The front of her hair has two long bangs going past her shoulders and several loose bangs hanging over her forehead, while the back has a short bob cut. She also wears black cat-shaped hair clips on both sides of her hair.
“What do you think is inside this time?”
Rias looked to Akeno, the one to ask the question, and shrugged, “No telling for sure. If it follows the theme so far, then it should be a small adventure outdoors or an errand run. If it's an outdoors adventure then it would likely be something small and weak, like goblins. That's a classic trope, a cave of goblins just outside the burgeoning heroes village.”
She turned back to face the portal, but before she could say more, the door to the room opened to allow Sona and Tsubaki to quickly come inside and join the others. Rias glanced at Sona, who looked a combination of depressed and annoyed. When she spoke her tone was slightly harsh and clipped, “What is it this time?”
Without waiting for an answer, Sona called up her magic circle and began scanning the portal as she had last time. Rias answered while she worked, “If it's the same as last time, there's no telling what will be inside until we actually enter it.”
Sona grunted, something very out of character, and dismissed her magic circle, “I'm getting the same readings as before. If this is the user of Innovate Clear and they are new to it, then we should expect the world inside to not be much bigger than the one we already experienced. If so, it shouldn't be too dangerous.”
That was all Rias needed to hear! Between Sona's analysis and her belief that the person doing this was like her, she had little fear of the portal. She quickly dashed into it leaving behind five exasperated people. Akeno shook her head and gave a rueful smile while making her way toward the portal. Just as she was about to enter it to follow her King, said King popped back out, her eyes wide and her body vibrating in excitement, “It's an ONSEN!”
Everyone blinked at that with Sona being the one to say, “It's a what?”
Rias, still vibrating in excitement answered like a hyper kid on their way to Disney World, “It's an outdoor onsen! A complete facility! With staff and everything!”
Sona's eyebrow twitched as she stared at the portal like it had personally wronged her, “You're saying, whoever this is, opened a portal right in your bathroom, scaring the hell out of me, just to put in a pocket dimension containing an onsen?!”
Rias smiled brightly, “Yup! Oh relax Sona. Given the things we've seen so far I don't believe that whoever this is, is malicious. Millicus could have gone into that first portal and come out just fine, and he's still a little kid! I'm more than willing to chalk Hyoudou-san's death up to an accident. Now come on, get the rest of your peerage and let's relax for a bit!”
With her part said, Rias dashed back through the portal leaving her bemused peerage and a very annoyed Sona behind. Akeno, Kiba, and Koneko all followed their King into the portal leaving just Tsubaki and Sona behind. Sona let out a deep sigh and turned to Tsubaki, “Get the others and bring them here. If nothing else, having so many of us on hand should be more than enough to deal with any unpleasant surprises.”
Tsubaki accepted her orders and dashed off to collect the rest of the peerage. Sona, meanwhile, let out a bone weary sigh and walked through the portal into the onsen. She couldn't help it as her eyes widened in surprise. Unlike the last time, the building she stepped into this time was modern and tastefully decorated while still maintaining a traditionally Japanese look.
Looking around showed a couple of staff members, an older man and woman, wearing simple yukatas, working behind the main desk. Rias and her peerage were in front of the old woman who had a bright smile on her face. As she joined them, she caught the next part of the conversation. The old woman addressing something Rias must have asked, “... only wished to apologize for the trouble caused by the first scenario. My Master never intended for the young man to die. It was quite the opposite really.”
Rias pondered that and asked, “He wanted to make Hyoudou-san stronger?”
The old woman nodded agreeably, “That is correct.”
Sona butted in and asked, “Why?”
The old lady turned her gaze to Sona and answered, “Because he was important. The young man had a very special power.”
“A Sacred Gear?”
The old woman nodded, “Yes. A very special one, the Boosted Gear.” That drew gasps of surprise from everyone, “My master wished to make the young man stronger and to bring out his hidden power. Sadly, this did not go according to plan.”
Rias looked devastated. A powerful Sacred Gear, a Longinus class one in fact, had been right under her nose and was now completely out of her grasp. Issei's body had been too heavily damaged for her to revive when they arrived and even if it hadn't, it had been too long since he died to revive him anyway. While Rias wallowed in her depression, Sona asked, “Why did your master want to help Hyoudou-san?”
The old woman smiled apologetically, “I do not know.”
“What about you? What is your purpose? Why are you here?”
The old woman perked up and smiled happily, “My Master made my husband and myself to run this onsen and to give his apologies to you. While you are here, we shall serve you to the best of our abilities. We have many facilities, including a gaming center and private bedrooms. There is more than enough space for all of you and you are all very welcome to stay as long as you wish.”
Sona watched as Rias pulled herself back together and lifted out of her depression. For as lazy as her best friend could be, Sona had to admire how determined she could sometimes be. Rias looked at the matron of the onsen and asked, “Is it possible to meet your Master?”
The old woman turned to Rias, “I do not know.”
Rias bites her lip for a moment before speaking, “If you can, please let your Master know what I would very much like to speak with him.”
The matron gave a small, polite, bow, “He shall know.”
Rias brightened, “Thank you!”
At that moment, the rest of Sona's peerage stepped through the portal, which on this side looked like a regular doorway filled with the same swirling blue light. All of them looked around in shock until they found Sona and joined her. The matron looked over the many people in the room and smiled brightly, “Will that be all of you?”
Rias and Sona both nodded, with Sona speaking, “Yes, this is all of us.”
The matron clapped her hands together, “Wonderful! We've never had so many guests before!”
Her husband, speaking up in a deep voice, added, “We've never had any guests before.”
That earned him a playful slap on the shoulder from his wife and a lightly scolding, “Hush you.” She turned to their guests and put on a motherly smile, “Welcome to our humble onsen. Our Master has deemed that you have full access to all of our facilities, for free. We have several indoor springs and one, mixed, outdoor spring. We also have a game room, massage parlor, rooms, and a full kitchen that you may order anything on our menu from.”
She gave the whole group a polite bow, “Please, follow me to your rooms where you may change.”
The matron led them all to the second floor which was just one long hallway with doors on either side. She gestured down the hall, “All the rooms are the same so please, feel free to select whichever one you wish. You will find yukata's in many sizes, towels, futons, our menu, and more within the rooms. If you are hungry, please order some food. Otherwise, all of our facilities are downstairs, just follow the signs to find which facility you wish to partake in.”
After the matron left, everyone turned to their respective king, Kiba was the first to speak, “Are we really going to just accept all of this at face value?”
Rias really wanted to say yes, but left the answer to Sona who obviously said, “No. Examine everything carefully before using it. Especially any food. While this Master of their may seem nice, this could all be one giant trap. Be suspicious of it all and only use something after you have confirmed that it is safe.”
As she finished speaking, the matron stepped back onto the second floor and stopped at the first door on the left where a stoic, yet happy, Koneko was standing in the doorway with a menu in hand. The matron offered the petite girl the tray in her hand, a tray covered in chocolate chip cookies, “Your order, miss.”
Koneko happily accepted the tray and immediately plucked a cookie off of it to eat. She let out a little happy hum that was immediately followed by the sound of a hand meeting a forehead with a meaty smack. Everyone turned to find Sona giving herself a facepalm as she ground out, “What did I just say?”
As she lowered her hand she glared accusingly at a sheepish looking Rias. Meanwhile, Koneko continued to happily munch on her cookies with no apparent negative effects prompting Rias to say, “Well, if there was something wrong with the food I'm sure Koneko-chan wouldn't have eaten them.” She looked over at her little Rook, “Right Koneko-chan?”
Koneko looked up from her latest cookie to give Rias a nearly invisible smile, more a very minor curve to the corner of her lips, “Good.”
Rias gestured grandly toward Koneko as she addressed Sona, “See? Perfectly safe.”
The look she got from Sona could have made the Sahara Desert seem wet in comparison. Rias cleared her throat then addressed her peerage, ignoring the look Sona was giving her, “Alright everyone. Feel free to explore and enjoy yourselves. Just be sure everything is safe before you try it.”
-----Line Break-----
Rias, naked as the day she was born, relaxed in the hot door hot spring. The water was gently steaming, giving the air an almost mystical feel as it was partially clouded. None of that compared to what she was looking up at. The sky above the spring was a truly beautiful, if alien, sight to behold. Above her, the sky looked nothing like any sky she had ever seen before. Hanging in a sea of stars was a massive moon, much closer than Earth's own. It was a breathtaking purple with orange swaths and surrounded by rings like Jupiter.
She could even see bright little moons surrounding the massive moon, or was it a planet? She didn't know, nor did she care. What mattered was that is was gorgeous. On top of that, the springs were the perfect temperature and she could swear that the spring was making her already sinfully smooth skin even smoother.
She lowered her eyes from the sky to track down and collect a small floating wooden tub filled with ice cubes, a ceramic bottle, and a small sake cup. She hummed happily to herself as she took the bottle and poured herself a measure of crystal clear chilled sake. She sipped from the small cup and returned to her star gazing, though it was interrupted a moment later, “I still can't believe you're drinking sake! We have school tomorrow.”
She playfully rolled her eyes and turned to look at the speaker, Sona obviously, and smiled, “It's fine, it's just a little bit and it's very good. It has a wonderfully sweet floral flavor, I'm sure you would like it.”
To prove her point she took another sip and sighed happily, prompting her friend to frown in annoyance. Sona always was a little too stiff. Rias blamed Serfall, Sona's older sister. If Serafall had been a little bit more mature then Sona probably wouldn't feel that she needed to be so mature all the time to counteract her much more playful sister.
Rias sighed and looked at her friend a little seriously, “What is it?”
Sona looked a little surprised at the question, then guarded, “I don't know what you mean.”
The only reply Rias gave was a knowing look. Sona huffed and sank a little deeper into the water. Finally she started talking, “I invited Okane-san to the Student Council offices today. I used 'checking in on his experience so far' as a pretense to get him there. With our suspicions about him having Innovate Clear, it seemed like a good course of action.”
Rias hummed, “And?”
“First, I could sense no Sacred Gear from him and his magical power hasn't changed at all. It seems highly unlikely that he is the one responsible for these pocket dimensions. Still, he would make an excellent Bishop with his potential talent for magic.”
Rias accepted Sona's words about Ryuji at face value but knew that wasn't all, “And?”
Sona sighed deeply, “We discussed clubs, I wanted to know if he was interested in any. He isn't. Out of curiosity I asked if he was interested in joining the student council, I just wanted to get a better read on him, not seriously invite him.” At Rias's raised eyebrow she continued, “He figured out that I wasn't born and raised in Japan and then ripped me to shreds over being a member of my 'dystopian regime' his words.”
Sona grabbed Rias's floating sake tug and poured herself a cup. After downing it she continued, “He then proceeding to point out all the laws, actual laws, that I had proceeded to break and how I blatantly violated the school charter like some despotic ruler.” She gave Rias a bewildered look, “Did you know that Japan has a whole host of laws based around public decency?”
Rias looked truly surprised, “Really?”
Giving a resigned nod, Sona explained, “There are. The things the perverted trio did? It might have been considered harmless, silly even, by Devil standards, but it's a legitimate crime in Japan. Tsubaki tried to tell me once and I just blew her off, thinking I knew everything I needed to know.” Her shoulders slumped, “So for all of last year I was scolding all of the female students for minor things while letting those boys get away with breaking the law. The trust the students have in me is minimal, at best.”
Rias grimaced in sympathy. If she'd been in Sona's position, she would have made the exact same mistake. She'd though the boys being openly perverted was cute and harmless, when it was apparently anything but. It was clearly a case of clashing cultures where their cultural bias had led to an issue. A groan from Sona drew her attention back, “And then, to cap off all of that, he beat me at chess!” she instantly started making excuses, “Of course, he was ripping me apart verbally and distracting me from the game, so it obviously doesn't count.” she looked pleadingly at Rias, “It doesn't, right?”
Rias answered in the only way she could, “Of course it doesn't! He's just a human with some magical talent, not even a reincarnated devil, let alone a pureblood. Besides, it's not like your parents know so it never happened, right?”
Sona nodded along, “Right. It never happened so he's not my fiance. It doesn't count. I'll just have to thoroughly crush him next time, that's all.”
Rias nodded in agreement, “Right! He totally isn't your fiance!”
-----Line Break-----
Ryuji stared at the screen showing his scenario in horror, “What the fuck?!”
-----Line Break-----
AN
First, 10.1k words.
Second, this wouldn't leave me alone. I'm guessing you guys don't like it all that much given the lack of comments on the first chapter so this will probably be the last one for a while. It was kind of fun for me to write too, I don't usually spend so much time writing from other characters points of view. I'll go for a Fabricator chapter next.
Comments
SilverWolf
Thanks for the chapter, I find the story interesting and it would be a fun read
maddmann1991
Great second chapter! As mentioned by loghead101 dimension lost would be a nice addition to okane's power base. Ophis being intrigued about the pocket dimensions and sending someone to investigate would be an easy way to get geogre to one if nothing else. Am not sure if it's a typo or not but just after the 3rd last line break with rias in the hot spring you describe it as a hot door hot spring instead of an OUT door hot spring.
