thomasdarkrose
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Fabricator v2 - Chapter 29
🕑 Added 2023-11-03 13:35:10 +0000 UTCAN
So, this took me some time to write seeing as how it's a little over 10k words. 3x longer than normal chapters. I've heard the comments about not enough happening in a chapter so I kept writing until I felt the story had moved along far enough. heh. I hope you all enjoy it, and let me know what you think of it.
Chapter 29
Junichiro walked toward his front door while stretching and yawning. He'd just been woken up by two people with a fair amount of magical power walking through his wards and ringing his doorbell. He wasn't worried about the people his wards were sensing even though their magical power was easily twice his own. If whoever it was meant him any harm, they wouldn't have been able to cross his ward lines. Despite his personal strength being weaker, his wards had been up for years now and were constantly getting stronger day by day.
After he finished yawning he checked his watch again and sighed. He wanted to complain about people visiting too early in the morning but it was two in the afternoon. Even since his visit with Mephisto nearly four months ago, Mittelt had been spending less and less time hanging around his home. It'd had now been eleven days since he'd last seen her in person. It was pretty clear that their relationship had been on the downturn ever since she learned of his plans to become a devil.
Conversely, Azazel had actually been showing up more often and seemed to be subtly encouraging his decision. Which struck him as very weird. Still, without Mittelt around to grab him when it was dinner time, he'd been working into the late hours of the night. He hadn't realized their little ritual of swapping who cooked dinner was keeping him on such a nice schedule. It didn't matter whose turn it was to cook either. If she cooked, she grabbed him to show off what she made. If it was his turn, she grabbed him to make him cook.
Now? He'd been eating far too many meals from the local convenience stores. He even knew many of the third shift folks by name now.
He was still yawning as he opened the door to see who was bothering him. It wasn't common, but he'd had the occasional supernatural guest over the years. Most were just passing through on their way elsewhere and since, outside of certain areas, the supernatural world was pretty small, they would come by seeking a place for the night or something similar.
It was a lot nicer to stay at a stranger's house when they were in the know than to sleep outside or at a human hotel for certain beings. Especially ones that had trouble hiding their features, like the Oni he'd played host to once. Poor guy could make every part of himself look human except his massive size and horn. No one would accept a three meter tall being with a one meter long horn as human.
As he slid open the door, his bleary sight came into sharp focus when he notice a massive splash of crimson. Once he was fully focused he beheld two beautiful young women, familiar women. Standing proudly on his doorstep was Rias Gremory and behind her and slight to the right was her Queen, Himejima Akeno.
Rias looked much like he imagined she would, only much younger than his blurry memories indicated. Not unexpected, but still a little strange to him. The same could be said of Akeno. If he had to pick something obvious that distanced them from what he expected, it would be the size of their busts. Neither had grown to where they would be in a few more years. That's not to say they weren't busty for their ages, just simply not as busty as they would become.
After the obvious difference came the less obvious. For starters, the pair looked smaller over all. Again, they were younger so not unexpected. Yet it still kind of threw him off. Still, despite being less physically mature than his mind thought they should be, the pair were easy enough to recognize.
Rias had long crimson colored hair that hung down to just past the small of her back cut in the manner he'd expected with bangs covering her forehead and longer side bangs framing her face. Her red hair combined with her white skin and blue eyes made her a very attractive sight, especially in the casual clothing she wore. He half expected she would be wearing the Kuoh Academy uniform but, instead, she wore a pair of blue jeans with a frilly white blouse, and white sneakers.
Behind her, Akeno had her black hair in a ponytail that fell down to the small of her back, white skin, and vibrant purple eyes. An unusual color even in the DxD world, for a human to have anyway. Unlike Rias, Akeno wore a simple light purple sundress that fell to just below her knees and a pair of strappy sandals.
As he studied them, they too were studying him. Though his looks were Japanese standard, in that he had black hair and eyes, everything else about his body had changed over the years since he awakened in that junkyard so long ago. At the moment he was standing at the door in nothing but his boxers showing off every single muscle he'd earned working in his forge and at the gym. While he wasn't perfectly cut, he did have a well defined chest that lead down to lightly showing abs and a perfect 'V Cut' into his boxers. At the same time his legs were well muscled giving him a lean but powerful build.
It was what he'd been working towards for a while now and what he planned to maintain. He never wanted to be a massive meat shield or a thin rail. The athletic 'swimmers build' was the perfect balance, as far as he was concerned.
He didn't really take his state of dress into account until he noticed the light blush on Rias cheeks and the leering look Akeno was giving him as her eyes roamed his body. He glanced down at himself and realized his mistake. With a sigh, he waved them inside, “Come on in and make yourself comfortable while I get dressed.”
At any other time he would have been extremely excited to meet the pair of girls that had just shown up at his door. Except, he'd been up for forty-eight hours straight working and had only gotten three hours of sleep. He was too tired to be excited.
Rias and Akeno stared dumbly as the teenager about their age just walked away and left the door wide open with an invitation for them to enter. Akeno turned to Rias as she asked, “You think it's a trap or something?”
She didn't honestly believe it was, but as Rias's Queen it was her duty to make sure it wasn't. Rias watched Junichiro walk away before shaking her head, “I don't think so. You've watched him as much as I have. If it wasn't for the wards around his home and the magic he's leaking all over the place, I'd think he was just a normal teenager.”
Akeno nodded in agreement. While they hadn't been able to get their familiars past the wards to spy on him, they had been able to see what he got up to when he left the house. Mostly it seemed like he just bought food. Though they had noticed he got a lot of deliveries to his house and spent a lot of time at a warehouse, which was also warded.
When Junichiro set up his wards, he included a bit to block anything intent on spying on him. It's how he kept Azazel from setting up magic circles in his place with such a purpose to them. The only exceptions he made were for Mittelt and Azazel himself. If he didn't whitelist those two, they'd never be able to visit.
The girls, tentatively at first, stepped into the house and looked around a bit. They didn't know what to expect but were somehow... disappointed to see that everything looked normal. Considering the wards around the house and their strength, they were expecting a mage or something similar. With that expectation came the expectation of the house being filled with arcane objects, spell circles, and the like.
Seeing a normal living room with a couch, TV, and gaming system some something of a let down to the pair. They weren't rude enough to explore his entire home and stuck to what would be the 'public' area, namely the living and dining rooms.
After checking out the DVD and game collections out of curiosity, Rias was rather happy. While nowhere near as impressive as her own collection, Junichiro's collection of anime series made her feel like he was a bit of a kindred spirit. She wondered if he had shelves of manga somewhere else.
Akeno, on the other hand, was disappointed to not find any teasing material among the collections. Well, she'd just have to do some snooping while Rias distracted him so she could find where he hid his porn. Teasing the boys was just so much more fun when you knew just what to tease them with. Sadly, he hadn't really given her any clues when he opened the door. While he had given them a look over, his eyes hadn't really lingered anywhere in particular.
As they sat, Rias addressed Akeno, “What do you think?”
Akeno looked around the living room once more as she answered, “If I didn't know any better, I would swear he was a regular boy. Nothing we've seen so far even hints at a connection to the supernatural, aside from the things we know so far.”
Rias nodded in agreement. Even when they opened the door he hadn't shown any particular reaction to them. She wasn't an expert on wards, by any means, but she knew enough to tell when one scanned her for information. She didn't doubt that the boy was aware of the nature as Devils. Yet he still looked unconcerned and invited them into his home without question.
She didn't want to say it out loud, but that made her rather nervous. They knew from their limited spying on him that while he had magical power it wasn't enough to compare to either of them alone, let alone together. So, as far as power went, they won. Even if he had a Sacred Gear, which was a distinct possibility, as long as it wasn't an extremely powerful one, or one of the select few holy ones, then it shouldn't make too much of a difference with both of them there.
Yet, seeing him completely unconcerned with their race and the power difference between them, set her a bit on edge. She focused on Akeno, “Keep your guard up, just in case.”
Akeno nodding in understanding. They'd done their due diligence before they visited but hadn't been able to gather too much information. Though they did discuss the possibility of Junichiro being unaware of his homes protections and his abilities. While they hadn't interacted with him and had only seem him in public, some details stood out.
For instance, his complete lack of suppressing his magical power. Any beginner mage learned techniques to keep their power from leaking out in public. While it wasn't necessarily dangerous to the public or a bad thing, it did give out information to those who knew how to look. For instance, both Rias and Akeno could tell that he only had enough magical power to compare to a Mid-Class Devil. Sure, he was at the high end of that scale perilously close to a High-Class Devil, but he hadn't made it over that threshold quite yet. Since the pair of them were firmly in the High-Class Category, that meant they had a significant advantage right from the start knowing he was magically weaker. Not exactly a surprise for a human though. It was rare for a pure human to get to High-Class strength without something special helping.
Then there was his complete lack of being on guard around them, which seemed contradictory. He wasn't strong, relatively speaking, yet he showed no fear of two strange devils showing up on his doorstep, even going so far as to let them into his home unsupervised. So, their conclusion? He had no idea they were devils. Even people familiar with devils maintained at least something of a guard around them. Especially human mages.
Rias spoke her thoughts aloud, “If he didn't recognize us as devils from those wards... perhaps he's not the one who made them? Do you think it's possible his parents set up the wards and he's just living here without knowing about his magical power and the wards around the property?”
Akeno tilted her head a bit as she thought, “If that was the case, then his parents might have been pretty powerful. Otherwise his own personal magical power wouldn't be as good as it is without working at it.”
Rias nodded in agreement before a male voice called out from nearby, “Nah. That's all wrong.”
Both girls jumped and turned to see Junichiro standing at the doorway to the living room. Both were happy, and slightly disappointed, to see him wearing clothing. He'd just tossed on a simple blac kt-shirt and a pair of jeans. Both girls blushed at being caught talking about him behind his back but he ignored that to continue, “No idea who my pops was, but my mother was a regular mundane human and a prostitute. After she died, I ran from the foster care system and lived on the streets for a while.”
He yawned and stopped his backstory there, “Either of you want some tea or coffee?”
Akeno stood and held her hands in front of herself, “I'd be more than happy to make some tea for everyone.”
Junichiro shook his head in response, “My home, my job.”
Akeno looked slightly uncomfortable at that and it reminded Junichiro that she was always the one making tea for everyone. Maybe she had a thing about making the tea herself? Oh well, not his problem. Akeno slowly sat back down, “Tea for me then, please.”
Rias nodded in agreement, “Me too, please.”
Junichiro nodded negligently while yawning and walking away. He was exhausted but he would never let himself be accused of being a bad host. Aside from that, he cheated when making hot drinks. In so far as using items he'd personally made and enchanted counted as cheating.
After he left, Akeno looked at Rias with a brittle smile, “Well, that was embarrassing.”
Rias gave a little nervous giggle and nodded, “My first contact with someone supernatural in my new territory and I get caught talking about him behind his back.”
She let out a soft sigh and looked down as her hands clenched together in her lap, “Maybe I really should have let Sona be the one to meet him like she wanted.”
Akeno shrugged her shoulders, “You flipped a coin for it and won. Just be sure to learn from your mistakes here.”
Rias nodded as she grew more determined. She and Sona were both new at managing their own territory and were sharing Kuoh between them. Both of them wanted to gain experience for different reasons along with growing their respective peerages. Both of them had noticed Junichiro almost immediately and, after observing him, had to flip a coin to decide who would approach him first.
Neither was looking to recruit him to their peerages, yet, but they both wanted to gain as much experience as possible and talking to their first human made would be a unique experience. She firmed her resolve further and became determined to put the faux pas behind herself and move on.
Her determination almost instant crumbled as a male voice once more called out from the doorway, “Don't worry about it.”
Rias couldn't take it anymore and actually began to blush almost the exact same shade as her hair. Akeno held a hand over her mouth as she 'ufufu'd' while Junichiro just ignored it. He stepped into the room and set down the tray he was holding on the coffee table in front of the couch. On the tray were two cups of tea and a cup of pitch black espresso. Along with the drinks were small finger sandwiches and some cookies, or biscuits as the British might say.
Still ignoring the girls, Junichiro picked up the large cup of pure espresso and gave it a gentle sip. The strongly flavored highly caffeinated beverage helped wake him up a little more, though he still had dark bags under his eyes to indicate just how little sleep he'd gotten recently.
Rias and Akeno quietly retrieved their cups of tea and took tentative sips. It wasn't that they expected the tea to be spiked, but with how quickly it was made they didn't expect it to taste very good. Both of their eyes widened as they got their first taste of the tea. Akeno exclaimed, “It's good!”
Rias nodded her head in agreement and took another sip. The tea tasted perfect, almost as good as Akeno's. That was saying something since Rias felt Akeno's tea was perfection.
Junichiro, meanwhile, just smiled to himself. He'd long ago made a simple object that would brew the perfect cup of tea regardless of what kind of tea leaf he used. It would examine the leaves then automatically adjust the brewing time and temperature to match the leaves perfectly. It did so for each individual batch so even when brewing the same kinds of tea leaves, it adjusted according to their quality. The leaves the girls were drinking were just cheap ones from the supermarket yet they tasted like something high quality.
His espresso was made in a very similar manner, just with changes appropriate for coffee.
After the trio sipped their drinks for a bit, Rias realized something and blushed again, “I completely forgot introductions!” She quickly set down her drink and hopped to her feet, Akeno seconds behind her, “I'm Rias Gremory and this is my Queen, Himejima Akeno.”
The pair gave him small bows after Rias introduced them. He found it odd that Rias introduced herself like a westerner but introduced Akeno like an easterner. Maybe devils considered themselves westerners? Regardless, Junichiro sighed and set his cup of coffee down to climb to his feet and give a polite bow in return, “Arai Junichiro. Just call me Junichiro.”
After everyone straightened from their bows and sat back down, Rias tried to get down to business, “As heir to the Gremory family of the seventy-two pillars of the Underworld, I've recently come into possession of Kuoh as my territory alongside Sona Sitri, heir to the Sitri family of the seventy-two pillars. While surveying our territory we noticed the wards around your home and decided one of us needed to meet you to determine your intentions.”
Junichiro took another sip of his espresso while arching an eyebrow and looking at Rias with incredulity, “My intentions?” He snorted, “I've lived here for years. It's not me who should be explaining their intentions, but you. You're the new arrival here. Or do you plan to go from door to door to everyone living in Kuoh and ask them their intentions?”
Rias flushed a little but pressed on, “Not everyone in the city is a decently powerful mage.”
Junichiro snorted again, “Discrimination then?”
He realized he was giving her a hard time but he was tired and cranky. She just came at the wrong time and it was annoying the hell out of him. He honestly just wanted to throw the pair out and try again another day after he'd gotten plenty of sleep.
Rias flushed a little more but pressed on, “It's not discrimination. You're just the only person in two who could pose a threat to our peerage members. It's not unusual for humans to be racist against devils and attack them. It's even the primary reason the Church exorcists exist.”
Junichiro sighed and dug in his pocket to pull out his cigarette case. He was far too tired to try and talk sense or argue with Rias. Not that he thought she was wrong about the Church. He despised those 'holier than thou' asshats. He only ever worked for someone from the Church one time. It was one time too many. They were complete assholes and insisted he didn't do the work properly and that he should come to Rome to apologize in person for failing them.
Needless to say, he had Azazel blacklist them from his services. They couldn't even buy his mass produced potions from the Grigori anymore and had to pay over market value to get them third hand.
He selected a cigarette with a blend that would give him some energy and keep his mind sharp. He felt like he'd been abusing this particular blend lately.
Both of his guests watched in mild shock as someone their age pulled out a cigarette. Rias spoke up first, “Uhm, would you mind not lighting that? Aside from smelling bad, aren't you too young to be smoking? It's bad for you, you know.”
Junichiro ignored her and lit the cigarette and taking a long drag on it. He slowly exhaled a cloud of thick purple smoke that smelled a bit spicy, “It's not tobacco.”
Both girls continued to frown, even after they caught the scent of the smoke. Neither of them were experts, but they could tell that whatever herbs he used in the cigarette were magical. Which meant he had connections to buy such herbs. Potentially even connections to one of the biblical factions.
Junichiro let out a happy sigh as his brain started to work properly. He knew he was going to crash hard in a little while, but it'd be worth it. He was definitely still cranky, but at least he could think a bit better. He returned to the previous topic as if they hadn't left it, “I have no intentions toward you or your peerage. Same for the other chick. I just want to do my thing like I have been.”
Rias asked with a voice filled with interest, “Your thing?”
Junichiro shrugged, “My thing.” He had no intention of telling her he was 'The Artificer,' yet. That could wait until he got to know her a bit better.
Rias, sensing he wouldn't say more, nodded, “As long as you don't mean us any harm, that's fine. “
Junichiro couldn't help snickering as he replied, “Right, I'm going to mess with the peerages of the younger sisters of the two most powerful and unrepentant sis-cons on the planet? There are far more pleasant ways to commit suicide.”
Rias actually looked a little irked by what he said, “So, you're not scared of me but are scared of my brother?”
Junichiro nodded in confirmation, “Exactly. You and your entire peerage might be able to beat me in a fight. Might. Same for Sona and her peerage. But the Satan Lucifer or the Satan Leviathan? They'd crush me with a flex of their power, let alone putting any actual effort into it.”
Rias looked affronted while Akeno narrowed her eyes at him. Both felt he was underestimating their family, let alone themselves. If they knew the truth about Junichiro they would understand that he wasn't being cocky and overconfident, he just understood their strength and knew his was greater. They weren't the only ones doing some spying.
As Rias's peerage currently stood, the only possible threat to him came from Gasper, and the little trap vampire. Who was too scared to come out of his cardboard box at the moment making him a moot point anyway. The next biggest threat would be Rias herself and her Power of Destruction. He'd never run into it to examine it and come up with a counter, so he could only avoid it for now. Avoiding it would be pretty easy too since Rias had a habit of just gathering a ton of it and firing it as one big blast.
Akeno was easily countered since she relied heavily on elemental magic with a focus on lightning. Kiba had no imagination when it came to the Sacred Gear they had in common. Junichiro was sure he could crush Kiba without much issue. As for Koneko, she was just a tank and easy enough to defeat with her current speed. She wouldn't ever get close enough to use her immense strength and he'd just crush her defenses quickly.
As for Sona... her peerage was actually smaller than Rias's, at the moment. Sona recruited a lot of people from the human world and had yet to do so. Even when she had more folks, Sona was really the only threat in that group for a good long time. He'd curb stomp her and her peerage at the moment. Elemental attacks were the equivalent of chump change to him unless it was an overwhelmingly powerful attack. Otherwise it was a piece of cake to absorb with his Sacred Gear, let alone his other tools and tricks.
Rias crossed her arms under her bust as she stared at Junichiro, “Would you care to put your money where your mouth is?”
Junichiro tilted his head and took another long drag off of his cigarette. After exhaling he asked, “Maybe, if there's something in it for me. I'm not the one with the hurt pride here.”
Rias glared at him, “What would you want, if it were possible for you to win?”
Junichiro thought a bit, his brain still a little sluggish despite the caffeine and herbs. It took him a minute, but he smiled once he thought of something good. He still had the Essence of the Blank sitting safely hidden back at his old junkyard. He'd kept a close eye on the place since his move and it was still untouched since he left. Once he took it, he could learn anything, including the Power of Destruction. While not the end-all be-all power some thought it was, it was still a potent ability.
“If I win, I want you to teach me everything you know about the Power of Destruction, including demonstrations of it. But at a time of my choosing.”
Rias looked completely confused, “Why would you want that?”
She honestly didn't get it. It wasn't like he could learn how to use the Power of Destruction just from her teaching him about it. Even if she did, she wasn't aware of it having any real weaknesses that he could exploit if she did show him.
Junichiro just smiled, “Because it's what I want.”
Rias huffed, “Fine, but what do I get whenwe win?”
Junichiro shrugged his shoulders, “You tell me.”
Rias studied him for a moment, she honestly didn't know what she would want to ask him for. She just didn't know enough about him to guess at what he could give her in exchange for her winning. One of her main goals in coming to Earth was to fill out her peerage more and while Junichiro was a decently strong mage, possibly someone with a Sacred Gear, she just didn't know enough to decide if he was worth the Evil Pieces.
“How about a favor to be named later?”
Junichiro narrowed his eyes at her. He might be tired enough to start hallucinating, and annoyed enough to agree to almost anything to get to sleep faster, but he would never be that stupid, “Hell no. I wont bet with something that open ended.”
Rias shrugged her shoulders, “I'm not really sure what you can offer me to ask for it.”
“How about one hundred million yen?”
Rias eyes almost turned into yen symbols as she looked at him excited, “Can you really afford to pay that much when you lose?”
Now, normally Rias was not a greedy person. At least, not in the usual monetary way. However, after moving to Earth she was only to be given a small allowance plus whatever she could earn through contracts. As she hadn't been on Earth for very long yet, she didn't have many contracts for her peerage to fulfill. Money was tight and she wanted to splurge on anime, manga, and merchandise so badly it was driving her insane.
Junichiro nodded his head lazily, “Easily.”
He was a trillionaire, after all. He had been for quite some time and just kept getting richer as his money earned interest. Cash was only good for his line of work to a certain point. After that it was all trade. Until he'd reached that point though, he'd been selling some creations of his for billions of yen at a time. To the older supernaturals, a few billion yen in cash was chump change.
Rias eyed him with some suspicion but brushed it off. If he welshed on their bet, she had ways of making him pay. Though given his fear of her brother, it didn't seem likely that he would try to do so, “Fine. When we win you'll pay me a hundred million yen and on the very small off chance you win, I'll teach you everything I know about the Power of Destruction, including demonstrations, at a time of your choosing.” She held her hand out toward him, “Deal?”
Junichiro leaned forward and clasped her hand in his, “Deal.”
As soon as he spoke, a red magic circle formed around their hands signifying their bet and sealing them to keep their word. Similar to how a devil would complete a deal with someone else in exchange for payment.
Rias smirked as she climbed to her feet, Akeno following closely behind her, “Then we'll get a place picked out and let you know when to meet us. Now, if you'll excuse us, I believe it's time for us to take our leave.”
Junichiro nodded and waved toward the door, “Later.”
The pair of girls looked irked at his attitude, and thought a little worse of him when he climbed to his feet and walked in a different direction. It was only Rias's upbringing that kept her from trying to snoop around his entire house since Junichiro clearly didn't care that they were there.
If he'd thought about it, Junichiro would have gladly guided them out, he just couldn't be bothered to think that much, at the moment. Despite the help of the various stimulants he'd taken into his body, he was just too exhausted to function any longer. He barely managed to dispose of the butt of his cigarette and strip his clothes off before falling into his bed and passing out completely.
He didn't even notice when Rias and Akeno left a minute or so later.
-----Line Break-----
Junichiro woke up nearly twelve hours later and instantly regretted it, “FUCK! Why did she come to my place when I was tired! She should have come when I was fully rested so I could be nice!”
Junichiro rolled back and forth in his bed as he went over the memories of Rias's visit to his home. He'd wanted to be nice to her, engage in some small talk, get to know her a bit better, that kind of thing. Instead he'd been a bit of a grumpy asshole, looked down on her and her entire peerage to her face, and then got himself into a duel with said peerage. He groaned and slammed his face into his pillow over and over again, “Stupid. Stupid. Stupid!”
He continued to berate himself as he got himself cleaned off in his bathroom. It wasn't until he was soaking in his tub that he thought, “This... might not be so terrible... It's not great, but not terrible.”
He leaned back and stared at the ceiling, “I'm pretty sure I can beat her and her peerage. Gasper wont be there, so no cheating time stopping powers. Yeah... I think I can win. But, even if I don't, it's not necessarily a bad thing. I know I could win for sure if I didn't hold back and used all the tools at my disposal... but that seems like a waste of effort for a not serious fight. So, if I win I show Rias I'm strong and I'm certain she'll try to recruit me. If I lose, but put in a good showing, she'll likely still try to recruit me.”
Of course, he couldn't actually be hurt by Rias, Sona, Sirzechs, or Serafall due to Avalon being infused throughout his being granting him immortality and godly defenses. In fact, he was so holy he'd probably make all of them flinch back if he let some of the aura leak out. However, he wasn't going to rely on the sheer power of Avalon to win, but rather let it be a competition of skill so there was some fairness to the whole thing. Just stomping all over Rias with overpowered equipment was pointless and less than entertaining. Especially when the stakes were so low, he wasn't that pathetic.
He nodded to himself, “She might not be as desperate as she'll become, but she's still pretty desperate to get out from under Riser...” He tilted his head, “I'll have to take precautions to make sure she doesn't go blabbing about me to her family. I'm willing to bet the whole Riser incident happened because Rias bragged about bagging the Red Dragon Emperor for her peerage.”
“That makes so much sense... If she bragged to her parents, the ones pushing for the marriage, then they would begin to fear her actually escaping the marriage. So would the Phenex clan. They would definitely want to lock her into the marriage right away before the Red Dragon Emperor had a chance to grow in strength. Yeah, definitely can't let them know about my abilities or identity. It'll only get worse once I steal the Boosted Gear from Issei.”
As Junichiro climbed out of the tub, he felt his wards ping as someone with a bit of magical power crossed the line. He had time to slip on some clothing before there was a knock on his front door. He calmly made his way to the door and opened it to find the human form of Rias's bat familiar. She silently held out a letter for him to take.
“Thank you.”
After taking the letter, Junichiro thanked the familiar. She just gave him a smile before she was covered in a poof of smoke and turned back into a bat to fly away.
He smiled at the sight then focused on the letter. It was the 'official' duel notice. They were scheduled for their fight in two days at Kuoh Academy. That was an interesting tidbit. It looked like they'd already bought the school and were using it as their base... When did the semester start anyway? He'd paid so little attention to it that he wasn't sure if classes had started already or not. Well, it didn't matter. The duel was set for the weekend at five in the afternoon.
He smirked as he closed the door and made his way through his house to his workshop. He'd have to make a few small presents tailor designed for every member of the peerage, just as a little hello from him in their duel.
-----Line Break-----
Junichiro stood at the gates to Kuoh Academy and smiled to himself. It wasn't his first time visiting the school since coming to Kuoh. But it was the first time since Rias and Sona moved in and he could feel the difference. For starters, their was a weak barrier around the school to identify and scan peeople. If he had to guess, it was Sona's work. He recalled her doing some barrier work with her peerage at some point, even if he couldn't remember exactly when.
As he stepped over the threshold, he spotted two girls walking toward him. He recognized both of them on sight, but could only name one off of the top of his head, the shorter one with short hair and a flat chest, Sona.
Sona Sitri was a refined young woman who wore her black hair in a bob cut with long side bangs, had unnecessary glasses over her violet eyes, and a very slim figure all packaged into the girls Kuoh uniform. Next to her was her Queen, a young woman that had long black hair with bangs and also wore a pair of glasses over her heterochromic eyes, the left being violet, much like Sona's, and the right being a light brown.
As the pair stopped in front of him, Sona was the one to address him, “You must be Arai Junichiro. I am Sona Sitri, and this is my Queen Shinra Tsubaki. Welcome to Kuoh Academy. Rias asked me to guide you to where she and her peerage await you.”
Juncihiro nodded, “Cool. Quick question. I thought Devils were supposed to be perfect, why do the two of you need glasses?”
Both girls quickly turned away to hide their blushes at being questioned so directly. He also noted that neither answered him as Sona immediately changed the topic with zero subtlety, “Follow us. Rias and the rest are waiting at the gym.”
Junichiro just snickered and followed behind as Sona and Tsubaki quickly led him to the massive building they called a gym. Inside he found who he expected waiting for him. Rias, Akeno, Kiba, and a very tiny Koneko. Seriously, Koneko was tiny! Which... kind of made sense. Both she and Kiba were actually still middle school students. Though, if he remembered right, this was Kiba's last year. Poor Koneko would be in middle school for the rest of this year and all of next. Sad.
As he studied them, they too studied him in turn. Everyone could feel his current magical power since he didn't bother to hide it. The majority of his power didn't come from his personal reserves anyway so it gave off a nice false impression of how powerful he was.
As he came to a stop directly across from Rias and her peerage, Rias smiled and addressed him, “I'm a little surprised you actually showed up. After we left, I realized you didn't quite seem yourself. So, as a gesture of good will, I'd like to offer you a chance to retract your statement and we can all go our own ways in peace with no hard feelings.”
Junichiro looked over his opponents and shook his head, “Nah. Way I figure it, you need a bit of a wake up call. Besides, even if I do lose it's no big deal. Losing some chump change to gain a bit more experience seems worthwhile to me.”
He meant it too. While he'd trained in several dojos learning a multitude of styles to build his own, he'd only ever been in one life and death struggle. Not that fighting Rias would be life and death, but it would definitely be more than he would get at his dojo's. It was definitely the first time he'd be fighting other supernaturals in a decent environment.
Sona spoke up, “Alright, since neither side is going to forfeit, I will explain the rules. The fighting will continue until one side has completely lost. Anyone who gives up is out of the match, or if I deem someone too have been defeated. There will be no attempts at causing permanent harm to anyone. Needless to say, any deadly attacks will be considered a forfeit by the side initiating the attack. Are you all clear on the rules of engagement?”
There was a chorus of 'yes' indicating everyone heard. Sona nodded and held her hand up, “The duel begins when I say.”
She looked between the two groups as they prepared. Junichiro arched an eyebrow when he saw Kiba summon her preferred longsword, the Sword of Sharpness or whatever. Well, two could play at that. In a move similar to Kiba, he held his hand out and summoned his own sword in a golden flash of light. All of the weapons he summoned flashed golden these days. He didn't want to have any tells so all of his weapons had at least a single piece on them that was a magical metal or other magical material. In the case of the katana he just summoned, the whole weapon was magical, made from mana steel folded many times and infused with magic to enhance the speed of the user.
He'd found that the more detailed his thoughts on the weapon he made, the more durable it was so he'd spend hours at a time just picturing every last detail of the swords he wanted to store inside of his Sword Birth and summon at will. In this case, he chose the katana as a mirror image of Kiba's longsword. Kiba was born European and used a European style sword. Junichiro was born Japanese, so naturally he used the most well known type of sword from Japan, a katana.
His action raised the eyebrows of everyone present. Rias smiled brightly as she looked at the sword in Junichiro's left hand, “You have Sword Birth too?”
Junichiro looked at Kiba and grinned, “Yeah, I do.”
Everyone made their preparations as the two competitors stared at each other. Finally Sona threw her hand down, “Begin!”
Kiba, as the fastest member of the team, took off first. Kiba's actions showed how much Rias was looking down on Junichiro. She hadn't given him any instructions so Kiba was just charging ahead looking to score an easy win through his speed. After all, there was no way a human, even a somewhat magically powerful one, could keep up with his speed.
Right?
As Kiba approached Junichiro at high speed, Junichiro's posture shifted a little as he took a classic Iaijutsu stance. As Kiba closed in, there were twin flashes of light. The next moment Kiba was behind Junichiro while Junichiro held his katana out in a completed slash. There was a loud clattering sound as the top half of Kiba's sword fell to the ground before it, and the remainder in Kiba's hands, shattered and vanished.
Junichiro straightened up and tapped the back edge of the katana on his shoulder, “You really shouldn't be underestimating me that much. I mean, honestly.”
Kiba sighed and slowly walked the long way around Junichiro to rejoin the rest of the peerage, who were all looking at Junichiro in surprise. As Kiba rejoined them, the blonde summoned another sword and nodded in acceptance, “You're correct. It was rude of me to underestimate a fellow swordsman like that. I promise not to do so again.”
Junichiro grinned broadly and took in the entire peerage. Kiba looked much like he expected, though he wore the uniform of a middle school that Junichiro wasn't familiar with. Well, he wasn't familiar with any of them. He had the same 'bishonen' looks that Junichiro had expected with his blonde hair, blue eyes, and even the little beauty mark of a mole on his face. It was... sickening how pretty Kiba was. He actually looked even more feminine and pretty at his current younger age.
Koneko, on the other hand. Looked pretty similar to what he expected with her white hair in a bob cut with long side bangs, golden eyes, and very petite body. She basically looked like her future self, but smaller in every way. While Koneko had never been very busty, she was currently a washboard.
Since they hadn't won in the first exchange as Rias had expected, they pulled together and attacked as a team. Kiba and Koneko charged to get into melee range where they specialized. Meanwhile, Rias and Akeno moved to the sides to get opposing clear lines of fire toward Junichiro.
Seeing them all getting serious, Junichiro decided to get a little serious himself. Both of his hands began to glow a deep golden light and in a flash it vanished leaving his hands changed. A ring shaped sword adorned each finger and both of his thumbs. Thin golden chains were strung from each ring and attached the the ring next to it in a daisy chain on each hand.
When Kiba came within range to attack, their sword blades clashed together. This time Kiba's sword survivded, but not without Junichiro's slicing deep into it. Kiba's blade might have some magical property to it, he wasn't sure, but its quality was clearly inferior to his own blade.
At the same time that Kiba struck, so too did Koneko. Her tiny fist came flying at Junichiro's side. He wasn't stupid enough to underestimate the amount of force behind that tiny fist. In fact, he found her tiny fist even scarier than he would Sairaorg Bael's! Why? Because more force in a smaller area was a hell of a lot scarier than if it was in a wider area! Sairaorg had bigger fists so the damage was more spread out whereas Koneko's tiny fist would put all the damage in a much smaller area.
He countered her punch by intercepting it with his katana's saya, the magically enhanced ironwood sheath cracked, but didn't fully break, under the force of the little cat-girls fist. Junichiro let out a whistle, “Goddamn you're a scary kitten!”
As her golden eyes narrowed in annoyance, Junichiro counter attacked. A ring on his left hand, the one closest to Koneko, glowed white before a blast of force slammed into her and sent her flying back toward the wall. It wouldn't deal much damage but simple physics meant she went flying from the force. On his right hand another ring glowed red and sent a small blast of flames directly at Kiba's face forcing him to disengage and retreat.
As the two melee fighters got out of the way, Rias and Akeno took their shots. While Rias preferred to use her Power of Destruction in battle, it was a bit much for a spar. So she substituted a large blast of fire instead. Meanwhile, Akeno resorted to her favorite element in combat, lightning.
Neither the large ball of fire or powerful bolt of lightning reached their target. Instead, as they approached Junichiro the attacks shrank, lost power, and eventually vanished. Junichiro, still on guard, smirked and taunted the pair of long ranged fighters, “Sorry ladies but all forms of elemental magic are useless against me.”
He wanted to show off a bit. Partly from being a male in front of four beauties, even if he was only really interested in one of them. Partly because he wanted to draw Rias' interest so he could potentially join her peerage. Either way, he ran his mouth, “I'm sure you know a lot about Sword Birth, but do you comprehend what this means?”
As he asked his question he held up his hand and showed off the collection of rings. Each ring was a different color such as red, blue, white, black, yellow, green, and so on. All six devils in the room examined the rings until the smartest in the room, Sona, put it together, “Those rings are swords!”
She looked at Kiba, “I've seen Kiba's Flame Delete absorb flames in a similar manner, though that sword is significantly larger... I still find it hard to believe that Sword Birth could make rings...”
Kiba also looked confused, but highly curious. Junichiro continued to smirk as he explained, “A sword is a sword no matter how large, or small, it is.” He stared into Kiba's eyes, he had nothing against the guy so might as well help him out, “If you wear a necklace with a small pewter sword hanging on it, do you not recognize the tiny blade as a sword by its shape alone? Even if it's only centimeters in length, it is still a sword, is it not?”
Kiba's eyes widened at the implications. Junichiro continued, “So, if that can be a sword, why can a similarly small sword not be bent into the shape of a ring? It is still a sword, is it not?” Junichiro's grin grew feral, “So, if it is a sword and Sword Birth can make magical swords, why can it not make tiny magical swords in the shape of jewelry that still contains those magical abilities?!”
Everyone's eyes widened in shock at the revelation. It was honestly a path of thought that none of them had ever gone down but it was so logical. Thinking about it, why couldn't Kiba do the exact same thing as Junichiro had done? A sword was a sword. Changing its size and bending it wouldn't change that it was a sword.
While everyone was shocked by the revelation, Junichiro moved. Without anyone seeing how he got from point A to point B, Junichiro vanished from his previous position and appeared directly in front of Kiba faster than the swordsman could see. Eyes widened even further as they saw the razor edge of Junichiro's sword held level with Kiba's throat. Junichiro could see the question in Kiba's eyes, 'how?'
“As a human I am weaker than most supernatural beings. Devils are inherently faster, stronger, more durable, and more powerful magically. But, you are far less creative than I am. That sword in your hand is a testimony to your limited thinking. A simple steel blade with enhanced sharpness. Frankly, what good is a sword like that in a fight between beings like us?”
He pulled his sword from Kiba's neck, knowing Kiba would honor his loss. This allowed Kiba to get his first real look at the katana held in Junichiro's hand up close. His entire expression radiated shock.
“That's right Kiba. You used steel, I used Mana Steel folded five hundred times and enchanted for durability.” He held up the saya, “Sheathed in a saya made of ironwood, also with enhanced durability. You fought with a toy, I fought with a weapon of war.”
Kiba took a step back and made a motion as if sheathing his sword, causing it to disappear, “It's my complete loss.”
Junichiro grinned and stepped back himself, “We'll exchange tips and tricks later.”
He turned his back to Kiba, trusting in his honor while Sona called out, “Kiba is defeated.”
Junichiro faced the three ladies still remaining with a bright smile, “I haven't had this much fun in forever. Let's see... who's next?”
His answer came in the form of the sound of the floorboards of the gym breaking as Koneko used her formidable strength to launch herself at Junichiro. Rather than block her punch with his saya once more, knowing it would break from the stress. He, instead, met her fist with his own fist. Their respective fists clashed together with minimal force. Junichiro smirked and activated the same ring he'd used on Koneko the first time. With the same flash of white light, Koneko was once again blasted off of her feet and across the gym.
“I'm nowhere near as strong as you little Kitten, but that doesn't mean I can't beat you with your own strength!” He held up his hand showing of a sword that had a white gem in the middle of its cross-guard, “This one absorbs kinetic force, stores it, and then releases it on command. The release loses power over range, but it's still excellent for countering melee fighters!”
As he talked, both Rias and Akeno fired off water based attacks, which were ignored and abosrbed by a sword with a blue gem. Junichiro waved his hand and fired a water attack at Akeno that used the combined power of the attacks she and Rias fired. She managed to block the majority of the attack by using a magic circle as a shield, but still ended up completely soaked.
“You can't just rely on brute force little kitten. Brute force is only useful in the lowest levels of fighting. Against anyone with skill, or a solid counter, it's useless. You should also beware tricksters like me, we're your worst enemy!”
As he finished speaking, a brown colored stone on one of his rings flashed and the floor beneath Koneko opened up into a deep pit that feel for a dozen feet. Koneko was so surprised by the sudden event that she forgot she had wings as she fell to the bottom of the pit. With another flash, the floor reformed where it had been, though there was still an empty space big enough to hold Koneko without hurting her. It wouldn't hold her for forever, but it would take time for the tiny terror to pound her way back to the surface.
He turned to look at the last two standing and grinned broadly, “So, tell me. What can either of you do without magic?”
Seeing both women grimace made him frown, “Seriously?”
Rias shrugged, “I've got my Power of Destruction but... this isn't that kind of serious deadly fight.”
He looked at Akeno, “What's your excuse?”
Akeno held up her hand while sparks of electricity danced around her fingers, “I'm called the Lightning Priestess for a reason.”
Junichiro rolled her eyes, “Lame. You're a Queen right?” After her confirmation nod he continued, “Queen combine all the powers of the Rook, Bishop, and Knight together right?” Another nod, “Then why the fuck don't you know how to fight in melee? If you're just going to be a mage then you're completely wasting two thirds of the power of the Queen Piece! It's a disgrace, you'd have been better off as just a bishop!”
Akeno glared at him, but couldn't come up with an argument against his logic. While she did use the durability of the Rook to withstand damage, she completely neglected its physical strength. The same could be said of the speed a Knight possessed since she tended to act more like artillery in a battle. She dealt tons of damage from a safe distance.
Rias opened her mouth, likely to defend her Queen, but Junichiro cut her off while ignoring the dull thumps coming from underground, “Ugh, this is boring. Even without going all out I'm beating the pants off of you guys. Forget it, you can have the money, I surrender.”
There was almost dead silence as everyone stared at shock while Koneko continued to pound her way out of the pit Junichiro trapped her inside of. Junichiro dismissed his swords as Sona called out, “Rias's Gremory wins.”
None of the devils felt like it had been a win. Junichiro had controlled the fight from the moment it started and quit rather than continue until he'd won. He turned to face Rias, “Come by my place tomorrow to do the transfer. I'm going home and trying to forget all this happened.”
He stuck his hands in the pockets of his jeans and walked away without another word. This left the devils looking at each other awkwardly while they collectively tuned out Koneko's tunneling. Sona cleared her throat and opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. She had no idea what to say and it was so awkward. How could she congratulate her friend on winning the bet when she won because the opposing side quit out of boredom!?
'Congrats! You... won?'
Come on! There was no way she could say that. Despite Rias technically winning, it was still her loss as far as Sona could see. It was like someone forfeiting a game of chess against her when they were a single move away from checkmate. It was... insulting.
No one said anything until Koneko broke through the floor and looked around for Junichiro. Not seeing him, she turned to look at Rias, “We win?”
Rias let out a growl and stomped out of the gym while Sona held her forehead and sighed. Koneko looked from person to person until she got to Sona who explained what happened in detail. When she finished, Koneko tilted her head, “So... won the battle. Lost the war.”
Sona slowly nodded, “That about sums it up, yeah. I don't think you all stood a chance from the beginning. His use of Sword Birth is both unique and genius giving him a plethora of unknown abilities and tricks at his disposal. That, alone, makes him a formidable fighter. Then taking into consideration that he appeared to be as skilled with a sword as Kiba...”
She trailed off and turned to Kiba for confirmation. Kiba shook his head, “He isn't quite as good as myself, but he isn't far off. However, it's not his skill that gives him an edge over me, or his tricks, it's his style. From what I could see, he's trained in at least two, possibly three, different sword styles. This gives him a flexibility and adaptability that I lack. Add on his unique use of our shared Sacred Gear and it will be my loss nine out of ten times with the one being pure luck.”
Sona looked to Koneko next, “What about when you tried to punch him?”
Koneko frowned as she thought, “First punch, normal. Second... too soft.”
Sona sighed, “So he really did absorb the force of your punch and send it back at you?”
Koneko nodded but didn't say anything else. Sona turned to the last remaining member of Rias's peerage in the gym, “What about you Akeno.”
Akeno just shrugged her shoulders, “You saw what I saw. Casting magic at him seemed like an exercise in futility with how easily he could absorb and then reuse out magical attacks. We'd have to use something other than elemental magic on him, but I haven't really studied that.”
Sona nodded in agreement. Each of them had a specialty and, except for Rias, it was elemental in nature. Sona herself specialized in water magic and she'd seen how useful that would be in a fight against Junichiro. That is, not at all.
From there the groups split up. Sona and Tsubaki to attend their duties, Akeno, Kiba, and Koneko to find their King now that she'd had a chance to calm down.
-----Line Break-----
As Junichiro exited Kuoh Academy, he looked down at the rings adorning his fingers with a wry smile. The majority of the rings showed cracks and were near the point of completely shattering, “Damn those girls pack a punch.”
He dismissed the sword-rings and smiled brightly. He didn't want to go all that hard on Rias or her peerage. He'd wanted to see where he stood when put against them and he was pleasantly surprised. He could beat them, easily, just using his Sword Birth. Though the victory didn't come down to raw power but flexibility and creativity. With the right sword from his Sacred Gear he could counter anything they could throw at him in a friendly match.
Even if it was a match to the death, he was still pretty certain he could win with just his Sacred Gear. Using Avalon against them in a serious manner was just completely unfair, no way they could handle that kind of thing. He wasn't even sure if they could handle the power of Avalon years from now after they gained a ton of power and experience. Avalon's defense is no joke when it can let a Devil tank a blow from a God using one of their major weaknesses!
Still. The only thing they had that his Sacred Gear couldn't counter was the Power of Destruction and he was certain he could dodge any attacks launched by Rias. She was definitely like her canon counterpart in that she liked to fire big powerful attacks to go for a one hit kill. While effective, to a point, it's useless against someone faster and with his Sword of Speed, the Katana he first summoned, Junichiro was faster than Kiba! No way was Rias ever going to hit him without restraining him first.
Hopefully the demonstration of the power hidden within Sword Birth would give Kiba some hints to gaining even more strength. He'd honestly only found one limit to the power of Sword Birth, the item created had to be recognizable as a sword. Everything else he'd tried was fair game!
He also hoped the other things he'd mentioned would help them, as a whole, to gain more flexibility and look into different options. Especially Akeno. Her being a Queen piece without using all of its enhancements was such a waste. Frankly, he knew he'd make a better Queen than Akeno since he fought both at range and in melee thus letting him use all of the enhancements to their full effect. Though, he would settle for being a Pawn so he could use promotion to make himself a Queen.
He wondered if his performance was good enough to make Rias interested in recruiting him. He was certain it was, he'd clearly been closest to winning before he quit. Still, there was no telling how Rias was reacting or what she was thinking.
He was looking forward to seeing her tomorrow when she came by to claim her prize.
Comments
Cody S.
It's not so much 'getting strange' (totally love that in this context) but more being stalked by a yandere demanding attention while making me fear for my other stories. I get flashes of inspiration and they don't really go away until I write them down and flush them out of my system. Totally mixing metaphors but whatever. Point is, I got a Naruto fic dancing around in my skull but it's not bugging me enough to ignore what I want to do in Fabricator. Though if it gets any louder, it might appear on here.
placid
Glad we're getting more Fabricator again. I know you're branching out into other stories now, which I can appreciate a writer wanting some strange, but I subbed for Fab. The longer chapter was great, felt more cohesive rather than leaving a dreaded cliff.
SilverWolf
Thanks for the chapter
