thomasdarkrose
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Fabricator: Chapter 17
🕑 Added 2023-02-20 18:46:06 +0000 UTCBefore Junichiro could even begin to explain himself to Rias, the door to the room opened and an amused, “Ara?” broke the tension.
Both Junichiro and Rias turned to see Akeno standing in the doorway with one hand covering her mouth and a malicious twinkle in her eyes, “My my, if you two need some privacy just say so.”
Rias noticed how close their faces were an immediately began to blush. Junichiro, on the other hand, just gave Akeno a bland and bored look. Akeno was thrilled to get a rise out of Rias, but the bored look from Junichiro kind of ruined it for her. She hadn't been able to get even a small rise out of him since they met and it was starting to bug her. No teenager should be so put together as to be able to ignore her and her teasing.
Junichiro turned away from Akeno and focused back on Rias who'd stepped back and let go of his lapels, “I did what I did for the benefits it gives.”
To prove his point he took in an extra deep breath before slowly exhaling. Rias felt a shudder go down her spine at the feeling of power in his exhale. She still wasn't sure what the energy she was feeling was, but it felt amazing. At least, it did until it rapidly faded away. She narrowed her eyes at him, “What isthat?”
Akeno kept silent but she could feel the energy moving into and out of Junichiro as well igniting her own curiosity. Junichiro smiled playfully, “I'll let Ddraig explain!”
Ddraig had been content to just watch the events unfold and enjoy the drama. It had become a bad habit of his since he was sealed, but what else was a sealed soul supposed to do for entertainment?! Hearing Junichiro throw him under the bus, he promised retribution. He spoke with clear reluctance and a petulant grumble to his voice, “Dragons are beings of power. Our every breath fills the world with energy, vitality, life, and more. With the changes I made to my Partner, he now has some of the most important parts of a dragon for it to breath power into the world and itself. Every beat of his heart converts some of his blood into dragon blood. Dragon blood works much better than the blood of any mortal race, including devils, and will give him more energy and strength to work with.”
Rias and Akeno both gaped at the information Ddraig just offered up. Junichiro grinned playfully and made his escape while they were both trying to recover from the info bomb. School was still boring but teasing and messing with the girls made it a lot more fun. Just as he exited the building, Rias called down from the second floor window, “We're not finished! I expect you back here for lunch!”
Junichiro laughed. Yeah, today was probably going to be a nice day. He couldn't wait to let Rias know that he'd delivered all the fliers she'd given him. No way was he going to stand around on the street giving out fliers by hand!
----- Line Break -----
Junichiro walked toward the old school building to spend his lunch with his new club mates while pondering the day thus far. It had started out rather normal but had quickly gone downhill. Not in a horrible way, more an annoying way. It took a while for him to notice but, in hindsight, it was pretty obvious. He was attracting a ton of female attention. Every girl he came across spared him a little more than a simple glance. He even spotted Aika Kiryuu peeking at him from around a corner with a hand pressed against the front of her skirt and drool dripping from her chin.
Not only had he become a sexy beast, almost literally, but now he was actually putting out waves of draconic power and attraction... charisma. It also looked like breathing out pure life energy had the effect of making people want to make new life. In other words, he accidentally made everyone around him horny just by breathing. That... was unexpected and extremely annoying. The only ones that seemed to be unaffected, or only lightly affected, were the other devils on campus.
His aura hiding bracelet wasn't capable of blocking all of that. It'd been made before he changed so all it was currently doing was hiding just how strong he was. Sona and her peerage hadn't been at the school when he'd released his full power the other day and he preferred to keep things to himself as long as possible. It's not like his power was still sealed or anything, just hidden.
Of course, his improved looks and charisma weren't the only thing to give him a bit of a headache. It seemed that his joining the Occult Research Club had not gone unnoticed. Especially not by the perverted trio who had decided to spread all kinds of unsavory rumors about him around the student body. Frankly, a part of him just wanted to kill all three of them and be done with it. He could easily picture all three of them getting to the point where a look just wasn't enough and trying to touch. Issei was only slightly better than the other two, but he was still pretty terrible.
Junichiro paused at that thought. While he wasn't opposed to fighting and killing to defend himself, when did he become so blood thirsty? Not that long ago he'd thrown up everything in his stomach and more after accidentally killing that fallen angel. It had been an accident done in self defense and he'd still felt pretty terrible after it was over and the shock of it all faded. Now he was casually thinking of murdering three people?
Despite the way the anime presented this world, in reality it was a pretty dark world where only the strong had any rights. Those without strength had no rights and were subject to the whims of those stronger than them. That was the reason he was after so much power, after all. He supposed it was only reasonable that he was being corrupted by his power. It probably didn't help that his heart was now the heart of a dragon. Metaphorical or not, the heart was important. Hopefully the perverts would be expelled or in prison soon enough that he wouldn't succumb to his sudden urge.
Thankfully, Sona had started to take the threat they posed as criminals seriously.
Junichiro was pulled from his thoughts when he arrived in the club room and realized he was the last to arrive. Rias was staring at him as if just keeping her eyes on him would unravel all of his secrets. He still hadn't told her every last thing because he liked messing with her. In fact...
As he stood next to Koneko, he turned around and opened another portal into his home that everyone could see into, specifically his kitchen, and spoke out loud, “Computer, two lunches, both double sized with extra desert.”
Everyone gave him confused looks while observing the portal into his home. Their confusion became shock as they watched two massive lunches appear from a white glow. Koneko's eyes were especially wide as she looked at the double sized lunch. Junichiro smirked as he stepped into his house, grabbed the food, and stepped back out to set one of them in front of Koneko and the other in front of himself. The petite white-haired girl quickly dug into her portion while everyone else gaped at him until he dismissed his portal.
Rias snapped out of her stupor and jumped to her feet while slamming her hands on her desk, “What was that?! STOP DOING THINGS!”
Junichiro gave Rias his best 'innocent face' as if he had no idea what she was talking about while opening his lunch. With both his and Koneko's lunches opened, a heavenly aroma flooded the entire room and made everyone's stomachs rumble. Hearing the sounds, his smirk grew. He had to mess with Rias more, so he reopened the portal to his kitchen, “Computer, three normal sized lunches.”
After three more flashes of light, he used telekinesis to summon the lunches into the room and set them on the largest table in the middle of the room. Rias gaped like a fish. Akeno giggled behind her hand as she enjoyed Rias predicament. Kiba... was actually acting as if nothing was wrong and merely gave Junichiro a thankful nod after collecting the provided lunch.
Junichiro closed the portal to his kitchen once more and smiled happily as he dug into his lunch. Seeing Rias just sitting at her desk, paralyzed by the sheer number of questions she wanted to ask him, he used telekinesis once again to float her lunch onto her desk, “Don't worry about it too much Rias. Think of it this way. If you see me doing something unexpected, just attribute it to my use of The Workshop. I've had it and actively used it for a solid week. Often when I make something, I think of something else or an improvement rather quickly. I've made many things and trying to mention all of them is almost impossible. I'm bound to forget something I made until I want to use it.”
He munched on some of his lunch to let her process that information before he continued, “What you just saw is a combination of several things in one complex device. The important parts are that it can act as a holodeck, making solid holograms of pretty much anything, and a replicator capable of making just about anything real. Like food, clothing, and other items. It's a household version of my replicator bracelets.”
He lifted his wrist to show of the bracelets. Ones Rias recognized as the items that materialized his Caster-style guns previously, “There's a small difference between them though. I made the bracelets work by scanning items and then producing exact replicas that are temporary instead of permanent. That way if I lose a weapon somewhere, it will vanish and no one can use it against me.”
Rias fought the urge to sigh and decided to just focus on the food he provided. The fact that Koneko kept going to him for more clearly indicated how good the food was. At her first bite, she had to fight to keep control of herself and not moan out loud. It had to be the best tasting food she'd ever had and that was saying something. She knew that the circumstances of her birth made her a little spoiled. She'd had good food since she was a child and was used to eating food from some of the best restaurants in the Underworld. None compared to this food.
That was just another thing to annoy her. Junichiro had promised to give her something she requested but every time he showed her something it made it harder for her to pick. She wanted to see if he could remove Gasper's sacred gear and possibly make it into an item that Gasper could use instead of it being out of his control. Then he has to go and show her technology that only existed in science fiction and other impossible things. She had no idea what to ask him for and he just kept making it harder on her!
He'd made the same promise to Koneko, but the petite woman didn't really have much in the way of desires. Just his continued free food was probably enough for her. Koneko would likely call in the favor when he showed off something she really liked. Rias had the additional problem of Riser and the marriage agreement to worry about. Could he make something to render Riser's regeneration useless? If he could then she had little fear of being able to crush him in a fight. Only his ability to regenerate protected him from the very real threat of her Power of Destruction. She'd watched his rating games in order to study him and knew how heavily he relied on his regeneration. It was a valid strategy in the lower ranks of the Rating Games, but it would fail miserably at the higher ranks where it could be readily countered. It was why he hadn't risen very high, unlike his older brother.
While Rias went down a rabbit hole of thoughts, Junichiro was enjoying his lunch with Koneko. He definitely enjoyed his time with the silent rook more than the others. While he could be energetic and enjoyed teasing Rias, he greatly enjoyed peace and quiet. He'd been over forty years old in his last life and grown used to the calmer attitudes and pace of the adults in his life with him. Unless it was an emergency or there was a time limited goal, there was no need to rush.
Of course, he could afford to be a little lazy with his magically bullshit technology doing all the work for him. His body was still aching, which meant the nanites within his body were still working on making him stronger with every passing moment. The meals he was eating were also high in protein and other nutrients that his body needed to recover from the work being done. The more the nanites had to work with, the faster the work could be done. Still, he expected that they would eventually lose their effectiveness and he would be required to do things the hard way. He already had plans for that though. Gaining strength didn't have to be all hard work in a world of magical bullshit, after all.
----- Line Break -----
Junichiro once more joined the others inside of the club building after school. Once they were all settled, Rias gave Junichiro a complicated look, as if she didn't know where to start with him. After a moment, she fell back on what she was familiar with, “How is distributing your fliers going?”
Junichiro smirked at Rias and had a clearly playful glint in his eyes that she didn't like, “I distributed all of them.”
Rias froze at his statement before narrowing her eyes at him, “Are you sure you distributed them to potential customers and didn't just throw them away?”
Junichiro nodded in a sagely manner, “Of course.” His tone turned playfully pompous, “I merely made a fleet of drones controlled by a virtual intelligence device that flew around and placed the fliers within mailboxes over a vast area around my home.”
The sound of flesh slapping flesh echoed through the room as Rias gave herself a vicious facepalm. The sight shocked everyone, even the ever-stoic Koneko. Meanwhile, Junichiro was fighting hard not to burst out laughing at the entire situation. As if he would waste precious time on something so trivial when there were massive gains to be made! Hell, he still needed to make some time to meditate for his Senjutsu. He especially wanted to know how it would react to him breathing out what was essentially pure life-force.
Once Rias recovered from her new pawns latest flaunting of her known reality, she fixed him with a glare, “Fine. Whatever. I don't even care anymore. Starting tomorrow I'm putting you on the schedule with the others for fulfilling contracts.” She fixed him with a level glare to display her seriousness as she continued, “You will do your best to show the house of Gemory in a good light while dealing with customers. Despite you constantly doing strange or even impossible things, you have given me no reason to fear you might purposefully drag the name of Gremory through the mud. Still, I feel I must stress that you need to be politeand gentle when dealing with our customers. Provided they don't ask you to do something morally ambiguous or that would violate your personal rights.”
Junichiro sighed and fixed his face in an uncommonly serious mien, “I know I play around and tease you a fair bit, but I would never do anything to bring you or your house dishonor.” Which was true, he didn't have as much dislike for Rias as he did Sona, “I will do my best to improve the reputation of your house and you specifically.”
Rias nodded and then smiled brightly, “Good! Be prepared for just about anything tomorrow.” She pulled out a small booklet and held it out for him, “This contains information on how to calculate the prices for our services. Memorize it.” She looked serious once more, “And always remember, a contract that you enter willingly should always be fulfilled to the best of your ability.”
Junichiro arched an eyebrow at that last line. He suspected that it had changed from 'all contracts' to 'one's enterewillingly' after her engagement to Riser. Since he wasn't supposed to know about that, he said nothing and just nodded his head in acceptance. He had no issues fulfilling contracts for people. Honestly, there was one in particular he remembered Issei having that he hoped to get himself.
It wasn't much longer before the other members of the peerage started heading out on their contracts so Junichiro made his way home. Once the portal to his living room was closed, he had his holohome change the room into a meditation garden complete with a small waterfall. His nanite clothing changed into a comfortable kimono at his mental command. With his preperations done, he sat cross legged on a soft cushion on the floor and closed his eyes, “Computer, generate a meditation expert to walk me through the proper method to meditate.”
Junichiro had no real experience with meditation in either of his lives so a proper teacher was a necessity. He could just close his eyes and try to clear his mind, but he thought there was possibly more to the process. With a guru, of sorts, to guide him, he found the process much easier and simpler than he imagined. The soft hypnotic voice of the false persona helped guide him into a deep trance.
When he'd first changed himself using Koneko's genetic information, he'd felt a new something, a connection perhaps, to the world. As if a switch had been flipped but hadn't had enough energy to turn on the attached light. Now, now that light was a floodlight shining into the world and he could feel so much more than just a simple connection. He could feel the life force of everything within about a hundred feet of himself.
All life.
From humans to the smallest of dust mites, he could sense everything living within that short range and it was a heady feeling. It only lasted for a moment though as he slowly breathed out. The 'cloud' of life-force that he exhaled blinded his new sense with just how pure and powerful it was. While he slowly inhaled, the cloud dispersed and he could feel the life-force every living thing in his range become just a little bit stronger.
As he exhaled once more, he examined the cloud of energy before it dissipated. If he remembered right, Senjutsu users could control the life-force, ki, chakra, whatever you wanted to call it, around them. Most importantly, to him, this let them deal damage more along the lines of spiritual damage to the internal body of an enemy. They could even kill using such techniques by severing and damaging the ki of people. They could control the flow of ki and cause plants to bloom or wither. If he wasn't mistaken, they could also pull the energy of the world into themselves. Koneko's trauma was from thinking her sister had gone insane from doing so due to the emotional pollution in the worlds energy.
But what about the completely pure energy he let out with every breath?
He exhaled again and as the cloud of energy flowed out, he attempted to corral it all together. He managed to grasp some of it while the majority just spread out into the world. Not unexpected. He pulled the small portion he'd managed to snag toward himself and guided it into his body. If he was asked to put what he'd done into words, he'd be unable to. It wasn't like anything he'd ever done before.
As the energy sank into his body, he immediately felt a small surge of power spread out through his entire being. The pure, unfiltered, untainted, un-anything, life-force empowered his entire body and made everything about him just a tiny bit stronger. It was life-force he created, untouched by anything else, it was perfectly compatible with his body and didn't put up any sort of struggle or fight. It simply sank into him, almost eagerly, and went to work happily.
Junichiro felt that urge again, the urge to cackle like a mad scientist. He'd found another loophole to exploit that he doubted anyone had ever heard of before. After all, how many dragons were capable of using Senjutsu with the natural skill of a Nekoshou? NONE!
With every beat of his heart, dragon's blood was pumped through his veins enhancing every aspect of his body. With every inhale mana was pulled into his core and slowly increasing his Demonic Power. Now, with every exhale he was pulling pure life-force into his body and enhancing it further. Just by existing he was making himself stronger at an unheard of rate for any race. He hadn't even been trying to do all of this!
Yeah, he couldn't hold back anymore, he fell out of his meditative trance and threw his head back while cackling like he'd lost his mind!
Comments
Eric Lachance
Junichiro used his power wisely to give himself insane growth. That's surely nice, but I'm starting to wish for things to move a bit faster for a while.
