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Chapter 11 - Ideas and Introspection

Point out any mistakes please.

Some liberties were taken for the housing situation for the peerage. It was never specified in canon where everyone stayed, I always just assumed the club room but that wouldn't make any sense.

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"What the…?" Rias said groggily.

She'd just woken up to notice that her body felt like it was absolutely overflowing with power.

Jumping up out of bed Rias realized what must have happened.

"Brother must have given the other Satans the Visions." It was the only real explanation for this phenomenon.

"Haaa, just waking up and there's already surprises." Sighing Rias shook her head "Early bird gets the worm I guess."

Stretching she looked over at her clock and noticed it was 5am.

"I've got some time." She mumbled.

Sitting down Rias began to focus on her demonic power.

The first thing she noticed was that she had a lot of it, just a few days ago she couldn't have even dreamt of having this amount. It was like comparing a lake to an ocean the different was simply far too large. In terms of demonic power alone she has already surpassed ultimate-class and has now stepped into what many say is Satan-class.

However, that is simply in terms of pure demonic power amount.

The second thing she noticed was how "unrefined" her demonic power was when compared to the others she's felt. If she were to compare herself to someone like Grayfia, it was like comparing a sheet of paper to a hand towel. Even though she had more demonic power in pure volume, the "density" was far less.

Though, if she were to be honest, this did not take her by surprise. Grayfia like the others, fought during the civil war between the old Satan and the new Satan factions. Her power was built upon combat and struggle for survival. Rias's on the other hand was essentially just "given" to her.

But, during these mostly peaceful times combat isn't really readily available. So Rias must find another way to improve her own "density".

Luckily, she has something that not many people have, perfect control over her power.

What causes increase in "density" and "weight" of one's power? It's pressure, the need to grow stronger, the need to get better, the need to continue pushing forward, the need to survive.

Normally, trying to artificially create that pressure would result in injury to the body as one mistake could lead to the full force of your energy lashing out.

However, with perfect control over her demonic power, something like that happening is basically impossible.

"Huuu" Rias let out a breath and drifted into a lotus pose. Taking a glance at her clock she noted the time, 5:20am. She has around 3 hours before school starts, so about an hour and a half to do this.

She quickly focused inward, her demonic power drifted softly across her body. It was like a river, it took the easiest path and simply drifted.

First, Rias dragged her power into a vortex like pattern at her center. Now it swirled like a whirlpool, though it still drifting in its own way, still relaxed. Like someone who was forced on a track and instead of running, chose to walk at their own pace.

Slowly, she began to increase its speed. From its walking pace her power began to "jog", it was the type of jog one does when they just got scolded a bit and doesn't want to be bothered again, a still slow and sloppy one.

Increasing the speed once more her power began to form a proper jog, one similar to when the teacher threatens the student with a bad grade. A faster and much more steady jog.

Pumping up the speed again her power started "run". Something like a slow but deliberate run, it's similar to how one would run when trying to mock someone. It was like say "I could've done this the whole time".

She sped it up again, now her demonic power was running like it was meant to, finally putting on some "sweat". It was like spotting someone you hated in first place, of course you couldn't let them win so you speed up as much as you could.

Speeding up once more, her power was now full on "sprinting". Similar to when you and another person is head to head trying to get in front of one another. Breathing heavily putting all your strength into every kick to the ground, pushing the body to its absolute limit.

Rias continued line this, gradually increasing the speed beyond anything her demonic power has ever had to experience before, putting on the pressure.

____

"Urg" Rias groaned "Everything feels sore"

She'd just finished showering after doing a short training with her demonic power.

'Well, I'm already seeing progress so it's not that bad.' She thought while throwing on her uniform.

After her 2 hour practice session she could already feel that her "density" has increased, though it wasn't by much yet. If she were to describe it, it would be like she went from 1 sheet of paper to 3.

It wasn't much just yet, but it was a start.

Walking out of her room Rias was greeted by Koneko about to knock on her door.

"Hmm? Did you come to get me?" Rias asked, shutting the door behind her.

"Mm, later than usual." Koneko replied simply her eyes posing a worried question.

"It was nothing really, I was just doing something early this morning." The red head said, replying to the unasked question.

"Mm"

Walking down the stairs they were then greeted by both Kiba and Akeno sitting in the lounging area.

"Finally awake sleepy head?" Akeno teased as she noticed her.

"Hm, I'll have you know I've been awake since 5." Rias countered.

"Oh? Doing what exactly~?" Akeno said.

Realizing the implications of her words Rias froze then coughed.

"Ahem, just some training. My brother gave the Visions to the other Satans and I'd woken up suddenly due to the power increase. Since I had some time I did some training for my demonic power." Rias explained not wanting any misunderstandings.

"How boring~" Akeno replied, swiftly walking out the front door.

Shaking her head a weary expression sprouted.

"Alright let's go, or we'll definitely be late."

The remaining three walked through the door, following the walking Akeno.

They'd chosen to simply walk rather than teleporting. They themselves don't really know why, they very rarely walked to the school, teleporting was simply more convenient. Perhaps it was because they felt that the last couple days have been moving too fast, too many things to do, too many things going on. They didn't really know, but at least this morning, at least this walk, would be slow and relaxing.

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Arriving at the school building, Rias and her peerage were met with the usual admiring crowd. Ignoring it they walked over to the also just arriving Issei and Asia at the gate.

"We all arrived just on time." Akeno said, as they arrived the first morning bell started to ring.

"We cut it a bit close though, I know why we're kind of late but what about you Issei?" Rias asked. She and the others were late due to her getting up later than usual and them choosing to walk rather than teleport.

"Oh, it wasn't anything, I just woke up a little late." He responded a little awkwardly.

Clearly something happened but it probably wasn't anything major. Shaking her head Rias chose not to pry any further.

Heading to their homerooms the group of six split up. They were of different grades after all, Rias and Akeno being third years, Kiba, Issei, and Asia are second years, and Koneko is a first year.

Arriving at their homeroom, Rias and Akeno both take their respective seats. All the students slowly began to drift into the classroom and the teacher started the announcements for the coming week.

"First is the sports festival coming up next week, you are all required to participate in at least one event…-"

Rias's mind slowly drifted away into her own thoughts. She already knew about all the coming events from Sona and took this time to think about a few things.

'How should I go about finding the culprit behind the slaughter of the Tepes?' Her thoughts immediately drifted to the ability.

'I'm able to spontaneously grant Visions based on sensing the wishes and ambitions of people, what's stopping me from sensing that same ambition again?'

She didn't think there was any reason she couldn't, she just didn't know how exactly to go about sensing something like that. Well, more like she hasn't tried. It could very well be incredibly simple, after all, the last time it happened was just as she was talking about how gifting Visions worked.

She couldn't really test right now so she put it off for later. She had another matter to think about as well.

'Gasper, how should I go about dealing with that whole situation?' While Rias was a little confident that she could now resist Gaspers sacred gears ability. She wasn't really sure how to help him stop it from automatically activating.

Forbidden Valor view reacts and automatically activates when Gaspers emotions become heightened and may sometime just activate at a small scale when he's simply looking at things. He has no real input on its activation.

'Though, that may partially have been my fault.' Rias thought 'I let things settle and made this compromise, allowing him to get used to simply being sealed away.'

Letting out a soft sigh her head hung down limply "why does everything have to be so complicated." Rias whispered to herself.

The teacher had just finished with announcements and began passing out the forms for the sports festival and club convention coming up soon.

Looking through them she signed up for tennis like she always does and puts it aside. She contemplated for a moment on whether or not she wanted to have her club to participate in the club convention.

It could be a decent opportunity to recruit some new members, people from other schools, transferees, people coming I next year and others will be showing up. with her Vision granting ability, they wouldn't need a sacred gear or anything, simply potential. Though potential is a very vague metric.

'I am still missing another rook and knight.' Rias thought deciding to sign the occult research club up for the convention.

She has been missing pieces for quite some time now, only recently gaining two members in quick succession. Maybe it's because she never really cared about quantity.

Kind of like Issei, he took all of her pawn pieces to reincarnate into a devil completely nuking her potential roster. However, he is the boosted gears wielder, making him far more valuable than 8 regular pawns.

Looking back on it now, Rias started to realize that she was incredibly lucky to have the members she does. A half-fallen, a talented swordsman with the swordbirth sacred gear, a nekoshou, a half-vampire with a balor view, the twilight healing user, and a Longinus wielder who just so happens to have been in this town unnoticed by all until just recently.

It was all so strange that she was always in a situation to be able to obtain them. It was strange at the very least.

'Thinking about Issei, how do I feel about him now?' In all honesty, she was fully sure.

If she were to give a straight answer with absolutely no thought behind it, she'd probably say she liked him.

But if she were to give it thought she started to realize that, 'No, I didn't like Issei, I simply liked the image of a hero. Someone who would appear and sweep me off my feet making it so I wouldn't have to worry about that marriage anymore. And that's what I wanted him to be, I simply forced my ideas onto him.'

When she first got him and his sacred gear seemed to have just been twice critical, Rias couldn't help but be disappointed. Twice critical itself isn't a bad sacred gear after all, being able to double one's power can't be called bad. But the issue lies within Issei himself, he has very low amounts of demonic power and training his physical abilities high enough would be basically impossible, even accounting for the time she had before the marriage got pushed forward.

However, when it was discovered to actually be the Boosted gear, a Longinus class sacred gear. Rias can without shame say she was excited, this was her chance her one and only chance to get out of the marriage.

But, that didn't come to fruition in the end if not for Ashtart's intervention she would've had to marry Riser.

'It's a bit strange too, I ended up defeating Riser with my own ability. All that was boosted was my control and my amount of demonic power.'

Why was she so obsessed with finding someone else to help her? Why did she fully believe that no matter what she did, she wouldn't be able to beat Riser herself?

It really confuses her on sev-

'No, I know why. It was just a build up of my own insecurities and misconceptions.' It was all simply a mentality issue on her end, giving it only a little thought and doing some introspection is enough to reveal it clearly and plainly.

'Not wanting to get help from my brother or anyone else, the misconception that the Phenex's power was infallible, and a general lack of training, really all of it.' She reasoned with herself.

'From the start I had already thought I had lost, even though I had hope that I could get out of the marriage, I didn't truly believe inside my own heart and mind that I could ever win. On the day my parents informed me of their decision, the day they ignored all my input, the day they crushed my trust. On those very days, I had already lost the fight.'

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Hello again this one took longer than intended. It was mostly because my friends and I were grinding ranked on marvel rivals, and I've been obsessed with Monster Hunter Wilds recently too. Alongside those, my friends and I were trying to play some Pokémon alpha sapphire and ultra sun roms but somehow all of them are broken in one way or another. Crashing when we try to enter certain areas, shops crashing the game or not containing what they should.

The only ones that work are like the super hard ones And we really aren't trying to do those due to not being all that good at Pokémon, we just trying to do a three way nuzlocke but we aren't mega good at Pokémon so no way we can beat the harder rom hacks. All this is to say does anyone know any 3ds rom hacks ranging from X and Y to Ultra Sun and moon that have extra features but aren't exceptionally hard?

And one more thing, the next chapter for this will probably be Kate again, probably later than this one because alongside the chapter I'll be fixing the earlier chapters 1-3 and potentially 4-7 as well.

Thanks for reading, see ya'll next time and in my other stories.

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