"Oh! Before you come in, you have to take off your shoes!" Rias waved her hands down at my feet excitedly, grinning from ear to ear, "It's a human thing! All of them do it!"
"All of them?" I raised an eyebrow at her as I reached down, pulling off my boots at the entrance to the wooden, old-looking building.
"All of them," Rias confirmed, a bit smug at her 'immense knowledge' about humans and their culture, which she had gained from visiting the human world frequently over the past few months.
"Wow, very cool," I replied dryly, playing along as I didn't have the heart to tell the excited woman that this was mainly only a Japanese thing, and she didn't know that because she had only been visiting Japan.
At the moment, we were heading into what was now the Occult Research Club's clubroom. Compared to most 'clubrooms,' it was more like a club-building, as that's literally what it was. The small two-story building was covered in vines, leaves, and plants as it clearly hadn't been taken care of in a while.
"It's pretty nice, right?" Rias smiled at me, her face practically shining with beauty as she gestured around at the rather modest, and frankly unappealing, room around us, "It's not big and fancy, but it's so… human! So Japanese!"
I also didn't have the heart to tell her that the room around us, which had various broken, scuffed, and dirty boards of wood, no air conditioning, and even a broken window in the corner, was less 'human' and more 'abandoned.' The building was positioned within Kuoh Academy's gated campus, but it was behind the main building and kind of shoved away in the corner between a mini-forest of trees, so it wasn't all that surprising that it'd become this way with a lack of a caretaker.
"It's definitely pretty 'human,' but I'd still recommend getting that fix," I gestured dryly to the broken window, and Rias paused, her face twisting in a level of concentration that was far too much for such a simple window, though she looked cute as she did.
I'd come to the human world at her request, as she'd been spending a lot of time here, though she still returned to my palace every night. Her desire to live in Japan and explore the country hadn't been curbed by the events in the Underworld, and I wasn't going to stop her. As a result, both she and her peerage had started attending Kuoh Academy.
"What made you choose this place anyway?" I asked before she could think more on the window situation, as I was genuinely curious, "I thought you'd want to live somewhere more active, like Tokyo or Kyoto."
Kuoh became a supernatural hotspot in the show, but that was largely because of her and Sona's presence here. Otherwise, it was a pretty small and frankly boring town with not much to do. Rias definitely wasn't the 'party with no morals' type that most young devils were, as they tended to have more money than they knew what to do with and the power to do whatever they wanted in the human world, but I still wouldn't expect her to want to live in such a small city.
"I wanted somewhere independent," Rias answered easily, glancing away from the window and back to me, "All the big cities are already being managed by other devils, or someone else, like how Kyoto is being managed by Yasaka. I wanted somewhere for myself, though Sona wants to come here as well, so it seems like I'll end up sharing anyway."
I nodded at her words, though they only partially made sense. In the original series, that was a pretty good explanation, but now? I had the Youkai under my control, as well as the devils. If Rias really wanted a bigger region for herself, then she and I both knew that I'd spare no expense to get her one.
If she really wanted it, then I'd have no problems even relocating the Youkai from Kyoto for her. Being one of my women came with a lot of privileges, and Rias was someone whom I was particularly close with now, even amongst all the women who frequented my bed. Whatever she wanted, she would get, and she knew that, so her picking Kuoh didn't make much sense-
"And, I wanted the real Japanese experience! All those big cities are so watered down!" Rias huffed, puffing her cheeks out cutely as she looked annoyed, "Seriously, everything there is all touristy! I want an authentic Japanese lifestyle! Though they don't have a lot of figurine shops out here…"
I just chuckled as the real reason came out - right, Rias hadn't wanted to move simply to the human world, but specifically to Japan for a reason. She was a huge otaku and fan of everything Japanese.
"And, this academy just happened to be one of the best ones I could find, so Kuoh was a perfect location," Rias continued, calming down as she stopped puffing out her cheeks. "I wanted to pick an all-female one, and they teach more than just the basics here. I already know more than enough about math, reading, history, and general education, so I'd rather learn more about the region and culture if I'm going to school."
"An all-female academy?" I raised an eyebrow at her, as I knew Kuoh Academy was women-only, but I didn't know why that was so important to her. "Why?"
"Well, I knew Japan had a pervert problem, but," Rias frowned, looking annoyed again, "I didn't realize everyone was a pervert! Even the women are gawking at me, and I can't even go shopping without guys drooling at me. I wouldn't have minded before, but now that I'm yours…"
Rias paused, looking a bit embarrassed as she glanced away, her cheeks turning red, "O-Only you should be looking at me that way, so a female-only academy is better…"
I grinned a bit at her words, as she really did somehow manage to be adorable despite being so incredibly sexy, and was actually a bit touched. The woman who slept naked, was an exhibitionist, and who flaunted her incredibly sexy body without a care for her modesty was actually upset that someone other than me was ogling at her?
Granted, it was probably really, really, bad particularly in this country. Rias' body was so insanely ecchi that she'd steal the spotlight even in the plastic surgery-filled streets of Miami, but in Japan? A country where women tended to be on the thinner and less voluptuous side because of their usual diets?
The men here had definitely never seen anyone like her before, and they probably didn't even know someone with a figure like hers could exist. It wasn't surprising that even the women were staring openly at her, and it was pretty clear how she and Akeno had pretty much become the queens of Kuoh Academy just by attending it in the series.
Though there was one flaw in her idea-
"But, this school is about to become co-ed, right?" I hummed, raising an eyebrow at her. The reason Issei had been able to come here in the first place was because of the change within the school, though he had been one of the few male students here.
"How'd you know- never mind," Rias cut herself off, having long ago accepted that I just knew pretty much everything. "It was, but my family bought the school, so I just reversed that idea."
Well, that was certainly one way to solve the problem. Though it would make tracking down Issei a bit more difficult. His family lived in Kuoh anyway, meaning he had to be somewhere within the small city, so his not being able to attend Kuoh Academy wasn't that big of a roadblock.
I had actually been happy that Rias chose Kuoh despite my intervention in this world, as Issei was someone I was very interested in. It would've been annoying if he ended up dying and the Boosted Gear went to some random person I'd probably never find, so Rias keeping an eye on the area was good.
Though that didn't mean I wanted the boy to join Rias' peerage or anything. I was a nice guy, but not nice enough of a guy to ignore the Boosted Gear and let him live a normal life. Maybe if he were a hot woman I'd have folded, but for Issei Hyoudou?
The Boosted Gear was going to be extracted, and whether he lived or died in the process didn't matter much to me. He wasn't needed in this world now that I was here, and would just be a hindrance if anything.
"Fair enough. But, make sure you keep the orb on you, alright?" I hummed, looking at her a bit more seriously, "Ajuka is dealing with them right now, but you know how things like this go. There's a pretty high chance you'll be targeted, even if the war hasn't broken out yet."
The multi-faction alliance was still in the process of forming, so no war had broken out yet, but that didn't mean Rias was safe in the human world. Kuoh wasn't exactly a fortress or anything, as it was literally just a typical Japanese small town, so it would be all too easy for a rogue or angry god to barge in here and kill her to kickstart the war.
Kokabiel had done such a thing in the series, and it hadn't been difficult. There was now a flurry of other gods within the factions forming against me who could do a suicidal charge against Rias to defy me, as our relationship wasn't exactly private. As a result, some precautions needed to be made.
"Of course, I'm aware," Rias nodded at my words, her face becoming more serious as well for just a second, before she smirked a bit, "But I can summon you at any moment, can't I? You should be careful, or you might be fighting naked."
The 'orb' I was referring to was the same one Ajuka had made, which directly pulled someone's energy signature to a certain location. Rias had one that was tied to my palace, so upon breaking the orb, she'd be teleported there right away.
The only way to counteract Ajuka's creation was a barrier that Azazel had designed when we went to seal Ajuka in [Sealing Dream]. Only Azazel should know about it, and only Ajuka knew in-depth about the orb enough to create another counterbarrier, so it should be a pretty concrete way to protect Rias.
Of course, there was always the risk that someone within my Kingdom turned coat, so it wasn't foolproof. For that reason, Rias wasn't referring to that orb.
Instead, she was referring to the small, glass marble-like ball that I used one of Tiamat's [Sacred Treasure]'s on. It was the same type of marble that I had given Yubelluna a few months ago, right before she left as I released the hostages, and had [Signature Swap] tied to it.
Essentially, whenever she broke the marble, I would either be pulled to her location or she could be pulled to mine. Considering how often I had sex, her teasing about me showing up naked wasn't all that unfounded. Especially considering that anyone who attacked Rias would do so in the night, which also happened to be the time I was usually naked.
"Then we'd just get quite a show, wouldn't we? Fufu~" Before I could answer Rias' teasing words, Akeno did instead, walking down from an old and dusty staircase that was in the corner of the room, "Ara, you finally brought Valon here, Rias? You've been saying how badly you wanted to try having sex with him in the human world, but I didn't think it'd be so soon~"
"A-Akeno! I have not been saying that!" Rias puffed out her cheeks cutely again, flushing as she glanced over at me, "T-Though, I suppose while you're here, we could do it, right? J-Just because you're already here, and it's convenient!"
For once, I think Akeno's teasing might've been true.
"If two gorgeous women are offering, who am I to-" I started to agree, but paused as a notification appeared in the side of my vision.
[Signature Swap]'s imprinted object has been broken!
Breaker: [Yubelluna]
Will you travel to the object's location?
Y/N
If you select 'N,' then the object will be brought to your location!
Choose within 30 seconds, or the imprint will fade!
"Actually," My lips curved, moving from my previous gentle smile to a hungry grin, "I have something I need to deal with first."
It'd been a couple of months since I returned Yubelluna to Riser, and she had never broken the marble before, so I figured that she was fine. Apparently, that wasn't the case.
"Something to deal with?" Rias blinked, looking at me curiously, "What is it?"
"Ah, nothing important. I'll be back in less than an hour," I waved at her dismissively, "It's just…"
I tapped on the Y.
"A fried chicken needs to be dealt with."
I vanished from the room, leaving just Rias and Akeno in the dusty clubhouse.
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"'A fried chicken needs to be dealt with?' Is he just going to go eat?" Akeno frowned as she finally thought about Valon's words, looking over at Rias, "I like chicken. Why didn't he invite us?"
"Um… I don't know," Rias frowned cutely, also thinking about what Valon had said, "He said it so dramatically that I assumed it was something important, but I can't think of anything to do with fried chicken but eat it."
"Maybe he thinks you don't like fried chicken, because it'll remind you of Riser?" Akeno hummed, raising an eyebrow at Rias, "He was kind of like a fried chicken, right?"
"Oh! That must be it!" Rias nodded, agreeing. The two women fell into comfortable silence for a moment.
…
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…
"Should we go get ready now?"
"Oh, yeah! I have to go put on my uniform," Rias agreed, her cheeks turning a bit red as she thought about it, "I-I've put on schoolgirl cosplay before, but now I have the real deal for him…"
She trailed off, the words not needing to be said, and as Akeno also went to get her Kuoh Academy outfit, Valon was in for a fun night when he returned.
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AN: Thank you for reading! The next chapter will be out tomorrow!
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