A slight smile formed on Itachi's face. "Haha, inviting me to join Serafall, hmph, well, Do you know what I'm thinking?..." Itachi gave a half-smile, looking at Sona with bright eyes.
Sona raised an eyebrow, tapped the table with a finger as she coldly observed Itachi, making a face while tilting her head as if to say, "Go ahead, speak."
"No..." Itachi pushed the piece back to Sona Sitri. There was a trace of mild irritation in his heart. "I've been a subordinate many times before, Miss Sona. I think now I want to be something more."
Itachi spoke with just indignation and a particular desire. Sona squinted, frowned, raised her hand, and struck the chess piece with some force, sending it flying directly into Tsubaki's outstretched hands.
"Do you really think you're that important? Seriously? Come on..." she said mockingly, as if talking to a child. "You're just a ninja, Itachi. You pissed off Rias Gremory—well, she's a kid, she won't do anything. She always wants to prove she can handle things herself."
Sona stood up from her chair with almost too much speed and stared at Itachi. Moments later, two magnificent demon wings spread behind her, creating a cutting wind that shook the room's contents.
"I am Sona Sitri, not Rias Gremory," she said, seeming ready to attack when Itachi also stood. He pointed at Sona's face with particular confidence, his expression as calm as before.
"Miss Sitri, if you're going to act like you're going to attack me, at least have the decency to actually get angry..." Itachi said, sighing before lowering his hand. His words quickly caused a surprised expression on the demon's face.
Then Itachi simply sat back down and looked Sona Sitri directly in the eyes.
She felt a strong sense of excellence emanating from the ninja. Her previously calm body, and her plan to make Itachi fight, had been revealed so easily—and above all, Itachi's calm attitude toward the Queen piece from her sister caused a mental shock.
"You..." Sona didn't finish her sentence—not because she was interrupted, but because she couldn't find words to refute Itachi's statements. Then she looked at him with new eyes—more respectful than when he first entered the room.
"Was it that obvious?" Sona asked, curious. Itachi smiled and tilted his head, making an obvious gesture. "Hehe, well..." Itachi said, she found no way to contradict Itachi; her plans to have Itachi fight her Peerage to test his strength had failed.
However, moments later, "Hahaha!!!" Sona Sitri couldn't help but burst out laughing. "Haha, hey, hey, Do you know what?" Sona quickly hid her wings and sat back down.
"You should have seen Rias Gremory's face when she told me about you. She was so..." She began laughing lightly, her attitude changing so quickly it would have surprised anyone—except Itachi.
"She was so red with embarrassment and anger I almost thought someone had painted her face red or something..." Sona quickly signaled to her queen, Tsubaki. "Come on, Tsuba, bring Itachi something to drink. He's a good man, a good man," Sona nodded several times.
After all, no other man had given Sona such a beautiful gift. The gift? The chance to see her good friend Rias blushing, angry, and with a greed never seen before in her.
"Were you pretending the whole time?" Itachi asked in his mind, his words and expression as if he didn't care, but in reality, he was surprised. He had only realized she was acting when she began showing her demon wings.
"There was no killer instinct in your movements; they were quite mechanical, actually..." he thought at that moment.
Sona took a breath and finally sighed, smiling as she looked at Itachi with some appreciation. "Aha, I mean, anyone who can make Rias that mad is a good friend of mine..." Sona said with a real and absolute sense of truth in her words and actions. Itachi could swear those last words were all genuine.
"By the way, that Orochimaru you mentioned—how powerful was he in your previous world?" Sona asked, her expression and tone showing genuine curiosity.
Itachi thought for a moment, looked at Sona's beautiful face before speaking. "Well, he was one of the legendary Three Sannin..."
Itachi began narrating stories about Orochimaru's feats: achieving immortality, killing the Hokage, researching, and how difficult he was to kill.
Sona's eyes remained wide open throughout the explanation. She looked at Itachi with bright eyes, taking notes on a sheet of paper as she listened.
Finally, she said, "I see," then tapped the table a couple of times with her pen. "I..." she paused, "I mean, what you tell me is... umm, hard to believe, but not impossible. Ajuka was joking about the existence of multiverses or something like that a few years ago..."
Sona Sitri stood up and quickly went to look for a book among the shelves along the wall. "Where is it?" she murmured while passing by several books. "Bingo!!!" she finally said, pulling a book from the shelf and quickly placing it on the desk.
"Theory of Travel Between Worlds Connected by Wormholes... it's one of Ajuka's latest books," Sona hummed, sat back down, and flipped rapidly through pages until she reached a specific one.
"I think it's here. It says, 'The universe's worldview is broad, but it is not as real as it seems. The laws of quantum physics are an abstraction of physics in our universe, and the randomness of quantum mechanics makes us think that...'"
Sona began reading a long paragraph explaining Ajuka's brief theory about how it's possible that parallel worlds exist connected through wormholes.
After a moment, Tsubaki brought a kind of tart on a beautiful plate and placed it on the desk in front of Itachi.
A simple "Thank you," from Itachi was enough to make the girl extremely nervous. She shook her head and said it was her job.
"Hehehe," Itachi laughed at Tsubaki's reaction. He said, "You act a bit like Asia Argento. You two should meet."
However, when Itachi said this, Tsubaki narrowed her eyes and looked at Itachi with eyes the ninja had never seen before. She opened her mouth as if to say something, but no words came out.
"The universe could be... Hey guys!!!" Sona noticed the tension between Itachi and Tsubaki and raised her voice a bit annoyed, "We're talking about something serious. Please, if you want to flirt, do it somewhere else..." She squinted, scolding them like two children.
"I... it's not that, p-president," Tsubaki blushed again and quickly stepped back, hiding in a corner, murmuring something very quietly.