Oops! You know how I just unleashed some of my power, right? Yeah, so, I might have accidentally woken up Ddraig with that little stunt because a green gem suddenly appeared on the hand of the still knocked-out Issei.
"What is happening?! And why is my host unconscious?!" A very confused Ddraig yelled out, causing all people present to gawk at the gem.
"I-Is that the Boosted Gear?" Rias asked, sounding unsure.
"Yep. It sure is." I nodded and went to grab Issei's hand.
"Hello Ddraig. I did that. I trust that you will not hold it against me, yes?" I asked and injected my power straight into the gem to establish a link for silent communication.
"YES! I MEAN NO! NO WAIT, I MEAN YES! Please don't kill my host…" I struggled to suppress the laughter bubbling in my throat as he fumbled over his words.
"I wasn't planning to, Ddraig. The kid fainted when I let out a bit of my power. He should hopefully wake up pretty soon."
"Oh… well, he is very weak at the moment." He grumbled with discontent.
"I know. You have a tough job ahead of you, dude. I don't envy you at all. Though, according to Red, you do deserve it, for being an idiot."
"Um…"
"Pft. Okay, I'm gonna break the connection now, and you will stay silent about what I truly am, okay? They have no idea, and I would prefer it to stay that way for a bit longer." My reason for not letting them know was simple: they would be too scared of me to interact normally. Hell, given the look Koneko was shooting my way, I'd say she is a bit scared right now.
With my warning delivered, I let go of the hand and went back to where I was sitting previously.
"What was it that you just did, sensei?" Kiba asked, and since he was the closest to where Issei was, he had the best view.
"Don't worry about that. Just a friendly greeting among dragons, that's all. We were smelling each other, kinda like dogs do, metaphorically speaking, of course."
"I'd rather not be compared to some mangy mutt, but true enough, I suppose." I'm glad that Ddraig was smart enough to go along with whatever bullshit I just spouted.
"Anyways, I'm going back to sleep for now. Don't tell him I'm awake, I need to do this on my own." And with that, the gem vanished back into Issei's hand. Rias, however, looked like she might protest.
"Don't even think about it. You have no place in dragon business. He will know come tomorrow morning anyway. Also, he just became a devil. If you tell him right now that he has a dragon sealed in his hand, the kid will undoubtedly freak out. Let Ddraig do the explaining, since he knows best."
"I don't like it." She said, crossing her arms.
"Meh, you don't have to. Just wait a day. And hush now, he is waking up."
"Uuuuhg~ What was that?" Issei groaned with squinted eyes while rubbing his temple.
"That, Issei, was your weak body reacting to a bit of pressure. Sorry about that, I didn't think it'd knock you out."
"… a bit of pressure? That was a bit? It felt like my heart would explode, sensei." He looked absolutely befuddled.
"Thanks for the compliment. Anyway, now that your little servant is awake, let's discuss the details of my help." I shot Issei a cheeky grin, which he very awkwardly returned, and then I turned my attention back to Rias.
"First of all, I am not your servant, so do not treat me like one. Given time, I could become your friend, however. Second, exactly how much time do you have left?" That was the crux of the issue. Sure, I could train her, like Red trained me, and it would make her a lot stronger, but that takes time, a time she might not have. Or I could cheat and give her my blessing. That was an instant jump in power, with the downside being that said new power would never be fully theirs, and that they would be tied to me permanently, since my blessing attached directly to the blessed's life.
"What do you mean by time? What is going to happen, President?" Issei asked confusedly from the side.
"It's some political bullshit, Issei, don't worry about it for now." I waved him off.
"So? How long?"
"A couple of months. Maybe three if I'm lucky." She said sadly.
"Hmm~ And how strong do you need to get?"
"That– That is actually very hard to say. We are both High Class Devils, but his power counters mine quite heavily. So I would need to be strong enough to overpower it. The rest of his peerage is on about the same level as mine, with only his queen being at High Class."
"I can show you his rating game recordings if you'd like?" She said almost as an afterthought.
"That would help. You have them here?"
"They are at my house. How about you come over tonight, and we can watch them together?" She asked hopefully, and it was not like I was going to refuse. There were stakes now, namely any future carpet munching I might do.
"Sure. Pick me up at seven?"
"Okay! I'll come myself. Thank you, sensei." Rias had a bright smile on her face.
"Well, you go and tempt mortals, or whatever it is that you devils do. I'm gonna head home and relax." I waved at pouting Rias, who grumbled something about how they don't do that nowadays, and went on my way. I stopped by the convenience store on my way. I craved some chips, and I've already eaten all I bought last time.
And just as I got to the edge of my neighborhood, my senses picked up a presence right inside my home. It was a devil, and one I recognized from yesterday. Yep, Serafall Leviathan was waiting for me. I should probably put some protections around my house, huh?
Also, what's up with today? First Rias, and now this? What's next? … I–uh, I should probably not even think about it, or I'll somehow will it into existence.
*sigh* Alright, let's get this over with.
"He~llo~! I'm Levia-tan~☆." A magical girl greeted me from my kitchen as soon as I opened my front door.
"Uh— Hello, Levia-tan. What can I do for you?" I mean, what else was I supposed to say?
"Mou~~ What's with the lack of reaction?" She actually pouted, and hard.
"Do you want me to go back outside? I can act shocked this time."
"Nooo… It won't be authentic. You ruined it."
"Right… So why is Satan here, in my kitchen?" I asked just for the sake of the conversation. I pretty much already knew the answer to that. She was going to threaten me.
"So-tan told me about you. About how there is this big, bad dragon of unknown origins at school. So I just came to see you for myself." She said, and started to unleash some of her power, and you know what I realized? That unleashing power is just the supernatural way of flashing a gun. And Serafall Leviathan just flashed me a BB gun.
"*yawn* Cute, now stop that." I clamped down on her with my own power, suppressing her's completely, and to give credit where credit is due, other than her eyes widening a bit, she showed no other signs of my power affecting her.
"Now then, are we going to talk like civilised people, or do you want to continue this pointless pissing contest?" I asked her and sat down at my small kitchen table.
Serafall just shrugged her shoulders, went around the table, sat across from me, and propped her chin on the back of her hand. I, meanwhile, grabbed the pack and the lighter from the counter next to me.
"You smoke?" I asked.
"No, but feel free." Of course, I'll feel free, this is my goddamn house.
"You wanted to talk, so let's talk."
—
It was a quarter to seven, and Rias was pacing in front of Akabane-sensei's house. Thoughts like, "Did she forget about me?" were running through her head. The reason for them? The loud music, the elated shouting, and the occasional noise of something hitting the floor.
It must have been quite lively inside, to say the least. But she did promise her, and so Rias bit the bullet and rang the bell.
The music stopped, and sounds like when you move furniture around started.
"ONE MOMENT!!!" A yell came from the inside.
"What in the hell is happening there?" Rias muttered.
"Wait, Taku-chan. That's mine." W–Was that Serafall?! It was, wasn't it?
"Shit, sorry." The talking was getting closer to the door, and Rias wasn't sure what she would see when they opened it.
"Sorry for the wait. I had to clear out a few tables." Her sensei said when she opened the door.
Right, the sensei, the terrifying and powerful dragon, who stood in the doorway, a lit cigarette still dangling from her lips, dressed in a golden magical girl outfit.
When Rias dumbly stared, Akabane had the audacity to tilt her head questioningly. And that wasn't all! No, because Serafall Leviathan was behind her, stuffing more magical girls' outfits into a suitcase.
"Ria-tan~! You missed all the fun!" Serafall said with a small pout.
"Don't just stand there, come inside." Akabane said and pulled her in. To say the inside of her house was a mess would be an understatement. Furniture was haphazardly stacked against the walls, the ground was littered with confetti of all shapes and colors, and a few crushed beer cans were piled up in a corner.
"W–What happened here?" Rias stuttered out.
"Hmm? We just had some lighthearted fun, right, Sera?" Akabane looked at Serafall with a conspiratorial grin and winked, to which she giggled and winked back.
"Yep~ Shame So-tan refused to come, again… But Levia-tan will get her next time!" She shouted out and raised her fists high up.
"I'm sure you will." Akabane said with a small chuckle and a shake of her head.
"Mhm~ Except for the bumpy start, this was a fun afternoon, Taku-chan. We have to do this again soon. But I have to go now, or the paperwork will pile up… again. Bye~Bye ♪." The way she said the word paperwork was reminiscent of how one might say an especially foul curse word, and so, with a long and suffering sigh, Serafall Leviathan teleported back into the Underworld.
"Man… What a woman. *sigh* Never mind. Wait for a sec, kay? I gotta change out of this." And without waiting for a response, Akabane went upstairs, not caring that she was dragging the confetti everywhere she stepped.
Rias simply stood there, in shock, not able to respond.
"Just what did those two do in here?" She whispered to herself.
"SERA SHOWED ME HER TV SHOW AND WANTED ME TO TRY ON SOME OF THE OUTFITS! IT SOMEHOW SPIRALED FROM THERE!" Akabane yelled from upstairs, startling Rias.
Two minutes later, Akabane came back down wearing a loose yellow T-shirt and some green sweatpants, looking like a reverse pineapple.
"Lead the way. Unlike you, I have no idea where you live." Rias at least had the decency to look a bit sheepish.
—
I think that I made my first friend today. I'm not counting Red, since he ascended to the brother position.
Sera was fun and surprisingly a great hang, though she was a bit obsessed with her little sister.
But who does not have a quirk of two? Certainly not me, that's for sure.
Also, her TV show was pretty fun, and I know I would have loved it when I was little. I did make the mistake of saying that out loud, and she gave me every single DVD of her show. There was a lot.
Rias led me through the streets in silence, which she made awkward by stealing glances at me when she thought I wasn't looking. Turns out, she doesn't live that far from me, and after a short ten-minute walk, we were standing in front of a giant mansion. Yep, a mansion. Slotted in between these tiny Japanese homes, it stood out like a sore thumb.
"Akeno and Koneko live with me, so they will watch it with us, if you don't mind." Rias told me as she led me inside.
"I don't. What about the boys?"
"Kiba has already seen these, so I felt it was pointless to drag him here, and showing it to Issei when he knows nothing about being a devil is meaningless." She shrugged.
"And the third one?" Of course, I knew about him. Well, more like I knew he existed. Kinda hard to miss, that amount of demonic power, even if it's heavily suppressed by seals.
"How did you know?" She asked me with wide eyes.
"I have very sharp senses, Rias. I felt him when I was visiting you at the ORC." I said, tapping my head.
"*sigh* Unfortunately, Gasper won't be participating. He has agoraphobia, and thanks to that, a very hard time controlling his Sacred Gear." Shame, that little devil was just shy of Rias in terms of raw power.
"Damn… That's tough. Poor kid."
"Yeah, Gaspi had it rough." There was a story there, for sure, and a fucked up one, but any further talking was cut short when Rias led me into a small personal cinema with Akeno and Koneko already inside.
"Hello, sensei." Koneko greeted me first, even though her back was turned away from the door at first. Hmm~ I wonder if she smelled me?
"Right on time, Rias, Akabane sensei. The tea is done brewing." Akeno said, her voice lacking the otherwise ever-present teasing tone.
"Hello girls. You know, Rias, when I found out my house got a second bathroom, I was quite happy. Now it feels like I live in a cardboard box. A personal cinema? What's next? An onsen in the backyard?" I asked teasingly, only for my expression to fall when Rias looked at me sheepishly.
"My mom might have gone a bit overboard… But your house is nice too, Sensei! It feels uh– cozy?" She sounded really unsure there at the end. That's an upper-middle-class home I got, you know?! Just how rich is her family?
"If this is a bit, then I don't want to see your house in the Underworld."
"Which one?" She asked cluelessly.
"*sigh* Just start showing me the fights, okay?"