My quick visit to Sirzechs bore fruit, and not only was Asia going to attend Kuoh, for which she was grateful, but we also got the go-ahead to accompany the devils on their trip to the familiar forest.
Sona is tagging along as well, since originally, she and Rias were supposed to decide among themselves who went first, but with me thrown into the mix, Sirzechs just decided to say fuck it and let us all go at once.
Don't worry, I asked, and yes, Tiamat does indeed still live there, so that was great.
Other than a very short talk about Rias and her new training, we have not talked about much more.
I felt bad for him because from seeing those stacks of paper strewn around his desk, I knew he had a long night ahead of him, and he looked pretty stressed about something, so I left him to do his work in peace.
Then on Sunday, like I promised, I took Asia clothes shopping, and boy was that an experience and a half. You see, Asia was as stubborn as a mule, and I practically had to force the girl to choose more than one article of clothing, and not even showing her the amount of money in my bank account helped much.
She ended up choosing cute red overalls, plain white sneakers, and a bunch of white T-shirts, because those were cheap. But I would not be deterred so easily. I committed her sizes to memory, and I'm going to slowly but surely fill her entire wardrobe with cute and pretty clothes when she's not looking.
Then she accompanied me to the training, and that was just a repeat of the day prior. Though they did last a bit longer, and their attacks were the tiniest bit more punchier than before. All thanks to the superior method called fuck reality, let's cheat it. Not that they realized that, or would realize that for the time being.
When I spoke with Rias after the training, I mentioned that Asia would be coming to school soon, and she asked me if Asia even spoke Japanese. That question threw me for a loop.
You see, Asia does not, in fact, speak Japanese. I kinda forgot about that, mostly thanks to my ability to understand her completely.
Thankfully, fixing that only requires me to be a bit more liberal and creative with my blessing, and to bless an object instead of a person.
But doing it that way would require Asia to get a tiny tattoo, since for it to work, the object needs to be constantly in direct contact with the body.
Or I could make it into a ring, I guess… but magical rings are so boring and old school.
Sadly but unsurprisingly, Asia did not want to get a tattoo, not even when I told her I'd make it a tiny and cute dragon. She did not want a ring either because she might lose it or forget to put it on, as she was not used to wearing them. No, Asia asked for an earring.
Ah! Don't I have just the thing for that?
"What do you think about this for an earring?" I presented her with a shrunk-down dragon's tooth. One of mine, actually. It was kinda special, because that was the last tooth Red managed to punch out of my mouth during training. It made for a great memory, so I kept it.
"A–A fang? Um…" She fidgeted nervously under my excited stare.
"Fang?! Asia, that's obviously a dragon's tooth. You— You don't like it?"
"N-No? I mean… It's–uh— It's a nice tooth? But it's a bit too much. You know what? Just make me a normal ring, okay? I just have to remember to wear it." I was devastated and my heart shattered into quadrillion, no, make that quintillion pieces... She didn't want my tooth.
"*siiiiiiiiigh~* Fine. Here you go." I made the ring instantly appear in the palm of my hand, then came the very difficult process of imbuing it with my blessing. And when I say difficult, I mean that I stared at it reeeally hard, thought about it possessing the ability to understand all languages, and boom, done.
Asia put it on and was looking at it carefully.
"Are those tiny dragons carved on the ring?"
"Yep." What? Now that Asia is associated with me, she must represent Team Dragon!
"But how do I know it works?"
"You crazy son of a bitch!" I said one of the only things I knew how to say in a foreign language.
And yep, she understood perfectly and clearly.
"See? That was in Korean, and you understood." I grinned at her outraged expression.
"Y—Yes… I did." Her expression said that she wished she hadn't.
"Great! Now that that is done, I think it's time we go to bed, it's almost midnight, and I have to be at school in a few hours."
"Um~ What should I do in the mornings then?" Asia hesitantly asked.
"Well, it's not like you'll be here alone for long, maybe a day or two, depending on when you decide to start attending… Hey, how about I call Red over so you two can hang out? He's really nice, I promise. Just— Just don't mention planes around him, okay?"
—
It was the next morning, and Asia, alongside Red, watched as Takumi left the house. The second the door slammed shut, Red turned to Asia with a giant conspiratorial grin.
"So, little Asia, how about we bolt it out of here, and do something actually fun, huh?"
"W-What do you mean, mister Red?" She shyly asked the giant man.
"Bah! None of that! Call me Red. And what do I mean? Hmm~ Tell me, Asia, have you ever heard of drifting?" Since she was still a human, Red opted for something safe.
"I haven't. What is it?"
"It's a fun way to drive those human cars. You'll see. So? Wanna go?" And even though he was asking, he was already standing up.
Asia thought about it quickly, and since cars were obviously not planes, this activity must be okay.
But the plane thing was stuck in her mind mostly because it was kind of very specific, and she couldn't help herself.
"Okay, let's go. But mis— ehm. Red, Takumi said something about planes?" And as soon as the word plane left her mouth, she knew instantly that she had made a giant mistake.
You see, Red, even though a giant, turned to her with such speed that Asia thought he must have slipped at least four discs in his back.
"PLANES?! Those **** **** ***** things?! Those abominable imitations, alright Asia! Come. Drifting can wait until I tell you all about those fucking planes. It all started when that fucker Da Vinci saw a dragon..."
And so, for the next thirty minutes or so, poor Asia was at the receiving end of a rant that rivaled in intensity the ones she heard from the most zealous exorcists in the Vatican. Funnily enough, all of that ranting boiled down to one simple fact: Red was angry that humans were capable of imitating his stunts.
After Asia realized, she could not help herself and started giggling at the absurdity of it all, much to Red's surprise and dismay.
"It's not funny, Asia. I don't understand how both you and Takumi can laugh at such a serious transgression against Dragon-kind. Humans had a good thing going with those Zeppelins, but nooo… one tiny explosion and they got scared of using them. As if their planes don't do that every year." He grumbled.
"Um… No? I think that they are still being used today, but only for recreational flying." She said, recalling the time she saw a flyer for it in Rome.
"Really? Hmm… I must not have been paying much attention, it seems. Okay, here's the plan. I'm going to tell you the location of around three tons of buried gold, and you are going to invest heavily into zeppelins, okay? Asia, you are my only hope, because I can already see Takumi laughing in my face." He said, grabbing her tiny hands and looking at her like she was his only path to salvation.
"Eh?! W–Why don't you do it?"
"Alas, I cannot. Doing so would require me to be away from the Gap for far too long, and more importantly… ugh, I shiver even thinking about it. It would require me to engage with bureaucracy. You know, Asia, to this day I marvel at the fact that it was not in fact the devils who invented it, but you, humans. Every fifth human dreams about dreadful paperwork! It's awful, I tell you, awful." He shuddered.
"I-I don't want to deal with that either…"
"*sigh* Then back to hating it is."
During their talk, Asia was so engaged that she had not even noticed they were now standing at the top of a long mountain road that snaked its way down into a nice forested valley. What she did notice, however, was Red summoning some kind of black and white old car.
"Well, that was a pleasant chat, but we are here for drifting, are we not?"
"Umm… you still have not told me what that even is." Asia said while her eyes followed the road's curves.
"This is one of those things that is better experienced personally. My words would hardly do it justice. Come, hop on."
"I–Is it going to be safe?"
"Oh, definitely. Just please buckle your seat belt, or Takumi will murder me."
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A bit of a shorter one today, but this felt like the right stopping point.