Chapter 5
Naruto
A few days had passed since school had started and I'd spoken to the Toujou girl on the roof. After the whole mess of a morning on that first day, I had decided to play it safe and get in the habit of setting my actual alarm clock to go off five minutes after my phone alarm whenever I needed to use it, which was most days now that school had started up.
I would never again– barring any ridiculous and unexpected circumstances– be forced to miss my lunch because of a late wake up. Whether I bought a bento, made one, or went to the cafeteria for grub, I would eat!
That being the case, I had used up what was left in my fridge this morning to throw together a basic meal for lunch today, most of it being leftovers. Some steamed rice from last night's dinner, a variety of dumplings from a Chinese takeout place I had two nights ago, and the last of my pre-prepared chicken.
Not exactly a balanced meal, but whatever.
It was Friday during the break period, and I was currently eating said lunch outside, sitting on the grass under a tree near the gymnasium building, with an open view of the soccer and baseball fields. At least, the baseball field that is. The 'soccer field' was really just a totally unmarked stretch of packed dirt, and the school's team and soccer club just brought out those big portable nets whenever they wanted to practice and play.
As I ate, I spent my time relaxing in the shade and feeling the breeze while just watching the various groups of students using the fields. There seemed to be two distinct groups at the moment, with the rest being like me, individuals and small cliques who decided to get some fresh air for their lunch period.
The smaller of the two was mostly made up of a bunch of upper years in Kuoh sports jerseys playing what looked like a big game of team keep-away with a soccer ball. The biggest gathering of students was a lower year phys-ed class using the baseball field to play kickball. I couldn't help but snort when a particular image formed in my imagination.
'That Toujou girl wouldn't look out of place with them, even with that class being noticeably a couple grades below us,' I smothered my smirk as I brought my chopsticks to my mouth.
Despite that one time on the roof being the only time we'd spoken, I couldn't deny that she'd left more of an impression on me than any of our other classmates. I was normally a lot more active about getting to know people, but I'd barely spoken to my classmates beyond casual conversation and answering a few basic questions about myself. I was having a lot of trouble finding interest in a lot of what my peers liked to talk about.
I just struggled to actively relate to them on a personal level after my experiences. Hopefully that would change as we all got more familiar with each other and I got more immersed in the culture of being a student, but for now that still left me high and dry.
It hadn't really fully sunk in until now, but the people around me really did grow up in an entirely different world. Things were peaceful here in a way the Elemental Nations haven't ever been. They could afford to take it easy and mess around a whole lot more, not really thinking about their future until late into their teen years.
That peace like this was possible made me happy, but it also made me feel a little out of place. Although to be fair, I was still in the process of adjusting to a completely new routine. The thing that really made me feel weird were the slight changes to my body after I finished healing.
I used to be taller. Not a lot, but enough to be noticeable to me in the way my body moved. Before I was awake for them to ask about my medical history, the hospital used their gadgets and my blood to determine my approximate age. According to the doctors, they put me down as around fifteen years old when I was brought to them.
I was just about to turn seventeen when we fought Kaguya.
At the time I was just utterly confused and had to roll with it in an unfamiliar world, but having spent months studying my ass off with a focus on the human body, I now have a couple of possible ideas on how or why I became medically younger… and shorter. Unfortunately, without my chakra I have less than a zero percent chance at confirming or denying any of them.
So, back to the awkward part. Fast forward a bunch of months, and now I'm a fresh-faced 'not-quite sixteen years old' kid, in a class with a bunch of fifteen-year-olds. When I'm actually almost eighteen. But 'oh-by-the-way', I've also guessed based on changes in my own behavior, that apparently my brain-and-biochemistry has also been set back. It's a lot more noticeable, going from a focused and (mostly) mature young adult to a scatterbrained goofball over the span of a day or two, compared to going through the final stages of puberty over the course of months-to-years. I had to struggle for months to give my attention to catching up to this world's education standard.
I'm not actually annoyed by that part– being a mature and responsible adult is for boring people and Shikamaru– but it's been super awkward for me hormone-wise. I'd been happily done with puberty before, but now I'm having to deal with struggling to keep my eyes up again when a hot girl walks by or talks to me. The fact that I'm now pretty close to having lived for eighteen years, and sometimes find my eyes unintentionally drifting towards girls practically still going through puberty, makes me feel skeevy as hell.
And then my brain jumps to some 'other' distraction because one of the hot teachers bends over to look at a classmate's paper… or something like that.
"–sure your source was telling the truth?"
My musing was interrupted by the sound of a guy's voice and a group of footsteps. The footsteps– three pairs, I noted– were steadily coming closer.
"I swear on your very glasses, he's legit!" a second voice exclaimed.
I glanced over my right shoulder with one eye to see what the hell the commotion was. What my sight was met with was a trio of boys, walking in my general direction on the pathway behind my tree, heading towards the back end of the gymnasium.
One of the guys– probably the one who spoke first– had short black hair parted in the center, a large pair of thin rimmed glasses, and wore his uniform to school code. Outer jacket closed up with the tie and everything.
A second guy had his head turned towards the first one. He had a shaved head with big ears, a goofy looking squinted grin on his face, and wore his school jacket open and without the tie.
"Don't swear on my glasses you idiot!" Glasses rounded on Baldy with a vein popping out on his temple, getting in the grinning boy's face. "The point is to swear on something of yours to present confidence in your assertion!"
"Exactly! You wouldn't have your scouter if you lost your glasses, so I'm putting my access to your scouter on the line!" Baldy responded with a laugh.
Right as Glasses opened his mouth to retort, a pair of hands appeared between the two, one clapping onto Glasses' shoulder and the other palming Baldy's face, before pushing them away from each other.
"My brothers," the third member of the group solemnly declared as he stepped between them, halting their walking. "We must focus on reaching the Holy Land before time runs out."
The third and final member of the group had average looking brown hair and eyes and wore both his overshirt and jacket undone, revealing a red undershirt.
"Matsuda!" He turned towards Baldy. "Motohama is right. Although we have the privilege of access to his skill, it is his 'special' (weak) body that loses power when they are removed." He then rounded on Glasses, gesturing derisively towards Baldy. "Motohama! Don't let this guy (idiot) fool you! His source was an upperclassman from his old team who has no idea what a degenerate lolicon he is! I swear on my future harem that it is trustworthy!"
For a moment it wasn't just me staring at the guy, as both of his friends just looked at him–
""Screw you, Hyoudou.""
–Before shutting him down.
"Let's hurry and get there before the period ends, Matsuda."
"Right on. I'll lead the way, Motohama."
They both nodded at each other and continued on their way down the path, fully passing behind me, and leaving their friend standing there like an idiot for a minute as they left him behind.
He broke out of his stupor and stumbled into a run after them, my head turning to my left to catch sight of him after he passed my tree.
"H-hey! w-wait up for me, guys!" His voice trailed off in the distance as he caught up to them, rounding the corner around the gymnasium.
I sat there for a moment just staring after them.
What the hell was that about?
"They're a bunch of pervert weirdos, probably off doing something creepy." An airy, almost husky voice spoke up from off to the side.
"Huh?" I turned back to my right, this time to see that Mitsu-something girl from class walking towards me.
She was coming from the direction of the group of upperclassmen playing soccer. Unlike in class where she wore her uniform to regulation– or as close to regulation as possible for a girl wearing the boy's uniform– her blazer hung around her hips with the sleeves tied together like some sort of half-skirt, and her dress shirt had the top couple few buttons undone, showing off a generous amount of cleavage and the fact that she wasn't wearing an undershirt.
Her ribbon tie, instead of being around her neck, was being used as a makeshift hair tie to hold her medium length straight red hair up in a high ponytail, a pair of bangs left out to frame her face. One of her hands was rubbing the back of her neck while the other rested in her slacks pocket, her hazel eyes glancing in the direction the boys left with the same bored expression I'd seen on her face in class.
She glanced back towards me as she stopped a few feet away, hand falling from her neck to slip in her other pocket.
"I was heading over to get a drink-" she nodded her head vaguely past me in the direction of the gymnasium, "-from the vending machine, and overheard your muttering. That, and I saw the Idiot Triplets themselves run off."
Oops, I guess I had spoken that out loud.
"Ah. Makes sense." I put the lid on my bento and set it down, before bracing my hands on the grass and pushing myself up to a stand. It would have been awkward talking while being the only one seated, and I could honestly go for a drink too. Annoyingly, she was noticeably taller than me still. If I were to make a bet, I'd say she's probably in the top five percent of height for girls her age.
"You said there's a vending machine over there?" I gestured vaguely at the gymnasium.
"Mm." She nodded once, her ponytail bobbing with the motion. The only piece missing from her almost-delinquent looks and bored mannerism was some gum to blow a bubble with. "It's on the other side of the building."
I scratched my cheek with a finger "Huh. I thought it would be inside or something. Well then," I half turned and gestured for her to show the way, "after you?"
She took the lead and explained as we started walking and talking. "I heard from one of the gals over there that it used to be on this side for players to have easy access to, years ago." She had pointed a thumb over her shoulder towards the field. "Then it broke. Some idiot kicked a ball too hard in its direction and broke the glass."
She shrugged.
"Then they moved it inside, it broke again in a dodgeball incident, and now it's over on the other side, closer to the Kendo club's training building."
"Kendo club?" I felt a grin starting to grow. "That's the sword fighting thing, right?"
She looked at me strangely out of the corner of her eye. "Uh, yeah. That's close enough to accurate, I guess."
"Cool, cool…" I tucked that away in my mind for later. Tilting my head, I asked her about the other thing that got my attention. "So, 'Idiot Triplets'?"
She snorted.
"Yeah. The dumbasses are a year ahead of us and enrolled here first, but they went to the same school as me. They've always been friends, and idiots as far as I could tell, but up until like two years ago, only Hyoudou was a perverted weirdo." She shrugged. "Seems it's spread, 'cause apparently people started calling them the 'Perverted Trio'."
I chuckled awkwardly, looking at the tomboy as we reached the end of the building and turned the corner. "That sure is… something. It's not like they're peeking on the girls changing rooms or anything though, right? They can't be that bad if they haven't gotten kicked out of school yet."
This world seemed to take sexual harassment way more seriously than my old one. Peeping wouldn't just get you a beating if you were unlucky and got caught, you could also face some serious legal penalties.
"They are." The recognizable monotone voice that answered me wasn't the girl I'd been walking with.
I looked away from Mizu-whatever to see Koneko standing blank-faced with a can of something in hand. Next to her was a black vending machine with a clear glass front panel, and next to that was a large metal trash bin, the type that had an inner bin that could be removed from the metal casing bolted into the ground.
I grinned.
"Heya, Toujou-chan! Been a while since I've seen you outside of class!" I called out. My grin shifted into a smirk. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you must be a ninja with how quickly you disappear." I greeted her with the little inside-joke as we walked the last couple meters.
She ignored me and turned her head slightly to look at the girl I'd been walking with.
"Mitsuri-san." Koneko said expressionlessly.
Ah, that's right! Mitsuri was her name.
"Toujou." Mitsuri said boredly.
Wait.
I squawked in mostly-fake outrage. "Hey, no fair! Why'd you greet her and not me!?"
They continued staring at each other for a couple seconds after my yelling, then nodded at each other on some unspoken signal.
Koneko looked up at me and said-
"You're too loud."
-before bringing her can up with two hands and drinking from it placidly while maintaining eye contact.
I deflated and grabbed my chest in pain. I opened my mouth to retort–
–But Mitsuri walked in between the two of us to reach for the vending machine's button panel, completely interrupting me.
"I take it you two know each other?" She asked blandly while watching the machine get to work fetching her drink.
"Nah, not really," I said, completely recovered from the social damage. "We met on the first day of school and only spoke once on the roof. She went up there to eat her lunch in peace and I went up to get some fresh air and take in the view." I shrugged, though only Koneko saw it, since Mitsuri had bent down to grab her drink. "That was just more memorable to me than a lot of my other interactions with our classmates, so it left an impression I guess. Haven't spoken to her outside of the classroom since, though not for a lack of trying. She keeps disappearing before I can catch her."
I cast a faux-agitated look at Koneko with that last part.
She just continued calmly sipping her drink through the str– where the hell did the straw come from!?
Mitsuri stood and turned to us with a bottle of some sort of cola in hand, getting me to glance at her for a split second. When I looked back at the white haired girl, she was sipping from her can normally, straw nowhere to be found.
What the-? So that's how it is. The little devil was just fucking with me.
Mitsuri twisted the cap off her bottle and took a swig of her soda while I fed the machine a pair of hundred-yen coins.
"So what you're saying," she began as I reached towards the panel, "is that you're a creepy stalker. Got it." She took a big step away from me and closer to Koneko
I violently twitched at that and my fingers pressed the wrong button before I whipped around, crossing my arms in an 'x' in front of me and sputtering.
"Wha- That's not- No! Wrong! That's not at all what I'm saying!" I glanced around to see if anyone could have heard her, before noticing the machine grab a can with a picture of a cartoon cow head on it. "Dammit, you made me get the wrong drink… the hell even is that, beef soup broth in a can?"
My shoulders slumped and I sighed as I bent down to grab it when it clattered down to the retrieval area.
I stood up and sent Koneko my best pleading look.
"You'll vouch for me, right Koneko-chan?"
She took a step to the side, half hiding behind Mitsuri, and said one word with what amounted to significant revulsion in her voice.
"Creepy."
I felt a vein bulge on my forehead.
"Why you little…!"
Mitsuri stepped further in front of her, frowning and looking down at me with disgust in her eyes.
I huffed and crossed my arms, mock glaring at Koneko. "... You're enjoying this, aren't you? Quit messing with me, Shorty."
That got a glare back from her, peeking out from behind the taller girl. "You're almost as short as me, idiot."
I growled.
"Heh." Koneko stepped out from behind Mitsuri, who was now looking down at her with a deadpan expression, likely realizing there was nothing innocent about the smaller girl. Koneko looked up at her and shook her head. "He's an idiot, but he's alright."
"Hey!"
She ignored my shout of indignation, but turned to me anyway.
"Sorry for avoiding you. Was busy with my club duties, forgot to ask for your number."
I blinked at the sudden apology. I didn't think it was necessary. Sometimes people were just busy, and to be frank, we didn't actually even know each other. We'd spoken all of a single time, and while it was kinda fun, I figured the big draw for either of us to speak again was learning more about each other's "worlds". Figuratively, in my case, and literally in hers. Not that she'd be aware of that fact.
Also… "... my number?"
"... you know, your phone number?" Mitsuri was looking at me like I was an idiot.
"Oh, right!" I smacked my forehead lightly with my palm. "I keep forgetting about that, since I just got my first phone less than a week ago." I let my hand drop, before cracking open my can and taking a sip of the warm liquid. My nose scrunched in disgruntled appreciation. It was no ramen, but it was alright.
"..." They stared at me.
"..." I stared back, taking another sip.
"... Well? You gonna give her your number, or what?"
I felt my face heat up slightly and rubbed the back of my head.
"I uhh, I kinda, sorta, maybe, might have forgotten what my phone number is, eheheh…" I laughed awkwardly and averted my eyes from their judging gazes.
I heard a sigh, followed by the soft pattering of footsteps on the concrete pathway for a moment before they stopped.
"Your phone, give it."
I looked down to see Koneko standing right in front of me with her hand held out expectantly.
I wordlessly reached into my pocket and pulled it out, placing it in her outstretched palm.
It was about a minute of painfully awkward relative silence while the short girl tapped away at the screen before she held it out for me to take.
I took it back gratefully, and then dispelled the atmosphere in the most graceful way possible–
"So you said the Pervert Trio are actually bad enough to try peeping on their classmates?" I asked, sipping on the slightly spiced broth.
–By blatantly and unashamedly pretending that the last few minutes had never happened.
Mitsuri just continued to stare at me with a deadpan expression, but Koneko rolled with the subject change completely unruffled.
"Nn. Not 'try'." She lifted a hand to point at another building, probably the Kendo training dojo if I had to guess. "Saw the pervs go in the locker room door." She said with a slight narrowing of her brow.
Mitsuri turned her head to follow the gesture and tsked in annoyance. "I don't know how the jackasses haven't gotten expelled yet if they've escalated to locker room voyeurism. Used to be they just traded porn mags and games in the halls."
I rubbed one of my whiskers with a finger. "Ehhh, I mean it sucks for the girls, but it's not like it's the end of the world." I shrugged. "They should get punished, sure, but ruining their future seems a bit much for being idiots hit too hard with puberty."
Her gaze chilled slightly as she regarded me. "You don't think it's a big issue? Peeping is a crime, you know."
"So is beating the crap out of people, even when you think they deserve an ass-kicking, but that usually just gets a detention or two from what I've heard." I said with a chuckle, then shrugged again. "Besides, I've seen worse from grown ups that I'd consider otherwise good people, and they didn't even have the excuse of teenage hormones."
She grunted in grudging acceptance. Or, at least, that's how I interpreted it. Regardless, she went back to her 'vaguely annoyed at nothing in particular' expression rather than being annoyed at me, so I'd take that as a win.
I brought up my left hand, palm facing upward, and continued. "For one, my godfather used to peep on bathhouses to get inspiration for his porn writing, but he was one of the most reliable people I've known. He taught me most of what I know about living life in a way I can be proud of." I lowered it, and raised my right hand, can in its grasp. "On the other hand, even if I used both hands and both feet to count, it wouldn't be enough for the amount of times I've seen him get his ass beat by the women he's perved on. Where I'm from, peepers tend to get what's coming to them without authorities getting involved, and he's deserved every one of them."
I shrugged a final time. "But maybe that's just me being desensitized to that sort of thing."
I chugged the rest of the broth, giving an explosive sigh when I finished, and then flicked my wrist, tossing it casually over my shoulder. It clanged a few times on the rim of the trash can behind me before falling into the bin with some muffled thumping.
Koneko was still sipping her drink with her regular expression, but Mitsuri looked reluctantly impressed.
"... That was almost cool, until I remembered you said your Godfather sexually harassing women is normal."
I almost tripped, even though I wasn't even walking or anything.
Jeeze, when it's said out loud like that, it makes it super embarrassing to be associated with the man. Rest in peace, you old perv. Even in a new world, the tales of your 'exploits' are keeping your memory alive in the minds of women.
I brought my fist up to my mouth and coughed, trying to draw attention away from my reaction.
"Hey, look! A distraction!" I suddenly pointed towards the Kendo building.
It worked somehow, both of them turning to look.
As if I was predicting the future, a moment after they looked was the moment that the three boys from earlier came bursting out from the side entrance, seemingly running for their lives. Following a couple seconds behind was a group of girls in traditional looking practice gear, waving shinai around and chasing the boys down.
Huh. I didn't actually expect Koneko to look, and thought she was just humoring me when she did. I had guessed being a Devil might come with enhanced senses, but I would have figured it'd just be minor boosts to help process more info, not full on super hearing if she actually heard the commotion from here before it left the building.
The three of us continued to stand there watching the boys run, when one of them– the brown haired boy, Issei if I remember right– tripped and fell. The two others stopped for a moment and made to go back for him.
"My brothers, keep running! Save yourselves!" The downed boy yelled to them, like it was some sort of deadly escape scene in a movie.
"Right on!"
"Okay, see yah!"
They immediately continued sprinting away, leaving their friend as the Kendo girls were approaching.
"W-Wait you bastards! You're supposed to say 'Not without you!' and come back for-shit, not the face! Not the face!"
We stood watching the girls smack the shit out of the guy with their bamboo training swords for a couple minutes. It was pretty nostalgic for me, watching a pervert getting beat up by women, and not just a little bit funny.
Especially considering the timing was close enough to help make my point for me.
I turned to Mitsuri and gestured at the scene playing out some distance away, getting her to glance at me for a moment.
"See what I mean? Take away the context of him peeping, and all those girls would get assault charges, expelled, or suspension at the very least. They made the choice to take his punishment into their own hands." I then laughed loudly while pointing at the boy. "Besides, you can't tell me that's not funny as hell!"
Koneko at least agreed with me, going by the faint smile on her lips as she watched.
The beating had let up with the girls surrounding Issei in a half-circle, shinai held in varying positions of rest. The boy was prostrated in the dirt in a dogeza, degrading himself and begging the girls for forgiveness while they glared down at him.
Mitsuri shrugged. "If they want to beat him up just for him to do it again a week later, they can be my guest. All I'm saying is if I catch him peeping on me, I'm reporting him straight to the school board."
I tilted my head at that. "Fair enough. I won't argue against people handling their own issues as they see fit, as long as it's not self-destructively."
With that, the conversation drifted from topic to topic until it was time for us to head back to class.
Chapter 6
Naruto
We were walking through the first floor hallway on our way to the stairs when I laid eyes on a large poster advertising the Kendo club to new students. I had been walking slightly behind the other two, swiveling my head around and taking in the sights and colors on the walls as I wasn't used to 'modern' school life yet.
There were a bunch of other club posters on the walls alongside it as well, the clubs seemingly having just started up on the recruitment drive, but the Kendo one caught my eye in that it was basically just a full size artist's rendition of a traditionally robed samurai, with a little box underneath it giving instructions on how to join.
I stopped and took a moment to admire the art, mentally comparing it to what I remember of the samurai back home. Honestly, I only had experience with them in full armor, so it was mostly just me liking the art and thinking the style looked cool.
Koneko had turned her head to glance at me the moment I'd stopped walking and stopped walking herself, so that's another point to my theory of enhanced hearing. She must have noticed three sets of steps became two. Her stopping caused Mitsuri to look at her, and then to me and the poster.
Seeing it in the hallway reminded me of a thought I had when we were outside, but forgot to ask about due to the lack of an opportune moment to bring it up.
"You think any of them would be down to spar with me sometime?" I idly asked with my hands clasped behind my head. "It's been a while since I've fought a swordsman. I haven't used one myself, but I'm probably one of the best in hand-to-hand."
Mitsuri muttered something I couldn't catch under her breath that got her a glance from Koneko, before answering. "Dunno. Pretty sure Kendo clubs usually just focus on the sport. Y'know, reset stances after a strike lands, repeat until the score limit is reached, that stuff." She shrugged and gestured flippantly with her hand. "Not sure how well that translates to a spar."
"Katase-senpai and Murayama-senpai sometimes do full contact spars to advertise the club." Koneko chimed in with her monotone voice. "Yuuto-senpai also practices with swords in his free time. He'd probably say yes if you ask."
"'Yuuto'? As in, 'Yuuto Kiba'?" Mitsuri asked, seeming to recognize the name.
Koneko nodded.
"Isn't he that wimpy looking pretty-boy a bunch of the other girls are daydreaming about all the time?" She asked with a confused expression.
Koneko nodded again.
"You sure a lanky guy like that will be alright to take a hit in a fight? Call it a hunch-" The tomboy tossed a thumb pointed my way, "-but I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out the shorty here is secretly jacked under his uniform. Hell, I could probably fold that guy in half with one good whack."
Jeez, I hadn't even asked the guy for a spar yet and he was already getting pummeled.
I chimed in. "I mean, I'm not anime-shredded," I brought a finger and thumb up, tips held slightly apart, "I like to keep a certain level of fat on my body for extra padding and energy stores. Helps a lot with absorbing impacts and long-distance running." I tilted my head after a moment. "Ah, I do have a six-pack though."
Mitsuri deadpanned at me. "No one asked you for your BMI breakdown."
Some people just couldn't help but be rude.
I blew a raspberry back at her.
"Senpai is fast." Koneko said simply, ignoring our little byplay as we all resumed walking to class. "He'd be fine."
"If you say so…" Mitsuri didn't look totally convinced with that, probably still thinking that all it would take is a single hit to take down this Yuuto guy. After all, he's just a high schooler. Either one or both of us are bound to make mistakes and let some hits get through. It happens to everyone, even professionals sometimes.
That's probably what went through her mind, or something similar.
I read between the lines though, understanding what Koneko didn't say, and what Mitsuri didn't get as a non-combatant.
If Kiba was taller than me by a decent margin, then his reach– even without a sword– was greater than mine, and his legs would cover more distance. If Koneko, the half-devil, was vouching for his speed and saying he'd be fine, then even assuming she meant 'for a normal human' in her head, he would likely be much faster than expected for a human teenager at worst and skilled enough to not make those mistakes. At best, she could mean he's fast even by supernatural standards.
Whether either of those options meant reaction speed, acceleration speed, or top speed didn't really matter, because I'd still have to close effectively two-to-three times the amount of distance to manage a body shot compared to him, and he'd be operating at roughly the same-or-better speed than me.
She believed it wouldn't be that easy for me.
The fact that she saw my light warmup and still thinks that Kiba could ultimately avoid taking direct damage said a lot about the level of fighter he was, regardless of in what way that meant. Either he was ridiculously skilled with decent speed, or ridiculously fast with a decent baseline of skill.
In the end, it would likely take me going close-to if not all-out in order to beat him– assuming he accepts when I ask him to spar with me, of course.
I'm self aware enough to admit, the lack of stakes and adrenaline in my life the past few months has started getting under my skin. My entire life, I'd been physically working towards a goal, dealing with crisis situations, and improving myself to keep up with things as they were thrown at me. Getting my education up to snuff to enroll here was another example of that, but it just didn't feel the same.
It challenged me mentally, but it didn't excite me. Having a chance to let loose against someone who could take it was the best thing I could ask for. I didn't even need it to be a regular thing, just the potential of having easy access to someone who'd be willing to throw down for fun would satisfy me immensely.
I was grinning ear to ear when me and the girls walked into the classroom, causing two of the guys to glare at me for some reason. Some of the girls glanced at us and began whispering, too.
I ignored that all though.
"... Yuuto Kiba, eh?"
I couldn't wait to fight him.
…
Okay, seriously though, why did a bunch of the girls suddenly start whispering to each other?
… D-do I smell or something?
I resisted the urge to do a sniff check and pretended to ignore everything around me until the teacher arrived to begin class.
Koneko
(Old school building)
After the final class of the day ended and released the students for their club activities, I had quickly and quietly escaped the classroom, leaving before Uzumaki had even started packing away his school stuff. I unfortunately didn't have the time today to continue from where we left off in that first conversation on the roof. Prior obligations and all that. The results of my spying on Hyoudou all week needed to be reported.
For such a delinquent-seeming kid, Uzumaki was surprisingly diligent when it came to his schoolwork, taking notes on everything and only beginning to clean up when the teacher announced it was time to do so. Most students, myself included, tended to pack up their supplies a couple minutes before the end of classes so that they could get going right as the bell rang. I'd seen him zone out a few times, but he always snapped himself back to attention shortly after
I closed the door behind me as I entered the clubroom with a short sigh, glad that the week was finally over. The sound of the shower running in the bathroom through the slightly ajar door told me that Buchou was already here, her being the only person who used it.
I still wasn't entirely sure why this part of the building even had a shower in the first place, but it didn't really matter enough to me to try and figure out either way.
I stepped further into the warmly furnished room and made my way around the side of the large couch near the center, letting the strap of my school bag slide off of my shoulder and down my arm, before gently lowering it to the floor and taking a seat in my usual spot. I noticed a faint smell of cinnamon in the room as I pulled out my music player, and started putting together the playlist I'd listen to on my way home tonight.
Sure, I could just teleport home– and usually did after finishing up with my contracts– but there was something enjoyable every once in a while about listening to music when walking through town, under the light of the stars and street lamps.
My true ears twitched slightly from their confinement in the direction of the kitchen, where I heard the light clinking of porcelain being set down on porcelain. Akeno must have just finished making tea. Right on time as usual, too, because a couple seconds later, I heard the shower stop with a thump, the thrumming of the building's water pipes settling down.
I glanced up when I saw movement near the kitchen doorway in my peripheral vision.
Slightly on the shorter side with a thin waist and not-so-thin hips and chest, the raven-haired girl stepped into the main room with a tray of porcelain teacups and the teapot, her usual demure smile on her face. With her eyes relaxed and soft expression on her face, she looked every bit the shrine maiden she was raised as, minus the missing traditional outfit.
"Ara ara," Akeno tutted as she bent slightly to put the tray on the center table, "You certainly got here quickly today, Koneko-chan."
I hummed noncommittally in response, looking back down at my music player.
"Come to think of it, your little mission has been keeping you out of the clubroom for longer than usual this past week, hasn't it? I wonder what's different about today for you to be here so early…"
I looked up from my music again, eyeing her. Most people might be fooled by her genuine seeming curiosity, but I knew Akeno better than that. It was obvious to me she was just using that line of thought as a lead-in to something else for her own amusement, and she knew it.
She lifted the pot with both hands and smoothly tilted it, pouring tea into one of the cups with the grace of long years of practice. The flowery scent of Gyokuro green tea began to fill my nose.
"Maybe you finished with your task, and want to report the results to Rias and be done with it?" Akeno hummed as she finished pouring. "Or…"
I internally braced myself for some annoying nonsense to leave her mouth.
Setting the pot back on the tray, she carefully picked up the steaming cup and gently placed it saucer-first on the table in front of me.
"Could it be that the rumors are true?" She cupped her hand to her cheek and did a creepy little wiggle. "Has our little Koneko become involved in a love triangle, and is in a hurry to win the battle for his affections?"
I narrowed my eyes at her slightly, which she pointedly ignored by closing hers. The slight curling upwards of her smile told me that even that little of a reaction was enough to satisfy her, just knowing that it annoyed me at all, the sadistic cow.
"Quit teasing my cute little [Rook], Akeno," Rias said as she stepped out of the bathroom with her crimson hair still slightly damp. Akeno's smile became a slight frown as she turned her head towards our master with her eyes still closed. Rias was only the slightest bit dressed, wearing over-calf white socks, a pair of black panties, and almost a black lacy bra, her being bent slightly forward with her arms twisted behind her trying to hook the clasps together.
That was it. Being the exhibitionist that she is, she didn't care at all that she might have been exposing herself to upwards of four people, had Kiba and Sona-kaichou been in the room. The Gremory family is just weird like that.
I looked from hers, to Akeno's, then down to my own chest. I ignored the odd urge to bring my hands up to cup the empty air in front of me.
I wasn't pouting.
"It's only okay to tease her when I'm here to enjoy her adorable reactions!" The mostly naked redhead exclaimed over her shoulder cheerfully, as she headed over to the wardrobe on the wall next to her desk.
I deadpanned at my [King]'s back as she began putting on the uniform she pulled out of it.
"Hai, hai." Akeno's smile returned as she acknowledged Rias's own form of messing with me.
Damned cows, the both of them.
I definitely wasn't pouting.
Akeno's hand dipped behind the teapot out of my vision and came back up with a small plate of cinnamon-sugar cookies, before setting it down next to my tea. Now that it was in front of me, the buttery, cinnamon smell of the freshly baked cookies were no longer being masked by the scent of the tea. I swallowed down the saliva that suddenly built up in my mouth.
She definitely served them to me in that order deliberately.
…
I reached forward to pick up a cookie and nibbled on it.
"... Mn, thanks." I muttered without meeting her eyes.
Her smile widened, before she picked the tea tray back up and brought it to Rias' desk.
I took another bite of the warm peace offering and enjoyed the simple treat for what it was, watching as Akeno poured Rias her own cup of tea, timing it perfectly so that she finished right as a thankfully fully-clothed Rias sat down behind her desk.
After Akeno poured her own cup and took a seat for herself in one of the two leather chairs on either side of the table, the three of us sat in a comfortable silence and savored our snacks– or rather drinks in their cases– for a couple minutes.
"Well then," Rias began, the clink of her teacup being set down breaking the silence, "it looks Kiba is taking a bit longer than usual to get here, so we may as well get started with the topics that don't require his input. We can catch him up on what he missed as it comes up again, or failing that, I can pull him aside before he does his contracts, and give him a rundown then." She clapped her hands together theatrically. "So, why don't you begin with an overview of the supernatural activity in town, Akeno?"
The [Queen] discarded her usual smile for a more serious expression, nodding her head as she set down her own cup.
"As of yesterday, I've finished gathering and compiling the data on various sightings, Stray hunt missions sent to us, and even my own recent experience in dealing with too-rowdy spirits. I can confirm the suspicion I brought to you last week." Akeno said with a tone of distaste. "Stray activity as a whole seems to have been trending upward for the past couple of months. It seems to be a direct, if delayed, result of a relatively major decrease in Youkai presence within the city, a downward trend that has been going unnoticed for at least half a year now."
I cocked my head to the side, not really getting why the two would be connected if there was that much of a time discrepancy. Also, what do the Youkai have anything to do with stray devils?
Buchou glanced my way and, probably noticing my confusion, began to explain.
"As you know, the town of Kuoh does not actually belong to the Devils, and is just being leased to us as a matter of diplomatic trade." She said, gesturing vaguely towards the window as she did so. "What this means for Kuoh, is simply that maintaining the secrecy of the supernatural world and protecting the citizens is a task that has been traded to the devils in exchange for allowing us to enforce some of our own rules and policy."
Her hand dropped back down to rest on her desk, and the sound of her drumming her fingers on it reached me.
She continued. "Historically, this has meant that while technically owned by and protected by devils, the Youkai have had the same freedom to come and go as they please, as long as they followed the rules, one of those rules being the legal obligation to either report the signs any Stray devils and known criminal supernatural activity to the Devil management of the town, or to personally deal with such cases in exchange for a monetary reward in the form of bounty money."
Buchou waved her hand and sighed. "Essentially, the more supernatural beings living within the town of Kuoh, typically being youkai, the less feasible it has been for Strays to set up shop here compared to towns and cities without a Devil presence, because we have a system in place purpose-built for hunting them down."
I nodded to show I understood that, but voiced my second question.
"But why are more Strays only showing up months later?" I asked.
"Allow me." Akeno took the lead this time, taking one last sip of her tea before getting into it. "Many months ago, about half way through the previous school year, we had a sizable enough population of youkai, magicians, and others, that any Strays were frequently reported and/or dealt with by multiple parties." She pursed her lips, eyebrows furrowing slightly. "Over the course of the following couple months, something changed and that population began to shrink, with youkai leaving Kuoh for reasons mostly unknown to us.
For a time, while the amount of overlap in Stray reports began to shrink, there was a large enough population remaining that all the active sightings were still getting reported by at least one party, and as the youkai who remained in the city the longest tended to be the stronger ones, Strays continued being dealt with by the same individuals at the same rate, maintaining Kuoh's reputation as a dangerous place for criminals."
Akeno fully frowned. "Ultimately, even those groups and individuals began leaving at some point, allowing more and more Strays and other criminals to notice that Kuoh is no longer as effective at keeping them out."
"With those explanations out of the way, do we have any idea what's causing this exodus?" Buchou asked her [Queen]. "While Sona's and our groups are enough to keep the city safe enough to not be noticeable to the populace, there's only so much ground we can cover and time we can commit to investigating incidents in a day. If we don't get a handle on whatever's causing this, it might lead to increasing tension between our faction and the Youkai if we get blamed for it."
"Unfortunately, yes and no." Akeno shook her head. "When I tried communicating with the more peaceful spirits and asking if they knew anything about it, I got multiple conflicting responses. Some claimed that there was an ancient darkness hiding in the region, growing more and more dangerous each day. Others believed the opposite, that there is some sort of 'great cleansing' going on, that some Grand Sage decided to stroll through unannounced, in order to drag the region's energy into themselves and purify the darkness from it. There was even one magician who believed that it was a 'nascent Nature spirit' gathering energy to 'birth itself unto the world as a god.'"
Buchou– no, Rias, slumped over onto her desk, burying her head in her arms to complain like a child.
"Moouuu!" Rias whined, gripping at her hair. "How in the world are we supposed to deal with stuff like that!? I refuse to ask for Onii-sama's help unless we absolutely need it, but that's just too ridiculous!"
It was moments like this when Rias acted this way that she reminded me most of her childish brother. The dichotomy between her "Refined ojou-sama" and "Absolute immature child" behaviors were just like the absurdly powerful man who ruled the underworld, who is also an absolute sis-con.
The [Queen] shrugged. "In the end, the only theme that remains consistent is that there is a lot of power in the region disappearing to who-knows-where. One of the more stubborn remaining youkai I have personally contacted for this issue, confirmed… " Akeno glanced at me, hesitating for just a split second. "... he confirmed that the region's ambient life energy is disappearing at an alarming rate, and that practicing Senjutsu has recently felt extremely unnerving."
I felt my heart skip a beat with old fear at the mention of Senjutsu being used, but forced myself to remain calm. Intellectually, I knew that there wasn't a whole lot of risk in the basic usage of Senjutsu that most Youkai could access with practice. There were thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of other Youkai and non-Youkai alike who could– and actively did– use it without going mad.
In practice, the mere mention of it brought up her in my mind, forcing me to remember what she put me through, the sister she threw away, when she did what she did, causing my skin to goosebump.
I was past that though. Rias was kind enough to take me in and give me a new name, a new life. A new family. That woman couldn't take that from me again, not with the kind of power and influence the Gremory family wielded.
As I tuned back in, I realized that they had moved on from the topic without me noticing and were now talking about their long-standing summon contracts. Either they exhausted that line of troubleshooting the problem, or they had moved on for my sake.
Immediately I was doused by a cold feeling of shame.
If I wasn't such a coward, refusing to even so much as even think about Senjutsu, let alone using it passively, I might have been able to warn my [King] about the problem back when it first began. I could have gotten my current family a head start on the issue, but instead, it went under our notice and only got our attention when it was beginning to become everyone's problem.
I resolved to myself to make up for my shortcomings, that I'd make Rias-buchou proud to have me in her family.
…
I suddenly pictured myself trying to use Senjutsu, practicing it to make me a better [Rook] for Buchou, but losing my mind and attacking my friends.
I shivered.
'... Alright, maybe it's a bit too soon for that. Someday, but not yet,' I thought to myself.
The sound of three polite knocks on the door to the club pulled me out of my thoughts, and the other two out of their discussion. Akeno and Buchou reflexively turned their heads to the door, but I didn't bother twisting around to look as it opened a second later, instead reaching for my cup to take a sip of tea to soothe my nerves. Kiba always knocked the same way, every day.
"Pardon my tardiness," the blond [Knight] said as he stepped around the door, closing it behind him with a sheepish smile, "I had a bit more trouble making my way here than usual. Quite a few of my classmates and underclassmen invited me to karaoke with them over the weekend, so I had to turn them all down."
I rolled my eyes at that. They wanted to go to 'karaoke' with him?
'More like they want to get him alone and suck each other's faces off.' I thought.
Sometimes I couldn't tell if he was genuinely oblivious to his admirers intentions, or if he just acted like it for convenience's sake. It was probably a little bit of both, to be honest. He didn't care for the attention, and as far as I was aware, wasn't experienced with high school relationships.
Akeno got up to pour a cup of tea for him, while Buchou smiled his way
"It's no problem Kiba-kun, have a seat." She waved off his absence. "We were just finishing up with Akeno's weekly contract report."
He walked around to the other side of the couch, setting his bag down and sitting as Akeno placed a teacup on the table in front of him. "Thank you Akeno." He picked up the cup and took a slow sip. "It tastes lovely, as always." She gave a slight bow at the compliment and headed back to her seat.
Setting the cup down on its saucer, he looked to Buchou. "I hope I wasn't interrupting. Did I miss anything important?"
"You weren't." She shook her head. "Like I said, we were just finishing up. As for what you missed, it's nothing that I can't catch you up on later before you go out for your clients. I'm probably going to have to email a summary to Gasper-kun anyway if he's still too engrossed in his newest game to properly talk to me, so might as well explain it then." Rias groaned and rubbed her forehead with her palm, sighing. "Honestly, that child of mine can be such a brat when it comes to his online sessions. If he would just put that same kind of energy into overcoming his fear of the outside world…"
She shook her head, straightening in her seat from the slouch she'd slipped into. "Anyways, Koneko-chan! Is there anything new to report from your scouting?
"Mm." I nodded.
Finally, it was my turn. It took long enough.
"The dragon smell is definitely coming directly from Hyoudou." I stated firmly. My nose crinkled in disgust at the memory. I'd had to stay hidden to confirm that he still gave off a smoking lizard scent even after he showered, just so that I could be sure he wasn't just picking it up from some other outside source. "I'm certain of it."
The only way I could think of to make sure of that without breaking into his house was to catch him right out of the shower room after his gym period ended.
Needless to say, I did my best to ensure that nobody involved that day, myself included, remembered anything about me being there. Memory manipulation magic, saving the day once again.
"So, that for sure rules out an outside source passing it on to him… and his ancestry?" Buchou asked, tone sounding doubtful.
I shook my head. "His family is completely normal. The only people he interacts with daily are his parents and other students."
"I figured not, but it was better that we checked, just in case." She smiled in anticipation, clasping her hands together and interlocking her fingers. "It seems that it's all but confirmed at this point that he has some sort of draconic-type Sacred Gear, so all that's left is for me to figure out the best way to approach him."
I scoffed internally. "He's a dirty pervert. He'd join even if all you did was offer him your old underwear."
She chuckled at that, but I was dead serious. That was just the type of creep he was, absolutely zero sense of shame.
"I'll keep that in mind as a last resort–"
Please don't.
"–but for now, I'm thinking I'll have my familiar give him one of my summoning pamphlets and see where we can go from there." She stated. "Now, did you have anything else that you wanted to bring up Koneko? Or should we move on to Kiba?"
I almost opened my mouth to tell them about Uzumaki.
I hesitated though.
On the one hand, he mentioned that he lost his powers after being hurt in a fight, and I was a first hand witness of his sheer athleticism, if not actual combat skill. Bringing him into the peerage would likely heal him back to his old strength, and even if it didn't for some reason, he had more than enough natural ability to be worth the effort. On top of that, it would be much simpler to give Uzumaki an offer than it would be for Hyoudou; when someone is aware of the supernatural, it usually just boils down to asking them and getting a yes or no answer.
On the other hand… he told me he came from a ninja clan. It's possible that his clan did things differently than most did historically, but usually that meant holding loyalty to the clan and its patron above all others. He didn't sound like he was preparing to go back, and actually seemed to be settling into life away from his home, but he also didn't sound like he parted from them on bad terms, or even left them intentionally in the first place.
For all I knew, he could just be on an early 'retirement' from duty and free to do what he wants as long as he doesn't betray their secrets, but on the flipside, he could also be on a long term reconnaissance mission that doesn't require superhuman combat ability.
I weighed the options in my head and came to a conclusion. He had the potential to become a strong ally, but I didn't know enough about him to be sure, and he also had the potential to cause a headache for us if his old comrades made a ruckus looking for him.
"I'm keeping an eye on someone." I said after a couple seconds. "Not sure yet if they'd make a good ally or become a problem, I'll tell you when I find out more."
Akeno smiled slyly at me, probably making the connection to the supposed 'rumors' she'd heard about me with a boy.
It annoyed me that she was right, even if for the wrong reasons.
"Alright, don't worry about it too much then." Buchou said, smiling at me. "You've already spent a whole week watching Hyoudou-kun for me, so don't be afraid to relax for a couple days. You can put off getting back to doing contracts again until next week, if you feel like you need the break."
"Okay." I nodded.
That was fine by me. I'd probably take a day to hang out with Gasper.
"Now then, moving on! Kiba, you're up."
He gave a polite smile and began his report.
I zoned out a bit as the meeting continued, considering I'd been more or less excused from most of my duties during the past week, and thus had little to contribute. Aside from the two main topics of interest brought up earlier, the meeting proceeded as usual, Akeno occasionally pouring more tea for us. We went over new potential contractors, those who no longer wanted our services, and upcoming events for both our school lives and personal ones; things like the school-wide club recruitment drive next week, or our semi-usual weekend brunch hangouts as a peerage that Sona's group sometimes joined us for.
After a while, I was pulled from my bored fugue when I absently reached for another cookie, only to find my fingertips touching crumb-covered porcelain. I looked down, saw an empty plate on the table in front of me, and huffed.
"And that concludes this week's meeting," Buchou said with a slightly tired looking smile. "Koneko-chan, Akeno, you two are free to leave or hang out here some more, whichever you prefer. Kiba-kun, please stick around for a little longer so I can get you up to speed on what you missed." She stood up from her chair, as Akeno did the same to begin cleaning up the tea set. "I'm going to go grab my laptop first to get to writing that email for Gasper-kun at the same time, so feel free to do whatever in the meantime." She then walked through the door of the last remaining adjacent room, which happened to be a bedroom for reasons only explainable as 'Rias wanted it to be so'.
I downed the rest of my tea before placing the cup and saucer on the tray for Akeno, before standing up myself.
"I'm going, have something I want to do today. See you guys tomorrow." I told them as I picked up my bag.
"See you tomorrow!"
"See you tomorrow." Rias and Kiba replied, the King having raised her voice to be heard from the other room while Kiba just smiled warmly.
"Fufufu, have fun Koneko-chan." Akeno said to me with an amused smile.
I narrowed my eyes at her games, but she was already busying herself with the cleanup again, humming a random tune.
I turned to Kiba as I remembered my conversation from earlier in the day, his attention turning towards me at the motion.
"Almost forgot. A classmate heard you're good with a sword, said he would like to spar with you sometime. I told him I'd see if you're interested." I didn't actually say anything like that to Uzumaki, but I might as well pass on the offer since I had the opportunity.
"Oh?" Kiba looked slightly surprised. "Wouldn't it be easier for this classmate of yours to join the Kendo club to get a sparring partner?"
I shrugged. "He's the type to prefer full contact, not limited to competition rules."
"Ah, makes sense." He looked thoughtful for a moment. "Do you know what level his swordsmanship is? I'm assuming he isn't 'in the know' if it's someone we aren't aware of. It would be a shame to accept, only to accidentally hold back too little and hurt him badly."
"He's not a swordsman." I shook my head. I paused. "At least, I don't think he is." I added a moment later.
Kiba blinked at me. "Pardon?"
"He's a martial artist, wanted a chance to spar with a swordsman." I explained.
"... Right. I'm not sure it would be a good idea." He said with an apologetic smile. "I already have a big enough advantage over regular humans physically, having a weapon on top of that would make it too difficult to keep things fair."
I didn't hide my amusement this time, smirking just a little as I corrected him.
"He's more skilled with his fists than you are with a sword." I told him bluntly. "The only issue you'll have is beating him without relying on your physical advantage too obviously. He doesn't know you're a devil after all."
I turned and walked towards the door, leaving him baffled at my claim.
It wasn't totally the truth. I mean, Uzumaki's level of skill was definitely that high, but frankly speaking, any action Kiba might take that his body type 'shouldn't be able to perform' would probably be instantly noticeable to the whiskered teen. The moment Kiba was forced to rely on his speed as a devil, the other blond would realize the charade, given that I was the one who brought Kiba up in conversation in the first place.
Either way, it would give me an excuse to see a bit more of what the teen was capable of, and more chances to learn about his home and those creatures that apparently weren't youkai.
I opened the door. Just before I left, I addressed him over my shoulder.
"If you decide to go for it, his name's Uzumaki Naruto. Short blond guy with whiskers tattooed on his cheeks."
With that said, I closed the door behind me and left school for the day.