"It's not really that complicated. You should be able to think it yourself." I offhandedly replied as I took a bite of the shrimp casserole I decided to try out for the celebrations.
Hmm~ could use a little more salt.
...
"I too am curious." Sona asked as she turned to me. "I have known people who can plan ahead of time, and I myself have some ways of strategizing ahead, but you seemed to have predicted the Rating Game all the way to his defeat."
"Nope I am not giving you a free explanation." I went to sample another creation of mine while inwardly enjoying their frustrated expressions of not getting their answers. That enjoyment however got turned to wariness when both of them suddenly smiled in a manner that would make Rin proud.
"Asia." Rias turned to the blonde nun.
Uh oh.
"Ruruko." Sona turned to her female Pawn.
Oh no.
Ruruko and Asia looked at each other, nodded lightly, and in a quick motion, turned to me with clasped hands and the damned puppy-dog eyes.
"PLEASE EMIYA-SAN/SENPAI!"
… Damn you Devils to Hell and back! Wait~ Hell was their home-world. Let me rephrase that.
Damn you Devils to Heaven and back!
"Hmm~ maybe we should do that more often. Give it enough time, he might be forced to join us." Momo teased as she cupped her chin.
"Fine, I will tell you, just STOP with the Puppy Dog Eyes!" I threw my arms up in frustration while the two girls dropped their act and lightly high-fived each other. Damn these devils.
"So, what do you want to know first?" I asked in a slightly grumpy tone.
"How did you know Raiser's reactions and actions to certain tactics we used in the Rating Game?" Rias immediately asked a question that I honestly felt she should be able to guess herself.
"Hah~ Okay. First point to note, this is a man with a lot of pride in him. He has won multiple times and has not attained any damage to his reputation in the process. He is not the type who would go into the frontlines to lead his Peerage, rather he would let that sister of his do the actual coordination on the field. With that in mind, it became necessary to demoralize the sister through unorthodox methods."
"The blowing up of the gym." Sona mentioned while taking a quick sip.
"Since the layout of the match was the entire academy, that meant a few spots for them to take point and secure a route for attack and defence. Now I am not too sure about the format, but given what I was told, I would imagine that both sides are at opposite sides of the academy to ensure no one tries to get an easy vantage point too early in the game right?"
"Correct."
"Well, that just means that you need to grab a couple of vantage points to deal with the enemy. That would be ideal if you had numbers, something which Rias does not have. So on that note, the next best thing to do would be to deny the enemy that vantage point."
"That meant the school yard, the swimming pool…"
"Yup, those other locations that I wrote down on that paper were also ideal areas for them to take control if they wanted to, so Kiba's job was to take them out and forced them into one spot. And if doing so helps to get rid of a large number of the opponent's fight strength, it would deal out a lot of psychological damage to the tactician of the group."
"But wait a minute, how would you know which ones would be ideal spots for attacking someone?" Momo asked curiously.
I replied back with a small smirk. "Just in case I had to fight either you guys or any other creatures in the school. Minimum collateral damage with maximum casualties to the enemy."
"…"
Yup, I think they now got the idea that I was serious.
"Cough! That explains the gym and the other locations, but how did you predict Raiser's Queen going after Koneko and Akeno?" Rias asked in an attempt to continue on.
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Queens are the types who tend to go against one another?"
"… I never really thought of that in that manner." Both Rias and Sona looked to each other and their respective Queens thoughtfully. "Now that you mentioned it, it does seem like the Queens would often go after one another in a match. I suppose it would be best to deal with worst possible threat quickly. "
"There's that, and there is also the mentality that each counterpart would want to prove who is the better of the two. It helps for your situation that Raiser's Queen shares the same amount of pride as him. With that in mind, she would probably go after Akeno with the mind-set that she is the better 'Queen' than Akeno. That same mentality would also make her dismiss Kiba, Asia and Ise as secondary targets, with Koneko being a liability to the plans as she is the other heavy hitter of the group." I motioned to both Akeno and Koneko. "Thus it would make sense that she would go after them, but she would probably target Koneko first as she would be easier to handle than Akeno."
"Was that why you gave those gauntlets to her?"
"Based on what I know, that woman has a lot of attack power at her disposal, being able to create explosions at her fingertips." I remarked with a slightly bitter reminder of a certain someone who has a penchant for blowing stuff up whenever she got pissed off. "In order to deal with her, one would need either an exceptional amount of power, or an absurd defense."
"The Gauntlets of Brahmā Kā Caimpiyana should do the trick for both."
"Wait a minute, Brahma as in the one of the Gods of India?" Sona asked in a slightly strained voice. "I never heard of this weapon before. Wait, for that matter, how a weapon related to a God got to your hands?!"
"Lucky me." I merely shrugged back. "It may not be surprising for you not to hear about this weapon; its origins are less known as compared to weapons like Gae Bolg or Hrunting. The only known bits of it were related to a story which spoke of an unnamed hero who served Brahma, thus the name of the weapon. So at least you have the element of surprise."
"It was certainly an eye-opener." Tsubasa muttered as she shook her head. "I didn't think she could punch that hard even with a Rook's strength."
"That's the beauty of the gauntlets. The stories tell of them enhancing known traits of a user's strengths and granting them a huge boost in both offense and defense." I motioned with my hand at Koneko. "That would be the case for a normal fighter, so the result should go double for her."
"More like triple to me." Momo pointed to Asia. "Then what about the dagger that protected Asia? I guess that is something you procured for her as well."
"The Sunō-Buros Samu is a weapon that deals more on protection than hurting someone. Normally it brings out enough power to stop a small explosion point-blank, but I figured Asia would be the perfect wielder for it, since the dagger responds best to one of pure heart." I lightly patted Asia's head. "Who better to get the best effect than a girl who was recently a nun and still innocent inside?"
"Akeno's chain?" Tsubaki asked about her fellow Queen.
"Well for that particular weapon, I can't really say it has much of a legend, nor can I tell you the name of it or its owner, but I can tell you that it used to belong to a strong fighter. A woman of Ancient Greece if you would want to know." I inwardly smile at the manner some of the girls in the room seemingly preened at the thought of a woman able to hold her ground among men in ancient Greece.
Guess Rider could be a good role model, just without the questionable fashion sense or that super-sensual body.
"How about Yuuto's blades? Are they yours too?"
"Nope they are his altogether, I only gave him a few pointers about flame resistance to help out with the fight." I replied back while motioning to Kiba to explain.
"Emiya-san had suggested that I should use the other flame resistant types as a base to create the [Phoenix Eraser]." Kiba created the blade to show everyone. "Granted it is still a work in progress, since I do not know how strong a phoenix flame is, but at least Emiya-san gave me some benchmarks to get a general idea."
"Good thing too." I nodded my approval as I looked at the blade. "It seemed you are going with 'direct conversion of energy' as the basis for this blade. A pretty sound method when dealing with opposite elements."
"Thank you Emiya-san." Kiba lightly lowered his head in appreciation. Well at least he was no longer holding a big grudge over me taking his blades away.
"Emiya-kun, can I see the shield that you loaned to Rias?" Sona asked with a tone of great curiosity. "I am a little mystified about the properties that made up its power."
For a moment, I was thinking of refusing, but since there was hardly any chance of them figuring out my otherworldly origins, I should be safe as long as I keep a close eye on them. With that in mind, I extended my hand and projected the shield for her to examine.
"This is a very unique item." Sona peered at every possible angle, her eyes studying every detail of the shield and occasionally lingering on the runes, as though trying to decipher them.
"Indeed." Momo leaned in for a closer examination, her curiosity as a Bishop having taken over. "This shield seems to be encompassing several layers of defense magic that constantly feed off one another. Unless I'm mistaken, the feedback would strengthen the shield even further." She frowned as she looked at the face of the shield. "But this feeling I am getting, why do I think that the shield is testing us for some reason?"
"Well, you have a good eye there." I gave a light nod. "This fellow is a little fickle about the user who wishes to borrow its power, so it tends to judge everyone that touches it. It would give out an appropriate amount of protection based on how it feels about the user." I pointed to Rias. "In her case, she could only use five percent of its power."
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Hey guys If you want an extra chapter you, need to throw some power Stones ;)
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