Rias hid her face in her palm and sighed heavily. "Sora, you know very well that she isn't a Magical Girl..." she groaned, but Sora was too busy vividly describing the 'Magical Girl's' appearance to listen.
"And you know what? I honestly have no idea where she was keeping that wand thingie. Pretty sure she pulled that thing out of her—"
"Sora!" Rias yelled, her face completely red. Hearing someone talk about one of the Satans was surreal, almost heretical. Not to mention, he was talking about the sister of one of her best friends.
"Yeah?" Sora turned back to her, sipping his drink like it was a soda.
"You think mocking one of the most powerful devils is funny?" she asked, partly giving up on trying to make sense of this boy.
"Mocking? I just said she's hot and hides her Magical Girl wand in an unknown place..." He waved her off, that silly grin still plastered on his face. "I guess my sense of humor is simply superior. Or maybe I'm something you're not."
"And that would be?" Rias asked, unsure if she really wanted to know.
"Drunk," he replied, then started laughing at his own joke. It didn't help that Akeno was giggling the whole time like a schoolgirl with a crush.
"I'm still confused... why do I see in the dark now? And why am I stronger than I was yesterday?" Issei asked, bringing attention back to himself.
"Issei, yer a devil," Sora said, barely holding back another fit of laughter.
"I'm a what?" Issei looked confused. Rias stepped in before Sora could make another joke.
"A devil. The night you were pierced by the Spear of Light by 'Yuuma,' you died. I brought you back as my cute servant," she explained.
"Oh. Why? And more importantly, how?" he asked, taking in the fact that he had actually died, which was understandable.
"Because your perverted ass was unlucky enough to be born with a Sacred Gear... probably," Sora stated, finally stopping his fit of laughter.
"Look, the Fallen Angels killed you because they thought you might be a problem in the future, and Rias revived you because she is supposed to protect people in this town... and you could be useful," he shrugged, causing Rias to freeze. Did this annoying prankster really notice that her intentions were not entirely benevolent? Did he also realize that not everything she did was out of selfish need?
"A Sacred what now?" Issei asked, prompting Sora to conjure a single bubble on top of his finger.
"They're these nifty things the Biblical God made. Sometimes, humans are born with them, and they can range from mostly useless to strong enough to kill a deity," he explained. Rias noted to herself that it was actually quite a decent explanation, although she would prefer if he didn't mention the big man upstairs. The minor headache she already had would do better without spikes of pain.
"That was actually quite a good explanation. And Sora here still hasn't told us what ability he has," Rias challenged, stretching theatrically. Maybe a better look at her body would loosen his drunk tongue.
"I can make bubbles," he deadpanned, pointing to the one he had already created.
"No shit, Sherlock," Koneko finally spoke, glaring at the jokester.
"Ugh, fine. The bubbles can explode," he added with a groan, as if explaining it hurt him.
"I could show you, but I guess you'd prefer your clubroom in unexploded state," he said, sitting up and making the bubble vanish. Rias had a feeling that he was still not telling the whole truth, but she had no reason to doubt him.
As far as she knew, he was fast and strong enough to hurt a Fallen Angel even without a Sacred Gear. That alone was suspicious but also consistent.
"And your speed?" she asked, reasonably certain that the bubbles wouldn't help him move fast.
"Touki," he replied, as if the answer was obvious. "I'm from Kyoto and have been around a few Yokai in my youth. Who do you think I'm selling my alcohol to?" He said this without any concern, knowing that Rias could easily figure out where he was from.
Rias took some time to process that thought. He didn't look like the type to train rigorously, after all. But then again, she had only talked to him for the first time that morning. Rias narrowed her eyes; it was clear this guy was holding back some information about his Sacred Gear.
"Oh, what does my Sacred thing do?" Issei asked, and Rias wasn't sure how to respond.
"Nobody knows. Not until you manage to activate it, perv," Sora interjected bluntly. "It could be something that heals, something that boosts your strength, or something that turns ketchup into mustard if you do a moonwalk, but only on Thursdays," he shrugged.
Even Rias couldn't help but smile a little at the joke. "I wouldn't be too afraid, Issei. You cost all of my pawns to revive. That Sacred Gear is most likely powerful," she said, and Sora actually paused for a moment.
Did he not expect her to reveal that information so easily? Or perhaps he didn't expect her to try calming her newest servant. Or maybe he simply didn't know what it meant.
Issei, meanwhile, was looking himself over, trying to figure out what this inner power might be. The brown-haired boy was patting his body, his thoughts clearly drifting to unrelated places. He paused for a moment, a blush creeping up his cheeks as his eyes locked onto his own... pants?
For once, Sora's interruptions proved useful as he burst into laughter. "Not your dick! Damn, we all wish that part was 'sacred', don't we?" He giggled in a manner reminiscent of Akeno. "But then again, in the presence of devils, having a sacred dick wouldn't get you laid any time soon," he joked again.
There were different reactions all around. Issei's blush deepened and he stammered something incomprehensible, Koneko wasn't sure who to call a pervert first, and Kiba ignored the joke completely.
"Ufufu, maybe it could be fun corrupting such a thing, don't you agree, President?" Akeno added her own joke, making Sora laugh harder and Issei to look at the floor, trying to regain his mental faculties.
"Heh, at least one of you has some sense of humor," the troublemaking boy said, still shaking with laughter as he waved a bottle filled with questionable alcoholic liquid at Akeno.
"Oh, thank you, Sora-kun, but I prefer different methods of turning my legs into jelly.," she declined, but Rias already knew these two might be the death of her. Akeno was already a handful on her own when in a playful mood, but now she had someone who played along with her innuendos.
The redhead shuddered for a moment before fixing Akeno with a look. However, she didn't find the usual teasing smile on her friend's face; it looked... forced? She would need to have a talk with her.
"More for me, then," the boy shrugged and downed what must have been a third of the one-liter bottle. "Haaah, always hits the spot," he sighed, then stood up as if he had just drunk orange juice.
"Anyways, I'm gonna head out," he yawned, walking toward the window. Rias furrowed her brow but didn't try to stop him.
"We will talk later, and without you holding back any information," she said, trying to sound authoritative. The black-haired troublemaker only nodded, thankfully not making things more difficult than they had to be.
He opened the window and jumped out, enveloped in a large bubble that swiftly carried him into the night.
"Showoff," Koneko muttered as she watched the bubble suddenly accelerate and vanish. That boy was questionably fast; definitely faster than any high-class devil she had seen.
—
Sora landed in his garden and quickly went inside. The events he was somewhat familiar with were already in motion, and he would need to be much stronger to keep up. He retrieved the Boosted Gear from its hiding place and held the gauntlet in his hands, pondering its uses.
Could he use it himself? And what effect would having two separate Sacred Gears have on his body?
He quickly banished such thoughts. The Devil club needed it much more than he did; he should be able to find something equally interesting if he stuck around them. The gauntlet felt unnaturally light in his hands as the green gem on it flickered to life momentarily. Did the dragon think Issei had activated his power for the first time?
"Ddraig? Can you hear me?" Sora asked, squinting at the Sacred Gear intently.
"I do, human. You are not who I expected to see," the dragon replied, much calmer than Sora anticipated.
"Blame the pervert. He managed to die while I was borrowing you for study. Now you're here, and I have no idea what to do," Sora sighed as he explained what had happened.
The dragon's voice deepened as he spoke again. "So, my partner is alive, then?"
"Depends..." Sora answered. "He died and was resurrected by the friendly neighborhood redhead devil," he explained, receiving a mix of a hum and a sigh from the dragon.
"I see," the dragon pondered before asking the big question that made Sora slightly apprehensive. "How did you get me out of his body without harming him?"
"Sacred Gears are pathway to many abilities. Some considered... unnatural," he replied with a wide grin on his face.
"That doesn't explain anything at all. But if you can take Sacred Gears... what else can you take?" Ddraig asked, and Sora could only imagine the suspicious look on the dragon's face.
"Anything, really. I can remove bones from limbs or even someone's sight. I once stripped the magic from a crazy devil for a few seconds," he listed. However, Ddraig interrupted him just as he was taking a breath.
"Could you perhaps... take my consciousness and power from this prison?" he asked, and Sora could hear the longing in the dragon's voice.
"Maybe... but to keep you out of my Sacred Gear's ability, I would need to destroy the gauntlet. I have no idea if that would pull you back into it or leave you free," Sora replied after a moment of thought.
His ability was completely overpowered, but was it strong enough to override the God's system?
"I can't claim to know how Sacred Gears work at their core... but my ability most likely can't override the Biblical God's work. Not yet, at least," he finally said.
Ddraig sighed. "Figured. And what's your plan?" he asked, resigned to staying in his prison for a while longer.
"I'll give you back to the pervert... he might look pathetically weak now, but he has his heart in the right place," Sora said, dropping the wild smirk. "Unless you'd prefer to gamble with your very existence."
Ddraig made a rather derisive noise at that suggestion.
"The only way I'm gambling with my life is in a battle," he stated, proud as only a dragon could be.
Sora nodded and placed the gauntlet down on his table. He would take it with him tomorrow and return it. If he couldn't safely use it himself, it was best in Issei's hands.
He sat down and began flinging marbles against a reinforced wall. It had been some time since he started trying to tap into the concept of spin. His "bubbles" operated on that principle—impossibly thin threads that spun to create bubbles. Perhaps he could harness that ability one day.
The biggest problem was, as always, information. Sacred Gears evolved due to desire, that much he understood, but were they capable of creating even more abilities as the user grew? His knowledge was unfortunately too limited.
He only knew this world up until the second season of the anime. He had never read any additional canonical material, and most of his understanding came from memes and shitposts—hardly reliable sources of information.
Initially, his bubbles couldn't steal properties either; he believed he was granted the abilities of Soft and Wet, and so the ability manifested after he trained with it. Could he extend the power of his spinning bubbles to include more spin-based or even string-based powers?
He had some ideas, but it seemed it would take time to either learn or awaken them. Sora sighed heavily and quickly suppressed the urge to get another bottle for himself. He needed to stay functional tomorrow, at least until he returned the Boosted Gear.
What a shame; he could have used a dragon companion. Also, did he just cuck Issei from seeing Rias naked by saving him? Eh, the perv will manage.
—
The next day, Sora arrived at school as usual, making sure to hit Issei with the bubble containing the Boosted Gear when they "bumped" into each other near the entrance gate.
The campus was as lively as ever, especially with Rias around. Sora understood that this was a borderline hentai world, but did every single guy have to drool the moment they saw a pretty girl? He honestly doubted that, unless they magically stopped being little sex pests as they grew up, this society would be functional.
Still, it wasn't his problem, and it wasn't like he didn't glance at the redhead too.
Why did this school mandate miniskirts as part of the uniform? It was probably Serafall's idea so she could ogle her sister or something, which honestly wouldn't surprise him in the slightest.
Speaking of which, Sona was near the entrance, talking to Rias as they watched the three perverts argue over some "scene" that Sora chose to ignore. There should be a limit on how much porn people watch... But then again, people had said the same about alcohol consumption, and they were clearly wrong.
At least he hoped this day would be uneventful. Or was Issei about to get attacked again on his first summoning assignment? Sora wasn't sure, but he decided to tail the pervert if he ever left school for anything other than home.
After the day's classes ended, Kiba came in to pick up Issei, and Sora, too. There went his quiet afternoon. He had wanted to train a little that day, but apparently, that wasn't going to happen.
They arrived at the Occult Research Club's meeting place in the old school building, and Sora covertly pulled a bottle out of one of his bubbles. He might be out of luck when it came to training, but there was no way he would participate in whatever the devils were doing while sober.
He took a seat, lounging in an armchair while Issei was instructed on some of his powers. It struck Sora as odd that all the details about the Evil Pieces and other information hadn't been told to Issei during a Stray Hunt. He honestly didn't care much, though; the important thing was that Issei got the information in a timely manner.
"Sora?" Rias spoke to him after the rest of the club had dispersed, leaving just her and Akeno. Even Issei had been sent off on his own.
"Yes, that's my name," he nodded, expecting more questions.
Instead, Rias pulled a folder out of her drawer. "Sora Inoue, age seventeen, born in Kyoto. Orphaned seven years ago..." She read from the file as if she were judging him.
"I guess. You reading this just to remind me that I got Batman'd?" he shrugged.
"No. I am reading this because you are a powerful human in a territory I am supposed to protect." She emphasized the protection part a but too heavily to Sora's liking. "And if you are a threat, then it is my job to make sure to—"
"To what? Send me a strongly worded letter?" Sora scoffed. This was getting ridiculous.
"Look, I get that you'd like everything to go according to your plan, but I lived here before you came. I'm not some nuke on legs or anything. Treat me like a friend, and I'll be a friend. Treat me as a threat..." He trailed off, keeping his usual jokes to himself, though the snark remained. "And I will have to respond in kind."
"I just want to know what you can do. I cannot have an unknown variable in my territory," Rias stated firmly, standing her ground. She even stuck her chest out, most likely to unbalance him. Unfortunately for Rias, Sora had seen a woman before.
"Find someone who will make me then. I won't show off just because a pretty girl makes eyes at me." He waved her off. "Look, my powers are quite specialized, and using them on someone like you might not end well," he sighed, taking a swig from the bottle.
"Unless you want to take a bubble bath with me, that is." He grinned, causing Akeno to snort from her own armchair.
"So unladylike, Akeno-san... what's so funny about what I said?" he asked.
"Nothing much, Sora-kun. But it isn't every day someone makes the President blush," she giggled, and Sora simply smiled back, ready to fire back his own teasing if needed.
Rias coughed, quickly steering the discussion back on track.
"Very well, then. But I will be keeping an eye on you." She conceded, understanding that some Sacred Gears could be seen as invasive or even repulsive. If he had an ability like that, she could understand why he would be hesitant to show it.
"But this means that I will also need your cooperation. You are a free agent, so to speak, and if you wish to have a mostly quiet life, it's best that we work together." Her explanation was somewhat clumsy, in Sora's opinion.
She was trying to convey that the protection of the Gremory family would be beneficial for him, or at least that was what Sora assumed.
"Sure. I don't mind helping out from time to time," he agreed, only to be promptly assigned to keep an eye on Issei. That boy apparently attracted danger.
Sora couldn't relate at all; he attracted pretty girls, of course. The fact that those girls tended to be at least a little insane was conveniently ignored.