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Non Serviam
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Non Serviam
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She's less sure what to do when the situations are reversed...
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- #1
The tea was quite excellent.
I'd expected green tea, given that I had, apparently, landed in Japan of all places, but the delicate china cup instead held earl gray. A classic, but one of my favorites none the less. I took another sip, marshalling my thoughts.
Then I set the cup down.
I sighed, leaning back into the low set leather couch. Really, the entire room was furnished like it was a set for a smooth 90's gangster movie. "That's quite a story you've spun for me," I said.
Sitting across from me on another couch, Rias Gremory nodded. It sent her red hair, because of course her hair would be a brilliant bloody red, shimmering around her shoulders. "I guess it's a bit much to take in, isn't it?" she said. "I know it's a bit difficult to accept that you died but—"
"Not that part," I said. She blinked once.
Step one, take control of the conversation.
"I knew I was going to die, accepted it even. Really, I'm not even surprised that you found a way to revive me." Contessa got what she wanted, always. "But the bit about devils and angels all being real? I'm skeptical."
Rias tilted her head. "Is that really so hard to believe?" she asked. "Surely, I brought you back to life somehow, unless you think that a doctor could have done the same thing?"
"I'm not debating that you have powers," I said. Indeed, I could feel an energy thrumming beneath my skin even now. My passenger was strangely silent, no doubt that Rias's healing had messed with it, but at least I'd gotten a new arm out of the deal. "But power doesn't mean you're a devil."
Rias pouted, regarding me with her glinting green eyes. "I showed you my wings. Didn't you like them?" she said. With a ruffle of fabric, a pair of bat wings popped out of her back. They were obviously too small to bear her weight, less wingspan than her arms, but still something to be wary of.
"There are plenty of reasons you could have wings that don't stem from religion, of all things."
Besides which, I'd already seen proof positive that parahumans had established themselves across several different world. I had no desire to be taken in by one of those pretending to be a biblical monster.
"Surely if I was lying, I'd pick something more believable?" Rias said. "Besides that, I don't have a reason to mislead you so soon after saving your life."
I snorted. "It's called refuge in audacity," I said. "And no reason? You're the one who told me that I'm part of your 'peerage' now, whatever that is." I sipped my tea. "Eternal servitude seems like plenty of reason to lie."
"I—"
"Your story is remarkably consistent, if only because you've clearly had time to practice," I said. "But you'll forgive me if I'm not willing to take it at face value." With a nod, I set my cup back on its saucer. "Now, thank you for your hospitality, but if it's all the same, I think I'll be on my way now."
Step two: apply pressure.
Rias blinked once, nonpulsed. "I—you're leaving?"
I stood, "That's what I just said, isn't it?"
Rias shook her head, crossing her arms beneath her…admittedly developed bust. "Where are you even going to go?" she asked. "You're alone in a foreign country, without a passport or anything. And your clothes…"
She wasn't wrong. I didn't exactly bring a wallet and birth certificate to Golden Morning. And with my costume utterly ruined, I'd been given a bathrobe while one of Rias's friends ran off to get clothes. Apparently, I was still pretty tall, tall enough that none of Rias's clothes would fit, setting aside that they would hang off my thin form like rags.
God save me from gorgeous redheads…
I smiled, suppressing a slight wince of pain in my head. A symptom of her power? I could only hope that the control mechanism was nothing overt. "I'm sure I'll figure out." I said. "Worst comes to worse, well, there's always the Consulate."
Not that I would ever go there. Even if I existed in this world, a crapshoot at best, all records would show that Taylor Hebert had never left the United States. Still, it should prompt a reaction from the girl sitting in front of me.
Rias's eyes widened. Got you. "Ah, I don't think that's a very good idea…" She said. "Besides, you not believeing in devils doesn't change the reality of the situation!"
"From my point of view it does," I said. Idly walking around to stand behind the couch. I kept from making any overt moves to the door, but it was easy to see Rias's muscles tense all the same. "Or, to put it differently, you haven't given me any reason to stay, and more than enough to leave."
Her crimson eyebrows furrowed at my words, one hand coming half up, as if to grab me. "Ah, you, might still need more healing?" she said. "What if you're still wounded.
I raised an eyebrow. "Weren't you the one who said you reincarnated me 'perfectly and without my mortal flaws,' or something to that effect?"
"Well…yes," Rias said. "But you never really know with these things! And besides, I would feel terrible if you got hurt so—"
"That's very sweet, but it's hardly your responsibility," I cut off. "Thanks for the tea, it was very good." With that, I spun, striding towards the door.
Step 3: force the issue. And then we'd see what the truth of the situation really was.
"If you leave you'll be branded a stray devil!" Rias said, voice nearly a shout. I paused, hand on the doorknob. Stray huh? Branded? The words were new, but the context was so very familiar. "All devils in the human world are under the aegis of the Pillars," Rias continued. "As the heiress of the Gremory family, you are my responsibility, whether you believe it or not. I won't just let you run off and get killed!"
"So," I said. "You're saying that if I leave, I'll be killed?"
"You'll be hunted down, and if you refuse to come back peacefully… even I won't be able to protect you!" Rias said. The earnestness of her voice bit into me. "And as a newly reincarnated devil it's even more dangerous to be away from your ma—from your peerage for too long."
My grip tightened on the door knob. The brass crumpled under my fingers. "Oh? Why is that."
"Well, Stray Devils…without a mature devil's energy to balance them out and direct them, their powers can easily grow out of control, consuming their mind until they go completely insane."
So, that was the catch.
"I see," I said, quietly.
Fabric rustled as Rias stood from the couch before padding towards me. "You understand?" she said. I saw a hopeful smile on her face when I glanced over my shoulder. "I know this is a big change, but I'll help you get through it every step of the way!"
I sighed. "A devil's power can grow out of control, you said. How does that work." I forced the memories of Khepri down with all of my will.
Rias placed her hand on my shoulder. "A Devil's power comes from our imagination," she said. "But without structure, it can become directionless, growing out of control until there's nothing left of the Devil at all. Stray Devils are dangerous, not only to the people around them, but to themselves as well." She shook her head. "I would hate to see that happen to you."
I held back a snort. "Of course not," I said.
She brightened, letting out a happy sigh. "What a relief," she said. "Haa, managing new subordinates really is tricky, isn't it!"
"It is," I said, grabbing Rias's hand as it rested on my shoulder. "Especially when they're not your subordinates."
"Huh?"
I grabbed her wrist and then rammed my elbow deep into her gut.
Imagination? Well, I put all of my imagination into the strength of that one movement, imagining all of my muscles coiling and firing like a pile driver. Something in my chest burned.
Rias flew out of my grip like a shot, cratering the far wall of the room. She retched, eyes wide, as the air was driven from her lungs.
"Well," I said, "that's one thing you told the truth about." I was out the door before she could fall to the ground.
Beyond was a simple long hallway, lined with windows. Outside, it was full night out, overcast. The room was on the second floor. Taking two steps forward, I started to unlatch the closest window. I didn't want to chance the stairs.
I'd just found the latch when something smashed into me from the side. My muscles locked up as lightning coursed over me, and I toppled. Before I could push myself up, I found myself trapped inside a rippling cage of electricity.
Coming down the hall, one hand idly raised as if she'd thrown a baseball instead of a thunderbolt, was the source of my troubles. "My, my," the new arrival said, running a hand through her long black hair. "You really do manage to pick up the most troublesome new members, prez."
I looked over her impassively. With straight black hair done up in a high pony tail and purple eyes, she was just as beautiful as Rias. Idly, I wondered if everyone in this world was just preternaturally beautiful, or if it was just another part of the 'devil temptress' act.
She shivered under my gaze. "Oh, that look in your eyes…" she murmured, resting her cheek in the palm of her hand. "It's like you could just cut me in half, why, it almost makes me want to return the favor."
I had to hold back the urge to snort.
With a groan, Rias stumbled into the hallway.
"Rias!" the other girl said, before fixing me with a glare. "If you hurt her you wretch…"
"Maa, I'm fine, Akeno," she said. "She simply caught me by surprise."
"Even so…"
Rias shook her head. "It was my choice to speak with Taylor alone," she said with a sigh. "And here I thought we'd reached an agreement as well."
"That rather was the point," I said, crossing my legs under me.
Rias turned towards me, a look of disappointment on her face. I met her gaze head on. "What am I going to do with you now," she said.
I allowed myself a wry smile. "Why don't you have your servant just kill me and get it over with. I promise I won't come back to life this time."
Rias gaped at me. "Wha—but I just saved your life! I couldn't possibly kill my newest—"
"I'm not your 'newest' anything, Rias," I said. "And my life?" I chuckled. "I hardly asked you to save it. In fact, if you could just put it back where you found it, bleeding out over some back alley? That would probably be for the best."
Even if I'd failed to escape, the expression on Rias's face was a victory all its own.
- #2
"You can stay here for as long as it takes you to adjust," Rias said.
Until I bowed my head and accepted her rule, she meant, but her expression was so perfectly regretful that I decided not to call her on it. Our relative stances on the 'truth' had changed only slightly in the past day and a half. I very much doubted another snide remark would make any difference.
Not that it would have stopped Lisa from running her mouth, I thought with a small smile.
At least my new room furnished. We were still on the carrot approach, if the red silk sheets and duvet were anything to go by.
"I was almost expecting you to stick me in the kennel," I said, glancing around. The Gremory mansion (located in 'hell' of course) was large enough to have a stable, so no doubt they had somewhere to put bad dogs.
"I couldn't possibly—!" Rias said. She reached out, gripping my hands. Behind her, Akeno gave me a menacing glare. Her violet eyes promised all kinds of pain if I pissed Rias off.
I was not on good terms with my 'owner's' staff.
"No matter what you think, Taylor, you're family to me now," Rias said. "I know this is hard for you, but I'll do my best to prove that this is all true, so that you can go back to living a happy life as soon as you can."
I gave a soft chuckle at that. A happy life? On some days…on bad days…I wondered when I'd last had such a 'happy life.'
"So, am I just staying in my room?" I asked. The windows had a strange glimmer to them that I could pick out if I squinted, Rias seemed to underestimate the power of my imagination, if nothing else. "If that's the case I might end up hanging myself in the closet just for something to do."
Rias pouted, here green eyes softening in a way that had me instinctively pulling back. "Taylor…" she stared, before pulling me into a hug.
I froze, a thousand instincts screaming to duck, to twist, to do anything to get myself out of the grasp of the Brute 3 that currently had me in a dead lock. But with my arms pinned to my sides, I was all but helpless, as she squeezed. Not hard enough to hurt, but hard enough that I knew it could.
And behind it all, Akeno had the gall to look amused.
Shove her in a locker full of pads and see how she—
I forced my eyes shut, counting backwards from a thousand until Rias finally released me. With forced calm, I took a step back.
"Please don't," I said. One…side effect of the healing process, was that so many things that I'd grown numb too were all to sharp and fresh in my mind. On one hand, it meant my sense of touch was back to normal, but on the other…
Well, by definition, Parahumans didn't get over their trigger event.
"I'm sorry, Taylor," Rias said. She pitched her voice softly, like she was talking to some kind of wounded animal. I guess I qualified. "And of course you're not confined to your room. I've reserved a whole wing of the mansion for you." She brightened at that. "It's even got a permanent summoning circle to my club room at school, so I can come and visit you often."
"Rias…" Akeno murmured sharply.
"What?" I asked. "Afraid you won't be there to cage me again if I just happen to wander in?"
"My, my," she replied, cupping her cheek "if you wanted to be disciplined so much, why didn't you just say so."
I spread my arms, even as sparks flickered across the tips of the other girl's fingers. "Go ahead then," I said blithely. "It's who you are, isn't it? The type of person who preys on the weak because they deserve it."
Her glare was as ugly as she was beautiful.
As her arm came up, I tensed to spring away. I could dodge, but the window behind me on the other hand.
"Akeno!" Rias's hand clamped down on her servant's wrist. "What are you doing?"
"Rias, she—!"
Rias forced Akeno's arm back to her side. "No matter what Taylor says, you are both my precious se—people and I won't have you hurting one another." She huffed. "Besides that, honestly Akeno, you weren't half as angry when we first rescued Kiba, and he tried to attack me more than once."
"Kiba didn't succeed," Akeno said. She crossed her arms beneath her bust, angling her stance in such a way that I knew she was mocking me. Though I suppose the glance out of the corner of her eye was a pretty big hint.
I raised my own hand, both girl's tensing as I pointed a finger at Akeno. "May your back ache each night and your bras always be half a size too small."
For a moment, Akeno only stared at me, gaping slightly at my 'counterattack.' I simply raised an eyebrow at her sputtering, even as Rias tried to cover a giggle in her hand.
Akeno turned, a betrayed expression on her face.
"It, it's just—" Rias managed, "you were threatening to blast her through the wall like an avenging angel and then…" Her words devolved back into tight little snorts, made all the worse for how she was trying to hold her laughter in.
Akeno rolled her eyes, looking away. I didn't bother to meet her gaze this time. She struck me as the type that couldn't bear to be ignored, especially after a slight. Not that my words had been any sort of masterful comeback, but I'd learned a thing or two from Lisa about making the most inane comments into cutting barbs.
I remembered my team in Chicago asking me to stop with the bug puns, after a while..
I made sure not to look back towards the window, at least, as Rias got her giggling fit back under control. Using one of them to blast a hole in the wall was a long shot in the first place; I'd shelve it for another time, after I had a chance to experiment more with the strange powers I'd been…given.
"I'm sorry Akeno," Rias said, wrapping her arm around the taller girl's. "You have to admit though, you did have the hardest time finding new lingerie before you started using my tailor."
Akeno let out a sigh, placing a palm against her cheek "Rias…"
"Oops, sorry, was that embarrassing?" Rias's smile made her real feelings clear.
I watched the byplay from the corner of my eye. Was she putting on a show for me, like a play on the classic good cop, bad cop? On one hand, it would make sense for Rias to use her little pets that way. I'd heard things from Alec about the games his father played with his.
But on the other hand, I thought I was a pretty good judge of character, and neither of them struck me as a particularly good actor.
"Well, come on then," Rias said after a moment. "We have to get back."
Akeno hummed. "I'd like to have a word with Taylor first…" she said, fluttering her eyelashes at me.
"Akeno…"
"Don't worry, I won't leave any marks," she said.
"None that you can see, anyway," I added, voice dry as the Sahara Desert.
Rias shot both of us a look. "Behave yourself."
Control you dog. But saying that would be an insult to Bitch. Instead, I just cocked an eyebrow, pointing at myself. Rias let out a huff, before giving Akeno another glance packed full of subtext I couldn't read yet and flouncing out of the room.
She was, I had to admit, a very good flouncer. Maybe it was a redhead thing.
The door shut behind her with a soft click.
Akeno stepped into my personal space. I'm sure she meant it to look intimidating, but really it just drove home how I had about five inches on her, for all that she had five inches on me from front to back.
"You," she said, "are the most unpleasant person Rias has ever saved."
"I suppose mirrors aren't big, in the underworld?"
She slapped me.
It was light, barely enough to twist my head to the side.
Light enough that her handprint would fade in seconds even with my pasty white skin. But the look in her eyes promised murder.
"I suppose that's just who you are," she said acerbically. "A rabid dog will always bite the hand that feeds them."
I allowed myself a wan smile. "When you graduate to original insults, let Rias know you're tired of wearing her hand-me-downs as well. They hang."
Maybe it was a cheap shot, but I'd picked out how defensive she was about her appearance. Not that Rias and Akeno had anything in the world to be upset about, but then, since when were the chinks in our armor rational?
Her face twisted, before smoothing out into an artificial calm. "I had a whole speech planned out, you know," she said, lightly. There was a smile on her face, the kind of empty expression I'd once seen Bonesaw make when she was looming over me, rotating saw buzzing cheerily in her too small hands. "But if I stay here any longer, I might hurt you, and that would make my King sad. So I'll just skip to the good parts yes?"
She leaned in again, meeting my eyes. "If you hurt Rias again, I will end you. If you lay a finger on her, I will make you suffer until the stars fall from the sky."
I tilted my head. Reaching out, I placed a single finger against the collar of her blouse. "Little girl," I said, "You don't even know the meaning of that word."
She must have seen something in my eyes, either good or bad, because a moment later she huffed and turned away. "She'd be sad if I killed you," Akeno said. "But she'd get over it."
This time, I let her have the last word, leaning back on one of the tables as she swept out of the room.
A bead of sweat trickled down my brow.
I wasn't being a bitch just because of the weight pressing down on me, no matter what it seemed like. Oh, the pressure of all my memories, all fresh and repackaged into my skull certainly made it easier, but there was a point to it all.
I was testing my limits, seeing how far I could push each of them, how much rope they were willing to spool out. Because enough rope to hang yourself with, was also usually enough to climb down from a window.
As long as you didn't mind the drop.
Maybe it wasn't smart to push Akeno so far. It felt like she had nearly as many skeletons in her closet as I did, but it was important to know exactly how long Rias's words would stay her hand.
And it was important to distract her as well.
With a grunt, I levered myself upright, more beads of sweat forming on my brow.
If she'd been paying attention, she'd have noticed the bug of my own 'magic' that I'd placed on her shirt, before it crawled up under her collar.
I stumbled across the room to the door, leaning my head against the wood as I tried to force my power to do what I wanted, reaching for all of those countless memories of when I'd controlled a million—a billion—more insects than this one.
And then the static in my head snapped into place.
"—understand why you keep taking the bait, Akeno." That was Rias. Her voice was quieter. If she moved to far away from my bug, I probably wouldn't be able to hear her at all. "It's obvious that she's just saying things to mess with you."
"My, my, you're too forgiving, prez. Worms need to be stepped on to remember their place."
I heard Rias laugh. "And you wonder why she doesn't like you."
"I…" Akeno paused. I heard the fabric of her clothing rustle as she shifted. "I don't care what she says about me, but being so mean to my King, even after you've bent over backwards for her? I can't stand it!"
"Are you sure it's not because she's not a cute little boy like Kiba?" Rias asked. "He was even more aggressive when we found him, swinging around his holy swords even though they burned in his hands." She paused. "Taylor's just a bit…prickly."
"Hmph." Akeno shifted again. "Kiba had a reason for behaving like that."
"I'm sure Taylor does to," Rias said. My eyes opened in surprise. "She fell out of a hole in the air, Akeno, with one arm burned off at the elbow and two bullets in her head. That doesn't just happen to people."
"…Still, she could be more civil."
I heard Rias sigh gently. "You shouldn't be so upset that she got the drop on me, Akeno. I was the one who sent you to get some spare clothes after all."
The black-haired girl's silence was reply enough.
"Honestly," Rias said. "I think everything that happened there was a good thing."
"A good thing? Prez, are you sure she didn't hit you in the head?"
"Mou, Akeno, I'm not that much of a ditz." I could practically hear the pout in her voice. "It's just that, she showed me that I need to work on my awareness some. Even with my power of destruction, if someone gets too close to me, things could be difficult."
"My, but isn't that what your big sister is always telling you?" Akeno tittered, the noise spiked the throbbing in my skull. The magic was slipping away from me as the two girls walked farther down the halls of the mansion.
"…Well yes, but Grayfia didn't almost throw me through a wall to demonstrate."
"So, you're saying you didn't listen."
"You don't have to be so mean…" Rias said. "But I think it says good things about Taylor as well."
Akeno didn't say anything to that.
"Think about it!" Rias continued. "She was smart enough to trick me, but even when she got the drop on me, she didn't try to finish the job, instead all she did was try to leave. Even if she had only figured out how to enhance her strength, if she decided to attack me instead… Well, I'm not very good at close quarters fighting." Rias sighed. "Just another thing to work on before I start doing rating games…"
There was another pause. "I'm sure Lady Grayfia will be more than happy to assist you with your training." I could hear the teasing lilt to Akeno's voice.
"That's what I'm afraid—"
I blinked as the connection suddenly cut out. The last thing I'd heard, other than the words, was something that could have been a door opening.
Perhaps they'd passed through some kind of barrier. Or else that was just the limit of my range, less than the size of a house.
With a huff, I let myself sink down to the ground.
My hair was damp with sweat. I swiped at it, angrily, pushing lanky strands out of my eyes. Beyond that, there was a headache pounding staccato at my temples, and every time I blinked it would reach down to scrape against the backs of my eyes like rusty knives.
All of this just from using my power to make a single bug—not even a bug, just a mass of concentrated energy on legs—to listen in on a conversation a few yards away. Utterly useless.
I dug my palms into my forehead.
Rias said that devil magic was based on imagination, which is how I'd faked a brute rating back when Rias and I were having tea. But she'd undersold it. Saying that I could manipulate this power with imagination was like saying you passed a test by imagining the correct answers.
Even though I'd spent years controlling bugs and listening through them, it took all of my concentration to keep that little black speck of energy coherent. If I'd spend any less time and energy immersed in my power, I probably wouldn't have been able to pull it off at all.
I hoped that Rias and Akeno hadn't noticed when my control had lapsed. The bug was meant to disperse silently, but...
Well, I was hardly a master of this new ability.
With a sigh, I pushed myself awkwardly to my feet. My headache wasn't really fading, but it was something I could handle. What was more difficult was the sudden exhaustions that seemed to radiate out from inside of me. I felt like I'd just finished the fight against Leviathan.
I managed to stagger over to the ensuite bathroom, yet another mark in Rias's favor. Under a blast of hot water, I went back over my situation once more.
I'd been skeptical of Rias, both her story and her intentions, at the start. For all that she didn't seem like a good actor, I still wasn't sure if I could trust her. I'd been burned by people I thought were my friends in the past, after all.
But her story, on the other hand, was proving remarkably consistent. Beyond just the batwings, the various powers that Rias had demonstrated, along with the reticent versatility of my own 'power'? They felt nothing like Scion's shards. Maybe I could buy that she was like Myrrdin, but Akeno too, and me?
The roaring hellscape we'd ridden the carriage through on the way to the Gremory estate had helped quell some of those doubts as well. Which made sense, if Rias was trying to prove that she really was a devil.
It had also…been a bit since I'd last had a hot shower.
Slowly, I relaxed my hand from where I'd braced it against the shower wall. If only the rest of me would follow suit so easily.
My thoughts ran in circles, as the water cascaded down my back, but I didn't make any headway on the problems currently facing me.
Not for the first time since I'd been healed, I wished I could somehow talk to Lisa. Even if she couldn't plan us a way out of this mess, if she were here, I'd know all the players at least. As it was, I was groping around in the dark, trying to figure out lies from truth when my captors controlled all access to new information.
Listless, I turned off the shower and dried myself, redressing in the same long-sleeved white shirt and jeans I'd been given as soon as we'd arrived at this Mansion. The closet, according to Rias, was well stocked, but I wasn't really feeling like it.
Or ever, when it came to clothes.
I snorted when I thought about how much more work I'd put into my Villain and Hero costumes than I'd ever spent on my normal wardrobe. Though, to be clear, it wasn't as if I'd ever had much of a civilian life even before my identity had been outed.
The room was silent as I exited the bath. Idly, I wrapped my hair in the towel as I walked over to the window. There was no latch, I noted, and the protective magic or whatever other defense it had was only more obvious up close. It probably also had something like bullet proof glass as well, just to add insult to injury if I ever bother to try to smash it.
Beyond there was an expansive garden of the Gremory estate, stretching as far as I could see from this second story window. Beyond that, I knew, Hell actually started to look the part, but at the moment it almost felt like I could be at a room Versailles.
Then a knock came to the door.
I stilled, before pulling the Towel off of my hair and tossing it on the bed. "Come in," I said.
The door opened to reveal a woman in a maid uniform. She slipped into the room with grace, door shutting silently behind her.
"Good afternoon, Miss Hebert," she said. Her voice was smooth and elegant, though her face betrayed only a perfunctory disinterest. "I am Grayfia, the head maid of this estate. It would be my pleasure to assist you should you have any need."
Grayfia? Wasn't that Rias's older sister, just going from the snippet of conversation that I'd overheard. I was immediately on guard.
For one thing, they looked nothing alike. Rias was redhaired, and looked soft and cuddly, while Grayfia's features were longer, more elegant. Her hair was silver-white to Rias's red, and her features were placid while Rias always seemed to wear her heart on her sleeve.
"It's a pleasure to meet you," I said. Perhaps this was an elaborate joke the devils were playing on me, but I couldn't see the point.
If this woman was Rias's older sister, and one that Rias spoke of with respect as well, then my behavior here could have far more consequences than I was comfortable with.
Grayfia sketched a brief curtsey at my reply, little more than a slight swish of her skirts. "Should you have need, please pull the bell rope by your bedside, and I or one of the other Maids will come to assist you," she said. "Now, I will give you a tour of the mansion."
The way she said it made it sound like anything but a question. For a moment, I was tempted to try testing her limits as well, as I had with Rias and Akeno, but I took one more look at her and gave it up as a bad job.
My two primary captors were still teenagers, and even if Rias was putting up a front, she still had her image of a caring master to maintain. This woman, on the other hand, was anything but a child.
"My thanks," I said, still eyeing the woman. "We can start whenever you'd like."
If Grayfia was annoyed by my stare, she didn't show it, instead remaining in the perfect poise of a maid as she led me out of the room.
"Lady Rias has requisitioned this wing of the mansion for your use," Grayfia said. "The doors to other wings, as well as to the third floor, will be locked. Please do not test them, the staff of the Gremory clan takes such matters seriously."
I nodded, staying silent as she gave me a brief tour of the nearby rooms. There were several larger ones dedicated to Rias's rather extensive collection of movies and shows, as well as nearly a two dozen bedrooms.
There was also, I noticed, two doors near where I'd lost connection with Rias and Akeno, perhaps one even held the portal back to the school where'd I'd first awoken. Grayfia didn't explain either of them, nor any of the myriad of locked doors defining the edges of my prison.
But only those two doors stood out to me. One, perhaps the one that had cut off my little spying attempt, looked the same as any other. Locked, of course, and I'd never been good with picks even if I had the material for them.
The other door though, was personalized, painted a lighter color, with some cute flowery decorations around the edges.
It looked like the door to someone's room.
I found myself back in front of it about half an hour after the tour had finished. It was also locked, right across from what I'd marked as the portal door in my own head. Reaching out, I hesitated a moment before rapping out a pattern on the light wood.
Tap tap taptap tap
For a few moments, I waited in silence, until…
Tap Tap.
Well now, I thought with a smile. Wasn't that interesting.
- #3
"So," I said. "Are you stuck here too?"
In front of me was a door, painted lighter than the rest of the doors in the Gremory Mansion. On the other side of that door was another person, who, maybe, was just as stuck here as I was.
Unfortunately, that person didn't reply to my words. "Leaving me out here all alone?" I asked. Then I rapped out shave and a haircut again.
Tap taptaptap tap
A pause
Tap tap
"Your turn," I said.
There was the sound of fingers drumming against the wood, as if in thought, and I smiled. The person on the other side of the door felt shy, but at the same time I could tell they were craving companionship.
Of course they were, if they'd been here alone for all this time.
After a few seconds more, the other person responded.
Tap tap tap tap…taptap
I frowned, thinking. Was that…My Country Tis of Thee? That seemed like a pretty big jump in difficulty.
Still I replied in kind, humming along with the percussion.
Sweet land of liberty
And together we both finished.
Of thee I sing
I laughed. "That was a good one, I'm gonna pick a harder one too now, if that's okay." After a moment I added. "One knock for yes, two for no?"
Tap.
"Okay."
On one hand, I felt as though I was being childish. But for the first time since I'd woken up, I didn't feel entirely isolated in this new world. And if this new person was shy, or couldn't talk, or anything like that…well, at least they were there.
Maybe they were only humoring me as much as I was humoring them.
"My name is Taylor, by the way," I said, as I rapped out another rhythm. This one took my mystery friend a little longer to solve. "I'm…new here, have you been here a long time?"
One knock for yes.
"Do you like it?" I asked quietly.
Tap tap tap.
I raised an eyebrow. "You know, this would be easier if we could talk…"
"Ah, um," a soft, airy voice came from behind the door. "Sorry?"
"It's not a big deal," I said. "I probably surprised you when I came up and knocked, didn't I?"
There was a tiny meep of agreement. I held back a scoff. But she sounded like a kid, maybe thirteen at the oldest. It wouldn't cost much to cut her a bit of slack. "Uwaaa…you must think I'm so weird."
Make that a lot of slack.
"I don't think you're weird," I said. Then I let out a sigh, turning to lean against the door. "It must be hard, being stuck here."
"Mmm," she replied. "But big sis Rias visits a lot, and she's really nice. I like the mansion better than staying at the school. I moved here about a week ago."
"She…kept you at the school."
"Yeah!" the girl said. "Rias came to talk every day, but the room here is a lot smaller!"
"You like the smaller room?"
"It's safe, and I have enough room for my box, too!"
I rubbed my forehead as I tried to parse that little statement. On one hand, I really hadn't been expecting Rias to treat any of her other servants worse than she treated me, and given that I had a whole two floors of a mansion to run around in…
On the other hand, I wasn't expecting one of said servants to be a literal shut in. Even Alec hadn't been close to this bad, and he was on the run from Heartbreaker.
"Is it a nice box?" I managed after a second.
"Yep! I always keep the best ones." She sounded so proud of the fact. If it was anyone else, I'd suspect that they were mocking me, but this girl just sounded so guileless. Kind of, I noted, like everyone else I'd met in connection to Rias.
Except for Grayfia.
I bit the corner of my lip. "Rias gave me a very nice room too, along with most of the wing."
"…it's scary out there though…" I could hear the pout in her voice.
That got a weary smile from me. "It is, isn't it," I said. "But you can't stay locked away for your entire life."
"…I can't?"
"So, what do you think of Rias?" I asked.
"She's really nice," the girl replied immediately. "She saved my life."
I hummed. "She does seem to do that a lot," I said. "But why did she decide to lock you up here?"
"I…wanted to be," the voice says softly. "I can't control my sacred gear. I can hurt people and it wasn't very nice, so Rias gave me a nice cozy room to stay in."
"That sounds nice." Sacred gear? I filed the thought away for later.
"Yep! She even gives me lots of books to read and things like that too."
I nodded to myself. I'd seen the books Rias had on the shelves of various rooms. Almost all of them were comic books, but in Japanese style. I remembered them gaining a lot of popularity right after Leviathan sank Kyushu, before slowly fading back into obscurity as the industry died alongside the country that had birthed it.
The genre was not, in a word, my cup of tea.
But all the same I was here, trapped in the mansion girl whose idea of quality literature involved pictures, and talking to a random individual through a locked door.
"Are you still there?" the girl asked after a second.
I sighed. "Yeah, sorry, I'm not bothering you, am I? I guess I should probably go." And do anything actually productive with my time, instead of being stuck here, thinking in circles for another hour.
Instead of playing pattycake with a door.
But before I could take a step, "Wait! You don't have to go." I paused at the girl's voice. "You…weren't bothering me, please don't leave."
I sighed again. "I'm sorry," I said. "That was very rude of me. I'm just not at my best, right now."
"…Want to talk about it?" she asked. "Valerie always said 'a problem shared is a problem halved…' or something like that?"
I allowed myself a chuckle. "I wouldn't want to crush you under the weight of my concerns," I said, dryly.
The girl laughed awkwardly in response. After a beat, I added. "Thank you for offering, though. It means something."
"Okay," her voice was soft, "Um…where are you from, Taylor."
I clicked my tongue. "A different world," I said. There wasn't any point in hiding it, Rias already knew after all. "I was shot and dumped here for Rias to resurrect, or something to that effect."
There was a moment of silence. "I died too," she said, "before Rias saved me." She let out a sharp breath. "It was really scary…"
I huffed. "Was it?" I said softly. "I'm sorry, I'm sure it was very frightening."
"Wasn't it the same for you?"
"Can you keep a secret?" I asked. "I don't really want to share this around, not even to Rias, about the way I died."
She made a noise of assent.
I shook my head. "I was ready at the end," I said. "Not happy, but…I accepted my end, and I waited for it to come to me." I allowed myself a small smirk. "Clearly, I wasn't expecting to get swept up by a devil."
The girl laughed, but it was a fragile thing. This entire conversation left me feeling raw, scrapped clean like a hide ready to be tanned. I hadn't expected to find such a deep connection, especially not with some random girl on the other side of a locked door.
But dying was the greatest equalizer.
"I…was killed by Vampire hunters," she confided.
I blinked. I'd thought that everyone here would be a devil, but then, if I was going to tentatively accept their existence, it only made sense that there might be other things that go bump in the night. "I'm sorry," I said. "You sound like a very nice vampire."
"I'm a dhampir…" she murmured. Half vampires existed too?
"It sounds like they went after the wrong person to me," I said. "You seem very sweet. And as a dhampir, do you even need to drink human blood?"
"I haven't ever. Uwaaa it sounds scary," she said.
"So that would be a no then," I said, holding back a chuckle. "Still, I'm glad we got to meet, either way."
"Me too…" she murmured. "Um…Taylor?"
I hummed.
"…can you stay, for a little bit?"
I smiled at that. "It's not like I have anywhere to go," I said. "I'm stuck here just as much as you are." Maybe more, considering that this dhampir girl seemed to like Rias a fair bit more than I did.
She didn't say anything at first, but then. "If you could, would you leave?"
I blinked slowly. The idea that this could be some elaborate trap came back to me. But, on the other hand, what did it matter if I told Rias I wanted to leave? I'd already made my intentions more than clear to her directly.
And I was tired of lying to people most of all.
"Yeah," I said after a moment. "You don't have to worry about that though; this place is locked down tighter than Fort Knox."
I was better at breaking and entering than I really should be, considering how many times I'd found my way into and out of protectorate bases without permission. But the staff at the Gremory mansion were on a whole different level.
"Why?" she blurted. "It's so scary out there! Rias keeps asking me to come with her to classes, but I don't wanna…"
I couldn't help but laugh at that. "Rias really found quite a pair, didn't she?" I asked. "She locked me up so that I couldn't run away, and she locked you up because you wouldn't."
The next time her voice came very quietly. "Actually…the locks are on the inside of my door…"
I rolled my eyes, an amused smile rolling across my face. "Okay," I said. "I can lock my door too, though I don't think it would make much of a difference if anyone in the mansion wanted to get inside."
"Meep!"
There was a flicker of something, as the door grew cold beneath my back. I stiffened, pulling away, but the effect only lasted for a handful of seconds, before it went back to normal.
"What was that about," I murmured.
"Sorry!"
I ran a hand through my hair. I hadn't expected the girl to hear, but it turned out her ears were a lot sharper than mine. I frowned. Was it because she was a dhampir, or because she was a devil? My eyes had been able to see in the dark after I'd been resurrected. Was there any reason the rest of my senses shouldn't have been affected?
"It's no problem," I said. "I just noticed that the door got cold for a second. Was that you?"
After a moment, she spoke again. "Yes…" she said. "It was my Sacred Gear. Like I said, I still can't really…control it."
I flexed my knuckles. "What is a Sacred Gear, by the way?" I asked, "I haven't heard of them before."
"Oh, uh…" I could almost hear the girl scrunching her features up cutely as she tried to think of an explanation. "I think Valerie said that they were shards of God's—ouch!"
I hissed as well as she said the word 'god.' A master effect?
"Ooohh, I keep forgetting," she mumbled. "Dummy, of course you can't say his name."
"Oh," I shook my head. "Right, we're devils now…" I suppose it made about as much sense as a master effect centered on…a random word, right? "Does it always hurt?"
"Rias said you get used to it…" she replied. "But Sacred Gears are part of his power, they grant powerful abilities to the people who are born with them. But…sometimes they can be difficult..."
My thoughts went back to my experiences as the Warlord of Brockton Bay. "I think I understand what you mean. Sometimes powers are just to big for the person who wields them." Leet and Panacea came to mind first and foremost. "But I guess that means it's different from normal devil power? I heard that our powers could mutate us into monsters, if we don't have our…master nearby to keep us stable."
And how that was going to work with Rias at her school and the two of us at her mansion, I hadn't asked. Mainly because I thought it would be an amusing way to go out, if turned into an insane giant bug and rampaged through her house.
"Mmm, it's really scary…" the dhampir replied. "It's not actually devil power though, I think…? It's actually because of the Evil Piece that Rias used to resurrect us as devils."
Something inside of me went cold.
"We're not used to so much devil mana…I still feel weird sometimes. Sometimes I'm scared, but I know Big Sis Rias is there to make sure I don't get too much mana or anything like that! So, I'm sure we'll be okay, right?"
I didn't say anything.
It was part of the resurrection process. Of course it was. That certainly made a lot more sense than our new powers overwhelming us. Rias had made it seem inevitable.
But then, that would be the case, if the source of power was external, constantly pumping energy into us until our forms warped and broke down around us, until our minds went all twisty and screwy on the inside, until nothing remained of us but monsters.
Shards could do much the same thing, after all.
I doubted Rias had designed such a system, she seemed in turns too kind and too laid back to think of such an insidious control method.
But I was still the one stuck holding the bag.
"…Taylor, are you still there?"
"Yes." I said.
There was an eep of surprise, and then a shuffle as the girl pulled back from the door.
I sighed. "I'm sorry," I said. At once I felt exhausted by the situation, and it didn't seem worth the effort of keeping it out of my voice. "I'm not mad at you. It's just…this entire situation. I was led to believe that losing control of myself was an inherent part of being a devil. Instead, it was designed."
There was no reply.
After a moment, I stood, brushing off my jeans. "I should—" I was about to say 'go' but there was a click, like a lock spinning in a latch, and the door pulled open behind me.
Before I could so much as blink, a small form had slammed into my back, wrapping slender arms around me in a hug.
The girl barely came up to my shoulder blades, but her grip was strong despite her size.
She was warm.
I'd expected a vampire devil to be cold, like the fairy tales, but this was the opposite. With a sign, I relaxed into her hug.
I didn't want to think about how long it had been.
Instead I patted her hands, rubbing my thumb against the back of her wrist. "I really wasn't mad at you," I said. "You didn't have to come outside for me."
She makes an inarticulate sound, burying her face into my back.
"Want to go back inside?" I asked.
A nod.
I huffed out a laugh.
Spinning in her embrace, I swept up the smaller girl and shuffled us both back into her room, kicking the door shut behind me. Ignoring the atomic blush or the meaningless sounds coming from my cargo, I set the girl down gently on one of the couches near the door, giving her a brief once over.
She was every bit as pretty as I'd expected, with porcelain skin and pale blonde hair. Really, if you ignored the crimson eyes, she looked more like an angel than any sort of vampire.
She was peeking up at me from behind her fingers too.
Holding back a sigh, I allowed myself a gentle smile. "It's nice to meet you," I said, "in person, that is."
Slowly, she reached out, shaking my hand. This time, her grip was a tender, delicate thing. It didn't mesh with the strength she'd showed earlier, and for a moment I wondered if it was a vampire thing.
I let go after a second, settling into the chair opposite as the girl tried to come up with something to say. Cleary, she hadn't thought of anything past getting back into the safety of her room.
Though, that didn't change the one thing that had been niggling at the back of my mind for a while now. "Are all devils as pretty as you?" I asked. "Because otherwise I'm gonna feel like an odd one out pretty quickly. Please tell me it's just a vampire thing."
She blushed at my compliment slash ice breaker, wiggling slightly in her seat. "Y-you're really pretty too, Taylor." A pause. "Fwaaa! I didn't—I just—!"
I blinked as she practically threw herself across the room into a small carboard box. It rocked back as she flew into it, flaps folding shut after her.
"Ah I can't believe I said that," she whined, box shuddering on the carpet. With an amused huff I went over patted the cardboard lid.
Really, not even Imp had been this high maintenance.
"Thanks for the compliment, but I know that's really not true," I said with a smile. "I'm pretty average, but Devils…it seems kinda unfair actually. If all the girls were as cute as you, I might start to feel a bit left behind."
There was a pause, then, her head popped up out of the box.
How the hell did she even fit into it though.
"Actually…it's all from our self-image?" she said. "Devils' change to match their desires, or well, if the desires are too strong they can go crazy…"
I blinked. To be completely honest, the more I heard about these powers of mine, the less sense they made.
"Also," she said, "I'm actually a boy…?"
I blinked. "Really?"
She—he nodded. "My name is Gaspar…"
I thought about it for a moment, but then, even if it was a surprise given his looks, it's not like I was part of the E88 or anything stupid like that.
Reaching out, I ruffled his hair. "You're a very cute boy."
"Meep," a shudder of something passed over me at his words, as if I blinked.
When my eyes opened again, he'd moved slightly, almost instantly, twisting his head as if he couldn't decide whether he wanted to pull away from my hand or push into it.
"Um…" he said, cheeks flushing.
Honestly, his voice was so soft that if he hadn't told me directly I never would have guessed his gender. I sighed, before giving him a smile and continuing to pat the cute little dhampir's hair.
After a moment, he melted, butting his head into my palm.
He really must have been starved for affection, but then, even with what little he'd told me about himself, it sounded like he'd lived a rather hard life. I wouldn't begrudge him a bit of kindness now, of all times.
Besides that, he'd given me plenty to think about. My hand slowed and my thoughts whirled as I went over the implications of everything Gaspar had told me.
"Mou, Taylooooor!" He whined, pouting at me.
I coughed, looking away from his swimming red eyes, and continued to pat.
- #4
"Like this?"
I waved a hand through the air, furrowing my brow. A magic circle flickered into existence above my palm. For a moment, a small mote of light, a dancing will-o'-the-wisp hovered in the air. Then with a pop, the entire spell destabilized.
I hissed, rubbing my forehead. The feedback still threw me for a loop, like a thinker headache.
"Nuh uh." Gasper flicked a glance up at my hand, before snuggling deeper into my lap. I was reclined on his couch, and Gasper had pillowed his head on my thighs. I wasn't quite sure how I'd gotten into this situation, but at least I was learning a thing or two about magic.
Yes, it still could have been an odd combination of powers that was responsible for my new abilities, but really, at this point Occam's Razor just cut that to shreds.
"What am I doing wrong?" I asked. Unconsciously, my hand came up to stroke his hair, like how I remembered Mom doing as she read to me at night. "I thought that Devil magic was based on visualization."
"Mmfphm."
I paused. "Gasper."
He turned, one maroon eye peeking up at me from beneath blonde bangs. "Why'd you stooop...?"
With a huff, I started stroking his hair again, rolling my eyes as the boy snuggled back into my stomach. He'd taken a moment to switch into a conservative nightgown. It was airy and made of white gossamer, making him look more like a fairy or a princess than a dhampir.
"You said you'd help me with magic," I tried.
He shrugged languidly. "It's more… imagination. Knowing how things work is hard, but if you can… immm…" He yawned cutely, rubbing at an eye. "Imagine it… your magic'll fill in the gaps."
I blinked, turning that thought over in my head. "Just imagination, huh?" I tilted my head back, left hand still idly parting Gasper's ash blond hair. "Have I been overthinking it the whole time?"
Maybe Devil Magic had more in common with powers than I first thought.
With a hum, I held out my hand again. This time, I focused less on the mechanics of the light, and more on the idea. I'd felt a thousand sources of light, from the dimly flickering candle in a powerless city to the burning golden light of Scion the moment your body was scoured from existence.
I'd even created most of those lights, feeling the odd not-feedback passengers gave when directing us to use their abilities.
Albeit secondhand.
The circle sprang into existence over my hand, and I pushed that image into the real world, letting go of my understanding of photons and combustion. Oh I used some of it, just enough to shape the final product, but the rest?
Pure fancy.
A soft golden light blossomed into existence over my palm.
I frowned. "You know, I feel kinda dumb now."
"Hmmmm?" Gasper turned his head lazily. "Oh, you did it. Yaaaay…" His cheer morphed into a yawn halfway through. "Good… work?"
I snorted. "You could sound a bit more enthusiastic."
"MmMm." He shook his head. I wiggled as his nose brushed against my stomach, then sighed. Somehow, I felt that this should feel way more scandalous than it actually did. Maybe it was just because Gasper was so harmless. He triggered all those protective instincts I thought I didn't have.
With a flick of my wrist, I cut off the light, rolling my hand in the air. "It took more energy though." Even compared to my insect construct before, the light was an energy hog, quickly eating through what remained of my internal reservoir.
"Yeah." Gasper turned slightly, violet eye peeking up from beneath his fringe. "The more you understand your magic, the less power it takes. That's kinda… the same?" He gave a little shrug, fluffy nightgown floofing around his shoulders. "I dunno."
I raised an eyebrow. "You don't know?"
"Magic's too easy…"
I huffed. Of course my first tutor would turn out to be a savant. I guess that was it for my instruction, huh? I'd be left to figure out the rest on my own, not that it was anything new.
I shifted into a more comfortable position, forming light over my hands a few more times. Now that I'd gotten the trick down, it was a lot easier. Honestly, I could probably make a dozen of the little tracker bugs I'd used to eavesdrop on Rias and Akeno yesterday with half of the effort the first one took me. The only reason I'd even managed that was because I knew bugs.
Probably better than anyone else alive.
"Still," I mused, "it's hardly free." The less I understood, the more energy it would take? I was just now getting a sense of how much 'magic' I had access to. It was hardly an ocean. "Guess you spoiled me, huh, passenger."
No response.
"Whazzat?"
I jolted slightly, before I realized it was only Gasper's voice. I laughed. "Nothing, just… thinking out loud."
A single purple eye peeked up at me for a long moment before drifting shut.
"M'kay."
I huffed out another laugh as he butted his head against my hand aggressively—or at least, as aggressively as I'd seen Gasper do anything, until I continued petting him.
No but really, how did I end up in this situation?
"So…" I paused for a second. "You said Magic is too easy. Is that why you're staying here?"
Gasper stilled. I just continued passing my hand through his hair. It was as light and fine as spider silk. And like I just said, I would know.
"Kinda," he said at last. "I can't really control my power. It just goes off, if I feel scared." His voice went soft at that, like a kitten.
I hummed. That would probably be bad. "Do you mind if I ask what it does?"
He didn't say anything for a long minute. That was fine, I was used to waiting.
Oh, I hated it, but I was used to it by now.
"My Sacred Gear, Hidden Balor View, can stop time for whatever I'm looking at."
I blinked, something clicking into place. "Is that what happened to the door earlier?"
"Meep." He ducked head even deeper, somehow, into my stomach. "U-uh, maybeeee?"
"Huh." I shrugged. "That does seem pretty strong." And also, rather dangerous if he couldn't control it. Forget just stopping people in their tracks, what if it went off in a busy intersection? Depending on the exact mechanics, it could hurt a lot of people even by accident.
"I-it doesn't hurt to get stopped in time!" he said.
I looked back down. "Hmm?"
"I just… pause them. Then when I stop using my sacred gear, they go back to normal." The violet eye peeked up at me. "You're not… mad, right?"
I paused for a second, before an amused smile broke out over my face. "Why would I be mad?" I knew a thing or two about being stuck with a power before. Even if I'd grown to love my passenger in time.
I'm sure Gasper would get there eventually. Though hopefully his 'sacred gear' didn't have some weird alien intelligence tacked onto it like my power did.
"Have you practiced it?" I asked. "I mean, something like that, surely there's got to be ways to block it, or else people would just run around throwing time magic everywhere."
Powers were one thing, since they were all unique. But magic…
Well, I guess I still didn't know enough about how magic worked to make any blanket assumptions. Some days, I really missed having Lisa around.
"Not really." He shrugged again. "It's scary."
I gave a light huff. "Just like the outside huh?"
Gasper nodded.
I laughed again.
Still the thought tickled something in the back of my head. Grey Boy had been insanely powerful, and even if Gasper's power didn't come with the inherent invulnerability that Grey Boy had possessed, even just the offensive aspect of time manipulation sent my mind racing.
Fighting capes had kinda been my job for the last two and a half years of my life, after all.
"Wanna try using it on me?"
He stiffened.
"What?" I continued stroking his hair casually. "You just said it didn't hurt, right? I want to see more magic, and you have to practice with your sacred gear, or else you'll never get out of this room. Seems like a win-win to me."
"What if I don't want to leave my room?" he muttered mulishly.
"Well," I said. "Eventually I'm going to have to leave. I mean, I doubt Rias will let me stay here forever. She doesn't like me as much as you."
Or rather, I hadn't given her any reason to like me. I could own up to that at least.
"I'll ask to let you stay."
I stopped, glancing down at Gasper. "This isn't going to turn into one of those 'you're not allowed to leave' things, is it?"
He turned, eyes blinking up at me in confusion. "What do you mean?"
I smiled. "Never you mind." I brushed his bangs away from his picture-perfect face. He was just so aesthetically pleasing. How unfair. "Still, don't you think it's a good idea to practice?" When he looked like he was wavering, I added, "I'm sure Rias won't make you leave your room until you want to, but wouldn't it be nice to have an option?"
He bit his lip, before nodding. "Okay."
"Great, so—"
"OkayI'mgonnausemysacredgearBalorView!"
I had just enough time to blink before his eyes flashed a burning crimson and—
—then they went back to normal.
"Guh." I half-tilted to the side, hand pressing against my head. "I… almost felt that." There was a jarring sense of dysphoria, like everything but me had shifted and I was playing catch-up. The way Gasper had shifted position in front of me was jarring enough, I didn't need to feel it in my bones as well.
Gasper continued biting his lip, looking up at me with worried eyes.
I sighed, reaching out to stroke his hair again. "Don't worry, I'm not mad." I asked for it after all. I just hadn't expected it to be so immediate.
Still, there were a few things I wanted to… try.
"Wanna take another shot?"
He tilted his head. "Uh…"
I shrugged. "You don't have to, but it's an interesting ability. I want to see if I can block it."
"Um, Taylor, you're kinda a new devil, aren't you?" He shifted, half rolling over just so he could poke his fingers together. "Sacred Gears are kinda really strong, too. I don't think most people can just stop a Sacred Gear."
I shrugged. "Then I'll know what not to do in the future. Now come on, if you don't, I won't give you any more head pats."
Gasper quailed, eyes growing misty.
My resolve crumpled. "For the next five minutes."
He held my gaze for a moment longer, before giving up. "Fine, but!" He rolled up to his knees, pointing a finger at me imperiously. "I-I want double head pats. For the next five, no t-ten minutes afterwards."
I blinked. "I… didn't know you liked them so much."
He paused, shrinking into himself a bit. "You give really good scritches."
"Are you a dhampir or a cat?"
"Uhuh." He shook his head. "Koneko is the cat."
"Ko—neko." I tilted my head. The real trip was my new metal translation software (that came part of being a Devil of course!) translating that name to kitten, but, well… it was hardly the weirdest thing I'd heard all day. "Okay, you've got a deal."
Gasper smiled. "Let's go!"
I nodded, turning my focus inward. During Gold Morning, I'd… experienced my fair share of invulnerability powers. Gavel, Mord Naag, even Alexandria.
Or well, what was left of her, anyway.
Now, those memories were opaque, clouded behind the veil of my own mind breaking as I became my passenger became me like an ouroboros devouring its own tail. But there was still enough left for me to parse.
It felt like I had about half of my magical 'tank' left; hopefully that would be enough to do what I wanted.
I took a deep breath, focusing on making myself immutable. Sure, maybe the original powers I was drawing from wouldn't have stopped Grey Boy, but from the inside, they certainly didn't feel that way. They felt indomitable, invulnerable. A great proclamation of 'I Am Here' and daring the world to make you move.
And since devil magic was all about imagination…
I felt my magic flowing out of me at a precipitous rate, and my skin began to glow from the potency of my defenses. I gave Gasper a nod and—
I came to on my back, staring up at the ceiling from where I'd collapsed on the couch. "Ugh." I rubbed my head. "What happened?"
"Um." I lifted my head at Gasper's words. "The spell you had kinda shattered instantly?"
I let out a huff. "So much for that." Guess these Sacred Gears really were something special. Still. I'd taken out Lung with bugs. I could handle some weird time power, now that I had access to potentially every power I'd ever seen.
It was all down to imagination, after all.
But one thing at a time, Taylor. You'll be back to dropping biblical plagues on unsuspecting cities in no time.
I pushed myself upward, scratching the back of my head. "It looks like the direct approach is out."
Gasper nodded. "My Balor View stopped time for everything I can. Even Rias can't stop it."
"Well at least I'm not alone in…" I trailed off, something about his words tickling something in the back of my head. "It stops time for everything you can see?"
"Yep." He nodded, bob bouncing around his cheeks.
I frowned.
I'd already been comparing Gasper to Grey Boy in my own head. Now that I'd been hit with his power twice, I could say that they really weren't all that similar from the point of view of the target. But for Gasper and Grey Boy…
My eyes widened as I remembered what was bugging me.
Flechette—Foil, by then—dodging Grey Boy's power. She'd been a step back, an inch shy of eternal oblivion. But from the perspective of Grey Boy and Jack Slash…
I tilted my head, imagining myself standing on the other end of that alley, during that final battle with Jack, the one that had set off the Final Battle of All.
From Grey Boy's point of view, he hit. All he could see was Flechette, screaming inside of a grey cloud, just like so many victims before him.
I held that double image in my head, imagining that separation. Everything within his sight. But just take a step back, leaving just the image of yourself behind—no, that was getting too specific, it would fall apart.
The paradox was the key to it. The moment you could explain it away, it would pop like a bubble of soap.
Instead, I just held that moment inside myself, the idea of being seen but not seen, of being hit but not hit.
A spiraling circle of deep purple blossomed out from beneath my feet, spinning like a pinwheel. "Okay." I nodded. "Hit me."
Gasper looked at me for a moment, but luckily, he didn't wait until I ran out of juice. "Here I go!"
His eyes flashed red, like a burning star was forming inside of his pupils. The only difference, this time, was that I actually saw the fire consume his irises, burning like an inferno. I felt the power wash over me, catching me in its grasp.
But then I moved.
Gasper's eyes widened, mouth popping open.
I was caught but not caught, seen but not seen.
No, don't ask me how it worked. I was just imagining it, after all.
I grinned.
All it took was looking left and right at the same time.
Then Gasper glared, eyes blazing brighter and—
I blinked, catching myself before I could fall. "Ugh." I cracked my neck. "At least I felt my spell popping that time."
And I did, in a sort of déjà vu kind of way. I also felt sore, like I'd just finished a hard workout. "Hmm." I was out of magic, like my protection had tried to draw more to compensate, before being utterly overwhelmed anyway. I had about a drop left.
With a flex of will, I spun that little drop into an inky-black butterfly. It formed perched on my finger, wings flapping softly. I could feel it, much the same as I could feel my old power, back when I was just another parahuman on the streets of Brockton Bay.
"It's a star—"
"Taylor!" Gasper slammed like a missile into my stomach. "How'd you do that?!"
I took a step back, bringing my hands to his shoulders as my little butterfly disappeared in a cloud of smoke. "Uh, do what?"
"Stop my sacred gear!" He looked up at me, eyes wide and hopeful. "Do you, do you think I could do that?"
I blinked, before chuckling. Of course he wanted to learn how to better control his sacred gear. Shut-in or not, being stuck here even if I didn't want to go outside would have to get old eventually. "I'm not sure." I shrugged. "What I did was kind of defend myself from your sacred gear, make it so you… missed, I guess? But then you went and broke through anyway."
"Oh." He looked down, dejected. "So, you're saying it won't work for me?"
"Hey now, I never said that." I guided him back towards the couch. "I'm sure we can figure out a way to make it work for you. And if nothing else, now you have someone to practice your control with who won't be affected by your power."
He nodded, giving me a tight hug. "Thanks, Taylor."
I smiled. "No problem."
Then, with strength that belied his size, he yanked me onto the fluffy duvet of his queen-sized bed. "Now." He looked up at me, violet eyes flashing seriously. "Headpats."
"Um." I glanced over towards the couch, only a few steps away. "How about we—"
He growled. It was a cute growl, like a baby lion trying to intimidate someone. "Now." He pulled at my hand, ducking his head into my collar bone. "You promised."
I sighed. "I did promise." I started patting his head, wondering if this was just a Dhampir thing or if—
"Both hands."
I chuckled, shifting us to a more comfortable position as my other hand came up to join the first. "You're a greedy little thing, aren't you?"
"Don't care, more pats."
I sighed fondly, letting my head fall back on the covers. I'd promised ten minutes of continuous head pats, but Gasper was such a good boy, he probably deserved more like… twenty…?
*~*~*
The sound of giggling woke me.
I opened my eyes groggily, looking up at the hanging canopy of… was it Gasper's bed?
"I wondered where you'd gotten to."
My head snapped up, and I almost jumped out of the bed. But the moment I moved, Gasper's hands tightened around my midsection and he murbled sleepily, holding me down with surprising strength.
Right, Dhampir, or whatever.
I cast my eyes around the room, catching sight of Rias leaning against the door to Gasper's room. She was in the same school uniform that she'd been wearing on our first meeting, complete with the oddly-shaped vest that only served to emphasize her bust.
Honestly, even if joining her peerage had been contingent on me wearing something like that alone, I would have turned her down.
"My, my." She hid a smile behind a politely raised hand. "I didn't expect you to go and sleep with my shiest subordinate the moment I turned my back. You move quickly, Taylor."
I rolled my eyes. "Please, we both know the clothes stayed on."
"Do we?"
I sighed, shifting. When I started to move, Gasper's face scrunched up, so after a moment I settled back to the bed and let him curl up around me again.
I sighed again. "If you're going to play word games I can just go back to sleep, you know."
"No, no!" She waved her hands, still giggling quietly. "I wouldn't have interrupted you, but I make it a habit to spend some time with Gasper every day." She gave him a… complicated look as she came to sit on the opposite side of the bed. "I wish I could do better for him."
"He seems happy enough with his boxes." That much I'd give her. Gasper seemed perfectly content sitting in his room far away from anything and everything else in the entire world. Either that, or he was the best actor I'd ever met. You know, along with everyone else I'd met in this life.
I should probably stop making that comparison before it lost all meaning.
"No Akeno today?" I made a show of glancing towards the door. "Or did she go to spend some time with me in my room?"
"I left her back on Earth." Rias stretched, settling back against one of the columns of the bed. "I mean, it's pretty obvious that you don't get along. I wanted a chance to talk with you again, one on one."
I glanced down at Gasper, still attached to my middle like a limpet.
Rias smiled. "He's a very deep sleeper."
"I'm sure I can wake him up." And be on my way.
She pressed a hand to her cheek. "You'd do that to him? He looks so happy right now though."
I held back a frown, looking away.
Rias giggled. "I knew he'd be able to get through that prickly exterior of yours."
"So you did put him here just to fuck with me?" I asked.
"Hmm? And here I thought you didn't do anything in bed."
"Rias." I turned my eyes back towards her. "If you want to have a frank conversation, I suggest you start now."
She met my gaze for a moment, blue eyes blinking rapidly, before turning away.
"Mou, you're so intense, Taylor." She let out a deep breath, squaring her shoulders. "But I understand. I'll be serious now."
I nodded, looking away again. The girl peeked at me from the corner of her eyes. Part of me wanted to sit there and let her stew, leave her trying to find a way to restart the conversation.
But that hardly seemed fair. And I didn't want to wake Gasper up.
"Get on with it, then."
"Right." Rias nodded. "I wanted to talk to you about joining my peerage."
"I thought I was already a member of your peerage." I raised an eyebrow. "If I didn't sign the right paperwork, we could just call the whole thing off right now, you know."
She huffed, crossing her arms. "Now who's not being serious."
I waved a hand—the one that wasn't pinned beneath Gasper. "Alright then, clarify."
"You're a part of my peerage, but, I mean…" She shrugged. "There's a difference between being a part of my peerage and being a part of what my peerage means to me. I know you don't believe me, but I honestly do view each of you as my family." Rias pressed a hand to her chest. "It's clear that I haven't done everything I can to make your transition as easy as possible. I wanted to try and make that up to you."
"Make that… up to me?" I tilted my head.
"Yes." She nodded. "I mean, I know that I'm acting in your best interest, but I still need to prove that to you. I'm sorry for not taking your concerns more seriously from the start."
I blinked slowly. "So you're asking what you can do, to make me trust you more."
"Exactly." Rias smiled.
"Well, you can let me go, for starters."
A pained look flickered across her face. "Honestly, I would love to do that, but I think for the sake of honesty, I should tell you that I can't."
"Because I'll go crazy and turn into a monster." My voice was as dry as the desert.
"Yes." Rias nodded. "But also, because you've been revived using one of my Evil Pieces." She reached into a pocket, pulling out a small pawn made of crimson glass. "You're a demon now, and you're linked to me by the magic that brought you back to live. I can't undo that, I can't take back the Evil Piece without killing you myself, and that I would refuse to do with every fiber of my being!"
Her eyes flashed up at that last part, as if daring me to gainsay her.
I just sighed. "I would never ask you to kill me." I tilted my head back to look up at the canopy of the bed. "Just that I wouldn't have minded it if you let me die."
"There's a difference?"
I snorted. "Maybe. Maybe not." I shrugged. "I don't think I ever found the answer to that question." Before she could ask what I meant, I added, "and I guess you can't just give away the… piece that brought me back to life?"
"I can trade it." She shrugged. "But even then, you'd just be someone else's property. And, and I'm not the type to trade away my friends like they were just something I owned."
I hummed. "But you do own me, then?"
Rias gave me a conflicted look. "I don't consider myself your owner. But, as far as Devil law is concerned. Yes. I am your master. I am responsible for all of your needs, and actions, and thereby as well the ultimate arbiter of your fate."
I huffed. "Well, you're definitely being honest."
"It seemed like you'd respect a hard truth more than a convenient lie." Rias shrugged. "It's the least I could do."
Was it? I'd done worse for less reason. I could admit that to myself at least.
"So." Rias's head perked up as I spoke. "Let's say my ultimate goal was to be free. And for the sake of the argument, let's assume that I will go crazy if I run away, and you can't let me go without someone picking me up like a discarded toy and doing whatever they wanted with me." I turned to look at Rias. "What would I have to do?"
Rias glanced down, cradling her elbow. "Well… if you were to become a High-Class devil, you'd be granted your own peerage. But even then, you'd still be a part of mine."
I raised an eyebrow. Was the whole thing a pyramid scheme?
"That said, you'd have a lot more autonomy as your own King, even if I could call you back if I needed you for something. I'd tell you that I wouldn't, if you didn't want me to, but well…" She gave me a weak smile. "I guess we're still stuck at the trust part."
I shrugged. "From where I'm standing, anyway."
"Right." Rias sighed. "I suppose, if you became a High-Class Devil, you'd have your own protections as well. The Four Satans prize reincarnated devils that rise above their starting abilities. It's pretty much what the whole Evil Piece system is based on, you know." She shrugged. "After that, if you really wanted to be free of me, you'd have to become even stronger than I was—Ultimate-Class or higher—to the point where your power did more than just reflect well on me. If your power overshadowed my own abilities, then at that point, evil piece or no evil piece, you could do pretty much whatever you wanted."
"And I guess you wouldn't be so happy if I tried to do that, huh?"
"Oh no." Rias shook her head. "I'd support you wholeheartedly if that was your goal. It's just, I'm pretty strong you know? I'm already a High-Class Devil myself, the heiress of the Gremory Family, and I have a really powerful peerage that, you excluded, loves me as much as I love them." She spread her arms. "Asking you to 'beat me'? It doesn't really seem fair, right? Like I'm just arguing in bad faith."
I stared at her for a long moment. "So, you're saying you'll help me get stronger, even if it means I might one day hold you in the same position you're holding me right now?"
"Well, if that position is 'with great care and respect, despite how it seems'? Then yep!" Rias smiled, a bit of her earlier cheer returning. "And hopefully, if you do get that strong, you'll remember me fondly as someone who helped you out, even though it wasn't in my best interest."
I gave a wry chuckle. "Meanwhile, it is in your best interest to have all of your servants be as strong as possible, under the assumption that none of them will turn out to be stronger than you."
"I mean, if that's what I believed, I wouldn't treat Gasper like this." She smiled down at his sleeping form. "He's as powerful as he is precious…"
I raised an eyebrow. "He told me you couldn't control his power."
"That's true." Rias nodded. "But that just means it's not safe for him to be around other people. My own innate defenses are strong enough to overcome Baelor View, and even if they weren't, he can only really use it on one or two people at a time."
"Meaning the rest of your peerage would handle him for you," I said.
"Yeah." Then Rias frowned. "But only if by 'handle' you mean help him calm down and get him somewhere that he feels comfortable!"
I stared at her for a second, trying to parse the disconnect between the highborn demon talking realpolitik and the sheltered girl who insisted she'd swaddle Gasper up in a fluffy blanket if he for whatever reason tried to kill her.
"Who even are you?"
"I'm Rias Gremory." She held out a hand playfully. "I know our first meeting didn't go so well, but still; I'll be in your care!"
I looked at her hand for a long moment before letting out one last sigh. I said I'd stop calling people the best actors I'd ever met. At a certain point, it was much more believable that Rias was just genuine.
And if she wasn't, if she acted this way all the time, was there really a difference? Oh sure, my concerns weren't magically assuaged, but anything would be an improvement over house arrest at this point. And if she was lying, I'd be in a better position to act if it at least looked like I was playing along.
"Alright." I reached out, taking her hand. "I'll take your bet, Rias."
She blinked. "My bet?"
I nodded. "I'm going to become so powerful that I completely overshadow you and your entire peerage."
I smiled as she tilted her head at me in surprise.
"And then we'll see who the two of us really are."
- #5
When the uniforms came out, I finally put my foot down.
"Rias," I said. "I'm not going back to high school."
The devil looked over her shoulder, blinking at me. "Hmm? But my entire peerage goes to Kuoh Academy!" She pouted. "And you'll look so good in this skirt too! Your legs are just amazing."
I sighed. "I already finished high school, and got a GED. The last thing I need is to go back for the third time."
"The third time?" Rias asked.
I pinched my nose. "I stopped going to school for a few months during my sophomore year due to extenuating circumstances. It's not relevant." I met her gaze. "More importantly, that's my line. I am not interested in going back to high school. Just stick me in a box next to Gasper at that point, we'll have more fun."
"Well…" Rias tapped her chin, uniform skirt still dangling from her other hand. "What about college?"
"Last I checked, Kuoh didn't have a college."
"Mou, just answer the question, Taylor." She gave me a smile. "Not everything has to be an interrogation! I'm just trying to figure out your preferences."
I sighed. "College… I don't hate the idea." I always just assumed I'd go to college, actually. Like it was never supposed to be a question. Hell, college on Earth Bet was actually much cheaper than Aleph even. But then life got in the way.
"Okay, well, even if you're not going to high school, we still do need to get some new clothes for you." Rias tossed the school uniform back into the closet, crossing her arms. I glanced at the lone discarded article of clothing. Her room was completely spotless otherwise.
Probably because someone else cleaned it for her.
"How about a maid?"
I glanced over at Akeno. The black-haired girl was leaning back in a chair next to the fireplace (yes, Rias had a fireplace in her room). So far she'd been surprisingly civil, only threatening violence with her eyes.
Honestly, a rich, fashion-obsessed Redhead and her taller physically aggressive best friend? The only thing that was missing was the small cute one and I'd be in my own personal hell.
I paused, thinking about it for a second.
No, Gasper was too cute to be Madison. He was too good for this world, too pure.
"Hmm." Rias looked me up and down. "You'd look excellent in a uniform, I think."
I raised an eyebrow. "What, we're taking the maid thing seriously now?" To the side, Akeno scoffed. We hadn't physically attacked each other yet, but that didn't mean we'd decided to magically start getting along.
Still, I could be civil when I needed to be.
Rias ignored the byplay with aplomb. "No, I don't think so." She shrugged. "Big sis Grafiya will give me the look."
I tilted my head. "What, you mean the head maid?"
Rias nodded. "She's my brother's wife and Queen." She leaned forward, cupping her hand next to her mouth. "Grafiya takes the whole maid thing very seriously."
I rubbed my forehead. "I… see."
I'd gotten a quick rundown of the evil piece system this morning as well. The Queen had the most powerful piece, and so was the most valuable member of the King's peerage. Likewise wit the other pieces.
Pawns, on the other hand, were cheap and borderline disposable.
(As an aside, until Rias went over it with me, I had no idea that chess players didn't refer to the pawns as 'pieces'. That little bit of trivia felt a little bit more personal than I expected it to. But back to the matter at hand.)
"So she wouldn't be impressed with you making your pawns into your maids?" I asked.
Rias shook her head. "More like she would resent the implication that she wasn't doing a good enough job." She waved her hands in front of her. "Not that Grafiya and I don't get along, it's just…"
I glanced off to the side. "She did come off as very intense."
"Exactly!" Rias nodded happily. "I respect her a lot, as my sister and as the Queen of my brother's peerage."
Her brother, of course, being Szerich Lucifer, the current ruler of hell itself.
I sighed. And I thought my relationship with just my dad had been complicated. I… hoped he was doing okay. That he'd made it out alive.
"Anyway, there won't be anything in here that will fit you. You're too tall." Rias pushed the double doors to her closet shut. "I was just looking for ideas."
I glanced down at my chest. "Too tall is one way to put it."
Rias rolled her bottle-green eyes. "Taylor, stop that. You're seriously gorgeous, okay? And Sona would kill me if I tried to say I was prettier than you just because of my cup size."
I raised an eyebrow at her.
Rias sighed. "I've had this conversation with everyone in my peerage you know. Didn't I tell you that devils are quasi-shapeshifters? We become our idealized self."
I raised my other eyebrow. "Somehow I feel like that's making light of something very concerning."
I was less fussed on the idea of being no longer human, I'd had half my body cut off and replaced with a giant rat monster before. Just, I'd consented before. You know, to the rat monster thing.
"Oh, Taylor." Rias reached up, patting me on the shoulder. "You don't need to worry about it. It really is just you becoming more you." She gave me a sly smirk. "Or didn't you wonder why your hair still looks so flawless despite not taking care of it the past two days."
"My… hair?" My hand came up to my shoulder.
"And those curls!" Rias gently ran a hand through my bangs. "I'm almost jealous actually." She leaned a little closer, and I found myself leaning back. "Akeno actually is jealous, actually."
"Prez!"
Rias stepped back, glancing over her shoulder playfully. "What? Aren't you always the one telling me to be honest with myself?"
"Rias." Akeno frowned. "You're teasing me in front of the new girl."
My hand ran through my hair as they bantered. It… did feel more like I'd just had a nice shampoo and conditioner session at a salon (I treated myself sometimes, okay?) than only showered once in the past two days.
I glanced around the room, picking out a mirror and walking over to it.
I looked… nice, I guess?
I didn't really see what Rias was talking about.
"See?" Rias came up behind me, peeking around my shoulder. "You're so sharp. Striking, even!" She nodded to herself, twisting me back and forth in front of the mirror. I guess I looked much more put-together than I felt. "It's only been a few days too, usually it takes longer for new devils to start to shift. You must have a very strong self-image."
I opened my mouth. Then I closed it, letting out a long breath. "I guess that's true, isn't it?"
Rias giggled. "You should be a bit more sure of yourself, Taylor. You're a member of my peerage now, I won't have you talking down about your appearance or your abilities."
I glanced over my shoulder. "Didn't I say I was only joining your peerage so I could get strong enough to leave it?"
Rias nodded happily, even as Akeno glared. "And I said I'd support you one-hundred percent of the way." She smiled up at me, a playful glint in her eye. "But don't for a second think you'll be able to get stronger than the Crimson Ruin Princess if you don't believe in yourself one-hundred percent."
I blinked, glancing back to the mirror. "Devil magic is about imagination, huh?"
"Exactly!"
I narrowed my eyes, taking in my own appearance. Snorting, I straightened up, tossing my hair back. "Okay, I'll bite." The woman in the mirror quirked her lips into a smirk she learned from her best friend, projecting the image of effortless self-confidence she'd learned as a villain and a hero both.
It didn't look bad.
"Perfect." Rias clapped her hands. "Just keep that image of yourself in mind."
"Easy for you to say." Still, even though I looked away from the mirror, I kept the thought of it with me.
"Well, trueborn devils do have a bit of a leg up on reincarnated ones. We've spent our whole lives looking exactly how we think we should look."
I gave a short laugh. "That easy, huh?"
"Well." She shrugged. "Mostly it's just I've never been surprised looking in a mirror. But there's a reason mythology says demons are all beautiful temptresses." She grinned. "Or temptors as the case may be."
"I thought the bible just said you were snakes."
She waved a hand. "Details, details. Now," she pulled me back to the center of the room. "We've gotten a bit sidetracked, but I've decided on a solution."
"Oh?"
Akeno smiled. "So where are we going, Prez?"
"Akeno, didn't I tell you to stop calling me that outside of school?" Rias pouted. The other girl just smiled wider. "Anyway, first off, if you're not going to be attending Kuoh, that's just an even bigger reason to get you a new wardrobe."
I sighed. "You just want to go clothing shopping."
Rias smiled. "After we get you some new clothes, I'll show you the training facilities, and we can get started on your plan to become the very best."
I looked over at her, raising my eyebrow.
"That no one ever was."
"Is that supposed to be a reference to something?"
Rias pouted. "Well, that's one more thing to add to the to-do list." She giggled. "At least I'll finally have a reason to watch all my favorite shows again. Anyway, I'll be right back, just going to tell Papa that we'll be going out to the human world."
Akeno rose when Rias did, but the redhead waved her hand. "Oh, Akeno, can you get Taylor prepped and ready to go? I know we don't really have anything that fits, but if you could get Lillia to bring up a nice dress or something? Thanks!"
We both stared as the door swung shut behind her. "So," I said. "This is the part where we're supposed to sing kumbaya and make up?"
Akeno snorted. "I'll ring for Lilia." She went over to an honest to god bell pull next to Rias's bed, and called up a maid.
Suffice it to say, the simple blue sundress was altered and delivered up in a little under five minutes. Magic, or just really good help? Impossible to say.
"So." I held the sundress up against myself in the mirror. It was light and off the shoulders, but otherwise… conservative enough that I wouldn't feel too exposed wearing it. "This is how the other half lives, huh?"
Akeno said nothing, staring at me from the corner of her eye. She made no move to turn around or give me any privacy. With a shrug, I pulled off the simple pants and shirt I'd been given when first showing up at the mansion, settling the sundress over me.
It fit perfectly, of course.
I twisted back and forth in the mirror, watching the dress swish around my knees. There were flats that came with it as well. I guess the maids thought I was already tall enough without adding an extra few inches.
"I'm not going to run crying to Rias, you know." I stayed facing the mirror, watching Akeno watch my reflection. "Really, I'd much rather have it out right here, instead of constantly wondering when you were going to stab me in the back."
"Stab you in the back?" Akeno scoffed, crossing her arms. "There is only one traitor in this room."
I shrugged. I guess the dress didn't look bad off of my shoulders. I'd always been slim, or whatever. "I don't intend to lie. I've been very clear with my intentions this entire time."
"A fool is what you've been." Akeno turned her head, long ponytail swishing derisively through the air. "And when you realize it, I certainly won't be there to help you wipe the mud off your face."
I smiled. "Won't you?" It wasn't a nice smile. "It seems like you'd do anything your mistress asked of you. And don't get me wrong, I'm not questioning your unquestioning devotion. It's just… never really been my style."
Oh, I knew loyalty.
Just… never really to authority.
Akeno sniffed. "Rias is happy giving you all the rope in the world," she said. "Take care you don't slip into a noose."
"How terrifying." I smoothed out a few ruffles in my dress, pulling the flats onto my feet. "So, shall we smile for the cameras?"
Akeno simply gave me a flat stare before heading to the door.
I rolled my eyes. What a drama queen.
Rias was waiting outside in the hall. She gave a hopeful glance towards the both of us, expression slipping slightly as she saw Akeno's stony mein and my own disinterested look.
"All ready?" Still, she perked up quickly enough. "The summoning circle is ready, we're going shopping."
I sighed, but still, I allowed myself to be escorted to the summoning chamber. My earlier guess was right: it was behind the door right across from Gasper's room. I felt my skin prickle as I stepped over the threshold from the palatial estate to the bare stone room. It was like a veil settled over my shoulders.
In the center of the chamber was a large circle, its radius maybe a bit more than twice my height. To the sides, there were simple couches and brass candelabras. It still gave off the air of tasteful wealth, but it didn't detract from the rough cut stone walls, wards so strong that the masonry practically shimmered.
I took my place next to Rias in the summoning circle, remaining placid as the young woman's magic washed out over the room. "Here we go!" The summoning circle flashed a brilliant red.
There was a moment of discontinuity, then we landed on tiled floors. I shook out my arms. That had been smoother than most of Strider's jumps.
I turned to see Akeno staring at me, fingers sparking.
I raised an eyebrow, before turning my attention back to Rias as she took both of our hands. "This way, this way."
We exited the unused hallway through a maintenance door, coming out into a massive mall. As I looked around, I realized that it was honestly much nicer than the one big mall left in Brockton, with clean white linoleum and massive glass skylights. I saw a host of familiar brands, like Nike and Aeropostale, sitting right next to stores with Japanese signs and wacky English titles.
I tilted my head at the bold "This is the steak. The very steak." sitting in bright phosphorescent lettering over the entrance to a restaurant.
"So, what's your favorite style?" Rias asked.
I looked over to her. "I like hoodies." I shrugged. "Jeans. That sort of thing."
Rias sighed. "Another hard one."
"Before we start." I looked around again. "Why Japan again? Couldn't we have just teleported anywhere, you know, like New York, or Paris or something, if you wanted haute couture?"
Rias tilted her head. "This is my favorite mall. Why would I want to go somewhere else?" She waved a hand. "Paris isn't even that great, anyway. I don't think I've ever had my accent insulted so much anywhere else in the world. We speak all mortal languages perfectly you know!"
I blinked, not sure what to say about that. "I guess I'm just happy I don't have to learn Japanese." I looked back towards the Very Steak sign. Nope, that one was definitely in English. I could just tell.
"Anyway, you can't tell me you've never been shopping before, Taylor!" Rias pointed a finger at me.
I tilted my head, looking up at the glass ceiling. "Maybe once or twice. Usually with…"
A blonde head of hair and a sly smirk flickered through my mind's eye.
Miss you, Lisa.
From the corner of my vision, I saw Rias and Akeno share a glance. I had to hold back a laugh. What, did you think the woman you found bleeding out in an alleyway had a happy backstory?
I took a deep breath. "Let's just get this over with."
"Right!" Rias gave a determined nod. "Probably not anything brand… I feel like Avant Garde would suit you much better."
"What's the point of speaking multiple languages if you switch between them anyway?" I asked. "And I thought you hated Paris."
Rias shrugged. "It's the best word. Now, no more dilly dallying." She snagged my wrist again, something that I felt was going to happen a lot, and pulled me along.
It did feel a bit like being back in a mall back on Earth Bet, but the little differences quickly jolted me out of my melancholy. There were no cape-brand stores, no graffiti on the walls, and everything was clean.
Rias tugged me into a smaller boutique on the second floor, sharing a familiar wave with the attendant.
"Hello, Ms. Gremory!" The young woman smiled, welcoming the three of us into the store. "Is there anything we can help you with today?"
Rias nodded. "I'm looking for something for my friend here. I remember last time you said you had clothes for taller women?"
The woman hummed, looking me up and down. "I think so. I'm sorry that it won't be as wide of a selection, but…"
Rias waved her hand. "Please, do you think anything will have dresses the right size for my friend?" Rias giggled, covering her mouth with her hand. "Taylor, how tall are you anyway?"
"Five ten." I paused at the shop attendant's somewhat bemused expression. Luckily, my handy dandy translation magic helped me out here too. "Sorry, about 1.8 meters."
"Almost two meters!" The woman gave a little 'wow' of amazement. "Well, let me show you what we have!"
There were no dresses in the right size, but Rias did browse through a selection of tops, pulling off a long-sleeved one in a dark navy with airy sleeves and a v-necked front. It looked rather stylish even to me, so apparently Rias knew what she was doing.
She held it up against my chest before shaking her head, putting it back to pull out another almost identical shirt in a slightly different shade.
Or apparently, I had no idea what I was talking about.
"Here, hold this one." Rias passed the shirt off to me, wandering down another isle in the boutique. "Oh, what do you think of this color?"
I stared at the shirt in her hand. It looked pretty similar to the one I was already holding, only a slightly different cut of the blouse. I shrugged. "It looks fine."
Rias pouted at me. "Well, go try these two on, then we'll see if we can get anything else."
I looked at the two hangers in my hands. "Rias, I don't have pants."
She snapped her fingers. "I knew I forgot something! Here." She pulled a pair of jeans off another rack. "Hmm, these might be a bit short for you." She swapped them out for a pair of capris that were essentially the same length.
I shook my head in bemusement. "Did you memorize all of my sizes or something?"
"I have a woman's intuition." Rias winked at me. "Now go ahead and get changed into that. Akeno, could you keep her company? I need to make a quick call."
Akeno and I shared a mutual sigh as Rias strode out of the store, cell already in hand.
At least the changing room was clearly marked.
I stepped into the nearest open stall, pulling the curtain shut behind me. "Alright." I put the two tops and the pair of pants up on the wall hanger, glancing over at the mirror. "Not much different than shopping with Lisa, honestly."
I pulled on the clothes, smoothing out the first top and looking myself over in the mirror. I shrugged. "Good enough." Same with the second shirt. I put them all back on hangers, switching back into the blue dress. The whole process took me about two minutes.
"Ready?" I asked Akeno.
She raised an eyebrow. "Rias isn't back yet."
"Well, the clothes all look fine, so would you rather sit here making small talk or get a move on?"
Akeno looked at me for a moment longer before looking away. "Whatever."
We rang up my—or rather, Rias's—purchases at the register, then stepped back out on the mall's concourse. Or whatever it was called. I wasn't exactly an expert on architecture.
"No, no, it's just… wouldn't it be more convenient?" I glanced over as I heard Rias. She was pacing in front of a nearby fountain, phone next to her ear. "I mean, I'm already managing this territory, aren't I?" She paused, before a wheedling note entered her voice. "Papa, you promised!"
She sighed. "No. No, I'm not going back on my agreements. If anything, you are." She huffed, crossing her arms. "Wasn't it you who taught me to take advantage of every clause in every bargain? And besides, I know the biggest reason you're against it is you don't want me gallivanting over Europe. Well, isn't this the perfect way to—"
I looked over at Akeno, but the other girl was studiously avoiding eye contact with me.
"Papa, I promise it will be worth it." Rias glanced over, eyes widening slightly at the two of us, before going back to her phone. "No, I've actually taken care of the groundwork." She giggled. "What, I told you it wasn't just a flight of fancy. Okay. Yes, I understand, Father. I promise!" She gave a sharp nod. "Give Mama and Millicas my love." Rias giggled again. "No, no, I'll call Sirzechs myself, he'd be put out with me otherwise. Kay. Love you!"
She hung up, turning towards the two of us. "Done so fast?"
I shrugged. "The clothes fit." I flicked my eyes towards her phone. "What was that about?"
"It's a secret!" Rias winked. "But still, you can't tell me you decided so quickly!"
I tilted my head, and she huffed. "Fine, fine. We'll go through a few more stores. Two blouses and a pair of pants do not a wardrobe make, you know!"
"Especially not considering the size of yours," I murmured. Akeno shot me a sharp look, even as Rias laughed.
"Exactly, now let's go." She waved me after her and I resigned myself to another two hours' worth of shopping at a minimum.
Thankfully, Rias was true to her word, and we did only visit a few more stores. Somehow, I escaped it with less than twenty new articles of clothing and as many shoes, though I couldn't tell you how.
At least Rias left me to pick out my own underwear.
Instead of going back to the same unused hallway, Rias pulled us into an empty bathroom instead, pushing the door shut before summoning us back to the underworld with a flick of her wrist.
I shifted the bags in my hands. "Won't someone notice that we never came out of there?"
Rias smiled. "People notice things all the time. They just have a tendency to brush them off."
I paused at that. Mind control? Some kind of Stranger effect?
Or was it really just as simple as people taking the easy answer instead of leaping to 'magic'?
I sighed. I wish I could have gone back to easier times, when my power was just a power, before I'd learned that it was actually an alien parasite that would eventually eat my world.
"So." Rias said as she made me hand off all of my purchases to a maid. "Training."
I turned to look at her. Akeno crossed her arms off to the side.
"Training?" I asked.
"Yep. We have a small training area here, though of course it's not for more destructive techniques. That's what the villa is for."
Right, because of course there was a Villa.
"But it should be more than enough to get you started!" Rias took my wrist again, pulling me after her once more. I rolled my eyes. Christ, and I thought Imp was touchy feely. I winced. Right, can't think of the G-word.
"I also wanted to talk to you a bit more about your position in my peerage." Rias led me down a series of hallways, towards a set of grand double doors in a sub level of the mansion. She pushed it open, revealing… a rather normal looking room, complete with sparring mats and a variety of training dummies.
Really, the only thing that stood out was the wall covered in weapons, from swords and spears to even a few firearms.
"I know you don't want to be my servant," Rias turned to look at me, "but if I'm trusting you with this, I need to be able to trust that you won't try to do something crazy like run away the minute you've figured out some sword forms."
I raised an eyebrow at her. "I keep my promises."
Sometimes all too well.
Rias huffed, crossing her arms beneath her bust. "Says the girl who kicked me into a wall."
I chuckled. "Well, at that point we hadn't quite agreed to anything, had we?"
"Taylooor!" Rias rolled her eyes. "That's not how this works."
"Sorry." I shrugged. "Devil."
She huffed again, but I could see the smile tugging at the corners of her lips. "Anyway, feel free to use anything here. Don't worry about the dummies or the walls, they're magic resistant and should be able to handle anything you can dish out." Rias placed her hands on her hips. "I used to train here too, you know!"
I nodded, looking around the room. "And how quickly did you graduate to the Villa?"
"Hmm?" Rias tapped her chin. "Oh, about a month or two?" She waved her hand. "But that's because that was when I unlocked the Power of Destruction. Basically nothing here could stand up to that."
"Two months, huh?" I walked over to the weapon wall, running my finger along the hilt of a sword. I didn't see anything like my old nightstick, but there were a fair few knives.
I'd gotten pretty good with those, after I joined the Wards. "Can I just come here whenever, then?"
"Hmm?" Rias blinked. "Oh, of course, and I've asked one of the maids to train you as well." She smiled. "Ardesia is a master of nearly a hundred different styles of combat, so just ask one of the maids to ask for her when you want to train." She leaned forward, raising a hand to her mouth. "Though, between you and me, she's a little bit of a drill sergeant."
I paused, turning to look at Rias. "A whole room and a personal trainer just for me?" I shook my head. "What did I do to rate this kind of treatment?"
"Did you need to do anything?" Rias asked. "I told you that I wanted to help you. Just because I can't let you wander off to die doesn't mean I was lying, you know." She shrugged happily. "Plus, you made Gasper smile! So that alone was more than worth a shopping trip and another tour of the mansion. Well, and the other thing."
My eyes narrowed. "What other thing?"
Rias hummed innocently. "So, about your place in my peerage…"
I turned to face her, letting my hands hang back down to my sides. "We agreed that I wasn't going back to high school."
"Oh, we did, we did." Rias nodded. "But, of course, I doubt you'd want to be stuck here all the time, and I want to show you a bit of how the supernatural world operates in the human world as well."
I shrugged. "You can summon me when you need me, can't you?"
"Probably." Rias held her hand out to the side, hip cocked. "But that would defeat the whole point of getting on your good side, wouldn't it?"
I gave a short laugh at that. "Usually, you don't tell someone that you're buttering them up."
"We didn't promise to never lie to each other," Rias said. "But I'd like to be completely honest with you, Taylor. I get that you find it hard to trust people." She placed a hand on her chest. "I hope that in time, you'll come to trust me all the same."
I paused, looking over the young woman in front of me.
She… didn't remind me of Emma. Not really. That was just a knee-jerk reaction to a beautiful woman with brilliant red hair. But even before Emma betrayed me, she'd never been so straightforward and self-effacing as Rias Gremory.
And she'd convinced me to take a bet on her.
I sighed. "Fine. I wouldn't mind getting out of this place to tour Japan. Even your mansion only has so many rooms."
Rias cheered. "That's the spirit!"
"So, what's your plan then?" I placed a hand on my hip. "You know, if you're not just going to let me have the run of this place, calling me over for playdates when you're done with school."
"Funny that you should mention school." Rias smirked. "I didn't forget what you said about college, you know."
I blinked. "I thought you didn't want me gallivanting off on my own."
Rias's smile only grew as a knock came at the door.
"Please excuse my intrusion." A maid with ash-blonde hair curtsied as she entered the room. "My Lady, I have brought the materials you requested."
"Perfect." Rias took the offered pamphlet before pressing it into my hand.
On the front of the glossy brochure, the words "Higher Education Starts Here" were emblazoned in thick red lettering.
What.
"What."
"Congratulations!" Rias grinned at me. "You've been accepted as part of the inaugural class of Kuoh University! I made the arrangements with Papa back at the Mall!"
"You." I opened my mouth, closing it, before opening it again. "You built an entire university just so I could go to school in Kuoh?"
"Huh?" Rias tilted her head at me, before waving her hand. "No, of course not. The building was already there."
- #6
"You built an entire university just so I could go to school in Kuoh?"
#JustRichPeopleThings
- #7
I assume that it is accredited, at least? :v"You." I opened my mouth, closing it, before opening it again. "You built an entire university just so I could go to school in Kuoh?""Huh?" Rias tilted her head at me, before waving her hand. "No, of course not. The building was already there."
- #9
Rat monster? Do you mean the crab/lobster transformation at the oil rig?I was less fussed on the idea of being no longer human, I'd had half my body cut off and replaced with a giant rat monster before. Just, I'd consented before. You know, to the rat monster thing.
- #10
Thank you for the chapter, it was a pleasure to read!
I wonder if there's a way for Parahumans to get to the DxD world...
- #11
i am pretty sure it did, cause both sona and rias went there after they graduated and sona recruited a older student there"Last I checked, Kuoh didn't have a college."
- #12
- #13
- #14
Rat monster? Do you mean the crab/lobster transformation at the oil rig?
I too want to know more about this.
What Piece was used to resurrect Taylor? I looked but couldn't find where it was specifically mentioned. Taylor mentioned Rias "using her pawns as maids," but Rias also seems to have at least one pawn left? Given she used all eight pawns on Issei in canon I'm left confused.
Issei is not a thing yet so Rias has seven pawns left.
- #15
Poor girl really needs to freaking relax.
- #16
I too want to know more about this.Issei is not a thing yet so Rias has seven pawns left.
If Rias only has seven pawns left Issei is a thing that will never happen. Resurrecting him required all eight.
Taylor didn't derail the DxD train so much as drop a moon on the tracks ahead of it.
- #17
Poor girl really needs to freaking relax.
Relax? Hmmm, interesting word for SUICIDE!!! To relax is death! We must escalate an- *This rant has been interrupted for you by, Well Wishes! Happy Halloween folks and remember to thank the author for the thread! We now return to you the rant in progress.* -n a castle far far away where no one can them scream ALAKAZAM!
- #18
If Rias only has seven pawns left Issei is a thing that will never happen. Resurrecting him required all eight.Taylor didn't derail the DxD train so much as drop a moon on the tracks ahead of it.
Unless Rias trains and becomes stronger and so one of her pawn pieces mutates.
If anything should give her a motivation to get out of her ass and train is both wanting to keep Taylor for longer and wanting to bond with her.
- #19
I don't think Taylor is going to surpass Rias very soon. She has got a considerable head start and experience along with pedigree over Taylor.If anything should give her a motivation to get out of her ass and train is both wanting to keep Taylor for longer and wanting to bond with her.
On the other had, Taylor has far superior creativity and drive that Rias simply can't ever hope to match.
It should be interesting to see how long Taylor takes to win her bet
IvanDead
My bones are made of schadenfreude.
- #20
Likewise wit the -> Likewise with theLikewise wit the other pieces.
I wonder if she will be able to translate her experience with Thinker powers (danger-sense, weapon/martial mastery, clairvoyance, enhanced aim, etc) through magic, probably through divination?"Hmm?" Rias blinked. "Oh, of course, and I've asked one of the maids to train you as well." She smiled. "Ardesia is a master of nearly a hundred different styles of combat, so just ask one of the maids to ask for her when you want to train." She leaned forward, raising a hand to her mouth. "Though, between you and me, she's a little bit of a drill sergeant."
The number of pieces required depends on the difference between the King's power and the target's power/potential, if Rias becomes more powerful here than in canon she won't need to use as many pieces to reincarnate Issei.If Rias only has seven pawns left Issei is a thing that will never happen. Resurrecting him required all eight.Taylor didn't derail the DxD train so much as drop a moon on the tracks ahead of it.
- #21
withLikewise wit the other pieces.
So, I normally see both of those names spelled very differently. I'm not sure if these are typos or better translations, but either way I thought I'd mention that.
The usual ones are Grayfia and Sirzechs.
And now Taylor has also learned a very important lesson about Devils. Perhaps these ones are no longer out for souls, but their deals are still dangerous. And they'll also go really far for what they want..."You." I opened my mouth, closing it, before opening it again. "You built an entire university just so I could go to school in Kuoh?""Huh?" Rias tilted her head at me, before waving her hand. "No, of course not. The building was already there."
- #22
- #23
Given the kind of pressure put on university and grad students, I would not be surprised if every single person involved in that process owed hell a small favour for a passed entrance exam/exam/final/...I assume that it is accredited, at least? :v
- #24
And change the system along with it. It's horrifying when you realize Rias is an exception. Slaves are traditionally treated far worse by other masters. I can't see Taylor just deciding to befriend Rias and become good little minion like Akeno as a part of a system the promotes literal slavery.I had issues with the whole "evil piece system" when I tried to read High School DxD, so I hope we'll see Taylor find a way out of slavery sooner rather than later.
- #25
It actually does. Kuoh has a primary school, high school, AND college campus. I'm pretty sure one of sona's current/future peerage members was a college student there."Last I checked, Kuoh didn't have a college."
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