Fabricator v2 - Chapter 38

“Lord and Lady Phenex, we weren't expecting you.”

Lord Phenex gave Sirzechs Lucifer a brief polite smile while guiding his wife in by her hand, “We hadn't, originally, planned to be here in person. However, we realized that it's not every day one gets to see a Balance Breaker in action, even if it is merely a Sword Birth.”

Sirzechs masterfully hid his annoyance. He didn't have very high hopes of Rias winning the match that was about to begin, even with the surprising reveal of Junichiro having unlocked his Balance Breaker. It might have been a different story if it had been young Yuuto who had unlocked it, at least he was not only a decent swordsman, but also had both of his arms. He didn't wish to discriminate against one of his sister's peerage members, but Junichiro wasn't exactly impressive.

He knew how kind his sister was, add in her desperation to get away from her marriage arrangement with Riser and he believed she'd made the poor choice to reincarnate Junichiro. He was a good kid, kind of lazy though. He hadn't done a single contract since he was reincarnated. In fact, he hadn't done much at all since he joined Rias and that hadn't ever sat right with Sirzechs.

The only good thing was that he hadn't seen a single instance of Junichiro taking advantage of Rias. If he had... well, he would have had to do something about that. However, he did find it strange that it was Junichiro to awaken his Balance Breaker. Perhaps the boy spent more time training than one would expect.

He simply nodded toward the Lord and Lady Phenex, “Please, make yourselves comfortable. The battle should begin soon.”

Lord Phenex had a confident smirk on his face, one Sirzechs couldn't blame him for. Things really did not look good for Rias. He turned away from the Phenex couple and glanced in the direction of Grayfia. She gave him a subtle nod that made him feel slightly better. If worse came to worse, he had an out for Rias. It would trash his reputation and be a serious problem for him for a long time, but it would be worth it as long as it kept Rias happy.

He remained silent while Lord Phenex and his father, Zeoticus, talked quietly among themselves while their wives did the same. Their families didn't have strong ties to one another, part of what the marriage was meant to be for, but the old men were still close. He honestly couldn't fathom what his father was thinking when he engaged Rias to Riser. It would be one thing if she had been engaged to Ruval, the firstborn and a top ten contender in the rating games, even if he was a few centuries older than her. But to engage her to the third son? Then there was how lazy Riser was, something that he had in common with Rias. He dismissed Riser's sexual proclivity. He was a young devil with a peerage of beautiful women, enough said.

The conversation died down as Grayfia left to begin the Rating Game. Sirzechs took his seat to watch the match unfold. He just hoped Rias and her peerage would be capable of at least putting in a good show. He loved her dearly, which is why he knew how lazy she could be. He highly doubted she'd trained much at all for the match despite knowing it was coming for years now.

The group of three watched as the game began. Nothing too interesting at the beginning, though he was glad to see Rias was at least preparing her defenses. He frowned though when he saw the way Rias was treating Junichiro. He arched an eyebrow when he saw Junichiro summon a ring and give it to Rias. He had no idea where the ring had come from or why they had done that.

A glance showed that Lord Phenex was scowling at the sight of Junichiro giving Rias a ring. That brought a small vindictive smile to his face. His smile grew a little as Lord Phenex's scowl grew angrier when Rias encouraged Junichiro to rest his head on her lap. He knew how Rias was with her peerage and if she was the type to 'take advantage' of her peerage, it would have happened a long time ago with Yuuto.

However, he did have some suspicions about how much time Rias and Akeno spent sleeping together.

Lord Phenex scoffed as they watched Rias leave Junichiro behind in the club room by himself to take a position on the roof, “I can see she wishes to keep her strongest piece for the final confrontation, conserve his strength I suppose, but honestly, she'd be better off using him to take out as many of Riser's pieces as she could before losing.”

Sirzechs found himself agreeing with Lord Phenex. Rias didn't have enough pieces for any real grand strategy. Her best bet was guerrilla tactics using her small group of pieces to ambush wandering groups of Riser's pieces. Setting traps in the woods was a good start, but she needed to do more than that. Unfortunately, she didn't seem to be doing that. Only Yuuto remained within the trap-filled grove, Koneko and Akeno were in vastly different areas. Neither would be able to return to Yuuto in time if he was greatly outnumbered by Riser's numerous Pawns looking to get promoted.

Everyone was surprised when Rias's peerage began to dominate Riser's with seeming ease. Sirzechs would never admit it aloud, but he felt a good bit of schadenfreude watching the smiles of both Lord Phenex and his father slowly transition to frowns as Riser's peerage dwindled. Eventually, their frowns became complete scowls when Riser's peerage was almost completely reduced to nothing.

A scoff came from Lord Phenex, “Clearly Riser has been spending far too much time indulging in his peerage rather than training them. Regardless, there's no chance Rias can defeat him.”

It was clear that he was counting on Riser's clan traits to carry him through the Rating Game. Rias had nothing that could overcome Riser's regeneration and he was stronger than her. Combined it meant that Rias was destined to lose.

…

Or was she? Everyone's jaws dropped as they watched Rias deck Riser in the face and actually hurt him. They listened as her voice came through the camera.

Rias smirked down at Riser as she lifted her fist up to her lips and blew on her knuckles, “I've wanted to do that for years.”

She narrowed her eyes and glared down at Riser, “Your immortality means nothing against me.” She lifted her arm with her palm facing up as she conjured a pulsing sphere composed of the Power of Destruction, “You know, accidents happen in Rating Games all the time. Wouldn't it be such a tragedy if I were to erase your head, fully expecting your Immortality to protect you, only to find that it didn't work?”

Lord Phenex jumped to his feet and pointed accusingly at the screen, “She can't do that!”

Sirzechs had to fight to keep a smirk off of his face as he calmly replied, “I'm afraid she can. It was, after all, at your request, Lord Phenex, that the safety systems be slightly different for members of the Phenex clan due to their immortality. Attacks that would normally be considered fatal for anyone else are ignored when applied to members of your clan, as you requested.”

Lord Phenex scowled and glared hatefully at Sirzechs who maintained a calm and polite smile. Before he could say anything else several things happened in short order. First, every remaining member of Riser's peerage, minus Ravel, was defeated in short order. Then Rias said a single word that sent a chill down everyone's spines, “Armageddon.”

That was a very ominous word, especially for them as it was a huge part of the Abrahamic Religion. It got worse though when every member of Rias' peerage self-retired, bar one. All eyes fell on Junichiro as he finally began to do something. First, he summoned a crimson gauntlet on his arm prompting Lord Pehenex to exclaim, “What the hell is that? A Twice Critical? I thought his Sacred Gear was Sword Birth.”

Sirzechs had no idea what was going on. He'd seen Junichiro using his Sword Birth so he knew for a fact the boy had it. But a Twice Critical as well? Two Sacred Gears?

[BOOST!]

Nothing informative there. However, there was a stunned silence when Junichiro began to summon spell circles that didn't seem to be doing anything but floating around him.

[BOOST!]

Everyone's eyes widened in shock while both his father and Lord Phenex uttered the same word, “Impossible.”

Sirzechs quite agreed. Since when did Rias have a Longinus in her peerage? And not just any Longinus but the Boosted Gear? How had she hidden that from them for so long? He would have expected her to be shouting from the rooftops that she had the Red Dragon Emperor in her peerage from the moment she reincarnated him...

His eyes widened in shock, it was a trap for Riser! She'd had Junichiro in her peerage for years now. Which meant he had been training in secret for years. She knew! Clearly, she knew that the moment it looked like she would attain her freedom that it would be taken from her. She was obviously right because the moment Junichiro was said to have a balance breaker for a simple Sword Birth, they went and did as she clearly expected.

But... All of that was so completely unlike Rias. She was very much not the scheming sort. Nor did she tend to think that far ahead. His eyes focused on Junichiro and the now two rings of spell circles surrounding him.

[BOOST!]

Make that three rings of spell circles. Regardless, it seemed far more likely that keeping things secret had been her Pawn's idea. Speaking of... how many Pawns did he happen to take? No one ever asked since he was so weak seeming that it couldn't have taken many. He was now willing to bet it took every last one of her pawns to recruit Junichiro.

[EXPLOSION!]

“Armageddon.”

A final ring of spell circles appeared just before the first ones conjured burst and a stream of energy from them fed into the next ring. He watched, eyes wide, as that same action repeated over and over. He was nowhere near as good with magic as his best friend Adjuka, but he was no slouch either. He could see what was happening and it sent a shiver down his spine. Highly powerful chained spells like he was witnessing were not something that was seen often. It usually required several people and a lot of setup as each layer of the spell had to be cast by someone stronger than the person who cast the previous layer.

Something the Red Dragon Emperor could circumvent by simply using a boost to double his power.

Terrifying.

The truth of that terror was witnessed by everyone in that room as every camera cut out near simultaneously. All they could see was a bright flash of light and then darkness as the feed was cut.

Lord Phenex pointed accusingly at the screen, “What the hell is going on?! What happened?”

Sirzechs, looked serious as he answered Lord Phenex, “A chain spell.”

Everyone froze at the words Sirzechs uttered. Then there were screams of denial from almost everyone. The noise was such that no one heard anything from the game until Grayfia's voice cut through the shouting, “Lord Riser surrenders, Lady Rias wins.”

Silence descended on the room at the shocking, or not so shocking really, announcement of Riser's loss. Everyone turned to look at the still black screens wondering just what had happened.

-----Line Break-----

Junichiro gave Rias a bland look as she blushed. He had agreed that while they were within Rating Games he would follow her orders like any other member of her peerage would, even if he didn't strictly have to. It was to avoid people looking down on her for not being able to 'tame' him. Disobeying her in a Rating Game would be the equivalent of him dishonoring her publicly. Since she was his friend, that was something he obviously didn't want to do without good reason.

Still, that didn't mean he had to like her showing off several of his trump cards publicly, “Explain.”

Rias, blushing a little more at his bland tone, couldn't look him in the eyes while she fidgeted and answered him, “Well... I got my one good punch in. Then I realized, the whole thing was just one big joke. Any of us could have beaten his entire peerage single-handed. Knowing that I just couldn't bring myself to care anymore. So, I wanted to end the whole stupid thing in one massive show of power to put the idea of trying to tie me up to anyone else completely out of my parent's heads.”

He sighed but nodded in understanding, “Fine. But you know this is just going to bring us more trouble now that everyone is going to know that I'm the Red Dragon Emperor.”

The Boosted Gear appeared on his arm without him summoning it, Ddraig's voice echoing from it with a clearly gleeful tone, “And it's about time! I've never gone this long without my partner going public before! If anyone else had tried to hide me for so long, I'd have called them a coward! Lucky for you, you're you. But now we can look forward to the battles to come!” His voice turned positively evil, “I can't wait for the white one to show up in front of you.”

Rias puffed up looking vindicated, “See? Even Ddraig wanted to come out and play.”

“Don't drag me into this princess. If it was up to me my partner and I would have been pummeling that Phenex brat into the ground, not setting off a huge explosion.” His voice took on a nostalgic tone, “Though I do fondly remember some of the big explosions I've set off myself.”

Junichiro rubbed his chin in thought, “Unfortunately, there's no telling how big the Armageddon blast actually was. The rating game area wasn't all that big. Though I expect it could annihilate a city the size of Kuoh pretty easily.”

Rias chuckled, knowing Junichiro wasn't making a threat of any kind. After all, he kept all of his stuff in Kuoh. The slightly demented giggle that came from Akeno was a little off-putting though. They were currently in what could only be called a waiting room. Nearby were several devils in hospital garb as well as beds and devices meant to help heal any damage done to the Rating Game Participants.

Naturally, none of them needed any medical attention. The same couldn't be said for Riser's peerage, but they were in a completely different area. Obviously, it wasn't wise to put a bunch of people who just fought each other in the same room. All they were waiting for was to officially be released so they could head home.

The exit door opened and a familiar face walked in. Everyone turned to look at Grayfia while she focused on Rias, “Lady Rias, you and Lord Arai need to come with me.”

He glanced at Rias and she nodded. This wasn't entirely unexpected. While they did that, Grayfia addressed everyone else, “You three may return home.”

Junichiro followed behind Rias as she followed Grayfia out of the room. They were led to another room where Grayfia opened the door and stepped to the side. She addressed the room’s occupants as he and Rias stepped inside, “Presenting Lady Rais Gremory and Lord Arai Junichiro.”

Within the room Junichiro spotted people he knew and people he didn't but could guess the identities of. Sirzechs Lucifer as well as Lord and Lady Gremory were known to him. He'd met each of them many times over the years. The other two though, he didn't know. Given their blonde hair and blue eyes though, it was easy enough to guess they were Lord and Lady Phenex.

Of course, the death glare coming from the older blonde man would have told him who he was regardless. On the other hand, the look of quiet contemplation he was getting from the direction of Rias’s father, Zeoticus, sent a shiver down his spine. It was like being looked at by a hungry predator. He had no idea what the man was thinking but he doubted it was good news for himself.

Sirzechs was the one to speak to us, “Rias, I think you have some explaining to do.”

That… was exactly the wrong thing to say and I think Sirzechs knew that and did it on purpose. Rias drew herself up putting on the haughty air of a noble, “I have nothing to explain to anyone.” Her eyes flashed between her father and Lord Phenex before settling on her brother once more, “Especially not in front of men who are so willing to break their word at the first signs that I had a chance to actually break the engagement between myself and Riser Phenex.”

Yeah, she was still upset that I had been right in my suspicions. It really was just a suspicion. I couldn’t remember there being any definitive proof that Rias’s recruitment of Issei in canon was the reason the wedding to Riser was pushed forward, but it made sense and there were some hints in the things Riser said to her. She was supposed to have at least another four and a half years, give or take a few months, before the wedding. Yet, shortly after she gained the Red Dragon Emperor, they pushed the wedding forward to ‘immediately’. Suspicious actions are suspicious.

Rias’s words had a clear reaction as Lord Phenex looked apoplectic while Lord Gremory actually looked slightly ashamed. Sirzechs, on the other hand, was trying his best not to smile, “I see. Well, we cannot force you to speak. However, I feel I must warn you that the final spell your servant cast should never be cast in the human realm. It would be the equivalent of the humans setting off one of their nuclear bombs.”

Junichiro felt mildly insulted that something like that was even mentioned. As if he would ever use it there… Well, not unless he put up a ton of barriers to contain the blast first. Especially since that wasn’t even the most powerful version he could unleash. He could add at least four more rings to the spell and each ring had a multiplicative effect on the final explosion. He kept his mouth closed though. This was an official setting and he wouldn’t shame Rias by speaking out of line.

Rias scoffed, “Junichiro only used that spell because I gave him leave to do so. Otherwise, he would never unleash it.”

Well, that wasn’t strictly true, but it was the story they had agreed to feed to the others. No one but them were aware of the contract required to recruit Junichiro into Rias’s peerage. Rias brushed a strand of her crimson hair over her shoulder and gave everyone in the room a sweet smile as she happily explained, “Besides, that was just a little display to send a small message. That message being…” Her smile turned vicious, “Don’t fuck with me.”

It took a lot of effort for Junichiro to keep a calm and polite smile on his face at Rias’s vicious tone. He might have had a little bit of an effect on Rias’s personality over the years. Add onto that her massively increased strength compared to her canon counterpart and she was, essentially, an entirely different woman.

The silence dragged out for a moment before Lord Phenex apparently couldn’t contain himself any longer. His blazing blue eyes locked onto Junichiro, “Do you have any idea what you’ve done by defeating Riser, boy?!”

Junichiro plastered a bland smile on his face and kept his tone even and flat, “What I’ve done Lord Phenex? I have only done as my King has asked of me, as any good and loyal servant should. Surely you, the head of one of the few remaining seventy-two pillar clans, is not suggesting that I, a mere pawn, should have disobeyed my King in order to preserve the marriage contract?”

Lord Phenex’s glare doubled in strength as his face turned red. Notably though, he didn’t reply to Junichiro’s ‘innocent’ query. How could he? If the head of a pillar clan even hinted that Junichiro should have disobeyed his King it would have led to a political shitstorm of epic proportions. Instead, he turned his glare to Rias for a moment before settling it on the rest of the Gremory clan, “I do not accept this! We were deceived! Tricked! We should have been told of the boy's possession of two Sacred Gears!”

Zeoticus opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by a slightly swifter Sirzechs, “Surely you jest Lord Phenex. There are no rules or requirements for the abilities of participants to be registered or revealed for Rating Games. You know full well that it is up to the Kings of each peerage to obtain information on their opponents and to prepare contingencies for any possible surprises.” The corners of his lips curled into a little smile, “Unless, of course, you intend to lead by example and explain the secrets of the Phenex clan? … No? Well, that’s alright.”

The death glare Lord Phenex was focusing toward Sirzechs had been more than enough of an answer. Lord Phenex forcibly calmed himself down before turning to face Zeoticus, “We will discuss this at a later date Lord Gremory.”

Zeoticus simply nodded his head in silent agreement. Junichiro saw his chance and smirked a little to himself before calmly speaking, “Now that that’s all out of the way.” Everyone’s attention zeroed in on him, including Rias whom he focused his gaze on, “Now that you’re officially unattached, I was wondering if you’d like to go on a date with me tomorrow evening?”

Rias had a light blush and a coy smile as she spoke, “I was wondering when you were going to get around to asking me that. I would love to.”

Neither of them paid any attention to the apoplectic look of rage adorning the face of Lord Phenex until the man screeched in indignant fury. It wasn’t so much words as a sound of pure loathing directly straight at Junichiro for the sheer impertinence he’d displayed. The sound drew everyone’s attention to the man who said nothing as he spun on his heels and stormed out of the room in a snit. Lady Phenex looked rightly embarrassed as she gave a small polite bow, “Please forgive my husband’s rudeness. It was a lovely rating game. Goodnight.”

Then, in a much calmer manner, Lady Phenex left the room following behind her husband. Rias took that as her queue to speak up, “Well, if there’s nothing else, we’ll be leaving now.”

Venelana, Rias’s mother, was the one to speak up against that idea, “Oh no you don’t young lady. You have some explaining to do. It’s just family now so no excuses.”

Contrary to what Venelana expected, Rias did not instantly fold to her ‘mom voice’ and instead crossed her arms under her prodigious chest and countered, “Not unless Lord Gremory…” Everyone caught the way Zeoticus jerked at being addressed formally, “Leaves. Until I have a promise, in writing, that my Lord Gremory will no longer attempt to marry me off or reveal anything without my express permission, then I will say nothing in his presence.”

Zeoticus tried to calmly interject, “Is that really necessary?”

Rias’s gaze fell on the man and unlike the anger he expected to see, all he saw was apathy, “As you’ve proven to me that your word means nothing, yes, it is necessary Lord Gremory. You promised me that I would have my freedom until I graduated college. Yet, the moment you heard there was even the slightest chance I could gain my freedom, through Junichiro’s Balance Breaker, you immediately went back on your word. You have proven yourself to be untrustworthy through your own actions.”

Zeoticus actually looked hurt and a bit guilty. To his credit, he didn’t make any excuses for his actions. Rias let the following silence last for a while before she decided she was through, “Junichiro, it’s time to go home.”

Junichiro decided to ham it up a bit and act like a proper butler. So, he bowed while very blatantly moving his prosthetic right arm up and across his chest where the fingers curled into a fist, “As you wish, my King.”

Eyes widened at the sight of the moving, previously thought missing, limb. Before anyone could say anything or ask any questions, Junchiro tapped his foot on the ground and summoned a teleportation circle that whisked them away.

Silence filled the room for a little longer after their exit and was broken by Sirzechs, “Well, that could have gone worse.”

—--Line Break—--

As soon as they were back within the confines of the Occult Research Club, Rias began to vibrate in excitement and joy. She spun around and threw her arms wide to grab Junchiro into a tight hug that slammed his face into her bountiful bosom. He had zero complaints as she hugged him tightly, “I’m free! I’m finally free!”

She gripped his shoulders and pushed him back so she could look into his eyes, “And it’s all thanks to you, Junichiro.”

For his part, Junichiro grinned, “I didn’t do much. All you needed was a little help and encouragement. You could have totally taken him all on your own.”

Rias gaze softened while a light blush brushed her cheeks, “Don’t try to downplay your part. Without you… Well, I don’t know what would have happened without you by my side. Thank you.”

Before he could formulate a reply, Rias leaned in and pressed her lips against his. The tender kiss lasted only a few moments and was chaste. When Rias pulled back, the pair of them were blushing. Before the silence could get awkward, Junichiro took a step back and gave Rias a bright smile, “Wear something comfortable for our date tomorrow night.”

With those parting words, he teleported out of the club room and into his house.

“Well, it looks like someone had a good time.”

He was jerked out of his thoughts by the teasing voice of Valerie. When his gaze focused on her, she gave him a teasing smirk and tapped her lips, “I take it Rias laid a big wet one on ya?”

Seeing no reason to lie to her, he nodded, “Yeah. We kicked the shit out of Riser. There was a small confrontation with Lord Phenex and her family but she handled it well. After we got back she laid one on me.” His gaze unfocused for a bit at the memory, “She’ll hopefully give me another after our date tomorrow night.”

When he refocuses, he can see the look of melancholy sported by Valarie. He gives her a warm smile, “After my date with Rias tomorrow, would you like to go on a date with me Monday night?”

Valarie instantly perks up, “I’d love to!”

“Good! I’m going to head into the workshop for a bit and get some work done.”

Valerie playfully wags a finger at him, “Don’t stay up too late mister. If I wake up and you’ve pulled another all nighter I’m going to be miffed.”

He gives her a jaunty salute in reply, “Yes ma’m!”

With a giggle, she departs for her bedroom and a good nights sleep. Meanwhile, he makeshis way out to the workshop and moves to get to work. As he does, the automaton that Ddraig can pilot comes to life to observe him and talk, “I know how prepared we are, but there is no harm in preparing more. You’ve yet to access my Scale Mail. Though I doubt you will need it to handily defeat the White One, he is hardly the most dangerous opponent you will face now that your strength had been revealed to the world.”

Junichiro nods in agreement, “Hopefully the coming conflicts will help push us to achieving that level of power.”

Unlike his ability to, essentially, manipulate Sword Birth to his will and unlock its Balance Breaker with little difficulty, the Boosted Gear was far more stubborn. Even after all these years he couldn’t unlock its Balance Breaker for one simple reason, he didn’t have enough need. He could do the same things that Issei had done, namely sacrifice body parts or use the armband device made my Azazel as a fuel source. Alternatively, he could come up with his own fuel source for it. However, neither option appealed to him.

Oh, he planned to give up a lot of his body to Ddraig in order to make himself stronger. After all, who wouldn’t want better and stronger internal organs, eyes, bones, and muscles? He just wasn’t in a rush to do it, there wasn’t much need and he was too busy working to take the time off that the changes he wanted would require.

“All of my users have thrived in combat. You are strong enough to achieve it and you are close, it just needs that final push.”

While engraving a commission for a customer, Junichiro answered, “If things hold to what I knew, there will be plenty of conflict to come. I have no idea how strong Kokabiel is or what might change due to the strength we’ve revealed. We’ll need to stay on our toes.”

Ddraig chuckled, “I’m looking forward to seeing what you can accomplish.” He climbed to his feet and made his way toward the door, “I think tonight I would like to sleep under the stars.”

“Goodnight Ddraig.”

—--Line Break—--

Junichiro looked himself over once more. He’d gone for what he felt was casual. He wore blue jeans and boots for his lower half while his upper half was covered in a nice shirt and a vest. He was forgoing his tie, this time. He also wore an upgraded version of his utility belt with a holster containing a gun of his own design, a sheath holding a heavily enchanted knife made from one of Albion’s scales, and enchanted wristbands.

Most of the latter stuff was hidden from the view of mundane people so it wouldn’t draw any attention. He still didn’t feel safe leaving the house without ap plethora of options at his disposal, even if he was infinitely stronger than he had been when he lost his original arm. With Avalon he was technically never unarmed and there were very few being that could overcome the defensive power it granted him. He knew it was irrational, but also, he thought the extra weapons looked cool.

Valerie draped her arms over his shoulders and looked at him in the mirror as well, “Not bad. Does she know where you’re taking her?”

Junichiro shook his head, “Nope, same as you don’t know where I’m taking you.”

That earns him a pout but he doesn’t fall for the cute look meant to wheedle information out of him. He adjusts his vest one last time before turning around to face Valerie with her arms still around him, “I’ll be back later tonight.”

She gave him a coy look, “What? Not going to find a little hotel room and stay out all night long?”

He snorted at that, “If she were that kind of girl I wouldn’t have asked her out in the first place.”

Valerie smiled at that, “Good.” She stepped back and pretended to wipe some lint from his shoulders, “Enjoy yourself, alright?”

He nodded and made his way to the front door. Outside his car was already waiting for him. Much like the vehicle he’d driven around the world with Mittelt in, the car was one hundred percent custom-made by him from hand. It was filled to the brim with all kinds of magical devices and surprises. Though, to mundane people just seeing it on the road it looked like a supercar, all sharp angles and a slick paint job.

On reaching the car he leaned down to press a button that caused the gull wing door to open. He’d based it on the classic DeLorean. Who didn’t love that car? Sitting on the minotaur leather seat, he got comfortable before pressing the start button. The car came to life without a sound. A normal combustion engine took up far too much space so he’d gone with a magical drive connected to all four wheels. It was completely silent unless it was pushed to a high level of power.

He drove through town until he arrived at the academy where he found Rias waiting for him at the gates. As he pulled up next to her he got a good look at her chosen outfit. She’d chosen to wear a dress that went down to just past her knees, black high-heeled boots that covered her calves, and a fluffy sweater that did little to hide her bust.

Once parked in front of her, he jumped out of the car and went around to open the door for her like a proper gentleman. Once she was seated he retook his seat and left the school behind, “You look lovely, Rias.”

His compliment brought a small blush to her face but she replied in kind, “You look pretty good yourself. So, where are we going?”

He gave her a teasing smile, “It’s a secret.”

She pouted but he paid it no mind. Instead, he flipped open a panel on the center console to reveal a series of unlabeled switches. He began flipping a few prompting Rias to ask, “What are you doing?”

After flipping the last switch he smirked, “Well, if we drove to our destination it would take a few hours.” that confused her but he continued, “So, rather than taking the slow path, we’ll go with a much faster method.”

As he finished speaking he pulled back on the steering wheel. Simultaneous to his pull the car began to lift off of the ground and into the sky. Rias gasped in surprise and looked out the windows. Even while enjoying the view she asked with concern, “They won’t see us, right?”

He shook his head, “Nope. We’re completely invisible to anyone attempting to look in our direction. On top of that, I have overlapping notice-me-not fields just in case the optical camo fails. Lastly, there’re enchantments keeping us from showing up on radar or satellite scans of any kind.”

Rias let out an appreciative hum, “Impressive.”

He just shrugged, “It was necessary. Speaking of necessary, you may want to get comfortable in your seat.”

“Oh? Why?” Even as she asked she did as suggested.

Rather than answer verbally, he pushed his foot down on the accelerator. The previously silent magical drive began to hum louder and louder as it put out more power over time. Rias gasped as the burst of power started pushing the vehicle through the air at speeds that would make a fighter jet green with envy. Both of them were pressed into their seats by the forces of the acceleration, though it wasn’t nearly as bad as it should have been. Magic was such a cheat.

Once they stopped accelerating, Rias looked over at Junichiro in excitement, “How fast are we going?”

Junichiro hummed and tilted his head back and forth as he thought, “Around Mach Four, or approximately five thousand kilometers an hour.”

Rias gasped, “Just how far are we going?”

“Not that far. We’ll be heading back to the ground in about a minute or so.”

The place he wanted to take Rias was about one hundred and fifty kilometers from home. The speed he was going at was ridiculously pointlessly fast for the short distance they were going. Or it would have been if conventional rules applied to how fast he could accelerate, brake, and consume fuel. Once they were a lot closer, he took them down and landed in an out-of-the-way spot. Once firmly only the ground he started disabling the features that kept them hidden before pulling out onto the road. No need to get rear-ended because other drivers couldn’t perceive his car. Once they drove a bit, Rias realized where they were, her eyes widened in excitement, “Akihabara! You brought me to Akihabara?!”

When her wide blue eyes focused on him, he laughed and nodded, “I did. I couldn’t think of a better place to go on a first date with an otaku like you.”

Given the way Rias was now vibrating in her seat, he chose well. He’d done a little research and since money wasn’t an issue, he took them to the highest-rated maid cafe in the area. Unfortunately, they couldn’t just park in front of the place he’d chosen. Rather, he drove them to a nearby parking garage. Once parked he scrambled to get out and around the car to open her door. Rias gave him an indulgent smile but didn’t say anything as she took his offered hand and got out of the car. A quick button press on his keyfob locked the car, which made people with nefarious intentions ignore it. Not that they could actually steal it, to begin with.

After Rias looped her arm through Junichiro’s offered elbow, the pair walked out of the parking structure and onto the sidewalk. As they did, Rias became even more excited, her eyes darting everywhere to take everything in.

“We’ve got some time before our reservation, Rias. If you’d like we can do a little light shopping before and then some more after.”

Those were apparently the magic words. The squee of excitement Rias gave as she bodily dragged him into the first store to catch her eye, one selling a lot of collectibles from various anime, was adorable. While he liked anime well enough to watch it and enjoy it in both of his lives, he was nowhere near the super-fan that Rias was of the media.

It also still weirded him out when he saw ‘knock-off’ versions of anime from his past life such as ‘100% Mad Psycho’ which sounded like a slasher story but was, in fact, a rip-off of Mob Psycho 100. Seeing the differences in the stories was kind of interesting, but also kind of annoying. It was like he was living in a world of knock-offs.

Well, regardless, Rias was enjoying herself immensely and that was all that really mattered.

—--Line Break—--

Junichiro watched while sitting in a comfortable chair as Rias tried on various cosplay outfits. Dinner had been nice, the food was excellent and the waitresses never broke character. Their waitress had a haughty and cold attitude that reminded him a lot of Grayfia. The comparison caused Rias no small amount of laughter. Other than that the restaurant wasn’t much to talk about and they hadn’t talked about anything heavy. They’d been friends for years at this point so they knew a significant amount about each other already.

No, this moment was something new for the pair of them. The majority of the time that he spent around Rias, she was wearing her school uniform. It was pretty rare to see her in street clothing and he’d never seen her wearing cosplay before. It made him think that he should look for an expo or convention to take her to in the future.

More interestingly, the outfits she picked became a bit more revealing and skimpy as time went by and she became bolder. Nothing too revealing though, they were still in public, and even for Rias that was just a little too much exhibitionism. Frankly, it wouldn’t be the first time he’d seen Rias naked. However, there was a reason lingerie was so enticing by revealing so much and yet hiding what was important. Seeing Rias in various outfits worn by heroines and villainesses from various anime was definitely a thrilling experience.

Though, being honest with himself, his favorite so far had been the maid outfit she’d worn earlier on. It wasn’t even a slutty maid or skimpy french maid, it was almost a legitimate made outfit, similar to Grayfia’s, yet with accents to show it was from a specific fantasy anime, one he didn’t know.

He was drawn out of his thoughts as the curtain for the changing room was thrown open and Rias stepped out in the skimpiest outfit yet. Junichiro found himself swallowing heavily as he examined Rias wearing the first outfit of Yoko Littner from this world's version of Gurran Lagann. She skipped the wig, given her own red hair, but wore everything else.

His eyes raked over her form. The shoes were stylized white boots with red flames, her long legs were covered in white stockings that stopped in the middle of her thighs, and then there were the jean booty shorts so short they put Daisy Duke to shame. He was pretty certain that if Rias bent over in them then nothing would be hidden from view. Lastly, her top was a black bikini top top with flames that matched the boots. Only… the cups were not designed for someone as well endowed as Rias making the bikini top look even smaller than it was meant to. The gloves, belt, and scarf of the outfit barely registered in his mind.

Seeing the stupified look on Junichiro’s face brought a knowing smirk to Rias’s own. She strutted over toward him, drawing the eyes of everyone currently in the store, male and female alike. When she arrived at his chair, she leaned over while crossing her arms under her bust and gently pushing it up until it looked like the bikini top was about to explode, “So… what do you think of this one? Do you like it?”

Junichiro swallowed, hard. He might have been experienced with women and sex in his past life, but in this life, he was a teenage virgin. This meant that a portion of blood ostensibly meant for his brain was reserved exclusively for another portion of his anatomy. If that blood had been available for his brain he might have been able to do something a bit less embarrassing than continue to stare while nodding his head like an idiot.

Rias had a look like the cat that caught the canary. She straightened up and did a slow turn to let him see the outfit from every angle. He was treated to the sight of a full half of Rias’s round derriere hanging out of the shorts. She had a self-satisfied smirk at the sight of Junichiro simply staring and refusing to blink. She nodded to herself for a job well done and returned to the dressing room.

With Rias no longer in sight, Junichiro quickly recovered and groaned over his behaviour. Nearly sixty years of life experience in total and Rias had easily turned him into a drooling Neanderthal with a skimpy outfit. He cursed his hormones! He also didn’t utter a word when he purchased the Yoko outfit for her after she decided she wanted it. He was paying for everything on this date. Not that it really mattered. Both of them were filthy rich so who paid for what was irrelevant. He just did it because he felt like it. Maybe next time she’d do all the paying.

By the time the cosplay show was over, it was getting a little later in the evening. Junichiro led Rias, now back in her date outfit, back to the car. Once they were in a clear spot, he rearmed the precautionary options and took to the air once more. Their flight was just as short as the previous one, though this time when they landed it was on an empty beach. He hit another switch to open the convertible top of the car. This allowed them to enjoy the scent of the ocean air in the breeze and the sight of the stars and moon in the sky.

They sat in companionable silence for a while, though it was eventually broken by Rias, “Thank you for a wonderful date.”

Junichiro turned his gaze from the sky above to focus on Rias. She matched him and their eyes met. He smiled warmly as he replied, “It was my pleasure. I just wanted to make certain you had a lot of fun.”

Rias leaned across the center console and placed a soft kiss on his cheek, “I had a wonderful time. Though I do wonder how you will top this for our second date.”

“So that means there will be a second date!”

Her smile turned playful, “I suppose it does.”

—--Line Break—--

Junichiro looked up from his work as the door to his workshop was opened. Valerie walked into the room wearing a diaphanous summer dress that gave hints of what she was wearing underneath. Given what he could just barely see… it wasn’t much. She’d turned into a downright tease at this point. If he didn’t know better he would swear she was thirsty as hell.

…

Well, he did let her drink his blood on occasion. She was a Dhampir and while they didn’t require blood and could live off of human food, it was better if they had a little blood in their diet. It also made her stronger every time she drank from him. This was good as it meant she would be a powerful person to recruit into his peerage the moment he had his evil pieces. Speaking of which, he needed to talk to Rias about getting a promotion to a mid-class devil. He was easily Ultimate class in power, like every member of her peerage, but politically he was still a low-class devil.

Valerie came to a stop nearby and took a pose men everywhere had instinctively learned to fear. She crossed her arms under her breasts, tilted her head, and began tapping her foot all while staring impatiently at him.

Junichiro swallowed and carefully moved his head to look at one of the dozens of clocks Valerie had put into his workshop ever since she’d arrived. Even with so many to look at, he rarely knew what time it was when he got engrossed in his work. Seeing the time, he winced and slowly turned to face her once more, “Would you look at that, it’s quitting time!”

He quickly scrambled off of his chair and made his way out of there. He had a date to get dressed for and he was already running behind. He was just lucky Valerie was so understanding of him. If she were a normal woman she likely would have given up on him already for making her wait so long. That brought a smile to his face, he really was a lucky man.

—--Line Break—--

Junichiro opened the door to his car and offered a hand to Valerie to help her climb out, as was polite. It still took a bit of work for him not to stare at her and drool. She’d changed her dress to something only slightly better for being in public. She was currently decked out in a slinky black spaghetti strap dress that barely reached mid-thigh. The Matching black three-inch heels clicked on the pavement when her smooth pale legs came out of the car. She wore her golden blonde hair loose letting it flow down her back.

He took a moment to marvel at her hair. When he’d rescued her she’d been forced to keep it cut short. Before he removed the Sephiroth Graal from her she’d been nearly comatose most of the time due to its effects on her mind. Therefore, her ‘caretakers’ had kept her hair short to make taking care of her easier. She chose to grow her hair out as a sign of her recovery and freedom. She took exceptional care of it, even cajoling him into making her special shampoo and conditioner for it.

You know, when he’d chosen the Essence of the Artificer he’d never imagined he’d be making a Dhampir hair care products.

He wasn’t about to complain though since he did excellent work and her hair looked like a waterfall of polished silken gold. Combined with her shining red eyes and extremely pale skin and she was a vision to behold. Evidence of that could be seen as they stepped into the high-class restaurant and all male eyes within range were drawn to her. They were, of course, promptly ignored.

He’d chosen to take Valerie here since she’d never really been to a place like it before. He wanted to show Valerie some of the finer things in life that she’d been forced to do without throughout her childhood and life until her rescue. He liked to spoil her in a different way than he spoiled Rias who’d grown up practically as a princess.

Once they were sat down by the hostess, Valerie gave him a soft smile, “This seems like a nice place.”

Junichiro nodded, “I’ve never been, but I heard good things. I thought it might be something you would appreciate.”

He’d flown them all the way to France, Paris specifically, for this date. The flight hadn’t taken long at all thanks to his car. As a devil he could understand and be understood in any language. Thanks to a small trinket he made, so could Valerie. This meant the language barrier was irrelevant. Thanks to other trinkets, so was their age. When they ordered the recommended wine for their dinner his clearly being underage didn’t even register.

The meal was exquisite and something he would definitely have to have again in the future. Thanks to his Artificing abilities he was a dab hand at cooking but he had nothing on someone who dedicated their life to the art. Not only was the food delicious, but it was also beautiful and paired wonderfully with the wine.

On top of the food was the company. He’d spent a lot of time with Valerie, they lived together after all, but a date was something different. It was more intimate than the simple everyday things they did together. It allowed him to see her in a different light than he normally did and he found himself enthralled with her. A part of him regretted making her wait, but it was something he’d felt the need to do. Now? Now, there was nothing holding him back.

After they finished their meal, Junichiro drove them to a second location not too far away. Once more he led Valerie into a building, only this time they were greeted by music. It took some searching but he’d found a dance hall that wasn’t just a trashy club. He led her right onto the dance floor as a waltz began.

Valerie snuggled into Juncihiro as they slowly swayed on the dance floor to the rhythm of the music. She looked up at him with her dark red eyes and smiled just enough to show the very tips of her fangs, “This is perfect.”

Junichiro returned her smile as he held her in his arms, “I’m glad you approve. I thought long and hard about what our first date should be like. This all seemed appropriate.”

Valerie continued to smile while she snuggled deeper into his embrace, “It’s perfect.”

The couple danced for a few hours before it was time to head home. Due to the time difference between the two countries of France and Japan, it was actually extremely late in Japan when they arrived home exhausted but happy. When they arrived at the section of hallway were they needed to split up to go to their rooms, Valerie leaned up and placed a chaste kiss on Junichiro’s lips, “Thank you for the wonderful date.”

“It was my pleasure.”

With that, the pair went their separate ways to get some sleep.

—--Line Break—--

Junichiro steadily hammered away at a glowing piece of metal, forcing it to take the shape he desired. He loved working on complex commissioned jobs and this was one such job. He didn’t know, nor did he care, who it was for. He only cared that it was interesting and his payment was going to be something nice, Uru Ore. Uru was a mythological metal mined by the dwarves of Norse mythology. Supposedly used in the construction of weapons such as Gungnir and Mjolnir the weapons of Odin and Thor respectively.

He had no idea if the myths and legends surrounding the metal were true or not and he very much wished to find out. He’d been warned that the ore was notoriously difficult to work with requiring extreme measures to forge. He hoped his enchanted forge was up to the task, and if not it was an amazing excuse to build a whole new forge! On top of being ‘nigh indestructible,’ it was also said to have a great natural affinity with magic.

It honestly sounded a lot like Mithril to him. Though perhaps a lot better. He wondered if the two metals were related and he was very much looking forward to experimenting to find out. He wouldn’t be getting a huge amount, owing to the metal's extreme value, but it would be enough and he was certain he could get more in the future.

He lifted the metal he’d been hammering with his tongs and dunked it into a tub of enchanted oil. He left it in there and left it to cool so he could turn to look at Valerie who’d been standing off to the side waiting patiently for him to finish his work. Once he looked at her she spoke, “Lady Gremory sent over her familiar with a message. It seems the Church has decided to send members here to Kuoh. They’ve requested a meeting with Lady Gremory and she requested your presence.”

Junichiro hummed at that. It looked like the Kokabiel incident was about to happen. He wondered how his actions and presence would change things. Granted Kokabiel was an arrogant overconfident idiot who couldn’t see that a war would devastate all three factions and leave them open to being wiped out by the other pantheons. Still, arrogant didn’t mean stupid and there were good odds that Kokabiel would make changes to the plans that Junichiro was aware of from the canon story.

Well, it wouldn’t matter. Not only was he stronger than canon Issei could ever have been at this point, but so was everyone else in the peerage. He might be the only one that could take on Kokabiel single-handedly, due to Ddraig, but working together everyone else would be able to take Kokabiel down as a team. He dismissed his thoughts as he pulled the cooled metal out of the simmering oil and addressed Valerie, “I’ll head in to get changed now and make my way over to the school after.”

He set the metal down on his workbench and made his way to the door following Valerie. If her hips happened to sway just a little bit more to catch his eyes, well, who could blame him from taking the invited look?

-----Line Break-----

AN

Hey guys, apologies for the delay in getting this out but it'd been so long since Iw worked on this story that I needed to go back and read it from the beginning while taking notes and making sure the story was on track. I didn't want to forget any story threads I started so I'll be focusing on those an the events around Kokabiel. Said events will be slightly different than canon due to Juni and his actions so look forward to that.

This chapter clocked in at 9.2k words. I felt this was a good area to stop and I can probably get the entire Kokabiel event cleared in a single chapter. We'll see how long that one turns out to be!

Until then, thanks for sticking around and sorry, again, for the delay.