Fabricator v2 - Chapter 35 (WIP)

Chapter 35

Junichiro sat on a comfortable seat on a train as it moved through dimensional walls on its way to the Underworld. The view out of the windows was quite spectacular as a kaleidoscope of color moved constantly by.

He wasn't alone on the train either. The entire peerage had come together for the trip to the underworld. Normally, the group would have taken the much faster shortcut of teleporting from the ORC to the Gremory estate. However, as a new Devil, Junichiro was required to take the train so he could be officially registered when he arrived. So, almost the whole peerage had voluntarily joined him for the ride. Everyone except Gasper.

Yes, he'd finally been told about Gasper when they were preparing to leave. A maid from the Gremory Household would be teleporting in on a daily basis to provide for the extremely powerful trap Dhampir. Honestly, Junichiro felt like Gasper just needed a swift kick in the ass to man up. Though, being told of Gasper reminded Junichiro of someone else he really needed to hunt down and kiddnap.

Valarie Tepes.

He didn't remember a whole lot about her. He had no recollection of what she looked like. What he did remember was her Sacred Gear being horrifyingly over powered. The fact that a dirty cheater like himself felt her Sacred Gear was OP just showed how scary it was. From what he recalled, infinite Boosted Gear Scale Mails. Just that was horrifying. But her Sacred Gear, Sephiroth Grall, was a sub-species and she had fucking THREE of them!

Granted, he couldn't remember if he actually saw that, read about it, or just heard about it. Frankly, it didn't matter. What mattered was that he had to do something about it if it was even remotely possible.

Oh yeah, wasn't Valarie Tepes also a friend of Gasper's? He thought he remembered something about that. Wasn't that what reminded him of her? If so, finding and saving her might help the little trap come out of his shell and into his power. Gasper, like everyone else Rias recruited, had a huge amount of potential that just couldn't be wasted.

“What are you thinking about?”

Junichiro was pulled out of his thoughts by Rias's voice. He turned to look at her and snorted, “I'm still trying to comprehend that you have your own personal Dio. Yet, he's scared of his own shadow.”

Rias froze for a moment as her mind tried to comprehend what Junichiro meant. Her eyes widened dramatically as she made the connection to the time stopping vampire from Jojo. Suddenly she looked extremely excited and very determined. Junichiro suspected he'd just given Rias an ungodly amount of motivation toward getting Gasper out of his shell.

He left Rias with her thoughts on her mini-Dio and went back to looking out the window and enjoying the sight.

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

Getting his paperwork done to become a citizen was a piece of cake. He just had to show his identification from Japan and they used that to register him along with who his King was. After that, they were done and could take a public teleportation circle to the Gremory estate. As the beings that created bureaucracy, Devils had an innate understanding of it and made their way through it with ease.

Their arrival at the Gremory estate was far from what Junichiro was expecting. He didn't remember much about Rias's family, but he was pretty sure they didn't care much for all the pomp and circumstance that came from being a noble clan. Rias certainly didn't. So, he was rather surprised when they teleported in to see lines of maids on one side and butlers on the other side of the main hallway leading into the foyer.

At least, he thought it was a foyer, he'd never studied what various parts of mansions were called.

“Welcome home Rias-sama!”

All the maids and butlers intoned at once. Rias, for her part, looked slightly embarrassed. As the sound of the butlers and maids died down, Rias's parents appeared at the end of the hallway to greet their daughter.

Rias led her group up to her parents and gave them a somewhat strained smile, “Mother, father, was this really necessary?”

Junichiro winced slightly at the venom in Rias's voice as she addressed her father. She was very clearly unhappy with the man and Junichiro could understand why. Though the man was clearly unphased by the tone of her voice as he addressed her, “We weren't expecting you to come home so soon, with a new member of your peerage no less.”

His gaze moved to Junichiro, “I am Zeoticus Gremory and this is my wife, Venelana Gremory. I'd like to welcome you to our home.”

Junichiro gave a small, polite, bow as he replied, “Arai Junichiro, Pawn of Rias Gremory, at your service.”

When he straightened up, Junichiro could help noting that Rias clearly got the majority of her looks from her father. He had the same hair, eye, and skin color as Rias did, though he was obviously more masculine and had a small goatee on his chin. Though Venelana is clearly where Rias got her figure. Velelana had flaxen hair down to her shoulders, light purple eyes, and a much more mature version of Rias's figure.

Junichiro couldn't help thinking that the Gremory genes were damned powerful. Every descendant of Zeoticus had the Gremory-red hair, despite whatever hair color their other parent might have had. He expected that any children Rias had would inherit the red hair as well.

While he was making his observations, Zeoticus, in turn, was studying him, “Her new Pawn? Interesting. If you don't mind my asking, how many pieces did it take to reincarnate you?”

Junichiro smiled brightly, giving off the impression of an impressionable youth, “Just the one.”

Everyone could see the instant Zeoticus dismissed Junichiro as even vaguely interesting, “I see.”

There was a hint of disappointment, or maybe disapproval, in his tone. Zeoticus's attention returned to Rias, “Will you be staying long?”

Rias shook her head, “Just for the day. I wanted to get Junichiro registered and take care of some business. We'll only be staying one night before we return to the human realm.”

Zeoticus nodded his head, “Very well.”

The man was clearly done with the conversation at that point. It took everything Junichiro had not to laugh. If there was one thing he loved, it was messing with people by telling them the truth. It was even better that he got one over on the head of a pillar family!

Venelana gave Rias a bright smile and a hug, “It's not the same without you in the house. It's good to have you here.”

After that, she followed Zeoticus out of the area to do whatever it was the pair did with their days. Rias gestured for her peerage to follow her. She gave a guided tour that focused on the things between the main entrance and her section of the mansion. A wing of the house was dedicated to rooms for her and her peerage members. She even pointed to a door they were walking past, “This room is for you when we stay here, Junichiro.”

After that she led him to a large sitting room where the entire peerage, and future members, could all meet and have discussions. Everyone got comfortable before Rias asked the question on her mind, “Junichiro, why did you mislead my father like that?”

Junichiro, uncaring of his location, pulled out his cigarette case, selected one, and finally addressed Rias as he dug out his lighter, “It's simple really, like all of the contracts suggest, I like keeping things secret. I also fear that if who, what, and how powerful I am were to get out, things would become annoying. A simple man reincarnated by a single pawn sounds completely harmless, weak even. Telling him it was your mutation pawn would put him on guard and make him curious about me.”

He lit his cigarette, took a short drag, and exhaled some bright green smoke, “It would raise concerns and make him wonder what makes me so special. He would then dig into things and try to find out everything he could. There's no guarantee that he would keep what he learned within the family. If the Phenex found out about me... Well, you'd be facing Riser in a Rating Game by the end of the week.”

Everyone considered his words before nodding in agreement. It seemed plausible enough and there was no benefit to bragging about how powerful and skilled Junichiro was. Between being the Red Dragon Emperor and The Artificer, he would be a major threat to the plans of the adults.

Rias frowned a bit, “So what? With you we could easily beat Riser and his entire peerage. I'm pretty sure you could do that entirely on your own.”

Junichiro sighed and nodded, “Probably. Even if Riser is stronger than me, in my base state, I've got all the tools needed to take him down without really breaking a sweat.” His gaze focused on Rias, “But is that what you really want? Do you want me to crush Riser under my boot? Or, would you prefer to crush him under your own?”

There was silence for a while before Rias spoke up, “I want to crush him myself.”

After the words left her mouth she gave Junichiro a look of pure determination, “And you're going to help me get strong enough to do it.”

Junichiro nodded in agreement, “We'll get to work on that when we return to the human realm.” He took another drag before exhaling the smoke with a sigh, “On to other things. I know I needed to register with the devil government at some point, but is it really necessary for me to go to this party?”

Junichiro did not relish the idea of going to a fancy party that was being hosted for the young devils of Rias's generation. Something they apparently did once a year to keep in touch. Despite whatever conflicts individuals might have, the entire devil race was expected to work together against their common enemies, such as Heaven and the Grigori. To that end, the various generations got together on a regular basis to touch base and keep in touch.

It also served as a way for the Kings among them to show off their new pieces. Needless to say, Rias wasn't thrilled that the only thing Junichiro was willing to show in public was his Sword Birth. Worse, he wasn't even willing to show his full skill with it! She understood his reasoning, even agreed with it, but that didn't make her pout any less. She really wanted to crow about having not just the Red Dragon Emperor, but The Artificer all in one! Which was arguably an even bigger deal!

Rias gave Junichiro a stern look and nodded, “Yes, it is. You failing to come would be interpreted as me being unable to control you. I have Gasper already, but his circumstances give me some leeway. Saying you're a pawn with Sword Birth and not being able to get you to come would be a black mark against me.”

Junichiro sighed but nodded his head. If he really wanted to, he could completely blow the whole thing off and there wasn't anything Rias could do about it. However, he saw no reason to be a complete dick over it. Even if the thought of being around so many people made him uncomfortable. Spending so much time on his own or with very few people around had made him a bit uncomfortable among crowds.

Worse, he would be expected to at least try and make some connections. Normally, he would love making more connections so he could have more work. Keeping his alter ego secret kind of sucked in this one instance.

“Fine. But until then, I'm going to get some exploring in.”

Rias smiles brightly, “Take Kiba with you so you don't get lost.”

Kiba nodded his head in acceptance and climbed to his feet to follow Junichiro. Ever since the first lesson that Junichiro had given Kiba on using his Sword Birth to its full potential, they'd become something like friends. Nowhere near the level of bro's yet, but at least friends.

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

Junichiro looked around the streets as he walked through Lucifaad City, the original capital of the underworld before the current four satans took over and moved it to Lilith. Lucifaad was the first, and therefore oldest, city in the underworld. Hence why Junichiro had insisted he and Kiba tour there instead of through the Gremory territory cities.

With age came opportunities and stores that had lasted millenia and would have the most unique stock and possibilities. He was hoping to catch sight of some rare materials or items to snag and take back to his workshop. To that end, they were in one of the oldest area's of Lucifaad. Old, not decrepit or slum-like, rather distinguished, in fact.

Kiba was leading Junichiro to one of his favorite stores in the area, a place that sold swords, naturally. Junichiro didn't argue as the shop would have connections to the blacksmith making the blades. Then the blacksmith would know where to get the better, or even best, materials to work with.

He was also looking forward to seeing what the weapons the store sold were like. He'd never actually taken the time to look into what was commonly available to the public. He'd just done what he wanted to do and moved on with it. He'd likely never work down to the 'standard' but it would still be informative for him to see what they sold and how much it sold for.

Then it was off to buy some materials. He'd never have enough materials for his tastes.

As they entered the store Kiba was leading him to, they were greeted by a middle aged looking Devil behind the counter, “Welcome to Bountiful Blades... Oh! Kiba! Welcome back young man. I see you brought someone with you this time. How can I help you?”

Kiba smiled at the Devil, “My friend, Junichiro, wanted to get a good look at what kind of magical swords we use here in the Underworld. He's recently reincarnated and rather interested in magical blacksmithing.”

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

AN

Okay, so, I've been trying to work on this story for days but I'm just not feeling it. My mind keeps wandering and I keep coming up with various random ideas for other stories and it's driving me to distraction. I think I need to write something else for a while to get it out of my system rather than try and force myself to work on Fabricator and give you all a subpar chapter.

Hell, I'm not even sure I like what I have for this chapter so far. I might just rewrite the whole thing from the beginning and go in a different direction. I'm not sure yet, honestly.

I'm going to putz around with other ideas for a bit and will probably post a couple of chapters to some random new idea. Like, I recently ran across TFS's DBZ Abridged again after years and it kind of rekindled my interest in DBZ and made me want to watch the series from the beginning. Sadly, I don't have enough free time to watch literally hundreds of episodes of Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z. I'm not the biggest fan of Super where they made Goku into a complete jackass that's willing to risk the entirety of his universe for a fight. That's just a complete dick move man.

I've got other ideas bouncing around in my skull as well, like an OC taking over Neito Monoma from MHA and abusing the fuck out of his Copy Quirk. Seriously, with just a small bit of intelligent use, that Quirk is only second to All For One.

Or an OC taking over Sasuke Uchiha in Naruto but not caring about the Mangekyo Sharingan but abusing the Eidetic Memory of the base Sharingan to become a Seal Master. Seriously, how did the Uchiha clan not become just as famous as the Uzumaki for seals?! With their Sharingan they could instantly and easily pass on the skills to make any seal without a single mistake. Even an amateur with zero knowledge of seals could copy the highest level of space/time fuinjutsu perfectly with even just the lowest level of sharingan. Granted it would be better if they understood what they were doing, but the point stands.

Sorry, got off track there. Point is, lots of distracting thoughts and I need to get a few of them out before I feel like I can continue this story properly.

Thank you for your understanding.