Beta read by Shigiya.
.
.
.
-Underworld-
I honestly intended to run away, to escape the entire event and sneak through the back door quietly without anyone ever truly noticing my departure. With Rias and Sona around, they were bound to attract everyone's attention like a magnet. This further pushed deeper with the added presence of Sairaorg bringing the fan favorite so to speak.
Then the presence of the Red Dragon Emperor along with a multitude of fighters all possessing rare and obscure sacred gears not seen for centuries coming out of their hidey holes and ready to flex off to see who can destroy my peaceful life the most. Compared to all of them, my presence barely would attract any attention and I preferred for it to remain that way in the first place.
Yup, these were nothing but just the surface layer reasons why I wanted to just go home. The main one was my dissatisfaction with Sirzechs playing whatever shenanigans he had planned for me. The mere idea of being used as a Pawn in such a way did not sit well with me along with countless other uncertainties that came forth from this kind of situation.
But of course, my luck ended up running dry, and having not even taken a single step inside the train I found myself captured by my so-called teammates and dragged back to the arena in such a way that it destroyed any rep I had gained over the years.
Now, I had to start all over again.
"Had you not considered it would be a bit embarrassing for us if our leader were to just… leave?" As we were teleported within an enclosed space that slowly modeled itself in the appearance of an abandoned building, Xenovia asked out of curiosity. "You're not one to make a hasty decision like this without reason. You were calm yesterday."
"You haven't figured it out yet? You're a bigger blockhead than I thought—ah!" Perhaps I should have kept my mouth shut, the sensation of having one's ears pulled this harshly hurt like hell. I shot a furious glare at the accursed Fallen Angel bitch who, in my restrained state, was having fun messing with me.
"What? Like hell I'm intimidated by a guy who tried to pussy out of a fight."
Well, it's not like I ever held any hope for her to figure out the truth. But for Kalawarna of all people to still be clueless? What a shame.
Xenovia on the other hand gave me the impression of simply not caring about whatever was the case. As long as she proves her strength in the most straightforward way possible. This is the perfect stage for her upcoming show I suppose.
"I tried to leave because there is no scenario where we can 'win', are you seriously telling me none of you suspect this?"
I got my answer from the numerous confused stares pointed at me. This unfortunate reaction forced a sigh, so I had no choice but to continue to speak. "Basically we are only here to serve as a stepping stone for other devils. A show of superiority from the Devils if you want to look at it that way to all the other pantheons."
Kuroka seemed to pick up on what I was saying, but not the others yet. "Think about it, with everything that has been going on lately whether I like it or not, my name has become pretty famous and so has my title as the Black Dragon King. Not to stroke my own twisted ego, but I can say with a certain amount of confidence that the title associated with me holds more influence than the Red Dragon Emperor."
From having faced the Fallen Angel of the Stars recently, to my other exploits which include meddling with the Celtic pantheon, the vampires, and my meddling with the Hero Faction to name a few… well a lot of eyes are locked in on us." I didn't proceed to point my gaze at the blue-haired exorcist near me. "We can't forget about you Miss wielder of the legendary Durandal and Excalibur Destruction. Then there is you as well, Kuroka, a former SSS class criminal, just you two alone drawing plenty of attention."
"I'm not sure I follow," Xenovia said, Trying her best to comprehend but perhaps getting lost in the process.
"Saying it simply, the Devils most likely are not a fan of how much popularity we may be gaining recently and people start to treat us as a bigger deal than the Devils themselves." This was not a recent revelation if I had to be honest, the thought lingered in my mind for quite a bit of time and only after hearing what Sirzechs set during the party did I start to truly believe it.
At that Kalawarna scoffed, "Not to deny everything you have said, but are you sure you're not overestimating us? I do understand if we are a bit popular amongst the masses but why would they need to make a show out of us? Other than you and Xenovia over here, the rest of us are… not up to par."
If my fingers were freed, I would have raised three of them to illustrate my following points.
"First of all, Did you forget who was the one who killed a veteran Fallen Angel Cadre?"
"You."
Well, technically speaking, the real killer was that shut-in Dragon God who's probably lurking around here somewhere, invisible to us all. But mentioning that wouldn't do me any favors right now. Besides, I doubt she'd appreciate the extra attention. That loli hermit prefers to stay in the shadows, after all.
"Exactly," In the end, I shamelessly took the credit. "That alone is enough to raise many eyebrows. Because remember, the general population believes I am one of Rias' peerage members since the beginning—"
"—Aren't you one now?" She interjected with a confused face.
"Besides the point, just let me talk." My eyes twitched but I kept my calm at the very true statement, "Anyway, while the general population is under such a notion, most of the high-ranking Devils from the remaining pillars are aware of the true story. In their eyes, they most likely find it unreasonable for a human like me to be considered in such high regard and perhaps even think of me as arrogant to have stalled from turning into a Devil for so long. My current weird case does not help even if Sirzechs mentioned I had Evil Pieces in me… from both heiresses no less. That would create more chaos than anything else."
From my point of view, I could see the gears in her head turning as she slowly started to understand what I was trying to get at. Xenovia on the other hand continued to stare at me blankly, making me unsure whether she understood it or not but I kept talking.
"So for now, they still believe I am a human who garnered too much attention from having defeated Kokabiel and my presence potentially bolstering the morale of humankind and establishing another faction."
"... Isn't this a bit too far-fetched?"
"Not when the recent events due to the Khaos Brigade showing themselves helps with any of this." She had a point, I could have very well been overthinking the entire situation, but no matter how much I pondered on these factors this was the most plausible answer I could come up with. The other ones were far too unlikely and failed to explain Sirzechs' decision. "Listen, It's not just Kokabiel and the Khaos Brigade. It's a long list with my connections to Azazel, Paris still being fresh in the minds of many in the Supernatural, and my friendship with Rias and Sona. They fear that Sirzechs and Serafall will show favoritism towards me which would risk the opportunity of my side to establish a solid foundation that could one day go against the Devils."
"..."
"The Evil Pieces themselves are more of a binding contract or better yet a soul-bound geass that prevents many from truly betraying the devil race without severe repercussions." I looked at Kuroka, "Of course, there are some who can fight back but your cases are very rare."
As far as I knew, a standard stray devil could go rogue and slowly mutate into a horrifying monster when they were unable to control their powers. This was the case for the majority of cases which allowed such creatures to be executed rather easily. But with cases like hers, they rarely ever showed up and were counted as outliers more than anything else.
"So to disprove all of these speculations and appease the upper masses, he needs to show them that I am not that big of a threat by having one of their own beat me in front of millions." The way I made it sound seemed to paint the red-headed Satan as a ruthless mastermind willing to sacrifice my reputation or something. But that was not truly the case, this was merely speculation on my part.
Not like my reputation ever mattered to me anyway. I just didn't like being used this way at all.
"Alright, shut the fuck up already!" Perhaps unable to continue hearing this conversation between me and my secretary, Raynare snapped with veins bulging in her temples. "Who cares about the reason why we are here!? At the end of the day, it does not change that in less than a minute we will have to go against a shitty Devil and beat their shitty asses! So get your dumbass together and get this stupid crap over with already!"
As her voice died down, all of us turned our attention to the other side of the field where a ruined castle similar to ours was. The general setting is that of an open area without any structures or pillars present to act as cover from the attacks. The worst kind of terrain for someone who heavily relied on extensive planning or other kinds of strategies that involved stealth.
And not a second passed before I heard Grayfia make the announcement.
[For this match, the Black Dragon King team will be facing off against Eneely Vassago Peerage. Whoever takes out all of their memebers or make the other team surrender wins..]
"Vassago?" That name sounded familiar, but for the life of me, I could not pinpoint where I heard it before. "Wait… I remember now."
I immediately recalled everything the moment I saw the face of my opponent. A beautiful woman with blonde hair styled similarly to Asia but much longer. Wearing a standard modest dress of some kind with even half of her face veiled making it hard for anyone to see her face.
"You know her?" Kalawarna asked whilst setting me free, her hands strangely enough starting to wander in places they shouldn't be present. "Don't squirm so much, I'm just trying to untie you~!"
"Then stop feeling my chest… or slipping one within my pants. That's reserved for two ladies, who are watching me getting molested right now." Instead of answering her question, I couldn't help but comment on the current situation without feeling too worried about our chance of failing or winning.
I shivered when the woman in front of me smirked, putting her face right next to my ears, and whispered quietly, "Then can I add my name to the list as well?" Her hand slowly reached down there and caressed my most precious possession boldly without any hint of shame.
"Stop it if you don't want to get electrocuted once leaving this place."
"I don't mind~! My body can endure many things, though perhaps dealing with this little boy here will be a great painkiller."
"..."
I knew for certain this woman was not one to dig her own grave without reason, she was doing so deliberately to earn the eye of Rias and Akeno.
"You two can fuck each other like rabbits later!" Whoever would have thought that Raynare would be the voice of reason in this kind of scenario. Regardless she had a point and I pried her hand off my pants while she locked eyes with me the entire time before focusing on our opponent. *Eneely Vassago, We haven't truly interacted with one another that much in the past. She does not want to mingle with new people that much and as far as I know was always quiet by herself with… oh right, she's engaged with the Amon clan heir as well."
Everyone had a mild reaction around me, most or rather none of them were really interested in our opponent's identity in the first place, Not that I could blame them for that given how little of a presence she had and how many social circles. "Not much is known about her other than inheriting the abilities of her clan which has something to do with chains.*
As I was introducing her to my group, Eneely spoke as well, gathering everyone's attention with her soft-spoken and melodious tone reaching my ears. Using magic to broadcast her voice from all the way here.
"I believe this is the first time we speak to each other, Black Dragon King. I have seen you in many social gatherings over to the human world and it is a shame I was unable to have a conversation with you in the past. I believe my fiance spoke with you before." She spoke eloquently, her tone both soothing and even slightly seductive that it drew everyone's attention towards her. But nothing that would suggest it was some kind of charm magic or anything of that sort, just her natural beauty. As for her fiance, I didn't recall speaking to him before.
"You seem very confident in the outcome of this battle since you are just standing there without your peerage around." Rather than going along with her subject, I prefer to just get this thing finished as soon as possible and get away from the spotlight. "Even from this far away, I can still shoot you with a spell."
To my surprise, she started chuckling out of amusement.
"I heard a lot about you from Iolava. He would constantly speak about you whenever we met at every given opportunity." Her prior joyful tone started to descend into that field with frustration and a surprising amount of venom. "The Black Dragon King who conquered the Gremory heiress, the one who seduced her entire peerage. How he had also sunk his claws into Sona Sitri, how he got them to follow his every whim, how they would gladly strip themselves if he so much as asked! How he is forming a harem of different members of all three factions!"
Her voice kept getting louder and more disgusted with each sentence. While I kept a straight face and could do nothing but listen to her words. Wow, that was quite the image I had, one that I already tried to break but unfortunately, it never worked in my favor.
"That damn perverted man whom I nearly managed to reform returned to his old ways because of you! Now he keeps going after other girls whenever I take my eyes off him and asks them to join his harem! It's because of dirty bastards like you that he—"
Woosh!
Not a second later, a white spear was sent hurtling at her from my side, the projectile cleaving through the air at great speed before it struck the ground where she stood. The impact created a cloud of dust, obscuring the area and making it hard for us to discern whether she was hit or not.
Rather my eyes turned to the person next to me, surprised to find that the one who threw the spear was none other than Kalawarna. The Fallen Angel had a prominent scowl on her face with a second light spear soon forming.
"What?" She said whilst noticing my gaze on her. "I am still your secretary, and it is my duty to make sure a random harpy does not damage your reputation more than it currently is."
"I don't think attacking her like this is going to help with that in any way."
"It won't," she admitted quickly, "But it does make her shut up, which is arguably better."
"Agreed." Even Raynare found her answer to be amusing given the shit-eating grin shehad on her face. "She was talking too much, I didn't come here to hear someone scream at us like this. It gets annoying very quickly."
"Well, she is not wrong," Kuroka added, slyly snaking her arms around my neck. "Hachi-kun does have a lot of girls around him~"
"..."
I could not even dispute her words, for there was no falsehood in them. Other than Kiba and Issei with whom I hung around frequently, there were no other boys. Even at school, I had more girl friends, than guy friends. I refused to acknowledge a certain Dhampir given the latter just dressed as a girl all day. "Kala, remind me to find more boys to hang out with."
"No."
"... Why?"
"I don't want you wasting more time than you already do."
I was left speechless.
I wanted to cry but there were no tears coming out of my eyes, unable to understand just how far my reputation had descended. I was no sex maniac going around seducing everyone!
"If it makes you feel better, dragons are known to be very possessive and power attracts a lot of attention from different kinds of people. So it has very little to do with your charms."
"This isn't helping, Vritra!" I groaned, glaring at the traitorous dragon. The girls around me erupted into laughter, their shoulders shaking with mirth. Even Xenovia, usually so stoic, was biting her lip to hold back giggles. Raynare didn't even try to hide it, cackling like a hyena. I shot them all a withering look. "Oh sure, laugh it up. I'm glad my suffering amuses you all so much."
Thankfully, our opponent decided to go on the offensive and grant me a small moment of peace.
"They're coming." As soon as Xenovia said that, multiple shadows rushed out of the dust and we were heading straight for us. A myriad of spells were being fired all that once from all fifteen members of Eneely's peerage.
A couple fired earlier, with Xenovia taking action and jumping forward to slash the blast away with her sword. The weapon easily cleaved through the spell and disintegrated into nothingness within moments. "Hah!"
We all watched the woman gather more strength and twist her body around to block other spell attacks. While her movement was slow given she was wielding a heavy weapon, each strike managed to perfectly reach the spell and destroy them with great efficiency. Not a single wasted movement on her end, continuing to advance forward with each steady step, twirling around and spinning the giant sword like a saw blade, making sure none of it reached us.
"She's gotten better, far better than what I remember." To make Raynare impressed and give out such words on top of it was no small feat. I had to agree with her since during the battle against Kokabiel, the girl was not nearly as fast as this.
"Speed was always going to be an Achilles' heel. No matter how strong she would become or how powerful that played-over could end up becoming. If the enemy is faster than you and strikes you before you can even move in time then it is game over." The Nekoshou explained, seemingly not surprised by what Xenovia had shown. "Not going to ask me if I taught her?"
I shook my head, "I was more surprised that you were willing to help her in the first place… and that you know how to teach someone how to better swing a sword like this."
"Nyahahaha! That's just one of my many skills, I am very versatile." She purred, her nose almost buried within my neck. "I can show you what other things I can do in bed as well…"
I shivered when I felt her nibble my ear and blow on it.
Remembering that we were being watched by practically the entire underworld, I pushed her face away with a blush having managed to creep its way to my face. I did not even need to look into a mirror to know just how bad it was and cursed silently at how good she was at getting a reaction from me.
"—!"
As Xenovia drew closer to a few of the Devils, her fighting style changed and immediately became more aggressive. Going for the first person closest with her sword held a pie. Swinging the piece of metal downwards creates enough force to shatter the ground.
[Eneely's Vassago's Bishop has been eliminated.]
I was honestly taken aback, how could that woman let her bishop go to the front lines? In fact, the more I observed the other opponents the more I realized just how disorganized they were. Even after Xenovia cut down the first one, she was not having any issues doing the same thing again with the following two Pawns and Rook.
Xenovia carved through Eneely's peerage like a hot knife through butter. Durandal flashed through the air, cutting down anyone foolish enough to stand in its path. While not as quick as she once was, Xenovia's improved technique and fluid movements allowed her to evade most incoming spells. She twisted and spun, Durandal singing its deadly song. But even she couldn't dodge everything - a few stray blasts found their mark just as she took down one of Eneely's Knights.
"They are very disorganized, tch, she'll have all the fun at this rate." Raynare not wanting to be left behind, started to go on the offensive as well, throwing a number of light spears all of which bombarded the field without any target in particular being aimed for.
If Kalawarna's attacks were considered powerful enough to greatly wound a single Devil, then Raynare's current assault was particularly changing the entire terrain itself. Her current six-winged self held far more power than her past self ever hoped to possess, allowing her to fire multiple spears at once rather than a single one.
But obviously, there was a lack of control, for she still had a long way to go to master all of it.
"Hachi-kun."
"Careful!" I found myself stepping in the moment I heard Kuroka's warning and I yanked both girls away just in time to avoid them getting pierced by chains bursting from the ground. Having nearly impaled them had they not been pulled away.
"I find it very polite that a mere Fallen Angel throw-away member gets to act so arrogantly before me. Even you, human, do not look down on us just because you hold Durandal!" Eneely's figure walked out of the smoke. Her clothes were slightly torn in places that ended up revealing her thighs and cleavage far more than they did before.
Even her mask had been torn, revealing a beautiful face — but nothing as striking as Rias and Akeno. It looked closer to Seekvaria than anyone else, but with more curly blonde hair instead of straight green.
"Chains. I remember her clan having control over chains. I was a bit confused about her powers but controlling chains was not something I expected."
"Are you looking down on me? Why are you not fighting as well!?" What was supposed to be a simple observation on my part seemed to make the other party more riled up and furious as if I was mocking her. "I will teach you the same lesson I gave to Iolava! All of you, don't stop attacking! Keep the pressure on him!"
Giving an order to her remaining peerage members who had surrounded us, she gave an order which was followed through immediately when we found ourselves surrounded by dozens of spells fired at us from all angles.
"This is a bit disappointing." Seeing the scene before us, Kuroka commented and I shared the same sentiment as well. "Is this supposed to be the Devils who can defeat us?"
"No, not her." Deciding it was time for me to act, there were just too many spells fired for Xenovia or Raynare to deflect or block all of them. "This is most likely her first official Rating Game. No King would send their Bishop first without any protection, she didn't even make a plan and is just shouting orders."
The chains in question looked like regular sturdy chains made of Demonic Energy, with no other passive effect. Or at least, the girl had yet to gain the ability to fully use them, which worked in my favor.
"I can take care of them. I still haven't had my chance to strut my stuff."
"It's fine. It would be far too overkill to have you participate now, Kuroka. You'll have your moment to show off to Koneko, but leave this to me. Everyone already knows of my ability, so there is nothing to hide really."
A dark violet light shone on my left hand, Vritra's gauntlet forming with its gem gleaming with power. Eneely flinched at its appearance and immediately sent more chains at me which were struck away by Xenovia acting as my shield.
'It has been a while since you have faced an opponent below your level, Partner.'
Vritra was right, I could not even remember when was the last time I fought someone weaker than me to such an extent.
Was it arrogant on my part to think like this? Perhaps, but I wanted to relish the moment for a tiny bit. She was most definitely weaker than Connla, the one who apparently inherited the Irish hero's spirit.
Before I made my move, I had a few words to share with her. "If I recall correctly, your fiance was one of the many people who tried to have Rias' hand in marriage before Riser came into the picture. He seemed quite happy facing her today, maybe he wanted to show off to his real crush. Maybe he does not like having to settle with the second option."
"How dare you!"
It was a dirty move on my part, but it served its purpose and managed to distract the girl from using more of her powers. It also was not a lie, Iolava, just like many held some level of infatuation towards Rias.
[Delete Field!]
The black dome expanded, encompassing everyone and everything within the field. Instantly weakening many within her peerage to form them down to one knee. Their strength was taken away in an instant with the Sacred Gear's effect stronger than ever.
I raised my hand, the tip of my finger covered in black flames.
For a moment I could not help but groan at myself with how chuunibyou this scene looked but endured the embarrassment. I had done it so many times that something like this would not affect me that much.
.
.
.
[Eneely Vassago and her peerage have been eliminated. The victor of this Rating Game is Hikigaya Hachiman.]
{Break}
(A few minutes later)
"Well, that was disappointing." Having teleported back to the dark room where they first entered the field, Kalawarna made such a comment. "This was my first rating game, I expected it to be a bit more chaotic and dangerous."
"Are you seriously asking why we did not get much of a challenge against her? Do you think having an easy victory like this without any of us getting injuries was something to be soft for? Or maybe you're just watching too many action movies now, we won't be in a life or death scenario at every opportunity we are forced to fight."
Eneely Vassago was an easier opponent, She fortunately did not possess the experience required to pose much of a challenge. A single usage of his sacred gear rendered every single spell thrown at them practically useless. This gave the people on his side the opportunity to rush forward and take care of them swiftly.
A holy sword remained one of the most dangerous weapons to use against a Devil, the smallest scratch was more than enough to eliminate multiple Devils and Xenovia got to demonstrate just how capable she was. Most definitely this did not help with the attention focused on us, but Eneely was not at the level of Sairaorg to have her loss cause much of a commotion.
"Who do you think our next opponent will be?" Xenovia asked curiously.
"Well, since there are not that many teams in the first place, and most of the weaker ones got filtered out through the first round. That leaves with a not-so-great list of powerful groups — which includes Sona and Rias if we're lucky."
"Yay! I can have fun with Shirone again!" At least Kuroka liked the idea, I hummed but did not say anything about her reaction. "Hold on, what do you mean by 'if we're lucky'?"
The face of a certain grinning Bael heir flashed in my mind, making me shudder.
"It means we probably won't have to deal with a monster in round two. Or at least I hope so… having Kuroka and Durandal might help but I honestly can't see us winning against him."
"..."
Even the others were taken aback by my words, it sounded pessimistic but I was merely being realistic. If all of us allied to face him, then the chances of us winning were high, but this was assuming we were going to fight him alone without the other members of his peerage getting involved. I knew a few names and they were not weak by any measure.
"You seem certain that we will win against Sona and Rias. I would like to remind you that the Sitri heiress has the Red Dragon Emperor. Are you certain you can handle him if he uses his Balance Breaker?" Kuroka asked, though strangely enough someone else ended up answering in my stead.
"He will."
I looked at the Kalawarna with a faint hint of surprise, she sounded quite confident.
"I am aware that the Boosted Gear is not to be underestimated but understand that I have been with Hachi-kun here for a long while. He has faced his fair share of opponents that were supposed to be stronger than him and emerged victorious somehow."
I chuckled, "At times it was just pure luck and outside factors. Sona will not just rely on Issei alone but also on the other members to maximize his power. Rias has Akeno and Kiba, both of which are not easy to deal with in the least."
"So what? You fought Vali."
"Thanks to Sona's help."
I did not like just how much confidence she had in me, or perhaps I did reality always went differently from what I expected. I wanted to believe Issei would not pose the same amount of challenge as Vali, but that would just be me jinxing myself.
'You are wise to not underestimate Ddraig and his host, but I believe you are also underestimating us. If the need arrives, just switch places with me. I have been yearning to repay some past grudges against that red lizard.'
Great, Vritra started to become more of a battle maniac.
I just ignored him, as long as Issei didn't pull something ridiculous to suddenly multiply his powers by several folds then… ah damn it, I just jinxed myself. Of course, he was going to do something to gain a huge boost of power!
That damn main character's halo of his started to shine brighter these past few months!
"Let's just go meet the others, they are most likely waiting for us in the lobby—oof!" As soon as I opened the door, a shadow jumped onto me, pushing my body to the ground with enough force to momentarily put my mind in a daze.
'Silver…' That was the first thing that came to my mind when my vision got filled with strands of silver-colored hair. A wet sensation dropped onto my face which brought me back to my senses and much too much surprise. They were tears coming from the same woman I met last night who looked absolutely miserable right now.
… What was her name again?
Oh right, Rossweisse. We briefly spoke during the party last night and I had to bring her to my room due to how drunk she was.
"You!" Grabbed my collar, using a surprising amount of strength to rattle me back and forth enough to make my brain jumble about. "Take responsibility! I am not going to be known as the only Valkyrie who sold herself to prostitution! TAKE RESPONSIBILITY! Uuuuuaaah!"
Uh?
Eh?
What?
Perhaps it was because the woman was shaking me hard enough to make any coherent thoughts next to impossible, But I was pretty sure I did not sleep with her!
"S-Stop it! You're ruining my clothes again."
That only worsened the situation.
"A-Again!? Just what did you do to me last night!? Why can't I remember a single thing!? Did you drug me!?!?!!? At least tell me how it went!"
"Nothing happened between us, you crazy woman! Get away from me!"
"Liar! You paid me to sleep with you last night! Why do I have your wallet then!?"
She was a mess, completely out of control and I had to do something quickly. Absorption Line manifested around my forearm before quickly entangling itself around Rossweisse to restrain her somewhat. It worked at first as I managed to set myself free and get back on my feet, yet the appearance of my sacred gear only made the woman's face turn a few shades of red.
"Y-You… you want us to do it again!? Here!? In front of so many people!? No!" Growing hysterical, I send a ridiculous amount of power to start to surround her with several magic circles forming around her body. Their numbers grew by the second till there were hundreds of them and I watched as they all seemed to gather even more magic and forcefully overpowered my hold on her.
The line getting torn apart, something I never saw happen in such a way in the past. Even the Holy Swords fragments were not able to cut through it!
'What strength! Now this is a Valkyrie!'
"Not the time to be admiring her, Vritra!" I then turned my attention to the Valkyrie and put my hands up to show I had no intentions to continue this fight. "You, calm down. There appears to be some misunderstanding between us."
"I-Is this what I heard the other girls call a one-night stand?" She said with a trembling voice, "Where do two people allow their lust to take over and forget about it the next morning as if it never happened? How cruel! You are a terrible person!"
"I'm the one who got my clothes covered in vomit! And we didn't sleep with one another, you were just crying like a kid in the hallway!"
"S-Shut up!"
The first time since I arrived in the underworld did I feel a sense of danger when the person in front of me was about to go on the offensive. A set of armor covering her body with wings etched onto her helmet, she truly embodied the image of a proper Valkyrie with the monstrous amount of magical power emanating from her, enough to potentially destroy this building if she was not careful!
"That is enough, Rossweisse."
"—!"
Out of nowhere, a voice came from the end of the hallway and immediately the Valkyrie in front of me froze in place. Her eyes widened as she halted whatever spells she was about to use against me and slowly turned her head around to look at the person who appeared at the end of the hall.
I along with the other members did the same and soon faced an old man with a long beard and an eye patch standing there proudly. It did not take a genius to figure out his identity since I remember seeing his traces in the past.
"O-Odin-sama… t-this is not what you think! I was not aware! Please don't f-fire me, I won't be able to…" Rossweisse started rambling like a mad woman but the old man ignored her and walked past her without even sparing her a glance. His reaction made her go completely pale and crumble to her knees in despair.
His emotionless face was a far crime from what I heard about him from other people, even Kuroka behind me was tense.
"So… I heard you slept with one of my Valkyries, Hikigaya Hachiman." He said with a loud voice, forcing my eyes to twitch by these ridiculous accusations.
"No! I didn't do anything like that—"
"I understand." But just as I was about to retort further and call out this lie, Odin placed his hand on my shoulder and put a grandfatherly smile that looked very out of place weirdly enough.
"You do?"
For some reason that smile made me feel very uncomfortable.
"You lucky bastard, you hit the jackpot with this one! Rossweisse may be inexperienced, but that just means she's eager to learn. And with a smoking hot body like hers, you'll have plenty to teach her, if you know what I mean. Those tits of hers are top-tier, even among the Valkyries, just like her mother. I bet she's a wild one behind closed doors - it's always the quiet, shy types that end up being the biggest freaks in bed. You gotta tell me all the details later, you sly dog! Did you make her scream your name all night long? I knew you were the man for the job, Black Dragon King! Hahaha!"
"..."
"..."
"..."
… I… I didn't know what to say.
Was this reality?
Perhaps I was just having a nightmare and never woke up.
Also, this conversation felt oddly familiar.
"What is the meaning of this, Hachiman?"
Of course, as if my day couldn't get any worse, the cherry on top just came in. Rias and Akeno just had to show up at the worst moment and overhear what this damn old man say about one of his subordinates.
I should have left when I had the chance, even if it meant fighting tooth and nail against Kuroka.
------------
The next 5 chapters of Snafu, and my other Fate fics (Fate Coiling Sword with 3 chapters, A Fake Familiar Reborn with 3 chapters, Steel Eyed Faker soon to be 3 chapters, Hound having 3 and To love a sword having 4 chapters) are already available on my P@treon. With 4 more Broly chapters at /NimtheWriter. Also, I post commissioned arts on each story, already posted a few on an Archer's Promise, Broly and Snafu.