Bab 28: DxD : A New Hero : Chapter 28
I looked up to find that Koneko wasn't listening. She was sitting as straight up as she could in her the tiny locker as she stared blankly ahead. Slowly, almost mechanically, she turned her head to towards me.
Her eyes, when she instantly locked with mine, looked like they were almost gleaming with their own inner light as she quietly asked me, "Kitchen?"
...
Koneko's eye tracked the food as I flipped them into the air and back into the firing pan.
I always knew that Kuoh Academy was a prestigious school, not only for the quality of their education but also for the quality of their facilities.
You only have to take one look at the fountain that they had in the middle of the main courtyard or the actual school that could have easily been mistaken for a university building to know that.
It's not really surprising when you realized that the entire academy is owned and funded by Devils…you know, now that I think about it that kind of scary.
I mean the education of this city's children is literally being provided by the Devil. If any of the students here complain to their parents that going to school is like going to hell they're actually not too far off the mark.
But anyway, even though I knew about Kuoh's reputation, I don't thing I ever truly appreciated it until I entered the Cooking Club's Kitchen. It was only when I set my eyes upon the state of the art equipment filled the highest quality tools and first class freshly picked ingredients did I finally begin to believe in love at first sight.
Why didn't they ever have a cooking club like this in my old school?
To make things even better, none of the club members minded sharing their Kitchen. Whether that was due to me being a fellow cook or Koneko's pleading stare I'm not too sure but it wouldn't surprise me at all if it turned out that Koneko was a frequent visitor here despite her not being a member.
Right now I was cooking a quick meal of Stir fired vegetable and tofu. The cooking club still hand some leftover baked tofu from yesterday so it wouldn't take me too long to cook.
The quality of the ingredients and a little bit of subtle reinforcement mixed in will guarantee a great meal. Of course I had to cook for both Koneko and myself, so I made sure to make enough food to feed five just in case.
Seeing the way she was drooling slightly as her eyes never left the food for a moment, I believe that I made the right choose. That she was still that hungry after already eating both lunchboxes that I prepared however was surprising. Seriously where did all that food go?
Still watching her gaze so longing at my food made me crack out a smile. Using my cooking chopsticks, I picked up a piece of tofu from the frying pan and tossed it towards her in a high arc. Her eyes turned upwards as they tracked the tofu and when it got close to her she open her mouth and caught it out of the air like a dog.
A couple of the cooking club members in the other side of the room broke out in applause and cheers for Koneko when they saw her little performance. Apparently Koneko's a lot more popular in this school than I first thought.
As I went back to focusing on my cooking, I realized that I had the perfect opportunity to clear up a few things. "Hey Koneko," I asked while I stirred the food.
"I heard Issei was officially made a part of Rias's Peerage. Is it true that he only ended up having Twice Critical?"
She didn't answer me but I caught her nodding out of the corner of my eye
While I didn't show it in the outside, I was internally doing a little jiggle at the thought of Gremory's face when she found out. Still, I knew that Koneko was close to her so I didn't let any of what I feeling show on my face.
"Strange though, I thought that you smelt a Dragon on him." I instantly realized how what I said may have been taken as an acquisition and quickly clarified myself. "Not that I'm claiming that you made a mistake or anything but did you guys figure out why he didn't have the Boosted Gear?"
Koneko shook her but crinkled her nose as she said, "Dragon, he still smells like one. But different from his Sacred Gear."
I raised an eyebrow at that. Huh, so Issei has the scent of two different Dragons on him. That was…unheard of to say the least. A person can only every have one Sacred Gear, period.
While it's unconfirmed, there has been reports that when Azazel attempted to bond two Sacred Gears on a single person as part of his experiments. In each and every experiment has resulted on the test subject's immediate demise.
While it's possible that the reports were false as we don't have any reliable source of information in the Fallen Faction, it does fit with what we already know of Sacred Gears as there has never been a case of a single wielder bearing two of them.
And you can't gain a scent of Dragon simply by being near a one. Nekomata and other beings with a strong sense of smell can easily differentiate from a person's own scent and having someone's scent clinging to them.
No matter how hard I thought about it, I couldn't think of a single explanation to concerning Issei. Oh well, just another mystery in what was becoming a day full of mysteries.
I decided to leave it alone for now as the mystery would soon solve itself with or without my involvement. Albion has long since awakened, it was only a matter of time for Ddraig to make his appearance as well.
I turned back my attention back onto my cooking. Today was the day that I promised to help train Sona and her Peerage, and I'm gonna need a full stomach if I wanted to do a good job of it.
...
The courtyard was completely pitch-black. The sun has long since set and the flood-lights that were stationed overhead were turned off. The school's high walls blocked of any light from any of the surrounding buildings, leaving the place far too dark for anyone to navigate though.
Well, any human anyway. Devils were a completely different matter. We had no problem seeing in the dark.
It was still ten minutes to seven when I left the gymnasium and made my way to the courtyard, yet I still spotted a group of figures already waiting there for me. It didn't come as much of surprise for me that Sona and her Peerage were not only punctual but early as well.
I easily spotted Sona from where she stood with Tsubaki at the head of the group and walked up her. She had long since spotted me approaching and waited until I had arrived before she started speaking.
"Shirou, you're here early." She said with approval.
"I could say the same to you." I looked over the group and sure enough counted eight of them. The entire Student Counsel were all here. "While I'm not surprised to see you here on time and early, I didn't expect the same from the rest of your Peerage."
"Of course they would be. As members of the Student Council and my Peerage they represent both the school and myself. It is only natural that they would never dare to be late for anything – Right?" Somehow, even though we were in the dark with no source of light, her glasses flashed ominously when she adjusted them.
"YES, KAICHOU!" They all stiffened in place and yelled out as one in reply to her question. Even Tsubaki joined in, all of them looking vaguely terrified.
I had a feeling that there is a story behind that, one I'm not quite sure I wanted to know. Luckily that can wait for another time, for now it was time to train.
"Good. Now that you're here Shirou we can begin our regular-"
"Actually," I interrupted her, "I was hoping if you will allow me to test your Peerage one at a time before we do anything else."
She looked surprised at that, so I explained. "I don't need to see how you guys train or fight as a group because I know that they'll excel in that. Let's face it, when it comes to group combat and coordination that is an area that you greatly surpass me at. It's no exaggeration to say I have more to learn from you, than you from me in that particular field."
Sona showed no hint of pride or surprise at my comment; she merely nodded along with my assessment. Oh, so despite not having any delusion of grander when it comes to her strengths like so many of her fellow Devils, she doesn't lack any confidence in them either.
That's a surprise. For Devil who's bears the Sin of Pride she shows remarkable little arrogance in her skill, just pure analytically assessment. I wonder if she was always like this or Serafall had something to do with it.
…No, Serafall definitely had something to with it. I'm sure of it, but I'm not gonna ask Sona what her sister put her through. There are somethings we are better off not knowing, usually anything involving Serafall is something that is better left lost and forgotten.
"I'm not here to help you fight as a team, I'm here to help you fight as individuals." I continued, "That is why I want to test your Peerage one at a time so I can examine their individual strength and weakness to know what I need to train them on."
She looked at me over her rims, examining me carefully before nodding slowly, almost hesitantly, in agreement. "Alright, if you feel it's necessary I can accept that. Do you have anything in mind?"
I smiled, "As a matter of fact I do." I jerked a thumb over my shoulder, "I already set up the gymnasium beforehand. Everything's ready to go, I just need my first examinee and we'll being."
Sona looked towards the gymnasium before turning back to me. "You have given this a lot of thought haven't you Shirou?" She adjusted her glass as she took a moment to think about it, "Very well. In that case, allow me to go first."
"Nope," I shook my head," sorry Sona but you're going to be last. You'll understand when it's all over and done, but for this to work you need to be the final one to take this little test of mine."
She glared up to at me, finally haven reached the limit of her patience. "The more I get to know you Shirou, the more you remind me of my sister." She shook her head and relented, "Fine, but this better be worth it in the end."
"It will I promise." I assured her before turning towards the rest of the Peerage. I deliberately looked over them even though I already knew who I was going to choose, "So, who wants to go first?" I asked.
Before Sona had a chance to select a member, someone spoke out. "I'll go," Saji walked forward with a cocky grin in his face, "after hearing so many rumors about you, I want to see if any of it is true."
I shook my head, "Sorry Saji, but Tsubaki is going first." I nodded to the calm and so far silent girl, "She's the Queen and it is the Queen who leads when the King cannot. But since you're so eager, you can go after her."
Saji halted in his tracks before nodding albeit reluctantly. "Follow me," I told Tsubaki before turning around and making my way to the Gymnasium.
I heard some hushed comments behind me, most likely Sona giving Tsubaki some kind of advice or encouragement, before I heard the sound of footsteps trailing after me.
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