章 20: Reactions
"So, did your brother come home at all last night?" Yurine asked concernedly to Issei as they entered the classroom. Beside her, Issei rolled his eyes, he honestly should expect it by now, it was very clear that his neighbours were attracted to his brother.
As annoying as that was.
"No, he did," Issei answered. "Just really late."
Yurine turned to him sharply. "Wait, does that mean he spent the night with Saeko?" Instantly her attention turned to the woman in question who was sitting in the corner of the room by the window. She was deep in thought, a strange thing for sure as she was usually attentive to her surroundings, smiling and in a way, looking down upon people.
"Who spent the night with Saeko?" Both jumped, spinning around to see Rin Tohsaka, their Class President stood behind them.
"Ah well, erm." Both fumbled around, looking for something to say but found themselves unable to. Rin herself looked towards Saeko to see that she was paying attention to something outside, a smile growing on her face. A strange thing for sure, especially when one noticed the type of smile it was.
This wasn't one of her usual fake smiles.
Or a smile of sardonic humour she had when looking down on someone.
Nor was it her malicious and manic smile she got one when enjoying a good fight or when seeing someone in pain.
This was a real smile of interest.
'Strange.' Rin thought, turning back to see that Issei had already rushed away towards his friends, hiding away. Yurine herself was moving away but it wasn't quick enough. "Yurine? Please answer the question."
Yurine froze, unable to figure out what to do in these situations. For as long as she could remember, Rin had been not only the most academically able but the most popular. She didn't even know why, she wasn't the most beautiful, nor the most gifted but she had still been the most popular.
Everyone had wanted to be friends with her and in the past few years for the guys who had seen her; date her.
Again, Yurine fumbled over her words. "Was it Mikoto Hyoudou?" Instead of saying anything, Yurine just kept silent which was all the answer Rin needed as she strolled past. Moving past the desks and ignoring the greetings she got, Rin made her way directly towards Saeko who had yet to turn her gaze away from the window. "So, how did last night go?"
"It went well." Saeko, as always didn't turn to her.
For this reason only, Rin could consider Saeko a friend, as strange as that was. Among Magi, friends was a rare phenomenon, more often than not you had friendly acquaintances or family alliances. Even then, Magi would often betray those close to them if it offered them far more opportunities, that was just the world they lived in.
Rin wouldn't lie to herself and pretend that if offering up Saeko to someone in return for something worthwhile wasn't something she would do. Because she would, without even a moment's hesitation.
But they were still friends and she was curious to find out what had happened between her and Mikoto. She had been aware of them having some history, mainly that Mikoto had lost to her in a Kendo tournament when they were kids. But other than that, Rin didn't know much else about their relationship.
"That can't be all that happened, can it?" She questioned further, turning to look out the window and was quite surprised by the sight. Mikoto seemingly hiding away behind a bush, Yurine's sister, Mio talking with one of her hired bodyguards, Karla Kure. 'Ah, so that's why Karla was so eager to come to Kouh.'
She had done her research on Mikoto upon learning of his arrival, even more so upon learning of the interest that Saeko held in him. He was a fighter, one highly experienced and a veteran of the Kengan Association, even participating in the Kengan Annihalation Tournament. It was there that Mikoto must have met the Kure Clan who had also participated in it.
'Which might explain what is going on down there.' Her gaze trailed towards Mikoto once more, sensing something different about him. "You didn't? Why?" She muttered in surprise, Saeko turning away and smirking.
"Why not?"
"Why not? Maybe because of what the Devil Heiress' will do?"
Saeko waved it off, not in the least bit concerned. "Please, they're hardly a threat. Sona Sitri is set in the belief that because she's good at chess that in an actual fight she's going to win. But she's too rigid and taciturn which makes her and her Peerage easy to beat. As for Rias, despite having the Power of Desctruction, she's a spoiled brat and doesn't train herself. Her Peerage is more diverse, but again, not a huge threat."
"You speak as if you've fought of killing them before."
"Haven't you?" The silence spoke volumes. "Besides, they've already agreed to leave Mikoto to me, so I can do what I want and they can't interfere. They really should stop being so arrogant."
Rin laughed lightly, generally amused and surprised by Saeko's words. "Who knew you could be so cunning? Though I suppose you're right. Rias might disagree and try and interfere, but Sona won't. She's very prideful and gave her word, she won't break it and will act as a buffer between us."
"You intend to use him, don't you?" Saeko realised, hardly surprised.
Everyone in this world would use everyone for their own gain.
"Aren't you?"
-X- Line Break -X-
Tapping her finger lightly against the desk, Rias nibbled on the nail of her other thumb as she looked upon the chess board in front of her. The black set was full, all sixteen pieces lined up and scattered across the board in different positions. The white set on the other hand had five pieces.
One King, representing herself.
One Queen, representing Akeno Himejima.
One Knight, representing Yuuto Kiba.
One Rook, representing Koneko Toujou.
And one Pawn, representing a future member of her Peerage in Issei Hyoudou.
She had, had her eyes on Issei for a while. He possessed a Sacred Gear, a powerful one but what type was unknown to her. She intended to recuit him and use his power to help her current predicament.
But now a lot of unforeseen variables were beginning to pop up and most worrying of all, was Mikoto Hyoudou. Especially when he came into school today, the magic within him had been small, but there had been no denying it's presence. Considerng that yesterday he had nothing and today he had it, that meant something had happened.
'Which means that Saeko Busujima had something to do with it. I thought she was going to kill him.' That honestly would have been preferred all things considered, but it seems that wasn't the case and she had instead helped him unlock his magic.
"Ara, ara, have I finally managed to stump you?" Akeno murmured, entering into the room with a tray. Upon it laid two cups, a tea pot, a glass of milk as well as a plate of sweets. Placing it down on the coffee table, she placed the glass of milk on the table and just as she picked up the plate, it was quickly snatched out of her arms by Koneko.
"I've just been thinking of over things." Looking at the chessboard once more, Rias began to make move. Once she moved her Pawn, all of a sudden the black pieces began to move as well, the magics surrounding it keyed to the moves of Riser Phenex and those of his Peerage from the various Rating Games he had been apart of. She was preparing herself by studying his strategies and coming up for counters to them with her own limited number of pieces.
"Like what?"
Thinking upon it further, Rias turned to Koneko. "Follow Issei and Mikoto Hyoudou. See if you can find out if they have anything that could reveal what's going on."
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