บท 26: Valuable Lessons
Raising the cup to my lips, I took a large gulp of my drink, finishing it off before placing it on the table. My fight in the Kengan Association had ended no more than an hour ago, the first place I headed being a restaurant to get something to eat. I wasn't hungry, but it was more routine for me to eat something after a fight.
Siegfried had not challenged me at all.
Sure he had talent and his fighting style was pretty annoying to deal with, but I had faced more skilled opponents than he. To think that he could challenge me was laughable, the only reason it lasted as long as it had was purely to let me study what he and Ragnarök as a whole had to offer. If he was a top tier fighter, then very little. Though that did lead me to wonder what Ryōzanpaku and its fighters were like?
Either way though, I got what I wanted and ended the fight pretty quickly after that. Now I was sitting in a nearby high-end restaurant enjoying a nice meal and for once, not covered in cuts and bruises, sitting with dried blood coating my body.
Kaede was sitting across from me, enjoying her own meal, a nice view for me to enjoy as I ate. Though I had to be a little more subtle in my glances, she was quite a taciturn individual as I had come to learn. It was a bit of a double-standard though that she was free to check me out without me being able to do the same.
Where's the justice and equality in that?
However, it was then the door to our private booth opened and there stood Rino. A few of her accompanying bodyguards took their station outside the room. "Hello, Mikoto." She greeted with that same smile she always had on her face.
"I wasn't aware you were coming today," I replied, Kaede shuffling a bit further down the table as to make room for Rino who took a seat directly across from me now. "Did you watch my fight?"
"I did," Rino nodded her head. "You took longer than I expected, have you been slacking off your training?"
That made me scoff in amusement. "Hardly," I replied, not in the least offended by her teasing words. After all, Rino knew better than to believe I would slack off, she was the only one who knew how much I desired to get stronger. "So, how come you didn't let me know you were there?"
"I was having a conversation with a few of the spectators. They're all a little worried you see."
That made me pause. "Worried?" What could possibly make the members of the Kengan Association worried, this was the most profitable underground fighting ring in the world. The Kengan Annihilation Tournament had been no more than a few months ago and with Nogi Hideki proving himself time and time again as the new head, the Kengan Association was as strong as ever. Stronger in fact considering that Katahara Metsudo was acting as his advisor it was only set to grow even more powerful.
So why on Earth would the members be worried? Unless there was someone threatening them. That had to be it, but that didn't make sense. In canon, the only group that could challenge the Kengan Association was Purgatory and they only did that because Worm infiltrated their ranks and pushed them into action. But that only starts two years after the end of Kengan Ashura, it's too soon.
"Purgatory has declared a wish to hold a tournament betwen our two organisations. A tournament that will determine how the merger between the two will go ahead." Rino explained, confirming my suspicions, but again, that didn't make any sense.
It was still too soon, so how was it all coming ahead now.
I knew of Purgatory, learning more about it from my time in this world than in my previous one. But effectively, what I knew was that Purgatory was a long time rival to the Kengan Associaiton , smaller but growing rapidly. Its momentum was such that many fighters began to transfer towards Purgatory, especially with the much safer environment and better fighting venues.
However, from what I'm aware, this only started to gain ground after Purgatory truly skyrocketed when it merged with Bishamon, the third largest underground fighting tournament. Yet, that hadn't happened according to what I knew. Bishamon was still active, so unless Purgatory managed to do this soon, they wouldn't have those numbers.
Why was this all happening so soon?
"Some think we might lose?" I asked, there was questions I had and she was the only with answers.
Rino nodded. "It's a growing concern amongst many." She explained. "That's why we're trying to put together our strongest lineup of fighters." Which explains why she came today, sure she might have been trying assuade the worries of a few members by speaking with them. But really, she came here to recruit me into the team the Kengan Association was putting together. Smart, my presence in the team would hold far more weight than her simply talking with members.
"I'm afraid, that I'm a little spread thin." My response was quick, I didn't want there to be any confusion.
The fact was, my progress in magic while improving, was still not good enough in my eyes. There was also the Fallen Angels that I wanted to test myself against. Using that as a platform to properly interact with the Devil Heiresses which would then lead me to the Satans, eventually. I would be busy in the coming months and I don't think I'll be free for the Kengan Association vs Purgatory Tournament to come.
A strange look came over Rino's face, before she smiled. It was smaller this time, something that instantly put me on edge. "I see, I should have expected that to be the case." Okay, I'm a little confused as to what she meant by that. "You always were aware of what really exists in this world, weren't you? I had my suspicions that you did, but I could never really confirm it."
"You knew as well?" That caught me off-guard, did everyone know about the supernatural world? Or was it just my luck to run into the people that did know? For good measure I looked to Kaede, but she looked completely lost by the direction of this conversation.
That's a relief. "Of course." Rino responded. "I was born with a Sacred Gear after all. That led to a few people who wanted me dead, or to recruit me to their cause."
"You ability to control people?"
Rino nodded her head. "It's an illusionary-based Sacred Gear focused primarily upon the manipulation of phermones. Makes it very effective on those with heightened senses." Illusion-type Sacred Gears, that was a little terrifying. I had seen Aizen and he had officially made me terrified of those who used illusions. Sure, Rino wouldn't be on his level, but that didn't matter.
My eyes glanced towards Kaede to see her silent and looking between us both. She thought we were crazy, not exactly unexpected, we were basically talking about illusions and stuff that was unreal. It was expected that she would view us both as crazy.
"Why tell me this?" I asked. "Why reveal this to me now?"
"Because I've invested a great deal in you, Mikoto." She stated. "Right now though, I can't invest anymore and I'm instead waiting for the return. Pretending that I didn't know when it seems like things in Kouh are coming to ahead would be shortsighted of me."
That at least told me that she had eyes and ears in Kouh other than Kaede. Who and how many I didn't know, but she definitely had other assets there to keep an eye maybe not on me, but the things that could prove a threat to me.
"The Fallen Angels." I told her, no point pretending otherwise now. "One of them has gotten my brother to take her on a date. She intends to kill him."
I wasn't completely sure on what I wanted to do about that right now. Did I intervene and stop her? Or did I let her kill Issei, let Rias turn him into a Devil? Both options offered their pros and cons, plus it wasn't like Issei would die completely in either outcome.
"And you intend to use this to your advantage." It wasn't a question, but a statement of fact. "No doubt, the Devils will get involved which you want. Possibly using this to get close to them and by extension, their elder siblings. A smart plan, attaching yourself to someone stronger as to provide yourself some shelter to hide under until such a time that you're strong enough to step out on your own."
That was precisely what I was aiming to do, but something much easier said than done.
"There's a problem though, Mikoto." I rose a brow in questioning. "It lies not in the plan itself, but in you."
I'll admit, that wasn't the response I was expecting. "Okay, I'll bite, what's my problem?" Rino was a smart woman and she obviously had a foot in the supernatural world, I wasn't about to look a gifthorse in the mouth. Secondly, like Rino had said, she had invested a great deal into me, letting me die was the last thing on her mind. Listening to her would only help me rather than be detrimental.
"It's twofold. First of all, you look through people, not at them. You register everyone around you as being there and you try and manipulate them to help you in some way shape or form." She's not wrong, I do that though with varying degrees of success. "However, you manipulate on the false pretense that you know everything about them and therefore have some success, but not as much as you were expecting, am I wrong?"
I didn't answer, just simply nodding.
She wasn't wrong, but this was something I had already become intimately familiar with. I operated under the pretense that these people were exactly like their canon counterparts, that was false. Not only were they not acting like anime characters, they also had sometimes subtle, sometimes overt differences to their canon counterparts. That meant that while the information I had was mostly accurate, it was only part of the whole picture. How much was varying, but so far no less than half. Which while good, wasn't enough to properly manipulate them.
"As for your second fault, well this is something that you don't seem to be aware of." This caught my attention. "You live in the future, but not in the present. You live, weighing the pros and cons of every action you take, looking to the big picture and that's good. But you need to balance that with looking in the present, looking at what you're doing currently and seeing conflicts of interests in the actions you take and whether you're spreading yourself too thin."
"That's why I'm unable to say yes to participating in the tournament." I pointed out.
"True." She conceeded. "Mikoto, I want to see you live and succeed, doing so benefits me. But if you continue as you are now, you won't live very long."
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