NOVEL WEB Believe in me that believe in you
They retreated away from me allowing me to breathe. I could see relief all over their exhausted faces as if they had been suffering and the end of their torment had ended.
“I'm back,” I said softly to them.
“Please, president never do again what you did. Next time, I'll be stronger so that it won't happen,” my pawn declared.
He talked as if it was his fault as if all the blame for the actions that I had taken reposed on him. I could see the same guilt through the eyes of my peerage members, my family and in that moment, I felt like a failure.
“It wasn't your fault Issei,” I spoke softly. My gaze wandered over all of them “It was the fault of none of you.”
I could see how they wanted to object to my words. I didn't allow them “What happened is the fault of none of us here. You gave all of you your best. You fought and bled for me because all of you cared and loved me.”
“I know I made a lot of people worry and I'm sorry for it.”
I looked at their weary faces. Even with the essence I gained that should have negated it, I felt as if I was as exhausted as them. “May I ask a favour to all of you?” I asked them.
“Of course, President,” Issei said.
“You can count on me,” Asia added.
“I am your knight,” Yuto said.
Koneko just nodded and Akeno, I didn't need her to answer to know That she would agree with me.
“Will all of you come with me to Shibuya?” I said to them.
“Shibuya?” Issei said looking confused.
“There are classes we would miss if we went,” Asia added.
“I know but right now, I just want to forget about everything, about the underworld or even Kuoh. It's true that it's not the wisest thing to do but I ne-”
Akeno cut me “You don't need to justify yourself. You're my king, I'll follow you everywhere.”
I don’t know why but the way she looked at me made me feel warm. I felt as if I was blushing. It was probably my imagination but I swear that I could have seen Akeno’s cheeks take a rose taint. I smiled at her “Thanks Akeno.”
“Of course Rias. Everything for you,” she answered me. She was truly a good queen.
I turned to Koneko who was now using my legs as a pillow like a cat. “I'll go with the president,” she simply said.
“Thank you Koneko,” I said to the younger girl. I rubbed her head the way you would do with a cat and she closed her eyes. I could feel vibrations going through my legs as if she was purring.
She didn't look as if this was what she was doing but I knew that I wasn't mistaken. She was so cute. I wanted to hug her to death.
My case slid over my pawn and my bishop. They looked at each other and a silent conversation seemed to be happening between them. It was something new, that didn't happen or that the original Rias hadn't seen happen before the rating game. Maybe I wouldn't have to do anything to push the two of them toward each other.
Asia nodded to Issei. She and The boy turned toward me. “We'll come with you, President,” my pawn declared.
“Good,” I said.
“Koneko,” I called my rook. “I have to leave the bed.”
“Not now,” she purred.
“If you do it, I'll buy you ten big chocolate cakes.” The white-haired girl moved like lightning away from me.
The greatest weakness of my rook was her sweet tooth. I was sure that there were a lot of things she would do even if she hated them just so that she could satisfy her craving for sweet things. It is something that would have been the reason for malnutrition and health problems for a human but we weren't humans. We were devils, beings that shaped the world only with our will and wishes.
I left the comfort of the hospital bed and stood up. There was a mirror on one of the walls and I could see my reflection in it, the proof that this wasn't a dream, that it was real.
I realized that While I had been asleep, my clothes had been swapped to a dull medical garment. It wouldn't do. Something else will have to do and that something won't be in any case the Kuoh uniform.
I knew that it was because it was easier when animating or drawing if the characters always wore the same outfit with little to no variation.
I thought about the clothes I knew I had now. I had an entire room in my manor with only clothes. I knew that I could be teleporting to it just to search for clothes that I would like but I wanted to try something else.
I closed my eyes and searched the spark of malevolence nested in my heart, what I knew as my demonic energy. It had grown significantly. Before unlocking the essence, it could be said that my demonic energy was a pool. After I unlocked it, it could have been compared to a river. Now after waking up, it felt like an ocean just waiting to be called.
So I called it. I didn't use incantations or mathematical formulas to make what I wanted to do easier. Those were crutches used by lower beings who needed them to do something worthwhile. I was a devil, I only had to wish it and as long as I had enough demonic energy, the world would bend to my will.
It was also something I didn't understand why devils didn't do more. Our demonic energy grew more when it was completely exhausted and replenished like a muscle growing stronger with exercise.
My demonic energy was of a dark black-purple colour almost like an amethyst I noted. I let it coat me. I wished and with my wish, the clothes that I wore disappeared in a flash of red letting me bare for a fraction of a second before new clothes materialized over my body.
I inspected my outfit. “How do I look?” I asked my peerage members who looked surprised because of the clothes I wore.
I could understand them. The original me favourited clothes that could be called simple. It didn't mean that she couldn't be flashy. It's just that she chose not to. I heard once that sometimes, a person looks good because of their clothes. Other times, it's not the clothes that make the person look good but it's the person who makes the clothes look good. I could say without vanity that I was in the second category.
The body that I had now could not be considered or even compared to a mortal one. It was too perfect, too symmetrical, something that shouldn't be humanly possible. It was the kind of beauty people would and did kill just to have the 1/100th of it.
With platforms Doc Martens replicas, baggy goth jeans with little belts and a black tea with a drawing of my brother with an electric guitar, I looked like a hot topic reject, a good-looking hot topic reject.
“The president looks different,” Asia said before putting her hands on her mouth. She probably had thought out loud.
“Yes, I know that I look different.” Japan was a country of conformism. What was the infamous quote? Ah yes, the nail that sticks up is hammered down.
I would never let myself be forced again to do something I hated, change myself to be treated like a normal person like people should normally be treated. Many would probably look at me and either avoid me or look at me in disgust but it means that the person that will still treat me as a normal person would not be shallow ones. If they couldn't see me as I was and accept me this way, I didn't want them in my vicinity.
“After Riser, I wanted to look different. The old Rias died with him.” If only they knew how I was literal.
“You look wonderful Rias,” Akeno told me while smiling.
I couldn't restrict the smile that bloomed on my face “Thanks Akeno. Do any of you want to change into something else?”
I saw them say no by movements of their heads. I clapped in my hands “Great. Let's go.”
I turned toward my knight “Kiba, make us teleport to Shibuya,” I ordered my knight.
He didn't discuss my order. “Understood President.” I could sense how he began summoning his demonic energy and how a circle with the Gremory crest began to appear under us. I ejected from the sole of my feet a wave of power of destruction that erased the circle.
“President?” Kiba spoke. I could feel the question in his tone. Akeno and Koneko were also looking at me waiting for an explanation.
Issei hadn't been able to see or sense that I was the reason why the teleportation circle disappeared “Problems of performance, you good-looking bastard?” he mocked my knight. He was shut up by a touch of Asia. He looked at her and sighed “I apologize,” he said sounding defeated.
“I stopped you from summoning the teleportation circle because of a reason Kiba. Do you know what it is?” I didn't give him time to answer “We're devils Kiba. You're a reincarnated one that was born with the sacred gear demonic sword births allowing you to create demonic swords with the effect you want.”
Understanding passes through his eyes and the eyes of the other members of my peerage members. “You want me President to teleport us with a sword?”
“Yes Yuto,” I confirmed.
“I'm not sure I could do such a thing, President,” my knight spoke.
“Rias, the calculations needed for such a thing are a little bit beyond Yuto. His strength doesn't lie in magic,” Akeno said to me.
I walked toward my knight and stopped before him. “Do you trust me?” I asked him.
“With my life,” he answered instantaneously.
“There’s something I learnt or it would be more true to say that I learnt again, something that I had forgotten. We are devils Yuto. We don't need calculations or incantations to create acts of sorcery, to make miracles. Issei created with the help of Asia a spell to destroy any clothes and it had not been two months since he had been a devil.” I put my hand where I knew his heart was.
“Issei,” I called my pawn without looking at him.
“Yes, president,” he answered.
“Your spell, the one that you created and used against Riser’s pawn. How did it come to life?” I asked him.
“I don't really know. I just knew what I wanted, a spell capable of allowing me to see all the boobs I wanted!” he yelled. I could never forget the sights” he fantasized out loud.
I could hear Akeno laugh and a whisper of pervert coming from Koneko “Issei, focus” I said to my pawn.
“Sorry president,” the pervert apologized. “I just followed the instruction of Akeno-sempai. She had told me that our demonic energy is fuelled by our imagination so that's what I followed.”
“Yuto,” I said to the knight. “You've been a devil far longer than Issei. You have a bigger demonic energy than him. Your sacred gear creates demonic swords with the effects you want. You already know how to use a teleportation circle. You have reunited all the conditions I know will make sure you'll succeed.”
“Close your eyes,” I told him. He followed what I asked him to do. “Yuto, focus your demonic energy on one thing, on creating a sword capable of making us reach Shibuya.”
I saw him take a deep breath. He put his two hands before him as if he was on the point of receiving something. I could feel a spike in his heartbeat and a surge in his demonic energy.
The demonic energy pooled floating over his hands formless. He had begun sweating as if he was doing an exhausting exercise “There’s nothing you can't do Yuto.”
“It is hard president,” he spoke his voice strained.
“I know Yuto. Do you remember your dream Yuto, what you promised to destroy, what you promised to them? How would you be able to do it if you don't push yourself?” I spoke softly.
I smelt something in the air. It was sweet and intoxicating like a drug. I knew what it was. It was hatred in its pure undiluted form. A mini shockwave erupted from between my knight hands. I could hear the sound of glass breaking, of furniture flying in the air and falling.
The formless mass of demonic energy began to take form. What appeared between his hands was a longsword. Except for the ebony colour of the blade, it looked like a perfectly ordinary sword.
He grabbed the hilt of the sword and turned away from me. He slashed into the air and with the movement of the dark blade, space itself was cut.
The space distortion gave me a view from the sky. I could see on the other side colourful mega buildings. I could see thousands of people walking in every direction. I could see the Shibuya scramble square.
My knight was also looking in amazement as if he couldn't believe what he had been able to do. “I told you Yuto, there's nothing that you can't do, that we can't do. Never forget that. I could feel the steps of my peerage members coming closer to us “This is just the first step toward your goal.”
“I had never thought I could do this but you still believed I could,” he spoke softly.
“That's normal. We're family” I answered him as together we looked at the beautiful skyline of the city at night.
If you were at the place of Kiba with his sacred gear and demonic energy, what would you create or try to?