NOVEL NEXT CH 54: TURMOIL
In the occult club, after Basara made his declaration and left, Kiba immediately reached the club to discuss it with Rias.
"I see. So the day is finally upon us."
Rias smiled somewhat grimly, she had been waiting for this moment for an entire week and now that this was coming to head, she had to admit that she was somewhat jittery.
"Kiba, Koneko, both of you spent some time with him, what do you think?"
Kiba winced a little while Koneko who was busy munching on a cake Basra had prepared for him stilled.
Rias knew that the two of them fraternized with Basara during this week but she was in no way put off by it and in fact, encouraged it. She was happy to see the two of them make friends outside of their little-knit group. She knew that it was better for their mental well-being.
Furthermore, no matter who the winner was, their group would become closer to Basara so this was a boon. Still, seeing their reaction she couldn't help but show a bitter smile,
"Is it that bad?"
The reaction of her two friends was more telling than hundreds of words. She knew that Basara was strong but she had hoped that their combined might would more than match him.
At her question, Koneko simply nodded, "Basara is strong. He can put me down with one hand. I have no chance of winning."
Kiba on the other gave a more careful answer, "I have never won any of our fights during this weeK. I do not know how strong he would be if he went all out, but if Basara is allowed to attack us one after another, we will lose."
"Hum…So you suggest we stay all together during the fight?"
"Indeed. Only by mobbing him down and using our numerical advantage do we have a chance to win. Otherwise, defeat is the only way."
Rias massaged her eyebrows thoughtfully, "So Koneko as the guard and you as the vanguard while I and Akeno prepare our spells."
"This would be a basic strategy. Another one would be for me and Akeno to district him, with my speed and the speed of her spells while Koneko guards you as you prepare a big spell to take him down."
There were many failsafe available in the rating game system that insured the survival of all the participants. Even fighters at the ultimate or Maou class could go all out there so they weren't worried about hurting Basara with Rias' destruction magic.
"Very well, we have the beginning of a plan. We will try to polish it further later but it should be enough for now."
Despite her lack of experience, Rias knew enough to know that the more complicated a battle plan was, the higher chance it had to fail.
A simple and basic plan would be more apt to respond to unexpected situations and since Basara was an experienced devil hunter such an unexpected situation would happen without a doubt.
"Another advantage would be to use our knowledge of the system to win. But…"
"Such a victory would be worthless. At least it isn't something I would use against someone I want as a friend."
The rating games weren't just about fighting. Far from it, there were more than hundreds of variations possible with as many rules and ways of winning.
As a High ranked Devil, even though Rias never participated in any such games, she had more than enough knowledge to create a game that would give her the absolute advantage. But like she just said to Akeno, she didn't want to resort to such trickery in a fight against a possible ally.
Kiba hesitated a little before raising his hand,
"Should we ask Gasper for help?"
The room fell in total silence where Rias seriously considered this option for a moment.
Gasper was a member of the team that had made no appearance until now and of whom Basara had no information of. Furthermore, Gasper's power was a true Joker that could completely change the game.
Sadly,
"Gya-kun still doesn't control his power very well."
Koneko muttered. Like all of them, Gasper was a boy with quite the problematic backstory but also a very powerful sacred gear.
The problem was that unlike them, he had absolutely no control over that gear and in fact could unwittingly use it against his own allies.
"We won't be asking him to use his power, but I would like for him to get out of his room and take a fresher."
When she took in a vampire she would have never thought that she was about to raise a NEET.
Rias let out a small gentle chuckle at this thought. She liked Gasper very much and she since both Koneko and Kiba had shown progress ever since meeting Basara, perhaps the same would happen with Gasper?
She had nothing to lose either way.
"Very well then, let's get Gasper out."
Akeno nodded amicably while throwing a glance at her two kouhai both in school and as members of the peerage.
She could see that while they were still chased by their own shadows like her, a little bit of light had entered their life and was slowly driving out the darkness.
She also knew who was the cause and she couldn't help but wonder if she should try spending a little bit of time with him as the others did.
Perhaps then something would shine on her road.
—---
Meanwhile, somewhere else a man with a sardonic smile walked out of a car and looked at the surrounding before nodding to himself,
"What an interesting city. I can feel the different flow of power here. Hehehe this will really become a clusterfuck don't you think so, Barakiel?"
The man named Barakiel grunted, "We could have come here more easily if we flew our teleported."
"Ha. Indeed it would have been so. But then it wouldn't have been as interesting, right? Humans are truly ingenious. I understand why our Supreme daddy loved them so much."
"You and love for humans…"
"But my friend. Is it not because of love that we have fallen? My, I believe there is even the fruit of your love here, my friend."
"Azazel…"
Azazel raised his hand in surrender at the threatening growl his friend released, "Do not worry. We are not here for her anyway. She has a good life with that little lass of the Gremory."
Saying so, he showed an expression far grimmer, "This time…We are here to deal with the mess another dear friend of ours caused."
"And what will you do if he is indeed recognized as trying to instigate a new war? I heard the church was attacked not long ago and some holy weapons were lost."
This time, all smiles vanished from Azazel's face, "I executed Satanael for his crimes. I will do the same with Kokabiel without any hesitation if he is indeed the culprit."
Then, as if his earlier expression was a lie, a smile reappeared on his face, "Before that though, let's find some video games. After all, soon even the Holy Church will send people here."
It was thus that Azazel, the leader of the Fallen Angels, entered Kuoh City.
(AN: Normally the Saturday in the story should have been Basara's date with Hasegawa but I decided to put it off for a while. For Hasegawa, I plan to give her more dev before the date. She was Basara's adviser at Canon and I want her to keep this role. I want to get on the fight and develop more Mio and Maria who until now didn't really have a good place. Also soon, some more characters of Shinmai will appear.)