Demon Among Devils

Chapter 5: "Yield"

Those days had gone by rather comfortably, and even Rias had lessened the peerage requests she had been giving him. With Asia's inclusion, the devil had been busy instructing the newest member of her group. He was glad for the peace. Perhaps that was why time seemed to pass so quickly.

And then something had happened, something that seemed to affect not only Rias, but her entire peerage as well. The next time he saw them, gathered together in their clubroom, there was a palpable sense of gloom hanging over their heads. The only clue he received was Issei muttering something about a 'Grilled Chicken'. From the way the boy gnashed his teeth and talked about increasingly more violent ways to beat into a pulp said 'Grilled Chicken', he had at first concluded that their entire group had come down with a mild case of indigestion and were plotting their revenge on the restaurant that had served them the dish.

Of course, it had not been that, and he had surmised it was something far more ominous when Rias continued her attempts to recruit him into her peerage with even greater zeal than before. There was something different though, about her ways. Where once those attempts had carried a certain amount of teasing, a certain amount of mischief, now they held the unwelcome presence of desperation, and he did not know why.

It was for that reason that when she asked him to accompany them on a trip to train in an isolated area far from school grounds that he accepted.

The clearing was in the middle of the forest, surrounded by lush vegetation, and bordered by dense undergrowth. It was a secluded place, far from prying eyes, and had he not had a guide to follow he would have been easily lost. He had to give Rias credit. The devil knew how to pick secret locations. His gaze wandered around the surrounding scenery, taking note of the kicked up dirt on the ground and the deep, charred marks on the trees that could not have been made naturally. Some of them were fresh. But that was within reason. Rias had told him this was where they went to practice with their Sacred Gears, where they trained as a team and tested out new strategies.

He sat on a nearby log, observing as the other members of the trip talked amongst themselves. Their words were muffled and purposefully guarded. He understood. Whatever intentions Rias may have had for him, he was still not a member of her peerage, a position he would staunchly preserve. That meant whatever private words she may have had for her servants, he was not allowed to hear. That suited him just fine. If Rias wanted to tell him, she would do so in her own good time.

He watched as one of the figures detached himself from the group and began striding towards him.

Yuuto Kiba. Third year student, and arguably the most popular boy in the academy, if not for his dashing good looks then certainly for his earnest charm. Like Rias, he had a particular sincerity to him, and the way he always smiled when doing anything made him very easy to approach. His legion of secret admirers attested to that fact. They had nearly trampled him once, when he had the misfortune to cross the boy's path in the hallway. The stream of fan girls had crushed him to a wall and held him there for minutes while they sighed and giggled excitedly amongst each other as Kiba passed. Of course, that was when he knew him as a human and not a devil.

Now after spending some time with Rias's peerage, he wondered how much of that charm was faked. The boy still smiled, still spoke courteously in private, but there were times he caught the devil staring off into the distance, as though reminiscing about something. He had once been human. Rias had told him that, and Kiba had further elaborated, though the version of events he gave was brief and succinct. But from what he knew about devil resurrections, the boy had died once before being raised, and he did not doubt for a second that there might have been something dark in his history that eventually led to that fate.