Devil Ninja

Chapter 40

"That actually sounds pretty neat. I've never gone on a gondola before," Naruto admitted.

"I'm sure it isn't anything special," Raynare mumbled.

"You don't know that," Asia said, soft spoken as always. "I bet it's a really nice place."

Raynare sighed but didn't say anything to dispute the girl. Perhaps this was the reason Asia smiled.

I still find it so odd that these two became friends. Didn't Raynare try to kill her?

"Hmph! How many of your friends tried to kill you?"

"That's... uh... good point..."

Naruto quickly recalled all the friends he knew who, at one point, had tried to kill him, only to become his best friend. There were quite a few.

The rest of the time inside of the train was spent discussing tactics for their upcoming Rating Game, mixed in with the occasional quip from some of the more quiet individuals.

One thing Naruto noticed as time went on was that Akeno had grown increasingly quiet. She kept staring at Raynare with flagrant dislike. He couldn't tell if it was because of her proximity to Issei or those Fallen Angel wings of hers. From what he understood, Issei had already helped her overcome the problems she had with her Fallen Angel half, which meant her reason for staring was probably Raynare's closeness to Issei. At the same time, Akeno had given up all rights to be with Issei, having dumped him over a month prior, so she couldn't tell the other girl not to be near him.

When we finally arrived at the train stop, our group was directed by several Devils in fantasy armor that reminded Naruto of Saint Seiya. They led everyone to a large gondola that we were all asked to board.

It wasn't long after they had boarded that the gondola began to move. Naruto, Issei, Asia, Irina, Xenovia, Rossweisse, and Ophis moved toward the windows and watched as they ascended into the sky. The view was fantastic. The landscape stretched out for miles, eventually shifting into the unique sky color only available in the Underworld.

"This is such an amazing view!" Issei exclaimed.

"It's breathtaking," Asia agreed.

"It's okay," Raynare muttered with a sigh, though she didn't say anything to diminish the other two.

"I've never been to the Underworld before," Xenovia commented as she looked out the window. Her expression contained a complex mixture of emotions. "It isn't at all like what I expected."

"I know!" Irina exclaimed. "I was the same way the first time I visited."

Ravel, who was now standing immediately to Naruto's right, stared not at the scenery that passed them by, but at him. "What do you think of the view, Naruto-sama?"

"I think it's pretty incredible," Naruto admitted. "I've seen a lot of things in my life, including floating islands, but the uniqueness of this island, the color of the sky, and the fact that we're in the Underworld makes it something I've never seen before."

As Naruto spoke, a pleased smile crossed Ravel's face. "It is rather nice, isn't it? I've always wanted to visit Agares City to learn more about the Evil Piece System so I can better utilize my Bishop when I finally join a peerage."

"You mean when you join my peerage, right?" said Naruto with a grin.

"Y-yes!" Ravel admitted, looking down with a blush.

This would normally be the part where Koneko said something snappy, but she had been moody ever since the interview last week. Naruto was sure she knew that he and Ravel had sex in the hot spring. They hadn't told her, and she had never said anything about it, but she'd been very grumpy around them the morning after it happened.