chapter 3:Being a Devil

That boy you were checking out before he ran away, his names George Anderson. A foreigner from the west" Akeno replied sweetly, smiling as she took her own turn, taking Rias' knight with a rook.

"I... I was not checking him out" Rias denied as she moved one of pawns towards Akeno's king, declaring check. "Hmhm, right.

Tell that to your past self as you stared out that window for the last 3 minutes" Akeno teased, moving her King and taking the pawn. "Well, he came across our property. I just wanted to make sure he wasn't... lost"

Rias explained, moving her bishop and declaring checkmate, slamming her piece on the board as she did so, "He certainly took off in a hurry though."

Akeno looked across the board for a possible way out. With none available, she sighed and acted extremely disappointed at the game's outcome; but she was fully aware of her president's capabilities when it came to playing chess and knew she was a long way from beating her. "Yes, I must admit, he's pretty fast for a human from America."

"So he's a foreigner?" Rias muttered as she leaned back in her seat, glancing out of the window where she was talking to George. "Why the sudden interest?

Could the Great Rias Gremory, be crushing on the American human?" Akeno asked innocently as she glanced across the table at her friend.

"No, just... I don't know. There's just... something about him I find... different" Rias said deep in thought. Ever since she arrived in the human world, she acknowledged the fact that she would be ogled by men on account of her body.

She knew she was an extremely attractive woman by anyone's standards and whenever she was out in public, she could always feel the eyes of men around her staring all over her body, particularly on her front and back ends.

Being a Devil, she knew something like this would happen, as it became the unofficial status quo with her and the rest of Kuoh.

However, that boy just now... George, was it? Rias couldn't fail to notice that, during the short one-on-one, he didn't ogle or drool over her body... not even once.

Instead, he stared right into her eyes and didn't take his gaze away from them. She couldn't remember the last time anyone wasn't completely transfixed by her. It was rather nice for a change.

It wasn't just that though. She could also sense, or rather feel, something else about him. She wasn't completely sure what it was, but it needed further investigation…

Paleontology 101 (Omake) - Lesson 1: Coprolite

We begin with Rias walking into an empty college level classroom. The classroom has many rows and seats, and a stage with a digital chalkboard and table. There was a seat labeled RG up front. She sat down and crossed her legs as she patiently waited for the lesson to begin.

Suddenly, there was a burst of smoke in the center of the stage followed by a young man coughing,

?: Jeez. Why did you do that, George? To make an entrance, Of Course!

When the smoke cleared, stood George in a lab coat, khakis, blue and pale yellow gloves on his hands, and a protective mask around his neck.

"Are you ok, George?" Rias asked, a little concerned for him.

"Hey." He got in her face yet gave her personal space. "Name tag reads: Prof. George. We may be fellow peers at Kuoh, but here, I'm the teacher, you are the student. That said, I will give you the respect you deserve." He said, stern yet calm-headed.

"Ok ok sorry!" She said, a little surprised that he got close.

He backed away and took center stage. "Now then, you are my first student of Paleontology 101!" The smart board lit up with the exact words in the Jurassic Park style font with the JP classic theme playing. Rias brought out her notebook getting ready to take some notes.

Dismissing the title card, George began. "Now rather than talking all day about a specific genera of Dinosaur or a certain part of the study of extinct animals, we'll be talking about a fact of life: everyone poops!"

He said trying to be dramatic and a bit comedic, with the last two words having his arms up in the air. She blankly stares at him as if saying "Did you really just say what I think you just said?"

"While this is a topic most. . . mature people would not discuss for being proper and polite and save it for kids, this is something that happens. Why what do you think most fertilizer is made of?" He said being rhetoric. Rias sighs,

"It's made of manure."

"Correct, and you used the proper term, cow manure in fact. But I'm getting off topic. Allow me to present a physical, and thankfully, non smelling, example!" He claps his hands, and a covered case appears on the table. Rias looks at the case. Seems like a simple case.

George removed the covering of the case, revealing that inside. . .. was a meter long fossilized pile of dung! Rias wasn't sure how to feel but mostly felt… disgusted.

"Now this here is coprolite. Which comes from Greek. Kopros meaning dung, and lithos meaning stone. The term was first coined by William Buckland in 1829.

Coprolite is a trace fossil, meaning that, unlike a skeleton, it allows a larger window inside the life of extinct animals. In this case, we can learn exactly about the meal of what an extinct animal ate.

There is another way by using carbon isotopes but it's more complex." George explained the origin and importance of fossilized waste. He noticed Rias was perfectly paying attention and writing down notes.

He smiled, taking in a bit of pride for what he knows, and not being mocked for it.

"While thankfully the smell is gone, the materials inside are just as hard as a rock, the organic material inside being replaced by silicates and calcium carbonate during the fossilization process."

He explained how coprolite become a fossil after being deposited from an animal.

"Anything else I should know about, Professor?" Rias asked, once she finished writing down another portion on notes.