18 Chapter 18 Kiba and Balance

"..... Give me one good reason why I shouldn't punish you", Saji endured the harsh stares from everybody in the room, as he knelt in front of a sitting Sona.

His King and her peerage, in addition to Rias and the entirety of her peerage were standing off to the side, watching their fellow Devil be berated and punished in front of them.

According to Sona, it "was only the beginning of his punishment". Not just for embarrassing himself and getting royally trounced in the fight, but disobeying a direct order from his King and Student Council President.

Hierarchy was a big part of Devil society, and power in the end was the main form of persuasion that Devils used to get what they wanted.

He bowed his head, covering the heat coming to his cheeks.

"Because..... I have no excuse. I let my emotions get the better of me.....", Saji sighed, a dull anger forming as he thought of Akira's face. The young gamer had recently gotten much closer with the girl of his dreams, even going so far as to beat her in her favoured form of torture, causing her to pay much more attention to him than before.

'And here I thought that being the only boy in the Student Council was a good thing! And they actually want an Angel of all people to join!', he mentally sighed and awaited his punishment.

Sona sighed before looking at the massive skid marks on the once, nice looking grass outside, nodding slightly before speaking,

"You can start with fixing up the mess you caused outside. The glass broke from you colliding with it and the grass needs tending after you practically wiped it with yourself. That should be a good "start"", Sona emphasised the word "start" causing Saji and Issei to wince at the Sitri Heir's punishment.

Saji nodded, and exited the room to go and retrieve a broom or something to go clean up his mess, the President may be reasonable, but she was still an absolute taskmaster when it came to breaking the rules.

Rias smiled sitting down opposite her friend, her gaze filled with a whimsy playfulness.

"Don't you reckon that was a bit extreme? I mean, you definitely could've forced Saji to stop, and I'm sure that my members would've loved to stop the fight before they broke a window", she gestured to the hole in the wall at which Kiba and Koneko nodded.

Sona showed no outward changes, only crossing her legs and folding her arms.

"Perhaps. If he won the fight, I might be a little more enticed to reward him rather than punish him. But the fact remains that Saji lost, and Akira showed nothing more than a basic Angels skill set, albeit, with a much higher physical strength than a normal [Two-Winged Angel]", Rias placed a finger on her chin thinking for a moment, before shrugging her shoulders and glancing outside.

"You're half-right, although you are missing one thing Sona", the violet eyed Devil raised an eyebrow as Rias continued,

"Not only was he physically stronger, but he managed to create a sword shaped out of light, rather than just a normal spear", all eyes widened at the sudden realisation and Sona subconsciously spoke in a lower toned voice.

"But, only [Six-Winged Angels] and above have the ability to create weapons out of [Light]. Two-Winged and Four-Winged Angels just don't have the capability for it. Something about their innate physiology and affinity with [Light] just isn't the same as higher-tier Angels..... So how did he.....", Rias nodded at Sona's words.

"From what we have seen, even though he may not be able to cut through the wire of the [Absorption Line], he can create things other than just spears out of [Light]. Without the use of magic circles either. That definitely makes him more powerful, and more dangerous to be around", Kiba looked as though he wanted to speak up, but felt a hand on his arm and saw Koneko shake her head.

".... Not the right time", she whispered.

He nodded, glancing at everyone else in the room before resuming his earlier posture.

Rias and Sona sat silently for a couple moments, before the latter frowned for a moment, letting her chin rest on the palm of her hand as a confused expression made its way to her face.

"I will say something though. Not about his power or abilities, but his personality rather", she narrowed her eyes, "He is..... undoubtably the most.... "human" [Angel] I've ever met. He practically embodies the sin of sloth, but takes more pride in the things he does more than even a certain pervert", she glanced at Issei who merely looked to the side and whistled a little bit.

"He's crude, has no manners, doesn't seem to care about Authority, was blatantly flirting with that nun, threatening to kill Saji and even going so far as to attack him without any regard for etiquette or the rules..... I'm honestly surprised he hasn't Fallen yet", her words received a general acceptance, most nodding along with what she was talking about.

Rias seemed to agree too, and couldn't help but glance at Akeno before speaking,

"I got that vibe too. Despite most Angels having a.... inherent hate or disregard for the well-being and affairs of us Devils, Akira has shown no hatred for us or the desire to well, kill us", Rias made a cutthroat gesture causing Sona to nod.

"Yes. I got that too", she paused before hushing her tone, giving everyone the idea that this was a private conversation that shouldn't be shared outside this room.

"After a.... preliminary investigation of his background, we had actually determined he was the descendent of several famous Japanese warriors. None of these warriors had any inherent or special magical abilities, but there was at least six or seven notable people he was descended from, including [Minamoto no Yoshitsune], [Miyamoto Musashi], [Honda Tadakatsu], and [Oda Nobunaga]", the famous names caused mouths to drop and eyes to widen at the sheer shock behind the rich and powerful heritage that Akira possessed.

All the people in the room, minus Rias, Sona and Kiba were born in Japan. They had grown up learning and being taught the rich history of their homeland. The fearless and legendary warriors whose physical and martial prowess allowed them to dominate the battlefields, whose skill and cunning allowed them to devastate armies or national powers that far exceeded their own.

Especially Rias, being a closet weeb on all things Japan, she eyes shone as she clasped her hands together as the famous names echoed inside her head.

"[Miyamoto Musashi]! The greatest swordsman in the history of Japan! And [Honda Tadakatsu]! Also known as [The Warrior Who Surpassed Death] and wielded the legendary demonic spear [Tonbokiri]!", everyone, including Akeno sighed at the 18 year old actions.

Her [Queen] coughed causing Rias to snap back to reality and blush slightly before looking at Sona who sighed,

"Despite his.... rough personality, his skill at war and his ability to manipulate and perceive others actions might definitely well be a trait that was passed down through his family. It would make sense to lose to someone whose very ancestors fought and shaped the land we're standing on", the look of dignity that appeared on her face after finding out that Akira was a descendent of multiple Japanese warriors made her feel like the young man was less and less of a pain in the *ss, and more and more like a rival.

It didn't help that she only blamed her loss on that single factor as well.

"However, other than those factors, Tendo Akira's family is completely mundane with no connection to the supernatural world. His parents died in a car crash while he was in middle school, during that time, Hyoudou-san was rather close with him?", the focus of the room switched to Issei, who seemed slightly unequipped to be the centre of attention.

He turned red and scratched the back of his head.

"When we were kids Akira and I used to play a lot together. After our friend Irina moved countries, we kinda drifted apart, only talking occasionally during middle-school", he paused for a second, "But, during our first year of middle-school his parents passed away, forcing him to live with his Aunt who spends most of her time either abroad or away on business".

The room was silent as Issei spoke, everyone wanted to hear this, and no-one was rude enough to interrupt, despite Issei's.... perverted predilections.

"He started to cut school after he knew he could get away with it, eventually not even bothering to show up at all. All he did was play games, hiding away from the world and his problems, throwing himself into his games. During that time, I may have.... gone to his house to talk to him, but we ended up fighting with each other, causing him to give me a hairline fracture in my leg in addition to a broken wrist and him a broken arm and rib cage", he seemed a little sheepish, especially when "everyone" blinked at him.

Kiba included.

".... You broke his arm? And here I thought you were just a pervert", Koneko munched on her snacks, although a slight hint of respect could be heard in her tone.

Issei nodded and continued,

"After that something.... changed in Akira", a look of confusion appeared on Issei's face, "He started coming to school more and didn't skip classes or ditch as often. He still played games at every chance he got, but it didn't affect his schoolwork or work ethic at all. We hardly talked after that, but eventually both enrolled in Kuoh. The rest being.... just normal I suppose.....", Issei finished his small little explanation drawing many different looks from the other Devils in the room.

Most were of curiosity, but others, like Akeno and Kiba, were expressions of understanding.

"And somehow, just a couple days ago, Tendo Akira became an Angel. With the ability to manipulate [Light] far beyond that of a standard Angel. Whether He had something to do with it, or through another external party, don't know. However we do know one thing for sure", she let out a deep breath.

"Tendo Akira, is not someone you can face alone".

"Achoo! Someone must be talking about me....", I rubbed my nose and took the tissue form Asia's hands, blowing my nose slightly as I sat at my kitchen table, looking down at my phone and the mobile game that was playing on here.

Asia, mimicking me, had downloaded the game on one of my old mobile phones, the one that I upgraded from about a month ago, just before the school year started. I was looking at one of the character profiles, using it as an excuse to read the skill screen in front of me.

[Mana Manipulation-Style - Balance (Passive/Active)]

[Level: 1] [Experience: 78.91%]

[A skill that denotes a unique and exceptional style and ability to manipulation mana. Allowing for one to manipulate mana freely both internally and externally of the body while improving control and efficiency. The skill is a unique style of mana manipulation unique to the user but not exclusive. Disregards the need for a magic circle. Disregards the need for a chant. Disregards the need for a catalyst].

[Passively increases spell damage by 5%]

[Passively increases spell speed by 5%]

[Passively decreases spell cost by 0.5%]

[Passively increase magic resistance by 0.5%]

[Passively reduce enemy magic damage by 0.5%]

[Passively reads the mana around oneself]

[Actively increases spell damage by 50%]

[Actively increases speed speed by 50%]

[Actively increase magic resistance by 5%]

[Actively reduce enemy magic damage by 5%]

[Actively disperses the mana around oneself]

The sheer number of boosts, both passive and active that this skill brought was astounding. Six passive abilities and five active ones. It was a quality of skill that far exceeded that of the previous to, even merged the benefits of the skill were almost too good to be true.

".... Maybe merging skills is the better way. Getting them to Level 100 is definitely not gonna be easy, and I can get amazing skills just by fusing them together", the thought crossed my mind as I scoffed and threw it in the garbage.

Maxing out a skill in most games capped it out, giving a huge bonus for reaching the maximum proficiency level. In some cases however, the skill might evolve, turning even a basic [Fireball] skill into a veritable hailstorm of fire and destruction.

It was incredible what evolving skills could do, but to reach that level took more effort that most people were willing to put in.

I smirked,

"Good thing I'm not most people", I whispered.

I let out a deep breath and turned to Asia, who kept glancing at me, trying to both concentrate on me, and the tower defence game she was playing.

I wanted to tell her the truth, but my circumstances were definitely a little bit.... difficult.

"Asia?".

"Yes", she responded.

I cleared my throat, and I could feel my cheeks flush in a slight embarrassment.

"My power. My true power isn't just that of an Angels..... You see, I have this ability, its called [The Game].....".