Chapter 24 - Reverse Scale

"Hello, Koko. It's been a while, I see you've grown again." Okita nodded with a light smile on his face as he looked at her. Koko walked closer and opened the gate before she stepped outside and tilted her head.

"Who are these people Century Geezer, your friends?" Koko asked as she looked over them curiously.

"Hmm? I suppose you could say that." Okita said as he turned towards the others, standing besides Koko as he pointed towards them in turn while introducing them.

"The one over there is Rias Gremory, one of the heiresses I told you would be moving in, and the group standing around her is her peerage. Akeno is her queen piece, Koneko is her rook piece and lastly, Kiba is her knight piece and also a student of mine in the art of swordsmanship. The big lug over there is Surtr Second, a fellow piece of my king's peerage representing the rook." Okita finished and lowered his hand again as he looked up at Koko spacing out, staring into the air.

"Koko?"

"Mm?" Koko snapped out of it and blinked before looked back at Okita.

"Were you listening?" Okita asked.

Koko nodded.

Okita raised an eyebrow as he continued looking at her.

Koko shook her head.

Okita sighed slightly in exasperation but he wasn't surprised, as he was about to re-introduce them a shout rang out from the side of the group making them turn towards it.

"Oi! Are you the one who activated the defenses of this place!?" Surtr shouted, having recovered his breath while they were talking as he slowly stood up and walked over with a glare.

"Nope." Koko shrugged nonchalantly completely oblivious to the fury on his face.

"Then who was it!?" Surtr shouted again now standing in front of her, though a bit surprised he was looking at her rather than down on her.

"It was Beo." Koko motioned over her shoulder with her thumb making the group follow it's direction with their eyes and seeing what looked like a massive dragon wearing sunglasses staring back at them from over the wall.

The scene turned silent as most of the group was stunned seeing it just sitting there looking at them before Surtr broke it, yelling as he faced Koko while pointing in Beo's direction.

"Are you fucking with me, do you want me to believe that dragon activated it instead of you!? Do you think I'm stupid!?" Surtr clenched his fists.

"What do you mean? Beo is really smart, you know?" Koko looked at him like he was stupid as she crossed her arms in front of her.

"You motherfu-"

As the two were 'arguing' Rias' group made their way over to Okita as they watched.

"Um, Okita-san. Is that really a dragon?" Rias spoke up hesitantly as she snuck glances at the creature watching them from a large block of metal.

"Hmm, I'm not sure actually. Although it looks like one, it does not emit the same aura as any of the dragons I have met." Okita hummed as he cupped his chin, looking back at Beo in thought before shrugging a few moments later.

Rias went into thought as Akeno sent a concerned glance at her best friend. Meanwhile, Kiba was looking towards Koko while Koneko was standing slightly behind the others using their bodies to block her stiff form, subconsciously making herself seem as small as possible. The hair at the back of her neck had exploded the moment Koko arrived as her instincts from her nekoshou heritage went haywire.

Surtr had also given her a sense of danger, but nothing even close to approaching this. The inside of the scrapyard was practically blanketed with the scent of an apex predator which she was getting at full blast due to her enhanced senses. If that wasn't enough, there was also the scent of the creature on top of the pedestal and something else lingering in the air.

Eventually the argument between Surtr and Koko reached a boiling point.

Surtr could feel the veins on his temple being on the verge of popping as his gritted teeth was slightly cracking from the pressure they were gritted with, his hair looking like it was on fire as he glared at Koko.

"Don't insult Beo." Koko also had an unusually serious look on her face giving her a very menacing appearance as she slightly narrowed her eyes at Surtr, her arms still crossed in front of her.

Both of their aura's gradually increased in strength, starting to effect the surroundings.

"Um... Okita-sensei, shouldn't we stop them?" Kiba asked hesitantly as his body tensed from the amount of power they were emitting.

Okita shrugged as he continued to watch them, he felt like Surtr probably met his match when it came to brute power and was a bit curious of how he would react to someone that was stronger than he was, they probably shouldn't fight up here though, since they were very close to the city. Thinking this he called out to Koko.

"Koko I know you're angry, but could we relocate to your training room before you start fighting, please?"

Koko was quiet for a moment before she brought her hand to her mouth and let out a loud whistle. A few seconds later, the ground beneath them shook as a rectangular platform of dirt started lowering gradually. Okita raised an eyebrow seeing this, did she make something new again? Meanwhile Rias and her group tried stabilizing themselves.

Eventually, one of the walls was replaced by white tiles which opened up creating an entrance leading to a massive space of white tiles. Koko and Surtr entered before shooting off towards the middle of the room and stood opposite of each other.

Okita also stepped through followed by Rias' peerage who were looking around the room in wonder before the hole closed behind them. Okita started leisurely walking towards one of the corners and the group quickly followed.

"Where is this Okita-san?" Rias asked as she glanced at the two facing off in the middle of the room.

"This is Koko's training room." Okita answered nonchalantly making Rias look around again, this was on the verge of being more than a room.

As they arrived in one of the corners of the room, the white tiles next to them shifted before Beo and a sand colored wolf wearing a black top hat slightly smaller than Beo walked out and sat down about a dozen meters away from them looking towards the middle of the room.

Rias and her peerage tensed up slightly as they looked towards Okita who was looking at the wolf curiously for a bit and then started acting like nothing had happened.

"..."