12 Chapter 12

It has been a few days since that date and when Ace's life changed considerably.

After that first date Ace had done as promised and prepared a delicious meal with just a bit of money and presented it to Ruruko. Needless to say, his Cooking skill was easily already on pair with those of top-ranked chefs of 6-star hotels, as such the meal was absolutely delicious and Ruruko had convinced her into making her an extra bento for her to every school day. Her affection also grew a few more points reaching 50 points after some study sessions.

It honestly was fine by Ace, he was already making the meals in the house since his cooking was leagues above everyone else and after the first time they tried it, the unanimous decision was for him to be the cook.

Of course, he demanded payment for his work, but it wasn't much and was simply added as part of the expanses of the house. Sirzechs was paying for it all anyway and the devil had enough money to pay.

"Hmmmmm this is delicious Ace, how come you don't work as a chief?" Ruruko said while eating the eggs Benedict Ace prepared. She relished every meal and was glad to be eating this.

"Because they don't pay enough." The girl next to Ruruko, Yuki, said indifferently while still eating the food that she got from Ace.

Ace got a bit annoyed at this comment. Since day one that he met Yuki the girl was hostile to him, he even wondered if he perhaps had done something negative towards her, but he honestly could not remember it in the slightest.

It was like she was predisposed to dislike him. At least her sister was indifferent, it was as if she really didn't care about his existence in the slightest and was entirely professional.

Needless to say, the situation in the house was a tad tense due to this. Ace tried to make things better as working with people that are antagonistic was not that good a thing, but Yuki simply refused to get along with him.

At least Ace managed to get decently along with Lars and Zest, even if Zest sometimes acted like if she was Ace's property and it was hard to make her not think of it this way. Lars was a chill guy to get along with, even if Ace was quite certain he would not hesitate to stab him in the back if he ever was ordered to.

To be fair, Ace would likely do the same depending on the situation. Perhaps the reason the two could get along well was exactly because both were similar in this aspect and they both knew that.

Ace looked at his current companions for lunch. Ruruko was obvious since she would also spend some time every lunch helping Ace start his training on magic. Mio was already a staple at this point since whenever Ace went these last few days she would be with him. That was mostly because she had more trust in Ace than others in the house. As for Yuki, she would mostly just follow Mio whenever she went.

Ace can still remember the eyes of jealously that Isane would send his way whenever she sees Ace walking around with the two 'princesses' of Kuoh.

Since the day right after the date between Ace and Ruruko, Mio and Yuki entered Kuoh Academy in the same class as Ace. To say the two quickly became celebrities in school would be an understatement, that they sat close to Ace made it worse as Ace himself had considerable charm and charisma as well so the three close to each other only made the final result even worse.

Isane hated this, especially the fact that Ace would spend so much time with those two which cut down on Isane's own time with her cousin.

Not carrying about his cousin right now, Ace looked at Mio who looked out of focus as she was eating. She was lost in thought as today would be the day her parents would have a chance to be reborn, these thoughts were circling around her mind and it was tough for her to focus properly with them in her head.

"Hey, Ace, are you sure it is possible? I mean, making my parents return to life." Mio said and this question made the entire mood quite strange, but Ace took it in stride and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Don't worry, we will try our best and, even if it doesn't work properly, you will at least be able to talk to them one last time. I will do all I can to make them be alive again though, you did hire me for this." Ace said, having already equipped the Soru Soru no Mi for the process, and Mio nodded.

"Yeah, yeah you are right. I hired you for this and you said you would do it." Mio said, her smile bright as she did it and Ace couldn't resist petting her head. She just seemed like she needed this a lot right now.

[You gained +6 affection points with Heroine Naruse Mio (Gremory), for showing you really meant what you said (23/100)]

Yuki, seeing this, clenched her teeth and put her lunch down. Standing up she left the place, not speaking even a single word. As they watched Yuki leave Ruruko tilted her head and shrugged.

"So, Ace-kun, ready to begin your lesson on magic?" Ruruko asked and Ace nodded.

"Yes, let's do this again."

"Very well, so I will expand more about what matters for you to be able to start your studies beyond the basic understandings." Ruruko said. "This is the Magic Calculation Area, or magic processor, which is the part of the subconscious mind responsible for a big part of the use of magic. The Magic Calculation Area's transforms the imagined result into data and produces a Magic Sequence for the desired spell.

"In short, the target and the type of power of the spell are determined by the Magician's Magic Calculation Area, whereas the nature of the spell is determined by the Activation Sequence. The main difference between the way a human and devil use their magic stems from this, devils can instinctively create Activation Sequences ignoring the proper steps that humans take for executing the same strike. Take a fireball, a devil can launch one in under a second but a human would need two or more seconds to do the same as he needs to properly create an Activation Sequence. In exchange human magic is much more precise as you properly create the Activation Sequence, cleaning away the possible mistakes that would otherwise be left behind as is the case for Devils in which our magic is much 'sloppier' by comparison."

As Ruruko explained this Ace nodded, understanding what she was talking about.

"So, magic can be divided into three parts." Ace said, trying to make sense of what Ruruko said. "First is the mana which fuels the magic, second is the Magic Calculation Area which helps in the creation and realization of the magical results, and the third is the Activation Sequence that refines and puts information on the spell, things like direction, volume, intensity, and time of duration."

"That is about right." Ruruko said, nodding towards Ace.

Ace smiled, knowing that this meant he now had an understanding of magic and what he would need.

"So, how do I activate and train those things?" Ace asked.

"Well, the first thing is activating your mana. Every living being has it, so this is not an issue." Ruruko said. "For that, you just need someone to transfer enough mana into you to start your own mana creation. After that there are several ways to look into your Magic Calculation Area, that would help determine how much you can expect of your magic as well as areas where you are talented on and which your capacity would be better expressed. After this, you just must learn as much as possible regarding the different forms of Activation Sequence and find one that fits you best."

As Ruruko finished Ace nodded as well as Mio who was listening on the side. The one being taught was Ace but Mio was also paying attention to try and learn what she could.

She had already realized that, even if her parents returned, she was already connected to the supernatural world. It would be best to be prepared for whatever this may entail instead of just pretending everything was fine.

"So, can you try to jump-start my mana?" Ace asked and Ruruko nodded. In truth, the amount of energy needed to unlock one's mana was really quite small for humans, even as a young devil she should easily be able to take care of that.

"Turn your back to me and take off your shirt." Ruruko said and Ace did just that. Blushing slightly at the sight Ruruko put her hand over the right side of his back, the point reverse to where the heart should be.

She was just about to start when someone opened the door to the roof.

Standing there was one Akeno Himejima, she was a thing of beauty with long black hair, purple eyes, and the most voluptuous figure in the entire school.

Seeing Ace without a shirt and the position him and the others were she gave a chuckle.

"Ara ara, it seems like I caught a group of bad children about to do something nasty." She said teasingly and Ace rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, keep your fantasies to yourself you sadomasochist virgin perv." As Ace said that Akeno's smile froze, not paying attention to this Ace continued. "I have actually come to talk to you on behalf of my king. She would want to speak to you and her niece, if possible right away."

Mio flinched a bit at the mention of how she had an 'aunt' that was just one year older than her, but she accepted it in the end and nodded. Ace, meanwhile, would have preferred to just continue with this ritual to start up his own magic production, but it would be better not to antagonize Rias for now.

She was a stressed mess thanks to being so close to her marriage and she was by now the equivalent to a loose canon in Ace's eyes. Better not to make her aim at him, especially since her brother was paying him a whole lot of money and would not be happy if there was any conflict there.

As such Ace had to stop his plans of obtaining magic for now and instead go see what the princess of Gremory wanted with him.

Hopefully, it wouldn't be overly bothersome.

///---///

... And it was overly bothersome.

Currently Ace was standing on the grounds on the back of the school. In front of him was Kiba, Koneko, and Akeno, all ready to fight.

Rubbing at his temples Ace contemplated the discussion that led to this. There were some niceties, Koneko sitting in her usual seat in his lap while she ate the cookies he always had in store for her, Rias talking to Mio about wanting to know her better, Isane was there and was drooling at Rias' breasts, and then Rias said she would provide security for her aunt.

At first glance this wouldn't be so much of an issue as any help would be nice, however, Ace feared that if even more people would be providing security then Sirzechs would see no need to continue keeping Ace as a bodyguard.

THAT would be completely unacceptable. Ace needed money, lots of it if he was to survive this world, and he could not and would not let Rias take this away from him.

It seemed like Rias expected this so she proposed a competition to decide who would be best to protect Mio, for that Ace would have to face all three members of Rias' peerage. Rias also wanted to show off to Isane, make her want to become a devil too so Isane could become strong as well. She could sense that Isane wanted to join her but there was something stopping him, perhaps if she managed to do this then Isane would join in.

Ace honestly would prefer not to have done this, but Rias proposed something for him that he could not simply refuse.

"Just to make it clear. If we do this then you will help me on an experiment for the next half-hour, right?" Ace said to Rias before the match started and she nodded her head.

"Sure, as long as you win I will accompany you for this long." Rias said, not minding it since she had absolute trust in her peerage.

Ace nodded, already wondering if his plan would work. If it did then a whole world of possibilities would be open and it would be glorious.

With this determination, Ace set himself on a basic stance. There was a barrier right now covering this place, courtesy of Sona and her Peerage, the second king of Kuoh was highly interested in watching the fight to see how it would go.

As for Mio, she clenched her fists thinking that she was putting Ace in danger just as he did her parents. She had no idea how strong Rias' Peerage was, if they were to hurt Ace then it would be because of her even if indirectly.

Meanwhile, by Mio's sides, there were Lars and Yuki, both interested in how this battle would play out, even if their reasoning for it were not the same.

"As we are on greater numbers you can have the first move." Akeno said with a smirk, thinking on how she would 'punish' her kouhai. She did NOT appreciate him calling her a 'sadomasochist virgin perv', even if it was entirely true.

"Well, if you all insist." Ace said and then pointed his index and middle fingers of both hands at his opponents like if they were guns "Higan."

As Ace said that he began launching fire bullets at the three devils, the bullets moving extremely fast and all three moving to avoid them but Ace's Sniper skill was quite a high level. Koneko and Akeno had to tank many bullets while Kiba tried his best to avoid them while trying to get close, but even then he was hit by several shots and his body had many burn marks.

Koneko punched the ground to create a shield with one of the rocks while Akeno opened her wings and tried to run away.

Ace launched himself at her using his fire. She was shocked by this and launched a thunder strike at him. The attack did some damage due to being an elemental attack, however, due to not being a counter to fire the damage was less than a tenth of what it would be to anybody else.

When Ace got close and personal with her he smirked at her and then punched her on the stomach using his Haki. She gasped at the impact and was sent hurling at the ground.

Seeing all three of his opponents on the ground Ace pulled his hand back, his fire turning into blue as he punched.

"Hiken!" The resulting fire engulfed all three devils and they all tried their best to defend themselves.

The fire was extremely intense and none of the three came out unscratched. Akeno got the worst of it as she did not have the time to create a powerful enough magic barrier, Koneko tanked the attack due to her own trained body but she still had some extreme burns all over. Kiba, surprisingly, was the best of the bunch since he created a sword that could negate flames.

However, his sword was too brittle and it was not able to completely absorb the heat.

Seeing this Ace moved, but not to attack Kiba. His aim instead was in all the fire he had released.

Since obtaining the Soru Soru no Mi Ace wanted to try and use it, but he never quite found a good way to test it out.

The blue fire he launched before was the solution for this. He didn't just use it to show off, he intended to make a lot of flames in a safe environment (the barrier helped with that) to create a homie out of it.

With this, he put his hands forward and all the fire on the ground started concentrating on his hands, the fire focusing there as he used a fragment of his own soul for this next step.

"Come on, come on, come to papa." Ace said, concentrating on trying to do this right.

The fire combined with the fragment and soon a small blue sun appeared in front of Ace.

"Hello, papa." The sun said and Ace almost cooed at how cute the little sun looked. He would have to feed this little guy later with his flames but this was proof that he could create homies using this.

The possibilities were endless and he was giddy at the thought of it.

Looking at Kiba and Koneko on the ground he spoke to the little sun.

"How about you take the boy and I take down the girl?" Ace said.

"Sounds good, Papa."

And with that both Ace and the little sun moved. The sun looked weird and honestly cute but when it was time to attack it became a big angry ball of blue fire and launched jets of flame at Kiba who had to do his best to avoid them.

Meanwhile Ace got to Koneko, the nekoshou looking battered but still willing to fight it out. She tried to pounce onto Ace and she connected her hit, only for her fist to pass right through him since she was depending only on physical strength.

Ace was a Logia, and even if she had something that could damage a Logia she lacked anything that could hurt him as he was now using the Phoenix fruit.

As Koneko passed through Ace the teen spun around delivering a roundhouse kick at her.

In truth, she didn't feel much from the strength of it as she had great physical stats due to the Rook piece, but the next strike was felt clearly since Ace used his Armament Haki on it. As Koneko was pushed back Ace moved in.

"Bakuhatsu suru hiken." As Ace hit Koneko his fist exploded in flames, making her fall down there and then. Ace had to be a bit rougher with her than he would have liked, but she was a rook so she could handle this much.

Turning to his little friend he saw that Kiba was still trying, but he was decidedly weaker than before.

Using Soru Ace got to Kiba, even with Soru Ace was at most as fast as Kiba when he was uninjured, but for Kiba right now Ace was just too fast.

"Shigan." Ace said, his finger piercing Kiba's solar plexus as the knight dropped to his knees. He wanted to get up but Ace put his palm in front of his face. "Stubbornness will only end in one way here, batsy."

Kiba lowered his head, accepting his loss.

Seeing this Ace nodded, pulling his hand away and the small sun went to him.

"Papa, papa, hope I did a good job." The sun said and Ace nodded.

"Yes, you did great. Now, what should I name you?" Ace said and after a bit, he decided. "How about Nehan as in nirvana?"

"I like it, Papa." The sun said and rubbed on Ace's face. It was almost like a pup really, if you ignore the fact it was a living flame that could likely burn down an entire forest easily.

But, damn it looked cute in Ace's eyes.

///---///

AN:

So, some action for this chapter. Hope you guys enjoyed this.

I decided for Ace to create some homies like this, his first one is Nehan, a fire homie made from the mix of the fire from the Logia fire fruit and the fire of the Phoenix fruit. It will grow to be quite strong in time.

I am thinking about what other homies can be used, I am not entirely sure. Suggestions would be appreciated.

I figured that the homies calling Ace Papa would be nice, Big Mom's homies called her Mama so it would make sense.

Anyway, thanks for reading and hope to see you all again soon. Please review and tell me what you think, suggestions and what you would like to see next.