Chapter 6: A new club?

Beta read by n1ch, Shigiya Solitary heart and 8kagi.

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-Third POV Rias-

After Rias heard Hachiman's decision she was a bit shocked at first, but came to understand his hesitation.

The boy had just come out of a life and death scenario, barely saving both his friend and her mother's life. They were lucky that her Onii-Sama was notified of the fire. As the previous residence of one of the Fallen Angel's faction's main leaders, Baraqiel was kept under constant surveillance while he was on their land. Her clan was still in the process of familiarizing with Kuoh, after its former owner, Cleria Belial's tragic death, the Gremorys were then gifted with the land.

She was a bit skeptical on why her Onii-sama wanted her to go there instead, with Okita-san as her guard. But she didn't question him and used a spell to teleport near the shrine.

"Be careful Ojou-sama, Kuoh may be our territory but this land, in particular, is owned by the Himejima clan. One of the Five Principal Clans, they are a powerful clan of mystics linked to the Shinto gods and have served them for generations and are well known for purifying evil spirits. They do NOT get along with our kind in the slightest." warned her bodyguard.

'Especially now with all the fiasco going on with the church and the death of Lady Belial. Though this place may seem as a calm area at first, it is festered with dangers on every one of its corners.' thought Okita Souji.

He was not a fan of Sirzechs's decision on letting his sister deal with the matter. He understood that the presence of one of the Maous would cause waves but he could have sent Grayfia here to inspect to fire instead. But he relented in the end, he knew Sirzechs had a reason for every one of his actions and as his long-time friend and peerage member, he trusted him.

"Yes, Okita-san, I'll be careful."

Since she would live here in the future, her mother drilled every bit of knowledge into her brain, claiming that a noble lady like her should never be blind about her own territory.

[...D̶E̸...T̴E̵ ̷F̵I̷E̴L̵D̶!̵]̵

"There, near the mountains! I felt a burst of energy!" she claimed, sensing the rather short-lived source of power.

After a few minutes of flying to the source, she had found the trio, but Himejima Akeno and her mother were both unconscious, only the boy Hikigaya Hachiman was left standing surrounded by their attackers who were all somehow unconscious as well, he just stared aimlessly without moving or talking. She wanted to go help them but was stopped in her tracks by her brother's knight as he remained vigilant against the boy.

Only after a closer look did she spot an eerie dark-looking pauldron covering his right shoulder and his right chest with a red sphere-like gem embedded in it. 'A sacred gear!'

Rias grew astonished and a dragon one no less, they were known to be one of the rarest and strongest sacred gears one could hope to have. Even the weakest dragon gear, twice critical, could double a person's power. Now it might not change much for a regular human, but for someone with ultimate-class power, that was a game-changer.

She did not recognize the sacred gear but seeing its aftermath after probably awakening it for the first time, it must be very powerful, probably not a Longinus but close enough.

'With his help, I might...I might finally be set free from that—'

She was interrupted by her brother's knight, "Ojou-sama we need to get them back to safety, you can take care of those two women while I will bring the boy. Use your familiar to track the boy's abode by scent." He had somehow managed to put the boy to sleep and carried him in his arms.

After finding Hikigaya's house, they all teleported themselves to his room. Okita-san carefully place him on his bed, his sacred gear gone. She noticed that despite her being so close to the boy and even touching him, she could no longer sense the draconic aura from the gear. Almost as if he had never used it, to begin with, but she was certain that it was there...weird.

First, she had to take care of the parents, no doubt stressing over the disappearance of their son, finding them in the living room in the middle of dialing the authorities, she used her powers and planted the memories of their son coming back home with Himejima Akeno and her mother both having no place to stay for the night since the shrine burned down.

After seeing them off to their room, she gathered in front of Himejima Shuri and took a bottle from her pocket. Her brother told her repeatedly to only use this for an emergency situation with her life on the line, but she knew that she had to use it to save someone else's life today. A phoenix tear droplet was soon absorbed, and the mother slowly opened her eyes.

A sizzling like sound was heard as gaping wounds healed in a blink of an eye. Truly, these tears were extremely effective as well as previous and this was further emphasized with their astronomical price per bottle, at least something her family could easily afford though.

"Where...where am I?" asked Himejima Shuri, her tone confused and tired only for it to soon be replaced by panic and fear. "Akeno-chan and Hachiman-kun, where are they!? Are they safe!?"

She searched around to find a trace of them, she soon spotted her daughter next to her both uninjured and sleeping, relief flooded her being as her nightmare never came to pass.

'He did keep his promise.' Shuri thought as she remembered Hachiman-kun's words.

When she turned her attention towards Rias, the latter decided to fill her in on everything that happened so far and how everyone else was safe and sound, as well as introduce herself. Even after knowing of her nature as a devil, she still hugged the girl tightly, making the poor princess flustered and blushing.

"A-ano, pl-please do not fret, for your family is now under the protection of the Gremory clan and myself!" she said with a puffed chest.

Rias was happy that everything went well with the healing, if not then she would have had resorted to using her precious chest pieces, but if possible she wanted to save them for people with good enough potential like Himejima Akeno, a half-fallen and Hikigaya Hachiman a powerful dragon type sacred gear holder. She could already feel the immense magical potential inside the half-fallen, giving her the queen piece would tremendously boost her overall strength. While for Hikigaya, she could probably use a few pawn pieces. Since his magical energy was average, giving him the pawns coupled with the ability to promote would be a sound strategy for future rating games.

But all that went into smoke after his initial rejection. She tried multiple times, repeating all the guaranteed benefits as well as the possibility to own his own peerage in the future. But the boy was unshakable, his face remained impassive as his dead fish eyes unsettled her, she felt that he could see right through her soul or something. In the end, she relented, for now, she could try again in the future if he changed his mind and he would only do it after she gained his trust. So she offered him magical lessons and training at using his sacred gear with no strings attached!

For the first time his expression changed for a brief moment,

'Hah, got you!'

He contemplated her offer for a bit, truly caught off guard with the 'no strings attached' bit. In the end, he accepted on the condition that she would protect them, including his parents. Of course, she accepted immediately, she finally had a potential ally...and possibly another friend besides Sona.

Himejima Akeno, who for the most part remained silent during the entire conversation, had a different opinion on that matter.

"If...if I get to be accepted in your peerage would I get stronger?"

Hachiman by her side quirked an eyebrow at her question. The answer was pretty obvious enough, but he felt that Akeno was searching for something else or something more, he was missing something here. He still hasn't talked to her about everything that happened to her. So he felt that it would be wise to wait for a bit before she answered.

"Gremory-san, Akeno-chan is still a bit shaken up with what happened, could you give her a few more days to think about it?" Rias hesitated, she was so close to getting the help she needed to prevent what was to come in the future.

But she had to remain patient, and a few days is nothing.

{Break}

-Akeno POV-

(5 years later)

Time sure does pass by quickly, it has been around 5 years since that incident. A lot has happened since then, thanks to Rias both Hachiman-kun's parents and her mother got a new house like manor to move into. The manor was constantly protected by many magic fields set up by the Gremory family.

It even had a training area underground for Hachiman and herself to use. Rias and Okita-sensei would sometimes join as well and train us but the redhead spent most of her time together while Okita-sensei focused on Hachiman and his usage of his sacred gear, which they had identified long ago.

One of Vritra's five sacred gears, [DELETE FIELD].

According to Rias, it gave the user the ability to suppress and negate the abilities of an opponent or items within their range. The effects were strong enough to temporarily trap opponents as powerful as Satan level opponents.

Hachiman was someone very prideful of his logical thinking ability. He never relied on anyone else to explore more of his gears powers. He spent days and months coming up with new abilities and new usage for his gear.

What she found funny was how the main role of Okita-sensei was to train Hachiman-kun's physical endurance and stamina. While the latter absolutely hated physical activities and training, would find ways to use most of his gear's power on taking care of his opponent before the fight even began.

Hachiman's favorite quote to say was, "To fight hard is admitting defeat, but to fight smart is to win before the fight even begins."

Concerning Rias, they did get along quite nicely over the years. They have become best of friends and almost like sisters. At first, she thought of Rias as a regular noble girl, always meeting important people, basically your commonly known girl in high society. But it was the complete opposite, the girl was an honest to Satan otaku and a complete weeb! She still remembers when she had accidentally stumbled inside Rias's room in the manor when the girl moved in. It was filled with Gundam figurines, posters, games, and many small trinkets popular in Japanese culture.

Oh, just teasing the girl was such a treat, her blushing face and her quivering self-made it difficult for her to stop. She wanted to torment the girl a bit more, to see her on the floor begging- 'Ah, here I go again, losing control.'

One of the bigger changes to her being was her growing dark desires and tendencies, she noticed during magical training or stray devil hunting whenever she hurts an opponent with her regular lightning, their screams of pain always made her hot and wet. Switching to [Holy Lightning] would just end the fun too early, as they would always be vaporized.

But her body reacted more intensely when she was with Hachiman-kun, the first time she saw him blushing when they were still very young felt like a burst of electricity coursing through her body.

She knew that her nature as a fallen made her mature faster than regular humans and more true to her desires, so she had to hold back her teasing him from time to time. But she was only so strong, from slight verbal teasing to pushing her breast against his body made her nearly lose control and force herself on him a couple of times.

Her childhood crush may be cynic, stoic, and a self-proclaimed loner, which was very contradicting with all the people around hIm, but he was still very perceptive of other people's emotions. It baffled her how he was still in denial of the possibility of a girl falling for him.

'Maybe I should just try a more forceful approach, fufufu.'

"Oi, you're thinking something dangerous right now aren't you?"

A monotone voice interrupted her musing as she turned around to see the very subject of her thinking.

"Ara ara Hachiman-kun, you let a young defenseless woman like me walk alone to school? How cruel." she finished with a slight smile at the end, watching his deadpan face.

"Yes, someone capable of summoning a 300 million Volts beam of destruction is classified as a defenseless woman these days." he replied sarcastically.

After 5 years, Hachiman-kun now sported a medium black haircut that he never combed or took care of with a prominently cute ahoge in the middle just like Rias. His major change in appearance was his stature, even if he tried to hide it, no one would miss seeing all those muscles behind his shirt. He also grew a lot in height, standing a comfortable head above her. He has already unknowingly stolen the heart of half of the girls in middle school.

"Mou, Hachiman-kun that is not the way to talk to a girl, what if I got hurt by a stray?"

"Knowing you probably would have enjoyed that, you pervert."

Aah~ his insults hurt me so well, he is a natural. Oh, he cringed! He probably expected me to get angrier or something.

"Should have seen that one coming." he sighed.

Even after revealing to him about her nature as a fallen angel, he remained mostly the same, at first she was terrified of his response. Would he hate her since she hide such a big secret? She always knew that all that Hachiman-kun desired was a normal life, would he hate her since all of this was her fault.

She had already nearly lost her mother and her father was absent. She did not want to lose him.

But then he proved to her again why he was the one person she fell in love with.

-(Flashback)-

"You can talk to me, you know that, right?" After their talk with Rias, Hachiman brought Akeno back to his room.

He intended this to talk to her and comfort her from what happened.

"If there is anything that is bothering you, please let me know. I'm always here for you."

That was what she was afraid of, if he found out about her...would he still be at her side? She saw how he did not trust Rias who is not human...just like her.

"Hi-Hikima, remember when I wanted to t-tell you something important?" she said with dread already creeping in her voice.

"Yeah, I do." he stood by patiently waiting for her to continue.

"Well, before this incident I wanted to tell you that..."

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"...I-I wanted to tell you th-at..."

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"...that I'm a..."

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"...a...fal-..." she took a deep breath and calmed her nerves.

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"...I'm a Fallen Angel..." Akeno whispered so low that even Hachiman barely heard her.

The room became quiet.

"What?" he asked, wanting to rip out the bandage, she decided to reveal her wings.

Flap!

Her wings were nearly as tall as her body, arcing off her back like a concave reflection. Each long, narrow black feather gleamed under the light, showing off its raven-like qualities. They slammed upward once, creating a small air current.

She closed her eyes in fear, ready for any kind of outburst.

"..."

But it never came, or rather something else happened.

"Huh, guess I was kinda right about you not being normal." he commented with his same relaxed tone.

She opened her eyes and saw him walking circles around her, inspecting her wings close up.

'It's somehow embarrassing showing him off my wings.'

"A-aren't you scared of me? Aren't you angry that I lied to you all this time?"

His lackadaisical attitude even after revealing to him the truth shocked her.

"Did you have any bad intentions?"

"Never!" She shouted.

"Then everything's good."

"B-but I destroyed your likelihood to have a normal life, and now you will be in—pa!

"Ouch!"

Hachiman flicked her hard on the forehead.

"Are you TRYING to make me hate you? You lied to me because you wanted to protect me and the bubble around my life, you were scared of how I would have reacted to your nature as a fallen thus possibly ruining our friendship, I get all that. If the truth is a cruel mistress, then a lie must be a nice girl."

"And besides you are part of my normal life–can't have you be gone all of a sudden."

There he went again, saying such things without realizing how they may affect a young girl, '...how it affected me...'

"A-Akeno-chan?"

Too late now Hachiman-kun you better take responsibility.

"Wha-mmmf!"

She smashed her lips against his, moaning as she kept, enjoying every moment. She cherished this moment to the fullest, even if she was nearly suffocating the poor boy.

-(Flashback end)-

"Fufufu, how nostalgic."

After that event, Hachiman-kun had trouble keeping a straight face when he looked at her. To torture him furthermore, she would occasionally claim his lips during their magic training with Rias.

The poor girl would turn into a stammering red-faced mess, after she was done with Hachiman she would then leave with a small peck on Rias's cheeks. Both of those two would then avoid her and each other out of sheer embarrassment for the rest of the day.

Her mother even encouraged her to act bolder sometimes. When Rias heard that, she became as jumpy as a cat whenever she was near her. For every small action, she would flinch in fright, she knew her mother enjoyed the girl's reaction as well.

The girl, who she shared her bed with, was because the princess couldn't sleep without holding someone or something. Had also a bad habit of sleeping naked or walking around with little to no clothes. She found it funny how someone like her could get incapacitated with a mere smooch on the cheeks.

Once, she wondered how the girl would react–if she went a step further. Will she squirm? Will she love it? And what if she made Hachiman join as well? Aah~ her breast jiggled lewdly and her hips quivered at the thought of it.

"Seriously, can you stop it, I can visibly see your sinful thoughts."

"Sorry, I was just reminiscing about some past events. I still can't believe we will soon graduate from middle school."

Akeno felt grateful to Rias for pulling some strings in the back, allowing her and Hachiman to attend the same class.

Not that he needed to know.

"Guess Kuoh Academy is just around the corner." commented Hachima-kun.

It was in fact an all-girls private school. But according to Rias since the school is co-owned by both the Gremory family as well as the Sitri family, they have decided to soon accept male students next school year.

"Will you be joining any clubs?"

Since she already had a pre-planned club, did not have that much of a choice on this matter.

"... I was thinking of creating a club."

Oh, create a club? He never showed any such intentions in the past.

"What would this possible club be about?" Akeno asked curiously.

"The Service Club."

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The next 5 chapters of Snafu, Harry Potter and my 3 other Fate fics (Fate Coiling Sword with 3 chapters, A Fake Familiar Reborn with 3 chapters and To love a sword having 4 chapters) are already available on my P@treon. With 4 more Broly chapters at /NimtheWriter. Also, I post monthly commissioned arts on each story, already posted a few on an Archer's Promise, Broly and Snafu.