15

The next morning, over breakfast, I convinced Rias not to reincarnate Asia. She would only have succeeded if I used the Binding essence's commands to influence the nun. Rias was stubborn though, and I had to use a subtle command on her to get her to finally drop the subject.

My plan was always to have Asia reincarnated as a devil. But now that she didn't have to die, there was really no reason for her to be one. I would still keep her nearby as basically a pseudo-member of the peerage, but it really wasn't worth the pain becoming a devil would cause the faithful girl. She was staying home today, but Rias would be getting her enrolled in Kuoh Academy by tomorrow.

After teleporting to the ORC, I talked to Rias about reincarnating Issei, as well. The sooner Rias filled her peerage, the more prepared she would be when shit inevitably hit the fan.

"Just be honest and ask him," I told Rias as she was fretting over how to go about turning Issei into a devil.

"Really? You think that will work?" Rias asked.

I nodded, "Yeah, mention that harems are common in devil society and the kid will be tripping over himself to get an Evil Piece."

"Yes, that's a good idea. Thank you, Taylor," Rias said, "In other news, tonight I have reserved slots for us in the Familiar Forest in the underworld. Hopefully, we'll be able to find familiars for you and Asia. If I can convince Issei today, we'll bring him along as well."

I spent almost all of my time in class practicing subtle magic in an effort to increase my control. I still had Warp Observation running constantly, so I honestly wasn't missing much of the lessons.I finally managed to get Armament Haki down. I imagined it was similar to this universe's Touki. The fact that it ended up being as simple as forcing yourself to believe hard enough made me feel stupid. Like seriously, I spent so much time trying different ways to harness some sort of imperceptible spirit energy, and all I had to do was believe I was reinforcing my body.

I also spent a lot of time observing the Immaterium. Those chibi Chaos gods were kinda cute, to be honest. Nurgle and Tzeentch were the two I saw last night. The plague doctor and blue bird. Khorne had a big red head reminiscent of a bobble head, and Slaanesh was basically a mini lavender bimbo. So far, they all seemed harmless, but I'd be keeping an eye on them just in case.

The only interesting part of the day was when I teleported home to have lunch with Asia. Soon enough, though, the day was over and the sun had set. Rias' whole peerage gathered in the ORC, and I was able to see that Issei had chosen to become a devil at some point today. Probably at lunch while I was away. I gave him a friendly nod, and his eyes widened as he recognized me.

Teleporting to the Familiar Forest was made trivial with the use of magic circles, and when we arrived, I immediately felt a pull that stretched off into the distance in one direction. The only out of place part of the Familiar Forest was the cosplaying old man that greeted us. Otherwise, the Familiar Forest looked like any other forest. I ignored the old man's spiel, focusing more on the metaphysical pull that I was feeling.

I split with the group at the first available opportunity, telling Rias about the pull I felt and heading off on my own. The pull led me to the north, and I followed it until I came to a small clearing between the trees. Standing, leaning against a tree, was a hellhound. A goth hellhound. One that looked, peculiarly, like a hell hound I knew from fiction in my original world. The hellhound, bearing more than a passing familiarity with Loona from a very different version of Hell, greeted me in a blase manner.

"Sup," She said, not looking up from where she was texting on her phone.

"Umm, Hi? So… You come here often?" I asked, trying to be as nonchalant as she was and failing miserably. I literally facepalmed when I realized what just came out of my mouth.

'Loona' snorted, "Real smooth, Casanova. Look just ask me if I'll be your familiar already so we can get out of this fucking forest. Place is boring as hell and gets shit reception too."

"Ah… Well then, wanna be my familiar?"

"Yup, bond made and all that junk. Let's go."

"Wait a sec. Let me just mark you and then we can get out of here." I grabbed her hand and quickly applied the Binding. My mark showed up as a black womb tattoo, which contrasted nicely with Loona's silver fur.

Loona looked down at the mark, "Kinky. As far as ink goes though, it's not half bad looking."

Our walk back wasn't really flush with conversation. I did at least get the hellhound's name. Turns out this was Loona, or at least her dimensional counterpart because they shared the same name. We arrived back in time to watch Asia's new dragon obliterate the rest of the slime Issei wanted. The look of perverted despair on Issei's face made Loona snort with humor.

"Taylor," Rias greeted me, "I see you found what was calling to you."

"Yup," I confirmed, "this is Loona. Loona say hi to everyone."

Loona sent me a nasty glare that I pretended to ignore, but still gave the rest of the peerage a half-hearted wave. She went straight back to texting afterwards. We teleported back to the ORC, avoiding the Familiar Forest's caretaker in the process, and I settled in for what was shaping up to be an uneventful week or two.

Issei and Asia were adjusting to their new nature quite well, and Loona had become a social parasite. All she did was laze around the apartment and leech off me. I couldn't find it in me to get mad about that though, her blunt personality was actually starting to grow on me.