Chapter 4: Meet the team

~Yuta Yukimura~

As the last class of the day came to an end with the chime of the bell I leaned back on my seat and released a sigh. I spent most of the day thinking about my circumstances and such while also getting used to my devil physiology.

Classes passed easily, I did not pay attention but when the teachers who took offence to that called me to the front I answered them easily. I already graduated once with decent grades and my previous body had paid attention to classes.

Speaking of classes, unholy frick was Kuoh an upscale academy. This place was not only a giant but also the most well-funded school I have seen. The floors were clean, the buildings were big and all the decoration was cohesive.

I did not have much authority on what a good school looked like, but I knew how a bad one looked. Hopefully, nothing bad happened to this one. My last classroom blew up due to a gas leak. I had to be in splints for 5 months after that.

I heard some of my classmates make gossip about me but I tuned them out and leaned back in my seat while waiting for whoever Rias sent. When I was just starting to doze off in my seat I heard the girls in my class start squealing.

"Kiba-san is here!" "Kiba-kun you are so handsome!" "Welcome to our class Kiba-kun, do you want a seat? The seat next to me is empty!" "But don't I sit there?" 

Oh man, I wonder who just came inside the classroom.

"Hey, Yuta Yukimura-kun right? Nice to meet you, I'm Yuuto Kiba, I'm on an errand by Rias Gremory, I'm sure you understand. Would you mind following me?" I turned my head to see the "Prince of Kuoh Academy" standing next to my seat with an amicable smile on his face.

Yuuto Kiba, there was a reason why he was dubbed the prince of Kuoh, short healthy blond hair, steel blue eyes, a beauty mark under his left eye and an overall very handsome face. On top of that, he had a toned but lean physique, all of that coupled with his polite and kind behaviour made him look like he had just jumped out of a shoujo manga as the male lead.

For a school chock full of hormonal girls he was basically deified by the female population, there were more women in this school who wanted to get pinned to a wall by him and taken right then and there than not. As you would expect, the male population disliked him because he made them look bad by comparison and because he hoarded all of the female attention in the school.

I didn't particularly care about those details much, but he was famous enough in school for even me to know about him. I just wondered if he was also a Devil and maybe a fellow peerage member, he was looking for me after all.

Getting up from my seat I shook his hand as he smiled at me, I never interacted with Kiba but I remember him being a standup guy, I don't remember him being rude to anyone before.

"Likewise, lead the way I guess." Seeing the interaction I saw the girls stare at me in disbelief.

"No way, the creepy loner and the prince are going together?" "Take me instead!" "Why him?" Do they not serve water in this school? How can a gaggle of girls be this thirsty?

After we left the class wordlessly I had to address it.

"Seriously, how do you deal with crowds like that daily?" I commented from the side as Kiba waved his hand.

"You get used to it, we're almost there. This is the Occult Research Club building." Kiba pointed to the building that looked almost like a small school all by itself.

I deadpanned to him.

"The whole thing?"

"Yes, the whole thing, it's actually the old schoolhouse that was disused when the new one was built, when Rias asked to use it for her club it was accepted." Rich school indeed, in my previous school you would be lucky if they gave you a notebook for your club activities.

I neglected to comment on it, Rias was an heiress devil, she probably pulled some strings to get her own building. We entered the surprisingly well-maintained building, with no dust or dirt to be seen. Rias seemed to be very clean at least. Kiba led me to a room that from its position I assumed used to be the student council room.

Inside, it looked like a room straight out of a Victorian mansion. With dark oak everywhere, and even candles, which seemed to me like a massive hazard but I noticed the lack of smoke coming out of them and the wax not melting, so decorative magic candles.

There was only one person in the room, a petite girl with white hair, eating a chocolate cake alone in the darkroom and doing nothing else. Alright, for now, I am going to assume she is a psychopath, because who else just eats sweets in the dark not even watching anime or checking their phone?

Of course, as if it was a repeating pattern, this girl was also famous in Kuoh Academy, Koneko Toujou, affectionately dubbed by the masses as the school mascot because of how cute she was and I saw it. She had a petite build and was very short, only reaching my neck in height and I wasn't particularly tall. She had white hair reaching her neck and amber-coloured eyes, overall, extremely cute, such a shame she is criminally insane.

"That's Toujou Koneko, she is one grade below you. She is also a part of the Occult Research club like us. Koneko-chan, this is Yuta Yukimura-kun." The girl gave me one cursory glance, seemingly disinterested before tilting her head like a cat.

"...Hello." She nodded at me before turning back to her sweets. I turned to Kiba.

"Charming, isn't she?" I turned to Kiba who laughed lightly.

"I have never seen her act so friendly toward a stranger." That was friendly? What does she usually do to a stranger? Disembowel them and cook them into sweets?

As I was thinking about Koneko and her cannibalism(actually, if she is a devil doesn't that mean it isn't cannibalism?) I noticed something. Was that a damn shower that was connected to this room? I can clearly hear the noises of the shower and could easily make out the alluring figure of Rias behind the curtains. I tried to not stare too much.

Okay, I lied, I didn't even try.

"Buchou, I prepared your clothes." A soft and almost motherly voice was heard, grabbing my attention. "Thank you Akeno, I'm almost out." And then the owner of the voice noticed and turned to me.

'Unholy shit those are massive.'

I recognized the girl instantly, Akeno Himejima, the girl with the biggest breasts in the school and it wasn't an exaggeration, those were almost the size of my head, if she weren't a devil I would be afraid for her back. She was one of the idols of the school, if Rias was known as the foreign beauty Akeno was revered as the perfect traditional Japanese beauty with black hair tied in a ponytail that reached even beyond her knees, she also had captivating amethyst-coloured eyes.

Unfortunately, what captured my eyes was not her pretty eyes but her chest that almost seemed to defy physics. Catching my gaze before I managed to muster the tremendous will to tear it away Akeno giggled softly.

"Fufu~ your gaze seems a little distracted." I put on a wary stance in case she took offence, never hurts to be cautious, but thankfully she seemed far from offended, she even seemed pleased as she put one hand on her cheek.

"My my~ Rias really brought in a cute one, didn't she? You are the new club member, right? I'm pleased to meet you." Akeno bowed to me formally, like a traditional Japanese greeting, my hormones didn't allow me to look away from the sight, and Akeno knew that as she giggled again, seemingly taking no small amount of enjoyment over my predicament.

"I am Akeno Himejima, the vice president of the Occult Research Club, if you need anything just tell me alright? I am always available to help my cute new junior." I did not miss the emphasis she put on anything but I will put a pin on that thought. As Akeno was teasing me, Rias finally stepped out of her shower, wiping her hair with a towel, some drops of water still clinging to her fair skin.

"Thanks for waiting Yuta-kun, since everyone is already here, we can start the introductions properly." After Rias said that she took a seat behind the large desk as the rest of her peerage gathered around her excluding me.

"Welcome to the Occult Research Club Yuta-kun, although that is just the front we use to conduct our peerage activities without bother. I already talked it through Sona and you were registered into the club." They handled all of that already? What devilish speed, though I wonder how they managed to convince Souna-senpai.

That woman has a stick so far up her ass it must be bumping into her teeth. Probably devil mindfuck magic or something.

"Since I already gave you a quick rundown of how peerages and magical society work I will jump to the introductions. Kiba is my knight, Koneko-chan is my rook, and Akeno is my queen. And you, Yuta-kun, are my pawn, or all of them. Surprisingly it took all of my pawn pieces to reincarnate you." I nodded.

Devil peerages were themed after chess for some reason with each spot in a peerage taking up one piece of the board minus the king for obvious reasons. The evil piece you are turned into a peerage member determines what buff you got.

Pawn for fuck all, Rook for a durability and strength buff, Knight for a speed and reflex buff, Bishop for a magic buff, and Queen for all of the above.

They also had chess-themed abilities of their own as well. With the rooks having Castling which allowed them to Boogie Woogie swap places with the king once per day while the Pawns had Promotion which allowed them to promote themselves to a stronger piece with permission from their king.

"Uh, is me taking all of 8 of your pieces a bad thing?" Rias shook her head and smiled at me kindly.

"Don't worry about that Yuta-kun, that simply means you were worth far more than a single piece, so I have high expectations of you alright?" Yeah, that's definitely because of the gacha isn't it?

"I... get you have expectations of me but I'm confused, what do you expect from me? I don't know what I am supposed to do as a member of your peerage, or what peerage members do other than generally being servants." Rias pulled out a pamphlet from her skirt pocket and threw it toward me. Catching it I read what was on it.

On it was a magic circle, and the words we grant your wish with a stylized devil woman on the corner. I quirked an eyebrow as Rias explained.

"Those are summoning circles. Us Devils get stronger by making contracts with other beings, normally the contractors would draw the summoning circles themselves but that practice has become mostly outdated, these days we use pre-drawn circles and distribute them to people of interest."

I nodded, that made sense to me, Devils corrupt the souls of good-doers and absorb their powers in fae deals. Rias continued with her explanation.

"So I wanted you to experience how contracts are done for yourself, after all, they are one of the most important parts of a Devil's career. We can walk through the other aspects as they come up" I looked at her with a dumbfounded expression.

"Isn't this a bit too early? I was a human less than 12 hours ago y'know? Wouldn't it be better for me to learn what I am doing before I start taking on contracts?"

"Not really, this is just for you to get a feel for what Devil Work is about. Besides, you will be handling a regular client of Koneko's since she received two summon requests at once. So, what do you think? Are you up for it?" I put a hand on my chin but then a notification interrupted me.

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[New Quest: First Contract]

Description: It's about time you acted like a devil since you are one now. Take your first contract of many and make it successful. You wouldn't want to disappoint your king on day one right?

Requirements: Take the contract Rias offered you and finish the contract successfully. The reward scales with performance.

Rewards: [Ability Gacha Ticket], [Minor Demonic Power Increase]

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Never mind.

Apparently, I am doing a contract right now.

I took a deep breath.

"Alright, when do I start?"

A/N: Meet the team! We have Daddy Issues, Sword Issues, and Sister Issues. Anyway, Yuta has finally met his fellow peerage members and as you can see Helltaker is already putting in work considering Koneko acknowledged his existence. Did you guys like the interactions between Yuta and the rest of the peerage?

Also, meet the contracts, this is the primary way Yuta has for farming tickets. Devils get more powerful through contracts, Yuta gets more powerful through tickets, thus he gets tickets from contracts, it made too much sense for me to not make it like that.

Yuta will truly get to indulge in his newfound Gacha addiction next chapter.

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