Chapter 23: Cursed development

Riser POV

"That's effed up dude! So that bastard made you have a record and that woman you saved didn't even defend you!" Ryuji slammed the bowl he was eating out of to the table.

"That's so sad Ren-kun, I'm sorry you had to go through that." Rias hugged Ren or at least patted his shoulder leaning to me to reach him.

We were now eating from a diner and just hanging out at this point. And hearing the backstory of the protagonist once again is irritating, you know.

Basically he tried to save someone from being sexually harassed by a drunk man so he just pushed him a little but the man was so drunk that he tripped over his own feet and fell and hit his head. And then that man sued him and it turns out that he was a powerful someone who had connections. Add to that that the only witness, the woman, defended the man instead of Ren and now he has a bad record on his once spotless record.

And in Japan that is actually a big deal. Unlike in other countries.

And then Ryuji told his story, and it was just equally infuriating, Kamoshida broke his leg and now his dream of supporting his mom who raised him just by herself was ruined all because of him.

Rias finally stood up from her seat and pulled both Ryuji and Ren into a hug with both of them blushing a little.

I can't even blame them.

And then they asked us about our story and well, it was weird to say the circumstances to say the least. About how both of us hated each other that it even came to fists. And how we were in an arranged marriage by our parents and now we just get along after many obstacles.

And how it ended with just friendship on our side but we were still fiances with each other and we would just see where it would take us.

"It's always because of corrupt adults that we suffer…"

Looks like Ryuji is having some ideas now for the future.

~~~

What does it say about me that my persona was Salieri? If I remember right, he was someone chasing after someone, he was an ordinary person, he wasn't blessed by Big G with talent. Not like his rival Mozart.

He tried to chase after, to become equal to someone with talent and at the end of his journey, he was accused of murdering the man he respected. He was accused of being someone so petty and hateful that he would kill someone, his friend and rival at that.

Even though he was a close friend of the family, so close in fact that he was the one who taught the son of Mozart how to play the instrument his father was known for.

Does that also mean that I am striving to be someone? Am I chasing an ideal…

I say that but I already know that I am…

That's why I recreated so much stuff that the heroes in other worlds do. I recreated black flash, awakening and all these stuff because…

I want to be a hero.

Fuck, that was more embarrasing than I thought it was.

I want to be the protagonist of my story, I want to be HIM.

And then I recreated all this stuff that I have seen other protagonists in other worlds do but, it wasn't original, it wasn't me.

I was just copying the doings of others and I wasn't true to myself. I was obsessed with being a hero that I forgot who I was, maybe that's why I unconsciously picked potential instead of templating as someone with a persona, to be my true self… I was just a normal human who found himself lucky enough to be picked by the company to actually have an isekai adventure but at the end of the day I am just a human who wanted to be someone.

To be recognized by everyone else. An ordinary man who is now striving to achieve something in his life because he wasn't able to in his previous life.

"You okay?" The woman resting her head in my lap looked up at me from where she was watching some anime. 

"Yeah just realizing some things about myself that I didn't acknowledge before, what about you?" I replied absentmindedly to Rias.

"Same for me…" She had that absent minded look to hers too.

"So what did you realize from gaining a persona?"

"I… I was too lazy in terms of, well, everything I guess."

"So you finally realized it then?" I looked at her accusingly.

"Mou, you don't have to be mean about it. I mean yeah I was lazy in training and such but-"

"Your peerage too."

"I get it, I should have helped them when I first got them, I was too passive. I thought that I would be stepping in too much if I bothered them about their problems. But I see now, I was their king and I should have fought them tooth and nail to help them, even if they don't want any help." Rias told me with a somber look on her face.

"Well at least you got Nobunaga. And-" And for a second she forgot her inner thoughts and looked appreciative for me directing a different subject for now and interrupted me.

"Hmhmhm, of course I would get someone like Nobunaga. We both have big dreams after all. He almost conquered all of Japan and I am going to conquer the rating games back home. I'm going to beat the emperor and be the ruler of the rating games, mwahahaha!" She got that goofy and cute look on her again and even stood up and did a Jojo pose but I can still see that contemplative look in her eyes.

"Rias, you don't have to hide anything from me." I put my hand on her cheeks as she finally let out her emotions and tears rained from her eyes.

"I-I've been a h-horrrible king to them. I just stayed in my lane and didn't help them when they were all bottling up all their feelings. Akeno is still crying out for her mother and hates herself. Koneko is still afraid of herself that she conceals all emotions. Yuuto still has that burning hatred inside of him. And Gasper is afraid of the world."

"And there's Issei too."

"Issei?"

"You know he has trauma with girls because his very first girlfriend actually killed him right?"

"Oh Satans, I really am a horrible king."

"Well yes you were."

"Not Helping!"

"I said you were but not now right? Now you know what you have to do. You can help your peerage properly now and not just softly encourage them. You were too soft on them and you let things go. And if you really can't go hard on them then you can rely on me. I'll be the bad cop to your good cop."

"Thanks Riser."

"Anytime."

"So?"

"So what?"

"I told you about mine, now tell me about yours."

"No, I don't think I will."

"Oh? Are you too embarrassed about what you realized about yourself?" She has a cheshire grin on her face as if for the first time, I am on the back foot of her teasing.

"Maybe now shut it."

"No, I don't think I will."

"You dare use my own words against me?" She crept slowly to my side and then suddenly pounced and then tried to tickle me to submission, unfortunately for her this body of mine is not ticklish anymore.

I just looked at her with a deadpan face, one you use when kids are misbehaving.

"Mou this isn't fair I told you mine so tell me yours!" She kept poking me everywhere, from my sides to my stomach, even tried to tickle my feet but I just kept a straight face.

"C'mon Rias that's eno-" A tingle of shock went through my body as electricity ran from my neck to my spine. And I just found out that my neck was a really bad spot for me. And Rias now has a full on mischievous, downright evil smile on her face.

"Oh? Now what did Mr. not-ticklish say again?"

"Now Rias, calm down…" I backed away slowly as suddenly Rias pounced and locked me to the floor with her thighs holding my body as her hands wriggled around and tickled my neck. I fought hard, believe I did but…

"Bwahahaha! Stop! Haha! Sto-haha. Fine! Fine! So let go of me!" A pout appeared on Rias' red face. Both of us were exhausted by this play fight of ours as both of us were running out of breath.

"You wanted to do more didn't you?" I asked and her pout became even bigger. She lowered her face as only an inch now occupies the space between us.

"No distracting me, now haa, tell me~" Fuck don't move around so much, something is going to be rising and it is certainly not the shield hero.

"Just don't laugh."

"Fine I promise!" Her red face became even more colorful as I couldn't control myself and my rof now stands straight and is now poking her behind.

I looked to the side in embarrassment, "I wanted to be a hero."

"What?"

"I wanted to be a hero okay!"

"Ah I see… Pfft!"

"Hey!" So the tension between us was gone like how a father would go and get milk.

 ~~~

"Oh come on, I said I was sorry!"

Rias was now apologizing to me but I know she was still laughing about it behind my back. Walking to school leisurely was pretty entertaining and nostalgic for me, I don't want to be that guy. But back in my day, it was always so hectic. Like traffic and all those things and such. So just leisurely walking with no stress is just, you know, relaxing.

"I just didn't think that someone like you would have such a childi- I mean innocent dream to you, I mean you're you"

"Childish? And what about you Miss Emperor? Want to be the president of hell?"

"I'll give you that but at least it's more realistic right?"

"Haa, yeah…"

"Sorry but well, I will support you no matter what my comrade!"

"Don't say it like that, it's like I'm gay or something."

"Sorry, sorry. So what do you think that plan will be with Ren-kun and Ryuji-kun?"

"Well they defeated the palace rulers in canon but well, there are some things that I don't really know what will happen, there are technically many endings in this world. With each case if you reach the deadline, you get captured by the police-"

"Deadline?"

"You'll see, but in the end there are two endings, where Joker sacrifices the group or we fight our way through a god."

"What?"

"Oh yeah this world is based on a videogame and Ren is the protagonist and they managed to beat a god."

"Well… Okay…"

Rias has deer headlights or something look to her face as we walked to school together, I mean, for her it really is an insane claim. For an ordinary highschooler to kill an actual god. Though to be fair, the gods back home are scarier than here… I think. I 've never really fought a god before after all.

"Well, Ryuji said that we would talk about plans later. It's a good thing that there are no classes today huh."

"Mhm…" Rias said absentmindedly, still thinking about the implication that these kids killed a god at the end of their journey.

Meanwhile I'm thinking something significant was supposed to happen today, like I was forgetting something…

There's something about this day in particular, something I think that something bad is going to happen.

Call it my peter tingle, or my spidey sense but there is something at the tip of my tongue that there was something I should do…

Eh I'll remember it later if it was important.

~~~

3rd POV

On a bench somewhere in school a blonde and her best friend…

"You look really tired, Shiho..."

"I just haven't been sleeping too much lately. Whenever I close my eyes, I think about too many things. Nationals are coming soon. Should I really be on the starting line up?"

"You're too hard on yourself. Just be confident. You're on the starting line up because your efforts and hard work are finally being recognized."

"... Yeah… Volleyball's all I have, after all."

"More importantly, was your injury okay? It looked pretty serious." the blonde looked worriedly for her friend

"No, it's nothing. It's normal since the meet up is about to come soon so practice has been more intense than ever." While the brunette just deflected her worry. Even though she was injured all over.

"..."

A beaten up boy joined the two and called out to his fellow volleyball club member.

"Sorry to interrupt, Suzui. Um… Mr. Kamoshida told me to come and get you…" The despondent voice of the boy came out of him and it was clear that he was depressed.

"Huh? What… What does he want?" A scared expression, no more like a terrified expression, came to her face. Her face white and her eyes as wide as possible.

"He didn't say…"

"... Ann, I…" for the first time in a long time, the beaten girl got the courage to actually call for help… but hesitated once more.

"...It will be fine, I bet it's just something about being a starting line up or something…"

"... Yeah… Well I better go…" And so both friends refused to see reality for what it truly was. And one had to walk towards her dreaded fear and one had to keep up the facade that everything was fine and all she was doing was for her dear best friend.

~~~

A/N:

Hey guys sorry for the late update. My internet connection is currently shot to hell and I have to research and write with shitty mobile data. Eh anyways I tried improving my dialogue lines and such cause I noticed that I was just telling a story but I didn't have such nice dialogue for a while now so to build more character development I'm trying to improve my dialogue making skills.

Tell me if it is something good or not. And what else I should try to improve from beside my sucky writing.

Oh and I've been getting into gaming again. DMC 5 is just too good man. I played it once before but I got stuck somewhere with nero and now I wanna play it again and actually finish it this time. And then there's Hades… Fuck it's so good and I just found out that there is a Hades 2… but I don't have the money to actually buy it hahahaha!

Anyways thanks for the support and you know the drill…

Patreon: https://www.p@treon.com/Nautyrus