Chapter 5: Back to Highschool

Ughhh, did someone get the number of that TRUCK that ran me over?

I pulled myself off the hard stone floor, looking around myself I noticed that I was in my basement, dozens of papers with scribbles of magic circles and text over them littered about in a haphazard manner.

Dammit, I fell asleep in my laboratory, didn't I? I can feel my bones in all the weird places, did I get attacked by a chiropractor in my sleep or somethin?

Oh, wait.

Shit.

Today is Monday.

I fumbled around for my phone and looked at the time.

8:11

Bollocks.

I started sprinting up the stairs. Quickly preparing for school.

Here I was thinking, 'Hey! Let's not draw attention to ourselves, lurk in the background and act like a mob.' but noooo, my body decides that I should be late for a school where a girl as strict as she is flat is the student council president.

Little bastard, is this your protest against me for eating raw eggs, pinecones and flour? You tryna pick a fight? You better learn your place before I start eating raw chicken alright you little bastard?

That'll teach you to stop picking fights you can't win. You are a thousand years too early to challenge me.

I quickly threw on the Kuoh Academy uniform which was wayyy too fancy for my tastes, with too many accessories especially the ribbon which I decided to ditch altogether and tied my hair in a messy low tail before taking off toward the school which was over a solid 15 minutes away at a walking pace.

So I started sprinting, I may be barely better than the average person but I was still better, so it took me 8 minutes to get there. Barely reaching there in time. Even if my body had to take yet another punishment.

Reaching the school while panting heavily at the gate I saw no other students than...

 A bespectacled short young woman with a slim figure, black hair styled in a short bob cut with violet eyes wearing the Kuoh Academy uniform, she had an air of intelligence and strictness above her.

And goddam she looked way more beautiful than any model I have ever seen, it nearly shook me. 

Next to her was another young woman with long straight black hair that extended all the way down to her knees, with split bangs and light brown eyes, she had large breasts. 

Sona Sitri and her queen whats-her-name.

Curious, I used inspect on Sona.

[Sona Sitri]

-Heiress of the Sitri clan and a skilled strategist. She specializes in water magic and is confident in her skill in chess. Goes by Souna Shitori in the human world.

Well isn't that helpful? Entering the school I came to a stop as Sona narrowed her eyes at me and so did her queen. Was this because they viewed me as a student who was (almost)tardy or because they had a way of sensing my magic I did not know. 

Alright, remember Takumi, slight slouch, no eye contact, a bit nervous. Head down eyes forward you are too early in your career, you cannot draw in attention already. Thus you must act your heart out, act unremarkable and throw the scent off yourself.

"H-hey uh, you are staring at me pretty intensely there. Am I late? I think there should be a few minutes left." 7/10. Could have done better. This got Sona to snap out and look at me in the eyes with a searching gaze as I averted my eyes letting myself blush(it was actually a bit nervewracking being examined so intensely.) A few moments later she spoke.

"...No, you are not tardy yet. But remember to not be so late next time. Also, what is your name?" Yikes, they definitely must have a way of sensing either magical energy or the sacred gear in me.

"Huh? It's Takumi Katsuragi, why are you asking student council president(Seitokaichou-san)?" After I said that she examined me with her eyes again before shaking her head.

"It's nothing. You should hurry up, the bell is about to ring." 

"O-oh, right." Saying that I hurried to class and reached just before the bell rang, I sat in my seat which was in the back corner like any loner should have. And started pondering.

There was no avoiding the issue of politics. Since I am stuck in class anyway I might as well use the time to plan.

Alright, let's consider my current situation.

 I am an unknown Magician(Alchemist), I do not know fully if the devils can sense my mana and how they do it but my encounter with Sona tells me that they can at least feel something from me. So chances are I will attract attention. Which can be slowed down by acting less conspicuous.

Whose attention would I attract? Let's see.

1- Sona Sitri, I can't exactly remember her title at the moment. She is basically the head honcho in this school. And I am fairly certain I already attracted her attention at least a little. There is... a chance she would try to recruit me I think.

She already has a record of recruiting people she finds interesting considering she has nearly a full peerage and she picked up the Absorption Line guy too.

2- Rias Gremory, Crimson Haired Princess of Destruction. I don't know if her sensing abilities are as strong as Sona or better but best to stay on the safe side. If I get noticed by her she would most likely try to recruit me, more than Sona honestly.

She has the pressure of arranged marriage hanging over her head. Since this is pretty close to the beginning of the anime it means she is willing to recruit any potential member considering she was willing to go for Issei of all people and was still willing to settle for him even though she knew he had a "Twice Critical".

I mean, while I am not trying to insult Issei too much here. You have to be pretty open-minded and have a severe lack of choices to consider him as a potential party member.

It's best to avoid any of her peerage members for now.

While I am not too deathly afraid of joining any peerage and becoming a devil I certainly would like to keep my choices open for the moment. 

I say that but it isn't like either part would force me to join their peerage, well I am not so sure about Sona. But I know well that Rias views her peerage as a family even the new members. So she wouldn't be very inclined to forcefully make someone her peerage member.

She isn't Rykard. 

For now, the best policy is...

Keep your head down and keep your eyes on the prize. I will get revealed to the heiress' at some point regardless. But I want to build myself up first.

Because I know that plot armour, or destiny or luck or whatever you call it works in her favour with how many freaks of nature she finds in a half-dead state while going for a walk.

If I were to encounter Rias right now I may just end up in a situation like her other peerage members. 

Rias specializes in finding people with immense potential at the lowest point of their lives and recruiting them somehow.

If I encounter her right now I would be the alchemist who doesn't know what they are doing and needs guidance in developing their magic. 

That girl is dangerous.

By the time the Devils try to recruit me, I want to have negotiating power. There is a big difference between trying to recruit a newbie who barely knows the m in magic versus a talented alchemist who can fend for themselves.

You need to offer up a lot more to recruit the latter. That's the basics of negotiation after all. You can't just make up empty promises like your protection and expect to draw them in.

With that out of the way, it's time to find another spell to adapt to my arsenal. I could practice Transmutation but I have a feeling that if I get caught doing that in school it will be pretty hard to explain without having a Jedi mind trick of my own.

On the outside, I looked like I was paying attention to the board while fiddling with my pen but that wasn't what I was doing right now.

The spell I had decided to plagiarize now as reinforcement from Fate. Because it was rather simple in nature. Basically, you use magical power to fill in the gaps in the object's molecular structure, as a result making it more durable or something of that nature. 

I spent most of my school day trying to figure that out.

✧—•✦•—✧—•✦•—✧—•✦•—✧

Alright, most of my pens were broken but my will wasn't.

Just trying to figure out reinforcement made me consider joining the Devils just for the ease of magic. This was very vexing. 

You see, trying to fill an object like a pen with magic power and just hoping for the best was not a very good plan. I learned that after the 3rd pen shattered. It's best to pin on that for now and revisit the idea later.

So I directed my efforts elsewhere.

I started trying to meditate, in theory, I should be able to regenerate mana faster if I focus on gathering the ambient mana inside me more.

And that's what I tried doing for most of the day. Sitting down and shutting out other thoughts, just trying to feel the ambient mana and gather it within myself to recover my mana.

And it worked I would say.

____________________________

You have created the skill [Meditation Lv.1]

[Meditation Lv.1]

-When activated you recover Mana 100% faster. 

____________________________ 

A benefit of the system really showed through here, because the ease of entering the state of meditation before and after I got the skill was almost baffling.

It was like I could just flip a mental switch and breathe out deeply to activate the skill, sure it still needed constant concentration to keep active, there is no such thing as a free dinner after all.

By constantly spending mana and meditating I managed to reach level 2 of meditation which increased the speed to 125%. And increased my mana and magical power by 3 and 2. 

The school itself wasn't anything notable, to be honest. I had gone through High School before so these subjects were rather easy for me, even when the teacher picked me by surprise I still managed to answer with ease. Going to High School again will SUCK no doubt but that's life.

Nobody approached me thanks to my loner nature which I was thankful for, I could practice my magic in peace thanks to it after all. The only problem was the extents I had to go through to avoid the Rias peerage.

Rule number 1. Stay clear of any window stills. The window still is where Rias has her moment of realization or attention. So I had to be cautious to avoid the line of sight of most window stills.

Rule number 2. Avoid crowds, her peerage members are basically the school mascots, chances are if a crowd is around it's formed around them.

Rule number 3. Forget going near the Occult Research Club room. Pretty simple.

Was I being a bit too paranoid? Definitely. But it was the first day and I was already noticed to an extent by Sona. I don't like my chances, to say the least.

Thankfully, the rest of the day passed without any disturbance allowing me a swift retreat to my house. I needed to get alchemizing.

That's right it was time to start grinding.

A/N: We are finally at the high school part of the DxD, well not fully, the main cast has yet to encounter our Alchemist but his motives are clear. Avoid contact until you are sure you want to make contact. But as one might expect things never go according to plan.

This does not mean he feels aversion toward Rias and Sona. It is more about power dynamics and the power of negotiation for him.

What did you think about the chapter? I would love to know.

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