Chapter 4 - Gremory and the stalker

'Damn, he looks good, maybe a little too good for his safety, who knows what could happen.' Thought Rias, who had to hide the deep blush rapidly spreading over her cheeks.

What they didn't notice, was how a few dark lines appeared on Abe's forehead when she saw Akatsuki being so casual to a girl he doesn't even know.

"Akatsuki Kojou, a pleasure to meet you."

I replied trying to sound as sarcastically and friendly as someone that doesn't want to continue this conversation to continue would do. To be fair if not for the fact that she was a classmate, I wouldn't have even introduced myself.

Shortly after I've introduced myself to Rias, all of my senses screamed at me to move away from her, but as someone that isn't shy of getting in trouble, I just raised an eyebrow at her, showing her that I wasn't scared of her.

On the other hand, Rias understood what my words meant and that was me nicely telling her to go away if she wasn't injured from our little accident, whereas my gestures could be misinterpreted as almost ridiculously flirty if you miss the sarcastic tone of my voice, fortunately for all of us, Rias saw Abe's face and that's when she understood why I wasn't drooling after her and at the same not getting all friendly with her like most guys would have tried to do.

Unfortunately, a part of me was still worried that I'd somehow managed to injure this crimson-haired girl, and before I could find an excuse to leave from here my autopilot skills managed to take over my reasoning.

"Are you injured? Do you want me to take you to the nurse?"

I inquired with a somewhat worried expression on my face. Rias giggled, most likely due to my funny way of expressing himself. But she guessed it was only natural for a new student to have at least a little trouble dealing with the girls from this school, even though that new student had already got to know one of the top five girls of this school.

Also, Rias didn't doubt for a second that I was annoyed by her bumping into me. Damn, talk about being an edgy new student, how very cliché. The only thing which didn't fit the picture everyone had about the edgy new student was my eyes, which were blue, not red like most people would have thought. Other than that I was a walking stereotype, tall, apparently in a rather good shape, quickly getting rather friendly with only one girl, which was almost funny, if you think about it.

Yet Rias didn't let herself be fooled by my appearances or so she forces herself to believe since there was clearly more than I was showing to a stranger like her and that's what she would love to find. She took a brief look into my ocean-blue eyes and she quickly found out that whatever I was hiding wasn't what I was showing openly for the people to misunderstand me, it was just a mask to hide me from them.

Without a doubt, Rias may have found out that I was hiding my real self. The crimson-haired princess saw, that my eyes had seen too much for someone of my age and that I was bearing a rather horrifying burden for a teenager, for a human, at least. She noticed that my friendly and somewhat sarcastic manner was a protective system, something that I build around me to keep me safe from other people or better said to keep them safe from me.

Rias just knew somehow that whatever should forcefully try to do won't work and maybe slowly befriending me would be the way to find out the truth. Then again, maybe it had something to do with her being a devil, maybe it was because she could read people rather easily.

Whatever it was, the crimson princess looked right through my mask and it just sparked her interest even more, maybe a little too much for my liking.

"I'm fine, thank you for asking."

Rias waved it off with a seductive smile, trying for as much as possible to somehow make me even a little bit interested in her.

I simply nodded at her, brushing off her rather direct way of flirting with me.

"In that case, I shall leave you alone, princess. Abe-chan and I need to leave and to be fair, I kind of want to get to our classroom before the teacher arrives. It was nice to meet you. Princess Gremory."

'Satan that was cold. He didn't even give her the chance to reply to something. Also, Abe-chan…Wait! Princess Gremory? Did he... no, it's impossible for him to know my real identity, he doesn't have any kind of magic or aura, I better send Koneko to follow him later, just in case.'

Unaware of her thought, after I was sure that Rias was fine and unharmed, I turned towards Abe and left Rias behind. Hell, I'm pretty sure that I made that girl's curiosity rise in more ways than I would like for to be, but for now, let's just roll with it. What's the worst thing that could happen?

Thought it was kind of my fault for bumping into her when we turned around that corner, that didn't necessarily mean that I should be way over my head for her, just because she's good-looking, she smelled nice, and her pairs of … Stop! Not again, my body is overreacting again…I hate when I'm excited in public…

I glanced at Abe for a brief moment to see if she had noticed that slight change in my expression or maybe the small red flicker in my eyes, but the only thing that I saw, was her smiling at me while somehow radiating happiness? Well, that's a strange phenomenon, and seeing her made me wonder what did I do to make her so happy?

"Care to tell me why you are so happy?"

"Didn't you see the face Rias made when you basically told her to leave us alone and go away? Haha, that's the best thing I saw the whole year. I'm glad that I've met you Kojou-kun."

Whatever if she's happy, then I presume it's all good, I hope at least, I really don't have the energy to deal with some high school drama, even more so when the said drama was between two popular girls and I was the reason behind it.

Meanwhile, Rias looked at us, as we were leaving through the exit, not turning our heads back even once to look at her. The feeling of being watched by Rias was… odd to say the least, most likely due to how all of the boys from our school have never behaved that calmly and collected in her presence. She knew she was good-looking and didn't hesitate to use it in her favor. But that failed miserably today or maybe it was the fact that she wasn't the first one to approach me? Who knows, but one thing was for sure…this won't be the last time Rias and I would talk face to face.

Since I was sure that the whole thing was her way of interacting with me. The accidentally-bumping-into-someone method had always worked just fine, I'm willing to bet that whenever she used this tactic to approach someone she deemed interesting, she would succeed in making them interested in her. All the boys and some of the girls, which were more often the target, since there weren't an awful lot of boys at Kuoh academy would get embarrassed and stuck around long enough to make sure she was fine which would give Rias enough time to find out more about them. After all, when the people would remain behind to stay with her, Rias would have plenty of opportunities to get to know them at least a little. Enough to evaluate their character and maybe slightly manipulate them to her benefit and of course theirs as well, but then again why would she go to such length to get to know those people?

Yet somehow, I was immune against her charms, or at least I was quite good at hiding it, for now at least.

Rias smiled once again. She liked challenges and Satan be dammed if she wouldn't try to get to know me, even if she would have to use the old good way.

After that Rias incident, I spend the rest of my school day being bored to the grave by the history and science teachers, but thankfully for their safety, their lessons ended together with the sound of the bell which means that I could finally go home and rest, after such a hard day at school, maybe I'll drink a little bit of blood just to calm myself a little?

Just as I was about to leave the school grounds, I heard the familiar voice of my new friend calling me.

"Kojou-kun! See you tomorrow!"

"See you tomorrow, Abe-chan."

Meanwhile, Sona and Tsubaki, who were by the gate, glanced at us as if we grow a second head. I could only smile and wave at them, ignoring the glances both girls were throwing at me.

A while later, as I was on my way back home during this rather pleasant autumn evening, the sun was slowly setting and a gentle breeze stroked gently through my hair. Not that I had noticed any of the pleasant characteristics the day presented to me other than the less annoying sunlight that was making me wish I was born underground, it didn't hurt me, but it clearly made me itchy.

Suddenly, I felt someone following me from afar. Since I kind of liked to know who my stalker was and at the same time I also didn't want to scare it, I've decided to take a long way home and after going through some dark alleys, I've managed to hide in the shadows of one alley. Simply letting myself be embraced by the dark and cold shadow of the night, made me almost invisible to the naked eye, a perk that I've learned one year ago when I was still in Tokyo, but that's a story for another time.

A few minutes later, a beautiful young middle-school girl with shoulder-length dark-brown hair that has a fringe around the eyes and bangs on either side of her face and dark golden-brown eyes passed by the dark corner where I was hiding. Seeing how she passed by my position, I leaped towards her and gently grabbed the girl by her waist while at the same time restraining both of her hands from moving.

For a second I felt her heart beating faster, most likely thanks to getting caught and frightened by me, but before I could even say something, she managed to calm herself, which made me believe that this may not be the first time she was caught by her target.

Bringing my mouth close to her ear and at the same close to her neck, just in case she tries something, I slowly, but clearly whispered to her.

"Now, would you please tell me why are you tailing me, my dear little stalker?"