Chapter 23: His Better Half

Chapter 23:

"___" - Speech

(___) - Thoughts

{___} - Internal Voice(s)

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To his disappointment, Jin had not been granted the privilege of hiding out near the end of the table. Rather, Venelana had opted to seat him directly opposite her, which also placed him right next to a man with long crimson hair and a goatee. Naturally sat at the head of the table, Zeoticus Gremory, the current Patriarch of the Gremory Clan. 

The dinner itself, to no surprise, was as lavish as one would expect. Furnished with finely prepared cuisine, blue-tipped candle flames and costly-looking beverages. Which made being seated at it excruciatingly uncomfortable for someone who much preferred the plainer things in life like himself. 

To the right of him sat the raven-haired [Queen] of the peerage, who held evident disdain towards Fallen Angels, leaving him without anyone to even make conversation with. 

(Talk about awkward.) 

"Hyoudou." Zeoticus called. 

"Yes?" 

"If you want you can start calling me Father now." Rias almost spat out her food as both herself and Issei's cheeks gleamed bright red, but somehow his abrupt comment had managed to ease a bit of the tension in the room, which Jin internally thanked the man for. 

"F-F-Father!" 

"Dear, there's an order to these things you know, you shouldn't rush it." His wife admonished. 

"Oh, is that so?" Devils had a tendency to be a lot more, direct, when it came to such matters in comparison to humans. Zeoticus scratched his chin as he looked at the blushing baka-uple. "Then should we start planning for the wedding instead?" 

"Enough!" Rias snapped, storming out the dining hall as Venelana stared daggers at her spouse. 

"I told you so." She sighed, though it wasn't as if she was opposed to speeding up the pace of things between the two, her daughter had the tendency to be rather indecisive. "Children these days aren't like us, you need to give them time. Isn't that right Iwata?" 

Jin's brow furrowed as he struggled to fathom why she had suddenly roped him into the conversation. "Erm, I guess?" He responded sheepishly, the confusion on his face clear as day for all to see. 

"Uh, he goes to our school as well." Issei remarked.

"Hm? Ah, did he become a teacher alongside the Governor?" Jin squeezed his fork as a vein almost burst out of his head. 

"No, he's a student." Venelana's expression became the embodiment of 'Huh?' as she blinked repeatedly, a sweat filled with second-hand embarrassment running down her face.

"It's difficult to believe isn't it?" 

"I'm right here." Jin warned, the temperature around him plummeted as he narrowed his eyelids, shooting a death stare Issei's way. "Now that I recall, you're also here to train aren't you? Perhaps I could give you a hand." The corners of his mouth twitched into an eerie smile as he stabbed his fork into his steak. "How about it? Issei Hyoudou." 

"N-N-No, I'm quite alright." His hands shook as he averted Jin's gaze, beads of sweat running down his skin. "Maybe we should talk about something else…" 

"That's probably for the best, Iwata. Is there anyone you're seeing at the moment?" Venelana inquired in an attempt to steer the conversation. Although her question didn't turn any heads, there was no doubt that everyone had their ears perked. 

"Does it matter?" 

"A little." 

"No, no I am not." His expression revealed little as he continued to pick away at his food. 

.

Following the short scuffle, the dinner continued as planned with relatively light topics being discussed from time to time. "Now then, I suppose you all must be getting rather tired by now?" Zeoticus asked, receiving silent nods from everyone at the table. 

"We've already prepared rooms for each of you, they're on the second floor. But if you wish to go on a stroll or explore the territory, I'm sure one of our maids or butlers would be more than happy to act as tour guide." He motioned towards the servants positioned near the wall, to which they responded with courteous bows. 

"Oh, and Iwata. We've heard about your situation from Azazel and did our best to accommodate, she'll lead you to your room." Jin's brows raised as Zeoticus pointed towards the silver-haired maid. 

"This way please." She gestured, leading him to what seemed to be naught more than an ordinary room. But for some reason, the corners of Jin's mouth curled up even though he had yet to even open the door. 

"Not bad, I imagine Azazel's the one who told you?" 

"We did in fact receive a notice from the Governor beforehand, but I feel obligated to ask, is this supposed to be some sort of a joke between the two of you?" 

"No, it's real." As he stepped into the room, he was met with the delightful sight of a bedroom covered entirely in snow, with conditioning units positioned at every corner of the room. "But how are you able to keep it from melting?" 

"Demonic Power has many applications, Iwata." 

"I see, I might have to ask for your instruction some time soon." 

"Perhaps, now if you would excuse me." 

(I guess the Gremory's aren't so bad after all.) 

Not even a second after the maid had left him to his own devices, Jin had already burrowed his way into the snow, with the most content smile on his face he had ever worn. "Now this is what I call comfort." 

{I concur, I don't like that man all that much, but I think you should prioritize meeting his expectations. Then you'd be able to do things like this with ease.} 

(Hold on, are you saying I'd be able to create my own snow?) 

{Well there's that, and more.} 

And just like that, Jin's motivation had been set ablaze. Whether it was for the right reasons or not, was pretty much up to debate.

------------

Morning had set over the Gremory territory as the birds, or at least the Underworld's version of them chirped to gently bring the citizens out of their slumbers. "Here's to hoping Griogri's reputation isn't completely in shambles just yet." A middle-aged man with a goatee stood at the front entrance of the Gremory household, knocking against the door a few times until he could hear the sound of feet shuffling from inside. 

"Coming!" A voice shouted from inside, the door opening to reveal a woman with long flaxen hair wearing an elegant white dress. "Governor? Are you here to pick him up?" 

"Indeed, I hope he wasn't too much of a bother?" Azazel questioned, fearful of what horrors his subordinate could've unleashed upon the Gremory's. 

"Not at all, you've recruited quite the interesting individual. But I'm surprised, most of us thought the request was some sort of inside joke between the two of you. How is he able to sleep like that?" 

The Fallen Angel heaved a deep sigh of relief upon hearing that Jin hadn't tore the house to shreds. "It's complicated, I'm struggling to get much information out of him so not even I could give you a full explanation. Honestly, I think Tannin's your best bet if you want to learn more." 

"The former Dragon King hm? I'd have to ask my son to arrange a meeting." 

"I plan to arrange one myself so if you'd like I could simply just fill you in on the details afterwards, I know how much of a hassle it'd be to make you leave the territory." 

She nodded in appreciation as she motioned for him to enter. "Do come inside, though he hasn't been a displeasure to have by any means, I must admit we've been having a slight issue with him this morning." Azazel's face scrunched up as he dreaded what he was about to hear. 

(Oh no.) 

"Grayfia had been summoned by my son, so I had to send one of the regular servants to go wake him up." 

"And?" He asked with clear unease in his voice. 

"They said that there's some sort of aura coming from him, and that they didn't think it was a good idea to approach." In truth, Venelana's account of things had been heavily watered down. The servant in question had in fact ran out the room with quivering knees and sweaty palms. "I approached the door out of curiosity, and well, you should be able to feel it by now." 

The aura wasn't nearly enough to intimidate any of the adults present, with the regular servants as the exception. But it was more than enough to make any regular individual think at least twice before walking in. The only reason she hadn't woken him up herself, was because Azazel had told her to call him should anything 'unusual' take place.

"Ah, I don't think it's his doing." The Governor commented, causing Venelana's brow to furrow. 

"What do you mean?" 

"As you know, some Sacred Gears such as Hyoudou's are in fact sentient. The same goes for him." 

"I'm not as well-versed as you when it comes to the subject, but they shouldn't be able to activate whilst the host is unconscious, correct?" 

"Indeed, but he's a special case, which is why he's unable, or more accurately unwilling to sleep anywhere warm. Actually scratch that, even awake he's a walking headache when it comes to temperatures." He gripped his nose-bridge as he recalled the onsen incident from the day prior.

"I'm afraid I don't quite understand." 

"Me neither, but hopefully with enough training I'll be able to draw out more of his power. Then things should become a little clearer." They opened Jin's bedroom door revealing a large pile of snow inside, with the man in question nowhere in sight. "He's burrowed in? I'm surprised he's able to breathe like that. Oi Dragon-san, it's time for him to wake up so could you put away his aura please?" 

A few moments passed as no change took place, leaving Venelana understandably even more confused than she already was. "I thought it was sentient?" 

"It is, but it doesn't like me. Or really anyone else for that matter." Azazel walked up the pile, reaching in and pulling his steel-asleep subordinate, completely covered in white powder. "Wake up already." 

"Hm? Azazel? What are you doing here?" He queried in his morning voice whilst rubbing his eyes. 

"I'm here to pick you up sleepyhead, and can you tell your Dragon to put its aura away? It's scaring the servants." As requested, Adaloth's aura dissipated as Jin shook his head like a dog coming out of the pool, ridding the snow off his body. "I didn't expect you to actually sleep inside the snow, how didn't you suffocate?" 

"You're the researcher, figure it out." The average person could only survive for roughly an hour should they be buried under snow, the average Devil could probably extend that to a few more hours. But Jin could last indefinitely, somehow capable of drawing in the disney packed oxygen contained in snow through his skin. Almost as if his body was going through electrolysis on its own. "Where's Oron?" He questioned as he looked around the room. 

"He's still at Grigori, which is where you're going today. But it looks like you forgot despite me telling you so only yesterday." 

"Oh right." He replied listlessly.