Chapter 135 — Preparing For The Party
Chapter 135 — Preparing For The Party
Issei
I looked around the room after Buchou mentioned that Yuki-san’s training results were complicated.
Only Yuuto-san and Xenovia also looked confused.
Azazel-sensei was grinning like he knew something he found very funny.
“Uh, what do you mean Buchou?” I asked. “Azazel-sensei said that she had worked with her teacher and created some ability to get around her backlash. Did it end up not working?” I looked at Yuki-san. “He said it was unstable, so did it end up failing?”
“Oh no, it works fairly well. That’s not what Rias is referring to,” Azazel-sensei said with a chuckle.
Buchou shot him a glare.
He put his hands up in response.
Buchou continued to glare at him for a few seconds before turning to me with a sigh.
“Like Azazel said, Yuki’s new ability, Malediction’s Embrace works. It is a state ability that allows her to avoid some of the backlash from her seals.”
“Then what's the problem?”
“The problem is that she has to align her body to be more receptive to her curse spells,” buchou continued. “This in turn, affects her mind while she uses the ability. It causes her Kitsune instincts to sharpen and be harder to ignore, her inhibitions to lower, and her impulse control becomes frayed. And it gets worse the longer she uses the ability.”
That sounded bad.
The idea of your head being affected by curses definitely didn't sound like something good.
But I could see how Yuki-san would look at that and decide that it was worth it if she could become stronger.
She was the type of person to look at it as pros and cons, and once she thought that the pros outweighed the cons, she would accept the consequences as something she would just have to bear.
“It also takes focus to leave the state.” Yuki-san added.
“So, does she need more time to master it? Or have you figured out a way to fix it?”
“So far, Yuki and her teacher, Mireia-san, have not found a solution to the mental effect. Mireia-san believes that it is the backlash that Yuki should be experiencing, just changed,” Buchou explained. “As for needing more time, we were able to have her train it with us present and even spar with her using it. It’s not perfect, but the group training seems to have advanced her control of it.”
Yuuto-san frowned.
“You had her around others after what happened with Asia-san?” She asked.
That made me sit up straight immediately.
“Something happened to Asia? What happened?” I asked quickly.
“I-I’m alright Ise-san!” Asia said, waving her hands. “I walked in on Yuki while she was training. It was before I knew about her new ability or how it affected her. She had been spending too much time in her room training, so Xenovia-san, Yuuto-san and I went to check on her. I went in first by myself and she ended up… reacting badly.”
Asia blushed as she quietly said the last part.
“B-But she didn't hurt me! I was just scared and embarrassed. Xenovia-san and Yuuto-san came in before anything bad could happen.”
The idea of Asia being hurt scared me.
“What happened exactly? I said a bit harsher than I should have.
“I pinned Asia to the floor.” Yuki-san said in a tired voice. “When the others came into the room, I came to my senses and left the state. I got off of her and tried to apologize, but at that point Asia was more worried about me than what had happened to her.”
I blinked.
“So you just… jumped on her? You didn't launch a spell or anything? And why was Asia so worried about you?”
“My appearance changes when I use the state. Asia saw those changes and thought I had become a stray Devil,” She said far too casually. “As for why I pinned her…. When we were training as a group, Koneko-chan and I sparred while I was using my ability. I managed to pin her while we fought and I ended up biting her neck and leaving a… a large mark on it. I likely would have done the same thing to Asia.” Yuki-san said.
She sounded embarrassed as she finished.
I looked at Koneko-chan who was frowning.
Her cheeks were slightly pink as well.
Asia’s face had turned red after Yuki-san finished talking.
“I spoke with Yuki after th incident with Asia, and I proposed the idea of training around people,” Buchou said. “My logic being that if she uses it in a fight, it will be around us as well. We discussed it between all of us here at the estate and agreed to hold a joint training with everyone in order to have the most controlled environment in case something happened. The only real incident occurred on the first day with Koneko-chan. After than, we were able to react before anything could go too far.”
“From what I’ve heard from Mireia and Rias, Yuki’s new ability has potential, but he control isn’t quite there yet,” Azazel-sensei said. “While she has been improving, I wouldn’t say it’s enough to use in a Rating Game yet.”
I nodded.
It all sounded complicated.
I’m just glad that Asia wasn’t hurt and that Yuki-san seems alright after everything.
“Now that we have discussed Yuki’s training, that covered everyone. If no one else has anything to report or further questions, then we can finish the meeting here.” Buchou said.
She looked over everyone and saw that no one had anything more to say.
“Then our meeting is dismissed. Don’t forget that we have the party to go to tomorrow.”
Everyone slowly made their way out of the room.
Now I would be able to sleep in an actual bed.
I was happy enough that I could have cried.
Yuki
We were collected by the maids of the Gremory estate early in the evening on the day of the party.
They had told us that we needed to get properly dressed for the party.
So all of the girls of our peerage and Gasper-kun had been given dresses wear.
They had gotten each of us dressed, applied make up, arraigned hair, given us jewelry, and sprayed perfume as well.
It was familiar enough to me that it was not too awkward, but I could tell that others, like Asia and Xenovia, were a bit uncomfortable or unfamiliar with it.
But the end results couldn’t be denied.
Everyone looked great.
Rias stood near the center of the room, talking to Akeno.
She wore a formal ball gown dress.
It was the same color as her crimson hair and was low cut enough to emphasize her chest while still appearing elegant.
Her hair had been pinned up in a loose bun with a golden clasp that matched her other jewelry
Akeno’s dress was less refined than Rias’s but just as well made.
It was a deep purple color, with slits along the sides of the dress to allow her legs to be seen, and it showed a generous amount of cleavage.
Her smile soft and knowing, her figure displayed just enough to make it obvious she had chosen the thing with malicious intent.
Her hair was kept up in her signature pony tail, and she wore decent sized heels.
Asia wore a simple cream colored dress that matched her sweet and innocent nature. She had her hair curled slightly and her makeup was done with the intention to make her look more mature.
Xenovia’s dress was a simple and unadorned gown that was a deep green color.
She had very little makeup applied, and nothing special was done to her hair.
Despite the simplicity of it, she still looked wonderful.
Yuuto wore an elegant, black ball down that fit her figure well without showing much skin.
Her hair was done up in a small pony tail rather than leaving her shoulder length hair down like normal.
She had a small amount of makeup applied and wore a silver bracelet and earrings as well.
Koneko wore a grey ball gown that fit her smaller frame and made her look cute and elegant at the same time.
Her makeup, like Asia, was done in a way to make her look a bit more mature.
She wore smaller heels that still made her noticeably taller and wore a golden necklace.
She kept her hair styled the same and still wore her cat themed hairclip like usual.
Her car ears were still out and her dress had been adjusted to allow her tail out as well.
It made me smile to see her willing to continue to show her traits even when we were going to an event with Devils that we wouldn’t know.
And Gasper-kun was wearing his own dress.
It was a frilly pale yellow dress with bows and ruffles.
It fit him well and made him look even more doll-like.
And he looked delighted to wear it.
Gasper was still nervous and still turned pink whenever one of the maids fussed too much with his hair or skirt.
But beneath that, there was unmistakable satisfaction every time he looked at himself in the mirror and saw the finished result.
He liked the ribbons.
He liked wearing cute things and no one saw any reason to tell him he couldn’t wear what he wanted.
My own dress was more reserved.
It was a simple silver and black ball gown.
I wore elbow length black gloves and silver earrings that had been suggested to me.
It showed a small amount of cleavage and emphasized my figure, most noticeably, my waist.
My dress had also been adjusted to allow my tails to be free, and I had been offered heels, but turned them down.
I was tall enough already, and if I wore the ones that had been offered, I would tower over the shorter girls like Asia and Koneko.
Sona-Kaichou and her peerage were also present and getting dressed.
They had arrived to get ready for the party and ride there on Tannin with us after Rias asked Sona-Kaichou if she wanted to go to the party with us.
She and the rest of the girls in her peerage all looked lovely as well.
I adjusted one glove as we waited for everyone to be finished.
I noticed that I was being looked at by a few people in the room.
Some of the girls in Kaichou’s peerage would sneak glances at me.
Im assuming mostly out of curiosity, due to not seeing me with my fox traits out very often.
I had also received looks from my own peerage as well.
Asia had already come over to complement me on my outfit and I returned a compliment to her as well.
That had gotten me a warm smile from her before she went to stop Xenovia from messing with her own dress too much.
Rias had glanced over at me while talking to Akeno, but only for a moment.
I spotted Akeno staring at me in the mirror as I put on the earrings I was given.
Her eyes traveled down and then back up my body before she made eye contact with me in the mirror and gave me a wink.
I rolled my eyes at her.
I saw Koneko look at me as well.
It was much more subtle than Akeno was.
Her eyes dipped to my dress and then lower, when she thought no one would notice.
They retuned to my face as though checking whether I had caught her.
I said nothing.
There was no reason to.
Everyone was looking at each other's dresses as we got ready for our first formal event together.
Whether it was Koneko’s subtle glances or Xenovia bluntly looking at everyone’s dresses, there was no harm in any of it.
Akeno saw me noticing Koneko and smiled teasingly.
Koneko looked away too late to pretend she had not been looking at all.
I ignored it and finished getting myself ready.
Once we were all finally declared finished, we were ushered out together toward the parlour where the others were waiting.
I could hear voices before we entered.
One was Saji-san’s, which already sounded defeated.
The other was Issei’s, he sounded concerned and confused over whatever Saji-san was suffering through.
It was likely something Issei had done or said, knowing the two of them.
We entered the parlor and Buchou called out to them.
“Sorry for making you wait, Ise. It took a bit longer than expected. And I see that Saji-kun is waiting with you as well.”
The two boys turned to us.
There was a visible moment where you could see Issei’s brain stop as he stared at Rias and the rest of us.
Then his eyes widened and his mouth opened in awe.
Then his posture lit up with the exact kind of excitement I had expected from the start.
“W-Whoa…”
It was almost impressive how little subtlety there was in his state.
He looked at all of us.
Not a quick sweep either.
A long thorough look.
Over Rias first, then Akeno, and then the rest of us.
And he looked at me just as long as he had looked at Rias or Akeno.
Because it was Issei, and Issei looked at beautiful women honestly.
Greedily and openly.
His interest was not subtle enough to be misleading.
I frowned at him and cursed Rias and Akeno in my head for convincing him that I had any form of interest in him.
I didn’t dislike him.
I simply wanted nothing to do with that kind of attention from him or any other man.
My tails twitched in annoyance once before I could stop them.
“You all look amazing!”
That at least was sincere enough to take some of the sting out of the shamelessness.
Asia flushed slightly as she smiled at him.
Rias and Akeno both smiled more sincerely at his reaction.
Xenovia looked down at her dress, like she wasn’t sure she should be included.
Yuuto smiled more gently and her ears slightly colored.
Koneko didn’t give any reaction to his words
Gasper-kun gave a tiny, hopeful turn in place as though making sure he was included in the compliment too.
Then Issei’s eyes landed on him.
He stared.
Then pointed.
“Gasper, why are you wearing a dress?”
Gasper stiffened.
Gasper clutched lightly at his skirt. “I-I want to wear the dress…”
That made a few of the girls chuckle.
Even I smiled faintly.
Issei looked tired when he heard his response.
“That’s not the point.” he protested. “As the only other guy in the peerage, you have to stand with me. You’re my Kohai and we need to be manly together.”
Gasper’s shoulders dipped. “But it looks pretty…”
Akeno put a hand lightly near her mouth, smiling. “Ara, but Gasper-kun looks adorable.”
“Leave him be Ise. You’re not going to change him and it makes him happy.” Rias said.
“Fine… I don’t care what he wants to wear. It’s just rough sometimes with only Gasper and I being the only guys in the peerage, and he’s more interested in doing things with the girls.” Isse lamented.
That only made Gasper look more conflicted and more pleased at the same time.
“Saji? Is something wrong?” Sona-Kaichou asked with concern.
Saji-san looked stunned by the sight of her in a dress and didn’t know how to react.
I remember him saying he was interested in her, and it seems like this was too much for him.
“Is that what you’ll be wearing, Issei-san?” I asked.
He was wearing the Kuoh academy male summer uniform and an armband with the Gremory familiar symbol on it.
He looked far too underdressed compared to us.
He rubbed the back of his head as he replied.
“Well I asked Azazel-sensei and he just told me to wear my uniform. I thought it was odd, but you guys had already left to get changed, so I just waited here.”
It sounded like Azazel-senpai couldn’t be bothered to help.
That sounded more like normal.
There was a tremble through the room, like something heavy had been dropped nearby.
Then a butler entered.
He bowed toward Rias.
“Oujou-sama,” he said, “Tannin-sama and his family have arrived. They are asking for you and Hyoudou Issei.”
Rias turned Issei.
“Don’t worry about your outfit. You look good, Ise. There is much more of a focus on the appearance of women at these kinds of events anyways.”
She turned to the rest of the group.
“Alright everyone, our transportation has arrived. Let’s go.”