Chapter 166 — A Good View And The Next Match
Chapter 166 — A Good View And The Next Match
Issei
The next day, the whole academy was out on the grounds practicing for the sports festival.
Our class had changed into tracksuits, and people were practicing for their events.
Some of my classmates were pretty fired up, while some of them either didn’t care or were goofing off.
There were teachers patrolling to make sure students were at least pretending to practice.
Everywhere I looked, students were stretching, running drills, and meeting with their event partners.
There were a few people who stood out with their training.
Xenovia and Irina in particular had about half of my class cheering them on.
“I’ll be the one to win, Xenovia!”
“I won’t go easy on you, Irina!”
The two of them were riling each other up as they ran.
They were tearing down the track and leaving the other students far behind as they ran.
The two of them were participating in one of the races, and from watching them I could already tell our class was going to win.
And Yuki-san was running too.
She had signed up for the relay races instead of the sprints like Xenovia and Irina.
She didn’t look like she was trying nearly as hard as Irina and Xenovia were.
She was still running quickly and pulling ahead of the other students.
But it wasn’t as dramatic or obvious as the other two were.
With all three of them in our class, our only competition for the sports festival will be the student council members.
Normal students couldn’t compete against Devils and an Angel.
I continued watching Irina, Xenovia, Yuki-san, and some of the other girls as they practiced.
“…But if they’re running too fast, it’s hard to see them bounce properly,” I muttered.
“Yeah, they won’t sway right,” Matsuda agreed.
“The optimal running speed is very important,” Motohama said, pushing up his glasses.
Matsuda, Motohama, and I sat together on the small hill beside the track, studying the girls with erotic thoughts in our minds.
We were enjoying the tight-fitting tracksuits our female classmates were wearing.
I was enjoying the view of both large and small oppai as they bounced while the girls ran.
I watched Irina and Xenovia as they ran side by side, as they pushed each other to run faster.
They had similar, athletic figures.
Xenovia was taller, had more muscle, and had slightly larger breasts.
Irina was slimmer and had perkier breasts.
Watching them side by side was a treat.
I looked over to Yuki-san, who was taking a break from running, sadly.
She was the tallest girl in the peerage and probably one of the tallest girls in the school.
She was roughly ten centimeters taller than Xenovia and Irina and had larger breasts than both.
I was more familiar with Irina and Xenovia’s figures since their Church battle suits were skin-tight and didn’t hide anything.
But after seeing Yuki-san in that witch outfit for Serafall-sama’s film, I knew that she had a very nice figure as well.
She had a thin waist and wide hips that gave her a curvy and mature look.
I really was lucky to live with such beautiful girls!
And that made my thoughts slide back to last night.
More specifically, to what happened after Koneko-chan had dragged Yuki-san away.
After they had left and I cleared Xenovia’s misunderstanding about sitting in people’s laps, I went to speak to Akeno-san alone in the kitchen.
“Akeno-san.”
She glanced back at me with a smile as she was drying the last of the dishes.
“Yes, Ise-kun? Did you get too excited by what you saw?” She asked in a playful tone.
I blushed slightly and shook my head.
“Uh, no. I actually wanted to ask you something about you teasing Yuki-san.”
She set down the towel she had been using and turned around to face me.
She leaned back on the counter as she waited for me to continue.
“Why is Yuki-san the only other person you tease as much as me? You do tease everyone else, but she’s the only other person you go so far with.”
She smiled wider.
“You both just have such interesting reactions. You get so flustered and excited, and you’ve seen how Yuki-chan acts when I tease her enough. You’re both very amusing.”
“So it’s just that you enjoy teasing your kohai and we both give good reactions, got it.” I nodded.
I had figured that Akeno-san was just having fun with us, so that made sense.
I had just been curious as to why she seemed so focused on teasing Yuki-san over the other girls.
Her smile became stiffer for a moment before she replied.
“Something like that, Ise-kun, though there is a bit more to it,” she said, turning back to the dishes. “Does it bother you when I tease her like that?”
“N-no, not really. I was just curious. If you see us as the same, then it makes sense,” I said, rubbing the back of my head.
She paused as she was drying a cup.
“Umm, Akeno-san?”
“Sorry, Ise-kun. You just reminded me of something I’d been thinking about recently.”
“Oh, alright. I’m gonna hang out with Xenovia and Irina before calling it a night.”
“Have fun, Ise-kun.”
I frowned as I wondered what it was that had been on Akeno-san’s mind.
Then a familiar voice broke me out of my thoughts.
“Oh, hey Hyoudou.”
“Ah. Hi, Saji.”
Saji approached with equipment for the sports festival in his hands.
He looked like he was in the middle of doing some student council work.
I glanced over and saw that Matsuda and Motohama had moved further over to watch one of the other class’s girls while I was lost in thought.
“What are you up to?” he asked.
“Observing bouncing oppai,” I replied seriously.
“You really haven’t changed, have you?” He sighed with real disappointment.
He moved to sit down next to me, and I noticed the bandage around his arm.
“What’s with that?”
“Oh, this?”
He loosened it enough to show me.
There were black marks running along his arm as if a snake had wrapped around it.
And on another part of his arm there was a jewel that looked like the one from my Sacred Gear.
I frowned as I looked over his arm.
“What the hell happened?”
“It showed up after our Rating Game. I asked Azazel-sensei about it, and it was from when I connected my Sacred Gear to you and stole your blood. I guess that coming into contact with you that way while you were in your Balance Breaker had side effects. I was influenced by the power of the Sekiryuutei.”
That made me stare harder at the familiar jewel on his arm.
“...Seriously? Are you alright?”
“Azazel-sensei doesn’t seem to think so,” Saji replied. “It’s just... there.”
He was taking it better than I would have.
“…Maybe you got cursed,” I said.
Saji immediately looked concerned.
“Hey! Don’t put something like that on me! That was the first thing I thought when I saw the marks on my arm. Vitra’s legend isn’t the best, so I was pretty worried!”
I didn’t really know much about the Dragon in Saji’s Sacred Gear.
I should ask Ddraig about it sometime.
Then Saji changed the subject before I could freak him out further.
“So what event are you doing?”
“I got paired with Asia for the three-legged race.”
“Of course you’d get an even with a beauty like her, you lucky bastard,” he said with a huff. “I got stuck doing the bread-eating race!”
That sounded fun, but I still smirked at him.
I was pretty lucky to get paired with her.
I was pretty sure every guy in the school would be envious when they saw.
It was then that I noticed two people approaching us.
“Saji, what are you doing? We still need to check on the setup of each of the tents. Come with us.” Sona-Kaichou said.
“We do not have enough manpower on the student council. As a member of the student council, you can’t be slacking off. Please work.” Shinra-senpai said.
Neither of them looked too happy to see Saji sitting next to me instead of working.
Saji rushed to stand up.
“Y-Yes, Kaichou! Fukukaichou!”
He hurried off with them, waving back at me on the way.
As I watched him go, Ddraig’s voice echoed in my head.
[-Vritra, huh.]
Hm?
Are you going to explain more about him to me?
[No, not now at least. I’m just thinking aloud. It appears that coming into contact with me has started it. Even though his soul was cut into multiple pieces, a Dragon's soul is not something simple. Now that it has begun, things will be interesting to watch.]
…
Ddraig, I have no clue what that meant.
[Don't worry about it. I’ll explain more later.]
Alright, I guess. I don’t get why you don’t just explain things right away.
I heard Ddraig chuckle before he went silent again.
He could be like a rambling old man sometimes.
I sat watching other students practice for a minute or so before I heard Asia’s and Kiryuu’s voices.
“Asia, did your breasts get larger again during our summer break?” Kiryuu said.
“Kyaa!” Asia cried out. “K-Kiryuu-san! Please don’t grope me!”
I quickly turned and saw Kiryuu was sexually harassing Asia again.
She was hugging Asia from behind and squeezing one of her breasts.
I feel like if I take my eyes off of her for a moment, she starts harassing Asia or teaching her something lewd.
She was a bad influence, and if this continued, she would corrupt Asia into a lewd girl.
Akeno-san and Buchou were already bad influences and had caused Asia to be interested in those kinds of things already.
Thankfully, Kiryuu hadn’t been able to influence Xenovia or Yuki-san at all.
Xenovia’s interest in having a child was already present, but she was so blunt and direct about it that Kiryuu’s comments and suggestions didn’t change how Xenovia acted.
Except for the occasional strange action, like the condom in class during class observations.
And Yuki-san ignored Kiryuu’s lewd comments.
She was the least naive of the three, so I didn’t really have to worry about that.
But now that I thought about it, Irina was in our class too.
Hopefully she didn’t listen to Kiryuu, or she might be in danger of Falling.
I grabbed the rope for the three-legged race and headed over to Asia.
“Asia! Let’s practice!”
“Y-Yes!”
After saying goodbye to Kiryuu, Asia hurried toward me.
Her cheeks were still pink from Kiryuu harassing her.
As she did, Kiryuu called after her.
“Don’t have too much fun with Hyoudou, Asia. You’ll have to be careful around that pervert!”
“You’re the pervert! I saw you grabbing at Asia-chan! Now get out of here, Kiryuu!” I shouted at her.
She chuckled to herself while she waved and walked away.
I looked at Asia.
“Alright then, let’s start practicing.”
“Right!”
She nodded and put on a determined face despite her blush.
She moved next to me, and I tied the rope around our legs.
Some of the other pairs around us had already started their own practice.
The other guy-girl pairs from my class all seemed to be struggling.
They looked like they were nervous to be so close to one another.
Some of them looked pretty awkward.
Thankfully, Asia and I shouldn’t have that problem.
“Let’s start!” I said as I stood.
Asia and I took our positions.
She slipped an arm around my side, and I slid mine around hers.
I could feel her breasts pressing against my side immediately.
I had to remind myself that my party was the innocent and cute Asia-chan.
I pushed away any lewd thought and controlled myself.
I took a deep breath.
“Okay,” I said. “Let’s do it properly, Asia.”
“Y-Yes.”
We nodded at each other and took our first step.
“One, two...”
We said as we moved together.
We started out fine, but after we had taken five or six steps, our legs became tangled, and we lurched to the side.
Asia let out a surprised cry, and I let out a grunt as I struggled to regain our balance.
I reached my arms out to help Asia upright and managed to keep us from falling.
“It looks like our rhythm was off. But it wasn’t too bad for a first… try…” I trailed off as I looked at Asia’s face and saw she was bright red.
Then I realized my hand was full of something very soft.
It felt strangely familiar in my hand
I quickly realized what it was.
I had grabbed Asia’s breast.
And I was still holding it.
“Ah—! S-Sorry! That was an accident, I swear!”
I pulled my hand away and immediately apologized.
Even though I wanted to protect Asia, I had ended up groping her.
Asia’s face was bright red.
“I-It’s alright,” she said softly as she looked downwards. “But... please tell me beforehand if you’re going to touch them. I need time to prepare myself for it...”
I stared at her in silence for a moment.
She really had been influenced too much by Kiryuu.
Maybe I should try to separate the two of them.
And even if Asia’s words were very exciting to hear, I decided to focus on our practice to move past this.
“L-Let’s get back to our practice!”
“Y-Yes. I’m sorry... I’m not very good at this. I’ve never been very coordinated…” Asia said, looking downcast.
“Don’t worry,” I said quickly. “We will figure it out. This event is all about teamwork. If we don’t have our rhythm down, we won’t be able to compete.”
“What do you mean by rhythm?” She asked while tilting her head cutely.
“We need to take our steps together. So we can count out as we go to make sure we both move at the same time. Once we figure out how we each are moving, we can move faster,” I said with a smile. We can start by walking, and after we get the hang of it, we will make our way to running together.”
Asia nodded earnestly.
“Alright! We can do it!”
It was kind of similar to the other training I had done.
It was way less painful and scary, but it all came down to focus and repetition.
Focusing on our practice helped me forget about Asia’s lewd comment about me being allowed to grab her breasts.
We started again.
Step by step, we got more used to it.
Asia and I stumbled occasionally, but we were improving quickly.
It was pretty fun to practice for the festival with her.
She was so earnest and determined to do well.
It was adorable how serious she tried to look with her cute and innocent face.
We talked about a bunch of things while we practiced.
She told me about hanging out with Xenovia and Irina and how much she liked praying with them.
She had been helping Yuki-san teach Koneko-chan how to cook occasionally.
She went shopping with Yuuto-san, Akeno-san, and Buchou the other day.
She had played a new board game that Gasper had gotten with Xenovia, Gasper, and Yuki-san.
She sounded so excited to talk about the things she had been doing with our friends.
I told her about some of the things I’d been doing with Matsuda and Motohama, though I left out some of the more perverted details.
I had been playing video games with Gasper and trading manga with Koneko-chan.
I had been doing combat training with Yuuto-san and sometimes Xenovia and Yuki-san.
And my normal Devil job clients had been just as weird as normal.
Some of it was stuff we had talked about before, but it was fun just to talk to her.
By the time school ended, I was tired but content with how the day had gone.
Asia and I met up with Irina, Xenovia, and Yuki-san.
The five of us headed to the club room for our daily meeting.
The moment I stepped inside, I knew something was wrong.
Everyone else was already present and had serious looks on their faces.
I stopped just inside the door.
“Did something happen?”
“Our next opponent in the young Devil Rating Game has been determined,” Buchou answered.
I was excited to hear that we would be getting in g ready for the next match already.
There were six peerages in the competition, including us, and we had already faced the Sitri peerage.
So we would have four more matches before we were done.
But the mood in the room made it seem like something more was going on.
Buchou’s expression tightened slightly before she continued.
“Our next opponent will be Diodora Astaroth.”
I was shocked that we would be facing the creep who had been pestering Asia already.
Asia gasped beside me.
Yuki-san put a comforting hand on her shoulder.
Irina looked slightly confused as she probably didn’t know the full story.
I knew we’d have to face him eventually, but it was surprising to hear that it would be so soon.
I grinned as I realized that this was a good thing.
It might be difficult for Asia due to how that jerk has been troubling her, but I would get to beat the bastard up.
I grinned.
Buchou noticed and tilted her head slightly.
“Is there something you’ve thought of, Ise?”
“I just realized that we will be able to beat the crap out of the bastard who has been harassing Asia,” I replied.
Buchou smiled at me.
“That is something that I will fully support you on, Issei-san,” Yuki-san said from beside Asia.
Koneko-chan nodded.
“…Nobody gets to bother Asia-senpai.”
“Fufufu, I guess we will teach him a lesson,” Akeno-san chuckled darkly.
“I can’t help it, but I’ll cheer all of you on!” Irina said with a smile.
“Everyone…” Asia said quietly.
We would defeat Diodora Astaroth and finally get him to back off.
Now I was really looking forward to this Rating Game.