It was well past midnight when Sirzechs finally got home, well, to his office, but as of late, that place was more home than his actual one.
The little chat he had with Takumi was enlightening, to say the least.
"How did it go?" Grayfia asked.
"It went well enough. We had tea, and she answered some of my questions." He said with a hum.
"And?"
"For starters, she is a Dragon God, as for whether she is on par with Great Red and Ophis, I don't know, but she is one, that I know for certain." He said with a strained smile. Something Grayfia immediately picked up on.
"Zechs? What did you do?"
"*sigh* When she told me, I couldn't simply take her at face value. She keeps a tight lid on her power, so tight in fact that I felt nothing from her. I— I might have asked her for proof?" He said and sheepishly rubbed the back of his head.
"She teleported me to the Dimensional Gap and unleashed it all. It— It was terrifying. What we felt when Red came here was nothing. We are like ants compared to them."
"Surely you exaggerate. I know how powerful you really are, Zechs."
"That's the thing. I am quite confident that I could take out Shiva or Indra. It would cost me my life, but I could do it. The distance between those two and her? It's enormous. Maybe, and that is a big maybe, if the whole world came together as one, we could take her out. That's how big the gap is."
"And you're going to allow somebody like this to be around Rias?" She asked with some heat. She really did love Rias.
"I don't really have a choice, and I would have pulled Rias out of there immediately if I didn't know Takumi's reason for being in the human world in the first place."
"That woman is looking for love, or a mate, or whatever Dragon Gods call it." He finished with a giant conspiratorial grin. As soon as Grayfia saw that grin, the gears in her mind started spinning. And they spun until her mind landed on one thing, a thing she didn't like at all.
"You're hoping that Rias catches her fancy? Are you insane? Have you thought this through at all?"
"I have. Hell, they could just become friends, even that should be enough. I'm in a corner, Grayfia. Any move I make against the Phenex Clan would inevitably lead to a civil war. The Old Satan faction would jump at a slight like that in a heartbeat. But a pissed off Dragon God interfering? That's another story entirely." Once he explained his reasoning, he slumped back into his chair with a small smile.
"What about your father?"
"He made his bed."
"Zechs… *sigh*" Grayfia shook her head sadly.
"Don't Zechs me, Grayfia. You of all people should know how hard I tried to get through to him. I don't know if he simply does not care, or if all he sees is the potential power his bloodline might gain. I'm done with him."
"But a thing like this?"
"A thing like this might just be something we need."
"I hope you're right."
"Me too."
—
I was having my first gym class today, and was kinda looking forward to torme– I mean, to teaching students.
I've already been at the school for the last two days, you know, preparing and all that. Thank god I only had to teach P.E, because the amount of work those other teachers had to do would cause me to quit instantly.
Speaking of teachers. The majority didn't like me, and if the scathing looks at my tattoos were anything to go by, it wasn't hard to realize why. Oh, they were polite in my face, but as soon as I left the room, they immediately started to badmouth me.
But I digress. My class was about to start, and I was already waiting for the students in the gym when I heard the most interesting thing. It made my blood boil, and I was very close to murdering a child on my first day.
"Hey, Issei, look at that new teacher! She's a total babe, too bad she has absolutely no tits." Was whispered by a boy with glasses to his friend.
"Deep breaths, Takumi, deep breaths…" I chanted like a mantra and looked at the other boy. He didn't know it yet, but his life depended on his response.
"Big or small, it doesn't matter. Oppai are oppai, heheh~" And so the wielder of Ddraig gets to live another day, and I don't have to bother with hiding a body.
"Good mornin', class! Name's Takumi Akabane, I'm your new P.E teacher." I stood in front of them once they all trickled into the gym. What an interesting bunch. There was Ddraig and Vritra, along with five little devils. Oh, and a magician? I think.
"Now then, since it was the holidays, and you were all surely lazing around, give me ten laps around the gym. NOW!" My shout startled the poor kids, and they scrambled to follow my instructions.
"Hehe~ Run~ Run, my little minions~" I whispered in glee and joined them. I wanted to see the struggle up close. Unsurprisingly, the little devils had no trouble whatsoever with this simple exercise. The two dragon boys were good as well, same with the Kendo girls. Matsuda, Motohama, and Aika Kiryuu were out of breath by the fifth lap and started to lag behind.
"Now, now. That won't do. How about an incentive, hmm? Every time I run past you, you have to do an additional lap. Chop-chop." I looked directly at the kid who said I had no tits, gave him my most evil smile, and picked up just enough speed to pass him at least twice if he didn't pick up the pace.
"W–What?!"
"Haha~ You heard me." I laughed and ran past the four devil girls who looked like they were on a stroll.
"She's evil. Pure evil." He whined.
"Shut up, and run, Motohama." Aika ground out between gasps for air.
In the end, I ran past him three times and made him run alone while the whole class watched him struggle. Payback is a bitch, and so am I.
"I-I think I'm going to pass out." I completely ignored his whining. He was out of breath, sure, but nowhere near enough to actually pass out.
"Now that the warm-up is done, we're going to do some simple stretches to get the blood flowing~! After that, I think we should have just enough time for a game of tag." I made them go through the same set of stretches Red made me do. They were perfectly doable by a standard human. At least I think they should be.
I walked among the stretching students and slowly made my way to the struggling Motohama. I gently placed my hand on his shoulder, leaned in, and pushed a bit, making him gasp in pain.
"Motohama-kun. If you comment on my body ever again, I'll break your spine, kay~?" I whispered in his ear while he was struggling, and pushed a bit more, but just enough for him to feel it tomorrow.
"Ugh… Y—Yes!" His knees buckled, and he finally fell to the ground. But I did get a response, so it's okay.
"Good." After nodding and turning around, all the devil kids were looking at me strangely. Ah, right, they have better hearing. Oops.
"Hmm? Do you also need help with the stretches, girls, Kiba?"
"NO! No, we're good." The girls replied with great panic.
"Alright." I shrugged, and they breathed a sigh of relief.
"Um, Sensei? Do we have to play tag with the boys?" One of the devil girls, I think this one is Tomoe, asked me.
"Right, the Perverted trio." I was warned by some of the female teachers about those boys.
"Yes…"She trailed off, but I got the meaning.
I ended up splitting them up. Boys on one side, girls on the other. We had just enough time for one game before the bell rang. Obviously, Kiba won on the boys' side, and Tsubasa won on the girls' side.
You know what? I might actually enjoy this whole teaching business. It was kinda fun.
—
The members of the Occult Research club met after school, just like they did every day. All of them, save for Koneko, were already there. She was running a bit late, but she had a gym class with that new teacher, something they all wanted to talk about.
Five minutes later, they heard the unmistakable sound of the door leading to their clubroom opening, and Koneko finally came in.
"Sorry I'm late, got picked up for clean-up duty." The catgirl said in her usual monotone voice, sat on her usual spot on the couch, and pulled a candy bar from who knows where.
"Hm? What did she make your class do? We just played tag." Kiba asked from the side.
"Dodgeball… It was fun."
"Explains the clean-up." He nodded in understanding.
"*ehm* Anything stood out about this mysterious teacher?" Rias coughed to get their attention. She was naturally curious about her. Not only was she not informed about the need for a new teacher, but thanks to Sona, she learned that it was her brother who personally hired the tattooed woman, and wasn't that strange? Even though the school was technically his, he rarely involved himself in the actual running of it.
So it stood out when he went out of his way and hired somebody.
"She is not human, but as for what she is, I have no idea. And the stretches she made my class do were specifically designed for fighters. Souji-san made me do something very similar when he trained me, plus the placement of her scars suggests her involvement, and winning of many deadly fights." Kiba said, recalling everything of importance.
"Placement?" Rias asked.
"Yes. It's hard to see from a distance, but her hands, forearms, and to some extent even her legs, all bear a surprising amount of what I assume are knife wounds. Most of them are old, with some even being tattooed over."
"Don't forget about the big one on her neck." Koneko added once Kiba looked like he finished speaking.
"I was getting to it, Koneko. But yes, she has a big scar right over her carotid artery. That's actually what led me to the conclusion that she is not human. They can't survive a wound like that."
"Hmm~ Anything else?"
"I noticed her eyeing Issei Hyoudou and Genshirou Saji from time to time. Oh, and Motohama managed to make her rather angry with him."
"Issei, I understand, even we are keeping an eye on him, but Saji as well? Might have to mention that to Sona. *sigh* And Motohama? Then it must have been something perverted."
"I assume so. It's Motohama we're talking about."
"Yes, thanks. Koneko? Anything you want to add?"
"Not much, Kiba senpai already said most of it. The only thing I can add is that she doesn't smell like anything we've ever encountered." She added.
"Well, that does not exactly narrow it down, but at least we can exclude the usual suspects for now. Akeno, have one of your familiars follow her. We should figure it out by ourselves, as I'd rather not bother my brother with this."
"Ara~? Thinking about adding her to your peerage?" Akeno asked.
"Not right now. Issei is still the number one priority, but I might have to invite our new teacher for a little chat tomorrow. She has some answers to give me."
"If you think that's wise."
"Akeno, my brother would not have hired her if she posed even the tiniest of threats to me. We'll be fine."