DXD 0003: Teasing Akeno

“Really?! Thank you so much!” She jumped up with an ecstatic expression and hugged him tightly, burying her face in his neck. He naturally wrapped his arms around her waist with a light smile.

“You’ve grown so much…” He commented as he felt her up as she was pressed against his body. Her curves were developed in all the right places. “Stop teasing me…” She playfully commented and pulled away from the hug.

“When do we start?” She asked impatiently. “Let’s start next week. I need some time to settle down and get used to this place.” He said.

“Would it be fine?” She asked with a concerned expression on her face.

“Of course. Who do you think taught Sairaorg? Now he’s the second-best youth devil, just after me. It’s not a coincidence.” He said pridefully.

“Fine fine, stop boasting about your brother, you bro-con,” Rias said and brought him into the Occult Research clubroom.

“Nice place.” He commented as he looked around the cozy room.

“Thanks. Take a seat, I’ll serve you some tea.” She said.

“By the way, Rias. I need to hug someone to sleep. Otherwise, I’ll just roam around like a zombie at night, unable to rest. Is Akeno open for cuddling to sleep?” He asked something that made his cousin slip and she dropped the cup of tea that she was preparing.

“W-what?” She asked and turned to look at him, ignoring the tea that had splashed on her uniform.

“I need a living body pillow to go to sleep peacefully.” He restated.

“I guess I could ask Akeno. But this is inappropriate…” She said as she cast a magic circle to fix her clothes.

“We’re devils, Rias. Even patricide is normal for us. This is nothing.” He said. “I’ll ask her, but I’m not going to force her. I hope you understand.” She said defensively. “Dude, what’s with all the defensiveness? You can just say no. I don’t like dealing with all these troublesome things. Just talk to me directly with this stuff.” He said, shrugging.

“Yeah, sorry…” She sat beside him and served the tea for him, “You just sprung it up on me and I was a little surprised,” She said. “It’s fine.” He said before taking a sip, “Pretty good…” He admired Rias’ tea-making.

“If Akeno does end up refusing, you can join me as my body pillow for the night instead. After all, you were the one who said that you would agree to anything if I helped out.” He said with a joking tone.

“Come on Abaddon, don’t tease me…” She playfully slapped his arm with a blush on her face that was awfully close to her shiny crimson hair. “Also, I don’t think we can use Abaddon as a name for you in the school. You’re literally the devil incarnate.” She said changing the topic.

“It’s fine, you can come up with whatever you think is normal.” He said, shrugging his shoulders. “I don’t particularly care about this stuff.”

As they were talking, there was a knock on the door, “Come in,” Rias said. With her permission, Akeno walked into the room, “Abaddon-san’s room has been prepared.” She said as she stood at the side of the couch.

“Hmm…” He was deep in thought as he looked at Rias and Akeno, “Akeno, how good is your control over lightning?” He asked, standing up from the couch. Rias, who was just about to say something, stopped.

“What do you mean, Abaddon-san?” She asked confusedly as she looked over to Rias who nodded in agreement. This subtle exchange wasn’t missed by Abaddon as he was again impressed by the level of loyalty that Rias commands from her Peerage.

“Doesn’t matter, can you blast a controlled bolt of lightning at me? Full power.” He asked her, taking off his overcoat and standing in front of Akeno. “Eh? Are you sure?” She again looked over to Rias with a surprised expression. Rias understood that he was testing Akeno for some reason and nodded again, signaling Akeno.

“Yeah, don’t worry.” He said, waiting for her attack. “If you say so. Fufu… prepare yourself.” She had a coquettish smile on her face as she charged up her lightning and pointed her arm at him. Within half a second, a thick bolt of lightning left her slender fingers, approaching Abaddon in an instant.

“Interesting…” He muttered as he let the lightning hit him. Though instead of throwing him backward, or even damaging his clothes, it just disappeared as it reached him.

“The Armor of Destruction…” Rias mumbled enviously. It was one of his signature skills and no attack had ever broken through his armor yet. At least within public rating games.

He smirked, “You did good, Akeno. You’ll be a good training partner for Rias when we start training the next week. She might just be able to form the rudimentary Armor of Destruction by the time the deadline’s up.“ He said.

“Really? You’ll teach me your signature skill?” Rias asked excitedly with a bright smile on her face. “Sure. I can’t let my cousin be sold off to that flaming chicken, that’s for damn sure…” He shrugged. “Also, Akeno…” He looked into her eyes with an intense look as he noticed her labored breathing. That attack was one of her strongest and had taken a lot of energy out of her, but seeing that it hadn’t even ruffled his clothes, she was a little disheartened.

“You have a lot of potential. It was a strong attack, but I’m just too strong for you. It’s practically impossible for you to catch up to me, no matter what.” He said calmly with a light smile on his face. Akeno looked at him with an expression that said that she wanted to fight him.

He chuckled as he saw her expression and walked up to her before putting his hand on her head and caressing her head lightly, deflating all her angry momentum.

“You’re suppressing yourself consciously, practically hindering your own potential. I guess you have some trauma… We’ll tackle that when we get to it though. For now, let’s go to my room,” His eyes had a suggestive expression as he looked into her violet eyes.

Akeno’s eyes widened as she looked toward Rias with a panicked expression, “Buchou?” She asked.

“It’s fine Akeno. You don’t need to ask your king. That was the deal we struck. I would train her to take care of her chicken problem, and she would let you serve me so that my stay here is fun.” He said with a smirk.

Akeno was surprised as she looked into his devilish purple eyes and that unbelievably handsome face and felt her face heating up and looked down. She had a look of determination in her eyes as she looked back into his eyes. “I-I see, Abaddon-san. P-please take care of me from now on then…” She smiled in a flirty way.

“You’re such a loyal girl, Akeno…” He gently held her chin between his thumb and forefinger and brought her face close to his. Akeno could feel his breath on her face and felt herself taking shorter breaths. Her lower lip was slightly trembling as she looked deep into his eyes which seemed to be sucking her soul.

Just as she felt her lips brush against his, Rias interrupted them, “Hey! Stop bullying my Queen….” Rias came in between them and pushed him away from Akeno, standing in front of her protectively. “You can leave, Akeno. I’ll talk to you later. Don’t think much of this troublesome cousin of mine. He’s just messing with you.” She said hurriedly as she dismissed Akeno.

He could almost see the girl in question heave a sigh of relief as she left with a, “As you say, Buchou.”

“Come on, she’s such an amazing girl. You should let me have fun with her for a while.” He smirked at his cousin who looked at him with an annoyed expression.

“And I let you have your fun when you said that I’d sold her off to you and I didn’t immediately disagree. But don’t be so unrestrained all the time.” She sighed.

“I’m a devil, Sis. Unrestrained is literally the biggest character trait for us.” He said.

“Yeah, yeah, follow me. I’ll show you your room.” She said, walking out of the clubroom.

“So why a school?” He asked her. “What do you mean?” She didn’t understand.

“Like, why did you choose to use a school as your territory? You could’ve taken over some government area, or some market area. Why a school?” He asked.

“A high school has the best people that can be turned into devils at the optimal age. If the human is too old, their potential is practically exhausted and their mindset is too rigid, too young and they don’t understand what needs to be done. High school students are the most efficient when looking for a Peerage. That’s why Sona’s Peerage is almost complete even though she hasn’t even started participating in Rating Games yet.” Rias said.

“Huh, I see…” He nodded in understanding. “Also, more importantly, this school seems to house some sort of leyline under it that empowers the school and its inhabitants,” Rias continued, “We’ve set up a discrete magic circle that concentrates the natural emission of that leyline to both of our clubrooms so that we can benefit the most from it.”

“That’s new…” He muttered. “Not really. The previous manager of this territory also stayed here. Though this used to be an all-girls-school back then.” She said.

“Cool…” He said dryly, not delving deep into the previous manager of this territory. He didn’t want to cause unnecessary problems by investigating her death for no reason. Especially when he already knew what had actually happened.

“Here you go.” Rias pointed to his room, “This one’s mine. If you need something you can just ask.” She said as she was about to turn away. “Don’t forget my body pillow for the night. Either you or Akeno would be fine.” He said, “Anyone else and things might not be that peaceful anymore.” He threatened. He didn’t want her sending Kiba, even as a joke.

“Come on, I was going to send Kiba…” She turned around and looked at him with a pouty smile. “Send him and I’ll wipe him off of the face of the Earth. You’ll be left with another free knight spot.” He said with a serious tone.

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll take care of it.” She scoffed and left, her ears shaded with a tinge of red, she was clearly embarrassed by his request and was joking to keep things lighthearted.