Enjoy reading, rejoice and...
See you all on next time
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(...Continuing)
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Not wanting the awkward silence between them to last any longer, Micael asked her. "Are you okay?"
Asia shook her head lightly with a faint smile and a blush on her face. "I'm fine, don't worry."
Micael just nodded silently. 'Would it be that every time something like this happened I would have to explain it to Rias?' He seriously wondered if he would really have to do that
'Hey, Rias, there was an accident and I ended up pressing myself against a girl's private parts, but it was an accident, okay?... How the hell do I explain this, sigh.' He could feel a future headache coming from this.
Finally stopping rubbing his eyes and looking around in a daze, Issei muttered under his breath. "Shit, what the hell was that?"
Blinking a few times, he turned his focus back to Asia and Micael, seeing the two still and quiet. "What happened?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Nothing." Micael answers him calmly.
Asia just waved her head without saying anything, her face still flushed, her bangs swaying gently with the act.
Looking a little suspicious for a moment at Asia's blush, Issei then just shrugged, deciding to believe that nothing much happened.
To prevent the awkward silence from continuing any longer, Asia bends down and picks up her suitcase from the floor quickly, and as she straightens up, she says to the two. "Lead the way, please."
Following her words, Micael and Issei began walking with the girl following right between them as they walked, however, the atmosphere remained awkward for Asia.
Micael preferred silence so as not to make Asia more uncomfortable, Asia herself was still too embarrassed to say anything as she just walked, and Issei was internally mulling over how to start a conversation with Asia, quickly glancing at her sideways.
After a long moment he ends up rubbing his head lightly, finally asking her, "So you came from Italy, huh?"
"Yes." Asia replied with a soft half smile and a nod.
The silence then resumed as Issei cursed himself internally for asking such a stupid question. Asia was still smiling as she tried futilely to get rid of the blush on her face, but obviously failed, the previous incident replaying in her head
Debating internally trying to think of something to say, Issei finally thinks of something, but a child's cry interrupts him before he can speak.
As the three look in the crying direction, they come across a child sitting on the sidewalk holding his scraped knee.
Without saying anything, Asia immediately approaches the child with quick steps, leaving the suitcase on the floor and crouching down when she reaches it, smiling reassuringly at him.
Meanwhile, Micael and Issei approach from behind and they watch her raise her hands over the child's knee, a green glow emanating from her palms.
The sight of this made Issei's eyes widen a bit. 'A Sacred Gear.' He was obviously surprised by the unexpected sight.
Micael beside him just thinks that she actually did it in public, not caring at all. 'Innocence or lack of survival instinct? Maybe both?'
Covered by the green glow, the wound on the boy's knee healed at a visible speed and soon the injury disappeared completely.
As the child looked astonished, Asia stood up and patted the child's head. "It's much better now, isn't it? You don't have to cry anymore." She said with a smile to him.
The child just stared at her in astonishment, his mouth wide open as he looked at Asia.
The child's mother, who had already come from afar, quickly approached and gave a simple bow without saying anything before quickly picking up the child and leaving at the same speed.
However, the child in her arms waved her hand in farewell. "Thank you, onee-chan~."
As she waved goodbye to the child as well, Asia heard Michael speak from the side. "He thanked you." Looking at him, she smiled happily. "I'm glad to hear that."
Issei could only purse his lips as he missed the opportunity to say that to Asia.
"What was that?" Taking advantage of the opportunity, Micael asks, continuing the role of the uninformed person.
"It was a gift from God." Asia replied still with her happy smile, her gaze looking reminiscent, although there also seemed to be a slight sadness.
"Hmm." Micael just hummed in response, not continuing the topic or commenting on her sad look.
Issei at the side looked a little awkward, realizing Micael's previous words, his momentary thought of saying that he also had a "gift from God" disappeared, deciding to play ignorant as well because of the somewhat sad look she had.
Recovering her expression and smile, Asia picks up her suitcase from the floor. "Sorry for the break, I needed to do this."
"It's okay."
"Don't worry."
Micael replied with a slight shake of his head while Issei smiled and gave a thumbs up.
Asia bows slightly in thanks, and the three then make their way back to the church.
After long minutes of going further than Micael initially expected, the three finally see the church, the ancient-looking building looming in the distance.
As he approaches, Micael begins to look suspiciously at the church, he feels a strange sensation, a déjà vu, immediately wondering why this is happening, his mind thinks of the possibilities as the three approach the place.
When the three arrived in front of the church, Asia turned to them, bowing one last time. "Thank you so much for accompanying me here."
"You're welcome."
"Haha~ It's okay." Issei replies, rubbing the back of his neck.
Smiling in gratitude, Asia then turns towards the huge doors of the place.
As the two watched her until she entered, Micael turned around and headed back the way he had come. "Let's go." He said calling out to Issei.
Looking a little suspiciously at the church due to the uncomfortable feeling he had as he got closer and closer, Issei doesn't say anything and just does what Micael said.
As the two walk in deafening silence, Issei finally realizes that he is alone with Michael as they walk towards his house. 'Why the hell is he walking with me? Does he want to tell me something?'
"You must be wondering why I'm walking with you, right?" Micael speaks at that moment as if he was reading his mind.
Issei looked at him suspiciously. "Yes." He said slowly.
"I noticed your interest in Asia." Micael says, keeping pace with his steps.
"So?" Issei asks back with his gaze becoming even more suspicious.
"It's just that I'm interested in her too." Micael finally answers, his gaze fixed ahead as he continues walking.
Micael's words made him freeze immediately, stopping in his tracks and causing Micael himself to stop a few steps ahead to look at him.
Issei, completely shocked exclaims almost shouting. "What the hell do you mean by that!? You already have a girlfriend!" He says noisily pointing at Micael.
Micael answers him calmly. "It's simple, I want a harem too."
Her words made Issei look even more shocked than he already was. "What!?" He exclaimed, this time actually shouting.
Looking at him in silence, Micael didn't continue speaking, this time he didn't think he needed to "mark territory" with Asia because he believed that Issei would understand the message even if he didn't say it.
At first he didn't intend to do that, he intended to leave things fair so that the best one could win her over, but after seeing the girl and interacting with her in that brief moment he changed his mind.
His greed spoke louder and he decided not to play fair anymore, he didn't care if it would bring Issei closer to starting a villain arc, although the possibility that she still wasn't interested in him and wanted to be with Issei still existed.
Recovering from the shock, Issei looked at Micael for a moment as his face contorted, he seemed to be going through an internal dilemma as his face followed the turmoil of his thoughts.
After a long moment that felt like an eternity Issei finally spoke. "Alright." He said with a resigned sigh and scratching the back of his neck.
"It's okay?" Michael asked raising his eyebrow, he didn't expect Issei to give up so easily.
"Although she is my type, it's not worth getting into conflict with you over it, after all I have the potential to eventually have my own harem." Issei said with a slight smile.
Micael looked at Issei in surprise at those words, he didn't expect to hear that character development so soon.
After a moment of silence Micael continued. "With you talking like that I even feel bad for doing it."
"If you feel bad for me, then why don't you let me get closer to Akeno or Koneko." Issei said smiling hopefully.
"No." Came Micael's simple reply. "It's not like you have the courage to go up to them either, or do you?"
Issei just gave an embarrassed smile in response.
"Try to look on the bright side. At least I'm honest and I'm telling you straight out my intentions," Micael ends up saying.
Issei responds with a strange smile. "Well, if you don't have anything else to say to me, I guess I'll be going now." Passing by Micael, he says goodbye. "Bye." Waving his hand slightly.
Looking at his lonely back, Micael actually felt sorry for him, thinking that he really should help him get a girlfriend at some point, so shifting his focus to the church, he frowned slightly, feeling the strangeness of this place.
Blieving he was forgetting something he decided to let a Shadow Clone follow Asia for the rest of the week even if it cost him his training.
Turning around he then walked away this time towards his own house.
...
[Tuesday, Kuoh Academy, Lunch Break]
Inside a third-year classroom, few students were present while they ate and interacted with each other
It was break time and among those few students in the classroom were Rias and Akeno
Sitting in a corner facing each other, sharing a table, the two talked calmly
"Yeah, I didn't expect Issei to end up approaching a church just like that, I should've warned him to be more careful beforehand." Rias said as she sat down placing her bento on the table
"Well, there was no way you could've known something like that would happen, at least now he knows, right?" As she sat down herself, Akeno also placed her bento on the table
"Yeah, it was just a small mistake."
Akeno then continued with a smile. "At least he's getting some good feedback, even though he hasn't made a single contract yet hahaha"
With a slightly awkward smile, Rias could only nod. "Yeah, he seems to be strangely accepted by his contractors."
"Yeah, at least there's that, anyway..." Akeno said as her eyes focused on the bento box "I noticed that's not the bento you usually bring, what happened?"
Rias smiled sweetly as she looked at the box. "It's from Micael, he cooked it for me." Her look at that moment couldn't have been more in love.
"Oh." Akeno just looked silently at the box, her gaze not revealing anything she was thinking
"What, jealous you don't have a boyfriend who cooks for you~?" Rias asked as she noticed Akeno's silent stare, her eyebrow raising with a slightly mischievous smile as she tilted her head.
Meeting Rias's gaze, Akeno rolled her eyes as she leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms. "Yeah, yeah, why don't you wipe that ugly smile off your face and open the box, I wanna see what he made."
Rias just chuckled lightly as her hands moved to lift the lid, she was also pretty curious to see what he had made.
With her hands on the lid, she slowly lifted it and the result came in the form of an extremely appetizing aroma.
An aroma that quickly spread through the rest of the classroom, drawing the attention of the few girls present, something Akeno and Rias didn't notice.
As she and Akeno paused for a moment upon smelling it, Rias quickly removed the lid, the sight inside the bento coming into view and as a result they both slightly choked in surprise.
That was because the food had a faint white glow, almost as if it had been blessed by some god or something, the steam from the hot food rising into the air.
"This..." Murmuring in awe, Rias looked at the rice, beans, and omelette placed inside, it was an extremely simple meal and not luxurious at all, but just from the smell and that literal halo of light anyone could say it wasn't normal food.
"He must have used his power to cook this..." Akeno murmured equally impressed, that being the most logical conclusion she could come to.
"Gulp." Swallowing hard, Rias picked up her chopsticks and slowly brought them to the omelette, cutting a piece and bringing it slowly to her mouth, and the moment she took the first bite, her eyes widened.
"What is it?" Akeno asked more anxiously than she wanted to sound.
Rias didn't reply, instead, a blush began to form on her face as she put her hand to her mouth and chewed quickly. "This...is...amazing!" She said between chews eating the rest of the piece.
Blinking at Rias's reaction, Akeno looked at the food and without asking permission took a piece of the omelette too, bringing it to her mouth and eating it, her reaction was the same, her eyes widened, a blush appeared on her face before she quickly chewed and ate the rest of the piece.
Without continuing their conversation, Rias and Akeno began devouring the food as if they were starving.
Their chopsticks moved quickly grabbing food and bringing it to their mouths, their jaws moving at a speed never before seen as they chewed the food
Rias in the middle of her food-devouring trance, ended up becoming aware of Akeno also eating and quickly grabbed the bento box, turning it away and hiding it from her
Their classmates just watched in stunned silence.
"No!" Akeno exclaimed as she stood up from her chair and stretched toward Rias, grabbing her shoulder with one hand while the other tried to grab food. "Don't be selfish Rias! Give me some!"
Rias ignored her while eating rapidly.
In the end, Akeno only managed to get a bit of rice before Rias ate everything else.
With Akeno sitting back down and Rias putting the bento box back on the table, they both let out satisfied sighs before looking at the box in silence
They completely ignored the stunned stares of the girls who had watched their desperate behavior just moments ago.
"To think Micael can make food this good...that's really dangerous." Rias said adopting a serious look.
Akeno nodded with a similar expression. "Yeah, you should warn him not to use this freely, he could easily get people addicted to it."
"Right, and you shouldn't tell anyone else about this, it should be a secret just between the two of us."
Narrowing her eyes, Akeno quickly understood Rias's reasoning with a slight smile. "Sure, as long as you share it with me every time he cooks for you, otherwise Koneko, Kiba and Issei will find out."
Rias narrowed her eyes upon hearing Akeno's condition, staring at her silently for a tense moment, then clicked her tongue before responding. "Tsk, fine, deal." She extended her hand at the end.
Akeno took her hand while smiling elegantly. "Fufufu~ don't worry Rias, this secret is very well kept."
Right at that moment, a deal was made, a deal to monopolize Micael's food, but they had forgotten one thing, just because they wouldn't tell anyone didn't mean Micael wouldn't.
Specifically, he'd tell Mari, after all that girl had seen him cooking for Rias, but not only that, there was something else too.
What those two didn't know was that Micael hadn't cooked that using the full extent of his abilities, after all he didn't want Rias's clothes exploding while she moaned, that scene belonged only to him, so he suppressed his real capability and made something lesser
Even though it was still something way above normal considering their reaction, well, that was something they'd discover later.
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(Continue...)