[Romani Oyama]
On the rooftop of the occult research club building, my gaze was immediately drawn to a whimsically arranged feast laid out over a white cloth spread across the floor.
The ponytail girl had genuinely gone a little overboard with the preparations.
There were perfectly shaped rice balls and sushi rolls lined up in neat rows, each stuffed with generous slices of fresh salmon in a vibrant orange hue. Small mounds of deep green wasabi added an extra charm to the spread, while shrimp and vegetable tempura rested on paper towels, still golden and crispy, releasing a mouthwatering aroma. To round off the little banquet, golden gyozas, glistening with fresh oil, rested on a separate plate, alongside a tall bottle of chilled lemon juice.
"Please, have a seat, Oyama-kun." Akeno's voice rang out like music as she raised her hand with practiced grace, gesturing to the space before her with an almost theatrical flourish.
Giving a polite nod, I settled onto the white cloth right after. Honestly, I had expected her to sit across from me, but to my surprise, Akeno-senpai simply slid over to my side without hesitation, close enough that our arms nearly brushed.
Not that I was complaining about having a pretty girl sitting so close, I simply reached out and carefully picked up a rice ball. "Why does Akeno-senpai want to eat with me?" The words slipped from my lips out of genuine curiosity before I brought the rice ball to my mouth and bit into it slowly. The flavors erupted instantly. It was like a love punch from Mike Tyson straight to the face. "Oh! Your cooking is absolutely delicious." My eyes went wide at the flavor coursing through my body. There was no comparison between what I could produce amateurishly in a kitchen and her absolute mastery. For some reason, strangely enough, that stirred something competitive in me.
If this were an anime, my clothes would have exploded to shreds right then and there, leaving me floating naked in some dreamlike realm.
Hmm...
Now one of my life goals is to provoke that level of existential collapse in another person before I die.
"Ara~! Ara~!" She lifted her hand gracefully, pressing her delicate fingers against her lips in a charming gesture. "I was simply overcome by an irresistible urge to learn more about my favorite kouhai. And when I noticed you had shown up with nothing to eat..." she tilted her head slightly, smile never faltering. "Well, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to kill two birds with one stone, or rather, I simply decided to combine business with pleasure. Nothing more natural than that, don't you think?"
Nodding silently to the lovely girl beside me, I reached for another rice ball with appreciation. The two of us chatted away cheerfully as we savored the meal, trading small comments about our day.
"By the way, Akeno-senpai, I have a somewhat embarrassing question to ask." I hesitated for a few seconds, holding her lovely violet eyes with mine.
"Hmm..." Akeno lifted her hand again, pressing it thoughtfully against her rosy lips. "My measurements are B40-W24-H35 inches."
Oh! Really? Forty inches of bust? That's rather surprising. My brain processed that piece of information unexpectedly fast, filing it away in the depths of my internal hard drive.
"Valuable information." I brought my hand up to scratch my cheek. "Actually, I'd like to know if you could teach me to manipulate my demonic power more efficiently. Although I've managed to get the hang of it on my own through trial and error, I imagine having someone competent guiding me would considerably speed up the process."
"You really do want to spend time with me, don't you?" With a smile lighting up her porcelain face, she lightly clapped her hands against her generous chest, making it sway in a hypnotizing way beneath her school uniform. "Of course I'll help my favorite kouhai, but if you don't mind answering, why do you suddenly want to learn to better control your demonic energy?"
A reasonable question. Inconveniently reasonable.
Huh... I genuinely wanted to keep my powers hidden and not reveal too much about my capabilities, but if I want to earn this group's trust and be truly accepted, I should at least reveal a little about myself. In this dynamic, I had come to realize that the only side actually putting in the effort to build bonds was Rias's group. I suppose I should make an effort too and return that goodwill. Going around at all times with extreme caution and keeping secrets was quite exhausting, not to mention that at some point in the near future, I was seriously considering asking Rias for some high-quality alchemy ingredients for my potions.
Maybe cracking the door open just a sliver wouldn't be the end of the world.
Probably...
And if, by chance, my trust turns out to be misplaced in this group, the fault will be entirely mine for having chosen to trust. In the worst-case scenario, it'll serve as an expensive and humiliating life lesson about evaluating character, demonic character in this case.
From the fragments of my memory, I've learned far more embarrassing things at far higher prices. So why not, right?
"I possess some unique abilities." I began carefully, choosing my words. "Although they don't strictly require the manipulation of demonic energy to be used, incorporating that control would make them significantly more refined and more powerful while considerably reducing demonic energy expenditure." The words left my lips honestly, even as I was still deliberately concealing some more sensitive details.
"I understand completely." Akeno tilted her head with genuine interest stamped across her delicate features. "I'd love to help you with whatever you need." She lifted her hand delicately, brushing her fingertips lightly against each other in an almost nervous gesture. "If it's comfortable for Oyama-kun, could you show me one of these special abilities? But if you'd rather not reveal anything just yet, that's perfectly fine. I'll help my cute kouhai either way, no conditions."
In silence, I held her lavender gaze for a few seconds, mentally weighing the pros and cons in my head. Well, there were more cons than pros in this decision, but it was like tossing a coin of trust into the air and hoping for the best outcome.
Without a single word of warning, I slowly extended my right hand. Instantly, I felt more demonic energy being consumed than there should have been, flowing through my internal channels only for small crystalline fragments of ice to gradually form over my open palm, shimmering with a cold violet light.
"Wow~! How beautiful!" With her violet eyes glowing intensely with genuine admiration and enchantment, she placed her hands over her cheeks, tilting her head to the side.
"Thank you for the compliment, Akeno-senpai." Casting a mildly satisfied smile in her direction, I closed my hand, dispersing the demonic ice fragments into countless delicate flakes that flew gracefully toward Akeno like artificial snow, landing softly on her outstretched palms, making her eyes shine even more joyfully.
"It really is quite..." Her words dissolved into the air, her serene gaze fixed as the ice melted slowly against her warmed skin. "...beautiful, Roman-kun."
Huh!? I blinked, not expecting her to call me by my first name. Not only that, she was using a nickname.
"So, Roman-kun possesses elemental ice magic." Her eyes held mine without breaking contact for a single second.
Still a little caught off guard by the nickname, I simply gave a lazy nod. Though technically it would be more accurate to classify it as demon-slaying magic with ice properties, for now, let's keep the simplified explanation in place.
"Hmm... that certainly is very interesting and has great potential." She raised her hand pensively, pressing her index finger against her lips. "I would love to start helping you right away, but unfortunately, I have some urgent matters to take care of first. Roman-kun, after classes are over, a little later in the afternoon, please come by the club building. Does that work for you?"
"No problem at all, Akeno-senpai." Now or later really didn't make much practical difference to me. I simply genuinely wanted to improve and refine the use of my demonic power; the timing was secondary.
"My~! My~! What a cute, polite, and understanding kouhai I'm lucky enough to know." Letting out a light, crystalline and melodious laugh, she gently wrapped both hands around a bottle of chilled lemon juice, bringing it slowly to her rosy lips.
It was then that the universe, apparently satisfied with my recent track record of morally acceptable decisions, or at least with my considerable progress from villain-in-training to functional demon, decided to gift me with something entirely unsolicited. The bottle slipped from Akeno-senpai's fingers with a cruel indifference, and the chilled lemon juice proceeded to explore every available centimeter of her white uniform blouse, soaking the fabric from top to bottom with an efficiency that frankly impressed me.
The silence lasted just long enough for the greenish liquid to spread through the fabric, pressing the white blouse against her skin like a translucent second skin. The shirt, now completely drenched and see-through, no longer hid anything. The fabric clung obscenely to her large and firm breasts, revealing every generous curve, every tempting contour of her twin Everests.
Thanks to this well-timed accident, I could see with striking clarity the perfect outline of the black bra beneath, tracing the firm and generous curves with an almost hypnotizing clarity. The intricate and ornate lace of the cups appeared in sharp detail, contrasting dramatically with the milky pallor of the now-fully-translucent shirt plastered against her skin. The deep valley between her breasts glistened wet, droplets rolling slowly down her pale, smooth skin, descending until they vanished into the clinging neckline.
For a good few seconds, my brain simply stopped functioning entirely, all higher cognitive processes collapsing as I stared without the slightest shame at the tempting sight beside me.
A true gentleman would have looked away immediately...
Unfortunately, the gentleman is a profession to which I have never submitted a resume, and at the moment, the position remained open with no prospects of being filled.
"Ara~! Ara~! This isn't good at all, what an embarrassing situation." Akeno blinked a few times, eyes mildly surprised, but curiously seeming not to really care very much about the liquid abundantly spread across her clothing. The soaked shirt clinging to her body seemed to bother her in roughly the same proportion that rain bothers a fish. "Excuse me for just a moment, Roman-kun."
Before I could process the situation or formulate any coherent question, Akeno simply moved her hand elegantly and began unbuttoning her shirt button by button, pulling it off her toned body, making my eyes widen considerably at the scene unfolding right beside me.
The executive branch of my brain was in total meltdown. Urgent memos were being sent to every department, but none were being read. The division of primal instincts had seized control of operations and clearly had no intention of returning command anytime soon.
While this internal war played out without an apparent winner, Akeno stood calmly right before me just a few centimeters away, wearing only her black lace bra on her upper half, revealing her full and voluminous breasts barely contained by the delicate piece of lingerie struggling to hold them properly in place. Her exposed skin looked so incredibly soft, smooth, and flawless that it exerted an almost magnetic pull impossible to ignore.
"Roman-kun, could you kindly help me with this?" Her voice came out gentle and far too innocent for the situation.
"Huh!?" Awarding myself a few points of victory for not having stuttered, my voice still came out raspier than usual. Visibly appreciating my confused reactions, Akeno let out an amused and musical little laugh.
"I need your help unclasping my bra, please." She explained as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "I'm completely soaked, I want to properly wash myself and change clothes before the break ends."
Firstly, you simply cannot just say you're completely soaked, Akeno-senpai. Do you happen to know the power that word carries? Secondly, that is a perfectly reasonable excuse, although I had my suspicions that this accident had occurred through higher forces, namely the black-haired girl herself right in front of me. But either way, I simply nodded my head and Akeno gracefully turned around, giving me the view of her bare back.
Her back was incredibly smooth, her skin flawless as porcelain, framed artistically by long strands of jet-black hair falling like a silken curtain. Rising from the floor, I reached out toward the delicate clasp of her bra, my heart beating a little faster than it should have. My fingers inevitably grazed the bare, warm skin of her exposed back and I clearly felt Akeno visibly shudder at my touch. Before I lost my composure and did something stupid, I quickly unclasped her bra and discreetly adjusted my trousers at the speed of light, trying to mask my physical reaction, as Akeno's bra came loose and fell into her hands.
"Thank you so much for the help, Roman-kun." Akeno slowly turned back to face me, now completely bare on her upper half. One graceful hand pensively caressed her own rosy cheek while the other strategically covered her heavy and full breasts, barely managing to keep them entirely from escaping between her slender fingers. I could clearly see a little of the rosy areola around the edges of her shielding hand. "I need to stop by the bathroom to deal with this lemonade situation. See you later, Roman-kun."
...my self-control was being tested beyond all known limits.
A rosy color rose across Akeno's cheeks in quite an endearing way, and she let out a soft, amused little laugh at my situation before walking calmly in the direction of the shower with her hips swaying hypnotically, while I simply lay back down on the hard floor.
I desperately need a distraction. She is about to take up permanent residence in my head, rent-free, with no intention of ever moving out.
Author's Note: Lemon juice is amazing. I highly recommend giving it a try. On a completely unrelated note, please be careful with blue balls. Some lessons in life are better learned from other people's suffering. They're dangerous.