[Ladies and Gentlemen~! I welcome you to the Leviathan Stadium for our very much anticipated match for the day!]
"Ummm... What's this?" Riveria asked while watching multiple floating screens depicting an arena.
"Kisuke hasn't told you about the Rating Games?" asked Sakura, who was sitting beside her.
Riveria shook her head and replied, "He mentioned it in passing, but didn't actually elaborate on it. If I were to guess, was this the thing they were planning yesterday?"
"Yes." Sakura nodded her head and went on to explain what a Rating Game actually is, "...and that's the gist of it. Your world actually has something equivalent to these in your War Games."
"...I don't think you can really equate these to a War Game. Just the fact that you create an artificial world as a temporary stage was already putting them on a different scale." Riveria softly replied with twitching lips.
"It would have been nice to go to the stadium ourselves." Cleria, who's in the same room, spoke up apologetically, "Sadly, we're not yet done establishing your identity. We'd like you to have appropriate papers as some sort of defense and camouflage when finally you go out there, you see."
Riveria immediately shook her head, "No. Please don't apologize. I understand the position I'm in and I'm grateful for everything you're doing."
"Aw~ Aren't you a good child~? I'm liking you more and more now~!" Sakura teasingly held her hand.
'I'm already 100 years old!' Riveria wanted to retort, but then she remembered that she's actually the youngest out of the three of them, "P-please don't tease me..."
On the screen, the announcer introduced the two teams that had come up on the stage and the game mode was decided to be a standard Rating Game. After returning home yesterday, Kisuke and Sakura had given her an overview on the structure of this world. Since that wasn't enough, Sakura had also passed her a few books that were aimed at normal people being reincarnated as a Devil or an Angel that were recently written because of their rapid surge in numbers. But even after a whole night of reading the 'easy' books, Riveria still couldn't fully wrap her head around everything.
Naturally, what caught her attention the most was the 'Reincarnation'. Her curious mind wondered if she could also undergo it, but immediately tossed the idea away because she felt like it was the same as discarding her Royal Elf bloodline. Still, she was able to fully understand one thing, 'No wonder they could easily accept the Xenos. For them, a different form is no different from an Elf to a Human.'
"I don't think Kisuke will be able to do his usual antics this time.", Cleria muttered while watching them being transported to a fake Kuoh Town.
Sakura smiled and replied, "After the last match, no one will let Kisuke take the initiative ever again, and this time, the match is against a few of the frontrunners of the golden generation. They might have been very weak when Kisuke first encountered them, but even he didn't expect them to improve so much that they could practically take on a team of Gods."
Riveria's body shook at the last bit of Sakura's words and the latter was able to notice it, "Riveria-san, watch carefully, as this is going to be a fight amongst the strongest people in this world. And that crimson-haired lady over there, the leader of the opposing team, is Sona-chan's peer."
Riveria recalled the bespectacled young lady who came to Orario and who was a lot weaker than her back then. Even though she didn't have any idea how strong she is right now along with her group, she guessed that they'd probably improved immensely under Kisuke and Yoruichi, "You mean she's as strong as Sona?"
Sakura shook her head and answered, "In pure destructiveness and power, Rias is way stronger, but in a straight-up fight, Sona could probably win."
With that, Riveria had set a certain amount of expectations but immediately discarded it, 'I don't know anything up to date, so that comparison is useless for me. Let's watch this for now.'
.
.
.
"Kisuke, is it really fine for us if we were to reveal our identities?" Athena asked.
"Actually, this is a good chance for you to do that. With your appearance, the Alliance of Hell will be disrupted and Apollo would have to make sure that he doesn't have any enemies left within Olympus if they wanted to continue their plan. That will buy the DxD some valuable time to collect more information and manpower to oppose them. I can only do what I want if I'm sure that they'll be able to do their job."
A big smile then lit up on Athena's face, "Then please let me take on Vasco Strada. As a swordswoman myself, I want to test my skills against him, who has reached the limit of Humanity."
"In that case, I'll take care of Rias Gremory." Tiamat added, "If she's facing me, she'll probably fuse with Balor's successor."
Genshirou raised his hand and said, "I'm a bad match for Lint Sellzen so leave Yuuto Kiba to me."
"Since we're doing this, I'd like to have a match with Tsubaki Shinra.", Seekvaira didn't want to let this chance go for a rematch.
"Wait... I'm not sure if I can keep two Longinus users and a clearly-outside-the-standard werewolf at bay! And why do I have to take on three while most of you are going for a one-on-one!? This is unfair!" Nyx complained.
In response, however, Kisuke just laughed while patting her shoulder, "Isn't this a good chance to taste the fruits of your training? If you were to lose, then we'll have to up it even more."
Not just Nyx, but also Seekvaira shuddered at the thought of their 'training' increasing in difficulty and vowed that they wouldn't lose, even if it caused them a limb or two. Seeing their similar reactions, the two who had created a bond faced each other, "S-shall we work together?" the latter asked.
"Let's do it... My Darkness and your Power of Time should work great together."
While Athena looked at them strangely, Tiamat was making an amused expression and Genshirou was touched by their camaraderie that disregarded their race and class.
Soon, they were all teleported to the stage and the signal that announced the start of the game alarmed.
Kisuke's team didn't let anyone wait as they instantly sprung into action. Since they already knew that the opposing team wouldn't instantly move away from their spot to confirm their formation, the entirety of Team Urahara Shop dashed straight toward Rias and company.
Valerie Tepes, Vasco Strada, and Crom Cruach immediately got a whiff of what they were doing and prepared themselves. However, their formation wasn't tightly woven and there was barely any time to make any adjustment when the black-armored Genshirou was already in front of them and was aiming his fist at Lint Sellzen.
With Vritra's flames, Lint Sellzen, with her Incinerate Anthem, was a bad match and she could instantly subdue them with her purple holy flames. With this in mind, the fastest among them instantly intercepted him, "Isn't a surprise attack too much?"
Genshirou's fist clashed with Yuuto's Balmung and Nothung Demon Swords, "With a leader that doesn't really care about his image, I think not."
Gathering his breath, black flames sprouted from his elbow, giving Genshirou's fist an instant boost in power, "Oryaaaa!!!" sending Yuuto flying away with a shout.