Chapter 385: Kuoh High School (1)
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Neji learned back in the Naruto World that he could exchange any sort of cash in his inventory for the currency of the world he was in. With the help of that, he quite easily got himself a room in a hotel near Kuoh.
Not that he didn't have other ways to pay. His Treasury of Babylon didn't only have magic weapons, the majority of it was pure material possessions. Gold, silver, and all sorts of jewels.
Still, even with all that wealth, he only managed to get one room. Perhaps due to the nature of this world deriving from an ecchi-harem anime, the cliché where only one room was available, and so a guy had to share the room with a girl, occurred here too.
Part of Neji thought if he should just buy the entire hotel, or perhaps just put the people in a nearby room under a Genjutsu to have them clear the area. In the end, he did none of that, he needed a body pillow anyway, and Asia looked soft enough.
Nothing happened between them that night. It may sound sketchy and outright shocking to people who knew Neji in person, but that just proved how out of the norm he felt right now.
After waking, when it was very early in the morning, he found more information from Mistress Death. Papers and more identification cards are on the table.
It was a basic driver's license, plus some common identifications that gave him a bland background. Born an orphan, who went to the USA for studies, and now returned to Japan after failing to find any good jobs. He applied for a job in Kuoh purely out of coincidence and got the job. His certificates weren't bad enough that he had to teach in a high school, but he took the job anyway to get experience out of this.
He was a purely normal human being. No magic or whatever, at least none that his records showed.
Neji could live with that since his skill [Blank] should make him appear normal even to the Gods of this world. Oh yeah, Gods existed in this world, even though the big G.O.D was dead.
Zeus, Vishnu, Odin, and so on existed in this plane. To add on that, outer gods also apparently existed here, though Neji lacked information on them since he was not a deep DxD fan.
"All of this kinda feels bland though…"
It felt bland. All this identification and background faking. The last two times, Lady Luck was playing with the history of the world to give him a comfortable walkthrough. It was very useful. For instance, if he wasn't sent as Gilgamesh in Fate, he wouldn't have acquired the Gate of Babylon. His quirk, [Mine] couldn't steal anything like this.
If Lady Luck was still his Patron, he was sure she would have given him an interesting background here. If Neji had to guess, he would have replaced the existence of Vali Lucifer, the rival of the protagonist, the White Dragon Emperor.
Neji sighed softly. "Oh well. It is what it is."
Truthfully, he missed Lady Luck. He… missed her voice ringing in his head.
* * *
Neji woke up very early in the morning. A bit before 5 AM; since school started at 8 AM, he had a lot of time at hand. He took it easy and went to a supermarket nearby.
He grabbed a bunch of modern food ingredients that he had admittedly missed and went back to the hotel to cook them. He just had to gently ask the chef to let him use the kitchen for a bit, and the old man complied hesitantly. Hesitantly at first, he was more than happy when Neji began to cook. Turns out his skill, [Cooking] that used to be at a full Proficiency once was still quite impressive.
Neji brought the food to his room and even offered the chef a bit of it.
"Ah, you're back."
Asia was up by the time he returned. She was on the bed, yawning, as she rubbed her eyes.
Neji worried briefly if she was anxious seeing him not by her side when she woke up. She may have assumed he was just a fabrication of her mind and cried. But it seemed his worry was for naught; he felt through the Faith connection that she believed wherever he had gone, he would return.
"Yeah, I bought food."
The food that was floating by his side lowered down. A portal opened and a table appeared in the room, as the food landed on the table.
"Uhm… wait, I will freshen up."
Asia got up from the bed, her thin nightgown was loose around her body, almost threatening to fall.
Neji stopped her when she was about to head to the bathroom.
"No need. [Cleanse]."
Neji clicked his fingers, causing a wave of mana to wash over her, until she stood clean, as if she had just taken a beauty bath.
"That's… useful."
Asia quickly composed herself now that she was fully awake. She fixed her dress, threw something over her torso, and sat down to eat.
….
After they had dinner, while chatting, it was almost 8 O'clock. Now, it was time for Neji to leave.
"But why do you have to play teacher? Oh, uhm, not that I am questioning your decision, I am just curious…"
Asia said from his side when he stood before his mirror and fixed his hair. More than fixing, he was just ruining it, causing the beautiful flow to straighten downwards, like a bland nobody.
When he was done with that, geared up in his white shirt, tie, and black pants, he put a pair of goofy glasses over his face.
"Especially this look. Why do this? You also got rid of that lovely long hair last night… N-not that I'm disagreeing with any of your choices."
Neji looked down at her, smiled since he truly found her cute, and pinched her right cheek.
"It's just for the theater effect. There are not many things that are fun in my life anymore. So perhaps small things like these would bring some joy. I'll see you later.
"By the way, um…"
Neji was about to leave when Asia got more than a little flustered. In a very hesitant tone, she said what she wanted.
"Can I… go with you?"
Asia Argento, the priestess who had found God, wanted to accompany him to all places. It was natural for her to think so. Neji was aware she had such ideas, but he had subconsciously decided to not take her with him.
So his natural reply was no. But when he decided to vocalize it, he instead paused. He had an idea.
"Sisty?"
He called Sisty, who had been strangely quiet since he had returned. She was not in any way harmed, he had checked that at least, but for some reason, she was a lot more silent than usual.
[Yes, master?]
Asia was looking up at him in curiosity as he talked to the air.
"Can you come out? Ah, and turn your hair blonde. I want you to act as Asia's guardian and enroll her in the school."
[As you wish.]
The air twisted before him, as he felt a wave of mana leave his body, twisting to form the figure of Sisty, with bright blue eyes and blonde hair.
"Actually, never mind. Change your hair back to white."
It's not an issue if someone labels them to be related. Not that anybody should, since even if rare, white hair wasn't unheard of in this world.
For a moment, Sisty looked like his and Kimi's lovechild. But that wasn't why he told her to cut it off. He told her that because he wanted her to look at him in her usual self. Her white hair returned, and she stared at him with well-hidden anger in her eyes.
It wasn't anger directed at him, though. It was self-hate, from what he could see.
"Sisty, come on."
Neji flicked a veil of mana to obstruct Asia's eyes and yanked Sisty by her waist. Her face hit his chest, and her hands grabbed his shirt. She stayed silent in that position, relaxing a little.
"I am sorry… that woman… she…"
"But it wasn't your fault, she is just that powerful. Besides, we are still together, right? Sisty, it's all right, Celestine didn't manage to separate us."
"But she was close… I couldn't feel you when you left. Even now, I don't know what you went through. Even though I have… memories of your past, before I was initiated, I don't have memories of the things you experienced when you were disconnected. And I know you experienced something, I can feel it."
So Sisty didn't know he had gone back to his old world. Neji couldn't fully understand why she felt this hurt, but he consoled her nonetheless.
Only Sisty knew that she had lied to him about the inventory thing. All the girls would have died. Then, she felt his consciousness vanish, disconnect from her. Back then she felt truly scared. She was fearful that the Goddess killed his consciousness, and only left a part of his will alive so that his body didn't die. Also due to the disconnection, she didn't know about the being that later came to the underworld. Sisty felt utterly useless, knowing that someone was there, but not who it was; if it was an ally or enemy.
Her sole job was to be his support, yet she had been useless when he was gone for a while. In fact, the people he killed on the other side, she couldn't even utilize the EXP he gained from killing them to level up at first. Something or… someone had helped her from that side, helped her take the EXP, and use it to help him level up. Honestly, if not for that incident, Neji would have died.
Even at the only job she had, to collect EXP, she would have failed if not for that unknown party. For once, Sisty felt like a burden.
"I will… try to be better…"
"I know you will. It's all right."
Sisty was supposed to be an AI at first, and slowly, she gained consciousness. So as Neji was hugging her, running his hand through her hair, it was the first time that she shed tears, the first time she sobbed like a little girl.
* * *
The little mood lift he felt from Asia's cute antics was gone.
His face lacked emotion as he walked through the streets of Kuoh, appearing before Kuoh High School and finding himself at the front gate.
He could see Sisty and Asia walk into the school in the far, going to enroll the little girl; they were a step ahead of him since they teleported before. However, he was stuck at the gate, in front of a student.
'A pup?'
It wasn't a joke, Neji nearly mistook her for a puppy. She was small… Well, 5'5" was more than the Japanese average for females, but he was 6'5" so she appeared to be a little puppy before him.
He got used to it first though since Asia was shorter than that.
Ignoring the useless thoughts, he looked at the girl a bit more carefully.
[Sona Sitri – Devil – High Tier 8]
She looked a little confused at first, perhaps noticing the similarities between him and the woman who had walked past her just a minute ago, but when that confusion passed she looked annoyed.
She wasn't intimidated by the height difference, as she was used to being around people like Sairaorg Bael, who was as big as Neji. She did give him a weird look though, looking at his glasses and expressionless face, contrasting to his massive body.
Sona fixed her glasses and spoke in a sharp tone.
"Neji Hado, I am Shona Shitori, president of the Student Council. I must remind you that you are not a student, but a teacher. Yet you're late. Not a good look for your first day."
Neji sighed in his head.
Why was he doing this again?
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Master4thWall Note: Well damn, we reached 400! Here's the promised chapter, another awaits this week. Probably on Saturday, but if we reach 700 in the next 24 hours, should be easy, I'll post it tomorrow instead!
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