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Chapter 410: The Help (3)
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The day after, Rias Gremory was staring at the air with a frustrated expression. Her peerage was training in front of her, doing their best and throwing hands at one another, seriously preparing for the incoming Rating Game tomorrow.
Tomorrow. In just another day, her life will be turned upside down. Because how was she supposed to prepare for such an impossible Game in a single freaking day?
There was supposed to be more time. At least another month. This was too fast; why did her father agree to shorten the time? Why didn't her brother protest? Her Peerage was nowhere ready, only Kiba and Akeno could be considered somewhat prepared, and maybe Issei if the enemy even let him Boost his way into high power.
Not that Rias blamed anyone from her Peerage. Not Issei, not anybody; they were simply caught in this mess by her father's old greed. Seriously, she didn't like old devils one bit, not even those from her family.
Then there was her brother, Sirzechs Lucifer. One of the Four Satans, and surely the strongest of them too. Yet…
"Tch."
Rias chewed on her fingernail and clicked her tongue in annoyance. She went to his office and asked him so nicely, so suggestively, even though she hated every second of it. Yet, where was his help? He could end this with a word, but he didn't – and now he wouldn't even help her convince Neji.
Perhaps she was asking for too much, but with Neji in her peerage, she was sure all of her problems would be gone. She wasn't sure exactly how strong he was, but she knew that he was stronger than her.
"Uh… President Rias?"
Rias was startled out of her daze by a hesitant voice. Turning to the side with a frown, she found Issei Hyuudo looking at her worryingly. It seemed, amidst training, he had noticed her distress and come to check up on her.
Rias' frown melted. She felt a little bad for Issei, she had planned to give him attention when she first scouted him, to make him loyal to her, but she hadn't managed to go through with all the plans. She hadn't even managed to get him to drop the "President" yet when calling her; Rias felt slightly bad for ignoring him as she had focused on the other more interesting people nearby.
Then again, why did she bother? Compared to Neji, Issei was a nicer guy. He was a perv, but he was good-natured. If she asked him to, he would throw himself in front of an attack, while Neji was a stranger who didn't care. It was truly a mistake to ignore Issei until now, perhaps if she had given him more attention and guided him a bit more, he would have been stronger when the Rating Game would come.
Rias looked at Issei apologetically. "Issei-kun… Can I get a hug?"
"H-huh?" Issei flinched, his face went red before he quickly came closer and hugged her. "Y-yes, anytime. I can hug you as long as you want."
Rias released a calming breath and closed her eyes. Perhaps spending a few minutes like this would calm her nerves a little.
Something golden flashed over her closed eyelids, but she didn't care to look – it must be an attack from Kiba, she assumed. She soon realized that was not it when she heard a feminine cough.
"Ahem, Rias."
Rias' eyes startled open at the sound of her sisters-in-law's voice. Her gaze fell directly on Grayfia's face, and then at the blue-eyed man on her side who looked at the scene with a raised eyebrow.
Neji observed her intimate position with a momentary interest before returning to wear his uncaring expression, and by then Rias had canceled the hug with a nervous face.
"T-this is not what it looks like!"
She didn't know why she felt the need to explain that to him, he wasn't related to her in any way. Surely, he thought the same way as he gave her a curious look with a tilted head.
"I'll assume you said that to your sister-in-law, even if you're looking at my eyes." He said, quickly ignoring her again and looking around the area.
Rias tried to open her mouth to add something but stopped midway through. Issei was looking at her in confusion and a bit of a hurt expression, but she couldn't spare any thought to talk to him right now. Her eyes locked with Grayfia for a moment, and the red-eyed devil just shrugged.
From the corner of her eyes, she noticed that Peerage members have stopped their training. They were gathering near, and she saw Akeno stare at Neji with a frown. Rias noticed her friend had been like that ever since hearing the report from Reya Kusaka, Sona's Bishop.
Around that time, she noticed a face she had never seen before. In the heat of the moment, she didn't notice that person. It was a girl with long black hair full of luster as if it was a fountain of black honey. Her eyes were bright blue, like two bright stars in contrast to her shy expression, and were very similar to Neji's own. She could even see a hint of similarity between Neji's face and hers.
"Huh? Grayfia, who is that?"
Her sister-in-law was as composed as ever, though standing oddly close to Neji. She usually stood a few feet from everyone who wasn't her family.
"As you have shamelessly gone to ask your brother for help, we managed to convince Neji Hado to lend help. Except he can't do it, he doesn't want to transition into a devil. However, since I spent a lot of time… convincing him, he gave in at last and agreed to lend you help anyway." Grayfia said.
She raised a hand to gesture at the girl on Neji's left, while she herself stood on his right. "That's Hinata Hyuga, Neji Hado's cousin. They share the same bloodline, and therefore a lot of the same powers as well. Although she certainly isn't as strong as he is, which would have been very concerning if two Satan classes suddenly dropped out of nowhere, she is strong enough."
The words "Satan Class" all but confirmed Rias' earlier guess about Neji's power level. Still, it made her gasp nonetheless, as did the others in the room. They couldn't sense his power level, but if Grayfia was saying it then it meant there was truth in that claim.
Rias looked at Neji again. She was unsure what to say to him after he found her in that intimate position with Issei earlier; she had been trying to seduce him just a few days ago, and he had confirmed he knew that, so it felt awkward after he saw her with Issei. Would he be mad due to it? She really hoped not.
Rias didn't say anything to him, and turned to look at the girl beside him. She looked to be about 20, and nearly 6" tall. Her body was plump, her hair glistening, her lips blue, and her face shaped like the moon. Coupled with her revealing outfit that didn't suit her innocent face, she looked gorgeous.
[Image Here]
Honestly, Rias felt a little self-conscious in her presence. However, she did feel power from her too. This girl was strong.
"President,"
Suddenly, Akeno stepped forward. She was staring at Hinata with intent.
"Let me spar with her. It'll help us evaluate her powers."
The shy girl blinked in surprise, hesitantly turning her head to look at Neji who gave her a nod. Immediately, her face reformed with resolve as she nodded as well.
"It's fine with me." Hinata Hyuga said, her shyness getting replaced with a desire to prove herself.
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When Hinata walked into the arena with Akeno, the shyness had entirely vanished. Kiba was there in the middle of the arena, acting as the referee.
Neji observed her with crossed arms, he too was interested in what she could do with her new power set.
The Fruit of God tree that I traded with Kurai with a music player, was supposed to turn her into an elf, but I wasn't having such a weak race. So I pushed my divinity into it, wondering what the result would be, and waited for her to eat it.
The result was pleasant. Firstly, one would notice that her eyes changed from normal Byakugan to Tenseigan. The divinity awakened her eyes. However, that wasn't as big as her racial evolution.
Hinata was now a Rainbow Serpent. It was a full transformation, she wasn't human at all, and her current human form was a morphing ability. In Australian folklore, the rainbow serpent is a deity responsible for giving life as well as creating and destroying nature, particularly in relation to water.
It's known as the Giver of Life, and also as the Lightning Snake. Yes, Hinata's suddenly shared races with a God, with both creation and destruction powers. Though she wasn't a divinity, it was similar to how Kurai was a Nergal but not a God from the beginning.
Still, Hinata's water could create things, while her lightning destroyed stuff. It wasn't hard to understand why she received such a race, given that it was Neji's divinity that empowered the fruit.
Honestly, this was a very bad match-up for Akeno, who specialized in lightning arts.
"Oh by the way, Hinata, you are forbidden from transforming. That'll just destroy the school."
If the others weren't paying attention to her before, they were now, when he yelled at Hinata. She just nodded with her eyes solely focused on Akeno.
Hinata wasn't supposed to lose, but it was also true that she was inexperienced with her current powers. So who knows, she might actually lose.
"Begin!"
Referee Kiba yelled, raising his hand and shoving down, and jumped out of the arena.
It was smart of him to do that because a whirling serpentine dragon of fire rushed through the spot where he was standing a moment ago. Akeno's attack rushed at her opponent as Hinata stood on her spot with a frown.
The attack came just near her nose.
Then, it vanished.
Hinata's palm struck the fire once, and the entire magic behind it shattered to nothing. The attack was erased with her palm attack, as the spectators just gawked at the scene.
"Huh. The Hyuga's palm techniques can, on its base, block the energy pathways to paralyze enemies. However, Hinata isn't a mere Hyuga anymore, so her palm strikes can disperse the mana of a spell and make them cease to exist. Interesting."
Akeno looked nervous now, and I'm sure she hadn't even heard what I said since I talked in a low voice. It was just Rias and Grayfia by my side who heard it, and both of them looked surprised.
Akeno decided to go with a physical attack for a moment, before deciding not to. That was smart, because if Hinata's palm could undo a spell, then they sure could paralyze Akeno's body just as easily.
So, instead, she decided to attack with an element that'd be hard to strike with the palm. Lightning, her specialty. Except that was a bad idea that she didn't know about.
Akeno chanted the formula for the spell, and black clouds formed over Hinata's head. She noticed the cloud, but she didn't dodge it, but Akeno mistook it for Hinata being too slow to dodge it, as she launched the attack.
"[Lightning Storm]!"
She yelled, and hazards of lightning fell on Hinata's head. Indeed, lightning was too thin and vast for Hinata to use her palm, at least that's what it seemed like, but she didn't even bother to try. Instead, she closed her eyes and basked in the feeling.
"How bizarre."
Countless purple lightning hit her body and then blue lightning leaped back out of her. No, not just blue, red, orange and all seven colors had lightning of their own. They returned back to the clouds ahead, and the black fog turned rainbow-colored.
Akeno stood baffled until Hinata raised a finger and chanted a word.
"Strike."
Rainbow colors of lightning crackled, and the rooftop of the gymnasium burst apart and vanished, burnt into vapor by the lightning, as the temperature of the entire place grew a dozen Celsius.
Lightning rushed towards Akeno, strong enough that it tore through the air with the sound of space breaking apart.
Neji moved faster than the lightning. He appeared right before Akeno, taking her with one arm, and slapped the lightning away with the other scale-covered hand.
"Stop. We got the winner. That would have vaporized her. Hinata, don't use lightning before you learn to control its intensity if you don't want to kill your opponent."
There was a short silence until everyone structured out yells of shock and hope. It was Rias who heaved a massive sigh of relief, her voice cheerful and filled with hope.
The change in terrain was notable, the glass windows had shattered, the roof was gone, and the floor where the lightning fell after Neji slapped it was blackened like coal. So it didn't leave much to imagine why Rias was so relieved.
Well, the winner was clear from the start. It just made it clear to Neji that Hinata's tier wasn't for show. Even Rias was just Tier 18.
[Hinata Hyuga - Rainbow Serpent – Mid Tier 22]
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