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Chapter 411: Teacher-to-Teacher (1)
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Hinata's performance was immaculate. The other members of the peerage rushed toward Akeno, while Rias herself rushed to Hinata. Neji let go of Akeno so that she could answer the inquiries of her friends, but he felt a tug from her, a resistance of not wanting to let her go.
'What's up with her recently?'
Neji wondered, freeing himself from her and walking toward Hinata. Akeno was giving him odd looks for a while, as if she wanted to ask him something, but there were always too many people around for her to come talk to him.
Neji supposed she will figure it out soon. He went to Hinata instead, who too looked worried about her opponent, but Rias was keeping her busy.
"You're unbelievably strong! What are your powers? How did you cancel that spell with your palm strike? Oh, what can your eyes do?"
Rias was busy asking Hinata this and that, and Neji would have been a little annoyed if he was in Hinata's shoes, but the girl didn't seem to mind herself. She answered all of the questions, though she omitted the details.
Neji decided to enter their conversation. "Take it easy with the questions, she isn't going anywhere. Though I admit time is limited on your hands."
My presence was finally noticed by Rias and Hinata as they both turned to me. Hinata opened her mouth to say something, but before she could do that, Rias threw herself on his body, hugging him.
"Thanks! You have no idea how big of a deal this is for me!" Rias pushed her chest against his, her voice filled with excitement. She buried her face on his chest and said in a low voice. "Will you be attending the Rating Game tomorrow?"
"I don't think my presence there is necessary?" Neji asked, not bothering to return the hug, and instead pushing her away.
Rias' tone earned a tint of pout. "Why are you being so cold about it? Just say it if you don't wanna go."
That made Neji smile a little. "I will go, don't worry. I can't let my cousin go unsupervised in the devil's territory, even if she is going to become one herself soon. On that note, when will you turn her? Do you have the Evil Pieces ready?"
He wanted to watch the process in person to get an understanding of how it worked. After all, he was going to destroy the piece from within Hinata later; he wasn't going to let her live as a devil for long. Neji was just letting Rias borrow Hinata, not literally giving her away, though he wasn't going to tell her that yet, there was no need.
"Oh, right. Soon. We can do it in a few minutes if you're busy?"
"I have classes, so sure. We can finish it quickly."
She scoffed. "Who cares about classes?"
He didn't say anything to that. Neji had a feeling this might be my last class, so he wanted to be present today. It had already been half an hour since school began, he needed to be quick.
"Fine, I will make the preparations first. See you soon, Hinata." Rias gave in and rushed away, going to talk with her peerage and leaving Neji off with Hinata.
….
Neji and Hinata stood in silence for a moment, Neji leaning his back on a wall as the both of them faced the kids planning things with the help of Grayfia.
At one point, Hinata cleared her throat and spoke. "Did I… do well?"
"I had to intervene, what do you think?"
"…."
He had made it clear that she was very strong, so it wasn't a compliment. It was an insult that she couldn't control her powers enough and made such a lethal attack that Neji had to intervene.
Hinata lowered her head and fidgeted with her fingers. The last time they had a proper talk was when she yelled at him to take her to meet Naruto; everyone knew how that turned out to be. Since then, this was the first time she had been around him, and he felt… so different from back then.
He was a bit harsh when he was angry back then, but now she could feel that he wasn't even angry. He was just like this anyway, as if this was natural. What had he been going through?
Hinata wanted to ask, but… she didn't feel that'd be a good idea. So she just kept her head down. To her surprise, however, Neji hesitantly reached out a hand before gently ruffling her hair.
"I didn't mean to sound harsh. You'd do a good job; you don't have to hold back in the place where it counts. I explained what the Rating Games are to you already, killing people there isn't an issue, so you are clear on that department." Neji said, and Hinata slowly nodded with a soft smile blooming on her face.
His next words made her tense up though, especially on her face, as it reddened. "Oh, and, on another note… I know why Hanabi and your aunty Arima sent you here. I am sure you understand too. I am just going to say I don't like that, and I am also not in the mood for such things these days. So you can rest assured, I won't be touching you."
"I-I see, thanks…?" Hinata didn't know what to say as she stood stiffly, her face burning and her blue eyes trembling slightly.
She felt a mixed feeling of relief and… regret hearing his words. The realization of the second emotion made her pause.
'No, what is this…'
She never saw him that way, and even if he looked different now, with a new hairstyle, outfit, and a totally different personality, it still felt weird. She was aware that cousin marriage was common for the Hyuga clan members, but still… they won't be marrying. She wasn't a fool, she knew what he was doing with Hanabi and her mother. Just what was going on with them? She couldn't see herself joining them, she didn't want to.
Hinata was only here to properly apologize for her behavior from back then and to try to fix their relationship too. Nothing else. So she'd complete the task she had given him so that he won't be any more disappointed with her.
* * *
In the end, there turned out to be a problem. Rias was the Peerage King, and she was weaker than Hinata. The Evil Pieces, therefore, couldn't register Hinata to join under her.
"If you had decided to join her, Neji, I'd have brought special pieces from Ajuka. That's kind of breaking the rules but… yeah." Grayfia explained.
We were at the center of the arena now, everyone surrounded Hinata and Rias, who had a piece of Pawn in her hand. Pawn had the most potential, it could evolve into Queen mid-game, so it was the piece they chose for Hinata.
"We can still register her, but that'd restrict her strength a bit. She'd still be as strong as Rias, if not stronger, but I want to ask one last time if it's okay with you?"
Grayfia explained and asked, and Hinata turned to Neji for permission. Grayfia blushed a bit, hiding a smile as if she found that little exchange amusing, and watched Neji nod.
"All right, then. Here we go."
Then, the maid pushed the pawn chess piece into Hinata's chest. It sunk in, and Neji felt it try to resonate inside her. Her mere race yelled against it, and it worked against it. However, Neji let out a bit of his Dragon Authority that he owned over all reptilians to press down on it, suppressing the antibody-like function, and allowing the piece to settle in.
He had scanned the Evil Piece itself too, and he was confident he'd be able to destroy it from within her by surging holy energy into that point. However, if he really wanted to destroy it, he won't have to go that far, he could just order the antibody-like aura to reject the piece and Hinata will be returned to normal.
Just like that, Hinata Hyuga shivered, her lips letting out a moan that made most people blush, as she was reborn as a devil under the watchful eyes of God.
* * *
After that procedure was done, Neji finally went to his class. Another teacher was taking the classes and was relieved to see him do his duty.
"You should meet the Student Council President later, I think she's mad." The middle-aged sensei told him before leaving.
Neji took over the class then, and he was a bit surprised to see the kids excited to see him again. He thought they hated him by now, especially the guys, but they were cool about it too. Huh, neat.
A while later, when Neji was writing an English essay on the board, something that truly surprised him happened. Sisty, who was in class, spoke to him via telepathy.
[Uh, Master. Someone wants to talk to you. In-person.] said Sisty, and given the message came from her, it could either be Mistress Death, someone from Heaven I, or the Arcane Plane. [It's from Arcane Plane. It's that woman, hero Midnight. I don't know, she wants to talk. You can take your time, and finish the class, time moves there slowly anyway.]
Neji turned to face her. Jogan activated, he cast a Genjutsu on the entire classroom, as he spoke to Sisty seriously. "Bring her here, I want to know what made her reach out finally."
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