Human World, Japan, Kuoh.
Two days have passed since James and Cu Chulainn had their... spar. Since then, Cu Chulainn has not been having the best of times. Sprawled out in the middle of the training room, Scathach was standing over him with her spear resting on her shoulder.
"*Sigh* Are you still mad at me for what happened the other day, Master?" Cu Chulainn asked, unable to move.
"Are you referring to your unsightly defeat at James' hand?" Scathach asked. "Or are you referring to the dishonorable way you began that match?"
"I'll take that as a yes." Cu Chulainn muttered.
"I trained you to be a better warrior than that." Scathach said while shaking her head. "I am disappointed that in a match you posed the challenge to, you tried something so underhanded."
"*Sigh* Yeah, I know." Cu Chulainn said, a little disappointed in himself. "I got what I deserved for that. But seriously, how the hell does he have an auto-pilot like that?"
"That would be my fault." Scathach admitted. "When I realized how great his potential was, I pushed him to be the greatest warrior to ever live."
"What do you mean?" Cu Chulainn asked as he pushed himself to sit upright.
"During his first few years training with us in Dun Scaith, I may have been a bit... overzealous." Scathach said with a smile. "Though you may not know this, many of his nights did not see him sleep peacefully."
"The sexual under... Ugh!" Cu Chulainn began to speak, however, he was quickly silenced by a strike from the shaft of Scathach's spear.
"*Sigh* I do not know how Tsubaki puts up with your prattling." Scathach said. "As I was saying before I was interrupted, I often woke James from his sleep with surprise attacks. In the end, his body's natural reflex to aggressive action was honed excessively."
"Excessively might be an understatement." Cu Chulainn said, rubbing his throat with his left hand. "I honestly thought he was going to kill me."
"And had your attack contained killing intent, he very well might have." Scathach replied. "And with his sword drawing technique, I would not have been fast enough to save you."
Cu Chulainn shuddered just thinking about it.
"It's a good thing he's my best friend." Cu Chulainn said with a shrug and cold sweat flowing down his back. "As much as we mess with each other I would never want to see him hurt. Anyway, why aren't you at school today, Master?"
To that, Scathach smiled with a bit of blood thirst.
"Because there was a fool of a man who thought that he could teach the students better than I could." Scathach replied. "So, I requested your colleagues to put the arrogant fool in his place."
"Oh, fuck..." Cu Chulainn said while lowering his head. "That guy is screwed."
At the same time at Kuoh Academy, Class 3-A was participating in P.E., and the teacher that Scathach mentioned was refereeing a volleyball game with a bit of fear in his expression. Currently, there were several dents in the gymnasium's floor caused by spikes from the supernatural students in the class. On top of that, none of the normal students seemed to be bothered by the happenings.
"What's wrong with Sakurai-Sensei?" A girl asked after seeing the fear in the teacher, Sakurai-Sensei's, eyes.
"I don't know, he looks like He's seen a ghost." Another girl said with a chuckle.
"Or maybe he just didn't realize how awesome Alaverus-Kun and his girls are." A third girl added. "I mean, it's not every day you get to see such a yummy freak of nature like that, right?"
The other two girls nodded as they watched James move around, rally, and coordinate his team on the court. However, what they did not know was that the supernatural students were not holding back while playing today. Although they were not cycling their demonic energy, they were using the full capabilities of their physical bodies. Excluding James, that is.
After gaining another point for his team with a devastating spike, James returned to his position, high fiving the boys and girls along the way. Eventually, he ended up next to Reya.
"Everything looks good, so far." Reya said in a quiet voice as she prepared to serve the ball again.
"Yeah, it shouldn't be long until he starts to doubt life as a whole." James replied with a smile. "After that, we'll put the fear of Satan in him."
"*Giggle* I have to admit, this is much more fun than I thought it would be." Reya continued.
In response, James shrugged his shoulders with a smile.
"Okay guys, let's get one more!" James shouted, rallying his teammates.
"Yeah!" The other four members of the team shouted enthusiastically.
As Reya tossed the ball up to serve once again, she could not help but think to herself.
'James' speed is ridiculous.' Reya thought. 'He's been making sure that the superhuman spikes have been slowed down enough so that none of the normal students were hurt when they tried to receive them. However, I have no idea how he's done it, at all."
"No idea, at all," is a bit of an over statement. Reya knew that James was using his speed to constantly tap the ball and dampen its momentum every time a normal human was going to try and receive it. What she did not understand was how James could make it look like he was still playing the game like nothing was happening while he did it.
After a few more back and forths exchanging points and serves, James looked at Reya, who was on his team, as well as Sona and Flora, who were on the opposing team, and gave them all a nod with a smile. When they all nodded in return, they all knew it was time to put the fear that Scathach asked them to into Sakurai. Then, after a girl on Sona's team served the ball, a boy on James' team received it. After that, Reya set it in front of the net while James approached from the baseline.
"Oh, here it comes." Akeno said with a sadistic smile on her face. "I wonder if Sensei will soil his pants after this is over?"
"Who knows." Tsubaki said with a shrug. "But he really did make a mistake insulting Master Scathach like that."
Rias and Akeno nodded; excitement written all over their faces as they watched James' leap high into the air. On the other side of the net, Flora and two other students jumped as well to block James' smash. However, having jumped a little higher and a little faster, James' spike when unhindered. Unfortunately, James seemed to have missed the spot on the ball he was aiming for due to jumping earlier than he meant to.
*Smack!*
With a loud sound of impact, James sent the ball flying. No one could tell where the ball would land at the moment of impact. However, a moment later, they all realized that it would sail out of the court by a large margin. Watching the flightpath, many students shouted when they saw where it was headed.
"Sakurai-Sensei, watch out!" Several girls shouted before covering their eyes a moment later.
*Boom!*
*Crack!*
Before Sakurai could react, the ball whizzed past his left ear, missing him by less than an inch (approx. 2.5 cm) and cracked the wall behind him. Petrified by what just happened, Sakurai fell back, his back resting against the wall before he slowly slid down until he was sitting on his butt. After a moment, the ball landed next to him and bounced toward the court a couple of times. This prompted him to look up to the spot where the ball hit the wall.
"What the hell?" Sakurai muttered in a nearly inaudible whisper.
After that, James came rushing toward him. When he arrived, he used magic stealthily to fix the wall. Then, he reached down to help Sakurai up to his feet.
"I'm sorry about that, Sakurai-Sensei." James said in a sincere tone. "Are you alright?"
James' words were loud enough for the rest of his classmates to hear. And although he was still in shock, Sakurai nodded his head stiffly in response.
"That's good." James said with a hint of relief in his tone. However, in the next moment, James turned his head away from the rest of the class so that only Sakurai could see his expression, that had turned malevolent. Then, with a lowered volume, he continued. "That was just a warning, Sakurai. Next time you insult my master, things will be quite different."
Hearing that, Sakurai almost fell to the floor again. Noticing that, James caught him and put his concerned expression back on his face. Then, he supported Sakurai to stand and helped him over to a bench.
"It seems like you're still a bit shaken, Sensei." James said, helping Sakurai to sit. "I think it would be safer for you to sit over here, so that you don't fall and hurt yourself."
Then, James put on a reassuring smile before he returned to his side of the volleyball court. However, to Sakurai, that smile looked like the smile of a devil, and he began to shudder.
After that, the rest of class went on like nothing happened. James and the girls fixed the damage to the gym and with a bit of memory manipulation the other students and Sakurai were none the wiser. However, the near-death experience Sakurai wet through was left intact. Because of that, the teacher ended up taking the rest of the day off. He even considered resigning from Kuoh Academy because the students scared him. In fact, for the next few months he continued to have nightmares about the gym being destroyed all because of a game of volleyball.
"Damn, that was fun." James said while stretching as he and the rest of Class 3-A returned to their classroom.
"Yeah, it's not often we're allowed to have fun with that many of our limiters off." Rias said with a smile.
"Seriously!" Akeno exclaimed. "We really should thank Sakurai-Sensei. Scathach-Sensei is never gonna let us do that again."
Sona, Tsubaki, Reya, and Flora nodded in agreement.
"On top of that, someone is probably gonna get a reward tonight." Flora said with a smile while wrapping her arms around James left arm.
"One can only hope." James said, stealthily patting Flora's ass with the hand she was embracing.
Flora giggled in response while Rias, Sona, and Akeno, who had seen James' action, rolled their eyes. Tsubaki on the other hand looked at the interaction between James and Flora while thinking.
'I'll have to train Setanta to be as bold and up front as James is.' Tsubaki thought to herself. 'My man will not be someone who has to resort to sneak attacks in a duel he requested.'
After that, the rest of the school day went by without a hitch. After attending their club activities, James and the girls were once again back at the mansion. Although Sona had no trouble deciding on who her magician would be, she was among the extreme minority. Except for her, only Moka had chosen a magician.
"So, you chose this girl? Sendo Yukari?" James asked when Moka came to inform him of her selection.
"Yeah, apparently she's some kind of genius." Moka said.
"She would have to be." Shuna replied. "It says she's only eleven."
"A twelve-year-old which is considered to be among the best of the Clock Tower?" Shion asked. "Are the Clock Tower's standards that low?"
"Did you pay attention at all when Lord Pheles was explaining to us?" Moka asked while rolling her eyes.
"No, not really." Shion admitted while smiling embarrassedly.
"*Sigh* I don't even know why I asked." Moka said while shaking her head. "That's why she's been called a genius. As far as her magic research goes, she's on par with some of the senior magicians from the Tower."
"Oh, I get it!" Shion replied excitedly.
"Really?" Mizore asked.
"No, not really." Shion replied with yet another embarrassed smile.
This time, everyone present sighed in response.
"Hey, Master, do you think you could contact Lord Pheles for me?" James asked, after a moment of pondering.
"That should not be an issue." Scathach replied.
Then, Scathach stomped her foot. A moment later, a runic circle appeared in front of the sofa that James was sitting on. After glowing for about a minute, Mephisto appeared in a hologram floating above the runic circle.
"Good evening." Mephisto said with a smile. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"
"My disciple asked that I contact you." Scathach replied.
"Oh." Mephisto exclaimed before turning his attention to James. "What can I do for you young man?"
"I was just curious about something." James said with a smile and a polite bow.
"Please, go ahead." Mephisto said.
"Is it possible to form a pact with more than one magician?" James asked in a serious tone.
"Hmm... That was not the question I was expecting." Mephisto said. "But to answer your question, as long as your demonic power can support it, it is theoretically possible to have an infinite number of pacts. And with your power, there should be no issue."
"Thank you, Lord Pheles." James replied with a smile. "I was really cracking my head open trying to figure out who I should choose."
"Haha!" Mephisto laughed. "I'm glad I could help. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have work to do. I hope we have another opportunity to speak again."
Then, Mephisto bid Scathach farewell and disconnected the transmission.
"*Sigh* One is never enough for you, is it?" Cu Chulainn asked in an exasperated tone.
"Why choose one when I can have both?" James asked with a smile. "Irene Belserion, Shiba Tatsuya, I hope we'll be able to help each other going forward."