Kuoh Academy

[Apollymi]

The mention that the statements made by Eira about her supposed lack of want for a fear-filled reputation should be told to his wife made the crimson haired lass smile. She indeed was quite familiar with her brother's wife and found her to be one of two of the most frightening women she'd ever known in her life. "Fair." was all Eira had to say in response.

Moving right along, Eira stood in wait for the decision of Takumi as to the fate of Onoko. And not much to Eira's surprise, Takumi decided that should leave him be. A gentle smile crossed Eira's face as this was exactly what she expected of her newest servant. The young man seemed to be nicer than his bullies deserved, and though she would have seen this man killed a few moments prior for the words he spoke against Takumi, if the young man didn't want anything to happen to him right now, she wouldn't disagree. "I knew you would say that... alright then," Eira said calmly. She'd known a great deal of what to expect from her newest acquisition. And his demeanor was still one of the more confusing to her personally, even so, she couldn't say she disliked this young man's decision. "Check on Miyuki and celebrate our first victory!~ Nii-sama, we're good to go~" Eira mused. It seemed she was happy enough to get back to her servants and perhaps enjoy a nice party knowing she'd successfully completed her first Official Rating Game.

[Bloodedge]

"H-... Hai!" Takumi exclaimed. Onoko's body began to fade away as the "Retiring System" of the Rating Game claimed him, making it official that this win belonged to Eira and her peerage. Takumi was more than ready to ensure the stability of the Bishop Miyuki. All they had to do was return to where the others were, and Sirtreize was happy to deal with the transportation. In the time it took for Takumi to blink, the Crimson Satan teleported himself, Eira, and Takumi to the room where the first audible thing was the voice of Izuna... along with the Queen Piece holder's incessant banging against the barrier. "Oi! Let me out of here you cheap bastards! I'm gonna-"

"Izuna... san?" said Takumi. This drew the attention of Izuna during his moment of apparent fury. He turned around, revealing the fox-like features of his face in full effect. Upon spotting Eira, he immediately flew toward her and grabbed her by the shoulders. "Eira! That Onoko Astaroth is a cheater! I looked into Dice Figure Games while we were here, and these aren't the rules! Don't... don't tell me. Did you guys...?"

[Apollymi]

Their victory official Eira soon enough found herself standing back where she'd started this match. But before she could do anything about looking in on Miyuki there was the matter of a very upset Izuna to deal with. One could always question how Izuna felt about things given his generally playful nature, but given how quickly he switched and grabbed her by the shoulders to tell her about how much Onoko had cheated she found herself staring at him blankly. Her eyes soon filled with absolute astonishment. "KAWAIII!!!!~" she reached up to wrap her arms around this very upset member of her peerage. "I-zu-na~ Your cute little fox face has ears and everything~ I didn't know you felt so strongly about this~" she whispered to him. "Don't worry, we won," she also whispered she wanted to announce this to the entire peerage at once, or perhaps the news would make Izuna happy enough that he'd do it himself. "I'd love to know why you're so worked up right now, but let me check on Miyuki first, hm?" she said.

Miyuki was on the other side of the couch resting, her head in Youmu's lap. The white haired girl turned and looked back she only hadn't gotten up to preserve the smaller girl's comfort. "Buchou," she raised her hand to motion towards herself catching the crimson haired woman's attention. Eira had faith in Hiroki's capabilities as a healer and figured there wouldn't be much to worry about except for the small girl's potential exhaustion and shock. Upon taking a closer look Maiko could be seen seated on the floor directly in front of the pair looking and waiting for any sign of the small girl waking up. It seemed watching the match had been forgone once taking care of Miyuki had become a priority.

[Bloodedge]

The fury within Izuna's demeanor was suddenly quieted as he was taken into Eira's embrace. He was confused by this, but Eira soon whispered to him that they had emerged victorious. He had spent quite some time believing things may have been better if he had been involved in the fight, and just as much time thereafter being enraged due to finding out the true rules to a Dice Figure Game. He was relieved to know Eira and Takumi defeated the enemy, but there was still the matter of Onoko cheating. "You... won? But this was a rigged game. I'm pretty sure you were set up to lose, and even the number you rolled was rigged!"

At this moment, Sirtreize stepped forward to finally be noticed by the previously enraged Izuna. He looked upon the half-yokai with a smile, giving an explanation loudly and clearly enough to reach all present. "These rules were different from the norm, and yes, everything was rigged in Onoko Astaroth's favor. That was all my doing. Clearly, a group as inexperienced as you all should lose this sort of fight," he said whilst waving his hand around in the air ever so nonchalantly. "Sirtreize Lucifer!?" Izuna replied immediately, being somewhat shocked to even see this man here today. "But why would you do that? You set your own sister up for failure?" he asked. To this, Sirtreize laughed. "Iie. I set her, and the rest of you, up to carve your own names into the Underworld. I know Eira isn't the type to like piggybacking off the Gremory name, so I set this up with a little extra incentive to succeed on her own terms."

Meanwhile, Takumi walked alongside Eira to locate Miyuki. She seemed safe in the lap of Youmu. Also present for the recovery process was not only Maiko, but Hiroki - who took a side to the girls after using his Twilight Healing on Miyuki - as well. The male of this group looked upon Eira and Takumi, both of whom seemed as worried as the others had been after Miyuki's retirement, and smiled. "She's just resting. She might have a couple of minor memory-related issues when she wakes up, but there should be no lasting or significant damage at all. Still, she took quite the blow; her skull almost shattered."

[Apollymi]

Izuna still had problems and this was all fine as Sirtreize stepped up to explain the nature of this game and why it had been set against Eira's favor in the first place. It seemed it was a plan of his to allow his younger sister the ability to make her own way without having to fall back on her family name, the kind of thing which was very much like Eira when Youmu considered it. As their leader looked over to check on Miyuki, Youmu shifted her gaze towards the man, and nodded. "Sou ka... Nice job, Takkun, Buchou... " she said before falling silent once more. Maiko on the other hand had stood up at the mention of Sirtreize's name. She was also completely stunned that he'd bothered showing up for such a thing, to know that he'd been the one to set it up, even for their leader and to know that he believed in her enough to let this go, made tears come to the raven haired girl's eyes. "Buchou!~, Your big brother is so cool!~" she said seeming to be pleased about something. Eira sighed, such was always Maiko's reaction to her brother, and she was sure she knew the reason why.

As this happened, Hiroki's words set Eira at ease, she leaned over and pressed her lips against the forehead of Miyuki and it felt cold, but that was a good thing. With the act of this kiss, Eira shared a bit of the residual power she'd been given by Takumi to stir the consciousness of her youngest member. As her lips came away, she spoke. "Wake up, Miyuki~ Or you'll miss the party~" she whispered quietly. The girl's purple eyes soon opened and she stared into Eira's crimson colored ones before sitting up. "Bu-bu-buchou, sumimasen!" she apologized immediately feeling bad for being the first one eliminated. "Yare yare, no need to apologize. In fact... I'm sorry, I promised to look after you and you got hurt on my watch..." she mentioned which made the young girl shake her head. "Iie, I'm just sad I didn't help... there's a party we won didn't we!?" she asked seemingly excited. "Hai hai, Takumi helped me win in your stead, you two were the perfect choices~" she chimed moving as Miyuki looked to Takumi, who'd according to Eira done a good job putting in for both of them while she was out. "Arigatou Taku-senpai!~" the girl thanked him for helping out in her stead, without needing any other details. "Who is that guy?" she asked of Sirtreize now free enough to be leaning against the couch outside of the lap of Youmu, she could see him among the normal members of her peerage in their special meeting place even. Though she'd never met Sirtreize before, Eira was more than a bit surprised that the girl wouldn't have figured him out on sight. The rest of the young women in her peerage managed to look stunned.

[Bloodedge]

"H-Hai... Arigatou gozaimasu," Takumi said following Youmu's congratulatory statement. As for how moved Maiko was by Sirtreize's explanation for his actions, Takumi was at a loss for words. He supposed he could understand the crimson-haired Devil's purpose, but he could not see it as something that would move one to tears. As Takumi brushed off this matter, he watched Eira place her lips upon the cold forehead of Miyuki, effectively waking her by means presumably related to those which healed him two days prior. Miyuki stirred within moments of being spoken to, causing Takumi's lips to curl upward. When thanked for his efforts though, the new Devil seemed shocked. His smile faded away, and he bowed his head. "Ryuume-chan... sumimasen. It's my fault you took that hit," he said whilst prostrating himself.

By the time Miyuki was asking about Sirtreize's identity, the Satan himself had begun moving toward Eira. That same smile was still upon his face, and though he'd heard the girl's question, Sirtreize himself had no answer for her. Instead, he simply took a side to Eira while speaking a single word meant only for her. "Rude."

[Apollymi]

Miyuki managed to look bit stunned that Takumi felt the need to take responsibility for something which he couldn't have foreseen being a problem in the first place. Besides that, they'd made a pact to help their leader win her first rating game, and he'd followed through with that. She smiled then realizing she didn't want him to feel guilty about it any more than he had to. "Iie, Taku-senpai. I can't let you blame yourself for that. Besides, you still upheld our promise and helped Buchou win. That's all I wanted to do too. You did it for both of us, so it's fine," the girl said seeming to have a very simple way of thinking about things. He held her hand out to shake his as they'd done before that horrific moment. "We'll get 'em together, next time!" she offered fully aware that she could still do much more with more practice.

As she watched this Eira heard the words from her brother now standing at her side and scoffed. "I am not rude. I told her about you before, but... I haven't been to see you since after the trip where we acquired her. You remember when we went to Mt. Kirigamine for that trip during winter break," she mentioned the circumstances of the first meeting between her and Miyuki to set his mind at ease. She'd been sent to that place with a few from her group to help clear out some unwanted activity around the old shrines and found a stray devil there, terrorizing the local youkai. Miyuki was terrorized by some of the other Yuki-onna there and outcast and as such was taken in by Eira who saw the girl's potential since she helped deal with the problems there. Regardless Eira went about making a formal introduction, but only after watching how she and Takumi resolved things. "Miyuki, this man is Sirtreize Lucifer, the Crimson Satan. He's also my big brother... Nii-sama, this is Ryuume Miyuki, she's was my newest acquisition before Takumi," she said. If one cared to note it, Eira had very strange tastes, a Yuki-onna and a boy bearing a Dragon's soul had been added to her peerage over the course of a couple of months. Which could only be added to by the strangeness of her already existing peerage members. Miyuki's eyes widened at the introduction, she hadn't expected to meet this man any time soon, beyond that, to be in the presence of one of the Satans was almost scary considering. "Su--su- sumimasen, Nice to meet you, Satan-sama," the young girl's face blushing an intense shade of blue of as she made her way through her introduction.

[Bloodedge]

"Iie. I'm the only one worth blaming. I'll keep blaming myself, but... but..." Over the course of his speech, Takumi gathered himself enough to raise his head and clench his left fist. Then, for the third time today, he would swear to himself and the others. "Next time, I'll do my part by making sure no one gets hurt!" With that said, Takumi reached out to take Miyuki's hand, solidifying their agreement while also giving purpose to his own promise.

Sirtreize rolled his eyes. Of course Eira would claim to not be rude, and have some very convenient story as to why he'd yet to be introduced to her most recently acquired Bishop. "Of course I remember! But... that was ages ago. You are no less rude for avoiding a visit to introduce me to your new servants," he said to chastise Eira, albeit all in good fun. To Miyuki, he had a rather different tone. "The pleasure is all mine, Ryuume Miyuki-chan. I saw your efforts today. You're a fine addition to Eira's peerage. Speaking of additions..." Sirtreize shifted his attention to Takumi, taking additional steps to reach the boy and look him in the eye. To Takumi, the piercing gaze of this Satan almost made it seem like he was being looked right through, to the depths of his soul and the Dragon apparently living within him. "I had always hoped Eira would follow in my footsteps enough to get herself a pet Dragon, but I never expected this. Hajimemashite... Red Dragon Emperor," he said, spacing his final sentence in an interestingly suggestive manner. "H-Hai. Boku wa Yasukawa Takumi. Yoroshiku, Satan-sama!" Takumi replied.

Sirtreize continued to stare, as if looking for something specific in this young Devil. In the end though, he simply closed his eyes and smiled yet again. "You're all so formal. I guess it can't be helped. Take care of my sister, Yasukawa Takumi." The Crimson Satan's final words to him threw Takumi off his mental state, in a way. Even so, his brow soon furrowed, and Sirtreize was able to witness his normally hidden determination first-hand. "Hai! I'll do my best!"

[Apollymi]

Their agreement had been come to and Miyuki shook the hand of Takumi. She couldn't say she agreed with him continuing to blame himself, but some progress was better than no progress. As they moved along she was soon introduced to Sirtreize who seemed to take her introduction well enough, and Eira managed to watch the entire thing only scoffing at the fact that her brother still teased her because she hadn't come to introduce Miyuki before hand. "I wasn't avoiding anything..." Eira said managing to look pouty while discussing this thing. Perhaps she had avoided a trip to see him, and perhaps there was a reason for that, but it didn't really matter at present. Miyuki apparently got a completely different treatment including compliments to her skills and the idea that this Satan thought she was a worthy addition to his sister's peerage. "Arigatou Gozaimasu!" she managed. An abashed look crossed the already blue girl's face which made Eira lean forward to offer only a teasing remark. "Remember to breathe Miyuki, you wouldn't want to faint like Maiko did the first time she met Nii-sama!~" she chimed. This statement made Maiko nearly choke, and Miyuki exhale in a chortle. "Buchou! How could you tell anyone after me about that..." the girl whined seemingly stunned that anyone bothered to remember how the girl had acted the first time meeting Sirtreize.

In the meantime it would be Eira who got to be embarrassed this time by a statement her brother made concerning the newest acquisition to her peerage. "Nii-sama! He's not a pet... and it's not like I went looking for a Dragon or anything. It's pure coincidence," she said, as she crossed her arms under her chest and managed to seem properly aghast by the assertion. Perhaps it was something about the word pet, or perhaps she was just feeling a tad guilty considering the way she'd chosen to take Takumi for herself in a moment of selfishness. Regardless the young boy seemed to gather himself enough to converse with her brother, and though she didn't approve of the kind of statements Sirtreize passed along, she knew it would be pointless to argue it. "Hai hai. Now everyone has met. Miyuki is good to go, we can go to this celebration you put together," she said pausing just a moment. "Wait a second, why did you put together a legitimate party if you knew it wasn't going to go the route that would need the party afterwards?" she asked, it was very random but until now she hadn't considered that her brother knew all along she wouldn't be marrying Onoko Astaroth so what reason did he have for putting together a party. It seemed a bit over kill for just appearances sake.

[Bloodedge]

"Your best, eh? Well... what do you think your best will accomplish?" Sirtreize asked. At this point, he was leaned forward enough to be at eye-level with the shorter male, and he wasn't more than a few inches away. Takumi may have been taking aback by this intense stare of the Crimson Satan, but he mustered up a response all the same. "W-well, I think... my best will be able to help repay my debt to Buchou for giving me a new life," he said. Of all the responses he could have given to these words, Sirtreize had only a long pause, followed by a cheeky laugh. "Buchou? Right... that school club at Kuoh Academy." This was all Sirtreize had to say on the matter, though he had his own thoughts which he shared only with Eira through a simple glance. With that, he stood erect and parted from Takumi. "Good luck, Red Dragon Emperor."

Only a moment later, Sirtreize was properly standing before Eira again, along with other members of her peerage that had been subjected to her teasing nature. Sirtreize found himself addressing a couple of things brought up by his sister, the first of which was related to the status of her new Pawn. "Mine were also coincidental, but that doesn't change anything. You can't really disagree so much with that, Buchou~" he teased. Moving right along, there was the matter of the party he started in the Underworld. "Who said it didn't go the route that would need a party? You can have a party for just about anything. I... I went through all the trouble of making calls, putting a huge party together just for you... and you're not even excited about it." When his last words were being spoken, Sirtreize forced his voice to tremble, and rubbed a finger over his eye as if he were crying. In fact, Sirtreize was a good enough actor that if one didn't know any better, it would both look and sound like crying was exactly how he reacted to Eira's words. "You've grown into such a hurtful woman, Eira! You used to be so happy when I did things like this for you!"

[Apollymi]

Eira listened to the conversation between her brother and her newest acquisition and remembered that she'd never seen the young man outside of school, so she'd never had the opportunity to tell him that it was perfectly fine to call her by name. "Cut him a break... it has only been a couple of days, Nii-sama..." Eira mentioned in defense of her pawn. Of course, the look she garnered from Sirtreize let her know that some sort of teasing was headed her way, and she couldn't help but sigh just a bit as it happened. This sigh was further exasperated by this man's follow up sentence which sent the young heiress into a bit of a huff. "Are you really doing this... right now?" she asked of the way her brother chose to address her in this sentence. Of course she knew her brother and knew he was doing exactly this, but she couldn't really take blame for this sincerely, it wasn't her fault that Takumi refused to hang out with the group outside of school. Her own logic dictated the only person he hung out with at all was perhaps Izuna.

Beyond the apparent problem her brother had with what assorted members of her peerage chose to call her, basically the ones who didn't spend more time with her outside of school, there was also the matter that he apparently felt his gift of a party was being shunned by Eira. Now it wasn't but given all the things her brother had done this day, she couldn't believe it would be a simple party. "Look... " she started, only to have her speech be interrupted. She knew her brother was just playing at the heartstrings of anyone who'd listen and unsurprisingly enough the female members of her peerage seemed to fall right into it, starting with his biggest fan Maiko. "Your brother did such a nice thing for us... how could you be mean to him?" she asked her which made Eira's head turn and her eyes widen. She couldn't say she didn't expect this from Maiko but the speech that would come next was from Youmu. "You were happier the last time he threw you a party, Eir..." she mentioned those deadpan blue eyes making contact with Eira's. It was like being shot through the heart. Last but certainly not least there was Miyuki who pulled on the sleeve of the crimson haired woman. "You could smile a little, I've never been to one of these, he seemed really excited about it, Buchou..." she said, and it was like she died in this moment.

"He turned... every woman in the room against me... I am just thinking ahead..." it was like a dark cloud settled over Eira for a few seconds. She couldn't believe the amount of misfortune brought about in this moment. "Eira-nee..." she corrected Miyuki who thought about it her eyes widening, this was seemingly one of the things she'd forgotten with her knock to the head. "Fine... fine... you win. I'll just be happy. Arigatou... Nii-sama, thank you for taking care of us~" she managed. She couldn't believe how quickly the tides turned against her. "And while I am at it, when we aren't doing club stuff, Takumi...you can call me by my name too~"

[Bloodedge]

"Such a cold heart you've grown into..." Sirtreize was still going on with his false tears. When it seemed the female members of Eira's peerage were getting involved, he virtually leaped at the opportunity to address them. He leaned forward once more, facing the trio of girls with his hands clasped together in front of his face, all while watery eyes looked upon the young ladies. "You wonderful ladies understand, right? So cute, so kind, all of you. Wouldn't you rather come to my peerage and never have to deal with a woman who cares so little for her own family?"

Meanwhile, Takumi was stepping forward just in time to be addressed directly by Eira. Specifically, she spoke of him being free to refer to her by name outside of the Occult Research Club. He could hardly fathom such a thing, figuring that even if he would not be referring to her as club president, he would have to use terms like "master" and the like. He did hear the others avoiding the same formalities as himself, but he assumed it was a matter of familiarity. Frankly... his history with women saw to it that he preferred avoiding such familiarity when possible. "Sumimasen. I... don't think it would be for the best if I did that..."

[Apollymi]

There was nothing on the face of Eira when she looked up at her brother. Things like this were exactly why she didn't spend too much time with her brother in the company of many others. The fake tears he was putting on for these young women finally made Eira scoff. "Trying to steal half my peerage while having your own, totally reasonable," Eira said. "You know I wouldn't give any of you up for anything... but if you want to go... I won't stop you," she said to all of them. She wouldn't trade anyone in her peerage for anything in the whole world, unless of course they wanted to go, and all present were well aware of that... the first to speak up was Youmu who chuckled just a tad. "It usually isn't possible to tease you very much, but you always seem so easily vexed when Nii-sama is around... I couldn't resist," her normally emotionless knight said turning down the offer to join the peerage of the man, in a way which Eira found simultaneously humorous and relieving. Meanwhile, Miyuki pouted just a bit, "I don't wanna go either...Eira-nee is so nice..." she said seemingly enthused to stay and remembering the concern the woman had when she'd returned to see her. "Ano... but you would let me go if I wanted to though right?" were Maiko's words, only she broke a wide grin. "I'm also just messing, kinda. You could be nicer to him... he does awesome stuff, and the last party was awesome!~" Maiko's words let Eira know that the young girl was simply a permanent fangirl of Sirtreize Lucifer, but she supposed there were worse things.

All of this happened and Eira felt better. At least the girls of her peerage weren't completely wowed or fooled by the antics of Sirtreize. "I'm telling Cin-nee you're trying to steal all my female peerage members and being mean to me," she said, to the man. She mentioned these words casually before returning her full attention to Takumi. She tilted her head left and seemed to stare at him intently, only a few seconds later a small smile came to her face and she sighed. "As you like, Ta-ku-mi~" she said in the same sing-song voice she generally used when addressing people like Izuna when he was in a funk. "Just remember that it's an option, if you ever feel so inclined," she said. Satisfied that she'd at least tried. She would really have to make it a point to look further into this boy's past and try to figure out what his deal was as far as his formalities were concerned as it was more than obvious to Eira that he was content to put a great deal of distance between himself and other people for reasons she hadn't yet figured out.

[Bloodedge]

Following his speech to the female members of Eira's peerage, Sirtreize straightened his posture and stared them down. He was, in fact, inspecting the amount of conviction in their responses when they turned down his offer, be it real or false. He had to say, even Maiko's reaction told him there was no chance of her deciding to follow him instead of his sister. "Oh? And what of you lot?" he asked, now shifting his gaze around to Izuna, Hiroki, and Takumi. "Satan or not, fat chance of that happening," said Izuna. "I can't say I have even the slightest amount of interest," Hiroki followed. "I don't know anything about other Devils, but... I'd rather stay where I am," Takumi said as the final answer Sirtreize needed.

After everyone had spoken, Sirtreize began clapping with a wide grin on his face. His gaze found Eira again, and the clapping slowed to an eventual halt. Even then, though, the verbal praise was only beginning. "Great job, Eira! You've done what most Devils only dream of doing. Your peerage might be one shy of a full set, but it looks like there isn't a single existing member who would leave your side. You've really made yourself a family, after all. And that... is all the reason we need to throw a party; wouldn't you agree?" With that said, Sirtreize raised his right hand while pressing his thumb against his middle finger. With a single click of his fingers, he would teleport himself and the entirety of Eira's peerage to the Underworld, where the Gremory Clan's territory was being used to harbor a massive party in Eira's name.

[Apollymi]

Eira heard the question of her brother being moved from the females who seemed to turn him down, to the males of the group who would answer in kind. Izuna's answer was all but expected, he was of course, Eira's best friend beyond all else, she didn't expect him to go anywhere. Hiroki in the same respect seemed to be very fond of her and he was one who'd been in her care for a rather long time. When it came to Takumi, there was a moment of pause from the crimson haired young woman. She was certain he wouldn't leave her, and when he affirmed this she could only be confused. 'For a guy who doesn't really want to be around me, he doesn't seem to hate me. I'm so confused by him...' she thought of her pawn. "Minna..." Eira's eyes shown happily in this moment, she couldn't help but feel pride for her peerage this little family she'd gathered all on her own. Beyond that, she couldn't help but feel proud of this young man, Takumi, who managed to be just as involved irrespective of personal confusion. Regardless of this it seemed her brother was content to begin clapping after this, apparently finding out what he meant to find, that she'd put together a family like peerage, instead of having problems within the group.

"Of course I made myself a family, Nii-sama," she said. She felt it didn't need further explanation. Given the reasoning behind his strange behavior and line of questioning she supposed she could understand. Their family was known for the kind of affection they had for their servants and their ability to treat them well, and that wasn't common. The idea that her peerage already didn't want to leave her as young as they were, was likely extra proof that she was a suitable Gremory Heiress. With a snap of his fingers, Sirtreize moved them all to a party which apparently was in their honor. "It's always worth it to have a party with them~" she chimed happily, a huge grin breaking across her face.