Kuoh Academy

[Apollymi]

Eira continued to sit with that same demeanor she'd had the entire time they'd been speaking. Much to her original thought, this man hadn't just stopped in for a visit to congratulate her on her up and coming peerage. No he intended to marry her, and what was more he'd already talked to her father about the ordeal. She would have expected such a thing, if she'd ever spoken to this man in more than passing before this moment. They weren't in love seeking marriage, he was a strong guy seeking further title by having a strong woman at his side. In this moment though, Eira still managed to smile, given the situation it'd be surprisingly bright, almost like she was happy. But her words would make it obvious just what her mood was. "Daddy's a smart man, so when's the Rating Game and what are the conditions," she said, knowing the man before her had a complete peerage while she didn't. Her father had predicted she'd have a problem with her supposed marriage, and she did, she had no intention of even answering it as a potential. Ruin Queen and the Armageddon King, as if she'd ever want the man before her.

[Bloodedge]

When Eira gave her response, the Devil known by the name Onoko grinned. He'd been told to expect this sort of reaction from her, but he had more than ample confidence in his own ability to win the Rating Game and have his way. Eira seemed confident as well, but Onoko did not believe she could emerge victorious against his peerage. Few he'd ever met could, and she'd yet to experience Rating Games with a peerage of her own. "We play a Dice Figure Game tomorrow at dusk. I'm sure you're at least somewhat familiar with how this works," he said as he showed his left hand, which held a pair of six-sided dice. Rising and stepping forward, he offered one of these dice to Eira. "I'll allow you to choose the setting."

[Apollymi]

Eira was soon given the information she sought, and though this man didn't have the reaction she expected, he did produce the rules and a pair of dice one of which he offered her. After a moment she opened the palm of her right hand after unclasping them in front of her. "Dice Figure Game, tomorrow at dusk... fine," she said, though this was quite the detriment to her. As it stood most of her peerage contained only high level pieces, and though she'd recently made a pawn he still counted as eight. Depending on how she herself was ranked, she might not even be able to participate. She could send one of her more seasoned members and most likely they could handle most everything, but without at least a back up plan she'd be badly beaten. Her mind was already at work busily trying to plot what numbers she could use, which pieces would be best suited for combat against more than a few pieces at a time which wouldn't leave her at a complete loss against the other group. Still she prayed for the highest number possible as it would give her the best opportunity for strategies with her very young peerage. With that the dice left her hand with a silent prayer to Satan for a six. Her eyes watched as her die spun several times and landed on a six. 'Arigatou Nii-sama!~' she squealed in her mind.

[Bloodedge]

Onoko's terms were accepted easily enough. With that, he stepped aside and awaited the roll of Eira's die. After a few forward tumbles, the die landed with its side marked six facing upward. Onoko grinned. With this as he roll, it didn't matter at all what his die landed on. As it stood, he could already put forth between two and six members of his own peerage, depending on his whims. What else could he add to the mix? Time would tell, as Onoko's own dice was thrown into a roll and tumble. It landed next to the die thrown by Eira, and the number on its upward-facing side was...

Six.

"Maximum value. It's almost a shame we won't see each other in the game. You've been given a rating of one Pawn. I will count as three. My servants will be seeing you soon after we start, and I suppose I will see you at the ceremony afterwards. Now then... what venue will you have? I'll see to the setup while you busy yourself with the trifles of this human world."

[Apollymi]

With one six, Eira was left to wonder about the nature of the rest of her roll. As it stood, her best bet was to let her knight take care of this, but she didn't want to leave all up to Youmu. No, in matters such as this, the ability to defeat the first enemy weren't enough, she'd have to negate all tries at this sort of advancement in her life, as quickly as possible. Her eyes narrowed on the second dice roll and it was also a six. Her face broke out into a wide grin, as the nature of her run just got infinitely better. She couldn't help herself, this was about to be a good showing, maybe even a great one depending on who she chose to go along with. It made it so she could practically chose from anyone in her peerage depending on how she wanted to go about the assault.

Beyond this it was soon claimed that for the purpose of this Rating Game, Eira herself only counted as one pawn. Such was almost a vast underestimation of her abilities. But she supposed, given the incompleteness of her peerage and the lack of what most would consider members to it, she could almost see why it was assigned that way. As an aside, she'd not really participated in anything more than practice matches with her friends, as such her first real Rating Game would be the one which started her off either on a winning streak or as a person who needed more practice. "Have the venue made a replica of the Kuoh Academy. As for the trifles of this world, I don't see it that way. In fact all of you should get out of the underworld more often... but I digress," said the girl as she remained with her hands clasped in her lap. "I won't be seeing you, afterwards. Sayonara, Onoko Astaroth," the girl's words were steadfast, and if she feared anything it wasn't obvious in her countenance. Though by all accounts she should worry given the large number this male was able to start with, somehow she figured she had a better shot this way than the alternative.

[Bloodedge]

"Hmph. You've grown overly attached," said Onoko, regarding Eira's choice in venue being a replica of the human school she attended. As one who resided in the underworld, he could not understand this sentiment. This wasn't something that mattered much, though. Soon, Eira would also be a more permanent resident of their home world; he would see to that himself. "We will see. Tomorrow, Eira, we will see what the Ruin Princess' servants are made of." With that said, Onoko reclaimed his dice, and vanished through the same magic circle he'd used to arrive. This entire exchange had occurred over such a brief amount of time, classes had yet to begin. How would this affect the rest of the day for Eira Gremory and her peerage? One could only wonder.

[Apollymi]

Eira's eyes narrowed, and she outwardly scoffed at the idea that she'd grown overly attached to her school. Of course, this wasn't to say she disagreed, she was indeed quite attached to this place, which should have been obvious by the years she spent here. Even so, her choice for this as the fighting venue was all tactical, it was so she could have the best idea of where any and everyone would be and so her team would be familiar with the layout whether she was actively participating or not. 'I'll make you regret lumping in sentimentality with a tactical decision,' Eira was already fuming. But outwardly right up until this man disappeared she gave off an air of complete and utter calm. It wasn't until the magical circle which had brought him here completely disappeared did Eira's eyes close. And when they reopened there were flames of anger dancing in the background of them. Magical energy began to leak from her very person until she stood and began hurling it about the room in ball form. Gone in a matter of seconds were couches, end tables, the coffee table, her desk she even managed to blow out a few windows and incinerate the carpet with the power of her destructive magic. After about five minutes her tantrum was over and she was left standing in the middle of a desolte room save the single throne she'd been sitting upon for the duration of her chat with Onoko Astaroth. "Shit, now I have to fix it all..." she said begrudgingly to the world at large. But having cooled her jets just a bit she was more than ready to do so.

[Bloodedge]

Though she may have thought she was, Eira was not having her little destructive tantrum alone. Classes hadn't started just yet, but the Soccer Club's morning practice had been released so its students could prepare for class in a timely manner. As such, Kagimi Izuna was free with ample time for dilly dally. He took this free time the way he usually did, by floating around aimlessly whilst invisible to the eyes of others. During Eira's rampage, he was keen enough to be outside the old schoolhouse for a few minutes. Once everything seemed to have calmed down, though, he floated in through a destroyed window and made himself visible before Eira. He did so while moving forward, reaching out as if to deliver an embrace, but it was not for Eira. Instead, he wrapped his arms tightly around the one thing remaining in the room: The throne. "Ohh, yes! Chair-sama survives yet again!"

[Apollymi]

"Of course you're here now," said Eira as her Queen made himself known by floating in through a window she'd destroyed. If she'd expected anything of an embrace from the lad, her hopes were surely dashed as he hugged instead of her, the chair she'd not destroyed throughout this entire ordeal. "Why does the throne get more love than I do? I could use a hug too, you know," she stated almost rhetorically, anything to keep her mind off of what had just caused the most major tantrum of her late teens. Still, there was the matter of figuring out what Izuna knew, and how helpful he could be to her in this moment. Instead of dwelling on the mess or rather annhilation she'd just dished out to the room, she went to sit in the throne back the way she was as if nothing bad had happened her entire day. "So, Izuna, how much do you know?" she asked, as was her general way of starting a conversation with the often invisible peeper of her group.

[Bloodedge]

"Chair-sama is the only thing in this room to have survived your rampage. Chair-sama is stronger than you. Chair-sama is my new master," Izuna said while letting go of the throne and returning to his casual floating. Instead of hugging Eira, he merely patted the top of her head as she sat, all before floating away and flipping himself upside-down to converse with her. "Hmm... I know..." He paused for a moment to think. Eventually, a wide grin crossed his face. "We are definitely gonna win Nationals this year!" he said. Only a second later, the grin faded from his visage. He hadn't been around for the entire interaction between Eira and Onoko, but he'd been around long enough to piece together information and know a Rating Game would be happening tomorrow. "I know no matter which way you slice it, you're getting a maximum of three people in that fight... including yourself. Are you sure organizing your Pieces this way was a good idea after all, Eira?"

[Apollymi]

It seemed all the condolences and comforting that Eira would receive would be a simple pat on the head. Of course, such a pat went a long way for the betterment of the crimson haired lass' mood. A brief moment of questioning would let her know exactly what Izuna thought... of his soccer team. Such a moment from the boy would lead to a chuckle from this young woman, this lad always knew how to put things in perspective. But soon enough he was flipped upside down and telling Eira what was what, even using her given name, as he was prone to doing when they were alone together and didn't need to keep up the strictest of appearances. She sighed then and nodded. "That is about the gist of it. I feel like Nii-sama was looking out for us, otherwise, that could have been way worse." she said thinking about it from a more mellow perspective after having caused such a massive bit of destruction. As for the matter of whether or not it was wise to organize her pieces in such a way, a huge grin spread across her face. "I don't know if I'd call it wise. My strategy is for the end game, so I figured after choosing a couple of these people, there could be some early game mishaps, particularly after choosing a boy who is all eight pawns," she said. "But, I wouldn't trade any of you guys for the whole world. Luckily enough my own experience isn't counted as much, I only count as one. So depending on who else I chose, I could have a wide variety of things to choose from. Before I knew the second number, I thought it would be just me and you, like old times..." she said with a smirk on her face.

"But, I have to think about this like it's more than just this single victory. I have to consider this game a line drawn in the sand. Who I choose to go up against the other team will be a statement, and our first real show of power since I started gathering a peerage. I have faith in you all, but... I am going to have to see everyone in action before I make up my mind completely," she mentioned basically giving her Queen the layout of the afternoon. "I think it goes without saying everyone is going to be involved with the training. But... I think there is a fair chance we win this... no one is expecting someone to have done what I did."

[Bloodedge]

As Eira spoke, Izuna continued to move about the room in front of her. He did agree that things could have been much worse if the dice roll didn't result in a score of 12. If it had been any lower, even with Eira being given a value of a single Pawn for the game, she would have had much less room to make tactical decisions. Still, Izuna was ready and available in case she wished to play the game with herself and him alone. "Well, if you decide it's me you need, I'll give it all I've got. Onoko seems like the kind of guy who's going to come with numbers because he thinks all of his single pieces are so great. Even if we lose, though, I'm sure we could get him back with a regular Rating Game. The power and Twice Critical on that new guy aren't anything normal. He might be working on a Sub-Species already," he said. Given how much Eira had mentioned this new Pawn of hers in her speech, he believed she entertained some notion of potentially using him in the upcoming battle. If she did, and won, it would surely make a statement, but Izuna wondered how things would actually turn out. He supposed he'd have to wait for the results of training later in the day to draw his own conclusions about the Dice Figure Game.

[Apollymi]

Eira heard out what her Queen had to say and nodded. There was only one statement she didn't agree with and as she heard the words inwardly her heart sank. 'Even if we lose, though, I'm sure we could get him back with a regular Rating Game.' This lone sentence made it sound like there were no stakes, and also made her realize that though Izuna had been around long enough to hear about the Dice Figure Game, he hadn't heard the reason they were playing. A frown came to her face as she realized their loss would make it so any future wins against this same man didn't mean anything, because what was bet on this game was her hand in marriage. As disgusting as a thought this was, she didn't intend to burden her followers with this knowledge, she couldn't have them taking unnecessary risks on her behalf. After all, she didn't think of them as tools for her own use, she thought of them as her most precious and closest friends.

But with Izuna she figured keeping this knowledge from him wouldn't serve any good, so she spoke with him and him alone on the matter. "There is no pressure involved on the rest of you, but if I don't win the first time, my father promised that man I'd marry him," she said all the disgust and her earlier rage came flooding back in a single moment though she managed not to destroy anything else. "I don't think I'll be telling anyone else that, but I obviously don't want to marry that guy. I think Takumi might be an Ace for us, no way a simple Twice Critical made him take eight pieces to reincarnate..." she said giving another valuable piece of information which was, exactly how many pieces she'd used to claim her first and obviously own pawn. "But I won't burden him with it if he isn't ready." she clarified. Her thoughts about this entire ordeal were swimming all over the place, even so she couldn't wait to see what her peerage was capable of now. At the very least she had a more than decent record in practice matches, 8 wins and 2 losses, surely that wasn't just a fluke considering the decreased size of her peerage.

[Bloodedge]

"..." Izuna's brows rose, and he blinked repeatedly when Eira mentioned the stakes of this battle. He may not have heard this being discussed initially, but it was probably a good thing that he didn't; he would have had something to say in the moment if that were the case. "WHAT!?" he said after darting toward Eira, stopping with his hands slammed upon the arms of her throne as he looked her in the eye. "What the hell kind of first game is that!? No way; let me fight!" As he spoke, Izuna had subconsciously allowed the canine teeth of his natural form show. Something was occurring within the rear of his trousers as well, causing them to bulge and oscillate. The pupils of his eyes even underwent a change, becoming more like slits than what they appeared as normally. "Even if I don't fight, you have to tell whoever does! Whoever's involved should know why they have to give it everything they've got!"

[Apollymi]

She expected minor discontent from Izuna knowing about the stakes of this game, what she didn't expect was an outward showing of emotion the likes of which she hadn't seen in quite some time from the young man. She was the one who was more prone to showing anger or displeasure, even when she covered it with her regal demeanor. He dashed towards her, and though she had no fear of anything bad happening to her as a result of his anger, she could see the physical changes of his person as they happened, as he became before her, what he actually was. Canine teeth, slit pupils and she was willing to bet his tails were growing as well. Still she met his gaze without wavering in the slightest, her crimson eyes burning with the same level of anger underneath. "I know. I know, I thought the same thing... My father seemed to think it was a good idea, because he knew I wouldn't just agree to the marriage. That guy is so not my type..." she said by all outward appearances, Onoko Astaroth was an attractive man, but obviously not the sort of man who fit the personal preferences of Eira Gremory, who seemed to prefer men who were softer on the outside, but carried great strength within.

"I would hope you didn't think I was throwing that kind of tantrum over a match," she said to Izuna even so, she appreciated his outward show of emotion, she reached upwards and gave him a hug, because it was something she would have done if he were upset over something else and it was something he deserved in the moment as well. "Izuna, your bishi fox self is showing. Am I going to get to see tails today?" she teased ever so lightly. "If you think I should tell them, I will... but honestly I just didn't want to burden anyone with it," she said, which was likely one of the few personality flaws the young woman maintained. The ability to want to help everyone but the inability to accept help on her own behalf, or burden others with things she perceived to be her problem alone.