THE XIV.

“Motorcycle noises. Lucifer likes it when I do them…”

Okay, picturing that was incredibly weird -- but who knows, it might work. If this demon continued loitering around, who knows what would happen. Probably something bad.

…Okay, so that was just him being worried over nothing. Battler sighs in relief at Raidou’s ignorance of the witch. In truth, the probability of any sort of connection existing here was pretty low, but he preferred not to risk.

Gouto purrs in acceptance – even though the Bernkastel thing lingers on your mind. Battler seemed pretty relieved that you didn’t know who she was, but who was she, then? Well, maybe you should probably ask later, even though this is a bit… weird, to say the least.

“They have a class on magic here? What the hell? Why didn’t anyone tell me? They better have put Beato’s portrait up in that classroom… 

“Portrait? You mean that portrait on the main hall?” You remembered it very, very well -- it was probably impossible to miss, considering it was huge and very detailed. You had to admit it scared you, even though you didn’t exactly show it.

RP starters: Flirting ( + responses to it. )

“…Not that different from the succession of the Beatrices, I guess.”

“No, nothing of the sort.”

“Oh, that’s it! Thanks, man, you’re a lifesaver!” Battler grins at Raidou and takes the sheet of paper. Whew, that was a relief. He’d be damned if he he had to rewrite this whole thing all over again. “Sorry, I’m probably blocking your way, aren’t-”

“It’s alright.” Hopefully there was still time to do this essay. It was a pretty easy subject, but you kept getting distracted by other things – but as soon as you were to get out, he notices Gouto, which makes him just give Battler a very confused look.

        The hesitation in his voice, it’s all clear to her now. He probably felt insecure about his abilities! It was up to Kou to reassure him and convince him he was good enough to try out! She takes a deep breath and closes her eyes. When she opens them, there is a noticeable shift in her attitude. 

You stay in silence. That was probably checkmate – I mean, you could swim, but still. You turn to Gouto for advice; maybe he could help you, somehow. 

“The fourteenth? Huh. You could say that I am the 7th Beatrice, from my own family. I wouldn’t say my family has a long history of demon summoning and the occult, since it all started with my grandfather… but that’s still nearly a century altogether. I also happen to be the head. I mean, sort of. It’s complicated. My brother is, too. And so is my aunt.”

“I see. In my world, there are multiple clans of Devil Summoners – in which everyone succeeds the other with the name of the original Kuzunoha, and then loses their actual name.” But then it hit you. ‘Brother’? Maybe it was him, after all… wouldn’t really hurt to ask. “I have a small question. Your brother – is his name Battler? Battler Ushiromiya?”

    It takes no small measure of self control not to retort with something like ‘obviously’ or ‘of course it is’. He isn’t a celebrity in this city. The whole world isn’t watching his every move here. It’s both a comfort and a source of anxiety. That freedom led him to make some bad decisions in the past, but this is neither the time or place to think about all that. And so he smiles, settling for a silent thanks as he takes the handsome stranger’s hand. 

     You follow his lead, slowly – the song helped a lot, and after a few moments, you got used to it. It wasn’t really hard, and the other was leading fairly well; it helped, and the fact that you were already more comfortable in the situation was pretty nice, for a change. You relax and continue to follow his lead.