Tale of Discovery

"I should just kill him off like the rest," I say in a voice loud enough for the hidden Nekomata to hear.

I create an ordinary sword and press it against Vali's neck.

Raising the sword, I make it seem like I'm about to chop his head off before saying,

"You were the one that challenged me."

As expected, before I can go through with the "execution", the Nekomata appears behind me and uses her powers to attack my back.

Applying Vector Manipulation, I reflect the attack to her, which surprises her for a split-second before she nimbly dodges it.

"Another challenger has appeared," I declare mockingly.

Turning around to face the Nekomata, I inquire solemnly, "Who are you?"

She doesn't answer my inquiry properly as she just states,

"You're a tough one to knock down Vali like this."

I decide to ignore the 'nya' at the end of her sentence for the better part of it.

Nevertheless, I ought to beat some sense into her as brushing off someone's inquiry regarding oneself is quite a rude thing to do.

Fortunately, she saves me the trouble of attacking her as she does so herself.

Despite being sure that the attacks won't hurt me, I continuously dodge them to make her believe that I'm no longer able to use my ability to reflect her attacks.

After a while, she realizes that my speed is a little too fast for her attacks, so she moves closer to me.

Naturally, I take advantage of this as I close the distance between us in a split-second and before she's able to react, I grab her and slam her into the ground that's covered in debris.

She seems to have taken a lot of damage from this as she coughs out some blood.

Lifting her up with telekinesis, I say to her nonchalantly,

"Are you willing to tell me your name now?"

The girl glowers at me for a few seconds before responding with,

"Kuroka Toujou."

I act like I'm surprised and look into the distance as if I'm thinking of something.

Using my senses, I make sure that she observes my actions and her reaction to them before turning back to her and saying,

"You know, I'm not a fan of being forceful with others, so could you please follow me without resistance?"

In response to this, Kuroka looks at me strangely before asking,

"And you claim that what you've done up until now hasn't been forceful?"

[[She has a point, you know?]]

"Shut up, Tia," I whisper before looking Kuroka in the eyes and stating, "You guys were the ones that appeared in my territory with ill-intentions. It's only to be expected that I will beat you up."

Crouching beside her, I say in a friendly manner,

"How about we make a deal?"

This seems to pique her interest as she looks at me, curiously waiting for me to state what I have in mind.

Creating two chairs, I place Kuroka on one of them as I take a seat on the other.

"In return for sparing that guy's life over there, I want you to follow me to my home."

Kuroka looks at me curiously before asking me,

"Why do you want me to follow you?"

Nodding my head once, I reply in a casual tone,

"There is someone that I want you to meet."

This immediately results in Kuroka squinting her eyes as she cautiously asks,

"Who?"

Chuckling at her reaction, I move my head closer to her before I softly say,

"Your sister."

Kuroka's previously squinted eyes immediately widen from shock. She stays silent for a few seconds before she says gravely,

"How do I know you're not lying?"

Not minding her tone, I say with a smile plastered to my face,

"There is no point in lying to you, as I could simply have you follow me through more extreme means. I'm fairly certain that you're aware of my power."

As Kuroka falls silent, I begin to think of her reaction to my words.

From the looks of it, she didn't see what happened in the academy, or else she would've known about Koneko being with me.

Despite that, I felt someone watching us mid-battle. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make out the location we were being watched from.

---

Upon arriving back at Kuoh Academy, I examine the now-windowless building.

That's a lot of damage.

As if sensing my return, the girls come over to where I'm at.

"What happened?" Rias asks while observing Kuroka who's standing behind me.

"Nothing much," I reply casually, "Just some punk a lesson about true power."

Upon hearing my words, some of the girls who're present close their eyes as if they are offering Vali their condolences.

"Hey! Don't act like whenever I'm concerned, someone dies!"

My words seem to enter through one ear and leave through the other, as they keep on doing what they are.

Leaving them aside, I look at the two Nekomata who have been staring at each other for a while now without uttering a single word.

"Come on," I say encouragingly, "say something. That's your sister over there, no?"

Kuroka does seem like she wants to say something, but the moment she opens her mouth, it looks like something prevents her from talking.

Whatever. I'll leave the girls to their own devices. If I see no progress in their relationship in the future, I will just take matters into my own hands.

"Since things turned out the way they did today, you may all go on with your day. Let's go. Koneko. Asia."

With the two of them in tow, I go over to the kendo the club. Surely, all the girls currently at school right now are panic-stricken.

---

On the way back home, Kristina was already in her maid attire. When I asked her about it, she said that she changed into it at school.

Her friends already knew about it, so it didn't cause much of a problem for her other than most of them showering her with praises about how good it looked on her.

They also asked her about her "owner", which Kristina revealed to be none other than myself by my order.

What's there to hide about having a schoolgirl as one's maid? Nothing at all. Besides, my reputation at school is quite high, so the girls were more enthusiastic about it than anything else.

Leaving that aside, Kristina surprisingly got the hang of driving the limo fairly quickly, despite it being the first vehicle she's ever driven.

Insight might have played a big role in this, but it's not an easy feat to achieve.

I should reward her later.

Now, I ought to be more concerned about Koneko's case.

During the ride home, she sat on my lap as if it were the most natural thing to do while nuzzling her head against my chest.

To calm her down, I tried all sorts of things, from petting her to gently stroking her tail.

This was effective as she beamed a little before dozing off while purring.

As soon as we reached the mansion I had Kuroka introduce herself to the rest of the residents, before carrying the sleeping Koneko to my room while ultimately ignoring the concerned look I was given by her sister.

And so, here I am right now, lying beside a sleeping Koneko who's curled herself up.

Knowing that there will be a lot of explanation and stressful moments later, I peck her on the lips before bringing her body closer and petting her while falling asleep myself.