I want to thank Jin Venture for joining my Patreon. I would have liked to upload a chapter of the fic he follows, but since I don't know how, all I can do is thank him through this spam.
Okay, I used the first line so you can read it. If it's not too much trouble, could you go to my Patreon and donate for my breakfast? It's not an obligation, and I won't stop uploading; I'm just asking for a little help. Obviously, the Patreon is about five chapters ahead. Please be kind. Support this poor soul.
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The atmosphere in the Occult Research Club was a pressure cooker about to explode. The academy's magical barriers vibrated with heavy static, announcing that the dimensional space for the Rating Game was finishing its consolidation.
Following the official protocol of the Underworld, the entire Student Council had appeared in the room to act as witnesses and supervisors for the Gremory side. Sona Sitri, in her impeccable uniform and with military seriousness, reviewed the registration scrolls alongside Tsubaki. Saji Genshirou remained firm in the rear, exchanging competitive but respectful looks with Issei, who wore a headband and had the Boosted Gear glowing faintly, ready for war.
And amid all that deployment of personnel, Yugo Hano found himself facing a massive logistical problem.
"Shit. Sona is literally glued to the dimensional exit door," the professor analyzed, hidden behind a curtain in the dimness at the back of the club.
If he crossed the portal into the battlefield in his human form, Sona would intercept him immediately. Worse still, if he used a noisy or flashy transformation to sneak in, the energy signature would ruin the surprise factor against Riser and alert the referees. He had to smuggle himself into the game, completely undetectable.
Yugo looked toward the group. Rias was busy speaking with Grayfia through a communication circle. Asia was focused on adjusting her emergency potions. Only one viable option remained, one that was already becoming an embarrassing and recurring infiltration strategy.
He slid his gray eyes toward Akeno Himejima, who had casually stepped away from the group to arrange some books on the rear shelf, turning her back to the Student Council.
Yugo did not think twice. Taking advantage of the murmur of Rias's conversation, he turned the Omnitrix dial to the Galvan symbol and pressed the core with a surgically silent touch.
FLASH!
A tiny emerald spark, hidden by the curtain's shadow, transformed the man into the tiny fifteen-centimeter alien. Grey Matter wasted no time; using his powerful frog legs, he made a clean jump, bounced off the shelf, and launched himself straight toward the collar of the Priestess of Thunder's uniform.
Akeno let out an imperceptible gasp when she felt the small, cool silhouette slide with astonishing familiarity into her blouse. With an extremely flirtatious smile and eyes shining with mischief, the black-haired girl crossed her arms over her chest, helping push the little Galvan toward his destination so he would not fall.
And in that instant, Grey Matter's superior intellect understood what true tactical opulence meant.
If Rias's cleavage had been a suffocating emergency fortress, and Asia's a slippery, aerodynamic ramp where he had nearly died from gravity, Akeno Himejima's was the equivalent of a five-star hotel in outer space.
"This... defies my mental resistance parameters," Yugo thought in his alien form, completely buried in an abyss of extreme softness.
The space was perfect. The volume of the Gremory Queen not only held him with a firmness that eliminated any danger of falling, but the fabric of her satin underwear seemed designed to cushion any dimensional impact. But the true danger to the Galvan's super-advanced brain was not the anatomy, but the environmental factor.
An intoxicating aroma of jasmine tea, mixed with the sweet floral essence of Akeno's skin and a subtle trace of ozone purified by her lightning, filled Grey Matter's olfactory sacs. The girl's body heat was not suffocating like Heatblast's; it was a soothing, constant, rhythmic warmth that matched the calm beats of her heart.
Grey Matter's eyelids began to grow heavy. His brain, which had spent ten years on maximum alert and the last ten days planning combat strategies without proper sleep, began registering that hiding place not as a trench, but as a feather bed.
"Don't fall asleep, idiot..." Yugo scolded himself, stretching his small gray arms to pinch his amphibian thighs. "You're a veteran assassin. You have a cosmic watch on your chest. You can't fall asleep inside a high school student's bra right before a magical chess match. Maintain discipline..."
While the little alien fought a losing battle against sleep and the jasmine perfume, outside, Grayfia Lucifuge's voice rang out from the center of the room, activating the final portal.
"The Rating Game dimension has stabilized. Rias Gremory's peerage... please step forward."
Sona Sitri stepped aside, adjusting her glasses and carefully observing each member as they crossed the crimson magic circle. Issei passed through with a battle cry, Kiba and Koneko with stone-faced expressions, and Asia with a determined gaze.
When it was Akeno's turn, the Queen walked with her usual slow grace. As she passed beside Sona, Akeno gave her a strangely broad and satisfied smile, subtly pressing her hands against her own chest with a gesture Sona could not decipher, but that gave her a sudden and inexplicable chill at the back of her neck.
"Good luck, Rias," Sona murmured, watching as the last crimson glow enveloped the Gremory group.
The portal closed, transporting the team to the dimensional replica of Kuoh Academy. And deep within the enemy vanguard, cradled by the warmth of the Priestess of Thunder and floating in a sea of jasmine fragrance, the Gremory secret weapon gave a small sonic yawn, ready to awaken as soon as the first fried chicken tried to ignite the battlefield.
...
The journey through the interdimensional portal was instantaneous, but for the complex magical network that managed Rating Games in the Underworld, a millisecond was enough time to audit every participant.
When the crimson light scanned the group, the system detected a blatant anomaly: a Pawn piece that did not resonate with the blood of House Gremory. The automated defenses of the circle nearly expelled the intruder into the dimensional void, but a second scan cross-checked the information with the contract signed by Grayfia Lucifuge and Riser Phenex. The exception had been approved by the highest authority.
In the Underworld transmission room, where dozens of pure-blood nobles had gathered to watch the spectacle, the magical voice of the announcer rang out loudly:
"The team of House Gremory has arrived on the battlefield! King: Rias Gremory! Queen: Akeno Himejima! Knight: Yuuto Kiba! Rook: Koneko Toujou! Bishop: Asia Argento! Pawn: Issei Hyoudou! And..." The magical voice seemed to hesitate for a microsecond, as if the system itself did not know how to process the next information. "Special Guest Pawn of House Sitri: Yugo Hano!"
The red flash faded, leaving the Gremory peerage inside an exact replica of the Occult Research Club. Everything, from the mahogany desk to the sofas, was identical to their base in the human world.
Rias looked around, taking a deep breath to calm the nerves of the imminent battle. She turned toward her servants.
"Very well, everyone. We're on the enemy field. We need to review the strategy and..."
The President stopped. Her blue eyes narrowed as she noticed her Queen's posture. Akeno Himejima was standing near the window, hands clasped behind her back, swaying lightly on her heels with a smile of pure and absolute bliss. A very faint, almost inaudible rhythmic sound came from her chest.
It was a sharp snore. A tiny "Zzz, zzz."
Rias felt a vein pulse at her temple. Suddenly, the memory of her own previous night, of how she had opened up to him in the darkness of the mansion, violently collided with the image of the professor using her best friend's blouse as a luxury hotel. A sharp, territorial, and very un-aristocratic pang of jealousy pierced her stomach.
Asia Argento, who had also just processed where the sound was coming from, puffed out her cheeks until she looked like an angry pufferfish, clenching her fists at her sides.
"H-He was hiding there the whole time?!" the nun shrieked, pointing at Akeno's cleavage with a trembling finger. "Y-Yugo-san! That's unfair!"
"Akeno..." Rias called, trying to maintain her leaderly tone, though her frown betrayed her. "I think it's time to wake up our 'secret weapon.' We need to coordinate."
Akeno let out a musical giggle, clearly enjoying the envious looks from her companions.
"Ara, ara. If the President asks..."
With extreme delicacy, Akeno inserted two fingers into the collar of her uniform and pulled the small gray alien out of his sanctuary of jasmine and warmth. Grey Matter had his eyes closed, was drooling slightly, and his amphibian limbs hung inert under the weight of accumulated sleep.
Akeno gently placed him on Rias's desk.
The tiny alien shivered when he felt the cold wood. He slowly opened one of his immense green eyes without pupils. The bright magical light of the room blinded him for a second. Grey Matter looked at Rias, who was watching him with crossed arms and a frown. Then he looked at Asia, who was pouting in pure indignation. Then he looked at the tactical map spread across the table.
The Galvan's super-advanced brain processed the war situation in a millisecond. And it made the most logical and efficient decision possible.
"Five more minutes..." the tiny high-pitched, sleepy voice buzzed.
Not giving a damn about class warfare, the pride of the Underworld, or the Rating Game, the little alien stood up unsteadily, acting like a complete sleepwalker.
He royally ignored Rias and Asia. He made an expert jump from the desk, tracing a perfect parabola through the air, and landed back on Akeno's chest.
Before the Priestess of Thunder could react, Grey Matter dove back into the abyss. But this time, the small gray hands peeked out from the edge of the fabric, took the top two buttons of Akeno's school blouse, and with a comical but precise effort, buttoned them from the inside, closing the opening completely.
"Roof activated. Turn off the lights and wake me when the chicken is ready to fry..." the muffled voice was heard from inside the shirt, immediately followed by the rhythmic "Zzz, zzz."
Akeno brought a hand to her cheek, completely red up to her ears, but her smile was so wide that she seemed about to melt.
"Oh my... it seems Jose doesn't want to come out. I'll have to take care of him a little longer," the Queen purred in a whisper, gently stroking the fabric of her blouse.
"HE'S A MONSTER!!" Issei cried in a corner, biting a tissue. "IT'S NOT ENOUGH FOR HIM TO BE INVINCIBLE, HE'S ALSO THE HAREM KING!! DAMN LUCKY FROG!"
Rias rubbed her temples, exhaling a sigh that mixed exasperation, jealousy, and absolute resignation. They had brought the destroyer of worlds, and at this moment, he was taking a nap.
"Leave him," Rias finally ordered, recovering her composure with a titanic effort. "Hano-sensei said he wouldn't intervene until we cleared the way. It's up to us to take the first step."
The President moved away from the desk and approached Issei, who immediately stopped crying from jealousy when he noticed the seriousness on his mistress's face.
"Ise, stand up," Rias instructed him.
The brown-haired boy straightened, wiping away his comical tears and adopting a military posture.
Rias raised her right hand, and a crimson magic circle appeared over her palm.
"You have trained until your muscles and bones broke, Ise. You have survived the terror of Humungousaur and the hell of your own weakness," said the Princess of Ruin, her voice resonating with ancient power. "But your physical body has already reached its natural limit. To use the true power of the Red Dragon Emperor in this battle, I need to release the restrictions your human body still retains."
Issei nodded, extending his left arm, where the Boosted Gear was already manifested.
"Do it, Buchou. I'm ready. I'm not afraid of anything... well, except Sensei crushing me, but I'm not afraid of Riser."
Rias smiled faintly. She placed her glowing hand over Issei's chest, right above his heart.
"By my right as your King, and by the blood of House Gremory, I lift the demonic seals. Awaken, my beloved Pawn!"
A torrent of crimson energy exploded inside the room. The shockwave pushed books off the shelves, but unlike the original canon where Issei only felt an increase in magical power, this time his body's response was infinitely more violent and stable.
His muscles, hardened by ten days of escaping alien colossi, absorbed the demonic power like a dry sponge. The red gauntlet on his arm expanded slightly, its metal plates locking together with threatening precision, and the emerald gem shone with blinding intensity.
Issei let out a scream that blended with a draconic roar.
"YES!!" the brown-haired boy roared, looking at his own hands, feeling as if he could destroy a mountain with one punch. "I feel incredible! I feel like I could punch Chromastone and crack him!"
From inside Akeno's buttoned blouse, the muffled little voice of the gray alien broke the epicness of the moment.
"If you put a crack in my crystal, I'll hang you by your entrails from Kuoh Bridge. Shut up and go kill birds..."
Issei swallowed, his courage shrinking by five percent instantly. "Y-Yes, Sensei."
Rias Gremory turned toward the rest of her peerage. Kiba drew his sword. Koneko tightened her gloves. Akeno unleashed electric sparks between her fingers, proudly carrying her lethal sleeping passenger. Asia prepared her healing rings.
"The game has begun," announced the Princess of Ruin, her eyes shining with implacable crimson fire. "We are going to destroy Riser Phenex's pride. Forward, my peerage!"