Pulling her flask out of the fridge—which is also where she had found it last night—Steliana took a nice sip of cool, refreshing blood. Aah. That's nice. Not as good as real blood though, definently lacking something. But it's good enough. Last night, she had sadly discovered another thing. Even with her perk that stated she wouldn't need to eat, she still needed to drink blood. Bit of a scam, but it's not like I don't enjoy it.
After all, unlike most other vampires in her world, she had been a naturally born one. For her, there had never been a real moral conundrum about drinking blood. It was also why she had chosen to be a Vampire, or a Dhampire to be technical once more in this life.
Her magic flask wasn't the only thing she had discovered, though. After Kiyoko and her 'friends' had left, she hadn't left the warehouse. No, she had continued studying. Originally, she had indeed planned to go out and explore the surroundings a little bit, but seeing the sheer gap in raw power had made her realize something.
I'm weak. Which, actually, wasn't that big of a deal for Steliana personally. Her daggers being able to penetrate the Stray Devil clearly showcased that she made up for quite a bit of it with skill and control over her magic. However, there was a problem with the weakness of her magic and physical body. Other people. While she had originally realized how pathetic her magic was, she hadn't had a true sense of scale for other Low Class.
With that sense of scale came perspective. Her magic was pathetically weak. "In fact," she mused to herself while swirling the flask, "I'd go as far as to say impossibly weak without a birth defect." She wasn't going to point fingers at the being who reincarnated her, but it was pretty clear that they had done some shenanigans at this point. Shenanigans that any adult Youkai would realize that. Which would become a problem when interacting with people and exchanging favors or services. Particularly because of her 'saint' tag.
But she needed to use the forums if she wanted to get into the school, considering she didn't have a totally obscene amount of money. While she had some money, a large part of it she'd likely need to spend on basic training equipment. Plans change with new knowledge. At least that common problem doesn't change between worlds. The new revised plan went something like this.
1. Continue studying, this time focusing on Youkai/Japanese/Supernatural culture, any available knowledge of power or 'ranks' for Youkai, study what was available about Youkai/Vampire biology, and learn about the economy.
2. Set a good foundation for her physical body, because it was currently as useful as a wet paper bag.
3. Unlike her physical body, her magical side actually had an incredibly firm foundation from both her imprinted knowledge and her last life. So instead, she needed to focus on growing the raw amount.
Step three was inarguably the most important thing right now. By her estimation, she'd need to grow the raw amount of Youki she had by somewhere in the range of 7-8x to be a 'proper' Low-class Youkai. Or, in other words, the standard of adulthood for a common Youkai race. Now I'm a Nekoshou, and Koneko only grew her 2nd-tail at around High-class. But that isn't relevant for the sake of safety, security, and privacy.
She wanted to say this wouldn't take much time, but she honestly couldn't give an estimation on how long it would take. Her body was in a truly horrendous situation, so that would limit her magical growth. Not only that, but she was barely a teenager—basically a child. While my point of view is biased from the perspective of viewing it through the lens of an ecchi anime and light novel, there are a few things that I need to remember and note down.
The fact is, a thirteen-year-old Nekoshou wouldn't grow as fast as possible, even if she were a certified genius. From a few plot threads, it can be quite easily confirmed that a Nekoshou's biology is a bit slower to kick start than a human's. Kuroka stated that Koneko wasn't ready to go through a heat yet, that she wasn't ready to have kids. While I hate to admit it, at sixteen, human women would theoretically be ready to do so on a physical level. Especially with how physically strong Koneko was at that point. Of course, this was an ecchi world, which led her to a tentative belief.
Up until a certain age, my magic and physique are going to grow more slowly. Of course, even without further study, she was also relatively sure there was a way around that. Koneko's growth likely picked up when she grew her second tail, even if she didn't get much older compared to the start of the story. A sign of 'adulthood' in a way, so such a restriction would likely disappear no matter my age if I were to do the same.'
So, she was kind of in a catch-twenty-two situation. Particularly with the fact that using her rare candies now would be incredibly wasteful because of her theorized stilted growth—albeit if her theory about High class was correct, they could also likely push her to that level with enough of them.
Which is why I need to study more. I have no problem using one or two of those rare candies now to help me get over this starting hurdle, but I need to properly study and set a training plan first. I need to optimize, and I need to be ready. She wasn't sure how strict the candies would be on the simulated training, but every preparation possible was needed so she wouldn't waste them too much.
How amusingly annoying. Likely another reason why I was made to be so weak. A way to stop me from growing too strong, too fast, and from gaining connections and influence too soon before the story. Of course, such a pitiful thing like that wouldn't stop her.
If it turned out that she needed to shovel all ten rare candies down her gullet to break through any restriction and reach High-class before the story properly started? She would, and would do it without regrets. Even if they could theoretically be saved for her ascension to Ultimate-class, Satan-class, or even to help her break all barriers of race to reach Transcendant.
Something between a smirk and a smile spread on Steliana's face. After all, to quote a statement about my fellow strongest in the world… Am I me because I am the strongest? Or am I the strongest because I am me?'
She knew her answer. Was it absurdly prideful to feel she didn't need the rare candies to break into the upper echelon of the world? Perhaps. But it was her pride and her pride alone. The pride she had been born into as the first and only heir of a family of monsters. The pride she had polished her skills with, the pride she had saved her world with, and her pride that caused the actions she had become hated and reviled for.
Her lips fell back to a neutral position as she put the flask back into the fridge. So. Studying, figuring out a training plan, and then training. Jeesh, it almost feels like I'm back at school. A chuckle escaped from her. Man, that was kind of a bad joke, huh? Not quite, but I will be soon. It was a shame she wouldn't be able to immediately enroll in Kuoh All Girls Academy's Junior High branch. As much as she liked to complain about school back when she went, she really did miss not just the structure but the fun that could be had. This is going to take a while, though, isn't it? It might be best if I enroll in the next session instead of being a couple of months late to this one.
But that was something for later. For now? She grabbed her phone and once more dived back into Devilnet. Shame that I'm banned from Devilgram and Devilflix until I lose that underage tag. It wouldn't really help ease the studying and training. Also, the fact that I can't access the more 'general' and 'global basic forums' until that tag is gotten rid of. In fact, such a thing was such an annoyance that it was the first thing she decided to study, so that she could properly understand it and any insights such a thing might possibly give.
Her quick delve into the Devilnet underage tag was a confusing, utter mess. To lose the tag, the requirements changed based on race, faction, nationality, etc. So like I said… confusing mess. Even more so for Youkai, who weren't 'just' Youkai, but a specific subspecies of Youkai who all grew differently. Even worse for her? Nekomata were a subspecies of Youkai, yes, but Nekoshou were a subspecies—or perhaps an evolved version of Nekomata. So learning how to get her tag removed was a mental workout in itself.
Basically, it came down to a few things. The 'global' age for Supernaturals that weren't Humans and weren't affiliated with any faction, race, or religion was fifty. So basically things like Dragons, Fae, Demonic beasts, various random Monsters, and creatures of that nature.
Then, came where it was modified. The Shinto Pantheon, of which all Japanese tenuously fell under, set it to one hundred. Because they were basically immortal gods slurping up the faith and energies of humanity, and so even one hundred was still a baby in their terms. Albeit an ecchi world baby. Luckily for Steliana specific faction took precedent. Naturally, the Western Youkai faction was quite 'free,' and so they set it to sixteen because it aligned with a general Age of Consent. Fucking ecchi world. Of course, it's not because it aligned with the Age of Majority. But that was great for her, right?
Well, no. Because I'm still also under the purview of that old seven-tailed hag from the Eastern Youkai faction! Although she wouldn't be too harsh, considering the fact that it was highly likely that 'Lady of the Blackened Sun' was in fact her 'clan leader' or whatever the Youkai would call. After all, it said verified Daiyoukai, and that title only falls onto Youkai who can equal a Dragon King. The chances of it being her were… very high.
Still, the point was that while, as a resident of Yasaka's part of the country, she might tentatively be considered a member of her faction. She was born into the Nekomata clan, much like she was born into the Vampire race. Luckily, my fellow bat enjoyers flat out don't give a shit. Either that, or the two major factions argued so much that one couldn't be set. She had checked last night, and their boards were nearly empty.
So, that left her with the Nekomata side of things on how to get rid of the unseemly underage tag. Which led her to not only wanting to curse, but also to smirk at a subtle display of her current theory being current. Because that old hag Magari for Nekoshou didn't set it to an age, no.
She set the requirements to get rid of the tag as having two tails, otherwise known–at least in Steliana's theories–as the standard for a Nekoshou to have high-class level energy, and the natural growth they'd obtain once they were an adult.
… Which also meant her theory that breaking any 'restrictions' on her growth would be a bit more difficult than initially anticipated, but she'd deal with it. Oh well. It's a shame I won't be able to see Serafall's show for a while. Or figure out if Ecchi-world Twilight exists, but she'd survive a few years till then. Assuming I don't just eat all my candies, of course. With ten candies, that would be the equivalent of five years of total complete hardcore training with no distractions.
Even with whatever physical limitations being so young would give her, there wasn't a doubt in her mind that would push her to High-class if necessary. I just have to hope that it won't be necessary.
After all, the first step is just Riser. He's no Ultimate-class Devil, and apart from Yubelluna, the rest of his peerage caps out AT BEST as your average Mid-class. I have five years and probably some days until that Rating game happens in canon. That's more than enough time, especially if I can study properly, get some good knowledge, and constantly revise training methods.
In fact, that entire rating game was kind of a sham in the first place. For one simple reason, there was no Ultimate-class Devil in the house of Phenex. Because in the Devil underworld, the nobility of a family was ranked not just by contribution, but also by the strongest member of the family's power and rank. It's why the Belial family was a King-rated family even though they were poor and despised before Diehauser. So all it would have taken was for Rias to beg her Ancestor, who was basically her twin physically, and the Phenex pillar clan would have had to back down.
Actually, now that I think about it, in this world, with that political world change I took… It's also why the Phenex family will do anything to make sure that marriage happens.
Not because they were greedy for power, no. But for a simple fact, to get what they deserved. Honestly, as much as I despise arranged marriages and removing people's choice to love freely. I can understand it from the perspective of the Phenexes.
The eldest son, Ruval, was a respectable figure. At tenth place in the rating games, he might seem like he wasn't a true top-class Devil. After all, Satans, Ancestral Devils like Runeas or Zekram, and people like Grayfia or Mephisto didn't participate. Except for one caveat. His position wasn't truly just tenth.
At least the second and third place in the rating games was cheating, and there was a possibility that four more were as well. Which if the most extreme answer were true, such a scandal would leave in the Top 10 only Diehauser, Rudiger, Tannin, and Ruval. So yes, I have to expect that the Phenex will do ANYTHING to get this marriage to happen. For one reason, and one reason alone.
To get enough political power to 'push' Ruval Phenex's Ultimate-class application through, which will then elevate the Phenex family to at least the rank of Prince, if not Duke. This is going to be harder than I thought, then. I screwed myself a bit, because the Great King faction would be the ones blocking that application, and they're the ones rigging the Rating Games. Fixing the problem wasn't as simple as just telling Rias's peerage to 'train'. No matter what some people seemed to think online… not that I would Google DxD or anything ridiculous like that. Of course not!
Both of those things would be ridiculous thoughts. Because it was a canonical fact that Rias's peerage and Rias herself did train. In fact, they didn't 'just' train. It was an undeniably stated fact that Rias's peerage trained the second most in their generation, just behind Sairaog's. It was just that hard for most people to go from Low-Class to Mid-Class. I just witnessed that myself after all.
While the multiplicative gap between Mid-Class and High-Class would likely be far lower than from the bottom of Low-Class to Mid-Class, the numerical one? It was likely even higher. Making it so that the journey from Mid-Class to High-Class was still a grueling journey, but just a far more manageable one. I should be able to help them out some when they come to Kuoh, but I doubt it will be the point of making Koneko and Kiba High-Class. She certainly couldn't push Rias or Akeno into Ultimate-class either.
Shit. It appeared… she had made herself a small problem. Surely there have to be some laws around peerage trading, right? The worst case scenario, and the one that she had to prepare for if she didn't want to fail her mission and have Sirzechs Lucifer after her ass? The one thing she absolutely didn't want to face? It was Ruval transferring his entire peerage temporarily to Riser. An absurd thing that shouldn't be possible, that in any reasonable society would be outlawed.
The Devil's weren't a reasonable society, and Steliana truly couldn't say the Phenexes wouldn't dare to do such an insane thing, not when their future was on the line. Fuck. Okay, there goes me taking the marriage plot as a way to ease into the chaos. This might actually turn out to be harder than dealing with Kokabiel and his soldiers.
Because a peerage that was in the Top 10? At minimum, every member had the combat power of a High-class, and the Queen might hold Ultimate-class power themselves. Considering Tannin in his berserk state could reach Satan-class, with a peerage of ten Dragons who also had a berserk state, and he was below the 2nd and 3rd rank at an unconfirmed position? Yeah, this is fucked. I'm definently going to need to use a few rare candies at some point.
It was basically forcing her into either becoming one of Rias's peerage members, shoveling rare candies down Rias's throat, or finding an absurd alternate workaround. Alright, enough of this. I have time to figure it out, and I won't be able to make any decently concrete conclusions until I can learn more about Devil society.
Which would be hard, considering literally every single faction in existence banned those with the underage tag from communicating at all with Devils through Devilnet. Anddd were back in that circle again. Okay, enough of that little mental breakdown and more slices of the humble pie. Time to study!
And so with that horrible realization over, Steliana Utsusemi's first week of her new life passed in studying, training, and only a couple of short breaks to go to local stores to grab some equipment. Also fried pastry. Oh, heaven. So much fried pastry.