"Come on, Prince! It could totally work!" Shiki all but pleaded. "We do our whole combo attack thing, the swords shoot out of the ground, right? But then, but then, the swords explode! Come on, how cool is that?"

"Shiki, we would be in the middle of the blast. You do realize that, no?"

"Look, I'm not saying I've worked out all the finer details, alright? What I am saying is exploding swords."

"How would you even go about making them explode? Have you finished perfecting that "Detonation" technique of yours?"

"Hey, you remembered the name! It sounds so much cooler when someone else says. Also, not even close and even if it was it's not suited for this kind of job. I'd have to go and tap every sword individually, then trigger the explosion. Too much time and too much demonic power. Anyway, that's not the point. You know how people typically tend to have an element they work best with? Stuff that they just pick up faster than normal?" Kiba nodded. "Okay, well, mine is Explosion."

A moment of dead silence.

"...That's not an element," Koneko spoke softly, finally saying something since the conversation started.

Shiki turned to the Rook with a blank look."You know, I almost forgot you were here for a second. Anyways, says who? Even if it's not, I'll just make it one then."

Koneko just went back to reading her book as Kiba shook his head in mirth. His comrade was so strange. Ever since he discovered how to make a blast with his demonic power he had been non-stop with trying to work an explosion into everything. Granted, he couldn't say it hadn't paid off. That attack of his at the end of the Rating Game with Phenex was a spectacle in and of itself.

"Say I were to agree..."

"Really? Really really?"

"...with this," he continued, noting with amusement that Shiki's eyes lit up at the word "agree", "we have nowhere to put any of this into practice. Physical training is one thing but I don't think Buchou will be pleased if the town starts getting reports of bombs going off."

Shiki frowned. Yeah, that would probably cause him some trouble, wouldn't it? Not the enjoyable kind either. What a pain.

"Fine, but this conversation isn't over. The second we get a training ground where we can do whatever the hell we want, we're trying this. You owe me that much." Kiba nodded and that was good enough for Shiki to finally drop the topic.

"Sooo… Do either of you ever do anything for fun?" Both of his allies looked at him quizzically, though with Koneko it was a lot more muted. "I mean, we don't really hang out, do we? I think this is the first time we've actually done something together outside of club stuff."

The three were in Shiki's room after Rias had given everyone in the club the next couple of days off from fulfilling contracts. She mentioned something about having to go to the Underworld and the Gremory family being in talks with the Phenex over a recent issue unrelated to Riser. All he knew was if she came back with another marriage contract he was going to be irritated. He only just got the feeling back into his arm a few days ago.

The Pawn had decided that, despite calling them his friends, he hadn't really done much talking with them outside of "work" and sought to change that. Of course, in typical Shiki fashion, he just grabbed them both and dragged them to his house without any real plan of action on what to do there. Both of his parents were out, thankfully. He didn't need his mother cracking jokes about how he was bringing a third girl upstairs, and Satan only knows what she'd say if she saw Kiba too.

"Training, mostly."

Shiki just looked at Kiba. "How is that fun? How is that fun to you?"

"Don't you have fun blowing things up?"

"That's a hobby. It just also functions as training. Pick something else, we've already established that we can't train properly and we're supposed to be relaxing today."

"What about-"

"And if it has anything to do with swords, I'm gonna hit you. Twice. After that last spar, I am so done with swords. Forever."

"...I like to cook?"

Shiki looked at the blonde Knight blankly. Cooking? That wasn't going to work at all.

"Yeah, I can't do anything with that. I'm not allowed to cook anymore." Shiki said, that last sentence more under his breath, before clearing his throat. "Koneko, you're up. You pick something."

"You're not allowed?" Kiba asked in confusion, not letting the matter die.

Shiki looked away, rubbing the back of his neck. "Yeah, see, funny story. After the fourth time in a row that I gave myself food poisoning, I was told to never step foot in a kitchen with the intent of cooking ever again, both by my parents and by hospital staff." He caught Kiba's smile widening just a fraction. He could even see Koneko's lips turning slightly upward. "Laugh and I'll be explaining to Rias when she comes back why Asia had to heal you two from a comatose state."

"Do you want me to teach you?"

"Do I look like I'm an idiot? I know how to cook. It's not that difficult, you just follow the instructions!" Shiki felt his cheeks redden. "It's just that whatever I make becomes poison." He gained a contemplative look at that. "Hmm. Poison. I wonder if I could make actual poison. Increase the properties of it with Boosted Gear..."

"Shiki-senpai has that dangerous look in his eyes again."

The small girl wasn't wrong. His eyes were beginning to take on the same gleam they had when he talked about, or caused, an explosion.

"Why don't we just go downstairs and give cooking a try?" Kiba said with a bit of worry. He could handle his ally's (excessive) fascination with explosions but poison on top of that was too much. Best to do something to take his mind off it now before his interest could go too far.

"Fine." He got off the bed as Kiba stood up from his seat on the floor. Koneko lazily got off the chair at his desk, deciding she wanted to see this. "Fair warning, you're going to regret this and I will not be held responsible for what comes after." With those dire words, the trio left the room to venture downstairs.

Kiba chuckled. Surely he was just exaggerating for comedy's sake. No one could actually be that bad at cooking that they unintentionally made themselves ill four consecutive times, right?

"Should we check on him?" Koneko just nodded. Shiki got up and banged on his bathroom door. "Oi, Prince! You dead? Do you want me to call poison control? Or Asia?" That actually made him stop and wonder. How would Twilight Healing interact with someone that was poisoned? Something to think about for the future, he supposed.

"I'm fi-", followed by the sounds of retching. Shiki figured he was going for "I'm fine." before the blonde had to dump the contents of his stomach into the toilet again. He'd been at it for the past couple of minutes now. The Pawn shrugged. He gave him a warning that this would happen. Let Kiba take it as a lesson, both to listen to him and that he wasn't bluffing when he talked about his cooking skill.

He turned back to Koneko, who was now sitting on his bed and staring at him. "You wanna play some video games?"

"...k."

Shiki smirked.

Finally, some common ground.

Shiki stifled a laugh as he watched Asia miss another slow pitch. Baseball really just did not agree with her in the slightest. Speaking of which…

"Oi, remind me why we're here again?" he asked, looking at the Queen sitting next to him on a bench as Asia, Kiba, and Koneko were in the batting cages.

"Kuoh Academy's baseball tournament is coming up soon, Buchou asked me to make sure we practiced before she returned."

"You know, I would say that we have an advantage given the fact that we're Devils playing against humans, but..." He glanced again at the cages. Asia was, and this was the kindest way he could put it, hopeless. Kiba, he just didn't seem to be all there at the moment, off in his own world and swinging the bat sometimes several moments after the pitch had gone by. Koneko was actually the best of the three, hitting home run after home run. At the very least they had one ringer on their team, he thought with a smirk.

"It won't just be humans." Shiki raised an eyebrow. "The Student Council is also comprised of Devils." Huh. Well wasn't that just something. If the Student Council was filled with Devils then that meant, assuming the entire club was a Peerage just like the ORC, the King was…

"Shitori?"

"Sitri, actually. Sona Sitri."

He gave a whistle. Another of the 72 Pillars, he hadn't seen that coming. Shitori Souna was actually Sona Sitri. Fancy.

"Well," he turned his gaze from his three friends back to Akeno, "in my non-professional, "haven't played baseball since elementary school" opinion, I think unless you, Koneko, and Rias carry this entire team, if we play against anybody that knows what they're doing we're going to get slaughtered."

"That bad?"

"Akeno. Asia literally just tripped over her own two feet trying to swing the bat," he said, holding back a snort when he saw the act out of the corner of his eye. "Kiba, he's still standing but he's hit the ball maybe once in the past twenty minutes. Koneko's pretty good, I'll give her that. Meanwhile, I have the baseball experience of a literal child. Unless you and Rias are savants at this game, we're pretty much screwed."

Akeno sighed dramatically. "A shame. Buchou really wanted to win. She's the competitive type, you know."

Rias wanted to win?

...Dammit.

"That's not fair. Now I actually have to try," he complained. He knew that Akeno knew the easiest way to get him to put in the effort for something he considered unwinnable was to bring up Rias' desire to win. "Are we allowed to cheat?"

"Shiki-kun, you're not blowing up the enemy teams." He opened his mouth to retort. "Or their supplies so that they can't play." And promptly sighed in frustration before snatching up a bottle of water to drink from. Damn killjoys. "Our hopes of winning aside, I'm curious. How is your relationship with Buchou?"

Shiki beat his chest forcefully, trying to stop himself from choking, only stopping when he swallowed the last of the water. He glared at the girl for taking him by surprise with such a blunt question.

"Should I take your reaction as a good or bad sign?"

His glare intensified. Damn sadist, asking him a question like that right when he was taking a drink. He knew, he just knew, she asked it then because it'd make him choke. He set the water bottle down forcefully before answering.

"My relationship with Rias is..." He pondered for a moment. They hadn't really had a moment alone with one another since the party celebrating her victory over Riser. In about a day after they had returned from the Underworld she had gone back to take care of something. Because of that, neither of them were able to actually talk much, if at all, about what their relationship was or where it would go. She did kiss him that night so he at least felt things were heading in a good direction but other than that he was clueless.

"It's complicated."

"Complicated?" Akeno asked, now both confused as well as amused.

"Did you become a parrot when I wasn't looking? Yes, complicated." He paused. "This isn't going to be one of those "If you break her heart, I'll kill you" sort of talks, right? 'cause I don't feel comfortable having one of those when we're around so many bats. Or so few witnesses."

"No, for two reasons. One, if it was, I can assure you that you would know it." Akeno began with a smile, but Shiki could see very small sparks dancing around her fingertips, which were currently drumming against the bench. Dangerous girl. "Two, the chances of you hurting her intentionally are about as likely as you tearing out your own throat."

Huh.

That was both grim and kind of sweet, in a very Akeno way.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence?" Shiki half said, half asked as he accepted what the girl said.

"Not a problem."

"So… That sort-of touching moment aside, I don't suppose you'd be willing to give me any advice on how to approach this?"

"Hmm?"

"I'm asking- You know what? Never mind. I'll figure it out on my own."

"Ara ara, is Shiki-kun asking me for romance tips?"

"No, "Shiki-kun" is most definitely not because he realized it's a bad idea. He's now asking that we change the subject."

"Well, in case you do want my advice..."

"Which I don't."

"I would tell you to just continue on as you are."

Shiki looked at her in disbelief. "Really? Just as I am? Me? You sure you don't have me confused with someone else?" He fired off question after question, forgetting entirely that he had changed his mind on asking for help to begin with.

"It's going quite well for you, is it not?"

He almost agreed but paused before he could open his mouth. How would Akeno know that it was "going well"? Hell, where did this conversation even come from, to begin with? It was so out of the blue, and it lacked the usual playful teasing sort of tone he'd expect from Akeno messing with him. Meaning…

"Did she tell you after the fact or did you see us?"

"Tell me? See? I'm afraid don't know what you mean." Akeno smile widened. He knew that look. "Though, if there was something you wanted to keep secret for whatever reason, you may want to reconsider the location of your actions. A balcony under a starlit sky is quite romantic but does little for privacy."

"Translated from Akeno-speak to normal people words, that means you saw us kissing."

Akeno just giggled as Shiki put his head into hands and groaned. How many more people knew? Why the hell did they have to do that on a balcony? Damn teenage hormones and acts of passion. And damn doors with glass panels too.

"If it helps, she does like you."

He looked at her in annoyance. "No, really? I hadn't figured that out. I'm a bit dense and new to this whole "relationship" thing but I'm not a complete damn moron. I think if someone kisses me on the lips that's a pretty sure sign they like me. What do you take me for?" He paused. "Don't answer that."

"Oh? So that's all you need to know that someone's interested?" Akeno stood up before standing in front of him. She leaned over, her face moving closer to the still sitting Shiki's.

"A-Akeno? What are you doing?" Shiki asked nervously, frozen in place. She was getting too close! Her lips were getting dangerously close to his. Any closer and they'd be...

"Just grabbing a bat~," the girl said cheerfully, grabbing said bat from one of the supply boxes sitting behind the bench before standing with her back straight once more and walking off to one of the empty batting cages.

The boy just sat there, blinking owlishly as he watched the Queen take a few practice swings.

What the actual hell just happened?

Author's Note: Sort-of filler chapter of bonding and messing around. Next chapter will be the proper beginning of the Holy Sword arc, I just wanted to write something where everyone goofs off before serious things start happening. And yes, Rias' absence and aforementioned meeting in the Underworld between the Gremory and Phenex will have relevance, it's just happening a bit later.

Side note, but if you could check out a friend of mine's story, Emperor of Red, it would mean a lot to him. I've been helping him out with it but he's not very confident in his writing. s/12891730/1/Emperor-of-Red

Other than that, read and review as you please and have a nice day!