Chapter 14 - 14

As time passed news of what happened to Aya began to spread. Soma had managed to talk to her via phone and she said things were being solved, she tried to explain to him what was going on exactly, even if she was leaving a lot of things without saying, but it was fine considering she never really told Soma of her family situation before. At least Soma knew that things would be solved for Aya soon enough and he wouldn't need to give her extra help in the form of lawyers. Well, considering his family he could have quite easily gotten her half a dozen Harward-level lawyers if he wanted, but he would rather not since he wanted Kaname and Jirou to be sent to jail.

During this time which Aya was absent all sorts of rumors started about her, people saying that she was from a family of drug traffickers, 'confirmed' rumors that she would sell drugs behind the school, that her father was a pimp, and all sorts of other crazy and baseless rumors that made her look overall quite bad. The gossip was running rampant and it got to the point where Soma decided he would deal with this gossip to it stop. And he knew the best way to stop such a thing. ​​

Creating another, even bigger scandal, for people to talk about.

He made the belt of the teacher who had been annoying him for some time snap during class showing the entire class what he had underneath, which just so happened to be him without underwear and the very small package he was carrying there.

Needless to say, people forgot all about the rumors surrounding Aya's family, as news of the teacher "dropping" his pants during class was a MUCH more juicy topic, and the new nickname for the teacher spread like wildfire. Professor little finger.

It ruined the teacher's image and he might lose his job moving forward, but Soma could not care less about it if he tried. The man was a useless sack of shit that was incompetent and did not even try to stop the blatant bullying that happened in class and just let it go as if he didn't see a thing. Someone like that was unworthy of being a teacher in Soma's eyes.

A week passed since then. It was quite a peaceful and productive time period for Soma, he managed to create a mystic code that would completely hide away any energy signature of his as long as he didn't use it outside his body, which granted him quite a relief when walking around the city as he now didn't need to fear being identified by any possible enemy. Besides, with that Mystic Code in his hands, he was now free to continue his body transformation using alchemy during class right in Kuoh where he knew Devils were.

Now that doing so in school was no longer risky such a thing became a necessity so as to make his growth all the faster. Besides, improving his body via alchemy to turn his original body into a more suitable form for combat and survival in this dangerous world was a much better use of his time than just studying about math, that is for sure.

Right now his skin was the equivalent of carbon fiber in terms of durability, making it be extremely elastic while also having the resistance of diamond. With that change complete it was time he looked to inside his body as he was still currently weak to blunt strikes. Considering that his next step was his bones.

With his bones, Soma truly went 'all out' his modifications much more expressive than in his skin since the bones were not readily apparent to anyone observing it making it so he could do a lot more there. Not only that, since the bones were more solid and had less tendency to be broken than the skin of being cut or damaged, Soma could do more on his bones.

He was modifying his entire skeleton into the equivalent to a special alloy with titanium as the basis while obtaining an even greater elasticity than bones normally had and with the alloy also being extremely suited for magic energy conductivity. It was a special alloy used by DaVinci in the creation of his own artificial body, meaning bones that were suitable for fights against Heroes of the Throne. All over the bones, there would be thousands of tiny primal runes as well. The runes would be incredibly small and the entire array would be absurdly complex, but the objective of it all wasn't so complicated. Those runes focused on four main objectives:

- Recovery

- Storage

- Reinforcement

- Absorption

Of those four, each had a specific advantage. Recovery was installed with the objective of increasing the body's recovery speed, both of injury as well as tiredness. With this, he would be able to fight longer and heal faster even if he didn't need to stop to heal himself.

Reinforcement was also quite simple, it made his body better and made his body's limits for reinforcement even greater than before. There were several runes for that and they made his bones stronger, the ligaments around the bones more reinforced, thus allowing him to reinforce himself even further than the 'normal' limit of what his cells and body could take. The difference is great, if his bones were like this during his fight with Kiba, Kiba would be the one slower instead of the other way around.

But the best part was the other two aspects of the runes, Storage and Absorption. Basically, their function would make his very bones accumulate magic energy from his magic circuits whenever there was surplus, like Jewel Magecraft . That meant that every moment he wasn't using his magic actively or had magic energy to spare that magic would be absorbed by his bones until they reached a point of saturation. That would be the equivalent of increasing his reservoirs of magic energy from just some mystic codes he carried in the form of rings and other jewelry to 300+ mystic code level bones that all were supersaturated with magic inside his body, when he completed the process and given enough time this would be taking care of his problems with magic reserves that were one of his bigger roadblocks in becoming truly strong.

This whole process on his bones took a considerable amount of time, but had far too many advantages not to use it. When completed he would take a considerable leap forward in power.

During the times he was in his house he also began another type of physical modification on himself, this time involving his sweat glands. He had started modifying his glands to release an extremely potent poison in demand. It's so potent that even a passing touch would cause an elephant to die. The chemical makeup of the poison was an amalgamation of several poison recipes he developed with the help of queen Semiramis and the process being used on his body was made by Hassan of Serenity to become a Hassan.

As the student of the Hassans and someone who got their approval Soma could be said to be an honorary Hassan, having mastered all the techniques of the Hassans (except Hundred Faces since his own technique is innate and impossible to copy) and had even developed his own technique. However, he would need to wait until he proved his own technique's power in a proper way before he could call himself a Hassam, he couldn't do so until then unless he wanted to provoke the Old Man, and no one with more than two brain cells did that. The Old Man was scary enough that even being in a completely different world did not make Soma think he should try his luck, unless he wanted to hear the bells.

Of course, knowing all those assassination techniques of the Hassans, he would not forget to implement them in his body properly even if most of them demanded body modifications to small or large extents. The easiest to copy while not being mental being the one from Serenity as he could copy that very easily. It would be a long process to copy them all, but the process and final result would be interesting regardless.

During this time Soma had kind of formed his own little group at school. He was always around Kiyoharu, and Ravel with the three of them getting quite close as friends. It was an odd trio but the three enjoyed each other's company.

Kiyoharu loved it since her two new friends actually treated her like she wanted to be treated and most of the rest of the class was too afraid to speak against her thanks to Soma's intimidation. As for Ravel, it was incredible to finally have a female friend she could speak with who did not act like she was a monster of some sort. They would spend a long time after class talking and messaging each other on the phone about makeup and other such matters.

Ravel, in particular, enjoyed the time with Soma and Kiyoharu as it was an opportunity to unwind from her other obligations. Having Riser as her king was extremely annoying since he would dump most of his work on her head just so he could go fuck around, quite literally in most cases. But working for Rias was somehow even worse since Rias seemed to actively dislike Ravel.

It wasn't anything direct, but there was a very clear divide between her and the rest of the Peerage who treated her like she was an invader and would ignore her as much as they could while keeping the barest facade of friendliness. And her home wasn't the better either seeing as she was living with her brother and he seemed to have a policy inside the house that would make it where he would be balls deep inside one of his Peerage members at most times of the day and that infuriated Ravel to no end, mostly due to her getting pent up since she too had entered puberty not long ago and that was the time when devils were the horniest, and that was saying something. Being surrounded by sex at all times but being basically forced to remain a pure and proper lady with NO chance of relieving herself (Burent had taken away all her toys under her brother's orders, the cunt) was not making her state any better.

Being able to unwind with friends was enough to make this whole situation so much more bearable.

As the three were sitting close to the back of the class the teacher spoke up.

"Class, it is Friday which means tomorrow is the start of the weekend with Monday being a holyday, a time when you all can relax."

"""YEAH! REST!"" Some of the students in the class spoke, some even thanking the teacher "Thanks professor little finger."

The teacher gnashed his teeth at the comment before smirking and continuing.

"However, as I know you all have so much free time and you all like to learn so much, I have a bit of homework for you all." The teacher said before writing on the blackboard. "You will be divided into 5 groups of four. I have this-" The teacher showed a box he had prepared. "Inside it there are papers with regions of the world. Each group will take one paper and you must make a presentation of a famous mythos and legends that originate from that place."

The entire class groaned at this since it sounded like a lot of work and, as mostly 14-year-old teenagers, they were not overly keen on the idea of it.

They soon began to divide into groups. Soma, Kiyoharu, and Ravel formed a group, but they needed a fourth member for it.

As the teacher was passing by and noting names he noticed this and spoke.

"All groups need a fourth member, you three alone can't make a group."

"Is there anyone else that still needs a group?" Ravel asked and the teacher looked around before someone approached.

"I am free, if you would have me."

The person who said that was a girl that Ravel had been paying attention to for a while now but seemed to always try to avoid her. Mami Tomoe, she had blond hair in a similar haircut to Ravel (twin tail drills) with golden eyes and a more curvaceous body than one would expect from a human of 14 or 15. She was quite the young lady that made one think she was similar to Ravel when she was in her 'ojou-sama mode', but she was a bit less perfect in the way of acting like a proper lady and always kept a distance from the other students.

Tomo approached and smiled at the others and spoke.

"Do you guys mind if I join?" She asked the three.

"I would like that." Ravel spoke.

"I mean, if you don't mind joining I wouldn't mind either." Kiyoharu said.

"... Have I ever seen you before?" Soma asked.

And with those words, Mami's feet missed a beat and she stumbled a bit.

"You, you do know I am one of your classmates, right?"

"Not a clue." Soma said honestly.

Ravel and Kiyoharu looked at him for several seconds before Kiyoharu spoke.

"Soma-kun, how many of our classmates' names can you remember?"

"Well, there is Aya, you, Ravel, and annoying red twintails." Soma spoke simply and the other two looked at him some more.

"Please, Soma-kun, tell us the name of at least one more classmate." Ravel spoke and Soma looked at her annoyedly before answering.

"Tanaka?" Soma said to the deadpan stares of the other two.

"... No, there are no 'Tanakas' in this class. How did you even get that name?" Ravel said and Soma shrugged.

"I heard that Tanaka is a common name. It sounded like a safe bet, kinda like saying Bob or Joe in America really."

Sighing both Kiyoharu and Ravel decided to ignore Soma for the time being. Turning to Mami, Kiyoharu extended her hand to her.

"Nice to have you join us. Don't worry over big and moody over there, he is really sweet when you get to know him."

Mami just gave a shaky smile and nodded her head.

"That is fine, I suppose. He looks... interesting." Mami said.

"That is one way to look at it." Ravel said under her breath. As for Kiyoharu, after shaking the hand of Mami she froze for a millisecond but continued smiling and moved along. The pause was extremely minute to the point one would not really take notice, the only one to note something was Soma due to how he learned to observe any such sign.

As the groups were formed the teacher continued.

"Now, each team should send someone to take one paper from the box."

Kiyoharu moved forward to take the paper and read the result out loud.

"We have Europe."

The teacher wrote it down and Kiyoharu went back to the rest of the group. As all groups had their work decided, the teacher spoke again.

"You all have five more minutes until the bell for the class to end, discuss what you all will do in the meantime and if you have any questions you are welcome to come to me with them."

The students nodded and the groups started animated discussions.

"So, who do you guys think we should talk about?" Ravel asked the other three. "I personally vote that we talk about the legend of the knight Tristan, it is just so romantic."

Soma shuddered, remembering the time he spent having to learn the harp with the Mr. Melancholy embodiment. Tristan was a nice teacher, but GOD was he a sad person, he exuded this aura of constant desolation if he was playing the harp, and he was the freaking instructor of the harp for Soma (he had to learn a whole lot of things in the Throne since he was basically the 'toy' of the heroes there). Seriously, the guy was not a bad person overall, but he could make anyone wonder if live was worth living.

"I think that instead, we could go with someone else, maybe we could go with someone like Nero. He sounds interesting." Kiyohary said and Soma could almost hear the Umu coming, at least the front window view was nice, even if he fighting with Artoria wasn't and the cleaning up after was even worse. And the less si about the Nerofests the better, that was a shitshow that made him shudder just at the thought of it.

"I personally would like to write about Joan D'Arc if possible. There aren't many female heroes out there and I rather like her legend."

'Not enough female heroes? You clearly haven't been to the Throne if you can say such nonsense.' Soma thought to himself.

As the three started to discuss a decision was made.

"Why don't you choose between the ones we recommended, Soma-kun? You can be the tiebreaker."

Soma looked at them and after a moment answered.

"Fine, we can go with Joan D'Arc." Soma said, making Tomo smile at this.

"Fine, but why did you choose Joan?" Kiyoharu asked and Soma smirked.

"Because her legend will let me bash and mock more people due to their sheer stupidity." Soma said.

He was friends with Jalter and Joan back in the Throne, he knew the legend extremely well and he did promise Jalter to screw with the church at least once for her. It may not be quite what the tsundere pyromaniac had in mind when she was teaching him how to use flames to burn his enemies as if on a stake, but this was at least a start.

Hearing his words all three girls had weird expressions with Ravel having the most unique one.

'... I should really double-check to make sure he isn't a devil. He derives too much pleasure from mocking the church and the way he acts reminds me of some devils I know.'

Shaking her head, Ravel continued.

"Very well, we should meet on Sunday then. We should all try to do some research beforehand and we can put it all together Sunday leaving Monday free for us to relax." Ravel said and the others all nodded. "If we all agree we should decide on whose house to meet at.

"Not mine." Kiyoharu said quickly.

"Not mine." Mami said almost at the exact same time.

"Not mine." Soma said together.

"Not mi... shit." Ravel cursed as she was the slowest to bail out of everyone coming to her house. "... Fine, we can meet at my house. Just, *SIGH* please don't pay any attention to my brother or his girlfriends if possible."

"Girlfriends? As in, more than one?" Kiyoharu asked in surprise.

"They have a VERY open-minded relationship. I will talk with them to keep it down if possible." Ravel said and the rest nodded, deciding not to judge.

After sharing her address the class bell rang and they all went their own way. Each with their own thoughts regarding what had just happened.

///---///

AN:

Hope you guys enjoyed it, I am trying to show some calmer, more slice of life of sorts, chapters. There also has been too much focus on Aya before and I thought focusing a bit more on the others now would be nice.

Anyway, the situation with Aya is now mostly resolved, she just needs to be released and cleared to return to normal schooling, no worries this will happen soon enough.

As for other news, the one most people voted to and won, in the end, was Tomoe Mami from Madoka Magika. She has a SG and is quite strong, now the question that I want you guys' opinion. What should we do with her (I will try to follow you guys' opinion on this as much as possible):

- Killed when facing Soma;

- Enslaved by Soma after defeat as she offers herself in exchange for living;

- Gear removed and memories of what happened before and everything about the supernatural erased before being sent to an orphanage or something;

- Lover;

Up to you guys, you decide. Don't forget to follow and review this fic if possible ;)