The Mandate of Khaos: Party Hard (ch. 7)

Pc is mostly working now fortunately. Still had to spend most of today setting it up though, which was quite exhausting, but we carry on.

Hope you enjoy the chapter.

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Rias Gremory hated it. As a member of the Gremory Clan, she was predisposed to be ‘kinder’ than her fellow devils. Yet even her father had told her, in a half-joking, half-chiding tone, that she loved too much, and loved too easily.

As she had discovered upon meeting Riser Phenex, she also found it very easy to utterly despise a person.

The point was, as members of the (unofficial) Occult Research Club, this pervasive gloom was unacceptable! It'd reflect badly on her if all her members were constantly seen moping around! She wanted this to be the silly type of Occult Research Club! Not the edgy type! Yet, the personality types and backstories in this room—including hers, to her distaste—all favored the edgy archetype much more! It was a problem, a serious crisis!

That’s why, to fix it, she needed to do her best to turn these edgy fools into happy-go-lucky people like herself!

Enter, the One Piece barrel scene.

Truly, her genius frightened even herself at times.

She thought about going for the sake cups, but it was a bit too soon for that. Perhaps by the end of the year, she’d have the courage… ahem, that is, she’d have turned them into worthy siblings. Yes. That was the reason she hadn't gotten the cups, not that she was too embarrassed. She was Rias Gremory, devil extraordinaire!

…Really, Sona-chan may think of her as a social butterfly, but that was only because she was born into a similar social position to Rias. In truth, Rias’ social life really wasn’t anything to write home about.

Devils had an extremely low birth rate after all. She knew she was (technically) lucky that her chosen partner was of a similar age to her instead of three or four times as old.

Unless Rias wished to resort to cousin-fucking, Riser Phenex was the devil of the current generation with the best peerage, the better character, and the most politically advantageous position.

That didn't stop Rias from preferring to kiss the dirtiest shoe outside rather than that flaming chicken.

Rias Gremory was, perhaps, possibly, a bit spoiled by her older brother. Almost everything she had requested of him had found its way to her room a day or two later, if not the same day she made the request. The result was that she was a devil raised on human media.

She wanted the same freedom Ariel yearned for, the friendship Snow White had with the seven dwarfs, to be swept off her feet like Belle by her very own Beast (which, of course, was hiding a beautiful, kind, and simply misunderstood prince beneath), to fall in love as Jasmine had, and to simply abandon everything and run as Mulan did.

Was that asking for too much? Most would say yes, but Rias Gremory did not care.

There was one memory of her brother that she treasured, one memory that she could not forget no matter how hard she tried. If she could forget it, it was likely that she could accept her fate, accept her station, and do as her parents wanted—

Alas, she could not forget it.

She could not forget her brother’s eyes as he argued with her mother—she had forgotten what the argument was about. She doubted she was even supposed to be hearing it, but she did not remember feeling bad for that either. Venelana had said something, and Sirzechs had scoffed in response to his mother’s words, something young Rias found extremely rebellious and cool, but not as cool as what he said next—

"Sirzechs Lucifer has no such limitations."

Not only what he said, but the way he said it, and how he looked as he said it—her mother had no retort.

One day, she wanted that. The ability to look all the naysayers in the eye, all the ones who told her to simply thank fate that she was born into the family she was and accept her role in life, look at all those fools, and say—

Rias Gremory has no such limitations.

What was she? Was she an angel, content with her lot, fated to Fall should it be born with too much ambition? A human, thanking his sky-daddy of preference for metaphorical scraps? No.

“Rias.”

Akeno’s voice brought her out of her reverie, and she coughed to the side embarrassedly. Alas, she was quite far from accomplishing such a dream, but that’s what she had come here for.

She had feared, for a moment, as she found no way to convince Sona to join her, and knowing herself as she did, that she would end up simply idling her days away, and suddenly find herself utterly unprepared once fate came knocking.

Rias would hate it when Sona forced her into training, to stop slacking off, to take things seriously. She would hate it, but she would love Sona all the more for it, for she knew her best friend was the only one capable of doing so, and Rias Gremory would come out a better person from the other side than she would have otherwise.

Less impulsive, for one, she hoped.

“Rias.” Sona was the one to call out to her now. “Everything okay?”

She bobbed her head, suddenly self-conscious. “Yeah, it’s just, I’m feeling kinda embarrassed because I just realized the barrel thing was probably not a very good idea after all. I mean, we don’t actually know each other that well, and it’s clear that a lot of us have private problems they’d rather not talk about that would be directly correlated to their dreams, so—*ouch! Sona!”

The girl she had just yelled at simply laughed softly, as if she had not just punched Rias’ head. “For someone with such an empty head, you sure do overthink things sometimes.”

Before Rias could whine at the unfair assessment of her intelligence, Sona punched the barrel’s top. The sound echoed, followed by the rich, pungent scent of ancient alcohol permeating the room.

“We are, all of us, people.” Sona began, and filled one glass, passing it towards Rias.

“It is useless and quite idiotic to attempt to compare how much each of us suffered, for suffering is unique to each individual and can neither be measured nor weighted on a scale, making such an endeavor utterly useless.” She continued filling cups and distributing them through the people in the room.

“We have all, however, suffered. None of us, in this room, have ever looked at ourselves in the mirror and thought ‘I am perfectly happy as I am’. Of that, I am sure.” Akeno’s smile tightened imperceptibly, Tsubaki-san had returned to looking towards the ground, and both Sakura and Shinji were attempting to appear unaffected, each in their own way, each obvious.

“I’ve always loved the story behind the Tower of Babel. Not because of how it ended, or because of the ‘correct’ lesson one should take from it, but much to the contrary. People, together, made something God himself felt forced to strike down. Because they united, because people, when working together, can do amazing things. Things that put fear in God itself.”

Yes, Rias thought, warmth spreading through her chest. I am truly impossibly blessed beyond reason.

“We all have our own problems, and it is my hope, that through working together, each and every one of us will at least be able to take a step forwards in solving them. Slowly, ever so slowly, walking forwards until it is so far behind us we even forget we had such a problem to begin with."

She took a small sip of the drink.

"I am Sona Sitri. I was born into a privileged position that brought its own set of problems, but that I nonetheless recognize brought me no small amount of benefits. I wish to use them to improve on that. To elevate my race as a whole, past prejudice and superficial differences, into a place so far beyond where we currently are that once people look upon the history books, its history shall be divided in two. Before Sona, and After Sona.”

Even Rias, who had heard about Sona’s dream, found herself enraptured by her friend’s speech.

“It is my hope that in here I shall find ways to progress on my dream. It is my hope that in here I shall find ways to help you progress on yours, whatever they may be.” She raised her own cup slightly. “It is my hope that we leave this place, not merely as a sum of its parts, but as an exponential force when put together.”

Shinji-san’s lips curved into a smile and raised his cup. “I can drink to that.”

Sona nodded, a hint of blush coloring her cheeks, as she faced him with a smile of her own. “Please do, as it is also my hope that you all drink enough for your memories of this day to become turvy enough that you won’t remember much of this utterly mortifying speech.”

And that, well, that was that.

Shinji-san laughed first, followed by Rias, followed by Akeno, followed by Tsubaki-san, and even Sakura-chan.

They drank. They talked. They shared fragments of lighter dreams (Rias declared her intention to become Queen of the highschool, Sona declared that she wished Rias had better sense, the rest laughed).

They had a good time.

Nay. they had the best time.

And then they all woke up sprawled across the clubroom floor, united by the most colossal, skull-splitting hangover known to Devil and Human. Their collective, throbbing agony had a single, clear source: Rias’s barrel, revealed to contain a cursed cocktail of Norse Mead, Ambrosia, and fucking 96% Spirytus.

Their revenge was swift and unanimous: They hung Rias upside down from the clubroom rafters by her ankles.

Joke was on them, though. She’d laughed herself into a stupor halfway through it and was blissfully, snoringly unconscious, utterly relaxed in dreamland for the rest of the morning.

- - -

Feat: Have a drinking party with the little sisters of two Satans

Reward: One Silver Familiar Ticket

[Charizard]

|Uncommon Familiar|

Pokemon - An oddly small bipedal salamander with wings(Not a dragon despite appearances), Charizard has considerable physical strength and is capable of unleashing breaths of incredibly hot flames as well as flying at fast speeds. This Charizard is female and capable of laying eggs, do not ask who the father is.