Chapter 5: Meetings of Many Kinds

I look over the motley group of devils that made up the Occult Research Club, seeing the five faces I expected to see. Good, no surprises. I was getting sick of those after the Incident in Tokyo.

I couldn't read anything off Koneko's blank face, though the midget did seem tense after I called out. Compared to her, Kiba was practically an open book with his hostile stance and prepared blade. Issei… was gawking at Strea's rather impressive chest. Read the mood Hyoudou, not the time. I turn my gaze over towards Rias after noticing him staring, even as I cause his own shadow to tie his shoelaces together.

MY girl, not yours. You have your own peerage to stare at, leave mine out of it you pathetic pervert.

Rias looked at me confused, not recognizing me. Not surprising, we hadn't ever shared a conversation before and if she'd heard about me from Sona she probably wouldn't recognize me on sight.

I turn slightly to look at the last member of her peerage and-

LIGHT

-pretend to stretch to hide the tremble of my hands. I had almost forgotten that would happen, but I still managed to reign the void's whispers in quickly to prevent myself from doing something that I may or may not regret. The side effects of my connection to void magic hadn't come up much during my time training, but I was at least aware of them. The desire to consume light, especially holy light, wasn't hard to control in the underworld where no one could use it but when exposed to someone who naturally controlled light, such as fallen, it could cause problems. Seems like I was going to have to leave soon to regain a bit of control, and do my introduction at a different time when I'm not already seeped in the void at its peak.

I smirk towards the group as they tense, before inclining my head and giving a slight wave as a teleportation circle forms silently beneath Strea and I. Let's see what conclusions they draw on their own before I introduce myself properly, it should be funny to find out what ideas they think up about me.

The circle flashes, and my Rook and I were dropped back in my new home's living room. I shoo the rook off to get some sleep, knowing that 11 PM was way past when most of my peerage would stay up unless forced to.

"Goodnight, Mo-kun!" She said, planting a kiss on my cheek as she hugged me before she ran off to check out her new room.

I went down to the training field to take the edge of the void's presence by shredding a few training dummies for the next couple hours. In the early hours of the morning I would have to go fill out heaps of paperwork for my transfer as well as the transfer of several of my peerage members who were still in school, so I needed it out of my system ahead of time.

Let's hope this goes well...

The timer I set went off at 8 the next morning, snapping me out of my rhythmic destruction of wooden dummies to get ready for my meeting with Sona at the High School. I look around the ground around me, realizing that I'd coated the floor around me in a circle several feet wide of wooden scraps thick enough to block the floor from view. Well, nine hours straight of shredding the magically created training tools might have probably been overkill but it was also incredibly cathartic. And it calmed down the void immensely though, which was a blessing if I was going to be stuck dealing with other people for extended periods of time. I wouldn't have needed to do as much if I was just meeting with Sona, but I had no idea how many members of her peerage would be lurking around the school building early on a Saturday. I don't think I had it in me to deal with all of them this early in the day. I swear mornings were created by God to punish us creatures of the night for our existence.

I ignore the twing of pain that thought gave me as I set two plates of breakfast out on the counter for my peerage members. I might not be the best cook, but I was still leagues above both the other inhabitants of this house. Neither of them were capable of being self sufficient in the least. One burned water(two guesses on which one that is and the first didn't count), and the other's food looked edible but was actually incredibly disgusting. So I was stuck being the chef until one of the more domestic members of my peerage showed up. I didn't care too much, mostly due to the fact I was always up the earliest(being awake all the time made that easy) so it gave me a chance to eat quickly before everyone else woke up.

I was out the door before the other two people in the house even appeared to be stirring, which wasn't a surprise with how hard it was to get them out of bed on a regular day let alone one where they were awake late into the night.

The path to the school wasn't that difficult to find after my short tour of the town the day prior, and I found myself at the front gates within a matter of minutes. The gates of the school were closed, so I found myself sitting on a bench outside the gates waiting to see if anyone opened them.

After twenty minutes of waiting on the bench for any sign of someone being sent to open the gates my impatience gets the best of me and I decide to make my own way in. I fiddle with my necklace, a gift I'd recently been given from one of my pawns, and activate the runestone on it. The primary rune, the Y-like Algiz, glimmered slightly with light as the ward attached to it magic settled around me in a protective shroud, blocking me from the perception of any mundanes who may enter the area.

It was an ingenious little piece of magic, not unlike the Harry Potter's notice-me-not charms (that the ward was in fact based on), but it had a flaw. It only worked on the mundane. Anyone with anything more than a few drops of non-human blood or a dormant would easily be able to see through it, as would anyone with Sacred Gear even if it was dormant.

Luckily it was enough for what I needed it to do, as I slid myself into the shadows and emerged in the World's Shadow. The darkened mirror of the world appeared in my field of view as I quickly turned off the runestone necklace, cutting off the drain on my magical energy, and spread my wings.

I quickly took flight, making my way over the gate between me and the school before landing once more and striding towards the building as I looked for a way into the school.

I flew up and began scanning the windows for the location of the student council's room, knowing it was the easiest way to locate the room without wandering the halls.

I found it after a few minutes, being one of the rooms on the upper floor. Looking through the window I can see Sona filling out papers alone in the room, appearing slightly translucent through the lense of the World's Shadow.

The lack of an open window into the room made it slightly difficult for me to enter, not wanting to expend the extra magical energy I required to open it without leaving the World's Shadow. A sad limitation on my current ability to manipulate the world's shadow, making it impossible for me to meaningfully affect the world with my bare hands without some magical power being pushed into the act. I could attempt to punch the window in my current state and only slightly smudge the glass. I still was affected by walls though, so no phasing through them like a ghost either.

If I used magic, or even was just controlling the shadows here then it was another story but I didn't feel like doing either. I merely decided to Shadow Walk and end up in a shadowy corner of the Student Council room.

I walk over to behind Sona, quickly slipping back into the real world and speaking up quickly before she realizes I was there.

"You know," I say, relishing the tiny jump Sona did in her chair "if you tell someone to come do something you should probably give them a way into the building."

Sona glares back at me, rattled at my sudden appearance, before she exhaled and relaxed. "Apologies Mordred, my peerage and I usually rely on teleportation circles to enter the school on the weekends so it slipped my mind that you wouldn't be able to get in."

I nod and plant myself in one of the empty seats near Sona, accepting the paperwork and beginning to fill it out for myself and the few members of my peerage who would be entering the school with me. Mostly a few of my Pawns. Two were 16, one was 17(Chrome), and one other was 18 and would be joining me in senior year. All the others were old enough looking to already be out of high school, or were taking online courses(Azula). Both for a couple of them.

After a few minutes where I filled out the information for them to make them appear to be transfer students from other schools, and a foreign exchange student for one of them, I broke the comfortable silence between the two of us.

"So, I ran into your red-headed friend yesterday during my stray hunt. Did she mention me yet? I kinda want to hear what rubbish they thought up before I decide to introduce myself."

Sona pauses. "They think you're either a stray or someone encroaching on our territory, and had less than pleasant assumptions about your mental state."

"It was the blood splatters, wasn't it." It wasn't a question, so I didn't phrase it as one. A teen covered in blood who silently stares at them before disappearing with a wave after saying one sentence? Yeah, I'd think they weren't entirely right in the head either.

The nod was the only response I needed, and I turned back to filling my own paperwork. I knew my own name was a bit too far from anything normal sounding outside of the Underworld, so I had thought long and hard on an alias to use for it. In the end I went with a cheeky joke that no one but me would understand, due to the source material not existing in this world. Mostly due to the character being very similar to me in theme. Dark color scheme, yellow eyes, and shadowy teleportation powers? Perfect fit.

I signed the sheet under the name Kurogiri Oboro, a mix of said character's alias and real name that sounded like a more normal name for someone living in Japan. I handed the sheet straight to Sona, who accepted it with nothing more than a raised eyebrow at the name.

"Unlike you or your friend, I put a bit more effort in disguising my name Shitori-san."

Because if you were trying to disguise your name, you should go for a new name without the same initials and that doesn't sound like your normal name! Really, put some thought into it!

She ignored the jab at her naming methods, seeing as she wasn't even the worst one about it in this school. I'm looking at you Rias. Konoko was not a clever name, and you don't even get to pretend it is.

Any further comment I might have said was cut off by the appearance of a teleportation circle on the opposite side of the room. Two silhouettes formed in the light, a male and a female. The male was obviously Sona's Pawn, Saji Genshirou while the female wasn't quite as recognizable until the light cleared. At which point I recognized her as the Queen of Sona's peerage, Shinra Tsubaki.

The Queen appeared to recognize me, not surprising since we had met once or twice in the past, whereas the blond Pawn appeared to have no idea who I was. Tsubaki nodded in my direction before moving to inform Sona about how the contract the two had completed had gone. She mostly ignored my place next to Sona as I filled out some minor details left for my own transfer papers as well as those of my peerage, even as I ignored the suspicious look I was being given by Saji.

Nothing I cared much about, seeing as I didn't say anything until all the paperwork I had to do was done.

"If you have something to say, spit it out."

"Who are you?" He asked, looking suspiciously between the small distance between Sona and me.

Oh. The little dragon was jealous. Well, he'd get over it eventually.

"Tenebrous Mordred. Sona's fiance." I said shortly. Better to rip the bandaid off quick than leave the feelings to linger.

"What!" Sounded out of his mount, a mixture of shock, jealousy, and anger coloring his tone.

Saji turns to Sona, ignoring me as I returned to my papers to triple-check them, as he seemed to silently beg her to deny it.

"Mordred is telling the truth." Sona says, and the boy sends a jealous glare towards me before storming out.

I sigh, looking up to notice the worried looks Sona and Shinra were sending towards the door.

"That could have gone better." I muttered sarcastically.

I hand the papers over to Sona, promising her a date soon before I walk out of the room and make my way down to the front entrance. I walk a bit towards it, before pausing. I turned back around and made my way past the school building to behind it, finding the old schoolhouse and striding towards it.

Time to make a visit to the Occult Research Club.

Author's Note: Here's chapter 5, which I don't know if I like it the best but it does it's job as a transition chapter. Not a lot to say on this, but...

1. A bit more is included about Void Magic, but I'll admit I might have made using the World's Shadow a bit hard to understand so here's some clarity through an example. Two people are in the World's Shadow, standing in a dusty room. One walks across the room normally, resulting in them moving around the room without a sound or disturbing the dust. The other attempts to kick through the floor with enough force to break the floor, but the mundane kick only leaves a footprint in the dust. If the person kicking had channeled any magic, their kick would have easily broken through the floorboards. Hope that makes it a bit easier to understand.

2. The side effect of Void Magic has made itself apparent, a voice the beseeches Mordred to attempt to kill creatures that produce Holy Light. More details to come in the future.

That's it for today, see you next chapter where things will probably pick up. A first conversation with the ORC, and Mordred... well you'll see. Hopefully it should be fun.