Chapter 12 - Round the World, Cliches and a Weird Place

-- JFK Airport, Arrivals Exit, USA --

"Welcome to the land of the free Val! Also, the land where they put sugar in bread!" said a devilishly handsome man to his equally gorgeous blonde companion.

"Stop that *giggle* you've miffed about it for the entire flight here"

"Sugar.In.Bread! I rest my case!"

"My lord" Valerie just shook her head, she couldn't handle the truth.

"So, what are we doing here?" She asked me.

"Well, we've been training constantly for the last couple of months so I just thought that we needed a break" I skillfully dodged her question.

"And you also wanted to see if american blood was just thicker, riiight?" She looked like the cat that just caught the mouse.

"Right right right, you got me!" I raised my hands in mock defeat.

"After you, my good sir" She did a mock curtsy.

"We're setting off then, my lady"

Here we were, in the big apple, after 2 months of continuous training and Valerie had really advanced in her studies and everything so I decided that we needed to take some time off. This way I could also continue with my travelling plans, just over 3 years were left until canon and over 2 years since I wanted to go back.

We arrived in NY just as the sun was setting so we decided to find a hotel and settle in for the night before exploring the city on the morrow.

"Hmm, how about this one?" I said, pointing to a small hotel that looked excellent, expensive and private. (A/N btw, Hiro will always have all the money he needs, this is not a fic about becoming a businessman, a writer or the CEO of some company. If you want to ask about money, just assume his inheritance or magic, magic would be my guess)

"Looks good, let's check inside!"

So we went inside the hotel and everything was just great and shiny, good thing I wasn't a cat or I would've gotten confused.

"Good evening, we would like to book a room, do you have any vacancies?" I asked the receptionist.

"Good evening sir, you're in luck, we have just a room available. Will you be staying just tonight or are you looking for an extended stay?"

Oh.

Oh no.

Was it happening?

Did I, did I just raise THAT flag?

Can't be.

"We would like to stay for about 5 nights, so can we please boo-"

"I'LL TAKE THAT ROOM!!"

My god, it DID happen.

'The xianxia trope' consider me properly shooketh. I looked towards where the voice came from.

'Aaand there he is, let's see, does he check all the boxes? Young, freshly from daddy's pocket, dressed like he wants to scream 'I have money' and with 2 girls that don't seem to know that tomato is technically a fruit in each arm and followed by a bunch of extras. Yep, everything checks out. I got myself a Young Masta'. Oh, would you look at that, he's also a devil, my oh my, color me shocked'

"Sir, I am very sorry about this, but the gentleman here was first and our policy i-" the poor receptionist wanted to explain his situation and defuse all of this. Classic rookie mistake, thou shall never taketh argument with thy Young Masta.

Poor guy didn't even finish his explanation before the young cockatiel retorted.

"No! I don't care that he was here first! I'm getting that room"

"But sir, I-"

"I don't want to hear it, do you understand?! My father owns the…" he just started stating his credentials but I blanked that useless information out.

"Sir, maybe if you talk with him, you might solve the issue" said the receptionist while throwing glances my way.

'Smart move my guy, throw me under the bus. Shift the attention to me, I guess you did not fumble your YoungMaster 101 classes'

It was my turn to play the game.

The braindead duck looked firstly towards me and then to Valerie. Of course, his eyes had to linger on her, of course, he had to look like a dog in heat.

Assuming a smugger look than I thought possible, he approached us.

"I believe I'll be taking that room, and maybe alsoo…" he said the last thing while leering at Valerie.

I wasn't angry at him, he wasn't worth it. Plus, when I'm around, young masters are an endangered species.

Val couldn't give two damns about this whole situation, she knew what I could do so she just leaned against my shoulder and continued to check her phone. She loved that thing since I gifted it to her, teenagers these days.

I looked at dumbo and prepared my retort towards his kind, it was gonna go philosophical.

"Nah" was all I said and turned towards the staff.

"So, about that room..."

"WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?!!" the devil blew a gasket, making every normal individual present take a step back and stare at this sheer atrocity on two legs.

"Jesus on wheels idk, look, man, I don't know and I can't exactly speak with someone like you on 'to be or not to be'" I looked at him in mirth, I was loving this.

"Did you say that I'm dumb?!" Was this bitch serious?

"Yes, but that's irrelevant" I could see Val smirking out of the corner of my eye.

"GAH! My father will hear about this!" flashbacks of a blonde ferret aside, lucky for him, he didn't attack me right then and there but stormed out, his posse following him.

I turned back to the staff member, who had a shocked expression on his face.

"So, about that reservation?" I asked calmly and with a smile.

"Y-yes s-sir, will that be by card?

"Mhm" I nodded.

Leaving the poor guy behind, we went up to our room with the luggage. Setting everything up, Valerie turned to me and asked.

"So, what was that about? Normally the moment someone does that you send them away to have a little 'accident' that leaves them with a couple of broken bones. What changed?" I was so proud of her that I shed a single, imaginary, tear. During our training, we couldn't just stay cooped up in the cottage so we would take trips to the nearby cities to either buy supplies or just have an afternoon hangout.

Of course, some idiots goggled at her when we went to the city, now I wouldn't do anything to the ones that would just stare, I'm not that big of a monster and she's gorgeous, heck, I'd even laugh as some poor guys tried to strike a conversation with her only to end up stammering and doing the walk of shame. The ones who wanted or tried to do more than stare, for them I arranged some of what I called 'happy accidents'. Some that tried to touch 'found themselves' suffering from broken arms or legs after 'accidentally' tripping down a set of stairs; others, the more intense ones who even had a record of doing some truly crazy shit(always surface read their memories, clean conscience and all), found themselves waking up in the middle of a gay orgy playing the role of a very very stuffed and pain-loving M while forgetting their safe words.

Val never really stopped me from playing 'my little games' as she called my escapades, she trusted me enough to know that I had some form of limit.

Coming back down quickly from my trip down memory lane, I looked at Val and gave her one of my patented 'scary but it shows how truly happy and amused I am' grins.

"Oh, I know that look, Hiro. What's going on?" She didn't know whether to feel happy or scared for the fate of the one who made me this type of happy.

"Val, dear, honey, baby" I began my tirade while she began blushing " you're not going to understand what just happened even if I explain it to you. I'm this close to checking something off my bucket list, though I shouldn't call it a bucket list since I never plan on dying" I punctuated my statement by almost making my index and thumb touch.

She sighed and deadpanned at me, it would have worked if it wasn't for the small pout and the dash of amusement that adorned her face.

"Oh, DEAR, you're digressing again. Try me, what's going on?"

"No, no, Val, I'll give you the necessary material for reading so you'll get me, but we don't have time right now." I fully planned to corrupt the dhampiress with the stupidity that is cultivation novels. If I cringed, she would also need to cringe.

"O-okay, I'll bite but why don't we have time right now?"

"Well Val, spoiler alert, we just crossed paths with an extinct species that always overreact when its tail is stepped on."

"An arrogant idiot?"

"An arrogant idiot DEVIL!"

"Oh, OH! I see I see. And what do you think is going to happen?"

"Well" *ahem* I switched to my best British wildlife narrator voice " if the young peacock's strutting is interrupted by the wild predator, nature presents him with 2 choices, either directly confront the enemy or, due to natural stimuli or the lack of 'daddy' they temporarily retreat to gather the pack and strike back. Remember, the young peacock will always remember even the smallest slight"

*giggle*"Oka-" *giggle* " Okay, so when do you think the 'young peacock' will retaliate?"

I switched to my inner Sherlock for the next part.

"Elementary, my dear, why, since entering our room, I've noticed 10 devil signatures strutting about and approaching our position. I'd imagine that they deign to kidnap us and do unspeakables to our forms, do you concur?"

"I concur, dear, what shall be our next steps?" She went along with my game and went full faux-British and adopted a serious posture with her hand on her chin.

'I don't regret for one bit all those nights of watching stupid old movies.' I smiled at the memories.

Going back to normal voice mode, I turned to her.

"Also, remember me to start and up your training towards the sensory arts."

"Wait, start AND up the training? How does that even work?"

"I plead the fifth, no questions. Now, get ready, they'll be here soon."

As if on cue, not that I planned it or anything, a teleportation circle opened up in the room and 10 devils walked out. One of them, let's call him henchman 1, stepped forward.

"You've messed with someone you shouldn't have"

I simply raised an eyebrow.

"H-huh? That's not how it's supposed to g-" he trailed off for a bit before coming back "Anyway, you and the woman are coming with us, the boss wants to see you!"

I just crossed my arms.

"Ya done?"

He nodded dumbly before even thinking about what he had done.

"Good, sleep" I waved my hand and the shadows from all over the room quickly encroached on the henchmen and put them all to sleep.

"What now?" asked Valerie.

"Now, I put them under a subtle compulsion, they take us to their boss, I proceed to break said boss while you proceed to fight these guys after I break them out of the illusion. Enjoy, your first fight with someone other than me!"

"Mmm, okay, but this means extra cuddles."

*serious nod* "Extra cuddles"

*mumble* " tough you could just admit that you want to experiment on them" *mumble*

"What was that, Valerie?" I swiftly turned my head towards her.

"Nothing, let's go, and let's not make them wait for us"

"Sus, mkay, let's go"

--Young master's super-secret base, basically a shack on the outskirts of NY--

A teleportation circle opened and out of it stepped 12 people: 10 henchmen and the beauty and the beast.

The young master looked down on us with a smug grin on his face.

"Ha, you thought you could defy me? ME?! I'll have you know that I'm…."

I'll spare you the details of his stupidly fucking long backstory. In a nutshell, he was the second son of some small-time devil clan and I deduced that since he was the incompetent second scion, he did what the hell he wanted and squandered his life away from his much more talented brother.

With his pathetic power, if I were to describe it, low-low mid-class, he was just a joke to everyone. So he just debauched his days away and finally delved into slavery like the old faction stooge that he was.

"...AND THAT'S WHY YOU SHOULD NEVER MESS WITH ME" he finished his backstory, red in the face.

Both Valerie and I deadpanned through the whole sequence. Then she looked at me.

"Remind me why did you tell me to listen to his life story?" She was a bit irritated but I couldn't blame her.

"What's going on?! Why aren't you listening to me?!" The idiot tried to interrupt our nice little conversation.

Of course, I ignored him and continued talking with my girl, my mischievous grin adorning my face.

"Val, you'll understand after I send you the reading materials. You need to do this at least once in your life"

*sigh* "Fiiiiine, let's get this over with, you weirdo"

"Attagirl"

"IS NOBODY LISTENING TO ME?! ATTACK THEM BUT LEAVE THE WOMAN ALIVE!"

'Oh right, I forgot to dispel the idiots ' so I snapped my fingers and let the idiots out. It was time for some fun.

I stood unmoving in front of the young devil while Valerie worked her magic on the henchmen.

I didn't have to worry about her, I knew what she was capable of, this was just active training. During the last few months, Val began forming her own fighting style, one entirely different from my own. While my CQC resembled a wild beast that cuts my enemies into minced meat, she was graceful like a dancer, combining every leg swipe or punch with shadow magic.

Val liked to call it 'Danse Macabre', inspired both by the music of Camille Saint-Saens, which we went to see once at the opera, and some excerpts of the poem by which it is inspired.

Tap, tap, tap—Death rhythmically,

Taps a tomb with his heel,

Death at midnight plays a gigue,

Tap, tap, tap, on his violin.

The Winter wind blows, the night is dark,

The lime-trees groan aloud;

White skeletons flit across the gloom,

Running and leaping beneath their huge shrouds

Tap, tap, tap, what a saraband!

Circles of corpses all holding hands!

Tap, tap, tap, in the throng you can see

King and peasant dancing together!

But shh! Suddenly the dance is ended,

They jostle and take flight—the cock has crowed…

Ah! Nocturnal beauty shines on the poor!

And long live death and equality!

Thus, she danced and fought, sending her enemies to their destined afterlife. An upward kick, a bisected body after. A horizontal slice gave birth to blossoms of blood from now-headless necks. A flourish with a curtsy later and the ones alive met the embrace of death by shadowed spikes.

All the while I opened my mouth, fangs alight as rows of death with eyes ablaze as their blood and souls flew and nourished my being.

The once bright peacock now stood pale and aghast as the monster in male form approached him with slow steps as if death toying with a child.

The last thing he saw was the creature's eyes, blazing shiny orange before darkness took him.

And then he knew nothing but pain as the creature toyed with him, broke him down only to rebuild him again, the process repeating almost endlessly until death claimed him.

Or so he thought, for he woke up in a different place, all around him people he knew and people he knew not. But alas, his lot in Iife was finished and from now on he would know and desire only one thing.

To serve forevermore.

-----

A/N

I hope you enjoy the latest chapter.

About everything that happened once Valerie's fight started, I, I don't know, youtube decided that I wanted to listen to classical music so it sent it on my autoplay, and that took me to some weird places.

Once I started writing I couldn't stop, this is how we arrived at the last part of the chapter, don't know if you guys like it and if the music takes me to that place again, write some sequences the same way.

Anyway, the poll regarding Issei's fate is ongoing but I'm leaning towards sending him to Grigori and letting him live his hand-holding life with Irina.

As always, feedback is appreciated.

See you next time.