Home-room was already in full swing. The class roster had been taken and the new teacher, already quite popular, had been introduced. Ruto arrived late to home room that morning. He stood before the closed door, checked his imaginary watch and strode in. The class looked at him, actually surprised that he turned up. It was a rule of thumb that if Ruto was a no-show by the time the bell rang, you could guarantee you wouldn't see him at all that day. Yet here he was.
The new teacher was none other than Rossweisse, or now by her alias, Ms. Rose. She wore a smart looking black suit with a black tie. She gave off a sense of professionalism that Ruto hadn't seen before, and for once in his life, he decided he wasn't going to give a teacher a hard time.
"Sorry I'm late, I'm Uzumaki Ruto. It's a pleasure to meet you." Ruto said politely, shocking everyone including Akeno and Rias, who were already surprised enough at Rossweisse becoming their new teacher.
"It's a pleasure to meet you too. I'm Ms. Rose, your new home-room teacher. Don't worry about being late for today, just don't let it happen again." Rossweisse replied coolly. She took on an entirely new persona that Ruto had never seen before, and it stunned him.
Damn. At this point I'd do anything to get an A. That is if I didn't have those across the board. All except for Maths. Fuck you numbers! Ruto thought as he took his seat, third row back by the window.
He's so different when he's nice and polite. He's actually cuter than normal! Rossweisse thought in kind.
For the whole hour, the students just asked questions about Rossweisse like what she studied in college, what grades she got, where she was from, etc. but the class was more curious about was that Ruto was paying attention to every word she said. He didn't get distracted or go to sleep, he sat up and hung on her every word.
I know he and Rossweisse live together, but he's far too disconnected from people to actually like her like that. Right? He's never made any indication of liking her, or any of us for that matter. Seeing him like this is just plain weird. Rias thought uneasily.
The day passed pretty much without incident. Ruto returned to his normal behaviour when he went to his other classes, which is to say, there was barely any behaviour. All in all, the day was normal, without anything particularly interesting going on.
"You did this didn't you, Ruto." Rias demanded as she and Akeno had caught him during his lunch break.
"I swear it was like that when I got there." Ruto defended himself. The two girls looked at him in confusion.
"What? Rias asked in confusion. "Ugh, whatever that's not important right now. Why is Rossweisse masquerading as our home-room teacher?"
Ruto made an O shape with his mouth. "Oooh, that. Well, we figured that since the rating game is on its way, it would be best to remain in close proximity to each other during the school day to make meetings easier." he sucked up more soya milk from his carton. "And besides, we'll need to update her on everything that's gone down with the Peerage. So really, I've done you a favour." Ruto finished.
Akeno giggled. "You gotta hand it to him. He knows how to plan ahead." The bell rang signifying the end of lunch break.
"I'll head over to the clubroom at the end of the day. I've got some stuff to go over with you all." Ruto said as he discarded his carton. He began to walk away from the two girls, but then stopped and looked over his shoulder. "You should prepare yourselves. I've got the training regiment from hell lined up for you, and you're gonna hate it." With that ominous note left hanging, he left for his next class.
Ruto, Grayfia, Rias, Akeno, Haru, Rossweisse and Asia were in the clubroom. Koneko hadn't arrived yet and Kiba wasn't finished with his club activities.
"You have 10 days to prepare." Grayfia said. Ruto had expected this, as had Rossweisse. The others, not so much.
"10 days?" Rias parroted. Grayfia nodded.
"Given Lord shit-for-brains' experience, Grayfia was kind enough to get us a handicap, as embarrassing as it is." Ruto said. "So over the course of 10 days, I will be your instructor, teacher and if it comes to it, ass kicker. You all have a lot to learn. Tactics, stratagems, ways of wrecking your opponent's day. In a rating game, power can only do so much. Knowledge of the game, yourselves, your abilities and the tactics behind them are essential. Learn these fundamental things, and you're already half way to winning." Ruto explained, donning a persona much like a Drill Sergeant.
"Also, you should know that the flirting with Siris yesterday was not solely for my enjoyment. When I kissed her hand, I left a magical imprint which is basically a listening device. I'll hear everything that Riser will say in terms of strategy." Ruto said this, obviously quite proud of himself. But he was missing the jealous glare on Rossweisse's face. It was quickly gone as the others began talking.
"My family has a private house that we could use while we train. It's pretty isolated so we don't have to worry about humans or collateral damage during our training." Rias said. "It's nice and spacey so there's room for all of us. It's always stocked and maintained by servants of Gremory."
Ruto and the ORC hiked along a long dirt road surrounded by mountains, hills and plains of grass. It would have been perfect had it not been so hot. Unlike them, he was human, so heat still affected him negatively when exposed to too much sun. He hauled his luggage along at the back of the group with Haru, who was doing just as poorly as he was.
"I'd be there by now if it wasn't so fucking hot." Ruto panted. Haru nodded to him, totally understanding his strife.
"What's worse is we're right at the back. We've got further to go, look ridiculous, and it's so freaking hot!" Haru cried.
"I'm really tempted to just fly there." Ruto muttered. He looked up the hill to see the girls chatting animatedly with each other. He'd noticed how loose and upbeat Rossweisse was around the other girls. He knew she hadn't seen them in a long time, but was his place that bad? Sure they'd shared a laugh and a joke, but nothing like this. It made him consider that he'd not been entirely fair to Rossweisse. He'd not let her change anything in the house save for her room to feel more at home, he hated people dropping in uninvited, and he was just very territorial. He decided he was going to talk to Rossweisse about it later, but he needed to stay focused on training the ORC as of right now.
Soon they'd reached the house Rias had been talking about. It was a four storey house which looked to have a lot of rooms. It was mostly pearly white on the outside, save for the grey roof tiles. It had vast amounts of open land around it as well as a lake and woodland. Overall, it was in a very beautiful, scenic location.
"Alright, now we're here, we should put our stuff inside and begin training." Rias said as she led her merry band of misfits.
Haru didn't approve. "What, already!? No, that's evil and not to mention totally unfair!" he complained.
Rias looked over at him with a smirk. "Why thank you."
First lesson, Kiba, sword practice.
Kiba stood opposite Haru, each holding wooden practice swords. Kiba kept a look of neutrality on his face as he confidently gripped his sword.
"You ready, Haru?" he asked. Haru held his sword in both hands and nodded.
"I was born ready, so let's go blondie!" Haru charged with a battle cry. He swung in a downward arc, a blow that Kiba easily parried. He let Haru over-step and stumble a little and then smacked the sword right out of his hands.
Haru paused. "I meant to do that." he said jokingly, trying to keep his pride together.
"Keep your wits about you Haru!" Kiba yelled, whacking Haru on the head with a heavy clunk.
Second lesson, Akeno/Ruto, Magic control.
This time, the lesson took place inside the house. Ruto, Akeno, Haru and Asia stood ready to begin the lesson.
"Alright, from what my folks told me back in the day, magic is all about controlling the flow of the natural energies in and around you. A key part of manipulating these energies is visualisation." Ruto explained.
"If you can visualise what you want your energy to do, you can apply it to any of the elements like fire, water, lightning and whatever else. Once you visualise it, picture what you want it to do." Akeno extended from where Ruto stopped.
Haru looked at them both in confusion. "Uh, so...what do you want me to do?" he asked tentatively, not really having any experience in dealing with magic.
"Just make a small ball of magic between your hands. If you can focus enough to do that, then you have your building blocks." Ruto said.
Damn he's not messing around. Magic must mean a lot to him or something. After all, I've seen him use it a couple of times and it was awesome. Haru thought as he took in Ruto's serious demeanour.
To cut a long story short, Asia is way better at magic than Haru.
Surprise lesson, Ruto, 7 vs 1.
"You wanted us all out here for something Ruto?" Rias asked, unsure of his sudden gathering.
He grinned evilly at all of them, unnerving them somewhat. "I had a brilliant idea. This is gonna be a two way test, a test for me to see how many I can take on at once. And a test for you all to see if you can take me down." Before they could react, they found themselves face to face with Ruto in all of his Scale Male glory.
"Now..." he said calmly, waving his armoured hand though the air slowly. "Try not to die." Eight white and black magic circles opened up behind him and crackled and hissed with magical power. He opened his clenched fist, and let the torrent of magical death surge towards them.