If Naruto thought Riser’s apartment was loud at night with music echoing from the nightclubs far below, it was DEAFENING during the day. So many high pitched feminine voices echoed in his ears.
“SO cute!” said a buxom girl in a maid outfit. Her name was Burent, one of Riser’s pawns, and she was currently poking Shirone’s cheek.
“Shtop that,” Shirone said. She couldn’t protest any better because her mouth was full of pancakes, which she was eating at a rapid pace. She seemed mildly inconvenienced but not embarrassed by the attention she was getting, even though she was sharing a chair with Riser’s Queen.
Yubelluna had her magnificent purple hair tied back in a ponytail, which seemed to be the casual way she wore it in the morning. She wasn’t eating yet, instead humming happily, her hands wrapped around Shirone’s waist while the white-haired nekushuo sat in her lap.
“I heard that you had grown bigger, and I’ll admit, it worried me,” Yubelluna said. “I was scared for nothing! You’re as cute as ever. Only with more to hug!”
She squeezed Shirone into a hug, burying her face in Shirone’s hair. Naruto was pretty sure he heard her huffing Shirone’s scent. Shirone squirmed like a cat who didn’t want to be picked up. She made a rumbling sound of slight dissatisfaction in her throat. Her frustration wasn’t great enough to make her actually fight her way free, though. Burent and Mira, another one of Riser’s pawns sitting to the left of Yubelluna, made identical “Awwwwww!” sounds with their hands on their cheeks.
“C’mon girls,” Riser said. “I understand you’re excited but this is a breakfast table. Let’s try and keep it classy.”
“Bro…” Naruto said.
Riser’s chair was pushed back about a foot from the table, allowing Ile and Nel, two petite twin Pawns, to sit in his lap at the same time. In fact, Riser had his arms around their waists. He was being fed by the girls, who scooped bites off of the plate and carried them to his mouth. Riser took the food off of Nel’s fork and looked questioningly at Naruto, wondering why Naruto had finished his sentence early.
Naruto sighed and turned to his plate, giving up. Seconds later, he found a fork hovering in front of his face.
“Eat,” Griselda said. The exorcist was dressed in casual clothes of a white t-shirt and black sweatpants, which was apparently her go to outfit to destress after a tough battle. It didn’t make her any less beautiful. Her face practically glowed, especially with her eager look at the prospect of feeding Naruto once more.
“Griselda, I told you that Kuroka was just messing with you back then, remember? Even devils don’t normally feed their masters—”
“Eat,” Griselda said.
Naruto bit the syrupy dough off the fork. It tasted great. When he tried to keep eating, he caught Riser smirking at him.
Riser’s apartment was cramped with all the guests. The two brothers were the only men in the room. Their all-female peerages and Fujimai had filled the breakfast table and taken seats all around the room. Kuroka was eating with Fujimai next to the window, talking to each other quietly. Although she was smiling, Fujimai had still been muted all morning. Her emotional state was improving slowly. Bafeel was eating and talking with Karlamine, one of Riser’s Knights, comparing notes on swordsmanship. Kurama had ignored the offer of pancakes and found cold fish in the fridge, which Riser had bought to be cooked for dinner. She had taken it out and eaten it raw beside the window, ignoring the protests of Xuelan, one of Riser’s Rooks.
Kurama was sitting in a recliner now, licking her fingers to clean them of any residual fish juices. She was dressed, as ever, in a flowing red kimono. She looked up, set her eyes on Naruto, then disappeared.
Kurama appeared right next to him with her hand extended.
Naruto looked at her palm, unsure what to do with it.
“Are you still hungry? Are you asking for my food?”
“Of course not,” Kurama said. “I had real food already. A meal without meat…” She shook her head in disgust.
“Then what do you want?” Naruto asked.
“Some of those small stone things,” Kurama said. “The things you devils call pieces that you’re so obsessed with. I’ve gone long enough without my servants at my side. To bring them here, I must make them into devils, correct? Give me my own pieces.”
“Do you mean Evil Pieces?” Yubelluna asked. “Those are difficult for reincarnated devils to receive. You have to become a High Class Devil in order to get them.”
“They can’t be THAT hard to earn,” Kurama said. “Naruto’s weak brother already had them.”
Riser developed a severe cough. Yubelluna opened her mouth and hesitated, before finally deciding to speak. “Which brother might you be referring to?”
“The one who dances around in armor,” Kurama said. “Roovy or whatever his name was.”
“Ruval?”
“That one.” Kurama was bored with where this conversation was going, focusing on Naruto again. “If they have to be earned, then tell me who I need to kill to get them.”
“Ruval? Weak?” Yubelluna was whispering to herself.
“It’s not just about strength,” Riser said. He was smiling awkwardly. “If it was that easy, Yubelluna would already have her own set. She’s stronger than plenty of devils who were born into the pillar clans. However, it’s very political. You have to prove yourself, either in battles or times of crisis… which is difficult, when none are forthcoming… Or you can earn promotions through rating games.”
“We just won one of those,” Kurama said, visibly annoyed. “Is that enough?”
“If it had been an official match, maybe, given who you were competing against,” Riser said. “But you won a private match organized by the families. It won’t raise your rating on the circuit, or advance you through the rankings, so it won’t be taken into consideration for promotions. Frankly, you and most of Naruto’s peerage could have your own set by now if it was only about your abilities. But you won’t just be given Evil Pieces, even if you ask.”
“Hey, don’t look down!” Naruto said. Technically, Kurama looked more irritated than sad, but people tended to die when her mood got bad, so he tried to lift her spirits. “All we have to do is win rating games. That’s no biggie. It’s what we were going to do anyway!”
“Oh?” Kurama said.
Naruto stood up. He put his hands on the table, leaning over it. Raising his voice, he addressed the whole room, so that everyone from his peerage could hear him.
“We’re going to make our own way!” Naruto said. “Riser can’t put us up forever!”
Yubelluna, realizing that their departure would mean no more petting Shirone in the morning, opened her mouth to object. Naruto was already moving on, though.
“We’ll need a place of our own!” he said. “To get that, we’ll need money! Riser got this nice place from winning a couple of rating game matches. I talked to him about it, and each win pays as much as some low class devils make in six months! If we get a couple of wins in a row, we’ll be good to go. Kurama, you can get your own Evil Pieces. Shirone, we can buy you plenty of sweets. We’ll have a place to call our own. So today, sit tight and hang out here! Riser and I are going to go get us a match so we can make our debut. From there, we’re going right to the top!”
“Nyeah!” Kuroka said, throwing her hand in the air.
Shirone had a determined expression.
Bafeel made a fist and put her hand against her chest, looking intently at Naruto.
Griselda was smiling, her hands clasped together, praying to good fortune (although praying to what, Naruto couldn’t say for sure).
Kurama looked (mostly) pacified to hear that things were going the direction she wanted.
And Naruto? Naruto was grinning.
It felt good to have a goal. He’d always been happiest when he was chasing something.
Rating games, here they come!
LINE BREAK
“What do you mean, I can’t sign up?” Naruto said in a deliberately slow voice.
The devil in glasses behind the desk cleared her throat. She was twitching in her chair, clearly jumpy. Footage of Naruto’s rating game match had spread through the entire Underworld, so she knew exactly who he was and what he could do.
That was the problem.
“Rating games are arranged voluntarily, either with devils dealing directly with each other or through professional agents,” the secretary said. “Your brother spoke to us ahead of time. We have a good relationship with Riser, so we reached out promptly to everyone who doesn’t have an upcoming match. Unfortunately, they all declined.”
“All of them?” Naruto said. “Seriously? I didn’t know all devils who did rating games were scaredy cats.”
He and Riser were standing in front of the desk inside what was more like a lounge than an ordinary waiting room. It was broken up into a bunch of different rooms, most of which had opulent seats spread in a way to encourage hanging out and talking. One area even had a fully stocked bar. There were roughly fifteen devils spread around. Most of them were from 72 Pillar families and all of them were High Class. More than a couple gave dirty looks at Naruto’s back, hearing what he said..
Naruto caught one of them and looked right back, daring them to say something. They quickly found something else to look at.
“I’m sorry, sir,” said the woman working the desk. “You don’t have a name for yourself and you haven’t built up connections with other peerages. Perhaps if you tried speaking to those who are here, someone could be convinced to face you. It can be difficult to secure your first match. Roughly twenty five percent of those who come to us looking to enter the circuit never get a match—”
“That’s wrong,” Riser said. He looked thoughtful as he leaned back with his hands in his pockets, ignoring the flinch of the secretary. “That figure includes devils from ruined or small families with incomplete peerages. They show up with a couple of servants and try to win just one match. That can mean a lot, if they pull it off. But the rating game agency needs people to watch in order to stay popular. They need to put on good matches, and two weak devils fighting each other or one weak devil getting stomped by a stronger one won’t achieve that. For a devil from the Phenex Clan, it should be easy to find a match. I had fifteen different offers to face me for my debut.”
“I swear, sir, I’m not lying. No one accepted the match—”
“No, I believe you,” Riser said. “But you’re not bringing up the real problem.”
Riser put his hand on Naruto’s shoulder. When he had his brother’s attention, he waved his finger in the air, beginning to explain.
“Everyone who competes on the circuit has what’s called a rating,” Riser said. “It starts out at a hundred before your first match. If you lose, it’ll go down. If you win, your rating goes up, unless there’s too much of a gap between your rating and the rating of the devil you beat. That way, someone can’t just beat up rookies until they reach the top ten. If you beat someone whose rating is much higher than yours, your rating will go up faster. My rating is 2600, if you were curious.”
“What’s Sairaorg’s?” Naruto asked.
“Ah…” Riser looked a little less like a respectable teacher as he started blushing. “He’s at 2900. A bunch of experienced devils thought they could crush him when he was young and earn political points. It didn't work out that way, so his rating shot up incredibly fast.”
Naruto figured it would be getting higher in the near future. He had seen replays of the fight between Sairaorg and Griselda. It was easy to see the huge step forward Sairaorg had taken as the exorcist pushed him past his limits.
“Those devils learned this lesson firsthand,” Riser said. “If you lose to someone whose rating is really low, a hundred or close to that, your rating will take a massive hit. Some of them lost decades worth of progress when they challenged him. Well, your rating is a hundred. And everyone saw your last match…”
“I beat Ruval,” Naruto said.
“You destroyed him,” Riser said. “I imagine some of the Kings around Ruval in the top ten would love to fight you but they won’t do it. Losing to you could knock them down the rankings in a way that they might never recover from. Plus, some of them are probably thinking about the future. In a hundred years, you could be fighting them for their spot. They don’t want to show you what they can do while you’re still growing.”
“I see…” Naruto said. “I get it now. These devils aren’t scaredy cats… They’re just total cowards!”
“Sir!” said the secretary, ducking slightly. The glares that Naruto was getting were more overt now. “Please, be civil! There is a strict no fighting policy inside of the business!”
“But I’m not fighting,” Naruto said. “Nobody here would fight me no matter what I say. Because they're scared to get beaten up. That’s where the whole problem comes from.”
The secretary was ashen. She had green hair that was the color of moss and also had two little horns on her head, little nubs with dull points, which must have been some kind of genetic mutation. She had just opened her mouth to plead with Naruto when someone agreed with him before she could.
“Too true, young man!”
The door behind the secretary’s desk flew open. The middle aged man who stepped out was very sharply dressed, which was the norm for devils who belonged to a high station. He had pink hair that went down to his neck and bright, reddish pink eyes. Naruto thought that he had sharp features. He was handsome but his nose looked like it could cut cheese. Naruto didn’t say this out loud, because he didn't want to cause offense. However, he did keep the observation in his back pocket, just in case the opportunity arose to goad this adult devil into facing him in a rating game.
“Hello, Sir Amon!” the secretary said. “Everything is going smoothly! I was just addressing the concerns of these young men—”
“I heard everything,” said the devil. “It’s a disgrace, in my opinion. Ah, it wasn’t your fault, though.” He added this part offhandedly when the secretary began trembling in fear. “Devils these days… The young ones have no pride! They’re so obsessed with their ratings. Bah, if you’re scared to lose a match, you’ll never climb to the top of the pile! Sometimes, you have to take risks to grow. Did you know, once, I faced Fabius Asmodeus!”
“Who are you?” Naruto asked.
Riser made a gesture for him to cut it out and not speak. However, the devil just laughed.
“I’m Lord Amon! I’m a Marquis, the same as your father, although I don’t do much to rule my territory anymore,” Lord Amon said. “I’ve been fascinated with rating games since they were invented. For the last fifty years, I have been serving as one of the foremost officials. This building we’re standing in? I own it.”
“You must have a lot of connections, then,” Naruto said.
Lord Amon’s lips twitched. “Some.”
“Can you get me a match?” Naruto asked.
“What will I get out of it, my forthright friend?”
“I’d say a show, but you seem like the type who wants more than that, right?” Naruto said. “Get me an opponent, and I’ll win.”
“How does that help me?” Lord Amon’s tone was curious, not dismissive.
“I’m giving you a guarantee,” Naruto said. “I’ll win. Find a way to make that work out for yourself. Bet on the match or something. Or get me a match with someone who you know you want to see lose. That’s what’ll happen. I’m going to win.”
“Hmmm.”
While Riser looked nervous and the secretary looked like she wanted to hide, Lord Amon thought over Naruto’s words.
All the tension disappeared when he grinned.
“Deal,” he offered, sticking out his hand.
Naruto shook it. Without really trying to, his grip made Lord Amon wince. When the marquis took his hand back, he looked at it thoughtfully.
“For the record, I am doing this as a favor, although I don’t expect anything in return,” Lord Amon said. “Some of us who have lived a long time simply can’t stand seeing young devils act cowardly. It’s not befitting of High Class Devils to be yellow bellied scaredy cats. We’ll see who takes your challenge when a bit of PRESSURE gets added onto their shoulders. Where can I reach you?”
“Send a message to him,” Naruto said, pointing at his brother. “Whenever it’s ready, I’ll come and kick somebody’s ass.”
“I can’t wait to see that,” Lord Amon said. “In fact, I feel like this is the start of a very profitable and bountiful relationship. I will do my work, Naruto Phenex… So I expect you to show me something very good. Do not disappoint.”