The Mandate of Khaos: Cashmoney (ch. 6)

Apologies for the delay and slightly smaller length of the chapter. Long story short, was rebuilding the computer, it was not turning on, and then turning on and off so I wasted the rest of the day on it to figure out my PSU is giga fucked so I will have to buy a new one. Fun times. Anyways, I said the first 7 days would all have a chapter (1k words as the bare minimum), so a chapter they shall have.

Thank you all for your support. It is in part because of it that I do not feel as stressed with this as I otherwise would.

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"So, wait, wait," nii-san looked like he couldn’t believe his luck. "You’re telling me," he began, his voice sounding like he was on the verge of bursting into laughter, "that your mere existence is enough to just… attract these things like flies to honey?"

Tsubaki refused to meet his gaze, shrinking into her seat with a barely perceptible nod.

Sigh. As if capturing the Sitri heiress’s attention wasn’t enough, you're going to end up getting this one too, aren't you? Such a greedy man, nii-san.

Rias, likely misunderstanding the situation entirely, coughed delicately into her hand as if to clear the air. "Well, we all have our problems, and as she said, her Mirror thingie only called this many at once because she had never been around here before, so the location was filled with-"

"Do you like money, Shinra-san?"

His hands were steepled in front of his face like a scheming vizier, elbows planted firmly on the table as he leaned forwards, seemingly wanting to minimize the distance between himself and the bespectacled girl as much as possible.

Tsubaki’s head snapped up, confusion etching lines across her brow. “Huh?” she managed, eloquently eloquent.

"Cashmoney, Shinra-san. Capital, dough, bucks, bread, coin, the good ol’ greenbacks, moolah, whatever your preferred term is."

The bespectacled girl opened and closed her mouth like a fish out of water, hands fluttering uselessly in the air.

"I-" she finally managed to grind out. "Yes?"

"Sakura, pass me my bag, please." Sakura nodded, knowing how smug her brother would be once the three-kilo egg he insisted on lugging around in his backpack (against her better judgment, mind you) actually turned out to be useful. "Thanks."

He swiftly reached inside, and to the shock of essentially everyone else in the room, produced a solid golden egg. It made a satisfying thump as he placed it carefully on the wooden table between him and Tsubaki.

"This," nii-san said, pointing to the three kilograms of gold between him and Tsubaki, "is a golden egg worth, conservatively, ten million yen." To his left, the Gremory heiress choked violently on her own saliva. “I’ll give you one of these every month,” he continued, locking eyes with the stunned Tsubaki, “if you agree to keep coming around and train yourself to trigger these spirit incursions… on demand.”

"Where—where did you get that from, Asutaroto-san?" Sona Sitri asked, a slight hiccup in her voice.

“Sakura’s pet goose shits them out, but don’t interrupt now.”

Both heiresses were now choking in unison. Sakura allowed a small, satisfied smile. Indeed. It was always a good time to acknowledge Ms. Goldeggs’ majesty.

Of course, she was not ignorant of what Shinji revealing such information so freely meant. Her brother was not stupid. Information was to be treasured, and as such for him to be revealing this so freely meant one of two things.

Either he trusted everyone in this room implicitly—unlikely—or he believed that his worth compared to the other present people was lacking, and was making up for it by ‘flexing his shit’, as she had heard some of the other teenagers say.

Not thinking much of his looks, inherent charisma, and his as-of-yet unknown but seemingly useful powerset, nii-san was now demonstrating a level of wealth that was… unexpected. In doing so, of course, he was inadvertently turning himself into the center of their merry little group, while at the same time likely thinking he was barely scraping by.

"Hey, Sakura, psst, Sakura!" She quickly shook her head and refocused on her brother, who was looking increasingly bothered and was beginning to sweat profusely. A look to the girl in front of him—a mess of tears and snot now being cuddled by the Sitri heiress (that one was a shoe-in for the girl's peerage, Sakura was sure)—provided explanation enough.

'It's just, to go from that, to someone offering to pay me for my company is- it is-' Sakura couldn't make out the rest of the mutters as the girl's mouth was hidden away by Sona's shoulder, but either way, her brother's request took priority over her amusement.

"Hey," he hissed, leaning closer, "I’ve told you I’m a borderline retard when it comes to social shit, what the hell is happening? Did I do something wrong? Is she that happy about the money?"

You’re coming to me about social issues? Sakura thought, almost letting out an uncharacteristic snort, but managing to keep her expression neutral.

Before she could formulate a response, though, the Gremory did it for her.

"You didn't do anything wrong. Much the contrary, in fact," she said, while she ruffled his unruly blue curls amusedly. "Ah, scary, scary," the crimson-haired girl said with a teasing smirk, removing her hand from nii-san’s head and raising her arms in mock surrender in Sakura's direction.

She had no idea what her classmate was talking about, of course.

Nii-san, meanwhile… was frowning.

"How powerful is this Shinra Clan?"

Sakura frowned. “Nii-san. No.”

He looked at her, an affronted look on his face. "Come on, Sakura. You know I like dangerous stuff as much as the next coward. I was just wondering… and if they happened to just be a bunch of paper tigers, taking some potshots at them couldn’t hurt, is all I’m saying."

Sona was the one to answer. Of course, Sakura knew all about the Five Principal Clans and the Shinra Clan’s place in it (along with the actual White Tiger that Byakko Shinra had inherited as his Sacred Beast). She had not lied to her brother when he had asked her all those questions a month ago. The old worm’s education had been lacking at best and outright useless at worst. In the meantime, though, thanks to the help provided by Amethyst, she had gained a much greater understanding of the world she and her brother lived in.

That is, they were outgunned, outnumbered, outclassed, outlived, outpaced, and utterly out of their depth.

The Magical Wand was ‘resting’ in her Imaginary Number pocket for now, after making one too many jokes about pinning nii-san down and having her way with him.

"All right. Pretty big clan with pretty big sticks. Got it." Her brother sighed, the fight draining out of him as Sona finished her explanation.

"Of course, that does not mean I can’t ask my sister to run roughshod on them a little bit. For all their grandstanding, they aren’t actually that strong, at least in the grand scheme of things."

Tsubaki returned to waving her hands around uncoordinatedly while shaking her head and saying ‘there was no need to bother Lady Leviathan with something like this’ and ‘she doesn’t actually hate hate her clan’ and before she can continue—

Thump

The sudden crash made everyone jump. Sakura’s head snapped towards the clubroom door, which now hung slightly ajar after being kicked open with impressive force. Rias Gremory stood framed in the doorway, a surprisingly sturdy-looking wooden barrel cradled effortlessly in her arms.

When did she leave?

“Alright, you mopey lot!” Rias declared, her crimson eyes sparkling with manic energy as she heaved the barrel onto the floor without any effort. “Enough chit-chat! Up! Everyone! Get your feet up on this thing!”

…Hm?