The first class today was about a particular subject that Basara always had a hard time following — History.

It wasn't because he was bad at following the schooling of this class but rather because of the many erroneous pieces of information that were filled in those classes related to this subject.

For example, the history of the witches of Salem was sad yet hilarious at the same time. How could normal humans hunt down and burn true witches?

Though the Vatican practiced witch hunts, since human magic was born from studying the magic of devils, those executions were never publicized. After all, you could never know what a witch or a wizard could do.

Of the four known magicians groups, Grauzauberer[1] and Rosenkreuzer[2] were directly related to devils. 

The first one was created by Faust and was now under the control of the devil Mephistopheles. As for the second one, It was created by Rudiger Rosenkreutz who was now a reincarnated devil.

The third organization, Golden Dawn, was a magician organization that was founded by William Robert Woodman, William Wynn Westcott, and MacGregor Mathers. It was a rather new organization and it had ties with the church order.

Basara was even close to one of its members, Le Fay Pendragon. He was also close to her brother — Arthur, though their relationship wasn't that great in particular.

Honestly, Basara considered magicians and wizards/witches as great people. They were humans who, through the power of their minds, managed to make the impossible possible and break through the limitations that their humanity had placed upon them.

All the powerful holy swords had been created thanks to the help of powerful magicians skilled in alchemy.

But his admiration did not extend over to the magicians of the fourth and final organization, however. Witches and Wizards belonging to that one particular circle were really worthy of being reduced to ashes.

Hexennacht.

An organization solely composed of stray magicians that was led by a crazy woman. Basara still remembered how he nearly died when he was nine while participating in a simple mission to hunt a low-level vampire in a village.

The culprit was Walburga, the holder of the <<Incinerate Anthem>>; one of the thirteen Longinus — the Bible God's last gift, or rather tool of survival, to humans.

As if that wasn't enough, that particular gear was one of the holy relics of the church and represented the 'Holy Cross' [3].

If the Ice Princess, Lavinia Reni, who now held the title of strongest witch thanks to her Longinus, <<Absolute Demise>> hadn't been passing by that place — as she was chasing after Walburga — Basara didn't think he would have survived that encounter with that crazed organization.

Lavinia herself was part of the Grauzauberer.

Basara chuckled at the memory. It was ironic how a bunch of exorcists nearly died because of a Holy Relic and were saved by a witch that served the Devils — the sworn enemy of the exorcists.

The history class nearly came to an end as the professor talked about Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

What the professor obviously didn't know was that after the first bombing, the damages had significantly increased because of the fight between Kokabiel and Vasco Strada.

It was even worse at Nagasaki since it was where his father fought against Sirzechs.

In the end, the damage had escalated to a point where it even threatened to destroy the entirety of Japan, so the two had to stop.

"Well, children, this is it for today. Don't forget to do your homework. Goodbye."

Nodding to the students, the professor left the classroom after the end of the second period.

There were still two periods before lunch. Basara was about to stand up and stretch a little when…

"Hello, Basara. Can I have a little bit of your time?"

Basara stopped short of his action and looked at the grinning silver-haired girl that called him. 

'Maria?'

The way her purple eyes shone with a mischievous tint made him hesitate a little, but in the end, he had nothing to lose, his curiosity getting the better of him.

Since what happened on his first day, he hadn't really talked to Koneko or Maria so it was a good occasion to socialize and get to know them a bit better.

"Sure. Anyway, I wanted a drink. Let's go to the vendor."

"Okay!"

Sitting on her desk, Koneko observed as Basara and Maria left the classroom. She hesitated a little, but ultimately, decided to not follow them.

She knew that Rias had invited Basara to meet them after classes. She could wait till then.

Now that she knew that Basara was truly the son of Jin Toujou, there was so much she wanted to tell him. But she was too shy and introverted and didn't know how to start a conversation.

She hoped that she would have the occasion to converse this afternoon…

———

During the whole little walk to the vending machine, Basara stayed silent while Maria hummed while walking in an uppity manner.

'This girl seems to always be happy.'

From his knowledge, those who always smiled were also the people who hid all the pain deep in their hearts. The depths of their pain was unfathomable.

Of course, the two of them weren't close enough for him to inquire and he could also be totally wrong, there were exceptions to everything. So, he simply stayed silent.

"I will also pay one for Koneko-chan!"

Taking three bottles, she offered one to Basara.

"Here! One for you. I didn't know what you liked, so I just opted for water."

"Thanks."

Basara gulped down a little and satiated his thirst before asking.

"So, what did you want to ask me?"

While doing so, he took another gulp but—

"Let's go on a date tomorrow."

*Cough* *Cough* *Cough*

Basara nearly spit all the water out at the sudden proposal.

Maria grinned as she watched his rather violent reaction. Though she wasn’t a sadist like Akeno, she liked teasing people and watching them squirm in shame and embarrassment. 

Opening her bottle, she began to drink, waiting eagerly for his next words. Surely his next words would be full of stutter and incomprehensible words giving her more ways to tease him, as she was gulping the water when, 

“Sorry but...I am not interested.”

*Cough* *Cough* *Cough*

This time it was Maria's turn to choke on water. It lasted for quite a while because it was the first time she was teased back when doing her pranks. His answer was so different from the usual ones she was used to hearing that it came to her as a great shock and the subsequent result.

“Why?”

She asked with curiosity. Maria wasn’t a vain person by any means and she knew that her current appearance was a little young — At least compared to her battle form. But she still thought that she was quite the beauty even now. 

To be so ruthlessly refused was quite the shocker indeed.

“Why? Well, I just feel like following you will bring me a lot of trouble.”

Maria was once again left speechless. After all, she couldn’t really deny what he just said. 

“Huh? It was just a speculation but, seeing your reaction, I guess I was right.”

“Haha~! What are you saying? There will be absolutely no trouble. Though since you don’t want to, I won’t force you. Oh wow, look at the time. Gotta go to the toilets.”

Maria laughed awkwardly and immediately fled the scene after aborting the mission. She could have lied and insisted on the date but she judged that doing so would be short sighted. At least she had managed to warm up her relationship with Basara. So it was already a plus in her books.

———

After the whole fiasco with Maria, though Basara had to admit that it had been pretty funny, he had been able to relax a little more. He decided to stop thinking about his past and try to focus on the present.

The rest of the time passed pretty fast, though he could feel two gazes focusing on him from the other side of the room. He could understand Maria's gaze, but he didn’t understand why Koneko seemed so focused on him.

This was how he idly spent the day until it was finally time for lunch. He briefly considered skipping on meeting Hasegawa-sensei. But, she seemed like a serious nurse and he believed she would indeed chase after him if he didn’t come.

“I should simply see her and be done with it.”

He really wondered what would happen.

———

[1]: Grey Wizard.

[2]: Rose Cross.

[3]: The Incinerate Anthem is considered as one of the Holy Relics, alongside the True Longinus (Holy Spear), Sephiroth Graal (Holy Grail), Alphecca Tyrant (Holy Nail) and the Shroud of Turin.

(AN: Some of you may have already guessed, but Basara knows many characters from Slash/Dog. It will be slowly explained later.)