THE TRIALS: Path Toward Godhood. (warning: MATURE CONTENT) - CH 102

Kuroha was a little fidgety as he sat inside the currently moving car. It was the first time he felt so nervous in this life. Even when fighting Muscular or during The Massacre,he didn’t sweat so much.

He leaned slightly on the conformable seat and began to think about the situation he was in. He needed to assess his chances of walking out alive.

The situation might be extremely awkward to say the least. But the level of awkwardness would mostly depend on the amount of information that person really had.

‘Let’s hope that it’s just a visit.’

He smiled bitterly. They weren’t friends. Why would such a busy person call him just in order to visit?

‘*Sigh, fretting over it won’t change anything. It’s better to think about what I will say.’

He closed his eyes and began to think. Technically speaking, he did nothing bad, but, yeah. That wouldn’t be easy.

—-

In the middle of the forest, a beautiful building created following the old style of Japanese house could be seen standing.

That house looked like a little shrine, no, it was a shrine, with a high number of stairs below it. The shrine sat at the base of a mountain which was 233 metres above sea level, and included a trail up the mountain to many smaller shrines.

Once one finished walking on those stairs, they would face the entrance to the shrine marked by one hundred vermilion torii and a long alley littered with sculptures of foxes. It was clearly a shrine created in order to worship the goddess Inari.

(AN: Anyone who wants to know what a tori is just have to Google it. Lol)

A young girl wearing the uniform of UA was walking on this alley. As she walked, anyone who met her on the way would bow down in respect.

After a while, she finally reached the principal temple. Simply by looking at it, one could feel the weight of history on it. It had a traditional Chinese and Japanese mixed architectural design of mid-Heian period and during the 12th century.

The girl stopped at the door of the temple and sat in seiza before slowly opening the door. Only after doing it did she rise and enter before sitting once again in seiza.

The interior of the temple had a solemn atmosphere. It was only lit by candles, and there was no decoration.

The only thing really noteworthy was how the interior was divided by a veil. Behind that veil, the silhouette of a woman could be vaguely seen.

The girl, bowed in a submissive pose and said,

“Good morning haha-ue, I wish you a long and eternal life.”

She stayed in that position and only after hearing a soft voice saying, “Rise”, did she raise her upper body.

Her expression was impassive. It didn’t seem like she minded the fact that she didn’t receive an answer to her greeting. After all, it wasn’t the first time. Right now, she was talking to the leader of the Gin family. Familiarity could wait for later.

“My dear Ayaka, I have heard that the Yaoyorozu send a letter to refuse my little Kurama. What was their motive?”

“Haha-ue, this is indeed the case. The second lady of the Yaoyorozu family, Sakura Hiragi was the one to personally send the letter stating their refusals of Onii-Sama as a groom. From the way she acted. We think that they most likely already made their decision.”

“Hum…This is rather troubling. I wonder what made them change decisions. Oh~well, doesn’t really matter. Kurama will just have to accept reality. At least he will learn that simply being my child doesn’t mean he can get anything.”

Ayakahime, wanted to speak, but finally simply closed her mouth. Still, this movement didn’t seem to escape her mother,

“Fufufu, my dear Ayaka. I know how your brother is. If he really wishes to get the heiress of the Yaoyorozu family, then he can do as he likes. But he will have to do so himself. Also tell him. That as long as his life or his future isn’t in danger. I will not intervene.”

“I understand.”

“Now then, enough for the official tone. Come here my dear child. Let me hold you in my arms.”

Ayaka blushed à little before completely rising and reaching the veil then pushed it aside. On the other side was a breathtaking beautiful lady.

She had long golden hair, fox ears, whiskers, and three golden tails. She also wore an unkempt red and gold kimono that showed a great amount of her cleavage and her look with a monocle on her right eyes, giving her a rather intellectual look.

What stood out the most though wasn’t her beauty. But her age. When looking at her face, she didn’t look any older than early twenty. This should have been impossible, but this was the truth. It was as if time had no effect on her.

As if… She was ageless.

Ayaka looked at her mother who had a smile on her face as she opened her arm widely. She sighed but accepted to settle in them.

She always felt bad when being hugged by her mother. Her figure wasn’t bad, in fact she was rather on the big side, but when compared to the explosives figures of her mother she always felt like she was flat. The worse was her face

‘it’s so unfair. How can a 80 years old woman look like that. I should call her baba rather than haha’

*Ugh*

The moment she thought so, she suddenly felt like the warm hugs she was receiving changed into a bone crushing gesture.

“Haha-ue, Haha-ue… I… Can’t breathe.”

“Hum!? Fufufu~ ! What do you mean? Naughty children must be punished. Even more so when they think about how old their mother is.”

She cursed in her mind. She had forgotten what kind of power her mother had.

“Now now, let’s talk about that child you met during the exam. His quirk piqued my interest quite a bit . I wonder if he is the same master was talking about.”

(An: The Chara design of Ayakahime mother is Miko from No game no life. I initially wanted to use Yasaka. But since I am doing a DxD fic it would have been weird in my mind.)

—–

The car slowed down before finally stopping.

Kuroha didn’t have to open the door of the car since the driver, a rather old man wearing butler outfit opened the it for him.

Looking at that man, he couldn’t help but wonder if all butler needed to be old and have a white beard. Perhaps it was one of the requirements for the job.

‘Sigh. I must be really stressed to think about weird things like that’

“Kuroha-Sama, please follow this old man.”

He nodded silently and began to walk behind the butler. When they entered the stupidly huge house, they began to walk toward a direction opposite to the one he usually use when coming here.

From what Momo told him back then, the place where they were going was a place forbidden for outsiders. The meaning of him being able to enter that zone was pretty evident.

After a while, they finally stopped. In front of them stood a huge door, inlaid with gold. No. When looked closely. The entire hallway was inlaid with gold. A rather large quantity.

The butler stopped after opening the door and gave a bow,

“Kuroha-Sama. You can enter. This old man will wait for you here.”

“Thank you.”

He gulped a little before entering the room.

Why was Kuroha so scared?

Why was he so stressed?

Why did he seem like he was going towards the execution grounds.

The answer was a woman wearing a kimono and seating on a chair expansive enough to buy a house while sipping on a tea so rare it was basically non-existent.

Despite the clear opulence around her, the woman didn’t seem like some kind of rich upstart. The aura of nobility emanating from her was like a force field that could make people cower in front of here.

She was a beautiful woman. Her white and black kimono was perfect. Her long black hair reaching her back shone. She was the perfect definition of a Yamato Nadeshiko.

If there was only one thing regrettable about her, Kuroha lowered his eyes and glanced at her chest with an air of pity. Only word come to his mind

‘Flat’

So flat that it was near the level of an airport runway. So flat that any more flat that even a middle school student had more bump on their chest than her. It was really pitiful. Even more so when you knew her daughter. He couldn’t help but sigh,

‘Genetic is really ruthless sometimes.’

The woman seemed to have caught his glance. She narrowed her eyes as she looked at him with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes,

“Arara Kuroha-Kun. It seems like you are still as rude as ever.”

Kuroha smiled bitterly before seating opposite to her,

“Good morning. Temari Oba-san.”

This woman was no one other than Yaoyorozu Temari. The first lady of the Yaoyorozu and more importantly the mother of Momo.

A beautiful maid wearing a pair of glasses with brown hair came close to Kuroha and served him a tea cup before going back behind Sakura.

Just as Kuroha took a sip of the tea, Temari landed a bombshell.

“So. Kuroha-Kun. It seems like you and Momo climbed the stairs of adulthood together.”

“*Cough* *Cough*”