A few hours later, after briefing everyone about their respective responsibilities, Akeno returned to the room and found Rias sitting beside Orion.
"Greetings, again, Orion-san," Akeno bowed politely. "Are we going to start the training, Buchou?"
"Yes," Rias nodded before standing and approaching her seat at the President's desk. It seemed to be more than just a symbolic spot and served as an official interface point with the spell under Kuoh that she had modified previously with Orion's help. "I will be pausing our contract obligations for the next week so that everyone can fully focus on training."
"But wouldn't that cause problems regarding the daily minimum quota?" Akeno asked with concern.
"Normally, it would have, but I have talked to Grayfia about it. We can pause them for a week."
[That's a lie. You didn't contact Grayfia at all after she left.]
[Akeno doesn't need to know where I got the knowledge to modify something as fundamental as this. It would give her undue stress.]
[If you don't mind, can you tell me more about this territorial authority thing? What does this have to do with contracts? How is it even collected? I'm very interested in what's going on behind the scenes of all this.]
[Some other time, okay? Focus on Akeno for now. I have to deal with the contracts.]
[I'll hold you to those words, Rias. A word of warning, though. Keep delaying things, and there will be a time I will force the information I want out of you in a most torturously enjoyable way. Keep that in mind before you refuse to answer my next question.]
Akeno nodded at Rias and stepped closer to Orion.
"Should I sit?" She asked politely, pointing at the space beside him
"Be my guest, Akeno. No need to be so formal and distant with me," he said. "Open up your top as well. Let those puppies breathe a little, yeah?"
"He just wants to look at your breasts, Akeno," Rias chimed in from the side.
"Is there anything wrong with that?" Orion asked Rias, narrowing his eyes suspiciously at her. He'd sensed that her words of concern and internal body language didn't match. Still, that didn't make him stop any of his actions. "Akeno is very attractive."
"Would it not be fine to simply do it through the part of you that is already on me? I haven't felt its presence, but it should be somewhere on me, right?"
"The heart," he said, pointing to her chest. "When I leave a piece of myself on someone, it eventually takes root within their heart, as that gives it the fastest means to reach any part of your body. That's how it is with Rias."
"But not me?"
"Not exactly, I don't have a formal bond with you. Remember the part about me being a symbiotic creature?" he asked. "The part of my body inside you is still in your heart, but not rooted. Instead, it is in an easily detachable state. Think of it as a second skin wrapped around your heart, providing a slight reinforcement bonus to it."
"Would your ability not work if you used that piece of yourself?"
"It would, but Tantric depends just as much on the emotions as it does on the physical stimulation. Using an implement like a vibrator without someone with you to share the intimacy will never be truly fulfilling. We will work with the remote methods, yes, but only after you start to associate those actions with me; otherwise, our efficiency and in turn the benefits will be lower."
"Okay," Akeno nodded and started unbuttoning her corset as a hit of red appeared on her otherwise fair cheeks.
"Would you feel more comfortable if I did the same?" Orion offered with a teasing smile.
"N-no need," she said with a deepening blush that made Orion smile. "That would make the situation a little inappropriate."
"Give me your hand," he said as she put her corset on the side and was about to start unbuttoning her shirt.
"Huh?"
"Come on," he extended his left hand in her direction.
Wordlessly, with a curious expression on her face, she extended her hand, letting him hold it.
"Be truthful with me. You're feeling nervous, right?"
[You're making a mistake, Orion. Just do what needs to be done…]
He promptly ignored Rias' words. While taking the more gentle approach held the risk of him developing feelings for her, he didn't want to toy with Akeno and leave her feeling like shit after everything was said and done. Even if her fate in a few weeks was death.
"Of course not, Orion-san," she said with a sultry smile. "Fufu~ I can already imagine you playing with my breasts to your heart's content. Feel free to touch them however you please."
"That so?" He asked, showing no intention of letting go of her hand. He'd even started playing with her fingers casually while rubbing her palm and the back of her hand. "What if I decide to roughly squeeze your breasts like stress balls? Would you enjoy it if I twist and tug your nipples? What about biting? If I bit your nipples hard enough to draw blood, how does the thought of that make you feel? I'm tempted to slap your breasts until every inch of them is covered in red marks and imprints of my hands. Does that arouse you?"
"I-it does, Orion-san…" She stuttered out, and he could feel her hand trembling as he toyed with her fingers.
"Such a tough nut. Is it because you feel that you owe too much to Rias?" He asked, shaking his head. "Come here. No virgin woman without experience should willingly stay in the same room as someone who tells her these things."
Not giving Akeno any chance to respond, he released her hand and grabbed her wrist to pull her close, eliciting a yelp from her as she suddenly found herself sticking to him. Trembling, she looked up at him with hesitance shining through her face.
"That's a much better expression," he said, caressing the side of her face. "Do you also prefer to use illusions like Rias? You're just as inexperienced as that redhead over there who pretends to be stoic and casually reveals her body to me, acting like she doesn't care but never letting me do anything substantial?"
[Humph…]
"I-I do…" Akeno nodded. "I receive more than a few contracts that involve sexual things. I usually show people hyper-realistic dreams of whatever situations they want to see. I rarely participate in viewing or controlling the dreams…"
"As expected," he nodded. "I'll be gentle, okay? I sensed your arousal when I talked about a rougher treatment, but we will take one step at a time. For my powers to work correctly, both your body and mind need to be in a state of bliss."
Akeno was dazed and didn't respond as Orion lowered his hand from her cheek and started unbuttoning her shirt. With his other hand, he held her hand with a comforting grip, interlacing their fingers together.
With each button, more and more of her pale flesh was revealed until the shirt was just loosely resting on her breasts, barely hiding her nipples from his view.
"You look both adorable and delectable, Akeno. And I appreciate the fact that you took the time to remove your bra beforehand. " Orion said. "Look at me, don't hide your cute expressions." He brought his hand to her chin and made her look up at him.
Her lips were slightly parted, and her eyes were trembling with a moist look in them. She quickly closed them and took a deep breath, causing her shirt to shift apart, barely held in place due to her already erect nipples.
When she opened her eyes, they had a sultry, inviting look in them. "Touch them, Orion-sama," she shifted her address into a respectful one. "They're yours to play with." She jiggled her breasts side to side, finally forcing her shirt completely apart and revealing her breasts completely as her nipples stood erect, inviting Orino to roughly pinch them.
"Your real expression was more beautiful, Akeno," Orion said as his hand trailed down from her chin. "I can sense your heart racing. It's fine, though. I won't force you to show me your real expression. It should naturally come out when the time is right."
"Ahn~" She trembled, letting out a moan the moment his fingers made contact with her breasts.
"Is my hand a little cold? Don't worry, you'll warm it right up for me, won't you?" He smiled, finally grasping her breast. "I swear, these tits are unreal. To be so perky and shapely while also being as soft as the most comfortable pillows… I guess I can somewhat understand the fool with a nuke on his wrist now."
"It's rude to badmouth someone behind their back," Akeno mumbled weakly, trembling as she leaned against Orion's chest, unable to gather the strength to do anything with her hands.
"Then I'll say these words to him when I see him as well," he said, chuckling. "How is it? Do you feel the warmth suffusing through your body?"
"Mhm," Akeno nodded.
"That means my powers are working. Expend some of your magic. I will see if I can help you recover it," he said.
Nodding, Akeno quickly released a large amount of magical energy directly into the air. Rias noticed her actions, and Orion observed the redhead waving her palm and redirecting the released energy into the ground. Orion assumed that she either fed it to the core of the whatever magical medium was present under the school, or used it to help her make further modifications to it. He couldn't particularly understand what she was doing and brought his focus back to something he could decipher.
Akeno had already released significantly more energy than what Rias could possess in her current suppressed state.
"Stop after you reach the halfway mark. I don't want you to empty yourself just yet," Orion said, letting go of her hand as it limply fell to her side, just like her other hand, and holding her other breast, giving it a gentle squeeze in tandem with the other. She responded to the increased intensity of the warmth with a weak moan and bit her lower lip, closing her eyes.