High School DxD: Fox of Ill Omen

Issei

I sat next to Azazel-sensei as I scarfed down the food that he had brought me.

It had been close to two weeks since I was dropped on this mountain by Tannin-ossan.

…at least I think it has been that long.

After being dropped here by a massive Dragon I’ve been chased all across the mountain.

He would chase after me and breathe flames and fireballs at me that I would have to desperately escape from.

I had been running from him night and day with barely any rest or real food.

I had managed to gather nuts and berries when I had the chance and I had even caught myself a few fish when I would get a small reprieve from being harassed.

Tannin-ossan wasn’t joking when he said that he would be tormenting me.

And I still had no idea how this was supposed to help me learn to use my Balance Breaker.

I’ve just had my life threatened by a Dragon as he launched massive amounts of flames at me.

He would even taunt me while he did it.

It was bad enough that I was stuck out here with a murderous Dragon chafing me, but this Ossan even made fun of me while he did it.

I had tried to fight back at first, but quickly realized that it was pointless.

I had tried to fully charge my [Boost] and then punch him, but I had only ended up hurting my own hand and getting laughed at by Tannin-ossan, when he said it tickled.

I couldn’t transfer my power to anything else and when I wasn’t going to pull out my Dragon slaying sword against my teacher.

Even if he deserved it.

After days of being chased my clothes were in tatters and I hadn’t managed to learn anything, but how to run away better.

I had been hiding behind a boulder while Tannin-ossan searched for me when I felt a tap on my back that made me jump out from my hiding spot with a shriek.

“Whoa, Ise-kun. I just wanted to say hi.” Azazel-sensei said as he walked around the boulder.

Tannin Ossan had noticed and approached us.

That was a little while ago.

Now I was stuffing my face with food that Buchou, Asia, and Akeno-san had made.

“Here’s another bowl that was made by Akeno. She seemed determined to outdo Rias, but surprisingly she didn’t rise to Akeno’s prodding like normal.”

I didn’t respond as I took the food from him and started eating faster while crying.

Real food…

It was so good after being stranded for days.

“Wow, you’re really going at it, huh.” He said while patting my shoulder. “Don’t worry I brought plenty for you to eat.”

“Of course I’m starving, I’ve nearly died out here! I’ve been running for my life every day! This Ossan Dragon is way too strong for me to fight! How is this supposed to teach me anything at all!” I shouted.

I saw the bits of rice that had fallen from my mouth when I had been shouting and immediately regretted my outburst.

Tannin-Ossan let out a grumble.

“If I wanted it you would have been charcoal ages ago,” He said with a huff. “This training is for you to learn to use your Balance Breaker. If you don’t want to struggle so badly, then reach a state where you can use your Balance Breaker.”

He laid his head onto one of the rocks near us after he finished.

I pointed at him with my chopsticks.

“Thats easy for you to say! You’re massive and I even saw one of your fireballs blow up one of the other mountaintops when you missed!” I shouted. “How is running for my life supposed to teach me anything! I really don’t get it!”

Azazel-sensei leaned back on the rock he was sitting on and put his hands behind his head.

“Well, Balance Breakers are usually obtained in situations of intense emotion or desire. Like how your friends the [Knight] achieved hers when you fought Kokabiel. And you need to improve your physical strength since your demonic power is abysmal. You won’t stand a chance against Vali or anyone else if you rely on it, so you need to become stronger. So, with both of those things together, running for your life should inspire intense emotion and improve your physical strength.” 

Azazel-sensei finished with a big smile and a thumbs up.

“I hate you.” I said with a sigh.

He just shrugged.

“Hey, the method may be brutal, but it works. The rest of it is up to you.”

I stared at him for a moment, before going back to eating.

If this training really would help me, then I would finish it.

I needed to get stronger.

For myself, and for Buchou and the others.

We had started to face stronger and stronger opponents, and I couldn’t stay as I was.

I stopped eating and stared at the bowl for a moment.

“How is everyone else’s training going?” I asked Azazel-sensei.

“Pretty well actually. Asia, Gasper and Rias haven’t had too much issue with their respective training plans. Akeno seems to be struggling to accept her Fallen Angel side, but she’s making progress. I was worried that Koneko would ignore my advice and focus solely on her physical training, but it seems that she’s come around and has been trying to train her powers now. And from what Yuki’s teacher has told me, they were able to find a solution to her issue with her curses. She’s managed to create an ability where she enters a state that allows her body to circumvent some of the backlash of her spells. It sounds unstable, but it seems to work. Xenovia and Yuuto both just left again to head back to their training away from the estate. From everything I heard from them, their training is going well too.”

It was good to hear that Akeno-san’s and Koneko-chan’s training were going well.

I had been worried about Koneko-chan especially on the day we received our training plans from Azazel-sensei.

It was good to hear that she had worked things out.

When I heard him mention Yuki-san’s training and results, I couldn’t help but compare myself to her.

We were both trying to overcome weaknesses, even if they were very different, and we both needed a new power we could enter in order to make ourselves strong enough to fight on par with our opponents.

And she had already made hers from scratch, while I was trying to learn something that had been done before.

It lit a fire in me to not let myself fall any further behind.

And Xenovia and Yuuto-san had—

“What did you say about Xenovia and Yuuto-san?” I asked. 

I stared at Azazel-sensei, who looked a bit confused by my question.

“They headed back to their training. They left the Gremory estate like you did to train. They went back to recover for a day or two before heading back out to train. Why?”

“Why did they get to go back and I’m still here?! I need to recover from the torture you’ve designed as my training! I’m barely surviving as it is!”

Azazel-sensei grinned as he rubbed the back of his head.

“Oh, that. I forgot about you.”

I put down my bowl.

“You forgot about the guy you had a former Dragon King carry off to a mountain, where he would have to run for his life from that same Dragon?” I asked incredulously.

Azazel-sensei shrugged.

“I got busy. And you’re fine aren’t you?”

I wanted to hit him.

Xenovia and Yuuto-san got to relax at the estate from their training.

The others all got to live in Buchou’s family home for their training.

And I was sleeping in trees and running for my life everyday for my training.

I could be with Buchou.

I could be surrounded by beautiful girls and oppai.

I could be living in a castle.

Instead I was dodging fireballs and trying to survive on a mountain.

“Can I go back now?” I asked.

“No, it’s already more than halfway through the time you all have for training. You can’t take time away from trying to achieve your Balance Breaker. Plus, Xenovia and Yuuto already left to go back to training.”

I slumped down in defeat.

“I’m going to die on this mountain,” I groaned.

Azazel-sensei had the nerve to chuckle at that.

“You’ll be fine Ise. But you should finish up your food. I’ve got to get going and then Tannin will want to get back to your training.”

I sat up immediately.

“What?”

I turned to Tannin-ossan.

“You get five minutes and then I’ll be coming after you again, Sekiryuuti.” He grumbled.

I looked back to Azazel-sensei, but he had already spread his wings and left me alone with the Dragon Ossan again.

I looked back to Tannin-ossan nervously.

“You’ll at least let me finish all of the food, right? They put a lot of effort into it for me.” I said.

He huffed.

“If you want to become the strongest [Pawn] for Miss Rias like you said, then you’ll need to get used to suffering to improve yourself. And you have four minutes left.”

I quickly began stuffing my face with as much food as I could.

If I survived this, I was going to punch Azazel-sensei.

It just wasn’t fair.

_________________________________________

Rias

I waited until dinner the day after I finally spoke to Yuki to bring up the topic of her new ability and training it to the others.

Xenovia and Yuuto had already left to return to their training by then, but I hadn’t waited to bring it up because they had left.

I had waited because Yuki hadn’t shown up to breakfast with everyone.

We had been having breakfast and dinner as a group as a way to still spend time with each other while we each trained on our own.

Though due to how I had been treating her and her own desire to train, Yuki had been attending less and less of them. 

She had still skipped our breakfast this morning, but I was assuming that was because of how tired she had been last night, or because she had been training with Mireia-san.

At least I was hoping that’s what it was.

I was worried she was upset with me after our talk.

It wouldn’t have been unfair for her to be, but I had hoped that things would be better now.

So when she walked into the room before dinner started, I was relieved.

I let out a quiet sigh as a servant pulled out her chair so that she could take a seat next to Koneko.

I was seated at the head of a table that was far to large for our group, even if all of us had been here. 

Akeno sat on my right with Gasper beside her.

Asia sat on my left with Koneko next to her and Yuki at the end of their side.

As I looked over our group, it felt much smaller without Xenovia, Yuuto, and Ise.

Yuuto had a steady and solid presence that she brought to the peerage.

It was subtle in our day to day, but obvious with her gone on her training.

Xenovia and Ise were both loud in their own ways.

Xenovia was direct, blunt, and clueless sometimes, but she was genuine in her curiosity and was seeking a life for herself now that she was no longer a part of the Church.

I hoped that she would find everything she wanted here, with us.

Ise being absent was immediately apparent from the level of noise alone.

He was always reacting to something or talking to someone or getting scolded by one of us.

He had quickly became a central part of my peerage.

When you looked past his extreme perversity, he was earnest, caring and passionate.

It’s why so many of the girls were interested in him.

And thinking of him made me miss him and made me feel more guilty as I watched Koneko start to talk to Yuki.

“…How was your training today, Yuki-senpai?” She asked. “We missed you at breakfast today. Yuuto-senpai and Xenovia-senpai both wanted to say goodbye to you before they left, but didn’t want to interrupt your training.”

“I’m sorry that I didn’t get to see them, but I had to start my training earlier today,” she said, glancing at me. “I had to talk to Lady Mireia about something Rias-Buchou and I talked about for my training.”

Everyone looked to me at her comment.

“You two talked?” Asia asked. “Does that mean you two were able to figure things out between you?”

She sounded worried and looked concern as she looked between us. 

“A-Are you done f-fighting?” Gasper nervously asked. 

I sighed as I realized how poorly I had hid my own problems from them.

“We talk and figured things out between us. Things are back to normal now, Gasper-kun.” Yuki said. 

He looked relieved as he sank back into his chair. 

“T-that’s good. I don’t want any of us to fight.” He mumbled.

“Ara, Gasper-kun is right, fighting is no good. But what caused the issue between you in the first place, exactly?” Akeno said while looking at me with an interested smile. 

I frowned slightly at her.

Of course she would notice how little was actually mentioned and start to pry.

“It’s between the two of us, Akeno.”

She leaned her head onto on of her hands as she sat forward. 

“Whatever it was must have bothered both of you quite a bit. I don’t think you’ve said more than two words to each other in the last ten days.”

I went to say something to her again, but Yuki beat me to it.

“We both said things to make the other uncomfortable and didn’t know how to approach each other to apologize.”

That was close to the truth, but still painted it as if the problem between us was mutual, and not entirely my fault.

But there was no reason to point it out now.

Akeno looked between us and realized that we weren’t going to explain further. 

“Fine, I’ll let it go,” Akeno said as she sat up straight again. “The two of you acting like normal again is more important than my fun.”

I nodded.

“Good. Now, we should start to eat before the food gets cold. After we eat there’s something Yuki and I want to discuss with the rest of you.”

Akeno started to smile wider again.

“In regards to trading.” I said with a slight glare. 

She gave an exaggerated pout and looked away.

After that we started to eat and conversation became more casual and relaxed.

Gasper explained how Azazel had him spending time in public places nearby in order to overcome his fears. 

Apparently he had frozen in fear near a busy street corner at one point and people had thought he was a street performer.

He spoke about it with horror as he described the large crowd he drew.

Asia spoke of her training and how she spent time at a hospital to practice her healing and try and train herself to use it at a distance.

She sounded sad as she mentioned some of the patients with illnesses that she couldn’t cure.

She had to stop once or twice to keep from crying as she spoke of a sick child who didn’t understand that something was seriously wrong with him.

Then she spoke of her brief visit to a maternity ward and she could barely hide her excitement as she spoke of all the newborns she saw.

I’m sure she had already told her story to Xenovia at least once, considering how her wish was to have a child.

Akeno frowned as she mentioned that she had made progress in her training.

She stabbed her salad with too much force as she mentioned it.

It was obvious that she did not want to be asked about it and no one did.

Asia only gave her gentle encouragement while Yuki, and surprisingly Gasper, told her that she could talk to them about it if she needed to.

Koneko mentioned that she had been focusing on her physical strength but had also started to practice her other powers as well.

“U-Umm, Koneko-chan? I know that Akeno-san is part Fallen Angel, but could you tell us what you are if you aren’t human?” Asia asked nervously. Then she waved her arms in a small panic. “Y-you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to! I’m j-just curious about it since Azazel-sensei made a big deal of it.”

Asia shrank into her seat as she finished talking.

Koneko stared at her plate silently. 

“I’m sorry Koneko-chan, you don’t have to say anything.” Asia said softly. “I didn’t mean to pressure you.”

Koneko looked at Yuki, who nodded to her before she looked at me.

I gave her a warm smile.

I would support whatever decision she made.

Koneko turned back to Asia.

Her white cat ears sprung from her head as she let her Youkai traits out.

Asia covered her mouth with both hands as she gasped in surprised.

“…I’m a Nekomata, a type of cat Youkai. I’m a type of Nekomata called a Nekoshou. I’ve hid my traits and refused to use any abilities due to things that happened to me in my past. I’m sorry that I’ve been hiding this from you As—“

Koneko was cut off by a loud squeal from Asia.

“You look SO cute Koneko-chan! Your kitty ears are so pretty and I want to touch them and pet them so bad! Oh! Do you have a tail? Can I see it?!” Asia asked.

Her words were so quick that it was difficult to tell exactly what she said.

Everyone, myself included, was staring at Asia in disbelief.

Koneko’s ears were low and she was glancing at us in confusion.

Asia had leaned into the table slightly as she stared at Koneko. 

I swear that I saw stars in her eyes.

Then Asia froze.

“Ah. I-I’m sorry Ko-Koneko-c-chan.” Asia said awkwardly as she seemed to realize how she reacted.

She slowly moved back from the table.

“I-I’m sorry if that made you uncomfortable. It’s just… you’re already adorable, Koneko-chan and… and I really like cats.”

Asia finished in quiet mumble. 

Her face was fully flushed as she looked down at her lap. 

“…It’s fine.” Koneko said slowly. “ I… didn’t expect you to respond that way, Asia-senpai. And no, you can’t touch my ears. I’m not really comfortable with anyone doing that right now.”

Yuki gave Koneko a questioning glance, but Koneko ignored it.

Asia quickly nodded. 

“O-of course! I d-don’t want to make you uncomfortable. Thank you f-for telling me Koneko-chan!”

I took that as a queue to take control of the conversation so I could steer it to the main topic for tonight. 

“Right now, only Ise and Xenovia are unaware of Koneko’s Youkai heritage,” I moved my gaze from Asia to Koneko. You’ll have to tell them eventually as they’ll see your powers when we fight.”

Koneko gave a nod.

“…Understood, Buchou. I was going to tell them when they return…. I’m not going to hide myself anymore.”

That made me smile.

“Good. But now we need to talk about what I had mentioned earlier about Yuki and I wanting to discuss, and we need to talk about what happened to Asia yesterday.”

“Wh-What happened to Asia-senpai?” Gasper asked with nervous concern.

“I attacked her.” Yuki replied.

I let out a sigh as Akeno, Gasper, and Koneko were immediately on edge.

That was not how I wanted to start this. 

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