High School DxD: Fox of Ill Omen

Issei

By the ninth day, the mountain estate had stopped feeling like a place we were staying.

It felt like a machine built specifically to fix everything wrong with me by beating, starving, humiliating, beating, and educating it out of my body.

Honestly, kind of effective.

I still hated it.

But if I wanted to show Riser that he can’t treat Buchou like a toy then it’s worth it.

This was the beginning of my path to becoming a Harem King! Beautiful girls and oppai are in my future!

The morning air outside was cold enough to wake me up all the way before breakfast finished. The house had that same half-quiet, half-busy feeling it always had before the day’s suffering properly began. Akeno-san was moving around the kitchen like she’d never once been tired in her life. Asia looked awake in the soft, earnest way she always did. Koneko-chan had somehow already reached the table before everyone else and was eating like a small, judgmental machine. Yuuto-san looked maddeningly composed.

Kusari-san—

Kusari-san looked steadier than she had the last two days.

Not normal. I was pretty sure none of us were normal after what happened.

But steadier.

She was sitting with Koneko-chan close enough at her side that even I could tell it wasn’t an accident. Koneko-chan didn’t lean on her or make a big deal out of it. She was just there, in that quiet, stubborn way of hers that somehow said more than anything loud would have.

Kusari-san noticed me looking.

I looked away first.

Good start, Issei. Strong. Mature. Definitely not awkward.

Buchou came in last.

That still happened sometimes. Not often. But enough. And every time she did, the whole room changed shape around her without anybody needing to think about it.

“Eat quickly,” she said. “Today’s schedule is different.”

That got my attention immediately.

Koneko-chan swallowed her tea and said, “…That sounds bad…”

“For Issei-kun,” Yuuto-san said.

I pointed at her with my chopsticks. “The amount of pleasure you all take in predicting my pain is becoming unfair.”

Akeno-san smiled as she set down another dish. “Ara, Ara. You say that as though you’re not the one who keeps making it entertaining.”

I had no defense against that.

After breakfast, Buchou didn’t take us toward the usual formation space or the tables where Akeno-san kept helping me finding new ways to make vegetables sexually traumatic.

Instead, she led us down the lower slope past the wider clearing to one of the more open mountain ridges where the ground fell away enough that a bad attack wouldn’t blow half the house apart.

That, by itself, was concerning.

Yuuto-san was carrying a practice sword at her side. Koneko-chan had her arms folded. Asia looked nervous. Akeno-san looked delighted. Kusari-san was quiet, watching all of it with those sharp violet eyes of hers.

Buchou stopped at the center of the clearing and turned.

“Today,” she said, “Issei resumes Sacred Gear training.”

I forgot how to breathe for one really embarrassing second.

“Really?”

“Yes.”

That was all she gave me.

My left arm almost felt heavier just hearing the words. I hadn’t been forbidden from using it out of cruelty. Buchou had been right. I’d needed everything else first. My footing. My body. My discipline. At least enough discipline to stop embarrassing the concept entirely.

Still.

Getting it back felt like someone had handed me part of my soul back. .

Buchou’s gaze shifted to Yuuto-san. “You’re his opponent.”

Yuuto-san nodded once. “Understood.”

And just like that, my excitement learned fear again.

I rubbed the back of my neck. “That’s a harsh way to reward progress.”

“You wanted real training,” Yuuto-san said.

“I wanted training that doesn’t make me look like an idiot and leave me bruised and battered!

“That sounds like your problem.”

It shouldn’t have to be!

Akeno-san leaned toward me with a conspiratorial smile. “Try not to get completely overwhelmed by how lovely your opponent is, Issei-kun.”

I glanced at Akeno-san’s chest as she leaned forward. 

I straightened immediately. “I can be serious in battle!”

Koneko-chan looked at me. “…Pervert...”

Asia tried not to smile.

Kusari-san said nothing, but I could feel her attention flick to me and away.

Yeah. Great. Even the mysterious fox girl was probably judging me now.

Buchou folded her arms. “Enough. This isn’t time to play.”

The whole clearing tightened.

That was one of the things she’d gotten better at over the last week. Or maybe I’d just gotten better at understanding it. When Buchou wanted a room—or a mountain—to stop being casual, it stopped.

Yuuto-san stepped out into the center and drew the practice sword.

I blinked. “You’re not using your sacred gear?”

“This is your Sacred Gear training,” she said. “I want to see you directly.”

“That sounds threatening.”

She smiled warmly. “It may be.”

Perfect.

I took my place opposite her and rolled my shoulders once, trying to settle my nerves without looking like I was settling my nerves. The mountain wind moved through the space between us. Behind Yuuto-san, the slope dropped away into trees and stone. Behind me, the others watched.

Kusari had taken a place near the outer edge beside Koneko and Asia. Koneko stayed half a step closer to her than to anyone else.

That should have been a tiny detail.

It wasn’t.

Buchou looked at me once. “Use it.”

My heart kicked hard in my chest.

The gem on my gauntlet flared crimson.

[Boost!]

The voice thundered through my arm and straight into my blood.

God, I had missed that.

Power surged up at once—familiar, hot, dangerous, enough to make the whole world feel sharper around the edges. It didn’t magically make me better at everything. The training camp had beaten that delusion out of me pretty effectively. But it changed the scale. Changed the pressure. Changed how every part of my body wanted to move.

Yuuto-san moved first.

Of course she did.

She never gave me time to admire myself.

The first exchange happened fast enough that all the last week’s training either mattered or it didn’t. She cut towards me. I moved instead of freezing. She tested my guard. I gave ground without just panicking backward. She came in again, clean and straight and terrifying, and I got my arms up in time to block with the gauntlet rather than take the hit across the ribs.

Not graceful.

But not useless.

Yuuto-san’s eyes sharpened.

“Better,” she said.

Then she came harder.

The next minute was a blur of everything I still couldn’t do and everything I could do a little better than before. Yuuto-san’s body moved with the kind of beautiful efficiency that should’ve been illegal. She was both distracting and deadly.

Yes, I noticed that. I’m still me. That didn’t stop it from being terrifying.

[Boost!]

My strength increased again.

Yuuto-san’s movements became clearer. Easier to track. 

If Buchou and the others weren’t here I might have gotten hit a few more times from being distracted by Yuuto-san’s body.

She hit like someone who respected me enough to make sure every mistake cost something.

I got tagged in the shoulder.

Kicked in the thigh.

Forced off an attack twice.

Almost tripped, recovered, and then got driven back again before I could feel too proud of the recovery.

But I was still standing.

I heard Akeno-san’s voice from somewhere behind me. “My, my. He really has changed.”

Koneko-chan said, “A little.”

That counted as huge praise from her.

I grinned despite myself.

Yuuto-san saw it immediately and punished me for it with a straight rush that nearly knocked me onto my ass.

“Focus,” she said.

“You’re all really against joy in this camp.”

“We’re against you dying because you got excited.”

I gritted my teeth and pushed power up again.

[Boost!]

The wave of power hit harder. My arm felt heavier, fuller, more dangerous. The mountain itself seemed to sharpen around the edges. I could hear my own breathing. Hear Yuuto-san’s steps. Hear the gravel under her feet as she changed her approach.

She came in low this time.

I read it.

Actually read it.

Not fully. Not elegantly. But enough.

I pivoted, caught her forward motion at the side instead of straight on, and threw my free arm out in a rough counter that made her retreat half a step instead of pressing through.

I’d made Yuuto-san retreat!

The shock of that almost got me killed.

She smiled then.

Just a little.

“Good Issei-kun.”

And that one word lit my whole stupid body up.

It wasn’t fair for her to praise me during a fight. 

[Boost!]

We went at it harder after that.

I stopped trying to win each exchange and started trying to survive them correctly. That was a huge, painful lesson Buchou’s regiment had been forcing into me for days. Don’t make every stronger opponent into a wall you sprint at with your face. Stay alive. Read intent. Retreat if you have to. Stay useful.

So I did.

[Boost!]

And the second I started doing that, the fight changed.

Yuuto-san noticed it too.

I could tell because she stopped looking like she was beating sense into an enthusiastic idiot and started looking like she was actually testing what was in front of her.

She was more cautious with her strikes with the practice sword. 

She was backing away more often. Giving me space instead of striking. 

[Boost!]

The power kept building. 

It made me want more.

Which was dangerous.

Yuuto-san was dodging and deflecting my blows now. She was still much faster than me but it was to the point where she couldn’t handle the strength of my blows.

If only Buchou hadn’t banned me from using dress break…

I deserved it for all of the bruises I received from training.

[Boost!]

Buchou’s voice cut across the clearing. “One more level.”

I looked at her.

She meant it.

Yuuto-san backed off to let me prepare another boost. 

My heart slammed harder.

The power hit like a hammer this time. 

[Boost!]

[Explosion!]

I could feel my own body straining under it, but not breaking. Not yet. The last week had done something brutal and useful to me. I could hold more than before. Not everything. But more.

Yuuto-san came in again, and this time I met her sword.

Not better than her. Not close. But fast enough that she had to work for the exchange instead of directing it. She struck. I deflected. She changed angle. I barely got my gauntlet up. We broke apart for one second—

And in that second I knew exactly what I wanted.

Not another rush.

Not another desperate exchange.

Power.

The kind that would make Riser understand.

The kind that would make Mira understand.

The kind that would make everyone on the other side stop looking at me like the weakest link.

Ddraig’s power roared down my arm.

Yuuto-san saw it gathering and moved at once.

So did Buchou.

“Issei!”

Too late.

I thrust my gauntlet forward and the gathered demonic force detonated out of me in one impossible, brilliant red blast.

For one instant it was the most incredible feeling I had ever known.

It launched towards Yuuto-san.

She coated her practice sword with demonic energy and tried to deflect it as she dodged. 

The next, it went past Yuuto-san.

Past the clearing.

Past the ridge.

And hit the mountain beyond.

The world exploded.

No, really.

The blast smashed into the rock face across the gorge and tore a hole through it like the mountain had offended me personally. Stone shattered. Trees vanished. The sound hit a second later like the sky itself had snapped in half.

[Reset]

My Boosted Gear chimed and the gem on it lost all its luster. 

Then silence.

Not complete silence.

The kind right after something so huge that the rest of reality hasn’t figured out how to resume.

I stood there with my arm still out and my whole body shaking.

Yuuto-san was staring, still holding the remains of her practice sword.

Akeno-san had stopped smiling.

Asia’s mouth had fallen open.

Koneko-chan’s eyes were actually wider.

Kusari-san’s ears and tail were still. Her face looked calm but her eyes showed that was thinking too much too quickly.

Buchou—

Buchou looked satisfied and had a cruel smile on her face. 

Scary….

She stepped forward first.

“That,” she said, looking past me at the torn-open section of mountain, “is the level of a High-class Devil’s attack.”

I forgot how to breathe again.

“Seriously?”

“You missed,” Yuuto-san said.

I looked at her.

“You deflected it! Your sword is in pieces!”

“I barely touched it. I mainly jumped out of the way.”

I couldn’t refute her. 

I had missed.

And still done that.

I wanted to scream.

I wanted to pass out.

I wanted to look cool in front of all the girls for maybe two consecutive minutes without disaster.

Instead I just stood there grinning like an idiot and trying not to collapse.

Akeno-san recovered first, because of course she did.

“Ara, Ara,” she said softly. “How frightening.”

Asia nodded immediately. “Amazing…”

Konek-chan  crossed her arms tighter. “…Still bad aim…”

I pointed at her. “I destroyed a mountain!”

“…Still missed.”

“Why are you so cruel to me, Koneko-chan?”

Yuuto looked at the remains of the practice sword in her hand before tossing it away. She turned to me with a small smile.

“You’re not useless anymore.”

That hit even harder than the blast had.

Yuuto-san was unfair when she looked at me with approval and pride.

This is the charming princess of Kuoh academy.

It almost makes all the beatings worth it.

Buchou looked from me to the ruined mountainside and back again.

“We end here for today,” she said. “There’s no benefit in pushing the strain further.”

I almost argued.

Then my legs reminded me they were attached to the rest of me.

“Right,” I said.

“We will rest and go over strategy tomorrow. Only light training before the game.”

Buchou turned to head back to the estate after she gave her declaration. 

Walking back up to the house felt different.

Not easy.

Not triumphant exactly.

But different.

The mountain estate had spent over a week grinding us down, reshaping lines, forcing roles into place. Somewhere in all that bruising and suffering, something real had happened.

I still wasn’t enough.

Not yet.

Not for Riser.

Not for the Rating Game.

Not for the things I wanted to protect.

But I wasn’t the same guy who got flattened by Mira and had nothing to answer with except anger and perversion and wishful thinking.

I had power now that could scare the room.

Now I just needed to make it obey me.

That was… a lot more work, actually.

Back at the house, the evening came quieter than usual. Maybe all of us were tired enough to feel the end of the training camp sitting just ahead of us. Maybe blowing a hole in a mountain had used up the day’s available drama.

I took the bath slower than usual and came out with my body still humming faintly from the strain.

When I crossed the side hall on the way back to my room, I found Kusari-san standing by the open veranda, looking out into the dark where the damaged mountain lay somewhere beyond sight.

Her pale hair and fox ears moved in the breeze while her tail slowly moved behind her. 

She didn’t turn when I stopped a few paces away.

One of her ears flicking towards me briefly was the only indication she acknowledged my presence. 

For a second, I thought about just leaving.

Then I didn’t.

“Pretty stupid, huh?” I said.

That got her attention.

She turned her head slightly.

“Which part?”

I stared at her.

That was absolutely a joke.

A dry, vicious little joke, but definitely one.

I laughed before I could stop myself. 

Kusari-san looked back out into the dark.

“The strike was poorly controlled,” she said. “But the output was real.”

That was probably the closest thing to praise she’d ever given me without someone pulling it out of her by force.

I leaned against the frame beside the open panel and looked out too.

“Yeah,” I said quietly. “I know.”

A pause.

Then she added, “Raw force is simpler than control.”

That sounded like it was about more than the mountain.

I let it sit.

After a few seconds, I glanced at her. “And which one do you think matters more?”

She didn’t answer right away.

Then: “That depends on whether you want to survive the first hit or the fifth.”

I looked out into the dark again.

The mountain air had gone colder. Somewhere else in the house, a door slid shut. Someone—probably Akeno-san—laughed softly at something out of earshot.

“It still wasn’t bad,” I said.

This time when she looked at me, I saw it. The smallest shift. Not quite surprise. 

Maybe a small bit of amusement.

“You are asking for praise in a very obvious way.”

“I’m asking for a professional assessment.”

“You missed.”

I clutched my chest dramatically. “Why are all the girls in the peerage beautiful and heartless?.”

She raised an eyebrow at my comment. 

“We are just honest.”

There it was again.

I shook my head and laughed under my breath.

Then I pushed off the frame. “So, we are heading back to Kuoh tomorrow.”

“Yes.”

“Then,” I said, trying for casual and only half failing, “guess the mountain’s as far as I get to show off out here.”

That made her eyes narrow slightly.

“Do not mistake one impressive display for permission to become stupid again, Hyoudou-san.”

I pointed at her. “See! You admit it was impressive.”

The silence after that was incredible.

Then Kusari-san looked away first.

“Good night,” she said.

Which meant:

leave now before I decide your existence is too loud for this corridor.

“Night.”

I headed back toward my room grinning like an idiot.

Not because she’d been warm.

She hadn’t.

Not really.

But, she almost smiled. 

For the first time, it felt like the training camp had done more than just make us stronger.

It had made us real to each other in ways I was pretty sure none of us knew how to handle yet.

And somewhere behind that thought sat a simpler one, one I liked a lot more:

Tomorrow we went back to Kuoh.

And after that—

After that, Riser got to find out what all this pain had bought us.

Kusari

The mountain was still there.

Broken.

But still there.

I stood at the veranda after Issei-san left and looked out into the dark where the damaged ridge had gone invisible except in memory. The night air touched the back of my neck. The house behind me had settled into the quiet rhythm of its last evening as a training ground rather than a waiting room.

I could feel the mountain air against my ears and in the hair of my tail. 

Day nine had done what it needed to do.

Issei-san now understood what it felt like to hold power big enough to frighten even himself.

Rias-buchou had seen enough to know the training had not been wasted.

Yuuto-san had measured him properly.

Koneko-chan had not bothered to hide that she remained unconvinced by anything but power.

Akeno-san had enjoyed all of it too much.

Asia-san had looked learned enough to have progress made visible.

And I—

I had watched the mountain break and understood, more sharply than before, the distinction between destructive scale and battle function.

Stillmark did not tear ridges open.

Veil Sight did not detonate half a gorge.

Baleful bolt was meant to put a single target down.

What I did was uglier in smaller places.

Useful in lines and setups and wrong turns.

Cruel in follow-through.

Precise.

Controllable—if I was careful.

Hyoudou-san’s power was not that.

It was a door kicked open by force and barely held by the body behind it.

That should have made it easier to dismiss.

It did not.

Because somewhere between the baths, the meals, the drills, the corridors, the apologies, the too-close silences, and the shape the house had forced around us, I had begun thinking of his power not as a problem within the peerage but as one of ours to account for.

Concerning. 

The word settled into me with all the weight it deserved.

Tomorrow we would leave the mountain estate and return to Kuoh.

Return to the old school building.

Return to the clubroom.

Return to the line between preparation and reality.

That should have felt like relief.

Instead, standing there in the last quiet of the estate, I found that some part of me would miss this place despite everything it had cost.

Not the mountain.

Not the house.

Not the training itself.

The shape of the people inside it.

Rias commanding the room.

Akeno laughing from the kitchen.

Yuuto moving through everything with clean purpose.

Koneko’s casual closeness.

Asia’s quiet care.

Issei making sincerity and stupidity occupy the same body with alarming regularity.

My eyes closed for one brief second.

Then opened again.

This would worsen in Kuoh.

Not lessen.

Yes, there would be space, but I was already growing attached to the peerage

There would be no mountain there to make the days simple through exhaustion.

Only the clubroom.

The game.

The city.

The future narrowing.

And yet when I finally turned away from the veranda and went to my room, I found myself thinking of tomorrow not only as return—

but as continuation.

That was worse than missing the estate.

Because it meant I had already started imagining the peerage’s next shape as something I would still be inside.

I had Sirzechs order in the back of my mind. However, I now wanted to win the rating game for more than that.

I wanted to stop Rias from being forced to marry someone she hated.

If I ended up being hurt for trusting someone again I would have no one to blame but myself. 

That was fine. 

If we lost the rating game against Riser, I may not have to worry about it anyways. Or anything. 

Depending on what Sirzechs’s punishment for failure would be. 

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