High School DxD: Fox of Ill Omen

Issei

The whole hall smelled expensive.

That was the first thing I didn’t like about it.

Gold, flowers, wine, polished stone, perfume, noble Devils dressed like they’d been born knowing how to stand in rooms like this without ever once feeling out of place.

The kind of place where rich people smiled and measured one another with their eyes.

And at the center of it—

Buchou in red.

For one second, even with everything burning in me, I almost stopped.

She looked beautiful.

No, that wasn’t enough.

She looked like she belonged at the center of the room more than anything else.

Crimson dress.

Hair done properly for the ceremony.

Jewelry at her throat.

The kind of elegance that made the nobles around her feel like decorations instead of company.

And that made me hate all of them even more.

Because none of it belonged to her choice.

I shouted.

“Buchoooooou!!”

All eyes turned to me.

Bucho’s eyes went wide as she looked close to tears.

“Ise…”

I could barely hear her from how quietly she said it. 

“To all the High-class Devils and Buchou’s brother, Maou sama! My name is Hyoudou Issei from Kuou Academy! I have come to take back Buchou, Rias Gremory-sama!”

I began to walk towards her.

Like I was going to let this happen.

The guards came forward to stop me. Tall Devils in formal armor and house colors moving from both sides of the room, all of them with the certainty that they could just seize the loud idiot in the hall and restore the ceremony.

They never made it to me.

Akeno-san moved with a smile that wasn’t a smile at all.

She stepped into their path in her kimono like she had been born specifically to make others regret their day.

Demonic power crackled at her fingertips in little purple-white arcs that made even the front line of guards hesitate.

“My, my,” she said. “How rude. You’ll have to go through me first.”

On the opposite side, Yuuto-san drew steel.

“Go, Ise-kun!”

She brandished her sword and stood in the way of the guards. 

She did it elegantly.

She made intercepting armed guards in a white formal suit look cool.

I was both impressed and annoyed at how effortless she made it look.

“No one passes,” she said.

“.....You’re late.”

Koneko-chan stopped in beside them, small and more than enough reason for any smart guard to reconsider his life.

“Get Buchou….. Then we will find Kusari-senpai.”

I nodded to her. 

I pointed straight at Riser.

“Buchou—Rias Gremory-sama’s virginity belongs to me!!”

The whole hall recoiled like I’d cursed in church.

Riser made an indecipherable face.

Gasps.

Murmurs.

Angry voices.

One older Devil woman actually covered her mouth like she’d just watched a horrific accident.

Rias-Buchou looked like she didn’t know whether to bury her face in shame or laugh in relief at me arriving. 

Probably both.

Maybe not the best thing to have said.

It felt right to say though.

“This is an event I’ve organised.” a voice called calmly.

A man with crimson-hair who was sitting further away began to walk towards us.

Then, because the room hadn’t gone insane enough yet, I saw her.

Kusari-san.

Standing at his side in servant black and white, one arm in a sling, three white tails lowered behind her. Pale. Hurt. Too still.

For one second, my whole body forgot the hall.

Asia’s voice came back to me from before the teleport.

Kusari-san was taken after the match.

Grayfia-san said she was being removed from the peerage.

They said it was already decided.

I looked at her.

She did not look back.

Not because she hadn’t seen me.

Because she wasn’t allowed to.

That made the whole thing somehow worse.

Riser saw where my eyes went and smirked.

“Oh? So you noticed the pet too.”

Everything in me spiked at once.

“She has a name,” I said.

Rias stopped our conversation by addressing the man.

“Onii-sama”

Oh….

Sirzechs.

Buchou’s brother. 

Maou Sirzechs Lucifer.

The one who decided to have Kusari-san put into Buchou’s peerage and then took her away.

Somewhere to my left, one of the guards made a bad decision and Akeno-san’s lightning cracked close enough to send him back two full steps.

Yuuto-san’s blade rang once against another weapon and then the line there stopped moving again.

“I wanted to see the power of a Dragon. So I had my queen organize this.”

He smiled at me.

I didn’t trust that smile at all.

One of the other guests tried to intervene.

“S-Sirzechs-sama!? You can’t do something irresponsible like this!” 

“It’s fine. The [Rating Game] from last time was very entertaining. However there was a slight disadvantage for my little sister, who had no experience when she faced off against Raiser-kun who is a prodigy from the House of Phoenix.”

Another guest questioned him.

“So Maou-sama believes the game was unfair?”

Maou-sama smiled wide before replying.

“No, of course not. If one of the Maou said so, it might make the noble Devils look bad. The connections between High-class Devils is very important.”

He smiled at the crowd. 

“A dragon and a phoenix,” he said lightly. “A battle between legendary creatures. There couldn’t be any better entertainment for my sister's wedding.”

Riser turned toward him at once. “Sirzechs-sama, surely you aren’t seriously indulging this clown.”

“Surley an heir of the Phenex clan should have not issue defeating a challenger who has offended you.”

Even I could see that Maou-sama put him into a position where he had to play along.

Maou-sama looked between us like this was some fun little drama arranged for his evening.

“Riser, can you show your power once more for Rias and I?”

Hearing Maou-sama’s request, Riser schools his face before smiling.

“Very well. If  this is Sirzechs-sama request I cannot deny it. This Riser will show one last performance before getting married!”

Then Maou-sama looked at me and asked the question that mattered.

“If you win,” he said, “what do you want?”

There was shouts of outrage.

Maou-sama doesn’t look away from me as he explains himself. 

“He’s a Devil, so we need to reward him since we are asking something of him. Now what would you like? A peerage? Beautiful women?”

No hesitation.

Normally I would have at his offer.

“Buchou back,” I said immediately. “Rias Gremory back and the engagement cancelled.”

Riser’s face darkened.

Then I pointed—not at him.

At Kusari-san.

“And Kusari-san returned to Rias Gremory’s peerage.”

That caused less of a reaction in the room but more at the same time.

Not of the room.

Of the people who mattered.

Buchou’s breath caught.

Akeno-san went still in a way that meant something dangerous was happening under the surface.

Yuuto’s eyes flicked toward Kusari-san for one second before coming back to the guards.

Koneko-chan’s expression changed by almost nothing, which from her meant a lot.

Kusari-san herself—

Nothing.

No movement.

No reaction.

Only that still and quiet posture that made me want to break something.

Riser’s laugh came back uglier this time.

“That thing? Why would I care what happens to her?”

I turned on him so fast my body almost forgot it was still injured.

“She matters to us. To me.”

He scoffed.

Then Maou-sama laughed softly.

“So those are your demands,” he said.

“Yes Maou-sama”

“Very well. If you win you may take Rias with you. But are you sure about Kusari? She is a devil with a history of violence against her [Kings] and other members of her peerages.”

“She’s nothing like that. I’m sure.”

Maou-sama’s smile deepened as if he heard exactly what he wanted. 

“Very well then.”

“Thank you.”

The room held for that.

Then Riser stepped forward, fire beginning to answer around the edge of his shoulders like the whole hall itself wanted to remember what sort of creature he really was.

“You lost already,” he said. “The game is over. The engagement is in progress. You think barging in here lets you set terms?”

“No,” I said. “I think beating you in front of everybody does.”

He snarled.

He seemed furious at the thought of me trying to win. 

Maou-sama lifted one hand and the whole room paused again.

“Very well,” he said. “If both sides agree, then let the dragon have his chance.”

Riser turned. “Sirzechs-sama—”

“Unless,” Sirzechs said pleasantly, “you are refusing?”

Riser shut up immediately.

Pride is such a useful leash on idiots.

The center of the hall began to clear.

Guests retreated.

Guards fell back under protest and command.

The musicians had already stopped long ago.

The entire room bent itself around the empty ring being made for us, all polished floor and torchlight and too many eyes.

I could feel everyone watching.

Buchou.

Riser.

The nobles.

Sirzechs.

Grayfia-san.

Akeno-san.

Yuuto-san.

Koneko-chan.

Kusari-san.

I looked at Buchou.

Really looked at her now, with the room finally shaped enough that we could stop shouting through scandal and start speaking through battle.

She looked shaken.

Relieved.

Afraid.

Furious.

All of it at once.

I was too.

“I came to keep my promise,” I told her.

The hall heard it.

I didn’t care.

Buchou’s eyes widened.

Then softened in the way that always made my stupid heart feel like it was being dragged around on a leash.

“Ise…” she said.

Then, quieter, almost like she couldn’t help it, “You really are an idiot.”

“Yes.”

A few people in the room actually laughed at that.

Maou-sama lifted his hand again. “Then the ring is yours.”

Riser walked into the cleared center first, flames curling a little higher around him now that ceremony had finally given him permission to be what he actually was.

I stepped in after him.

Halfway there, I stopped and turned back toward Buchou.

The room went still again.

Buchou knew before I said it.

I could see it on her face.

Still, I said it anyway.

“Buchou.”

She stood straighter.

I grinned.

Because I intended to win this.

For Buchou.

For the peerage.

For all of us.

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