Issei
After school, my face still hurt.
That was my first thought as Asia’s healing light washed over the bruises Koneko-chan had left on me.
Not “I should reflect on my sins.”
Not “maybe peeping in the girls’ changing room was a mistake.”
No, my first thought was just that my face hurt.
Which, okay, maybe proved I hadn’t learned enough.
Still, in my defense, what happened in the girls’ locker room earlier had been traumatic in its own way.
I’d hidden in that locker with Matsuda and Motohama, expecting beauty, excitement, and maybe a treasured memory to carry me through the week. Instead, Koneko-chan had found me, ripped the steel door off like it was made of paper, stood over me like some kind of executioner, and beaten me so badly that even Matsuda and Motohama had later confessed it was the first time they’d ever seen a real bloodbath.
So yes.
My face hurt.
“Ouch…”
“Are you okay?”
Asia’s voice was full of worry as she used Twilight Healing on me in the Occult Research Club room.
Warm light passed through my cheeks and jaw, taking the ache out of the bruises little by little.
She was so gentle about it that I almost felt bad for making her spend her afterschool time repairing damage.
Almost.
“……You reap what you sow.”
Koneko-chan muttered it from the sofa with an expression that said, very clearly, that if Asia weren’t here, she would be happy to do it again.
“Geez. Why do you do this…. ” Buchou let out a sigh of astonishment.
“Ara ara,” Akeno-san said with a soft laugh while pouring tea. “You have to keep the level of peeping to a moderate level.”
“I got too carried away.”
That was true. Partially at least.
Yuuto-san, sitting near the window, turned her eyes toward me with a look somewhere between exasperation and disbelief.
“Ise-kun,” she said, “stay in the boys’ locker room.”
I stared at her.
“I don’t want to stare at other guys! How could I enjoy watching other guys get charged?! I can’t even enjoy looking at a girl with an undeveloped body!”
The second the words left my mouth, I realized two things.
First, that I had spoken too quickly.
Second, that Koneko-chan was already glaring at me with the kind of focused hostility that usually came right before pain.
“Undeveloped…….”
Her voice was flat.
Her eyes were not.
I sat up straighter on instinct.
Before I could grovel properly, Kusari-san, who had been sitting a little apart with her usual unreadable calm, looked over at me and said in a dry voice:
“If Koneko wants to beat you again, it would be warranted.”
“Why are you all ganging up on me!?”
“Because you deserve it,” Koneko-chan said.
Asia looked between all of us nervously, then turned back to me with bright red cheeks.
“Ise-san. You shouldn’t be peeping at girls getting changed… I-if you want to see a naked girl so badly… I can…”
She trailed off, shifting shyly, and my brain almost stopped.
“No, no! You don’t have to push yourself, Asia! I want to! But not like this!”
That didn’t help.
It actually made Buchou smile.
And whenever Buchou smiled at me like that, my survival chances usually dropped.
“Yes,” she said casually. “If you wanted to someone naked, you could have just told me. I can show you mine whenever you want, in bed or in the bath.”
Buchou-sama!
I live with Buchou and she says things like that to me.
My life is unbelievable.
Wonderful. Cruel. Dangerous.
And then Asia silently pinched my cheek.
Hard.
“Gugh!”
“There’s no need to look so happy,” she muttered.
“I’m a healthy teenage boy!”
“A shameless one,” Yuuto-san corrected.
Akeno-san smiled into her tea. “Those two things do overlap a great deal.”
I rubbed my cheek and tried to restore my dignity. It did not return.
Then Buchou said something that actually pulled my mind away from my missed chance at seeing breasts for a moment.
“Changing the topic, but you three haven’t gotten a familiar yet. With everything that happened recently I forgot until now.”
I blinked.
“A familiar?”
Buchou nodded. “Yes. You, Kusari and Asia still don’t have one.”
And then, after a small pause, her gaze shifted briefly to Kusari-san before returning to me and Asia.
A familiar was one of those classic devil things.
Assistants. Messengers. Helpers for jobs.
They could carry out simple work, handle information, adjust to situations their masters couldn’t directly cover, all kinds of useful stuff.
Normally, even handing out the devil-work leaflets was the job of a familiar or a new devil doing the sort of labor familiars would eventually reduce.
I’d pedaled a bicycle around at night handing those leaflets out like mad before, so yeah, a familiar sounded pretty amazing.
Buchou raised her palm, and with a little red flash a bat appeared.
“This one is my familiar.”
A red bat, elegant enough to somehow look noble just by being hers.
Akeno-san summoned a tiny little oni-looking thing next.
“And this is mine.”
Koneko-chan, without saying anything at first, picked up a white kitten.
“…….This is Shiro.”
It was adorable.
Very fitting.
Then Yuuto-san smiled faintly and held out her hand. A small bird settled on her fingers and then hopped up onto her shoulder.
“This one is mine,” she said.
I looked at it properly.
A neat little bird. Sharp-eyed. Calm. Pretty in a quiet way.
“It suits you,” I said.
Yuuto-san blinked once, maybe surprised at the compliment.
Then she smiled more openly. “Thank you, Ise-kun.”
Behind us, Kusari-san stayed quiet.
I glanced at her, but she only watched the familiars with that same hard-to-read expression of hers, neither excited nor eager.
Just attentive.
Buchou’s bat flew a slow circle over my head.
“A familiar is a basic requirement for devils,” Buchou said. “They help their masters with tasks, pass along information, and many other things. You, Kusari, and Asia should each have one.”
She patted my cheek as she said it, and just like that the remaining pain from Koneko-chan’s beating almost vanished beneath the joy of being touched by Buchou.
My Onee-sama…
I was drifting into heavenly bliss when the magic circle on the floor began to glow.
Huh?
“Akeno?”
“Buchou, preparation is set.”
Preparation?
Asia and I exchanged a look, both confused, and Buchou smiled.
Kusari-san seemed to have noticed before we did and didn't react.
“Now, let’s go and capture your familiars.”
That was my master.
Command first, explanation later.
The circles brightened.
It seemed we were going right away.
And the next thing I knew, the room disappeared around us.
When the glow stopped, we were standing in a forest.
Not the ordinary kind, either.
A strange forest.
The kind of place where giant trees rose everywhere and blocked most of the sunlight overhead, turning the whole place into deep green darkness.
It was thick enough that a normal person would have stumbled around blindly, but as a devil my eyes worked fine.
That didn’t make it less creepy.
“In this forest,” Buchou explained, “there are many familiars. Today, I will have Ise, Kusari and Asia create contracts with their familiars.”
Kusari-san stood a little behind Asia, watching the forest like she was already measuring how many terrible things could be hiding in it.
The air was cool. Damp. Quiet, in a wrong way.
“Get daze!”
“Wha—!”
“Kyaa!”
Asia jumped behind me instantly, and I nearly jumped too when a loud voice burst out of nowhere.
At the same moment, Kusari-san’s hand snapped up beside me, her tails flared out behind her, curse-light gathering at her fingertips so fast it made the air twist—
—and Yuuto-san caught her wrist before the spell could fire.
“It’s fine, Kusari-san,” Yuuto-sam said calmly.
The man who had appeared in front of us wore rough clothes and the kind of expression only a very specific kind of enthusiast wore: the one who had dedicated his life to something too niche and was absolutely going to force everybody around him to hear about it.
“My name is Satooji of Madara Town! I’m a devil in training, aiming to become the Familiar Master!”
I stared at him.
A Devil?
This guy?
Buchou stepped forward smoothly. “Satooji-san, I brought my servants I spoke of”
“Hee. A dull-faced boy, a blonde beauty, and a silver beauty, huh? Okay! Leave it to me! If it’s me, any familiar immediately would be ‘get daze’!”
Don’t call me dull-faced!
Also, this guy shouts “get” too strongly.
Yuuto-san released Kusari-san’s arm once it was clear the man wasn’t attacking us.
“My apologies, Yuuto-san.”
“No, it was a good reaction. Maybe we should have explained what to expect better.”
Kusari-san lowered her hand, though she didn’t look especially sorry she’d almost blasted Satooji-san.
Satooji-san ignored his brush with death and turned to Asia, Kusari-san, and me with a grin.
“Now then! What type of familiar do you desire? A strong one? A fast one? Or one with poison?”
“What do you mean one with poison?! Are those the only three options?!” I loudly questioned the strange man.
“W-what type would you suggest Satooji-san?”
Asia asked our guide nervously.
That was apparently the wrong question.
Because Satooji-san immediately pulled out what looked like a catalog and flipped it open with all the dramatic pride of a salesman revealing the treasure of the age.
He pointed to a page.
A dragon.
A gigantic, terrifying, legendary-looking dragon.
“This is what I recommend for the dull boy! One of the Dragon-Kings— Chaos Karma Dragon, Tiamat! A legendary dragon, and the only female among the Dragon-Kings! No Devil has made a contract with her yet! But of course they haven’t, since she’s as strong as a Maou!”
I stared at the page.
Then at him.
Then at the page again.
“This doesn’t look like the level of a familiar! It should be small and cute! This is a last boss! A hidden boss! Do you understand that I would die!?”
“That would be a good fit,” Buchou said brightly. “You’re already related to a legendary dragon Ise. Plus, you are my adorable servant, so it might be possible for you to pull it off.”
I spun toward her in horror.
“Buchou! Are you trying to kill your adorable servant!?”
Kusari-san exhaled softly through her nose.
I was starting to think that meant she was laughing at me internally.
“I don’t think “good fit” means what you want it to here Buchou,” Yuuto-san said.
“Then how about this!” Satooji-san said, flipping pages with even greater excitement. “A Hydra!”
He shoved the picture toward me.
Many heads.
Sharp fangs.
Poison warnings in the illustration.
Actual skulls drawn around it.
“This one is amazing! It has deadly poison that no Devil in this world can endure! On top of that it’s immortal! It’s the worst kind of creature in the world, which even kills its master! Pretty useful, right?”
I stared at him.
And then, very sincerely, I asked Buchou, “Can I punch him?”
Kusari-san watched with interest as if she was hoping Buchou would say yes.
“Calm down, Ise,” Buchou said. “A Hydra is rare, so it would be wonderful to make a contract with one. If I remember correctly, there should be one somewhere in this forest… If we look for it we should be able to return by the end of the day.”
She looked deeper into the forest while saying it.
Why was she considering it!?
I would die!
I would get lost, eaten, dissolved, poisoned, and made into monster food before dinner!
Satooji-san gave me a thumbs-up.
“Hahaha! You should experience the adventure!”
“Stop messing around with me! I don’t want a monster more powerful than me as a familiar!”
“This boy sure has lots of demands,” he said. “Then what kind of familiar would you prefer?”
Yeah, I had demands!
I was only a reasonable man!
“Aren’t there any cute familiars?” I asked. “Like girl-type ones?.”
That was the dream.
A cute familiar.
A beautiful girl as a familiar.
That should be a dream of every Devil boy.
Satooji-san immediately clicked his tongue in disgust.
“This is why I always say that newbies don’t understand. Listen! If you want to become a Familiar-Master, then you need to catch powerful familiars! Then gather several of the same species, pick the strongest male and female, make them breed, and raise children with improved traits and—”
He just kept going.
Logic.
Abilities.
Breeding.
Power combinations.
Selection.
Too much selection.
I instantly hated his version of familiars.
Asia, hiding half behind me, raised one small hand.
“I also want a cute familiar.”
Satooji-san stopped and smiled.
“Okay, I understand.”
No, I didn’t trust that expression at all.
Not even a little.
He looked to Kusari-san.
“What about you? Something cute or strong?”
Kusari-san watched him for a moment before replying.
“I’ll decide as we go.”
He looked sad before turning and leading the way.
The forest around us stayed dim and strange, the kind of place where you had to believe monsters existed even if you hadn’t met one yet, and Satooji-san looked way too pleased with himself for a man who had just suggested dragons, poison monsters, and selective breeding as beginner options.
This was going to be a long day.
And I had a terrible feeling it was only getting started.
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