High School DxD: Fox of Ill Omen

Kusari

The forest was damp enough to cling to my fur.

That was the first thing I decided I disliked about it.

The second was Satooji-san.

We had moved deeper through the Forest of Familiars after Issei’s rejection of hydras, dragons large enough to count as natural disasters, and anything else that looked like it could mistake him for a between-meals snack.

My fox ears were out and alert. Even with a guide I was not going to relax, not in a forest full of supernatural creatures. My tails swayed low behind me, occasionally brushing roots or leaves I would rather not have touched.

Satooji-san crouched at the edge of a clear lake and gestured dramatically at the shining water in front of us.

“Listen up,” he whispered. “The seirei gather at this lake.”

I stood a little behind Rias-Buchou and looked past him.

The lake was almost unnaturally beautiful.

Clear, shimmering, and bright even under the filtered light of the forest canopy. Sacred-looking enough that I would have expected some sort of solemn water spirit to rise from it if I had been foolish enough to believe beauty ever guaranteed grace.

Satooji-san kept whispering like this was a hunt.

“Yes, the water seirei, Undine, living in this lake will show themselves from its waters.”

Beside me, I could feel Issei growing more hopeful by the second.

That was unfortunate.

According to Satooji-san, Undines were maidens with pure hearts and beautiful bodies who healed broken hearts.

Asia, predictably, looked like she thought that sounded lovely.

Issei, predictably, looked like he thought that this was some pervert’s dream come true.

His face alone made that clear enough.

I did not need Veil Sight to read him.

“B-Buchou,” he whispered, already leaning into disaster, “since it would be my familiar, I can do anything I’d like, right?”

Rias smiled like a woman who absolutely knew what that question meant and would enjoy making him suffer for asking it.

“Yes, you can do as you like. It would become your familiar after all.”

Issei looked like he might cry from happiness.

I watched him for a moment.

Hearing that upset me more than I would have liked.

Then I looked back at the lake.

I had been around him long enough by now to separate the parts of him that were merely shameless from the parts that were sincere.

Both were active at once most of the time. It made him exhausting and, for reasons I preferred not to examine too closely, oddly reliable.

But even he had moments where he only thought with his desires in mind.

The lake began to glow.

Satooji-san pointed with sudden excitement.

“Oh, the lake has started glowing. That means an Undine should make its appearance.”

Issei looked like a child handed a present.

Then the water spirit emerged.

It had light-blue hair.

A transparent robe.

And a body built for close-quarters murder.

I stared.

Even I, who had no emotional investment in the fantasy Issei had constructed around the word Undine, needed a second.

The shoulders were broad enough to suggest routine acts of violence.

The biceps were larger than someone’s head.

Its face had scars.

Its breasts were huge, yes, but mainly due to its huge muscles. 

What rose from the sacred lake was less “pure maiden of water” and more “woman who wins territorial disputes with her hands.”

Issei made a strangled noise beside me that rapidly escalated into open anguish.

“No no no! That’s not a beautiful maiden! No matter how you look at it, that’s a martial artist in training! I expected a beautiful and graceful spirit! Those arms are meant for destruction!”

Satooji-san looked delighted.

“Yeah! Undine often battle each other over territory. The world of seirei is also about power!”

That explained nothing and somehow made it worse.

“It isn’t a healing type at all! It is a killing-type! I don’t need a familiar with insane muscles!”

“But, it is a female type like you asked for, you know? And it has quite a potential as a familiar.”

“I don’t want to hear that!”

Issei covers his face as he starts to cry. 

“Ise, the World is changing now.”

Buchou says it while resting her hand on Issei’s shoulder while nodding her head.

I’m not sure Issei is ready for this level of change.

“Issei-san, look. Her eyes are are pure. Seeing that makes me think she is a girl with a pure heart as well.”

Asia says that with a smile while trying to cheer him up.

Issei cries a bit harder after hearing her.

Akeno suddenly chimes in. 

“Ah, another one has appeared.”

Another one surfaced.

Just as enormous.

Just as terrifying.

Both began glaring at each other with enough hostility that even the air around the lake felt tense.

Then they fought.

Not elegantly.

Not mystically.

Not in any way that would have justified Issei’s expectations of fantasy.

They punched each other.

Hard.

The lake became an arena.

Fists vanished into stomachs.

Uppercuts snapped heads back.

Low kicks cracked like explosive spells.

Blood appeared quickly and in unreasonable amounts.

Asia put both hands over her mouth.

Rias nodded to herself, as if this was completely normal.

Yuuto sighed under her breath.

Koneko watched intently. Her expression did not change, which probably meant she approved.

I watched Issei instead.

He looked devastated.

Utterly, almost poetically devastated.

“Buchou, can I go home?” he asked weakly. “I’m about to cry.”

“You already are,” Yuuto said.

That was true.

“Haha! Look, boy! The victor of this fight will become your familiar! This is the ultimate fight of the Undine! A wonderful adventure indeed!”

Satooji-san says while patting Issei's shoulder energetically.

“I don’t want an adventure like this!”

Issei continues to cry as he watches his dream of beautiful spirit women continue to be crushed as the Undine violently clash.

Asia peeks between her hands, looking at the fight.

“How a-about we name her Dine-chan?”

Asia says while watching the battle with fear in her eyes. 

Issei looks shocked and quickly refutes her. 

“Asia, no matter how you look at it, that Dine-chan will be too much for us. If you make that thing your familiar, then you would become pregnant just from being in the proximity of her.”

“I will gladly get p-pregnant if it’s Ise-san’s child!”

Asia say quickly.

I begin to wonder if I should leave and find a familiar on my own.

I tuned out whatever reply Issei said to Asia and noticed Koneko had moved next to me.

“What kind of familiar would you want Kusari-senpai?”

She was still watching the Undines brutal fight as she asked me.

I looked away from her to the fight as I replied.

“I don’t know if I have a preference. I would simply look for something that would be useful and cover anything that I am lacking.”

I paused as one of the Undines, Dine-chan I believe, delivered a devastating blow to the other’s side.

“However I dislike the idea of forcing one of these creatures to serve me. I find the idea…. wrong in some ways.”

“…That makes sense. Shiro and I made a deal for her to become my familiar. I would offer her food and attention when she wants it, and she helps me with things in return.”

“I think that is the kind of relationship I would want with my familiar.”

Koneko made a small noise.

“Ah, it’s over.”

One of the two Undines had thrown the other down. 

“Hey, boy! Your Dine-chan is in crisis! She just received a seoi-nage!”

Satooji-san excitedly describes how the Undine used a shoulder throw on the other.

Issei snapped.

“Satoooooooooji! Please just shut the fuck up!”

“Let’s just move on to another place. At this rate we won’t find any of you a familiar.”

Buchou sighed and decided we were moving on.

If the Undines were left any longer to their own devices, one of them would likely drown the other in chest-deep water and claim Issei as its master. 

We walked deeper into the forest after that, and Satooji began speaking about another candidate.

The sprite dragon. 

A rare one, apparently. Blue lightning. Still young enough to be captured now, but not later. Strong enough to matter, not so overwhelming as to be immediately suicidal. That improved everyone’s mood except mine, because “baby dragon” rarely means “safe,” only “smaller while still able to ruin your day.”

Then we found it.

Or it found us.

“The Sprite Dragon! That’s it!”

Satooji-san shouted loudly.

“The Sprite Dragon. It is also my first time seeing one.” He sighed as we arched the dragon. “What beautiful scales. They glow just like a blue diamond.”

A small blue-scaled dragon rested on a branch ahead, scales glowing like cut blue crystal. It was about the size of a large bird, maybe a little bigger, and for one moment I understood Issei’s expression of wonder.

It was beautiful.

Even Rias-Buchou looked moved.

Then everything went wrong.

“Kyaaa!”

Asia screamed first.

I turned immediately.

Something sticky and semi-transparent had dropped from above onto her.

“T-This…”

More of it splashed onto Rias-Buchou.

“What is this?”

And Yuuto.

The things were moving. Living. Gelatinous.

Slimes.

I identified them just as another drop fell—

toward Koneko.

There was no time to think properly.

Only movement.

I shoved Koneko hard out of the dropping slime’s path. She saw my intention and leapt away as I pushed her. I felt the slime hit the space where she had been an instant before

At the same time I triggered Misstep and tore myself sideways out of there before any of it could land on me.

I did not want it on my tails.

Or my ears.

Or anywhere in my fur.

That was not a noble tactical consideration, but it was still true.

When I came out of the step several meters away towards Issei and Satooji-san.

Koneko landed in a crouch near us and immediately whipped around to orient on the threat.

The slimes struck earth and spread in a disgusting splash.

Behind us, Asia gasped.

“My c-clothes…!”

I turned fully then.

The slimes were already melting fabric.

Asia’s clothes and underwear dissolved away under the attack.

Rias-Buchou’s too.

Akeno-senpai had also been hit by another falling mass I had not even tracked in time.

Yuuto as well.

All four of them were suddenly, horribly exposed in the middle of the forest while the slime clung and spread.

Hands covered breasts and moved to shield privates.

For a single absurd second, the entire scene stopped.

Then Issei got a nosebleed.

Of course he did.

Satooji-san stared.

Also of course.

Yuuto covering herself lightly glared at them.

“You should look away.”

They didn’t.

Koneko, now beside me, had one arm across her own body in sympathy and a face flat enough to count as murderous calm.

Issei was trying very hard to look everywhere at once and nowhere respectfully at all.

I watched Rias and the others while trying to think of what I could do to help them. 

Rias was about three heartbeats from turning the whole forest into cinders by humiliation alone.

Tentacles dropped from the trees next.

That was somehow worse.

They shot down from the trunks and branches around the lake clearing and wrapped around Asia, Rias, Akeno, and Yuuto, sliding into torn remnants of fabric and coiling around legs, waists, and arms.

Asia cried out first.

Then Yuuto.

Rias’s aura spiked so suddenly that the nearby leaves shivered.

Satooji-san quickly explained why the creatures are. 

“The slime doesn’t have a name and it only melts clothing. The tentacles aren’t named either. These guys often work together to attack their prey. The slime only targets the clothes and the tentacles target women's secretions so they aren’t considered harmful.”

They sounded awful. 

I moved.

Spell-light gathered in my hand at once.

I did not particularly care what Satooji-san had to say about rarity or specimen value if some forest pest thought it could climb over my Buchou and the rest of them like that.

Issei and Satioji-san rushed in front of me, blocking my advance. 

“Don’t!” Satooji-san hissed.

And, from beside him, Issei—somehow still bleeding from the nose, excited, and panicking at once—snapped, “Wait! Don’t blast them!”

I turned my head sharply toward him.

He pointed in a frantic, bloody-nosed rush.

“Satooji-san says they’re not that dangerous! We’ll hit the girls too if you aren’t careful!”

I hated that he had a point.

“They’re nuisance types!” Satooji said quickly. “The best way to get rid of them is to burn them off cleanly!”

Issei looked relieved that Satooji-was backing him up in stopping me.

I looked past them and saw the tentacles binding the girls' limbs and moving along their bodies.

I was about to ignore them when Issei shouted to Rias.

“Buchou, I will make these slimes and tentacles my familiars! They are the perfect fit for me!”

He sounded completely sincere.

Buchou sighs at Issei as she burns off the slimes and tentacles. 

“You know, Ise. Familiars are a very important thing for Devils, okay? Think properly about this.”

“Understood.”

Issei closed his eyes as if in deep thought.

I already assumed what is his answer would be. 

……………

“There’s no other option, I will make them my familiars!”

I was correct. 

“Ise, only three seconds have passed since you started thinking.”

Akeno burned through the slime next, lightning and fire answering her irritation beautifully.

Yuuto, stripped bare and furious, started cutting at tentacles with such neat violence that I briefly felt bad for the forest itself.

Asia, still the least suited for this kind of situation and somehow enduring it anyway, tried to keep calm and not cry.

Issei looked close to tears at their destruction. 

Rias-Buchou looked toward me mid-destruction, still flush with embarrassment. 

“Kusari-chan, why did you only help Koneko-chan?”

The accusation hit cleanly.

I answered quickly.

“I only had time to move Koneko-chan, who was closest to me, and then get myself clear.”

That was true.

Mostly.

The rest of the truth stayed in my head where it belonged.

I did not want that slime in my fur.

That would have been intolerable.

And, perhaps, not something to say aloud while Buchou and the others were burning away tentacles in varying states of naked fury.

Rias stared at me for one second longer.

Then another tentacle wrapped around her thigh and she obliterated it on the spot, ending the matter by force of embarrassment rather than forgiveness.

“Step aside Ise. I need to destroy these useless creatures and you are in the way.”

Buchou approached Issei who was blocking her advance to the last of the slimes and tentacles still on Asia. 

“Hell no! You can’t Buchou! I’m going to make these slimes and tentacles my familiars!”

He moved closer while frantically shaking his head no. 

“I will protect them even with my life! They are important to my dreams! We can’t just destroy them! They are my comrades, Buchou!”

He tried to sound sincere while defending the creatures that were trying to violate half the peerage a moment ago.

“These are the familiars that I was looking for! Everything I’ve dreamed of!”

He hugged Asia to shield the pests with his body. 

“Umm, Issei-san. You’re clinging to me…….”

He ignored her struggles and began to cry again. 

“Surataro, Shokushumaru. My partners. I will definitely protect you guys….”

He actually named them.

I watched him clutching Asia and the things attacking her while tearfully declaring his devotion to “Surataro” and “Shokushumaru,” and decided, not for the first time, that he was a lunatic.

Even Akeno was surprised at how quickly he named them. 

The Sprite Dragon chose that exact moment to intervene.

Blue lightning crackled over its small body.

Then it fired.

The electric blast struck Issei and Satooji-san directly, blackening them in an instant and turning the slimes and tentacles on Asia to ash.

The explanation came quickly from the charred Satooji-san.

“The Sprite Dragon only gives electric damage to those who it acknowledges as its enemies. So it must have thought that the girl isn’t its enemy.”

Asia had not been targeted.

The men had.

I approved.

Not aloud.

But internally, yes.

The dragon then attached itself to Asia almost immediately, because apparently even baby dragons had standards and a preference for pure-hearted girls.

Issei, however, took the destruction of his beloved slime and tentacle candidates as a personal tragedy of cosmic scale.

“Surataro! Shokushumaru! Why?!”

He cried out their names tearfully. 

Then he snapped.

Demonic power burst around him violently enough to drive everyone else back.

Trees rustled. The air bent. His aura rose in thick waves of wrath, perversion, and draconic pressure so overwhelming that I had to brace my footing.

“……I’m pissed now. Sprite Dragoooon!”

“A pulse of demonic-power that strong is amazing.  Ise-kun’s strength has been released from his rage. I never thought it would awaken with something like this!”

“What an overwhelming aura! Ise, why don’t you use that power for something more useful!”

Akeno and Buchou were both shocked by the power he was releasing.

“The lecherous greed and the pure desire to have sex. The rage of losing lecherous tools has pushed forward Ise-kun.”

Yuuto analyzed Issei’s perversion as if it was a battlefield tactic. 

“……..It’s only that the super-pervert snapped.”

I sighed.

“Koneko-chan is right. It’s just Issei getting upset over missing out on being a lecher.”

Issei pointed at the Sprite Dragon with murderous conviction and declared vengeance for Surataro and Shokushumaru.

“My draconic power is the strongest in the World! Receive this power with your own body and perish!”

“You can’t bully him.”

Then Asia hugged the dragon and protected it. 

And that, somehow, worked.

He stopped with his fist raised, power shaking around him, and then wilted under Asia’s plea like a giant overgrown dog scolded by the one person whose opinion mattered.

The dragon nuzzled Asia.

“Sprite Dragons like those with pure hearts. He seems to be attached to that girl already.”

Satooji-san announced to the rest of us.

That sounded right.

Asia then asked, very timidly.

“U-umm, can I have this dragon as my familiar?”

Buchou looked to Issei for the decision.

He relented with the tragic dignity of a man surrendering both revenge and erotic opportunity at once.

“Yeah, I’ll let Asia decide.”

He cried to himself about being unable to take revenge. 

So we returned to the forest entrance for the contract ceremony.

A green magic circle formed around Asia and the Sprite Dragon while Akeno supported her through the process.

The rest of us watched.

Issei still looked like a mourner at a grave, though at least he had stopped threatening the dragon directly.

“In the name of A-Asia Argento, I order you! Y-You shall become my familiar and respond to my contract!”

The contract went smoothly.

“Normally the Sprite Dragon would refuse a contract with a devil, but it seems that this girl has a very pure heart. It is something very rare, but it seems like the contract ceremony will proceed without issue.”

Satooji-san says while watching the contract spell finish. 

As the light from the magic circle fades the sprite dragons flies to Asia. 

“Ufufu. You are tickling me. Rasse-kun.”

“Rasse?”

Issei questioned Asia. 

“I used Raigeki and I also used Ise-san’s name as well. I want him to be lively like Ise-san.”

She looked at him nervously.

“Does it bother you?”

He stepped closer. 

“No, that’s alright. Well, let’s get along Rasse—”

Then he stepped closer.

The dragon shocked him immediately.

Hard.

I had to turn away for a second so no one would see the tiny twitch at the corner of my mouth.

Satooji-san, who was also shocked due to being in range, helpfully explained that male dragons disliked males of other races.

Yuuto chuckles at the similarities between it and Issei. 

Asia looked apologetic.

Issei looked betrayed by creation itself.

Koneko summed up the entire outing with perfect efficiency.

“Perverts should just die.”

Yes.

That was exact enough to count as philosophy.

And so, by the end of the day, Asia had her familiar, Issei had grief, Akeno had new things to tease others with, Yuuto needed new clothes, Buchou had somehow treated this all as a successful excursion, and I had confirmed that the familiar forest was awful, tentacles were worse, and under no circumstances would I ever allow anything that melted clothing near my tails again.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!