High School DxD: Fox of Ill Omen

Issei

I messed up with Dress Break again. 

Irina dodged it and it wound up hitting Koneko-chan and Asia.

Normally I would apologize but enjoy the view while it was there.

But this time I almost hit Kusari-san.

The other girls of the peerage would get mad or exasperated from getting their clothes blow off.

Kusari-san shut down when I happened to hit her.

I don’t know why she reacts that way, but I know I shouldn’t use Dress Break on her. Ever.

The worst part was that she forgave me before I deserved it.

Enough that nobody else could keep tearing into me without looking like they were arguing with the victim instead of the idiot who misfired Dress Break in the first place.

Which, unfortunately, was me.

We made it back to the clubroom after the spar in the same uneasy group we’d left in, only more wrung out and far less willing to look at each other.

Asia sat close to Buchou, still a little pink even after changing back properly. Koneko-chan stayed near Kusari-san like it had become the natural arrangement of today.

Akeno-san leaned against the wall with a smile that meant she was letting me live for the moment and reserving judgment for later.

Yuuto-san stood apart.

That was normal lately.

What wasn’t normal was how much worse it looked now.

Buchou sat and folded her hands in her lap.

“Ise,” she said.

That tone again.

I straightened automatically. “Yes, Buchou.”

“You know what you did wrong.”

“Yes.”

“Say it.”

So I did.

I admitted I got excited, lost control, let Dress Break slip off target, and nearly hit Asia and Kusari instead of my actual opponent.

I admitted that “not meaning to” didn’t change the fact that it happened.

I apologized again.

Asia looked like she wanted to make it easier for me.

Koneko-chan did not.

Buchou listened without interrupting, red eyes steady on me the whole time.

When I finished, she said, “Intent does not erase result.”

“I know.”

“But the result was not the same as the worst possible outcome of it either.”

My eyes lifted.

She looked toward Kusari-san.

Kusari-san sat very straight in her chair, hands folded too carefully, expression flat enough that anyone who didn’t know her would think she had already recovered completely.

That wasn’t true.

But she had come back faster than I’d expected after Koneko-chan stepped in front of her.

Not because she was fine.

Because Koneko helped her stay present long enough not to disappear into it.

I knew that now.

I also knew I had almost made it happen anyway.

Koneko-chan spoke before I could say anything else.

“He almost hit Kusari-senpai.”

There it was again.

The center of her anger.

Not just Asia. Not her own embarrassment.

Kusari-san.

Buchou’s gaze flicked to Koneko-chan, then back to me.

“I know,” she said.

Her voice softened when she looked at Kusari-san again.

“I also know it didn’t happen. Because Koneko-chan moved.”

Koneko-chan didn’t react to the praise.

Asia did.

She nodded quickly. “Koneko-chan protected her.”

Kusari-san’s fingers tightened for the tiniest second.

Then loosened.

I looked at her.

She noticed and, after a beat, spoke into the quiet.

“It was a mistake.”

Nobody moved.

“That is all.”

Akeno-san’s smile became smaller. Less playful.

Buchou gave the slightest nod.

Kusari-san lowered her eyes just a fraction, then lifted them again, forcing herself to stay in the room instead of sinking out of it.

“I know what it looked like,” she said. “And I know what it almost became. It was still a mistake.”

Her voice was very level.

Too level.

Koneko-chan’s hand brushed the edge of her sleeve once, barely there.

Kusari-san kept going.

“But we have already discussed it. So stop acting like I am falling apart when I am fine.”

The room changed after that.

Enough that I felt some of the pressure shift off my throat and into the place it belonged—my guilt, yes, but no longer everybody else’s panic on top of it.

Buchou leaned back slightly.

“The matter is closed for tonight,” she said.

Then she looked at me and added, “You will not use Dress Break again until I allow it.”

That hurt, but seemed fair. 

“Yes, Buchou.”

Akeno-san hummed. “A wise decision.”

Koneko-chan crossed her arms.

Asia looked relieved.

I was about to thank Kusari-san—because what else was I supposed to do when she had just saved me from being publicly skinned alive—when Yuuto-san moved.

Everyone noticed.

Because she had been so still until then.

She stepped away from the wall and toward the door with the same composure she brought to almost everything, which only made it worse when I saw how empty her eyes were.

“Yuuto,” Buchou said.

Yuuto-san stopped with one hand on the doorframe.

Not turning around yet.

“I need air,” she said.

No one answered.

We all knew that wasn’t what she meant.

The room, the Excalibur discussion, the spar, my Dress Break screw-up, Kusari-san almost getting hit—all of it had piled on top of the thing already eating her alive.

She finally looked back over her shoulder.

Not at me.

Not at Asia.

At Buchou first. Then Koneko-chan. Then Kusari-san.

That order mattered more than I liked.

“I’m leaving,” she said.

Asia made a hurt sound. “Yuuto-san…”

“I won’t stop, so don’t try.” Yuuto-san said quietly.

That was too close to what she’d said in the rain.

Buchou heard it too. I saw it hit her in the eyes before she masked it.

“You are the [Knight] of the Gremory group. I won’t let you turn into a Stray. Stop this instant!”

Buchou tried to get her to stop.

“….Iam only here because of my comrades. That’s why I have to do this. It’s why I have to channel their regrets into my swords.”

Yuuto-san smiled.

That false smile.

The one that made my skin crawl now because I knew what was under it.

She left before anyone could stop her.

The door shut.

“Yuuto-chan….”

Rias quietly called after her but she was gone.

Nobody spoke for a while after that.

Koneko-chan was the first to move.

To the door.

Not after Yuuto-san.

Just enough to look at where she had gone.

Then she came back and sat down again, but I caught the change in her face.

Small. Quiet. Real.

She was worried.

So was I.

So was everyone else.

Which was exactly why, the next morning, I decided to do something stupid.

Koneko

Issei-senpai was easy to follow when he thought he was sneaking.

He moved with too much purpose.

The day off should have meant sleeping late, eating, resting, training, maybe listening to Buchou try to think through Excalibur and Yuuto-senpai at the same time. 

Instead, because of how he was acting after Yuuto-senpai left, I knew he was planning something.

He was going to try and do something about it.

That was the reason I followed him.

Not because I trusted him to do something useful.

Because I didn’t.

And because once someone in the peerage starts hurting, Issei-senpai always runs towards it.

I tailed him to the station.

He met Saji-senpai there.

That was surprising.

Saji-senpai got as far as asking Issei-senpai what they were doing before he spotted me.

Issei-senpai noticed and tried to flee but I grabbed him by his shirt and stopped him.

“What were you two trying to do?” I asked.

Saji-senpai looked like he was ready to leave already.

Issei-senpai spoke up. “I’m going to ask Shidou Irina and Xenovia to give me permission to destroy the holy-sword Excaliburs.”

Both Saji-senpai and I stared at him for a moment.

“You’re going after the Church girls.”

Issei-senpai rubbed the back of his head.

It wasn’t a question.

He sighed. “Yeah.”

“This is for Yuuto-senpai right? Then I’ll help.”

Then Saji-senpai cried out.

“Nooo! I want nothing to do with this! You’re insane if you think I’m going to put myself anywhere near two Church members and their holy swords! I'm going home!”

I grabbed him as well.

Neither of them were allowed to leave yet.

“Hyoudou! This is your peerages issue, so why are you trying to include me?! I’m a part of the Sitri peerage so I can’t take part in this at all!”

“Don’t be like that Saji. You were the only other Devil who I knew would help.”

“I’m the only Devil outside your peerage that you know!”

Saji-senpai and Issei-senpai began to bicker about Saji-senpai trying to leave.

I noticed Kusari-senpai approaching us while the two idiots I held bickered loudly.

She must have seen us before we noticed her.

That was normal.

Neither of these two were stealthy or quiet for that matter.

Her steps were quiet. Her expression unreadable.

She looked at Issei-senpai, then Saji-senpai, then me.

“What are you doing?”

The two idiots stopped bickering and stared at her. 

No one answered immediately.

That was answer enough.

“Koneko-chan, could you let go of me in front of Kusari-san?”

“…No”

Kusari-senpai eyes narrowed slightly. “You’re going after Shidou-san and Quarta-san.”

“I just came here because Hyoudou called me and asked to meet at the train station! I have nothing to do with this! I’m a part of house Sitri! I’m not involved!”

Saji-senpai was still complaining. 

She ignored him. 

“Yes,” Issei-senpai said.

“And you think this is a good idea.”

“No,” he admitted. “But I think I have to do something.”

That made her go still in the way she did when a sentence had almost convinced her and she hated that it had.

She looked at me.

I said nothing.

I wanted to hear his whole justification before I interrupted.

“Yuuto-san left,” Issei-senpai said. “We all saw it. If Excalibur is moving already and those two know more than they said yesterday, we can’t just sit around.”

Kusari-senpai’s face didn’t change, but I could feel the direction of her thoughts anyway.

Yuuto-senpai.

She wanted to know where Yuuto-senpai had gone, what she was planning, what Excalibur meant to her in practice instead of only in explanation.

That was the part of her Issei-senpai was hitting, even if he didn’t realize it.

She was more worried for Yuuto-senpai than he realized.

And then she said exactly what I expected.

“I’m telling Buchou.”

Issei-senpai flinched.

Saji muttered, “Please tell Sona-Kaichou that I am not involved.”

Kusari-senpai turned to go.

Issei-senpai stopped her with one word.

“Please.”

That worked better than I wanted it to.

Enough that she looked back.

“If you know this is reckless enough to hide,” she said, “then why are you doing it?”

“Because I’m right,” Issei-senpai said.

I nearly hit him myself for that answer.

Then he corrected fast enough to save his life.

“Not about everything. Just… if we sit still, things get worse. I know they will.”

He did know that.

The shape of his stupidity had been refined by experience.

Kusari-senpai still wasn’t convinced.

I tried the practical argument first.

“If you think this will cause trouble,” I said, “then coming with us makes more sense than stopping us. You can intervene before anything becomes serious.”

She looked at me and didn’t answer.

That meant no.

So I changed it.

I stepped closer.

Not as someone repeating Buchou’s authority or Rias’s orders or “what makes sense.”

Just as me.

“Kusari-senpai.”

Her eyes lifted to mine.

“Come with us.”

That got more of a reaction than the logic had.

I could tell because she stopped hiding behind the practical objections for half a second and just looked at me.

So I added the part that mattered.

“I want your help.”

Simple.

Not because she was useful.

Because I wanted her there.

Because Yuuto-senpai mattered and Issei was reckless and I trusted her more than I trusted either of them right now.

Saji-senpai moaned about how he didn’t want to help.

Kusari-senpai understood that.

I knew she did because her whole posture changed—only a little, but enough.

She exhaled once.

Slow.

Then: “If this becomes idiocy, I’m going to Rias-buchou.”

Issei-senpai brightened instantly. “So you’re coming?”

“Not with enthusiasm.”

“It’s enough!”

Saji-senpai looked panicked. “No! You seemed like you would be the reasonable one! Just let me go!.”

“Impossible,” I said.

He clicked his tongue.

We began to walk the streets around the station looking for Irina and Xenovia.

We searched for a short while. 

We were having little luck and it seemed like we should move to another area.

Then Issei-senpai froze.

“There.”

We all turned.

On a street corner, Irina and Xenovia were standing beside a hand-written sign.

Begging.

Actually begging for money.

Irina still had a smile on her face, but now it looked stretched. Xenovia looked like she would rather be stabbed than be seen doing this.

For one full beat, nobody moved.

Then Saji-senpai said, “No way.”

Issei-senpai stared like his soul had left his body.

Kusari-senpai blinked once.

Only once.

Then she said, very quietly, “I misjudged how competent they seemed.”

I almost smiled at how ridiculous this already was.

This was somehow worse than the plan already had been.

And now we were definitely involved.

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