High School DxD: Fox of Ill Omen

Asia

By the time dinner ended, I had started to think the classroom visit might have been more exhausting after school than during it.

Only Rias-san, Ise-san, and I were at the house from the peerage, but that had still been more than enough for the adults to turn the entire evening into something overwhelming.

Issei had called it an admiration meeting when he explained what would happen tonight.

It began almost the moment the dishes were cleared.

Okaa-san had the television on.

Otou-san had sake.

Rias-san’s father had somehow become much louder after drinking, which was surprising because earlier in the day he had seemed so elegant and composed.

Sirzechs-sama looked far too delighted by all of it.

Grayfia-san stood nearby with the same perfect refinement she always had, which made her seem like the odd one out in the lively room.

And then they started replaying the recordings.

And then commented on every little thing.

“Ooh, look at Asia-chan here,” Okaa-san said happily. “She looks so sweet.”

I wanted to disappear already.

I was sitting with Rias-san and Ise-san off to the side, and I could feel my face getting hotter every few seconds.

It was one thing to know adults were visiting class.

It was another to realize they had all been filming us and were now proudly reviewing the evidence after dinner like we were at a school festival performance.

Otou-san laughed loudly. “It’s only natural for parents to pay attention to how their daughter is blossoming!”

That made my face go even redder.

I was happy every time they called me their daughter, but they didn’t stop their over the top praise from embarrassing me.

I knew it would hurt but perhaps praying for this to end would help.

God surely would have seen how cruel this was. 

“This…. This is hell…it has to be…”

Rias-san looked as though she wanted everything to be over the moment the first video began.

Sirzechs-sama  made everything worse for her.

“Look, look,” he said with entirely too much enthusiasm. “Ria-tan is raising her hand to answer a question!”

Even something as simple as answering a question got cheers and praise.

Rias-san covered her face with both hands.

“I can’t take it! Onii-sama, you idiot!”

And then she stood up and fled the room.

Ise-san jumped up at once. “Buchou!”

Grayfia-san had already smacked Sirzechs-sama with a paper fan before I even fully processed what had happened.

The room stayed noisy after that, but I didn’t really hear much of it.

I watched Ise-san hurry out after Rias-san, and for a second I stayed where I was, fingers tightened around the hem of my skirt.

I knew I should probably give them privacy.

I also knew I really didn’t want to.

That thought made me feel guilty immediately.

Not because it was wrong to feel it.

Because I knew exactly what kind of feeling it was.

I stood a little too quickly.

“I-I’ll go check on them,” I said.

No one stopped me.

Maybe because everyone could tell what I meant.

Maybe because adults were sometimes kind enough not to point at the embarrassing truth directly.

The hallway outside was quieter than the living room.

I could still hear the admiration meeting going on behind me, but the sound was softened by walls now.

Sirrzechs-sama’ muffled voice was still loudly praising Rias-san and pointing out what she was doing.

Then I heard Ise-san’s and Rias-san’s voices.

I followed the sound of voices toward Ise-san’s room.

The door wasn’t fully closed.

I know I should have called out before looking in.

I didn’t.

Rias-san was inside on the bed.

Ise-san sat on the floor near her.

The atmosphere between them was quieter than the rest of the house.

Gentler too.

Like they had stepped into a different evening from the one everyone else was sharing.

It instantly made me feel like I was intruding on something.

I heard Ise-san say, “My Dad and Mom sure got along well with your family.”

Rias-san didn’t answer right away.

Then, after a silence that felt full instead of empty, she said, “...I know. I am happy too that our fathers were talking like friends."

I felt like I shouldn’t have stayed after that.

I did though.

Not because I wanted to spy.

Because their voices made it hard to walk away.

Then Rias-san asked him something that made me stop breathing for a second.

“Are you happy that we met?”

My chest tightened.

That wasn’t a question I had expected from her.

Not because it was unkind.

Because it was too vulnerable.

I am. I can’t imagine my life without you in it at this point. You can think of it as an honor to hold such a place in your master’s heart.” Rias said

Issei quickly answered.

“Of course it's an honor! I am so lucky to have met Buchou. Everything since we’ve met has been unreal. But… when I think of you getting a boyfriend eventually, I don't know how to feel.”

I felt jealous of how affected Ise-san sounded at the idea of Rias-san getting a boyfriend.

“Why would I need to get a boyfriend? To hear you think that I would is surprising.”

“But what about your family obligations? Don’t you need to get a husband?”

“That is true. For my family’s house to continue I will need to find a son-in-law for my parents.”

Then she started talking about raising the future son-in-law of the Gremory house herself.

That should have been enough to make me retreat.

It wasn’t.

Because there was a softness in her voice I could hear even from the hallway.

A softness that made it impossible to mistake how much she cared for him.

And because that softness hurt to hear.

Not in a cruel way.

Not because I resented her.

Because I loved him too.

Because some part of me was always quietly waiting for the moment he would look at me and see me the same way I looked at him.

I lowered my eyes.

This was childish.

No, not childish.

Just painful.

I should have left.

Then I heard Rias-san shift, and when I looked up again, she was closer to him than before.

Too close.

Ise-san made a startled sound.

Rias-san leaned down.

That was enough.

I stepped into the room before I could think about it any longer.

“...Buchou is unfair.”

The words came out softer than I’d meant them to.

Still loud enough.

Both of them turned toward me.

Rias-san straightened at once, though not guiltily.

More like someone annoyed that she had been interrupted in a thing she had every right to do.

Ise-san looked mortified.

I regretted both coming in and saying anything.

And yet, I didn’t take the words back.

Rias-san was still a little flushed, but her mouth curved faintly.

“The early bird gets the worm,” she said. “I learned it in my battle against Akeno.”

Ise-san looked like he had no idea what to do with that answer.

Neither did I.

Part of me wanted to say something witty back.

Another part wanted to cry.

Mostly, I wanted to be brave enough not to stand in a doorway looking hurt and childish.

“I-I didn’t mean...” I started.

Yes, I had.

That was the problem.

I wanted to step forward and contend for Ise-san’s affection, but I was just me.

And I was comparing myself to Rias-san.

It felt like the outcome of who would get his affection was obvious.

Grayfia-san arrived before I could continue embarrassing myself.

“You two,” she said gently, stepping into the room, “fighting is not good for a household. I think it is especially unwise to bicker in front of Issei-sama.”

That only made me more embarrassed.

Because she was right.

Rias-san sighed.

I looked away.

For a second, all three of us just stood or sat there inside the awkwardness.

Then Sirzechs-sama appeared at the door.

“I slipped out for a bit,” he said, still sounding far too casual for someone that important. “There’s some more I need to speak to Rias about. Rias, it’s the continuation of the talk from daytime.”

Rias-san’s expression changed.

It wasn’t visible enough that most people would have called it anything.

To me, standing there with the remnants of my jealousy still burning my face, it was obvious.

Something serious.

Then Sirzechs-sama said words that made me forget my own embarrassment immediately.

“We need to talk more about your other [Bishop].”

The other [Bishop].

I knew what he meant right away.

The mystery member of the peerage who had existed before Ise-san and I were reincarnated.

The one no one had really explained properly.

The one I had always wondered about whenever evil pieces or rating games were brought up. 

Rias-san looked at Sirzechs-sama.

Then at Ise-san.

Then at me.

And just like that, the room changed from something warm and awkward and intimate into something heavier.

I didn’t know exactly what they were about to talk about.

I only knew that it would cause a change in the peerage.

And that for some reason, that frightened me more than I wanted to admit.

Kusari

The next day after school, I stood on the ground floor of the old school building and looked at a door that should not have existed this close to my own room.

That was the first thing I thought.

Not what is behind it.

Not this must be the other Bishop.

Not even so this is where they kept him.

Just that it was too close.

Too close to where I slept.

Too close to where I had started allowing myself to think of the old building as something almost like a home.

Everyone from the club had gathered.

Rias stood at the front.

Akeno beside her.

Yuuto quiet and watchful.

Koneko unreadable.

Asia uncertain.

Issei curious and uneasy in equal measure.

Xenovia looked as though she would accept almost any explanation as long as it led to action.

I looked at the seals.

They were thickly set over the door and frame.

Talismans, magical markings, taped warnings.

Too much effort for ordinary caution.

Too much repetition not to tell the truth of the matter immediately.

This was not “privacy.”

This was containment.

I went cold.

A fast, bright, rising thing that cut through my chest and stomach both.

The explanation came quickly enough after we all gathered

“The child in here is my other [Bishop]. This is where they live. Currently the seals placed on him loosen later into the night when they are most active. They are able to move about here in the old school building but this child refuses to leave their room.” Rias explained to us. 

I barely listened.

I was focused on everything else that I had been told.

The other [Bishop] possessed a dangerous ability.

Rias had not been able to control them, so those above her had ordered him sealed.

They were lifting the condition now because Rias had grown stronger and more capable and more highly evaluated.

I heard all of it.

I understood all of it.

That was what made it worse.

There was logic to the words.

There was structure.

And behind every line that was spoken to make it sound reasonable the cold feeling in my chest grew.

Someone inconvenient had been put away.

Someone dangerous had been closed up, labeled, and contained until power above him decided otherwise.

The old building suddenly felt different around me.

Smaller.

Harsher.

Like somewhere I had been before when I was expected to know my place and simply obey orders.

I remembered sealed doors.

Ordered silence.

Seals added because someone wanted to make sure they were obeyed.

The tidy language used when what they meant was keep it there until it becomes useful again.

Rias kept speaking.

I barely heard the words after that.

My gaze stayed fixed on the door.

The seals.

The tape.

The way everyone else stood around it expecting this to be, if not normal, then at least acceptable.

Issei asked if the person inside was a shut-in.

Rias said yes.

Akeno said that they were peerage’s biggest earner by using a computer in their room to complete contracts.

She said it like it would help how this looked.

It didn’t.

If anything, it made the shape of it worse.

Useful.

Profitable.

Locked away.

The anger rose harder.

That cold feeling in my chest started to become hotter.

Not because I didn’t understand the explanation.

Because I understood it too well.

Someone in authority had decided that dangerous usefulness was best handled by isolation and restraint.

A child.

In a room.

In this building.

And the person standing before that room now as if she had every right to release him or not release him was Rias.

I stared at her back.

At the line of her shoulders.

The easy certainty of her posture.

The hand she raised to the seals.

A thought slid into me before I could stop it.

This is too familiar.

Another followed, uglier.

What makes this different?

I hated that one immediately.

Not because it was baseless.

Because it wasn’t.

I was supposed to be able to trust her.

This time was supposed to be different.

My private conversations with Rias had mattered.

She had listened.

She had cared.

She had looked wounded by what I told her.

She had looked at me differently after.

That was real.

I still knew it was real.

But here we were.

A sealed room.

Another piece of her peerage shut away because a higher authority had willed it and she had gone along with it.

I knew that she most likely didn’t have any real say in the matter.

I still wondered if she had tried to stop it.

The thought came uglier now.

What if she is different only until different becomes inconvenient?

I kept my face still.

Kept my breathing even.

Kept my hands at my sides instead of curling them into fists.

Nobody looking at me from a distance would have seen anything.

That was years of practice doing their work for me.

Inside, I was furious.

Not the sharp, useful kind of fury that could be harnessed.

The older kind.

The one that made my chest ache and my thoughts go cold and precise.

I thought of the [Bishop], who was still only a shape behind the door for now, a “child,” a “dangerous servant,” a shut-in who did not come out even when permitted.

I thought of being labeled more than named.

Managed more than understood.

Kept, supervised, positioned.

I thought of the seals on my own life, the ones on my body, the logic that had been used to do something similar to this to me.

And then, because my mind was cruel enough to do this to me, I thought of Rias in the clubroom telling me I would not be left behind.

That memory stuck in my mind as I looked at the door.

I looked at Rias again.

Longer this time.

Closer.

Colder.

Measuring.

If she noticed, she gave no sign immediately.

But when she turned slightly to answer something Issei said, her eyes flicked to mine for only an instant and in that instant, she understood.

Her expression tightened by half a breath.

She saw it.

She realized exactly what this looked like.

Saw what it would look like to me, specifically.

After I had spoken to her privately, after I had allowed her more truth than I had wanted to, after she had started looking at me as if she could not decide whether to hold me more carefully or more tightly.

Akeno helped remove one line of seals.

Yuuto stripped off another layer of tape.

Asia looked worried.

Xenovia was focused on the practical reality of what was about to happen.

Koneko glanced once at me.

Enough to confirm she had noticed something had changed.

I did not look back at her.

If I did, she might see too much.

Rias let out a slow breath and knocked on the door.

“Now then,” she said. “I’ll opening the door.”

It should have sounded like something positive, a happy moment.

To me it only sounded strained and hollow.

I reeled in my emotions and closed them off.

Whoever was behind that door didn’t deserve them.

I still thought Rias’s peerage was different.

I still thought she was different.

But for the first time since opening up to her, another thought had entered the space beside those.

What if the difference had limits?

What if those limits looked exactly like this?

The door stood between us all, still sealed for one more heartbeat.

Rias’s hand rested near the last of the magic.

She glanced at me again.

I did not soften for her.

And when the final seal began to give way, I was still looking at her more closely than before.

More coldly too.

Because now I needed to know whether what I had started believing about her would survive what stood behind that door.

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