High School DxD: Fox of Ill Omen

Koneko

The silence Azazel left behind was heavy.

It felt more like someone had thrown a stone into the middle of us and walked away before the ripples finished spreading.

Her first [King], Orutho Raim.

The Raim house was one of the fallen houses that were referred to as extinct.

Kusari-senpai’s first master must have been one of the surviving members of the bloodline who had fled to the Human World when his house collapsed.

They were an Earl house symbolized by a crow.

They were were associated with stealing treasures, destroying cities, and ruining the dignity of others.

Azazel had said that something had happened after Kusari-senpai was turned into a Devil.

If it was someone from that house, then it was likely nothing good.

And then there was what he called her.

Omen-chan.

The strange name had affected Kusari-senpai and now she had lied about it being nothing.

I watched Kusari-senpai closely.

I had been doing so more often whenever anything happened to our group.

She had gone very still when Azazel said it.

She had already been on edge when we went to Gasper-kun’s room and now this had made her lock up even worse.

The frozen part of her stillness had faded by now, but only a little

She was standing with her shoulders too carefully set and her face too calm.

That meant the title had hit hard.

Issei-senpai was the first one to break.

“You can’t say that it’s nothing! The leader of the Fallen Angels just called you it!” he pointed out .

Kusari-senpai looked at him.

Then away.

That tiny delay was answer enough that she wasn’t going to tell us anything.

Saji-senpai scratched his cheek awkwardly. “Omen-chan... sounds kind of cool.”

“Smooth, Saji,” Issei-senpai said.

“I’m just trying to help! It was getting awkward!”

“And you weren’t making it better!”

I sighed as the two idiots bickered.

Asia-senpai glanced at her carefully. “Kusari-san... are you all right?”

“I’m fine,” Kusari-senpai said.

That was too quick. Too cold

Asia-senpai heard it too, judging from the way her hands tightened slightly over the front of her skirt.

I stepped closer to Kusari-senpai without making a point of it.

Not enough for the others to comment.

Enough that if she wanted to lean even a little in my direction, she could.

“How much of what Azazel said was true?” I asked quietly.

She looked down at me for half a second.

That small look was more honest than her words had been.

“A little more than I would prefer,” she said.

That probably meant most of all of it. 

“How bad was it to hear?”

“Like I said to Asia-san. I’m fine.” 

So it was that bad.

Issei-senpai was still stuck on the name Azazel used.

“So….. what does it mean?” he asked. “I mean, you don’t have to say if you don’t want to, but why does Azazel know who you are? What did he mean about that Orutho guy?” What-”

“Kusari-senpai doesn’t owe you an answer,” I cut in.

He looked at me. “I know that! She doesn’t owe us anything.”

“You sounded like it.”

“I just want to know how to help.”

“…Wait until she lets you.”

He made an irritated face at me, then immediately looked back at her.

That was the thing about him.

Even when he got shut down, he rarely stayed off-balance for long.

His curiosity just rerouted around the obstacle.

Though he meant it sincerely.

He really just wanted to help, not just to pry.

Kusari-senpai, to my surprise, actually answered him.

“The name is from before I was reincarnated as a devil,” she said. “It isn’t important anymore.”

That should have ended it.

It didn’t.

“Before you were reincarnated?” Issei-senpai repeated. “But why would you be called something before you were a Devil? Were you a famous Youkai?”

“You were called Omen? That doesn’t sound like a whole name.” Xenovia-senpai joined in.

Kusari-senpai stared at them.

Not warmly.

Not harshly either.

Just with the exhausted expression of someone deciding whether explanation would help or only produce more questions.

“I wasn’t famous,” she said. “It was only something people called me in my village. And the rest of it doesn’t matter.”

“Yeah, but what about—”

“Ise-senpai.”

He stopped.

Mostly because I actually sounded mad.

“What?”

“You’re being stupid. You need to stop.”

“I’m not being stupid! I’m trying to understand!”

“No,” I said. “You’re pestering someone who was obviously just upset.”

He actually looked at Kusari-senpai instead of at the problem he was trying to understand. 

He should have done that first.

He rubbed the back of his neck. “...Right. Sorry.”

Kusari-senpai did not answer immediately.

Then, with the same too-careful calm she’d had since Azazel left, she said, “You were curious. That’s something typical for you.”

It was, but he should have known better.

I was about to say so when another voice spoke up instead.

Quiet and hesitant.

From closer than before.

“...Did people get scared of you too?”

All of us turned.

Gasper-kun had crept out from behind the tree.

He was still half-hunched like he expected someone to yell at him for it, his cardboard box abandoned behind him in the grass.

He was clutching his own sleeves and looking at Kusari-senpai with the sort of nervous intensity I had only seen from him when something felt personally important.

Kusari-senpai turned to him with a complicated look in her eyes.

Not a bad one

Just more surprised and concerned than I expected.

Gasper-kun swallowed and went on before courage abandoned him.

“Before you were a Devil,” he said, “did they treat you differently? Because they were scared?”

The training ground went quiet again as we watched them.

Kusari-senpai looked at him for a long moment.

Then she said, very simply, “Yes.”

Gasper’s shoulders tightened.

That answer mattered to him too much.

Kusari-senpai must have seen it, because her voice softened by a degree when she spoke again.

“Yes,” she repeated. “They did.”

Gasper’s eyes dropped to the ground. “Me too.”

No one interrupted.

Not Issei-senpai. Not Xenovia-senpai. Not even Saji-senpai .

Gasper kept looking at his feet while he talked.

“My family…. They treated me different from everyone else. They looked at me like I was wrong even before I did anything. Then when I did something...” His mouth twisted. “It got worse.”

Kusari-senpai listened the way she always did when she chose to really listen—still, focused, giving nothing of herself away too early.

“How much worse?” she asked.

Gasper-kun gave a miserable little laugh that wasn’t really laughter.

“Enough,” he said. “It was easier to pretend I didn’t exist."

That made Kusari-senpai softened further.

It was small, but it was still there. 

I could tell she understood exactly what kind of answer Gasper-kun had given.

One that answered the question without touching on the pain behind it.

“Is the way you were treated why you asked not to get hit in your room? Why you’re afraid of people?” She asked.

He gave a small nod.

“I understand,” she said.

Gasper looked up at her immediately.

Because she said them like someone who actually meant them and did not need him to explain more for that to be true.

“W-Was it the same for you? Did your family treat you like…. like they were scared of you? Like you were a freak?” He asked, growing quiet at the end.

Kusari-senpai was quiet for a long moment.

Long enough for Gasper-kun to look nervous that he had said too much or asked the wrong question.

When Kusari-senpai finally replied she sounded tired, slightly defeated.

“No. I was lucky that my parents never treated me as anything less than loved. My… the village I grew up in was small. Everyone knew each other and it was a tight knit community. That same community decided that I was a monster and treated me like one.”

That was more than she had been willing to share with any of us.

Maybe she saw herself in Gasper-kun and wanted to help.

Or maybe she saw a frightened child who needed someone and she knew what to do to be useful.

He shifted his weight. “Did... did it get better?”

That was the wrong question to ask someone like Kusari-senpai.

Or maybe the right one.

The kind that hurt because it came from someone more innocent.

She took a second before answering.

“Eventually,” she said. “Enough to matter.”

She wasn’t telling him it would be perfect, but it would be better.

It was probably the best answer she could have given him.

Gasper-kun’s shoulders loosened a little.

Only a little.

I wanted to move closer to her.

To be there if she needed me at all.

Issei-senpai watched the two of them with the same face he always had when something more serious managed to cut through his usual noise.

He wanted to say something encouraging, to help fix whatever was wrong. 

You could tell.

He was just smart enough, for once, to hold still and let someone else say the right thing first.

Kusari-senpai glanced toward Saji-senpai then.

“If you’re done looking shocked,” she said, “use your Sacred Gear.”

Saji-senpai blinked. “Huh?”

“On Gasper-kun,” she said. “Azazel-sama already told you how. Drain some of the excess before he panics with it. Then training can be actual training instead of Xenovia-san chasing him until he cries.”

“That sounds like criticism of a tested method.” Xenovia-senpai said.

“It is.”

Saji-senpai looked between Gasper-kun, his own right hand, and the place Azazel had disappeared from.

Then, slowly, he nodded.

“...Right. Okay.”

He stepped forward and activated Absorption Line with all of his focus.

The tongue-like line extended and connected, and all of us could see the slight shift in Gasper afterwards.

Less like his power was pressing on the edges of him from the inside.

“There,” Kusari-senpai said. “Now try something small.”

“What counts as small?” Gasper-kun asked nervously.

Issei-senpai immediately snatched up a ball from the equipment pile. “This does .”

He grinned.

Then tossed it lightly toward Gasper.

He looked shocked and didn’t react until the ball hit the ground.

“I-I’m sorry! I already messed up!”

Kusari-senpai stepped closer and knelt down next to him as he curled up on the ground.

She was close but didn’t move to reassure him by crowding or touching him.

“It’s fine Gasper-kun. It was your first try. We will take as many as you need.”

“B-But what if you’re just w-wasting your time on me?”

“You’re worth it Gasper! You’re a part of the peerage! That means we’ll always be there for you!” Issei senpai said pumping his fist and getting worked up.

Kusari-senpai looked at him for a moment before turning back to Gasper-kun.

“Issei-san is right. We won’t give up on you so easily. In fact we had a training trip not too long ago. Both Issei-san and I struggled with the training Buchou assigned us. I was having trouble with one of my spells and needed days of constant work to fix a small issue. Issei-san needed both Koneko-chan and Yuuto-san to help him practice fighting for over a week. Us working to help you is nothing.” Kusari-senpai said in a calm voice.

All of the coldness from before had left and a calm sighing tone had taken its place.

“I feel like you’re excluding a few important details.” Issei-senpai muttered.

He was right, but I shot him a glare anyways.

“Alright Gasper! Ready to try again?” Issei-senpai asked.

“Y-Yes I think so.”

“You can do it Gasper-kun!” Asia-senpai cheered.

Gasper-kun stood up and took a stance while replying. 

Kusari-senpai stepped back.

Issei-senpai wound up another throw. 

The moment it entered Gasper’s field of vision, it stopped.

Hanging in the air.

It was still unsettling every time I saw it.

Asia-senpai gasped softly.

Saji-senpai stared with obvious fascination.

Xenovia-senpai seemed disappointed that the success didn’t come from her method.

ssei-senpai looked thrilled in the way he always did when training actually produced visible results.

Kusari-senpai only watched quietly. 

Gasper-kun, instead of looking proud, stared at the floating ball like he had accidentally done something unforgivable.

“Sorryyyyy!”

Then he tried to run.

Xenovia-senpai grabbed the back of his shirt before he got two steps.

“No,” she said. “That was success.”

He looked unconvinced.

“Let’s keep trying Gasper-kun.” Kusari-senpai said. 

The training continued.

Ball after ball.

Different distances.

Different timings.

Saji-senpai absorbing excess power while Gasper-kun reacted in fits and starts, stopping things he meant to stop and occasionally things he didn’t.

Every now and then part of someone’s sleeve or hand or hair would hitch strangely when Gasper glanced the wrong way, and he’d immediately apologize like the world was ending.

It was messy.

Inconsistent.

Way more progress than the beginning of the afternoon had suggested.

And while it happened, the edge in Kusari-senpai eased further.

But it wasn’t gone.

Not even close.

But I could see the tension in her shoulders changing shape.

She still wasn’t all right, not after whatever had happened with Buchou. 

Not after Azazel dropped pieces of her past infront of us.

But the ordinary rhythm of our group kept giving her places to stand without thinking too hard.

Asia-senpai praising Gasper-kun every time he managed even a partial success.

Issei-senpai loudly overreacting to everything.

Xenovia-senpai taking improvement as proof that her absurd method had worked.

Saji-senpai growing more invested now that his Sacred Gear had suddenly become much more impressive than he’d realized.

Even me, I guess, since I kept giving Gasper garlic every time he started looking too comfortable.

“...Gya-kun, if you eat it, you’ll become healthy.”

“No, I won’t!”

“Just try it, you won’t die.”

“Don’t say that so lightly!”

Issei-senpai laughed.

Gasper-kun made the face of someone who could not decide whether he was being bullied or included.

That was probably a step forward.

Kusari-senpai gave me a dull look that made me look away. 

By the time the sun had shifted low enough to throw long shadows over the training ground, we were all tired in a simpler way than before.

Then Buchou arrived carrying a basket.

Immediately, Issei-senpai brightened with a second wind.

“Buchou!”

She smiled faintly.

Not widely. Not quite relaxed.

Enough that even from where I stood, I could tell the conversation with Kusari-senpai earlier was still with her.

That was the same for Kusari-senpai too.

I knew she had closed up again it without looking.

Still, when Buchou held up the basket and said she had made sandwiches, the mood was bright.

Saji-senpai cheered.

Issei-senpai praised Buchou while close to tears.

Asia-senpai looked relieved.

Even Gasper-kun forgot to be afraid for half a breath.

We all sat down for a break.

I took my sandwich and watched without making it obvious that I was watching.

Buchou moved through the group checking on everyone, but there was a slight hesitation when her attention reached Kusari-senpai. 

Kusari-senpai answered politely.

She was too reserved again.

Buchou’s smile tightened at the edges.

Not enough for anyone but me to see.

Maybe Issei-senpai too.

Sometimes he was more perceptive than he liked to pretend.

Then he said, through a mouthful of sandwich, “Buchou, this is delicious!”

That broke the tense moment.

For now, that was enough.

Buchou said something about simple ingredients. 

Xenovia-senpai praised the meal.

Saji-senpai loudly agreed it was amazing.

Asia-senpai smiled warmly.

Gasper-kun hovered close enough to the group now that he was clearly still frightened but no longer trying to disappear into a tree.

Kusari-senpai looked tired.

Not physically. The other kind of exhaustion.

But she had stopped holding herself like she expected the world to strike her in the next second.

That was something.

Maybe not enough.

I looked down at my sandwich.

Then back at her.

And decided that if Issei-senpai brought up the what Azazel had said again today, I was going to throw garlic at his face.

She deserved a break. 

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