Me? Human? : Chapter 27 : Decisions Made, Questions Raised & Flabbers gasted.... (Patreon)

Disclaimer - I don't own any of the characters appearing in High School DXD or the Anime or the manga whatsoever.

Kuoh, Japan

–Motohama Kenji–

Just as Rias told him, he felt a slight buzz the moment he pushed the door open, signalling the breaking of the stasis spell cast on Mom. Now, he would have liked the option of taking her back to their house before waking her up, so she would feel at ease in a familiar environment, but the way their conversation ended, he did not think that Rias would be accommodating anymore, which is why it was best to get her out of here quickly.

Quickly stepping inside, he looked at the stirring form of his mother, enveloped in a red blanket that probably cost more than most houses in the locality, as it was probably made from some exotic stuff, or maybe it was just conjured up using magic, and he was just thinking too much.

“Hey, Mom. Hey! Take it easy, you have been unconscious for a while.” He helped her up, beginning with a smile, feeling totally out of his depth here. So, he started from the beginning.

“Hey, Mom? Remember when I made holes in our hardwood flooring?”

Her neck snapped towards him. “What? What did you do? Did you make any more holes in my floor?”

“What? No. Look, we need to talk but not here. There’s a lot you don’t know, but let’s just say that I am not the only one who can do that.”

“What?” She said, her head moving before she groaned, hand going to her temple, as if she was suffering from a headache. Probably because of the spell.

The door was pushed open, his gaze locking in with Tsubaki, Sona’s queen, who was holding onto a phone, “I’ve called a cab for you. It is waiting downstairs.”

Relief flooded him as he replied, genuinely thankful, “Thank you for that.”

“Don’t be. You owe Sona now.”

Yeah, ofcourse. No such thing as a free lunch anywhere in the world, especially not with Devils.

“Kenji, who was that? Where are we?”

The headache seemed to have abated a bit, as he handed her a glass of water, mostly focused on getting out of here and explaining everything to her back in their home.

The cab sped away, as he locked eyes with Rias’ brooding form overlooking them from the third floor. Apparently, his rejection had affected her more than he could have predicted, or there was something else he was missing. Was she really that desperate to get him?

On one hand, it made sense since he had displayed a proficiency with Light based magic and body reinforcement of some sort, which made an excellent counter for most devils in similar power ranges, and she needed exactly that for her upcoming Rating Game with Riser, but on the other hand, she knew that he was not Issei. She could not just have him killed and then come swooping in as his savior, all hot bod and sweet words, aiming him at her enemies.

He was not that moronic, and she should know that he would just backstab her at the worst possible moment. The next worst option she could take was to gain leverage over him using his mother, but that was just another disaster waiting to happen. Plus, all of that did not fit her mental profile he had in his mind, based on his faint memories of having seen the Anime in another world.

An anime that was apparently shown from Issei’s perspective.

Fuck.

Of course, many things would be overlooked, favouring jiggly boobs instead of the workings of the Devil society, and even then, Issei was a Devil at that point. Part of the peerage of Satan’s sister, one with a Longinus. He was practically the top of the top in Devil society. Of course, the anime would never show nitty gritty stuff.

He sighed, looking at the now dozed off form of his mother, huddled up in her clothing, despite the heater turned on, his mind going back to the decision he made while buried under literal tons of rubble of the church that used to be in the city. The same church where the previous overseer of Kuoh Town was killed, alongside her Exorcist boyfriend, because she was on the verge of finding out about one of the many secrets the Underworld wished buried.

The King Piece.

Just thinking about the ease with which the Devils had managed to sweep off the death of a family member of the current strongest player of the Rating Game increased his anxiety. He had to move from Kuoh. The decision was the easy part. He still had to convince Mom about it, but he was sure she would agree. She always frightened easily, and the stuff he was about to tell her, even in the broad strokes, was terrifying.

The next question was: Where?

Where could they go that would not just accept him but his mother as well? He could go to the Church. They would probably fall over themselves to accept him, considering his light. But that route came with a lot of restrictions, not to mention the risk of the Church separating him from his mom for his own good.

He kept that option as backup.

The next best were the Fallen, specifically the Institute that Azazel ran. The one where he trained Sacred Gear users. Now, he might not have a Sacred Gear per se, but he had something even better. That came with a lot more freedom than joining the Church. 

He might have some level of resistance to mind spells from the Akeno hypnosis session, but he was not foolish enough to discount the Church and their brainwashing techniques.

Letting any faction leader know of his true potential was a death sentence on its own, or so the worst case scenarios his mind conjured up for him, but using their umbrella to grow on his own was the best option he had right now, especially since he had to take care of Mom as well. It would have been a vastly different thing had he been all by himself. Then, he probably could have trained under the radar, moved places whenever someone came too close to discovering him, and revealed himself only when he felt strong enough, but as things stood, he had to get away.

Sure, was joining the Fallen after engaging in a fight that killed two Fallen and got two more captured the right call? Maybe not. But that was the only card he had on hand. For some reason, he refused to join the Devils.

Atleast in the case of Fallen and the Church, he remained the same human and could, in theory, defect and move on. In the case of Devils, however, there was that whole stray case thing that just seemed like bad juju to him.

He exhaled, his destination decided. Now, all that was left was a question he really should have asked himself earlier.

How was he going to approach the Nephilim Institute and get admission?

He stood right next to the window of his mom’s bedroom, looking at nothing in particular, his thoughts consumed by just how he was going to break the news to his mom. It was going to take a lot to—

He turned around, having heard her waking up. Before he could get a word in, however, his mother beat him to the punch, and the words that left her mouth left him standing there, frozen.

“So, how long have you known of Rias Gremory’s true nature?”

What? 

He goggled at her as she looked at him with a hawkish gaze, as if searching for something. Whatever she found, she seemed to take pity on him and explained her previous words.

Sighing, she replied, “Why was I in Devil territory and knocked out? From what I can tell, something happened, the supernatural kind, obviously. Somehow, you were involved, despite not having a single magical bone in your body. I know, I had you checked every year.”

He just stood there, mouth age, frozen, as he looked at his mother as if she was an alien, a totally different person.

She knew about the Supernatural world? How?

“Well?”

He froze out of his shock, and the words just tumbled out of his mouth, “You knew?!”

She raised an eyebrow at him, looking completely unphased, “I know of it through my employers. Even if I didn't, you casually breaking my floor was a dead giveaway that something was wrong. I had just scheduled another covert test when you knocked me away, likely because of some foolish notion of keeping me safe. Am I wrong?”

He swallowed, somehow feeling immense pressure of admitting to the truth in front of this totally powerless, baseline human. He supposed that a mother was a mother, irrespective of personal power levels, be it just a regular son or a supernatural son.

“You’re right. There were Fallen Angels in the city. I had to make sure you were safe. I went to Rias Gremory and she–”

“Put me in some sort of stasis spell, I assume?”

“....Yes. You are oddly calm about everything.”

“What will panicking achieve?”

He was stumped at that. No, not at her answer but at her nonchalant demeanor. At the fact that she knew, not just about the wider supernatural world but also about how she was knocked out by her son, put into stasis, and then brought back.

She hummed to herself a few times before pinning him with a glare, “I assume you have powers now.”

“Yes.”

“Don’t just Yes me. Speak. What powers do you have?”

He barely stopped himself from blurting out his original power, instead choosing a watered down version. Sure, she was his mother, but she had also known about the supernatural world, worked for Gremory in the human world, and was looking at him with an odd gaze. He could not discount Devils and them mind controlling their employees.

After all, it would be a capitalist's wet dream to have a workforce that was brainwashed to work as hard as it could, without asking for much in return.

After all, even with the very short exposure he had to the systems back in his previous universe, he could confidently say that the Version of Capitalism that was taking over most of the countries could certainly be classified as the Devil’s work, when in fact, it was just human greed and hatred doing the job.

“I am strong. Fast. Durable. I can heal fast, very fast, but I need to eat a lot of calories for that.”

She immediately caught onto his power’s main aspect, “I see. I assume you became this strong very soon because of your power to heal fast?” 

“Yes.”

“That explains the missing food, increased food intake, not to mention the hole in my floor. You must have increased your weight because of your enhanced strength.”

Okay, that was enough. It was incredibly unsettling to hear her talk about everything so clinically.

“Mom, what do you do at your work?” he cautiously asked, wondering just what she did to have such an attitude.

A/N - Hi guys! I had a different concept going into writing this chapter, about the MC finding out that his Mom had been under Mind COntrol all the time she had been working for the Gremory family business, and that's why she ignored all the odditites. He finds that because his Mom, despite obviously not in any condition to work, is adamant to go to work and MC feels the buzz, signalling magic being used on her.That puts a huge stop to MC's plan of revealing the supernatural to her.

However, when I wrote it, I felt like I could do this instead? I do this sometimes, as my brain comes up with stuff on the fly..Do Let me know what you would guys like written, so that I can work on it.