Me? Human? : Chapter 30 : Faith, Chicken Soup & Goatee Man... (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–

He watched as Rias asked Asia about becoming a Devil, actually silencing Issei before continuing her proposition. She showed Asia the bishop piece, as was expected. After that, they talked for a fair bit longer than he expected, giving credence to Rias’ words earlier about telling Asia about both the pros and cons of becoming a part of a Devil’s peerage. He still didn’t know if the words used to entice humans into a peerage were true or not.

He knew that theoretically, it was true that one could become a High Class Devil and then gain their own peerage if they wanted to, but he would love to know more about the statistics of such a thing happening. After all, as far as he knew, the Evil Piece system was a relatively new thing(compared to Devilkind), so if all Devils led with the number of people who had actually taken advantage of that incredibly lucrative sounding option, then it would be even better.

Alas, Devils being what they were, he doubted if that would ever become true. Hell, the Devils in power were so uncaring of the entire forced Reincarnation process that they didn’t even have an SOP for most Devils. 

Dismissing those thoughts, he looked at Asia, who looked conflicted for a bit at Rias’ offer. By chance, their gazes clashed, as he smiled at her reassuringly. Asia smiled at him as well before she looked at Rias with a determined look on her face and replied, “I am sorry, but I want to stay human. Even if some things have happened, I still believe in Go-him and wish to continue living like I am.”

Rias then countered, “But where will you go? You can’t go back to the Church. You have no home here, you can’t speak the language.” With every progressive sentence, Asia seemed to wilt in front of him.

He moved to stop Rias, only to feel a hand on his shoulder stopping him. He stopped and turned to glare at Akeno, “I would advise against that, Akeno Himejima.” The threat was further accentuated by the Light that was thrumming under his skin.

“Just wait,” Akeno said as he shrugged her hand off his shoulder, ready to intervene but interested in Asia’s answer as well. After all, if she did not stay with Rias, then she was going to come with him, and while it would be hard, he would not leave her like this. Her answer should help him gauge if she can handle the hardships ahead, though it was not like she had lived some life of incredible luxury before this.

There was silence in the hallway, as even Issei looked conflicted at Rias’ line of questioning, but then Asia looked up at Rias with a shaky smile and tears in her eyes, “I don’t know the answers to those questions, but I have faith. And that is enough for me.”

….Wow.

Well, that settled things. She was going to come with him.

He stepped forward, looking at the frown on Rias’ face. “I think that’s enough for now. She’s decided she doesn’t want to become a Devil. Question is: Will you be kicking her out immediately?”

Because he needed a little bit of time before he could even think of bringing Asia along. It was all a big headache and, frankly, a little too much in the current circumstances, so it would be a lot helpful if—

“Ofcourse she can stay! Right, Buchou?” Issei chose this moment to butt in passionately, looking at Rias with his rendition of puppy eyes, as Rias maintained contact with the puppy eyes for a moment before nodding, “She can stay…for a while.”

Rias added later on, but that was fine for him. Even a day should be enough to get things rolling.

Now, all he had to do was deal with his mom.

___xx___

As he walked back home, his mind a mess of jumbled thoughts about how exactly to break the whole thing to his mother, he absentmindedly cycled the Light inside his body, just for the warm feeling whenever it passed a certain body part.

So far, he hadn’t created any light construct or anything crazy like that, mostly because he believed it to be insufficient for that and he was not going to go around killing and consuming sentient beings just for a powerup, so the next best option was just to train it. And outside of using it in combat, he figured that the next best thing for growing that Light would be to constantly use it, hence the non combat application of the Light.

He had a hunch that over time, once he could actually manifest the Light outside his body in any meaningful way, he would be able to use the Light to, if not heal, then at least stabilise people’s conditions.

Well, he hoped to have much better applications for that, at least in terms of healing himself, but that was for later Motohama to figure out. For now, he knew he was just distracting himself as his legs finally reached the front door.

With a sigh, he straightened up and unlocked the front door, a quiet exhale escaping his lips as he heard the rhythmic breaking of his mother from his bedroom, which meant that she was still asleep.

Thanking the small mercies, he went to the kitchen and got to work with the stuff he’d bought beforehand. The supermarket was on the way home anyway, so he’d quickly swiped the ingredients for a nice chicken soup.

That ought to dull the blow, right? Right?

___xx___

Opening the door, he carefully set down the soup before gently waking up Mom, who flinched and woke up as if she had just been violently awoken by an earthquake, throwing her off the bed. So, the usual way.

“Kenji?” She asked him, her eyes wide.

“Yes, Mom. I am here. You’ve been sick.” He gently made her lean on the headboard and brought the lukewarm water.

Mom drank the water, looking much calmer as he braced himself for the conversation ahead. After making sure she was calm and away from anything that could hurt her even by accident, he gave her the soup.

She looked confused at that, but he supposed that her hunger won over her confusion, so she just took the soup and all but devoured the whole thing in minutes. He immediately ran to the kitchen and brought her seconds. She downed two more cups of soup before she finally looked good to his eyes.

“What day is it?” He tensed up as she asked him about the date, just like last time, but this time, the urgency, the desperation was markedly absent, and it just seemed like a casual question that one asked whenever they found themselves unaware of the time that had passed in their long sleep.

Well, this was a magically induced coma of sorts, but the point still stands.

He told her the date and kept a hawkish watch on her behaviour and only felt relieved when he saw that she did not react beyond nodding and drinking the lukewarm water handed to her. Then, she fell silent, her eyes drooping once more.

Thanking the Gods for the opportunity, his cowardice took over as he told her to sleep and then watched as she fell asleep within moments, the strain of that spell evident on her. 

Just what did Akeno mean that it was harmless to humans if just a couple of days of stasis has put his mother in such an exhausted condition?

___xx__

Night had fallen, and he was in the kitchen, keeping an eye on the third batch of chicken soup of the day. The first one was for Mom, the second one was for him. After that, he had to do a grocery run for the third batch of chicken soup. 

In the midst of all the chaos of the past few days, as well as today’s conversation with Rias, he had totally forgotten to ask them about what the aftereffects of the stasis spell would be. They too had not told him about any dietary restrictions, sleep restrictions, medicines required, or anything else.

Shaking his head, he stirred the biggest pot of soup he could find, with a good amount of chicken in it, and turned to his hand once more. All day he’d been awake, and the entire time he had been cycling the Light, curious about what could happen. He’d hoped to get some sort of adaptation from it, but nope. Apparently, using his own power in a constructive manner does not get him any adaptations, which seemed obvious, but it was worth a try at least.

The next step after that would obviously be using the lightsaber that he’d taken as spoils of war, to—

He only had a split second to react in between hearing the slight buzz right behind him, as he took the wooden spoon and threw it right behind him at full strength, the sound of the wood vibrating filling the kitchen as he froze upon seeing and more importantly, feeling just who had entered his kitchen.

The smirk. The goatee. The clothing. The Blond Streaked hair. The sharp eyes. And the most important factor, the suffocating presence.

It was as if he was standing next to a thousand Rias who were all aiming their powers at him, at the same time.

The spoon was embedded into the wall right next to Azazel's head, the Fallen Angel having tilted his head away at the right moment.

At least the buzz is more accurate now, he told himself in consolation as he faced the legendary Twelve Winged Fallen Angel.

“So,” Azazel said, still leaning on the wall, “I heard I have you to thank for hand delivering two Sacred Gear Users straight into the arms of the Gremory Heiress.”

Uh-oh