Me? Human? : Chapter 35 : "Exam" (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 felt a dull blow land on his face, making his head loll back, the motion extremely jarring to his mind, but even so, he could not muster up the will or energy to open his eyes and see what was happening.

He heard a muted voice speak to him, or around him. Frankly, he didn’t even know if he was hallucinating or not. He felt so lethargic that it was taking all he had to even think straight. It was as if a Fog had blanketed his—

He felt yet another blow to his cheek, but it was much softer, as if someone was softly slapping him instead of—

His eyes snapped open, a heavy gasp escaping him as he felt the icy cold water hit his face. He swiped the water off his face to see an abjectly ugly face looking down on him with a very annoying smirk seemingly plastered on the pasty looking face. 

The ears, the red eyes, the pale skin, the nose up looking down on him posture, the expression of superiority and amusement on his face. 

Yup. This was Kokabiel alright. The terrible magical aura he had around him only further reinforced his deduction, as Kokabiel smiled at him and stepped back, beckoning him with a finger, “Come on, get up, brat. I’ve heard you only need food to heal from almost anything.”

The words were tinged with savage glee, and that did not fill him with confidence, no sir. Under the tender mercies of a sadist like Kokabiel, being able to regenerate endlessly was only a torture sentence. But there was nothing he could do now. He doubted his words would be listened to, even if he asked for a replacement for his current teacher.

Who knows how Kokabiel would take the perceived slight and what actions he might take in anger. As he was right now, he was most definitely not as valuable as an actual Cadre to Grigori. Kokabiel would most likely get away with a slap on the wrist, even if the Mad Fallen did end up killing one of the contestants for the Nephilim Institute. Azazel seemed soft and indecisive like that when it came to his own kind and their disastrous actions that he could have stopped very easily, at least when they hadn’t snowballed into a movement of their own.

Kokabiel took his silence for agreement as he snapped his fingers. He jerked back as he felt the avalanche of magic all around him before his vision was full of food, from every possible cuisine he could think of.

He all but teleported to the tables' worth of food, his body exhausted in so many ways that by the time he came back to awareness, he had demolished half of the amount of food present, his body once more brimming with energy, a visible corona of energy now all around him.

A distinctly white corona, barely attached to his skin, looking as if it was a skin tight suit of white energy. He curiously poked at the energy, as it rippled under his touch. Curiously, he felt no mental feedback at that, but it was clear with only a single mental flex that the cloak was under his control.

He closed his eyes and made it compact itself, feeling the energy settle on his skin, not lingering around his body like before. He opened his eyes to find himself now sheathed in that energy, as if an extra outline was added around his body.

It was……

His eyes widened as he looked up at Kokabiel, who was looking at his body with such hunger that he instinctively took a step back, feeling the cloak tighten more around his body. With that came a realisation that he was just all kinds of fucked now.

“Interesting,” Kokabiel’s murmurs only serve to increase his unease. He couldn’t even imagine what would happen to Asia if–

Asia! He straightened up and took a step forward, his fear temporarily forgotten as he asked Kokabiel desperately, “I came here with another contestant. She is a Sacred Gear–”

Kokabiel interrupted him and waved his concerns off, “I don’t know anything about that. I am just here to test you. If you wish to meet your friend, you only have to do one thing.”

Once again, Kokabiel’s smile did not fill him with confidence. “What?”

A dull buzzing sound echoed all around him as Kokabiel lifted his hand, multiple Light Spears appearing all around them, Kokabiel’s bloodthirsty smirk adorning his face, 

“Survive.”

Uh-Oh, was all he could think of before the light spears came raining down. Thankfully, he was fully recovered because of the food, and Kokabiel was not coming at him seriously, so he could still somewhat dodge the spears, at first anyway.

Over time, as he proved that he could handle more and more, Kokabiel only kept on increasing the intensity of the Light Spears. What were near misses now turned into nicks and cuts, as Kokabiel instantly adapted the Light Spears to have far higher power than before when he saw that even small impacts were not cutting him or damaging his skin.

The small cuts turned into bruises as he learned that Kokabiel could manifest his light in the form of a large hammer or a rectangular block and just throw it at him, the weight feeling as if an entire building had just hit him, making him blast out of the centre of the white room and hit the walls, feeling the hexagonal panels beneath him warp as he created a Kenji shaped outline.

As soon as his feet touched the ground, he was moving once more, his vision filled with the ominous white of Kokabiel’s Light spears, light hammers, Light blocks and more, as Kokabiel showed him exactly why he was a Cadre and one of the strongest Fallen present in the Grigori.

On and on it went, for hours, as all he did was dodge, dodge, and dodge some more, as Kokabiel peppered him with incredibly sharper, heavier, more powerful, and faster Light Spears and various other assortments of tools used as weapons, requiring his entire focus on just dodging.

At one point, he had figured out how to use the white cloak to stick to any surface, meaning he could now run on walls with ease, but that slight happiness at yet another ability achieved was drowned out by Kokabiel’s insane laugher before he had to now deal with Light Spears that actively destroyed the walls around him, forcing him to jump and scramble to find new surfaces to stick to.

Even as he was constantly under life threatening attacks and was in very real risk of dying, especially with Mr.Great War here, he could not help but feel very happy at his choice. Even if it was risky, these few hours alone had helped him so much that it probably would have taken him weeks on his own to get these results.

After what felt like forever of dodging and running, he was finally run ragged from Kokabiel’s relentless assault, his white cloak flickering out of existence as he lost his grip on the wall, falling onto the floor, as he was running on the ceiling at that point.

Thankfully, his body had long since grown past this, and he was able to stop himself using his hands, but a moment later, he just collapsed on the ground. The one second where no spears came to him meant his body just gave up right then and there, the sense of imminent danger gone, taking with it the adrenaline that was flooding his body.

He huffed and puffed, feeling the Light within him regenerate on its own, but the process was far slower than he would have liked it to be. It would seem that if he were totally exhausted, he would still have to rely on food to an extent, but he should be fine out in the field, as he could feel it.

The well of Light within him had expanded in such a short period of time. There was no telling just how much it would increase in the two months he was supposed to be taking this examination.

At this point, he was all the more sure about his decision about Nephilim, because if he could grow so much in the entrance test itself, just how much would he grow once he actually entered the institute?

Then, his happy mood vanished into thin air, as Kokabiel’s ugly mug appeared in his vision, peering down at him with a far more interested look than before, and now, he knew what that look meant.

The snapping of Kokabiel’s finger as well as the heavenly smell of food entered his nose, as his body seemingly forgot all lethargy and shambled towards the food like a zombie.

___xx___

–Penemue–

She watched on as Kokabiel began increasing the intensity of his attacks as the boy seemed far more capable than either of them would have expected. By her estimates, he was taking hits that would have floored a Four Winged Fallen, and was getting away with just a shallow wound, or a bruise that did not seem to hinder him in any way.

The more alarming thing was that he seemed to be improving in the middle of the battle. Kokabiel had noticed as well, and as had she, as she had to call in many of their specialised personnel to analyse everything about the boy.

Normally, she wouldn’t even be here in the first palace, as she had many other responsibilities, but she did not trust Kokabiel to do anything properly, which is why she had been here for this anomaly that Azazel himself had recommended, and let’s just say that she was very glad that she had taken the decision to be here.

It was almost surreal to watch a human, with no Sacred Gear, and no bloodline from what they could tell, run around constantly, develop a light cloak spontaneously- something that seemed to surprise even Motohama Kenji, and then just move on as if nothing happened, tanking Kokabiel’s blows.

Then, he ran out. Predictably, as no matter his power, he was still just a human kid in front of a Cadre. As expected, Kokabiel brought out the food, and she watched as the boy went to town on the food.

She also watched, as did Kokabiel, as the boy’s wounds, shallow as they were, began healing, leaving behind no marks, his cloak of light flickering to life around him, as she, even from this distance, could sense the empty tank refuelling itself.

Usually, restoring one’s internal energy using an external method required extreme finesse and usually, a high difference in power between individuals, and even then, it was not advisable to do so because of the risks involved, but here?

The kid seemed fine, the energy seemed stable, and not just that, it only seemed to be growing, at an even faster rate than it did when he was running for his life.

Just what have you brought into here, Azazel?