Me? Human? : Chapter 41 : Day 1 of Nephilim.... (Patreon)

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

–Motohama Kenji–

Things moved quickly after his meeting with Azazel. He had an official admission letter to a college institute that was not just real, but also the building as well as the organisation existed as a real entity, which made sense in hindsight as it allowed the enrolled kids to have an actual life instead of having to disappear from the non supernatural part of the world entirely.

Also, it was there so that kids could enroll in secret, whatever that meant, but in his case, that was unnecessary since his mom already knew all about it. Well, not all about it. She absolutely could not know about the tests, the recordings of him almost getting his hands and legs cut off, him going into a blank mode mentally, and ultimately, punching out his supervisor.

All things that did not bode well for him and the impression he wanted to make about the supernatural world, so that his mom did not worry herself to death here.

As expected, even with all his efforts to whitewash the whole thing, and shove the whole almost dying during the test incident under the rug, his mother still fretted over him the whole time, even during the move.

Yup, they had officially moved out of Kuoh. 

Apparently, Azazel had expected him to move out of Kuoh anyway and had given him a free stay at one of Grigori owned properties, created specifically to house normal people who were either relatives or lovers or friends or just for plain witness protection, without having to live in an unprotected apartment.

The whole thing even had a brochure. Some of the listed amenities were more than what they had at their home, not to mention the security. In their own words, a Six Winged Fallen Angel was on campus at all times, with surprise visits from even higher tier Fallen Angels. While that did not sound that impressive, especially when he had just punched a 10 WInged Fallen Angel and could definitely outpunch a Six Winged Fallen Angel right now, that much was enough to deal with 99% of the supernatural’s problems.

Also, more than the presence of the Fallen Angel, it was the deterrence of the Grigori as a whole. They, and by extension, the Nephilim Institute, took the safety of that place extremely seriously, to the point that they regularly held public events around the campus to publicly tell the supernatural world that Azazel regularly walked in those properties, deterring most sane people from even thinking of attacking that place.

All of that, with a direct teleport service to the Institute, free housing for the duration of his stay at the Institute, as well as the assurance that his mom would not be alone in her situation and would have plenty of support from people who have been in similar situations, had been more than enough for him to make the decision in a heartbeat, and once he explained everything to mom, she had been of the same mind as well, which is why he was standing outside their house, looking as the movers moved everything.

There was an option of a supernatural moving company, but they actually recommended him to go through this route if they wanted to keep the possibility of ever returning still open. His mom, still attached to the house as well as the small slice of life they had built for themselves here, had agreed, which is why these people were going to take their stuff to a storage container, through which the supernatural moving people were going to move it straight to the Lodge.

Yup. That was the name of the place that housed important people to the members of the Grigori, for money, of course, but he had a suspicion that not many members were of the paying kind there, not that he was worried about paying for anything anyway.

On top of the hefty check they got from the Gremory as an apology for the whole mind control into a more productive worker thing, he was now a valued member of the Nephilim Institute. Not just a student, but a member, which came with its own perks, including a hefty salary that should allow him to accrue enough savings to live out for a couple of decades within just a few years. It was insanely good, only reinforcing his decision that in this world, power was everything, and with enough power, everything can be taken, which is why—

He was brought out of his thoughts by his mom taking his hand in hers, leaning on him, “I’ll miss this place.”

Looking back at the now empty place, he sighed, “Yeah, me too. But you know why we have to leave.”

“I know, I know. But still, it feels odd to leave so hastily.”

“Well, Mom, things have changed hastily. But don’t worry, I am sure you’ll fit right in with the people there.”

“Look at you, trying to assure me. I am not the one who is going to go to an entirely new school, leaving behind all their friends, to learn something that I can still barely believe.”

“I will be fine.” 

“I’m sure you will be, but a mother worries….”

And on and on, she went, about her role in his upbringing, her worries about him falling into bad habits and more, even though she was going to be there to see him almost every day when he came back from the Academy and more.

But he let her speak because this was clearly her way of dealing with her anxiety. Thankfully, the local devils were smart enough to avoid showing their faces to her. He did not want her to have a panic attack right now, so them sending the cheque in the mail along with an apology letter was good. What was not good was the recommendation letter from the company that told her that she was welcome back to her old job, with a 100% hike, anytime she wanted, with more perks.

He had destroyed that part of the letter before she could read it, but that was a pretty shitty move on their part.

___xx___

Just like that, an entire week passed before he stood in front of his mom, as she fussed over his clothing. He was wearing formal clothing despite the admission brochure mandating no such thing, but who was he to argue with his mom and her impeccable logic? 

So, what if there was no uniform? One must dress to impress everywhere, never mind the fact that the best way to impress people in the supernatural world was to showcase power, either mental or physical, though he could bet that the people in the Institute would be much more impressed by a physical showing.

As she did the same thing for the umpteenth time, he finally held her hands and stopped her, looking at her with exasperation, “I am fine, mother. I will see you in the evening, okay?”

“...Okay.” She reluctantly lowered her hands as he smiled at her before teleporting out of the Lodge, appearing in the local Portal Room, before he activated the one time item, taking him past the strict protection around the Institute and appearing inside an empty room.

Huh, he was early, but not so much that he should be the first one here. He did not expect Asia here, as she was supposedly enrolled in another batch. The one he was enrolled in was supposed to be a combat focused batch, with some of the members already taking part in active operations of the Grigori.

Looking all around, he decided to just wait and watch, settling down into one of the seats, waiting for either their teacher to arrive or for some of his fellow students to arrive.

Apparently, things were different from a normal academy here, which was obvious since this was a supernatural academy.

Here, there were no such things as Grade 1 or Grade 2. Students were separated based on their abilities and what their training would be.

Which is why he was placed in the combat division, along with other Combat oriented students. He wondered who was going to be his teacher. Going by how the entire place was run by the higher ups of the Grigori, he expected a Fallen Angel to be the one to teach them. With this being the Combat batch, he expected one of the older Fallens, someone who had experienced the Great War, to teach them. That would actually be pretty awesome, as they would have the most experience fighting in a supernatural war while always going for the kill, instead of having to hold back because of politics.

From what he could recall of this place, the member with the most notoriety in the later parts of canon was Vali—

His hand shot out on instinct, stopping a light spear from hitting him right in the face. Even without the Light Armour, his hand broke the Spear on impact, creating motes of light while only hurting a little, as opposed to the first time he faced a Fallen Angel.

The memories of having his insides speared by a Light Spear were hard to suppress, which is why he looked at the one ambushing him with clear anger in his eyes.

Just who does he think he–

The Fallen Angel with glasses began speaking, seemingly to himself at a sound level that anyone could hear him, “Hmm. Interesting. Damage suggests outright durability strong enough to break the spear, but reports indicated that the White cloak was necessary to negate the damage. Maybe my spear wasn’t strong enough? No, that can’t be it. Maybe it's…”

On and on, the bestacled Fallen went, speaking to himself, as if he hadn’t just attacked the newest student, just to confirm something.

.