Me? Human? : Chapter 44 : Shadow after Light? Interesting. (Patreon)

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

Nephilim Institute

–Motohama Kenji–

“......Dunno.”

Azazel’s smile stayed the same, but his eye twitched once, and in that moment, he took in the supreme joy that one experienced when a successful ragebait was carried out, especially on someone who was technically a superior. Also, he knew that Azazel couldn't do much to him, not when he had somehow grown not just strong enough but also capable enough of matching one of the Cadres in combat.

Maybe not life or death combat, but the fact that he was able to hold his own and was steadily gaining ground in the fight, and would have eventually come out on top had the fight continued as is was a big thing in and of itself.

The fact that he could do that, within less than two months of him entering this place, meant that even with conservative estimates, by the time he left this place, he would be just as, if not stronger, than Azazel himself, a prospect that must horrify the man. He imagined multiple debates happening in the background about what to do with him.

Should they treat him like he was a problem?

Should they welcome him with open arms and make sure that his every demand was fulfilled, do anything just to make sure that he was attached to the Grigori?

Should they do everything within their power to make sure he did not grow any more than he already had and eliminate him?

Should they try to brainwash him? Should they threaten him?

And many more such asinine discussions, but he wagered that Azazel, being the oldest and probably the wisest among the bunch, had decided to take a measured approach and treat him with care, as if he was an explosive bomb that could take down many people with him, which was true.

“You do realise that you are here to learn, right? We can’t help you with your powers if we don’t even know what it is.” Azazel tried the reasonable approach here, and from an outside perspective, he was right. Azazel needed to know what his power was to help him train better, but that was only the case when the power in question had some limits, some structure that could be used efficiently to reach the endgame sooner, a way to use the power effectively.

In his case, the most effective way to use his power was…

“I think I am a combat learner. The more I fight, the more I learn and the stronger I grow.”

There, that’s all he was going to tell Azazel. It was the partial truth, and if it made Azazel throw opponents at him until he grew strong enough to no sell even the Governor General of the Grigori himself, then all the better.

Then, he could become a faction in and of itself, and grow even stronger because of the conflicts that would arise from that. Honestly, if he had known that throwing himself into a non lethal battle with a foe so superior to him that it wasn’t even funny was the thing needed to grow so fast, so soon, then he would have found a way to make it happen wayyy sooner. Maybe even leveraged the close contact with Rias and her peerage to get some sweet immunity to the varied powers they all had.

Alas, no point in dwelling on the past. He was here, strong enough to rival a Ten Winged Fallen, and only going to grow stronger, negotiating terms with Azazel, the sole Twelve Winged Fallen Angel.

He was brought out of his thoughts by Azazel whispering to himself, “Combat learner, huh?”

For some reason, that sounded ominous, but he shrugged internally, ignoring the unease that came with it. What was Azazel going to do? Fight him himself? That was beneath him, and Baraqiel and Kokabiel were two of the strongest Cadre that Grigori had, basically right below Azazel, so he struggled to think of anybody else who could—

___xx___

“Um, where are we going?” He found himself asking Azazel, as Azazel had abruptly decided to call someone and meet them at one of the training halls below the Institute. He had, of course, followed suit since there was still time for him to go home. The bell hadn’t rung yet at the Nephilim Institute; hence he was technically still at school.

“You’ll see,” was Azazel’s reply as they went two stories below the usual training rooms, and the moment the elevator opened, he knew that this place was different. The vibe was different, and parts of it were pitch black, as if all the light was being sucked into that place and never left. The magic was odd there too.

Azazel kept on walking, though, disregarding the phenomenon, so he did the same and reached a seemingly dead end, but he knew from the magic within that door that it was anything but.

Predictably, Azazel placed his flat palm on the door, making the entire door light up with magic, as the door disappeared from his view, revealing a much larger training room, and if he was not wrong, the magic inside the place was many times higher than usual as well.

Taking a step forward, he looked back to see that Azazel hadn’t followed him. Instead, the man had made a go ahead gesture, which he did.

The door closed behind him as two people appeared in front of him. 

The first thought that came to his mind when he saw both of them was..

Is that a Witch’s Hat?

Yup, one of the two people, the girl specifically, had a large white hat adorned with blue crests, along with blue eyes and a cheerful smile on her face. Though he kind of got the feeling that the blue eyes and the cheerful smile only hid something dangerous underneath.

As for the boy, he was dressed in a large black trench coat, looking at him with a neutral look on his face. The boy looked serious, looking at him with an analytical gaze. 

Both of them felt dangerous to him, even more so than either Baraqiel or Kokabiel, which was impressive and surprising because Azazel had somehow hidden both of them from the rest of the world, or maybe it was just that he was the one who was ignorant about them?

He had been thinking that after Azazel, it was the Cadre class that he had to watch out for, but as it turns out, Azazel had other humans in his employ capable of matching, if not surpassing, the Cadre as well.

In hindsight, it made sense that Azazel would have some Longinus users in his employ, and any Longinus user who was personally trained by Azazel or his people would certainly grow up to become very strong.

Now, the only question was - Just how strong?

He supposed that Azazel had some sort of plan when he brought him here, but for the life of him, he did not understand it. Even if Azazel wanted to cultivate him into some kind of weapon with very high strength, then he would have done that after having some kind of leverage over him. Atleast, Azazel should have spent some time to make sure that he was firmly attached to his faction before offering a way to increase his strength even more.

He refused to believe that Azazel was dumb enough to use his mother as leverage, as that would just end up in a disaster not just for Azazel but for the Grigori. After all, unlike Devils, the only one singlehandedly propping the Grigori was Azazel, and everyone was aware that without Azazel, the Grigori as a whole would not exist, as the entire thing would fracture, forming factions with different Cadres leading their own small groups.

Still, he was not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, and since he was not feeling the least bit tired after his bout with Baraqiel, he smiled at them and greeted them.

“Hi! I am Motohama Kenji, a new student here at Nephilim.”

“Tobio Ikuse.” The guy nodded and told him his name.

The girl, on the other hand, said, “Hi! I am Lavinia! Nice to meet you!” had an entirely contrasting vibe to Tobio’s, as she skipped forward to shake his hand, quite enthusiastically at that.

“So, Azzy-san told us that you learn by fighting people?” Lavinia skipped back and asked him with those wide blue eyes. They were quite pretty.

He nodded slowly, somewhat distracted by her. “Yes. The more varied, the better.”

“Good.” He was so distracted by Lavinia that he somewhat ignored the man standing next to her, the one who felt more dangerous to his senses, and that single word was accompanied by a growl that echoed all around the training hall. He tore his gaze from Laviania, who was now covered in the shadow of a massive Wolf, with glowing red eyes, and teeth the size of his head, standing right next to the two guys, while glaring at him.

He eyed the massive teeth in the beast’s mouth, as well as the magical connection he could feel between the Beast and Tobio, and concluded that this was probably the Tobio guy’s Sacred Gear. It was…. intimidating.

Right up until, “Jin!” Lavinia squealed and just latched onto Jin’s leg, instantly making the ferocious Wolf shrink until it was just a horse sized dog, and within reach of Lavinia’s hands, who instantly began cuddling the Beast. All this while, the beast’s red glowing eyes had never left him, neither had the growling stopped. Irrespective of the growling, Lavinia continued to hug the Sacred Gear Manifestation. Or maybe it was something else.

“Laviania.” One word from the Tobio guy made her stop, though, as she took a step back and let Jin come into view, the Wolf’s size increasing until it dwarfed Tobio, looking down at him, still growling.

Wow, was the Wolf always growling, or did he do something to deserve that special treatment?

“Azazel-san told us that you grow stronger as you fight, irrespective of your opponents. This is a training session, and he told us to push you as much as we can, as long as it does not turn fatal. Knowing that, do you consent to this?”

Cracking his neck, he replied, “Yes.”

“Are you sure? We will not go easy on you.”

“I am sure. Now, just come.”

Tobio paused at the confidence in his statement, likely thinking of him as either stupid, brave, or a combination of the two, before uttering a single word.

“Jin.”

His eyes widened as the flow of magic in the air changed before the Wolf had suddenly teleported right in front of him, his paw, which was the size of his torso, aimed at his torso to skewer him.

Recognising the danger, he summoned his Light Armour immediately, used both his hands to hold onto the paws, and then pushed. A surprised squawk escaped Jin’s jaws as he pushed the massive beast back.

He watched as Jin tumbled once before his paws stabbed into the ground, halting his momentum.

Okay, so the Wolf could teleport. Was very strong, had sharp paws, could shapeshift, and likely had some other form of magic. The only way to find out more was through—

He tilted his head to the side, a black knife passing his head, though he knew that it was only meant to graze his face as opposed to actually stab him, but the way the knife dissolved mid air told him what the wolf’s power was.

Shadows.

Well, that explained the teleoperation, as well as the black color and the weird magic.

To think that just after fighting a Fallen Angel, who loved to spam Light Attacks, he was going to fight a Shadow type Sacred Gear.

This should be interesting.