TSSG - Chapter 4 : Testing, Imagining & Murphy.... (Patreon)

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

Lucifaad, Underworld

–Shin–

When he was done telling Natasha everything about the life that Shin led, and how perilous it was, to the point that he was amazed at the fact that Shin managed to live for so long, with a hole in his memories, all she had to say was, “That doesn’t make any sense.”

“Huh?” He looked at her, questioning, as she explained.

“I mean, if the job is so lucrative, and all the other jobs are so dangerous, for the low class folks, as you called them, then how did he get the job? I am sure that mere pity would not have been enough to do so. Plus, in a society full of magic, why would they even need a janitor to do the cleaning personally, though?”

“To do a better job, and it is actually a status symbol. Pillar Houses like to keep their properties staffed at all times, and the show of being able to hire another Devil for a job that could be done with magic could just be a show of wealth.” He pointed out, to which she nodded, but he could see that she wasn’t convinced by his reasons.

“I still think there is something else that you are missing. Still, if you say that you can't get any more from your brain, then that’s fine. We will just have to find information the old fashioned way. Time to do some testing,” Natasha whispered to herself before getting up.

He looked up at her, which was a fantastic view, something she probably recognised given the amusement on her face, but he was getting used to her presence now and, as such, not deterred by her looks, as he asked her, “What testing? Where are you going?”

“Outside.” One word from her had him scrambling up and standing between her and the door.

“Are you insane? Didn't you hear what I told you? About–”

“About being beautiful and not having the strength to protect it. Yeah, I heard you just fine earlier. But staying inside all the time is not a solution. With your perks, you have the combination of a guaranteed but time taking growth curve, and something that was going to put you into interesting situations, as you called them, that might or might not be favourable to you. 

The way you have described this world to me, I think it’s safe to assume that they won’t be good situations, atleast for you.”

He nodded at her analysis, “Yup. If I am recalling it correctly, the main criteria for the perks was entertainment value, and I have a sinking suspicion that entertainment in that case need not be just good or bad. It just has to be chaotic enough; any damage done to him be damned.”

“You don’t think they would like to see a constant tragedy or a constant positive show. They would want a mix of both, right?” She pointed out, and he could definitely see where she was taking it.

He slowly nodded at her logic, “Yeah, that seems about right.”

“Then, we should quickly get to work. The faster we can get a hold of all your abilities, the better we can navigate those entertaining scenarios you talk of. It has only been a few hours since I’ve been here, but we don’t have time to waste. So, I will slip out, and we can slowly test the range of you recalling me back into that soul space. I have a feeling that ability is going to be the most useful one we have at the moment, atleast until you have accrued enough strength to matter in this world.”

She said with such logic and conviction that he couldn't find any reason to disagree, except her safety, which was a moot point since it wouldn't matter if she just stayed inside his soul forever, since the danger was not going to go away with just that.

He sighed before nodding, “Fine. But we need to figure out a way to communicate with each other. Unlike what I had expected, we can’t communicate telepathically, irrespective of the distance. I mean, I know there is a spell for that, but I don’t think I can use it right now. So, we need something to give the signal.”

“That’s easy enough,” Natasha said as she sauntered into his bed and began rummaging through his belongings, not giving him any explanation as to what was easy about getting a signal across long distances without attracting attention. Honestly, the fact that he was not living in the seedier parts of the capital meant that the chances of Natasha being caught were higher, as no one really bothered the slum areas, no matter the crimes happening there.

In fact, a constant state of awareness that any crime could be committed in front of you, right next to you, and in most cases, on you, was the hallmark of arriving in the slums of Lucifaad, the Capital city of the Devil society. He would have thought that Devils, especially powerful ones who had a permanent presence in the city, would work more to make sure that the city was clean, had order, and was all around not a shithole, but alas, this was the Devil world, and to them, the inequality, the rampant crime and chaos, and the way devils are killed like pests, must be akin to the hallmark of a Good Devil society.

Honestly, the era of Sirzechs and his politics couldn't come fast enough.

“What are you doing?” He asked as Natasha put on some clothes, removed some more, before standing in front of him, covered head to toe in his clothing. Thankfully, he was quite bigger than her, so his clothing was able to cover most of her body. Even then, it was evident that she had quite the killer body underneath all those baggy clothes.

“Alright. This should be enough for now. You said they will add a sun sometime in the future?”

He was distracted for a bit before answering her question, “Yeah, the new Satans, who must be quite powerful even now but not as much as they will be in the future, will add a day and night cycle sometime in the future, to make sure that the Reincarnated Devils have a better time in the Underworld.”

“I see. So, they would be recruiting heavily from humans to become the new workforce?”

He nodded as both of them walked towards the door,  “Yup. Now that Lilith and Lucifer are both gone, there is no factory line that will continue popping off devils en masse. From here on out, all Devils have to do it the old fashioned way, and Devils have a horrible fertility rate, so the next best thing was to import a workforce from Earth, and turn them into Devils so they could do all the jobs.”

“And that wouldn't result in a society where two classes of people existed in an uneasy peace?” She asked him, making sure to check everything in front of the mirror that was right next to the door.

“Well, duh,” he replied as she finally turned to him and then leaned forward to plant a kiss on his lips. It was over before he could realise what was happening, and before he could actually do anything, he heard the door closing as he scrambled towards the door. Swinging it open, he saw that she was gone.

“Fuck!” he swore as he realised that they had never discussed the signal to use so he could call her back to the soul scape.

Closing the door, he paced in front of it, wondering if he could just recall her right away, only to reject that choice because he did not want to end up calling her prematurely. She should be fine. Her skills as a human spy should somewhat translate into allowing her to roam around freely at night without drawing too much attention. Plus, he had the ability to know her overall state of health, so if anything did happen, he could just call her back. Sure, it would suck big time to know that she was injured, but that way, atleast he could rescue her.

It felt like infinity, but it was only 15 minutes that Natasha was gone, and he was already thinking of calling her back, only to be jolted as he felt a vague feeling of hurt from Natasha. He panicked and promptly called her into his soulscape, before depositing her in front of him.

He rushed forward to check what was wrong, only he had forgotten that clothing did not  enter the soulscape along with the person, which meant that his attempt to check if she was injured or not turned into him groping her boob.

……He calmly took his hand back and was about to apologize to her for the mistake, only to notice the look of amusement on her face, as Natasha smirked at him. 

“Taking advantage of a poor, injured maiden, Shin? I didn't expect this from you.”

Quickly putting things together, he stated with certainty, maintaining eye contact with Natasha without his gaze dipping down even once, “So since I can sense if you are hurt, you did something that transmitted that pain to me and made me call you back. Nicely done. I did not think of that before.”

She shrugged, which did wonderful things to her chest, as she sat down on the couch, uncaring of her nude state. 

Well, when she did not care, neither did he. It was remarkable just how quickly he was getting comfortable with having an unflinchingly loyal bombshell waifu, he thought to himself before sitting right next to her.

“I assume clothing cannot be taken with me when you call upon me?” She asked him, leaning further into him.

“Nope. It does not seem to be the case.” His hand naturally rested on her shoulder as she snuggled into him, which would have been quite wholesome, if not for the raging hard boner that was visible to both of them. It did not help matters that he was in his PJs, and they were not supposed to hide or restrain stuff.

Both of them ignored it, as he asked her, “So, how far were you able to go?”

He could feel her smiling as she answered, “This Devil body is really good. I think there is a good three to five times improvement over my previous body, in all measurable parameters. I can look farther, hear clearer, jump higher, run faster, and do all that without feeling even an ounce of stress. I should have atleast felt something when I did some of the stunts I normally only reserved for emergency situations, but nope. Aside from the strength boost, the durability boost is just something else. I could just grip directly into walls, breaking apart brick and stone with ease. If this is the strength of a low class devil, then I shudder to think what the strongest can really do.”

“Yeah, the strongest devils operate really in the reality warping territory, rather than outright physical feats of strength. And even then, there are beings in this world who could look at the strongest Devils alive and disintegrate them.”

“Does not sound fun.” She poked him in the side.

“Yeah. That still doesn't answer my question, by the way. How far were you able to go before you sent the signal?”

“I think I was able to go just about 20 miles before I felt like it was far enough. Did you feel any strain calling me back?”

He shook his head. “None. I didn’t even feel anything.”

“That’s good. I definitely need to explore more of the city, and that ability alone should be a go– Oww!” Natasha winced as he promptly got off the couch, and handed her a tissue as blood came out of her nose, and even her eyes turned red instantly. 

Ignoring his own pain, he told her, “The curse of the Big G is still there, and it is quite strong. I think you need to keep that in mind. Some of the phrases and verses you can recall from your past life will quite literally bring some of the weaker devils to their knees. Just listening to scripture can incapacitate most low class devils.”

Even under a lot of pain, bleeding, red eyes, and veins visible on her forehead as this was the first time she was feeling God’s curse directed at her, Natasha smiled and whispered, “Good to know.”

Oh, dear. 

Imagining a Black Widow armed with all the weaknesses of Devilkind, an amped up body, and the reassurance that she could be extracted from any picky situation from a long distance without any issue, he gulped, pitying some of the Devils she was undoubtedly going to hunt down soon.

She was equipped to do her part, and she would most likely do a phenomenal job of it.

All he had to do was work on himself, using one of the most OP perks ever, and get stupid strong for it.

….When you put it like that, he had a pretty good starting point, right?

…..

…

He didn’t really tempt Murphy here, right? RIGHT?!