TSSG - Chapter 5 : Getting to the Job & Haters Gonna Hate! (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–

Natasha had decided that a radius of more than 20 miles was more than enough for her, as she was going to work slowly on exploring the city around her. She told him that she had found very interesting things even on her brief stay out of the house, and she planned on doing more exploration to get a lay of the land, so to speak.

She was of the opinion that since all his information was from the future, and that future was now rendered mostly useless due to their existence, they needed ground information, and for that, she was going to have to move about the city. The only problem with that was her appearance. She was basically a walking target, being supernaturally beautiful and all that, despite living in a city that was full of Devils that had minor shapeshifting abilities.

The only reason not all devils were absolute bombshells was that those shapeshifting abilities were not active. Devils could not consciously direct them, or atleast most of them couldn't. They were created by the subconscious mind of the Devils, and with most Devils living in such dumpster-like conditions, it was no wonder that most of them were average looking. Average looking from his perspective, but they were probably ugly to any decently powerful devil.

She tried to argue that her ability to vanish from any place would reduce the danger quite a bit, but he was not convinced by that argument. He was still unsure of the limitations of the recall ability he used on her. Sure, on paper, she was a waifu/familiar, and as such, he had an innate connection with her that was facilitated by whatever the ROB was, and as such, should transcend whatever the world could throw at it, but he was not willing to test that possibility.

Sure, a mid-class devil might be fooled as Natasha disappeared in front of him without leaving behind any trace, but what about a sufficiently skilled high class devil? An Ultimate Class one? A Satan Class Devil? Lucifer forbid, a Super Devil?

He was pretty sure that even if his powers worked in front of someone on the same level as a freak of magic that was Ajuka, the phenomenon itself would draw their attention, and before long, he would find himself tied down to an experimental table, as the man scientist did everything they could to figure out just what made his power tick.

After all, to devils of that power level, nothing could really stop them if they put their mind to it, especially if the person in question was a Devil.

“So, you think I must be confined to this house, or in your soulscape all the time?” She said, and it was just the way she said it that rang alarms in his head, as he wisely kept mum and thought about the reply for a moment. Unfortunately, he couldn't figure out anything except trying to delay the whole thing.

“Look, why don’t we do it this way. Once you are in my soulscape, you can see what I see, right?” He asked her, which drew a perfunctory hum from her.

“So, why don’t you take a day and observe from the safety of my soulscape, atleast for a day? If you think you can do more out of my day job, then we can figure out something for you, okay?”

Natasha remained silent for a whole minute, until she finally nodded, “Alright. I can do that for a day.”

He tried not to show his relief at that, before getting up and looking down at her. “Alright. Now, I have to get to work in a few hours. I think this is enough for one night. I don’t want to push myself too hard and accidentally slip up at work. I want to make sure that I act exactly as I was before, to make sure no one suspects anything.”

Natasha stood up, and he was pretty sure she was doing the whole boob jiggling thing on purpose because how else would they be so tantalizingly perfect? His entire attention was locked onto them, pretty shamelessly at that, before a slender finger closed his jaw that he didn’t even know was open, before it pushed his face up until his eyes met Natasha’s amused gaze.

“Easy there, Tiger, wouldn't want a fly to go in your mouth."

His mouth clicked shut before he replied, “Please, a fly in a Devil’s mouth? There must be a joke in there somewhere. Now, why don’t we get some rest?” 

He gestured towards the bedroom, as Natasha raised an eyebrow but did not say anything else as she walked on ahead, her bare ass swaying in a hypnotic manner. It did not help matters that it looked as if he could bounce a quarter off of it, despite the sheer size of it. The way she looked back and smirked at him, he knew she was doing it on purpose, and she knew it was working quite well.

He smirked as he walked towards the bedroom as well, ready to strip out of his clothes for what he was pretty sure was going to be a time of his lifetime, only to pause as he saw Natasha sleeping on one side of the bed, posing like a Playboy model, but what gave him pause was the line of pillows in front of her, placed strategically to create separation on the already tiny bed.

Tapping the bed, Natasha practically purred, “Come to bed, Shin.”

He deadpanned in reply, his boner visible to her, but he did not move an inch from his spot. “Really? A pilot fort? How childish. Sleeping on the floor might have been better than this.”

Shaking his head, he got into bed, pulling the covers on him, spreading them a bit so it could cover Natasha as well, only to realise that with the pillow fort in place, the blanket could only cover so much. With his poverty, he only had a single blanket, which was not even that needed since Devils had a really high resistance to temperature variation on both ends of the spectrum. Must be some kind of feedback echo from his soul? 

Either way, the blanket conundrum did create a potential opportunity for him as he raised an eyebrow and looked at Natasha, who looked ever amused at the whole citation. Without saying a word, he looked at the pillow fort before looking up at her, questioning her silently.

She took a while to reply but eventually relented, “Go ahead.”

He could not have been fast enough to just throw the pillows to the ground, as he pulled Natasha closer, draped the blanket over her, and just lay there, pretending that he was going to sleep after this. 

___xx___

As the alarm rang, he sighed before disentangling from Natasha’s really grippy limbs and shutting it off, before getting up from the bed, his eyes droopy as he hadn’t slept a single minute.

How could he? His previous self would have never forgiven him if he had slept like a dumbass while having the Black Widow in his bed, naked and guaranteed not to kill him in his sleep for breathing wrong.

It would seem that Natasha, in her spy like wisdom, had foreseen that happening and had created that pillow fort for his benefit, instead of hers. She wanted him to sleep so he could wake up and go do his job with some rest.

Now, he was going to have to go to his job with a really distracted mind, and if Shin’s previous memories were anything to go by, that was basically just inviting a death order on his head.

Shaking his head, he got into the bathroom to get ready for his job. The uniform was provided at work, so all he had to do was wear unassuming clothing and walk to his job, which was fine since today was not supposed to have any disturbances on his regular route. The regular route also had business that the Lucifuge House ran, so the Satans were less likely to raise a ruckus there or conduct any of their hunts in the streets near there, as every single time, their hunts resulted in too much chaos.

That chaos was not good for the Lucifuge business, which he was pretty sure was just a part of their overarching research goal that was practically embedded into their bloodline at birth. The Lucifuge was the brains behind the House Lucifer, and they embodied that role quite well. Always doing something that pushed the boundaries of science in the Underworld, even if most of it was just torture porn that was recorded for future experiments, or so he’d heard in the slums of the city.

Getting out of the bathroom, Natasha chose that exact moment to open her eyes at the same time, and she got up from the bed. The way she stretched on the bed, and the way the blanket hung onto her boobs for a bit before slowly slipping down made his throat run dry. Gulping down, he barely controlled himself from pouncing on her right then and there, and that was basically an invitation if he’d ever heard of one, as he had to go to his job.

If it had been a matter of money, he might have ignored it entirely, but it was a matter of security. He needed that safety blanket for a while before he could get his bearings in this world. Basically, atleast until he reached Ultimate Class, he was going to use all the safety blankets he could get his hands on.

So, reluctantly, he tore his gaze away from her magnificent body before looking at her. “Must you do that right now? You know I can’t be late.”

Natasha whistled innocently, “What? I wasn’t doing anything.”

“Don’t you have to get ready too?”

She smirked at him before disappearing from the bed, as a voice rang from inside his head, “Why would I need to get ready for this?”

He groaned out loud, “That’s so unfair.”

Her giggle was melodious as he smiled, locked his humble dwelling, and took a deep breath as he ventured out into the city of Lucifaad for the first time since he was sent here by the ROB.

He liked to begin his commute to work early in the morning to make sure that the chances of running into someone or something troublesome were reduced. Even if the Underworld did not have a day and night cycle, and no Sun and no Moon to show the time of day, there was a time cycle that everyone loosely followed. There were massive Clock towers in the city that everyone could look at to know the time.

Not everyone followed the same time cycle. Some businesses ran all the time; some catered to the worker class, so they were closed when the big businesses were open; some were only open when the Satans were in the city, which was most of the time; some only opened when the Pillars were called into the city, and needed to go shopping around the city to show off their wealth to the rest of the Pillar Houses.

It was a whole mess, and he knew that only because Shin had religiously made a note of everything as he navigated his way to the Gremory Estate in the city.

It was not located in the center of the city, as that place was reserved for the Lucifer Houses. The Satan Houses were located right outside the city centre as well, just next in line of importance.

Then, there were the Dukes and the other Pillar Houses, spread throughout the city.

The Gremory Estate was located in the far right corner of the city, away from most other Pillars, save for the Astaroth Estate and the Sitri Estate. In this corner of the city, only these three Pillars had their Estates, which might explain their alliance in the future. Or maybe it was just a coincidence that their Estates were so close to each other.

Either way, He was going to have to find out more, and the best way to do that was to do his job, and this time, keep his ears open and gather as much information as possible, instead of actively withdrawing from situations that could give him even a tiny iota of information that he was not supposed to know.

It might have worked for the old Shin since his only goal was to survive, but it was not going to fly now, since his goal had now changed to live, and he was going to live a great life here. Anything else would be an affront to the perks he was given.

With that grand declaration, he was feeling good about himself, only for Natasha to throw water all over his parade.

“Look who’s talking like a hotshot when he has to avoid troublesome areas,” Natasha spoke from inside his mind.

He ignored her.

Haters gonna hate.