TSSG - Chapter 7 : Gremory Estate pt.2 (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–

He paused while mopping before instincts kicked in as he resumed his job, but not without screaming into his soulscape, where Natasha currently was.

“You can do what? You can read all my memories?!” 

He could feel Natasha rolling her eyes from within the soulscape. “Don’t get your panties in a twist. I said I can read your thoughts, not your memories. There is a difference. It is much faster this way to get a proper understanding of all the information you have. We should have done this from the start instead of wasting time when you tell me something verbally.”

“Alright.” He replied with some relief, and in turn, felt Natasha’s amusement at his reaction. It was really easy to communicate their feelings to one another when she was in his soulscape, which is why he knew, without a shred of doubt, that she was not going to betray him, which was a huge relief.

“You really are hung up on that, aren’t you?” Natasha retorted, having likely read his thoughts.

He was prompt to defend his thoughts, “Hey! You try thinking from my perspective. Suddenly, I am in a different world, full of superpowers, with a bombshell hottie who I couldn't even imagine getting in my wildest dreams, and a superpower that might just help me reach the top here. Tell me that does not seem kind of unreal to you.”

“I can understand that, but you have to understand that this is your reality now, and not dwell on your past.”

“Yeah, I know. It is just hard to adjust instantly. Remember, I have not even been here for an entire day. Plus, this place doesn’t even have a day and night cycle.”

“Yeah, that is going to take some getting used to. Anyway, when do you think you’ll meet people here?”

Her question meant he began thinking about the answer, and before he could even reply, Natasha butt in, “Alright, I got it. See, I told you this way is much faster. Instantaneous information, perspective, and feelings transfer. Amazing. Alright, wake me when you see something interesting. I have some deep thinking to do.”

“Okay,” he replied as he felt her go into a somewhat distant state, as she was no longer directly borrowing his senses or reading his thoughts, or so he thought. He was not sure if he was even feeling it correctly or not. 

___xx___

It was pretty easy to get into a groove as he did his job. Once he was done mopping the surface of the area assigned to him, he moved on to the garbage collection. Once that was tossed into the magical doodad that incinerated everything, he moved on to wiping down the surfaces of the hotel that was closed down for now.

Another new addition to the Gremory Estate, which was working hours. Previously, the working hours were just all the time. There was no concept of shifts here. The recent addition of another hotel was such a godsend in terms of ease of maintenance, as only one of the hotel or dining areas was open at a time. 

Once this one was closed down, the staff could clean and prepare for the next shift, while the other building was open for dining. This allowed the staff to keep everything prepared, which led to reduced friction with the guests, and reduced deaths and punishments, as the managers of the place were duty bound to at least appear to heavily punish any mistakes. Basically, the lower the amount of interaction with the guests here, the better, as it was pretty well known that most High Class Devils were arrogant, sadistic assholes who derived joy from causing and seeing others suffer, especially if those were low class devils.

It was a common trait amongst all decently powerful devils, and he had a theory that it was a feature that Lucifer built into them to make sure that Devils were able to inflict maximum injury, both physical and mental, to their enemies, as the cruelty streak was a mile wide in the first gen devils, and most devils who were raised by the first gen devils.

And now, since there was no Great War to use those cruel tendencies on, these High class devils had resorted to venting on the devils who were beneath them. The low class devils had to bear the burden of those devils and their tendencies.

It was just a theory, but he liked to think that it was the very flawed creation process of Devils that led to their cruelty and brutality, rather than the Devils just doing it for enjoyment, as that might push him towards unfavourable measures that he could take if he gained power. Anyway, Sirzechs and Co. were going to do good work when it came to most devils and their sadism, so he wasn’t really worried about the Devils’ future as a whole. He was just worried for his own future.

Once he was done with the tables and the windows, he moved onto the outer areas, the ones that were technically not within his duties, but he did so so he had an excuse to spend more time in this safe haven. Plus, these outer areas were nothing like the areas with all the greenery and the sound of moving water, so no one really came here. It was an abandoned area of sorts, and probably no one would even care if this place was not cleaned daily, but it was worth it for the sense of safety that staying in these four walls gave him.

Also, it allowed him to just lie down and rest for a bit. The other janitors, who were to man the other areas, did not even speak to him for some reason, even when he initiated contact of his own accord, so he had just withdrawn and done his job. He had no idea how he even got this job, and that, along with the rest of his missing memories, were questions he would really like answers to sometime in the future, when he was not worried about survival first.

The missing memories, coincidentally, were about Shin’s life before he began working at the Estate.

The sound of running water might have helped a lot here, but he wasn’t looking to sleep, so he just lay there and looked at the Purple Sky, taking a moment to stay still for the first time since he came to this world. 

Sighing, he got up after feeling that it was enough of a nap, even though he never closed his eyes, and moved to go to the janitor closet to do one more round of mopping. After that, his shift would be done, and he would be free to go home. 

If he had some kind of communication with the other janitors in this place, he might have been able to negotiate some extra work to make sure he had a reason to stay here beyond his working hours, but since the other workers shunned him repeatedly, he could do nothing but do his job and go back home.

The downside of the shift system introduced by House Gremory was that they were quite strict in following the system. He did not know what the actual punishment was for overworking, as that was a novel concept for the Underworld and he was pretty sure that beyond House Gremory, no other Pillar House might have even conceived of the notion of low class devils being overworked, as no Devil, low class or otherwise, would break if they worked for even a couple of days in a row.

Devils were really resilient like that, but it would seem that Sirzechs was very caring in that regard, or maybe it was the management here that heard what Sirzechs was saying, took the demands to the maximum possible extent just to make sure they did not offend the Gremory heir, who was also stronger than all the Satan Descendants, maybe even combined.

Shaking his head, he did his job, not really worried about all the existentially dreadful thoughts that were in his mind when he got here, before stowing everything back into the supply closet, keeping stuff just like it was before he arrived here. Honestly, it was kind of a blessing that he got an entire zone for himself, along with a supply closet that no one else used, and a shift time where no one came to bother him.

In fact, he spotted a grand total of three devils throughout his shift, and none of them were within talking range. Now, while that would have been paradise for the old Shin, as he was the textbook definition of an avoidant personality, he needed information. And yet, he couldn't exactly initiate something on his own.

The May you Live in Interesting Times perk hung over his head at all times, threatening to turn an innocent conversation about any information the other person might have into a life threatening situation.

Putting on his clothes, he double checked everything before locking the door behind him and heading to the stairs that would lead to the service entrance; only this one was all the way over on the other end of the Estate. 

After all, his route to come here and to go back home was wildly different.

As he walked down the stairs, he gently nudged Natasha, who woke up and, after taking a moment, likely to see what he was doing, spoke up.

“Something has been bugging me.”

“What is?”

“Your job.”

“What about it?”

“Everything about it. How come you got this incredibly lucrative job, one that has no supervision whatsoever? And you get the area that just so happens to be deserted every time you come to work, with maybe one interaction every week or so? That does not seem to be a coincidence.”

He thought about the rebuttal to the no supervisor part, as he did have someone who came over and gave him his salary. Coincidentally, it was the same person who gave him his current apartment.

….Huh.

When thought about like that, it did seem suspicious, especially since the overall fabric of Lucifaad itself was known to be unforgiving.

Natasha spoke up in his mind, sounding really serious, “I think we have to tread carefully here. Whoever gave you the job and the apartment basically controls your life and death. Any wrong move, and you might find yourselves on the street, with no source of income.”

His eyes twitched as he realised that he could lose his life, or come pretty close to it, the moment he stepped out of line and did something that he was not supposed to do.

And just like that, the sense of safety he had whenever he was at his job evaporated into thin air. Because he might be protected when he was employed and inside the Gremory Estate, but what about when he was on the streets?

Fuck.

__xx__

He locked the door behind him and leaned against it, his heart hammering inside his chest at what he had just witnessed on his way back home. Two deaths, as well as a kidnapping. All done in broad daylight, by people who did not have the sign of any Pillar House, and yet the general public looked the other way.

Usually, that level of apathy and fear was reserved for the enforcers from Pillar Houses, especially from the Six Houses of Lucifer, but even unmarked Devils were rampaging through the streets.

It would seem that what little Lucifaad had in the name of Law and Order was deteriorating quickly, especially since the kidnapping happened right in front of one of the Lucifuge House stores. Something like that was unthinkable before, as any of the Six Houses of Lucifer were really powerful and ready to pay back at the slightest hint of slight.

For unmarked goons to do something like that in front of their stores, something was really wrong here.

A moment later, Natasha appeared in front of him as she paced in front of him, clothed this time, as it was one of the limitations of his power.

He could recall her, but not her clothing when he was calling her back from farther away; but if she entered his soulscape while she was standing in front of him, and then came out next to him as well, she would keep the clothes on her body.

A silly mechanism of his power, but one that atleast removed the need to keep buying clothing every time Natasha decided to enter his soulscape.

Not that he was against seeing Natasha naked every time she entered and exited his soulscape.

Then, that moment of horny escaped, leaving behind the really anxiety inducing prospect of just what in the fuck was happening with his life, especially with his missing memories.

Thankfully, he had a super spy in front of him to do all the strategic thinking, one who was also poised to never betray him.