Eating Your Weight: Ominous Encounter
The issue with Issei was still bugging me as I sat in class a few minutes later. I didn’t have the chance to actually talk to him before he was dragged off somewhere by his friends, but considering what was going on with me right now, I wasn’t sure that would really be a good idea. The discomfort that came from his scent only grew the longer I was bathed in it and now, sitting in class with him just a few desks behind me, my mood was noticeably worse.
There was something nagging at the back of my mind, a dull buzz that kept my shoulders stiff and my hackles raised. I actually almost snapped at the teacher just for calling on me to ask a question, something that I would have never done if I was in my right mind. I had to bite down on my tongue to stop myself from shouting at another student who was tapping their pencil a little too loud, and when a rolled up paper ball landed on my desk via some girl who wanted it passed along, I just tossed it in the trash can to spite her. Definitely lost a few popularity points for that one.
I caught another whiff of Issei’s scent as Issei turned to ask his neighbor a question, sending his smell wafting towards the front. My eye twitched and my pencil earned itself a deep crack just for the sin of being held between my fingers. What the hell was going on with me?
‘It’s his scent. Your instincts can tell there’s another of our kin in the vicinity and they are preparing you for battle.’ Nidhogg said in my mind. Surprising me, he didn’t go back to sleep after talking to me for two minutes like he usually did. Whatever was going on right now was apparently interesting enough to put off his cat nap for a couple of hours. ‘If you wish to go back to normal, you’ll have to prove your superiority over the interloper through combat. There’s no way for this feeling to go away otherwise.’
Fantastic. I’m not just gonna beat up Issei because his smell pisses me off. We’re friends! And besides, he’s a Devil now. I doubt Sona or Rias would appreciate me turning their new members into paste just because I’m in a bad mood.
I wasn’t sure which of them was responsible for this new state of things, or why they picked Issei of all people to join their satanic club. I liked the guy, but he didn’t really have any notable traits outside of his astounding ability to make everything about boobs. He wasn't really the type of person you’d waste one of your finite number of magical artifacts on just to get him on payroll.
Though there must have been something special about him because I was pretty damn sure that the reincarnation process didn’t also dunk you into a vat of dragon pheromones. But was a little bit of draconic power worth making a Devil out of one of the only people I knew of who had a more perverted streak than me? I liked Issei, but handing immortality and power to a guy like that usually didn’t end well.
Though I guess I’m one to talk. I thought wryly as I grabbed a new pencil. I caught another whiff of his scent as I reached down to my bag and my shoulders tensed until I let out a breath to cool off before I broke this one too.
As I put pencil to paper again, I wondered what could be causing this. I didn’t sense anything off about Issei before now, not a whiff of draconic magic or even the potential for it. He must have awakened something when he was reincarnated, some dormant ancestry or more likely a Sacred Gear. I didn’t know how many dragons out there got their souls chopped up and shoved into weapons, but apparently it wasn’t exactly uncommon. Whoever he got must have been scrub level to be putting off such a weak scent, but it was enough to piss me off so I guess the point was moot anyway.
Class progressed and I simmered in discomfort until we were released for partner study during the last thirty minutes. Desks shuffled around as everyone paired up with their friends and I didn’t look up as Aika plonked down in a desk next to me, shuffling close so that the tables pressed right up against each other.
“Hey you.” She said as she grabbed her textbook. “Have you heard the news?”
I raised an eyebrow at her eager demeanor, shaking my head. “I’ve been a little preoccupied.”
She smirked. “I can tell. You look like you’re one stray cough away from breaking someone’s neck. I’d ask if it's that time of the month, but you don’t really get those anymore, do you?”
“No, I don’t. Thank God.” I rubbed my temples, glancing at her. “You really aren’t feeling this?”
“Feeling what?”
“Nothing.” I guess she wasn’t dragon enough to get the full hormone package. Lucky her. “What news are you talking about?”
Aika moved past my weird behavior, dismissing it with the expertise of someone who was beginning to realize how weird the world really was. She leaned towards me, eyes glittering with the desire to spread juicy gossip. “So according to the local rumor mill, one of the Perverted Trio has started aiming above their station. They showed up on the arm of Rias Gremory this morning and get this, they spent the night together too!”
I stared at her for a long moment before slowly turning my towards the spikey-haired pervert sitting at the back of the class. Issei was working alone since Matsuda and Motohama had left him behind for some perceived transgression or another.
“So that’s who snatched him up.” I muttered. “I probably should have guessed; there’s no way Sona would be willing to put up with him.”
“Huh? What are you talking about?”
I gave Aika a grin. “You probably can’t tell because you’re still new to this, but Issei’s giving off some pretty major Devil vibes right now. I’ve been trying to figure out who reincarnated him but you pretty much just confirmed it for me. Looks like Rias decided she wanted her own pet pervert.”
Aika blinked, turning to look at Issei as well. “Seriously?”
I nodded. “Yeah, she must have done it pretty recently too because he wasn’t like this last time I saw him.”
She scrutinized him, trying to look past the layer of humanity to ascertain his true nature. “I don’t see it. How can you tell?”
“He smells awful.” I tapped my nose. “Like a mix of sulfur and ash with a hint of woodsmoke underneath. It’s been driving me crazy all morning which is why I’m so on edge. Something about him is really getting under my skin.”
“Do you have something against Devils?”
“No, it’s something else.” I sniffed, turning back to my textbook to start my work. “I’ll tell you later. The teacher’s glaring at us.”
That was one mystery solved at least, but I still needed to figure out where this scent was coming from before I had to do something about it. Though considering how his day-to-day usually went, I doubted one more ass beating would really affect him all too much.
{— Later That Day —}
Miyo had been surprisingly amenable to my request to let Aika sit in on our training sessions. In fact, "amenable" was an understatement. Miyo seemed genuinely relieved to have a pupil who didn't treat the laws of physics as suggestions and who wasn't constantly on the verge of turning the local geography into a smoking crater.
And as it turned out, Aika was quickly proving to be much more than just a safe alternative to me.
The foreign mana I had accidentally flooded into Aika’s system had burned itself off in only a couple days, leaving only a whisper of me that refused to go away. Despite that, her overall power didn’t suffer from the purge in the slightest and if anything, it actually grew, proving my theory about her latent magical potential It was as if her body had taken the raw energy I’d forced into it and used it to jumpstart a dormant engine
Unfortunately, now that the engine was running, she was leaving me in the dust.
It was a little embarrassing honestly. While my own stores were roughly a hundred times the size of hers, Aika possessed something I lacked, finesse when it came to using her magic. She blasted past me when it came to control and the theoretical application of using magic, and wasn’t far behind at all in the practical part either. Human magic was all equations – you had to put effort in to get an actual result. I was able to cheat by brute forcing the result I wanted, but that just meant that when Aika’s spells worked out, they were much more solid than anything I could produce and costed a hell of a lot less magic.
Needless to say, she was a much better student than I was as far as Miyo was concerned. And I absolutely, definitely wasn't jealous. Not even a little bit. Nope.
One cool afternoon found us standing in the same forest that I almost burned down less than a week ago. The air was thick with the static charge of spent magic as we stood across from one another, staring intently into one another’s eyes from across the short distance.
Above us, wind washed through the canopy of leaves, sending them scattering gently down towards the forest floor. They spiraled in lazy circles, listing restlessly from side to side as they approached their final resting place and as they touched down, the world burst into motion again.
I saw the intention in Aika’s eyes a split second before the jagged bolt of lightning ripped from her fingertips. I threw my hands up and forced a barrier of magic to flare out from my palms. The shield materialized just in time and the lightning slammed into the barrier with a deafening crack, dissipating harmlessly into sparks that set my hair on end.
I didn’t give her time to reload, slamming a hand onto the ground and pushing my magic into the soil. The earth underneath Aika’s feet groaned, rumbling deep in its throat before giving way, sending the solid ground underneath her feet collapsing into a sinkhole.
But she was already gone. Having sensed my magic, Aika launched herself upwards, her leap carrying her much higher than any normal human could manage. She launched herself towards the canopy, her hair brushing against the leaves of the treetops and at the apex of her jump, she extended her hands, fingers clasped together in a facsimile of prayer.
A band of emerald light erupted from her knuckles, shooting down toward me like a spear. I tensed, preparing to sidestep, but my eyes went wide as the beam wavered and then split, curving into five distinct ribbons that reached out towards me from different angles.
My sidestep became a panicked scramble backwards as I jumped away, desperate to put some distance between myself and the spell, but the lights suddenly accelerated and there was no way I could get enough speed to escape them in time. The first band coiled tight around my ankle, jerking me to a halt. Before I could even register it, another snagged my wrist, pinning it to the air. Then another, and another. Within seconds, I was completely immobilized, hoisted off the ground and splayed in the air like a fly caught in a neon spiderweb.
I sighed at the magical bonds, looking up at Aika as she landed gracefully on the ground, looking entirely too pleased with herself. I could easily break out of them, they weren’t that strong despite their speed, but the point would be moot anyway.
“When did you have time to come up with that one?” I asked instead as she walked up to me.
“I have magic now. Of course I’m going to spend all of my time messing with it to see what I can do.” She scoffed as she examined me, looking over the bands on my skin. “This is just a light whip but I messed with the formula a bit. I was going for tentacles though. Not ribbons.”
I shuddered as the bands of light hummed against my skin. I was thankful the spell hadn’t worked like she wanted to. I’d been friends with this girl for less than a month but I knew for a fact that our interests skewed in very different directions.
"Okay, point taken," I called out, dangling a few feet above the ground. "Mind letting me down?"
Aika flicked her wrist, and the green light dissolved instantly. I dropped, landing on my feet with a heavy thud.
"That makes it five to three, doesn't it?" I asked, offering her a grin. "You’re catching up."
Aika adjusted her glasses, pushing the bridge up her nose. "Thank you. But we both know that if this was an actual fight it wouldn’t even be a contest."
She wasn't entirely wrong, but that wasn’t the point of this exercise. Since Miyo couldn’t be around twenty-four seven, she assigned us this specific drill to hammer out the flaws in our spellcasting. The rules were simple, we threw spells at each other until one of us landed a definitive hit, earning us a point. We couldn’t use physical strikes or anything that wasn’t explicitly the magic that we had learned, meaning no Sacred Gear either.
It was essentially magic tag, or dodgeball. She knew that I worked better in the moment and Aika was shaping up to be the same way so it worked great for both of us. Our personal strengths also made for an interesting dynamic. Aika had the advantage when it came to actually casting: speed, structure, and even variety, but I could move faster, jump higher, and pump out as many spells as I wanted without thinking about how draining they would be. It kept us almost evenly matched, though the scoreboard proved things were definitely still skewed in my favor.
Aika wiped sweat from her forehead with the back of her sleeve, sighing heavily. Despite the strange boost my magic had given her physiology, she was still mostly human. Her stamina had a hard limit, and she was hitting it. She was soaked in sweat, her hair clinging to her temples, but she wasn’t completely exhausted yet.
In contrast, I was barely simmering. Despite wearing long sleeves and dark clothes in the forest humidity, my breathing was even. For me, this was target practice. For her, this was grueling endurance training.
“You up for one more?” I asked, keeping my tone encouraging. She wouldn’t win the game even if she beat me, but the practice would be good for her regardless.
Aika pondered my question before nodding. “Yeah. One more should be fine.”
Grinning, I moved back to my position as she did the same, backing away and putting some distance between us. The air grew heavy as we slipped back into our stances, and my mind raced as I ran through my spells, debating on which one to use this time.
But before I could actually begin to gather my magic, a flicker of movement caught my eye over Aika’s shoulder. Deep in the brush, something glinted, bright and unnatural against the lush greenery of the forest. My eyes widened at a flare of magic, my instincts burning to life in a way they hadn’t during any of the friendly matches before.
I reached out towards Aika who tensed, expecting my move. But I wasn’t aiming at her. My fist clenched and the back of my hand glowed bright orange as a sigil flickered to life just behind her shoulder. Aika flinched, confusing flashing across her face as she glanced behind her just as a thick, iron chain erupted from my magic circle.
CLANG
The chain appeared just in time to intercept a spear of pink, condensed light that had been hurtling towards the back of Aika’s head. The collision sent a shower of sparks all over my friend’s back as the light construct shattered into brilliant fractals against the magical iron
"Huh–?" Aika started, spinning around with wide eyes.
"Move!" I barked, lunging forward as two more glints twinkled in the woods. A pair of spears, just as pink and sharp as the first, streaked through the brush, aimed with lethal precision as they sought Aika’s blood. I grabbed her by the shoulder and hauled her behind me, my other hand already gripping Kijin as I brought the sword to bear against the unseen threat.
I swung the blade in a tight arc. The orange runes embedded in the sword flashed as the edge met magic with a screech. I deflected both spears in one swipe, sending them careening into the trees where they exploded in showers of woodchips and light. I reset my stance, expecting my hidden enemy to send more of them after me. Abyss Eater manifested on my hands as I glared into the forest, searching for anything out of the ordinary and finding nothing.
They were still there though; I could sense them. Now that I was made aware of their presence, their magic stuck out like a sore thumb against mine and Aika’s, an anomaly that cut through the familiar haze we’d been submerged in for the last few hours. They were waiting, just out of sight.
"Why couldn't you just make this easy for me?" A voice floated out from the shadows. It was high, sickeningly sweet, and full of condescension. "I really didn’t want to put in any actual effort today."
I caught the scent a second before I saw the source. It was a smell I barely recognized – a unique aroma of fresh morning dew mixed with ancient, dry dust. It was the same one I smelled a couple nights ago. A Fallen Angel.
“I’ve been rubbing Raynare’s failure in her face all day,” the voice continued, sounding more like a petulant child complaining about homework than a veteran of the supernatural. “If I fail to kill my target too, then I’m going to look stupid so please don’t be difficult. Just roll over and croak so I can go home.”
"Sorry," I called back, tightening my grip on Kijin’s hilt. "Difficulty is kind of a mainstay with me."
“Ugh, great.” The leaves parted, and the owner of the voice strolled leisurely into the clearing.
She looked… interesting. She was short, shorter than me even, with blonde hair tied up in spiky twin-tails beneath a frilly headpiece. She was dressed in a black and white gothic lolita dress that looked entirely impractical for moving through a forest, let alone fighting, yet it didn’t have a single stray leaf sticking to it. Two black, feathery wings emerged from her back, and in her hand, she clutched a spear made of neon pink light, the same one I just saved Aika from.
"My, my," I said, tilting my head. "Who is this pretty little morsel, and why is she trying to kill my friend?"
The girl paused, blinking. A cheeky, arrogant smile spread across her face. She smoothed the front of her dress. "Pretty? Well, I suppose even a lowly human can have good taste.”
“As for your question,” She twirled the pink spear in her hand. "I am Mittelt. Agent of the Grigori. And you have been slated for execution, so please don’t resist."
My eyes narrowed at the name drop. The Grigori was the most prominent in the Fallen Angel faction, basically their version of the Church. What the hell did I do to get on their bad side?
“Mind telling me what I did?”
"Hm… No, I don’t think so. No point in wasting breath on a dead girl." She scoffed, waving a hand dismissively. "Look, I want to get this over with quickly so I can go lie down. So if you could just die quickly, that would be great for both of us."
Without waiting for an answer, she snapped her hand forward. The pink spear launched from her hand, whistling through the air straight for my chest. I didn't flinch as I brought my sword up in a backhand, shattering the light construct and absorbing some of its energy. Mittelt was already moving by the time I brought Kijin back up. Another spear had materialized in her grip as she rushed me, her wings flaring to boost her speed.
"Too slow!" she chirped, thrusting at my throat. I parried, the sound of steel against hard light ringing like a bell. I stepped inside her guard, swinging low, but she fluttered backward, giggling.
We traded blows in a rapid rhythm – thrust, parry, dodge, slash. Sparks flew as my sword met her spear again and again. But as the seconds ticked by, I began to realize something. This girl was… kind of weak. Her form was pretty good from what I could tell, honed by decades of battle, and she was pretty fast, but her actual strength was definitely lacking.
When I blocked her strikes, my arms didn’t shake like they did against that Stray I fought with Akeno. When our weapons locked, I didn’t feel like I was one moment away from being crushed like with Agnir. She was like a mosquito, fast, but ultimately harmless.
I don't even need to go full throttle for this, I thought, deflecting a jab. If this is all she has, this is going to be embarrassing for her.
As time ticked by, Mittelt seemed to realize the fight wasn't ending instantly. Her cute facade cracked into an expression of concentration. The spear in her hand grew brighter as she tried to force more power into it, but Kijin sapped it right away, leaving her back where she started. Her face flashed with surprise but as she caught sight of my smirk, it was replaced with annoyance.
"Ugh! That’s enough!” She flapped her wings hard, launching herself vertical. She soared thirty feet into the air, hovering above the clearing like a vengeful hummingbird.
"I’ve wasted enough time with you, human!" she shrieked. She raised both hands, and the air around her filled with dozens of pink light spears. "Just die!"
She swept her arms down. The barrage descended like hail and I braced myself to deflect them
I braced myself to deflect them, but a shimmer of blue caught my eye. Aika stepped in front of me, her face set in a grimace of concentration. She threw her hands up, palms flat against the sky, and magic pulsed as a translucent blue barrier, hexagonally patterned, snapped into existence above us.
The spears slammed into Aika's shield, exploding one after another in flashes of pink and blue. The barrier shuddered under the assault, but it held.
Mittelt’s jaw dropped. "Hey! That's cheating!” She pointed a finger accusingly at Aika. "I was going to let you live if you didn't interfere! I was going to let you run away! But now you can die with her!"
She summoned three more spears, heavier and brighter than the last, and hurled them at the shield. It cracked and then shattered, leaving us to contend with the next two she decided to throw for good measure.
"You already tried to kill me!” Aika shouted back, dropping her hands and rolling to the side as the spears cratered the earth where she had just been standing. She scrambled to her feet, dirty and scraped but alive.
“Those were warning shots!” Mittelt yelled back, panting heavily.
Throwing that many light spears in quick succession clearly took a lot out of Mittelt. She somehow looked more exhausted than either Aika or I, despite the fight having just started. Her dress was rumpled and her entire demeanor had changed as she lost the arrogant shine in her eyes. She really thought this was going to be a quick, one-and-done. Too bad for her.
My own wings burst from my back as she raised her hands again and I pushed off the ground, closing the distance between us in an instant. Mittelt’s eyes went wide as I appeared in front of her and she fumbled, instinctively generating another pink spear and throwing it at me from point-blank range.
It was sloppy and I didn’t even bother using my sword this time, batting the spear aside with Abyss eater. It disappeared almost instantly as my Sacred Gear ate the magic keeping it stable and Mittelt gaped as I closed those last few inches between us, slamming Kijin’s hilt into her stomach.
She gasped, folding in on herself as the jewel on the end of my sword knocked the wind out of her and sapped her strength at the same time. She stumbled backwards on her wings, clumsy and uncoordinated as she
Mittelt gasped, folding in on herself as the blow landed. It wasn't full strength, but it was enough to drain the last of her fight. She scrambled backward on her wings, her momentum clumsy and uneven as she fought to gain some distance. I let her go, watching carefully in case she tried to form another spear or spell.
Luckily, it looked like that strike knocked the rest of the fight out of her. She didn’t come here expecting an actual battle and it was clear that she was shaken at how much of a fight I was putting up.
“Y-you’re not human!” She accused, jabbing a finger at me with a manic expression. “You can’t be! There’s no way a human could ever be this powerful!”
“Really? Did the wings tip you off?” I snorted, shouldering my weapon. “Doesn’t change the fact that you just got your ass kicked. Fly home little birdy, before I have to pluck yours.”
Mittelt’s face twisted in rage but there was hesitation there. We both knew that she was in no position to actually fight me; she’d already used everything she had and now she was running on fumes.
She glanced down at the clearing where Aika was waiting and I subtly angled Kijjin. I was giving her an out but if she tried to keep fighting, I wouldn’t hesitate to keep my promise and cut those wings right off of her back, along with her head.
Luckily, Mittelt didn't engage again. She looked down at the Aika, then back at me, her expression a mixture of annoyance and fear, before backing away.
"You... you'll regret this, human!" she shrieked, her voice thin and high, before turning around. With a quick, almost frantic beat of her black wings, she bolted, tearing through the canopy in the direction of the city.
I watched her go, slowly relaxing my grip on Kijin as she slowly turned into a tiny black dot on the horizon. When I couldn’t make her out anymore, I finally relaxed fully, sighing as I sent my weapon back to where it had come from.
“Well that was fun.” I said as I descended back down to the ground, landing softly next to Aika who was dusting herself off. “Are you alright?”
Aika shook her head, though her hands were trembling slightly. Understandable, this was the first fight she’d been in. "No. Just surprised. That was a Fallen Angel, right? Why did she try to kill us?"
I shrugged. “Beats me. I’ve literally never talked to one before today. She said the Grigori sent her so maybe they have something to do with it. I’ll have to ask Miyo.”
I slapped her on the shoulder. “You did good back there. Not as good as me, but that barrier was pretty cool. Nice job.”
Aika smiled tiredly. “Thanks. Can we go back to your place now? I’m fucking exhausted and I need a bath like bad.”
“Sure thing.” I wrapped an arm around her shoulder, leading the way out of the forest. “You need someone to wash your back?”
“I’d never say no to some help. Just make sure you really get in there.”
“Do you even know who you’re talking to?”