Beta read by n1ch, Shigiya, Solitary heart and 8kagi.
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-Warehouse-
I briefly triggered [Delete Field] when Bawler was approaching me with a punch ready to hit me in the face. Although his strength boost was gone, his momentum still had a lot of power.
"Hurg!" I brought up my arms up. The impact was strong enough to force my feet to slide across the concrete floor.
I gathered my strengthed and dashed in front of the monster and aimed for his head.
"You are-" Bawler began, catching my kick against his hands, and threw me across the room, breaking some wooden crates in the process, " Weak! Weaklings like you die!"
It took a bit of effort for me to get up, I had to thank Sona for giving me armor as a gift. Without it, my ribs would have been shattered. "Well forgive me for being weak, but that is why I'm fighting you in the first place, dumbass, to improve." After getting myself free from the rubble, I got back into my stance, "Come at me!"
Oof, I sounded like a douche.
Bawler rushed at me again just like before, but this time I had enough time to use my magic.
[Magic Arrow]
A single arrow-like projectile shot into his kneecaps, this spell might not be enough to kill strays like him, but it could still heavily injure them.
The monster fell headfirst onto the ground, allowing me to run forward and slam the heel of my foot on his skull, this time denting the floor and causing a bit of bleeding.
"Damn it."
The attack was not strong enough to knock him out sadly, so I retreated away from him when he got back up and shot down every source of light with more [Magic Arrow] spells, making the whole place too dark.
"Useless! Useless! I am a devil I can see everythin—''
He did not give him enough time to finish before I activated my Sacred Gear again, but this time it was different. I hadn't spent my last 5 years only training with spells and magic, but I also put a great deal of training with my gear. From countless experimentation and failed trials, I had come up with a variant ability.
[Delete Field] [Restrict]
Bawler was surrounded by a focused violet-colored dome that engulfed his entire body and nothing else. Unlike the last time, the effect did not cover the entire warehouse, but this variant approach allowed me to utilize a stronger form of [Delete Field] while slowing down my opponent for only a few seconds in a very narrow region.
This version allowed me to not only negate any powers or spells of an enemy but also temporarily disable their race's unique power. Night vision is one of the devil's natural abilities.
But this only worked against beings who are weaker magically compared to me. If it was someone who was way above my weight class, it would become useless.
Using my original spell [Absolute Silence] , I created a secondary dome of energy around Bawler, now he couldn't see nor hear me. "AAARRRGH! Where are you?! Where are you, weakling?! Insect! I will eat you alive!" That was what I thought he was saying, under the effect of my spell, no sound could even come out of his mouth.
I shot another [Magic arrow] to his second knee since he could neither see nor hear anything for the moment, the attack easily incapacitated him and brought him down on his knees, low enough for me to place my two fingers in a gun-like motion on his forehead.
"Wha—" Too late.
Using everything I had, I release my strongest [Magic Arrow] but before I could fire it, I felt something wrong...Bawler never reacted to the pain of having both of his knees being shot.
"...!"
A heavy fist hit me in the stomach so hard that I nearly coughed up blood.
"Ooof!" Bawler swiped his arms against me, second flying back against a wall. I was caught off guard and he was able to recover quickly.
"How is this possible?"
Bawler stood up but this time not even acknowledging the two gaping holes in his knees.
"How are you even standing!?"
"Jihahahaha, my Sacred Gear is the strongest! I feel no pain! Now you die human!"
This time his charge attack was much faster than before, I could barely dodge it in time. A sickening crack sounded from my left arm, "Fuck!"
My left side was caught up and pretty sure I felt something break.
The beast was quickly upon me again, this time stomping me to the ground with his feet.
Bam!
Bam!
Bam!
Bam!
Bam!
He continued to strike me in the chest, causing me to sink deeper into the concrete, creating a small crater around me.
'At this rate, I'm going to die crushed!'
I was grateful for the armour once more, as well as the fact that he didn't go for my head.
'Thank god he's not that smart.'
Just as he was preparing to smash me with his fists this time. I recovered enough to counterattack.
'Sona never mentioned any sacred gear! But if he has one, it must be in the brain since it blocks out pain.'
I was desperate for it to work, the same fear and anger I had experienced years ago came back. My will at its absolute strongest, I summoned the black pauldron again, with the violet gem in the middle shining in an intense light!
[Delete Field] [Restrict]
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"...?"
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This time, a way smaller sphere formed around the head of Bawler. I used my ability to its absolute limit, pushing my body beyond what it was capable of. And it seemed to have worked as Bawler suddenly couldn't stand anymore and cried in pain.
"AAAAAAAHHH! PAIN! PAIN! MAKE IT GO WAY SACRED GEAR! MAKE IT GO AWAY! GOAWAYGOAWAYGOAWAY—Hurk!"
I gathered my remaining scraps of energy and fired off my last [Magic Arrow] , and I fired it between his eyes, killing him instantly.
'Take that you Hulk wannabe.'
Boom!
Bawler's corpse fell with a loud crash, leaving me as the winner of the battle.
As my spells and sacred gear faded away, I stood on my spot relaxing my nerves. It didn't help that my reserves were now dry and my body was now sore and broken in some places.
I took a deep breath, relaxing my the tens
"..."
"Bleurgh!"
I ended up vomiting my afternoon lunch and some blood
'That's not good.'
I was not made for battle or generally any life or death situation. It was not the fact that I was bad at it, far from it seeing how I handled Bawler, it was just I hadn't formed the proper mentality for such things.
"Hugh, disgusting."
That could have gotten better, I could have just used my [Levitation] spell combined it with my [Absolute Silence] , and sniper shoot Bawler with my strongest [Magic arrow]. But I also needed to know how I stacked up against such foe for future references. If I got one day stuck fighting against someone I couldn't cheap kill, then I was good as dead.
'I still nearly died but that was not my fault, the information was wrong!'
It was during these times that I missed my time at the service club, I couldn't wait to create one back in Kuoh. It might help me relax for a change. But that did not mean that I would stop doing stray hunts from time to time.
I rather not be at the receiving end of what happened during the fire. And now that I was fully involved in the supernatural world, dangerous encounters were guaranteed to happen, sooner or later. I preferred to be prepared when it does happen.
I left the warehouse for some fresh air, the cold breeze did help me cool off. I rummaged my pocket for my phone, when I found it, I sent a text to Sona telling her that the job was done and that the information was either wrong or someone lied. I didn't bother elaborating further, I was too tired and hurt for that.
I stared at the night sky in silence, wondering how the past loner, MAXX coffee-loving, teenage kid, Hikigaya Hachiman came from that to now being strong enough to kill a cheap Hulk knock-off.
"Komachi, if you saw your big brother right now, would you find me cool or call me stupid for putting my life in danger?"
"..."
I sighed while already knowing the answer.
"I hate this."
{Break}
As I walked 'wobbled' to my house, I kept reviewing the fight in my head countless times, wondering how I could have done better. I was satisfied with my usage of spells, I did not once miss a shot or waste any magical energy. And I was most happy with how my new sacred gear ability performed, [Delete Field] [Restrict]
A two-part ability, I could use both [Delete Field] and [Restrict] separately. [Restrict] allows me to briefly slow down an opponent's movement. It is still in development, so I don't use it by itself as it won't change much. But when combined with [Delete Field] I get the bonus of negating one's powers to a higher degree and it did not use that much of my energy.
I didn't tried using this technique against enemies other than devils, I was quite curious what kind of effect it would have on Heaven's angels or yokai. But I knew that it was strong enough to make Akeno lose her ability to generate [Holy Lightning]. But that was only if she did not resist me otherwise with her magical reserves she would utterly crush me.
'I just wish I had a better way to improve faster that does not involve me becoming a devil.' I thought as I finally reached my house's front door.
"I'm home."
I heard footsteps approaching and saw my mom coming over, "Oh, Hachiman you're late today...are you feeling okay? You look tired." Good thing I brought a spare uniform before the battle.
The uniform hid most of my bruises and my most likely broken ribs. I used a simple magic spell to cover up some of the cuts on my face to avoid any suspicion, "Yeah I feel fine, just had some things to take care of for a friend."
My mom came close to me and narrowed her eyes while touching my face, "Are sure Hachiman? You did not get into any trouble, did you?" I avoid making any eye contact with her, it hurt to lie but the truth would create more trouble. It was a necessary evil.
"No mom, I did not get into any trouble, just tired. I'll be off to my room, for now, I'll eat later." I told her goodnight and retreated to my bedroom.
Both my parents were in the unknown about the supernatural world. They did not need to know that their son went hunting dangerous monster criminals in the middle of the night while hanging around with devils. It helped that most of our training and dealings happened in the underground training room that was sealed off so that normal people couldn't access it.
I barely reached my room before I collapsed on my bed, my injuries flaring in pain once more, letting out a long-suffering groan of pain. And it seemed to have attracted the attention of a certain redhead in the room. 'Or is it a crimson head?'
"Hachiman-kun! What happened!?"
A red blur came near my bed, taking my hand into her own, she channeled some of her devil power's healing ability into me. A warm sensation filled my body, though my wounds were not regenerating instantly, I could feel my body slowly recover while the pain faded away.
"Thanks, Rias, I owe you one for this," I called out to her using her first name, too tired to care about formalities. "And to answer your question, I just got caught off guard for a bit. But ended up paying a bit too much for it, hehehe-ouch! Everything hurts…" Laughing was not a good idea with my ribs cracked.
This of course caused Rias to get even more worried about me. "Why do you even accept such dangerous missions!? Akeno and I constantly worry about you when you go alone! I should talk with Sona about offering you these missions! What happens if one day you face a challenge too big for you!?"
There she goes into her mother's hen mode, still checking me for more injuries.
My first impression of her when I met her was that she was a spoiled brat, greedy, and annoyingly stubborn girl. She would constantly try to bait me into joining her peerage as Akeno did. One thing I appreciated her for was not using the safety of my parents and Akeno as a bargaining chip to fold me on her side.
Until now she used money, power, long life, and even a harem as a promise for me to join her. Of course, I constantly denied her just like I did with Sona, but Rias was stubborn if not anything. Along the years this soon turned into a game between the both of us, to see who would give up first.
"Honestly, this could have been avoided if you just accepted my proposal on joining my peerage, you know I will always treat you the same. So why don't you?"
This time I felt she genuinely wanted to know the reason. Rias is a good girl with a great heart, I had more than enough time to notice that quality in her. Even Akeno agreed with me on that observation.
She is very kind, compassionate, optimistic, especially to her servants and people close to her. She got angry and violent whenever people insulted her, her family, or her peerage, showing a fiery side to her character. This also played into the fact that she disliked unnecessary cruelty towards people. All of these characteristics have more than earned my respect and admiration for the redhead.
Though, I also acknowledged that she had her own issues, some of her opinions conflicted and differed from mine. In general she wasn't a bad person.
So it made me feel like an absolute jerk when I saw her hurt expression over my constant denials. She thinks that I still doubted her intentions and that I still didn't trust her. But that was the furthest thing from the truth.
I moved my other hand and placed it on her hand in a comforting manner that I used to do with Komachi. "Rias, listen, neither you nor Sona are the reason why I don't want to become a devil. I don't even care that you are a devil in the first place. You misunderstood my reasons for not wanting to join." I told her, stopping her from fussing over me and gaining her attention.
"Then why?" Asked Rias, looking at me for answers that she's been wondering for years, "Why don't you join any of us if you trust me and Sona? Is it because you wish to maintain your humanity? Is there anything specific you're looking for? Please just tell me, and I'll gladly give it to you." Oh, the tears have begun to flow; I felt like the biggest jerk there ever was for making her cry but I had to stand my ground. I wiped her tears away with my hand as I moved down her cheeks, unconsciously caressing them as she nuzzled my palm.
"My issue is with the system as a whole, Rias. My research into the devil chess system and its politics provided me with a lot of insight into the devil's world, and it isn't pretty. Anyone reincarnated as a devil is bound to remain at the bottom, as it is a type of enslavement from which no one can escape. Those in positions of power and influence will never allow the new devils to benefit in any way. The strays are proof enough that something is wrong with the system, something is broken and it needs to be fixed. Until that happens, I will not join any peerage."
"But, you let Akeno become my queen."
"Yes I did, even after telling her about everything, she still insisted on joining your peerage, and I respect her to make her own choices in life, even if I feel otherwise about it." Akeno did not care about the in-working of the underworld, as long as we were by her side, she was satisfied.
I knew my reasoning probably would not satisfy her, but I was indeed speaking the truth, it was not the aspect of becoming a devil that repulsed me but rather the society they live in. It is a rotten pool festered with snakes that blocked any kind of power to the new devils. "...I'll change that..." Rias whispered.
"What did you say, Rias?"
"Will you join my side if I can reform the system to make it more fair and equal for reincarnated devils?"
She did not, in the end, give up. She was a tenacious young lady, and I admired her for it.
"I'll gladly join you when that day comes."
I would be lying if I said I wasn't moved by her determination. It wasn't every day someone was willing to challenge and change an entire system join just for one person.
"Promise?" she stated this as she closed the distance between us, her eyes bright with anticipation for my next response.
I was running on fumes at this point and was on the verge of passing out. I did, however, want to see her smile at least once before falling unconscious.
"Promise."
I held up my pinky finger like a child, but I wanted to show that I meant it and what better way to show it than a pinky promise. Her face lit up with a gorgeous smile as she wrapped her pinky with mine before she went in for a hug burying my face in her breasts. While I slipped deeper into oblivion, I simply let her do it, the softness was too overwhelming for me to pull away.
'I guess this day wasn't so bad after all.' I said as I sank deeper into the realm of Morpheus.
...
I was completely oblivious at the time that something within me had reawakened after a long time. Even though we were both familiar with each other, we were still strangers. The violet gem of my sacred gear gently glowed with a low hum.
'Partner…'
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The next 5 chapters of Snafu, Harry Potter and my 3 other Fate fics (Fate Coiling Sword with 3 chapters, A Fake Familiar Reborn with 3 chapters and To love a sword having 4 chapters) are already available on my P@treon. With 4 more Broly chapters at /NimtheWriter. Also, I post monthly commissioned arts on each story, already posted a few on an Archer's Promise, Broly and Snafu.