High School DXD: Fox of Ill Omen—Volume 1
Chapter 1 — The White Fox in the Club Room
Issei
The Occult Research Club was supposed to be paradise.
No, seriously. If you asked me, Hyoudou Issei, recently reborn devil and future Harem King, to describe paradise, it would probably look a lot like our clubroom at Kuoh Academy.
A beautiful crimson-haired president with a body blessed by the gods sat at the center of the room like a queen on her throne. A beautiful black-haired vice-president with a terrifyingly amazing figure smiled sweetly while pouring tea. A cute blonde-haired nun-turned-devil sat neatly with her hands around a teacup, looking soft enough to make any guy’s heart clench. A petite girl in the corner nibbled on snacks with the same expression she used for almost everything—meaning barely any expression at all. And then there was the elegant and composed knight, the kind of refined beauty who made girls swoon over her and guys envious of her charm.
It was heaven.
It was also torture, because heaven had school rules, peerage duties, and a president who somehow knew exactly when my eyes drifted somewhere dangerous.
“Issei,” Rias-Buchou said in a voice so calm it made my back straighten on instinct. “If you keep staring at Akeno-san’s chest like that, I’ll have to assume you’re volunteering for extra work.”
“I-I wasn’t staring!” I protested.
Akeno-san’s smile brightened in a dangerous way. “Ara ara. Issei-kun, you should be more honest.”
“I am honest!”
Koneko-chan took a bite of one of the cookies on the table and said, flat as ever, “Your eyes weren’t moving.”
“Traitor!”
Asia giggled into her teacup. Even Yuuto-san covered her smile with one hand.
I clutched my chest. “The cruelty in this room…!”
For a second, the clubroom felt normal. Warm. Familiar. Loud in the way our little group always was, even when it was quiet.
Then Buchou set her teacup down.
It was a tiny sound. Porcelain against saucer.
But the room changed.
Akeno-san’s smile stayed in place, though something in it sharpened. Yuuto-san’s posture straightened almost imperceptibly. Koneko-chan lifted her head. Asia blinked and folded her hands in her lap.
Even I sat up properly.
Buchou looked toward the door.
“I have someone to introduce today.”
Someone?
I blinked.
We’d already added Asia to the peerage not that long ago. I hadn’t been expecting another surprise. For some reason, that alone made my curiosity jump.
Buchou rose from her chair with smooth, practiced elegance and crossed the room. When she opened the clubroom door, I leaned a little before catching myself.
Then she stepped aside.
And the girl standing there made my brain stop for a second.
She was beautiful.
That was the first thing that hit me, hard enough to crush every other thought beneath it.
Her hair was silvery-white, not the ordinary kind of white, but something soft and cold and luminous all at once, like moonlight. Her eyes were a deep, unsettling purple that felt too vivid against the paleness of her face. She was tall for a girl—taller than Buchou, who is already taller than me, I thought—and built in a way that made my poor male heart immediately start screaming. Long legs. Wide hips. Soft curves. Large breasts. A figure that was elegant instead of flashy, but still definitely, absolutely dangerous to my health.
And she had fox ears.
Large silver-white fox ears rose from her silvery hair, matching the single tail visible behind her.
My brain, which had stopped before, now started again in the worst possible way.
Fox girl.
A fox girl.
My sacred mission in life had just been blessed by the heavens.
Then the rest of my thoughts caught up.
Because despite how beautiful she was, something felt… off.
She looked fragile.
Not delicate in a graceful, protected-princess way. Fragile in a way that made me think she was ill. Her skin was pale enough to make Asia look healthy by comparison, and Asia had only recently recovered from everything she’d gone through with the Fallen Angels. Her hair, for all its beauty, had a slight dullness near the ends. Her shoulders were straight, but too carefully straight. Like they would fold if she let them relax.
And when her gaze moved over the room, it didn’t move like someone entering a new group.
It moved like someone checking reactions expecting disapproval.
Buchou rested a hand lightly against the girl’s shoulder.
“This is Kusari-chan,” she said. “She has joined my peerage. She will be joining Kuoh Academy as a second-year student.”
The girl stepped forward at once.
Her movement was so precise it almost didn’t look natural.
“My name is Kusari,” she said softly, dipping into a bow that was just deep enough to be respectful without becoming rude. “I will do my best to be of use to you.”
The wording caught me before I fully knew why.
Not please take care of me.
Not I’m happy to meet you.
Not even I look forward to working with you.
I will do my best to be of use to you.
It sounded neat. Proper. Even polite.
It also sounded weird.
Maybe too weird for a first introduction.
Asia was the first to move.
She set her teacup down and smiled with the kind of gentle warmth only Asia could make look completely natural. “I-I’m Asia Argento. It’s very nice to meet you, Kusari-san.”
Kusari-san turned toward her and bowed again with the same careful angle. “The pleasure is mine.”
Akeno-san’s eyes softened in that way that meant she was noticing far more than she let on. “Ara, ara. Another beautiful girl. Rias, you really do gather interesting people.”
Yuuto-san rose from her chair and offered a graceful smile. “Yuuto Kiba. Welcome to the Occult Research Club, Kusari-san.”
“Koneko Toujou,” Koneko-chan said, because Koneko-chan was Koneko-chan.
Kusari-san bowed to each of them in turn. Every motion was clean. Economical. Exactly as much as it needed to be and not a fraction more.
Then her eyes landed on me.
And I, legendary idiot that I was, had still been staring.
“Uh.”
Amazing, Issei. Great first impression.
I scrambled to my feet so quickly my chair nearly tipped over.
“I-I’m Hyoudou Issei!” I blurted. “You can call me Issei. Or Hyoudou. Or, uh, not anything weird! I mean, unless you want to! No, wait, that sounded—”
Akeno-san giggled.
Yuuto-san sighed very softly.
Asia looked like she wanted to rescue me.
Koneko-chan looked like she might enjoy watching me die.
Kusari-san blinked once.
Only once.
Then she lowered her head a little. “Yes. Hyoudou-san.”
I don’t know why that hit me so hard, but it did.
Maybe because she said it too quickly. Too correctly.
Maybe because there was no awkwardness in it, none of the uncertainty a normal new person would have.
Or maybe because, even though her voice was soft, it didn’t feel shy.
It felt… measured.
Buchou gestured toward the open seat at the table. “Sit down, Kusari-chan.”
“Yes, Rias-buchou.”
She sat immediately.
Again, too neatly.
I felt a strange itch at the back of my neck.
Buchou returned to her chair, crossing one leg over the other with all the authority of a high-class devil noble. “Kusari-chan’s situation is somewhat unusual,” she said. “I expect all of you to treat her as a proper member of the peerage.”
Nobody objected, of course. That wasn’t the kind of thing we’d object to anyway.
Still, my curiosity jumped at the word unusual.
Buchou glanced at me, probably reading that curiosity right off my face. “She is another [Pawn], and required three [Pawn] pieces.”
That made me forget every other thought in my head.
“Three?!” I shouted.
Kusari-san flinched.
It was tiny. Most people probably wouldn’t have noticed it.
I did.
So did Koneko-chan, judging by the slight narrowing of her eyes.
Buchou gave me a look that said inside voice, Issei.
I coughed. “Three? As in… three?”
“Yes, Kusari-chan’s value is equivalent to three Pawns.”
So she would be the only other Pawn in the peerage.
I was five by myself, sure, and one of them was a mutated one.
Whatever that really meant, Rias-Buchou didn’t go into too much detail when she explained it to me.
So I was worth five Pawns, but that was because of the Boosted Gear. Sacred Gear users were special cases. Kusari-san didn’t look strong. She looked like a strong enough breeze could knock her down.
Which meant she was either strong in another way, really strange, or both.
Akeno-san tilted her head. “Rias, are you going to tell us more?”
“In time,” Buchou said smoothly. “For now, what matters is that she is under my protection and part of our group.”
Under my protection.
I looked at Kusari-san again.
She had lowered her gaze to the table. From the side, she looked almost calm.
But not relaxed.
Not even a little.
“Since everyone is here,” Buchou continued, “it would be best if I showed you one of the reasons she was worth bringing in.”
That got my attention right away.
It also made Kusari-san go more still.
Not tense, exactly. More like the kind of stillness people got when they were bracing without wanting anyone to notice.
Akeno-san’s smile faded into something gentler. “Right now?”
“If it’s your order,” Kusari-san said before anyone else could.
The words came too fast.
Rias’s expression shifted for a moment. Something almost too small to notice passed through her eyes. “A simple demonstration,” she said. “Nothing more.”
Kusari-san stood.
Rias lifted one hand, and a small magic circle spread across the surface of the table between us. The crimson lines rotated in a slow, controlled pattern before settling into a layered formation of symbols.
At first glance, it just looked like another devil magic construct.
Then Rias looked at Kusari-san. “Tell me what you see.”
Kusari-san stepped closer.
The room fell quiet.
Her purple eyes fixed on the formation, and for the first time since she’d entered, something changed in her expression.
Not a full expression. Just a shift.
Focus.
Sharp, cold focus.
A faint silver-violet shimmer moved through her eyes, so slight I might have missed it if I hadn’t already been watching her too much.
She leaned in a fraction. Her tail stilled completely.
“The outer frame is stable,” she said after only a second. “The interior rotation is not.”
Yuuto-san looked closer. “Is it misaligned?”
“Not exactly.” Kusari-san lifted one hand, stopping before it touched the magic circle. “The third line from the center is drawing too much from the left branch. It will hold for now, but if you feed more power into it, the pressure will drag unevenly.”
Akeno-san’s brows rose. “Ara.”
Rias said nothing.
Kusari-san’s eyes narrowed a fraction more. “There is also a hook here.” She indicated a tiny point near the rear edge of the circle. “It would catch interference poorly. If it were part of a larger barrier, it would become the first stress point.”
I stared.
To me, it all looked like glowing lines and complicated magic stuff.
Rias reached out and flicked two fingers. The circle shifted, and the point Kusari-san had indicated flared briefly before distorting.
Then it broke.
Just for a second. A little snap of unstable light.
My jaw dropped. “You saw that just by looking?”
Kusari-san straightened. “Yes.”
Akeno-san laughed softly. “That’s not fair at all.”
Yuuto-san smiled with clear interest. “A perception-type ability?”
Rias gave a pleased nod. “A very useful one.”
Koneko-chan’s gaze was fixed on Kusari-san’s face, not the circle.
Asia clapped her hands together once, eyes bright. “That’s amazing, Kusari-san!”
The fox girl dipped her head. “Thank you.”
Again, neat. Controlled. Correct.
Not pleased.
Not proud.
Just… responsive.
Rias shifted the magic circle again. This time the lines became denser, layered into a more complicated structure. “Then tell me where it is weakest.”
Kusari-san looked again, and I saw that same tiny silver-violet gleam deepen.
This time she took a little longer.
Her breathing changed first.
It was a tiny thing, but I noticed it because I was paying stupid amounts of attention to her. One inhale. A pause. Then a shallower exhale.
She pointed.
“There.”
Rias adjusted the formation.
It destabilized at once.
A spark of light snapped across the table.
Kusari-san’s fingers twitched.
Only once.
Then she lowered her hand.
I frowned.
Rias let the circle vanish and folded her hands. “As you can see, Kusari-chan has exceptional perception where magic is concerned. Fields, flows, stress points, disguised formations, barrier strain, interference—she notices what most would miss.”
Which was seriously cool.
Actually, more than cool. Ridiculous.
I’d spent enough time around devil magic now to know that being able to read that kind of thing on sight was crazy useful. In a fight, that could mean finding openings. Spotting traps. Breaking barriers. Countering spells before they hit.
In other words, she wasn’t just some super pretty fox girl Rias had added to the group.
She was extremely useful in a fight.
“Wow,” I said before I could stop myself. “That’s awesome.”
Kusari-san’s gaze flicked to me.
For one second, I thought I saw confusion there.
Not because of the compliment itself.
Because of the kind of compliment it was.
Like she knew what to do with useful, but not awesome.
Then she lowered her eyes. “Thank you, Hyoudou-san.”
There it was again.
Too quick. Too smooth.
Akeno-san rose from her seat. “It must have caused some strain to have that kind of sight if you were looking at Rias’s formations for too long.”
Kusari-san went still.
“Nothing serious,” she said.
That answer came just a little too fast too.
Akeno-san’s expression stayed gentle. “Ara. I didn’t say there was anything serious.”
A beat passed.
Kusari-san bowed her head. “My apologies.”
My frown deepened.
Because that answer wasn’t normal either.
Rias’s gaze sharpened slightly. “Kusari-chan.”
“Yes, Rias-buchou?”
“Sit.”
She obeyed immediately.
The clubroom returned to motion around her. Akeno-san poured more tea. Asia leaned toward her with concern she clearly didn’t want to be too pushy. Yuuto-san retook her seat. Koneko-chan kept watching.
I sat too, but slower.
Kusari-san reached for the teacup Akeno-san set in front of her.
Her hand trembled.
Very slightly.
Enough that most people would miss it.
I didn’t.
The cup clicked against the saucer before she steadied it.
Then, just as fast, her fingers settled like nothing had happened.
“Are you okay?” I asked before I could think better of it.
Every eye in the room shifted to me.
Kusari-san looked up.
For the first time since entering the room, she looked caught off guard.
“I’m fine,” she said.
Polite.
Immediate.
Wrong.
“You sure?” I asked.
Akeno-san gave me a look I couldn’t quite read. Asia looked relieved that someone had said it. Koneko-chan was still watching Kusari-san way too closely. Yuuto-san’s eyes softened, though she said nothing.
Kusari-san drew her hand into her lap.
“It is not a problem,” she said. “I can still perform my duties.”
Something in my chest tightened.
That wasn’t an answer.
Or maybe it was too much of one.
Rias leaned back slightly in her chair. “No one asked about your duties.”
Silence.
Kusari-san’s eyes lowered just a little.
Then she lowered her head. “…Yes, Rias-buchou.”
The room went quiet in a different way than before.
Not awkward exactly.
Just… aware.
Asia reached out first, as softly as always. “Um… if you’re in pain, you don’t have to force yourself.”
Kusari-san turned toward her.
Her expression stayed controlled, but I saw the smallest hesitation at the edges of it.
“Thank you,” she said. “I am all right.”
Again: too correct.
Akeno-san smiled, but there was less teasing in it now. “How diligent.”
Koneko-chan crunched another cookie.
Then, in the same flat tone she used for everything, she said, “You hide it automatically.”
The words dropped into the room like a stone into still water.
Kusari-san froze.
I felt it before I thought it. That tiny, immediate change in the air.
She didn’t look scared, exactly.
Just… caught.
“No,” she said softly.
Koneko-chan chewed once, swallowed, and said, “You do.”
Yuuto-san exhaled through her nose, almost like she wanted to cut the tension but wasn’t sure how.
Rias’s gaze stayed on Kusari-san, steady and unreadable.
I scratched my cheek, suddenly very aware that I’d stumbled into something I didn’t understand.
Asia looked distressed. “Koneko-chan…”
“I’m not being mean,” Koneko-chan said.
Somehow, with Koneko-chan, that made it sound more serious, not less.
Kusari-san lowered her eyes again. “I apologize if I caused concern.”
There it was.
That weirdness again.
Like every path she had led back to apology.
Rias finally broke the tension.
“You don’t need to apologize for existing in discomfort,” she said.
Kusari-san’s fingers tightened once in her lap.
“Yes, Rias-buchou.”
I had no idea why that answer bothered me so much.
But it did. A lot.
The conversation moved after that because Rias made it move. That was one of the things about Rias. When she wanted the room to shift, it shifted. Akeno-san brought the snacks back into play. Asia tried to include Kusari-san in small, ordinary questions that got small, ordinary answers. Yuuto-san asked two practical things about schedule and school routines. Koneko-chan stopped pressing, but didn’t stop watching.
And me?
I kept sneaking glances at the new fox girl.
Kusari-san.
Three-Pawn-value, magically knowledgeable, too-beautiful-for-my-heart-to-handle fox girl.
But the thing stuck in my head wasn’t just the fox ears. Or the tail. Or the body.
Okay, those were definitely still in my head too.
But it wasn’t just that.
It was the way she said I can still perform my duties like that should have answered everything.
It was the way she apologized when Koneko-chan pointed out something obvious.
It was the way she moved like someone trying not to take up the wrong amount of space in a room she’d only just entered.
At one point, while Asia was shyly asking whether she liked sweet tea, Kusari-san’s gaze drifted toward the clubroom windows.
Then to the door.
Then to the space behind Rias’s desk.
Then back to the table.
Like she was measuring the whole room without wanting anyone to notice.
I noticed.
For some reason, that made my chest feel weird.
After a while, Rias rose. “That’s enough for today. Kusari-chan, Yuuto-san will make sure you have what you need regarding schedules. Akeno-san and I will speak with you afterward.”
“Yes, Rias-buchou.”
Everyone began moving.
Asia stood quickly. “Um, if you’d like, I could show you where some things are later—”
“If that would not trouble you, Argento-san,” Kusari-san said at once.
Asia smiled. “It wouldn’t.”
Koneko-chan hopped down from her seat.
Yuuto-san gave Kusari-san a small nod. “I’ll prepare the relevant documents, Kusari-san.”
Akeno-san’s smile returned, warm and unreadable. “Ara, ara. You’re very popular already, Kusari-chan.”
Kusari-san bowed faintly. “Thank you Himejima-san.”
Akeno-san blinked, then laughed softly. “You can relax, Kusari-chan.”
For one tiny second, something crossed Kusari-san’s face.
Not fear.
Not embarrassment.
Something drier. Sharper.
Like she almost had a real response and swallowed it before it could escape.
Then it was gone.
“My apologies,” she said again.
Akeno-san smiled wider.
I wanted to hit my head against the wall.
Because now I knew for sure something was hiding under all that perfect politeness, and that only made her even more interesting.
As people started filing out, I grabbed my bag, then hesitated.
Kusari-san was still seated at the table while Rias spoke quietly with Akeno-san. Yuuto-san had stepped away to gather papers. Asia lingered by the door like she wanted to wait. Koneko-chan, somehow, was still there too, standing off to one side with her usual unreadable face.
Kusari-san steadied her hand under the table slowly.
Small movement. Fast enough that maybe she thought nobody would catch it.
I did.
Our eyes met.
This time, she looked surprised that I was still there.
“You’re really okay?” I asked.
Very smooth, Issei. Truly the master of women.
Still, I meant it.
For the first time, the careful mask on her face shifted in a way I couldn’t name.
Not openness.
Not exactly.
Just a pause.
Then she said, quietly, “Yes.”
It was the same answer as before.
But this time it sounded less automatic.
Not true.
Just… less automatic.
Before I could say anything else, Rias looked over.
“Issei.”
“Y-Yes!”
“Go home.”
“Right!”
I snatched my bag and hurried for the door before I got hit with more paperwork or demonic punishment.
Asia gave me an encouraging little smile as I passed and she started to walk with me. Yuuto-san had that look on her face that said she was being polite enough not to laugh. Akeno-san was definitely laughing with her eyes. Koneko-chan was just Koneko-chan.
At the doorway, I glanced back one last time.
Kusari-san was sitting exactly where she had been, back straight, hands folded properly, fox ears still and high above that pale, beautiful face.
She looked like she belonged in the room.
She also looked like she’d bolt if the wrong person closed the door.
I didn’t understand her.
Not even close.
But I knew one thing already.
Kusari-san wasn’t just some quiet new girl.
And whatever had taught her to move like that, answer like that, apologize like that—
I didn’t think I was going to like it.