The Nekoshou's Wolf

by Curiosity44

Reborn into DxD 20 years before Canon, Hei, a human orphan, must rise with his own will to the top, overcoming Devils, Angels, Fallen, Gods, a loli dragon, and most of all, the felines in his life as he spreads the name of his legacy, the Legacy of Lupa, a legacy of assassins. Come Join Hei on his journey as Lupus, the Nekoshou's Wolf. AU world. FUCKING READ THE WARNING

3. 2: Training, Guild, and a Feline Visit

AN: Things pick up this chapter as an older Hei meets new people and faces new challenges.

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Disclaimer: I don't own any original content; I claim no ownership of DxD or HxH content. With that said, I sure as hell wrote this fic so don't steal my shit.

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Chapter 2:

3rd Person POV:

Deep in the mountain forests of the Guadarrama mountain range, a shadow was moving quickly between the tree's.

*Huff* *Huff*

*Twing*

A trio of arrows shot forth from a trap, causing the shadow to quickly spin around a tree trunk while using it as a shield and moving on.

His footsteps were silent, and his breaths were even.

Each leap from a single foot was enough to propel him from one tree to another in a race against time.

A gleam of light just barely caught on the gleam of his red eyes from the starlight above, making the shadow adjust his course and dive under the branch, snagging it with his hand, and swinging himself to the next.

But a hidden string behind the branch snagged on his chest, creating a near silent *click* that caused the shadow to mule kick the next branch, just barely missing five thin needles coated in a paralytic poison, and change directions to a tree off to the side.

He kicked off between it and an adjacent tree to regain his height without losing momentum and continuing on.

On and off he changed directions, avoiding traps where he caught them and dodging the ones he accidentally tripped in his haste.

Every now and then, a silent blade or the flash of a muzzle that had nothing to do with the traps would be sent flying his way, and he would have to dodge by instincts and intuition alone.

Not all of them were perfect dodges, and he had a few wounds to show for it slowly dying his shirt red, but they were naught but surface wounds.

Things the shadow had long since learned to shrug off without an issue.

Occasionally, the frame of a target would shoot up between the tree's and the shadow's hands flashed, grabbing at pistols from their holsters on his sides, and flashing through shots before moving on and re-holstering them.

The course went on for upwards of two hours, drenching the shadow in sweat, blood, and chips of wood before he finally broke through the forestry into a clearing at the top of the mountain.

The light of the moon shone down and illuminated the shadows face.

Showing the youthful image of a boy with midnight black hair and wine red eyes.

Eyes that were hardened and held a wit in them far beyond what many double the boys age might have.

Standing at around four and half feet tall, with a frame of a young alpha wolf, was the MC of the story, Hei.

POV Change:

*Huff* *huff*

I fell down on one knee and took deep breaths to try and steady my heartbeat.

'*huff* damn that course never gets easier. Damn old man pulled out all the stops on this one.'

A gleam of familiar metal off to the side caught my eye and my hand flashed to grab one my pistols and move it into position to block the strike of a blade.

"Good. Never let your guard down."

The calm and measured but weathered voice of my teacher rung out as he stood next to me locking his cane sword on the edge of my pistol.

(AN: I'm not the greatest handgun enthusiast, so even if I know there are better pistols, I just like this one, it's temporary.)

In my hand I held a Magnum Desert Eagle with a serrated top guard, perfect for catching the end of a blade and defending.

A bit pricy of a gun but nothing much for me these days.

My pistol locked his blade, but our positions and his extra strength was forcing my arm down.

"Don't fight power with power if you are on the weaker end."

I scoffed and whipped out my second pistol and fired on his position, but he was already moving around my back and striking again.

It was all I could do to keep up with his swings while trying to back up to create distance and occasionally get a chance to shoot.

I was quickly getting overwhelmed with him increasing the tempo to push me until my eye caught sight of a snake sleeping calmy on a stone a few feet away.

I kept my back to it to block the sight before taking a step back and then kicking the stone with my boot and sending the snake at him.

His eyes widened slightly, and his sword flashed and took the head off the snake, but that moment was enough to give me a second to pull back and lock both guns on him.

With a cheeky smirk at his narrowed gaze, I opened fire without hesitation.

In most mortal cases, that would be the end of the fight.

Unfortunately, we were assassins of two worlds.

His sword flashed out and each bullet was deflected or cut in two without much effort.

I ran out on one pistol and dropped the mag as I flipped in a fresh one from my belt as my other hand kept shooting but in the interval my teacher maneuvered around a rock, and I trailed both pistols on each end only to catch a shadow on the corner of my eye and quickly move both hands up and fire.

Only to see a cloth as my target as my eyes widened and I felt the cold feel of steel on my neck.

"Never fully commit without confirmation."

I sighed and breathed out a long breath as I dropped my guns.

"*huff* damn old fox *huff*."

A smack to the back of my head had me stumbling forward and I grumbled as a chuckle rang out.

"Don't get annoyed child, lessons learnt now will be blood unshed in the future."

I understood his point but that didn't stop my actions.

I maturely stuck my tongue out at him.

"Bleh!"

He just softly chuckled and sheathed his cane blade while I caught my breath before holstering my pistols and moving off to his side.

We silently enjoyed the night air before he spoke out.

"I'm proud of you Hei, you beat your record on the course tonight."

I looked up at him in surprise, the old man rarely complimented my progress.

I rubbed the back of my head and looked away in light embarrassment.

"Well you through damn near everything at me this time."

His chuckle rang out again, but this time it was followed by a rough couple cough's.

I looked at him in worry, but he waved it off.

His cough had been getting worse recently, but he wasn't sick, it was just his age.

He went on like it wasn't an issue.

"That's right, I did use every trap, and you passed magnificently.

You still have a few rough edges, and you need to work on your balance, coordination, and evasiveness…"

My eye was twitching as he pointed each one out.

"But you beat the record. Not just your own, but mine."

This time both my brows rose in surprise as I looked at him and he nodded.

"Indeed, you finished the course a full nine minutes earlier than I did when I was ten, and you are only eight. You have truly come a long way child."

I shrugged and tried to play it off.

"My gear just helped me along more, it's a cheat."

He nodded along with that.

"Damn straight it is. But don't let it take away from your effort. You have given your all and brought honor to our legacy, to me, with your hard work."

I couldn't help but blush a bit at the praise.

"Thanks old man."

A rough hand landed on my head and messed with my hair lightly.

"Your welcome Hei, now come, let's go home and have a nice soak in the hot spring."

A smiled at that.

"Don't have to tell me twice. Book."

My trusty binder popped up and I thought of the card I wanted before it flashed into my hand.

One of the tricks I learned to speed things up, so I don't have to turn the pages is to directly call for the card I wanted in my mind.

I slapped the spell card into the slot and chose my destination before the two of us were wrapped in a soft light and were shot off into the night sky in a silent motion without giving off any energy signals.

Spell card #34: Accompany - Fly all designated people within a radius of 20 m around the caster – including the caster – to the location of previously been location or previously met person.

The 35 spell cards come with a few different movement cards but Accompany is the only one that allows me to take others with me.

I tend not to use the spell cards to much if I don't have to, but I don't mind using them when it could make my life easier.

It's good to stock up on them, but that doesn't meant I don't want to use them from time to time.

I get one a month as it is, so I already have over forty of them saved up.

My teacher always takes us hiking to locations as training and mixes up different elements into each trip to keep me on my toes.

We have been to various countries throughout Europe in the last few years, sometimes going for a night or a few days.

It's given me the perfect chance to set up hideouts in various places with various styles.

My first hideout is the one beneath my teachers home outside the city of Barcelona, Spain.

It's mainly for comfort, rest, and holds a shooting range. Its kept clean by Joy the panda maid.

My second hideout was set in a lavender flower field in Provence, France. We were passing by and I fell in love with the sight of the flower fields.

Both the lavender and the other flowers took my breath away with their beauty.

I set down a large canyon hideout similar to the Urahara style from Bleach. I set it for future training needs and chose a design that maximized size and secrecy over comfort.

The third hideout set up was a warehouse hideout, a large chamber space with metal walls and built as a single large room with sections full of rows of different sized shelves.

It's built into the side of a snowy mountain in the Swiss alps and obscured by the snow.

It holds all the products of value I've stocked up on over the years, including many of my own making.

My teacher might not let me indulge in vices just yet, but he doesn't mind that I deal with products to make a profit.

The warehouse holds the effects of a few of my cards.

#72: Mystery Pond – Release one fish into this pond, and there will be one more fish of that type the next day. You can keep any combination of fish in this pond, even saltwater and freshwater fish together. The pond supplies food to all fish, user must select a fish each day to produce, or nothing will happen.

#73: Tree of Plenty – A tree that bears all sorts of fruit. No matter how much you harvest, it will be full again the next day. The type and number of fruit are random.

#74: Liquor Spring – Every day, the springs water will become a random alcoholic drink of exquisite taste and extraordinary quality.

#64: Pitcher of Eternal Water – A jar from which pure, clean water (Up to 1000 L per day) continually flows. You can turn off the flow at any time.

The pond holds a group of bluefin tuna, the highest quality tuna in the world.

A single fully grown fish weighs around five hundred pounds and goes for around 40 – 200 USD per pound.

And the pond makes a new one every day, albeit young ones around three hundred pounds but they grow quickly under the influence of the pond.

No matter how many you add, the pond will only generate a single extra a day, but it requires you to select the fish for it to be produced.

Next, I have the Tree of Plenty supplying a wide variety of exotic fruits and occasionally magical ones.

The tree is completely random, so what it produces can vary from the most common to the most fantastical.

The fruits never grow overripe until picked and have a longer shelf life than normal.

The Pitcher of Eternal Water supplies endless fresh mountain water as long as it runs, it produces 1000 liters a day if run continuously.

And finally the Liquor Spring is the crown jewel.

Each day the spring produces water that if bottled, will turn into an exquisite tasting alcoholic drink. Mundane, magical, otherworldly, it makes it all but it's very random without any set order.

And to watch over it all, I have one of the Joy series panda maids working to keep things moving.

She chooses what fish the pond will make, stores and ices the fish, picks the fruit, and bottles the water and liquor.

And all of it is crated, inventoried, and then set under a statis spell.

Well to be exact the crates have statis spells enchanted on them, something I purchased in bulk from the magician's guild.

They sell quite a few products to the supernatural world.

Everyone got to make a profit somehow.

Then a couple times a year I fly over, collect enough to fill all my free item slots, and then bring it to my contact.

The old man hasn't let me start the mercenary business yet, but he didn't mind letting me borrow a few contacts such as the underground black market and auction house.

There are many groups and independent salesmen.

The contacts name is Tom, and he is the honorable kind of merchant, well, as honorable as you can get in the underworld anyway.

As long as he is making a profit, he will never double cross you, cheat you, or sell you out.

It gives him a good rep but for the ones that cost him money, he might just come after you himself.

I meet him while wearing a hood and mask, under my teachers recommendation, and fill a storeroom with crates, and he doesn't question anything.

He knows about the supernatural and doesn't ask questions he doesn't need to the answers to.

He was skeptical at first but after I kept bringing him crates of high quality goods over the first year, he didn't get in my way and did his part.

Of course I didn't sell magical products on open market.

Any magical liquor or fruits were kept in storage except for once a year when Tom heads to the supernatural side and I bring him a couple crates.

All my products are stamped with a howling wolfs head and a magical signature that while it can't be traced, it also can't be faked.

It's been almost two years since I started my side business, and I already had a penname going out there among people who highly rate my products.

Lupus.

I don't know who coined the name, but it's Latin for 'The Wolf', a fitting name since I use a howling wolf head as my symbol.

I was worried my teacher might be annoyed about it, but he waved it off with a chuckle.

It seems every generation of Lupa only takes the title as their last name. Each one has their own nickname or extra titles they gain throughout life.

So the name of Lupus just stuck, and I use it as my underworld contact.

Tom always meets me with cases of cash, I never care for the currency, I just deposit it all into my gear and it keeps my total amount with me at all times.

Between the four products in only two years, and with zero production cost, I've already made tens of millions in profit.

But I know that money is only secondary, power always comes first.

Still, money opens many doors in the world.

Using quite a bit of money, I managed to arm myself quite well and store them in my fourth hideout.

A hidden door in an alleyway in Venice, Italy, the city on the water.

That hideout is my weapons locker where I keep copious amounts of ammunition, gear, weapons, explosives, and supplies.

I could arm a small military with what I have in there.

Using what I learned from my teacher, I managed to optimize ideal survival kits, mission cases, and supply bags with clothes, food, and anything else I might need.

I have dozens of kits, cases, and bags lined up ready to go.

One of the loopholes about free slots are that if I have many items inside a bag, it only takes a single slot to seal the bag rather than all of the items.

And the fifth and currently final hideout that I set up this year was a special one.

It's a double layered hideout build into the sandy grounds of Cyprus, the so called island of Aphrodite south of turkey and not far from Greece.

The first half of the hideout is a normal comfy and relaxing place to stay for a vacation.

But underneath that surface is a deep vault with every single protection I could put on it.

The vault holds all of my singular items from my cards that I never used but stored away instead of wasting.

Every designated card that I could turn into items and store away was used and stored in the vault.

Dice, pills, gels, scales, there are all kinds of things.

But each vault gets the same set of cards used.

Anti teleport, Snake golem guards, fruit tree, fishpond, hot spring, liquor spring, a Joy named panda maid, and a few more cards such as:

#68: Medical Check-Up – A full-body medical scan. It can detect even the faintest of curse's or trackers that most doctors can't find. It only scans and does not heal.

#75: Tobacco Vending Machine – Every day, the options change and you may select a single box of tobacco.

The tobacco is special, and it only gives a single box a day, so I never bothered with trying to sell it, I just keep it around because it's a waste to not use it, besides, I smoked in my last life and many of the brands I find on it are not actually toxic to the user.

Still, my teacher smacked me when I commented on it, and I can't really blame him from a grownups point of view.

The rest are smaller things but those are the main cards used in each hideout.

I only continuously collect recourses in the warehouse hideout, so the rest are just on standby.

In the future, I plan to set up hideouts around the world but more towards relaxing and living rather than specialized storage locations.

And if you were wondering how I plan to get around to these locations without running out of spell cards, teleportation magic does exist in this world.

The problem is: it's a pain in the ass to learn and use.

For a human to use it takes a shit ton of mental math and a decent chunk of mana.

It's much easier for those of the three biblical factions to use it as they are just overflowing with mana.

Plus they trade energy like fricken currency, the rich bastards.

You see all humans have mana, some a tiny amount and others large amounts.

Unless they enter the supernatural world, the vast majority of humans go without using it.

(AN: I'm going AU here you canon nuts. You know who I'm talking about.)

And then come devils with their contracts.

They make contracts to do work and in exchange the human turns over an equivalent portion of mana to the devil. The human has no need for it and the devil add the mana to their demonic energy pool.

It's one of the few ways they can increase their power and get to the next level of power.

Angels gather mana from prayers and faith, which goes a long way to saying why the church can be so corrupt without the angels, who are not blind, don't intervene to much.

The fallen actually get the short end of the stick and only have three ways to grow their energy pool.

They either drown further in the sin they fell for, train like crazy for decades or more, or make trades with others.

Even gods gather energy from faith.

It's why gods like the Olympians and Asgardians who no longer have many followers still retain their power but cannot grow it more or are stuck growing at very slow speeds.

Many gods search for external ways of growing power these days such as through weapons or just weakening other gods.

They seemed to all restrain each other from gathering more followers, except the Hindu, those guys have scary power levels.

I learned all of this from my teacher who explained that it's not really a secret in the supernatural world.

Everyone wants to grow stronger, it's just a matter of equivalent exchange.

But it's humans who can't grow through exchanges like the other races.

The rare magician can form a mutual contract with a devil called a pact to improve their pool of energy to pull from, but you have to be very skilled for such a thing to be possible.

Magicians gain access to more energy and sometimes knowledge or exclusive deals while the devil gains the services of a powerful mage which is a boon politically and in a practical sense.

Humans can also grow their mana pool through training just like the others, but it's slow and you would be an elder by the time you achieve something.

That's why humans in the supernatural world mainly aim to build their physical strength and skills. The strongest humans can match high class level beings with just their skills and enchanted weapons or sacred gears, but to go any higher requires Longinus grade gears that could let humans fight gods.

Some humans can get their hands on rare weapons like holy or cursed blades or get blessings from gods like the five principal clans of Japan like the one Akeno was a descendent from.

Those with sacred gears have an easier time of things with growing their mana pool and physical strength but it still depends heavily on what gear you have so it's a matter of luck.

My own gear, Greed Island, does not directly improve my mana pool growth rate more than a slight boost compared to other humans, but it's a cheat for a reason.

God really was trolling people when he made this gear, it truly has the potential to be Longinus grade.

Spell card #7: Trade - Establish a trade between two parties. Goes into effect immediately and will be fulfilled immediately on completion of the agreement.

*Line Break*

"*huff* ninety three…..*huff*….ninety four….*huff*…. Ninety five."

In the backyard of my teachers home, I was doing one handed-hand stand pushups on raised logs a dozen feet off the ground, part of my daily workout schedule.

It had been a few days since we got back, and life continued on as normal.

Most of my physical training has been on my own for a while now, my teacher said he approved of my form and trusted me to show the same dedication I do in front of him when he is not watching.

I had no intention to slack on that faith.

For theoretical knowledge, I mostly got everything down. It's just practice and repetition from here on out.

I hit one hundred and pushed off while switching hands before starting the count on the fresh arm.

My thoughts turned toward the old man.

'Why does he have to be so stubborn.'

Even with all my healing methods, he is just reaching the end of his life.

But I DO still have a way to help him, but he keeps refusing.

It's one of the most bullshit cards in my deck.

#29: Witch's Rejuvenation Potion – Each pill makes you physically younger by one year. You will retain all knowledge and memories. Beware, as you will die if you take more than your age. One vial contains 100 pills.

I literally have the secret to eternal life on me, and yet he refuses to take it!

I understand, I really do, he is at his end and wants to face it head on like the old warrior he is but it's still depressing.

'*sigh* how many people has he watched pass on? I feel pain to see him have those weathered eyes that seem to have seen so much, but I don't want him to go… damn it, I got attached.'

"Hei."

"Wha?!"

I got startled by the call and wobbled back and forth to keep from falling.

It took me a second to stabilize and I sent a stink eye at him.

He just rose a brow.

"Your balance needs more work."

I internally rolled my eyes.

"Yes sir."

He chuckled and waved for me to come closer.

I bent my arm and swung my body to catch on the on wooden pole and slide down before flipping off to land a few feet from him.

"Yes teacher?"

He doesn't usually interrupt from training unless it's something important.

"Come."

We went inside to the sitting room where a pot of tea was already sitting with two cups.

I went to pour for us while he sat in his rocking chair and hummed.

He nodded in thanks for the cup as I handed it to him, and I sat across from him.

I didn't rush him; I knew from the years with him that he had been instilling patience in me.

Patience is one of the most important traits in our line of work.

So I sipped me tea and joined him companionable silence. Something I've come to enjoy over the years, especially due to morning meditation practices.

Eventually he spoke out.

"Hei, it is time for you to join the guild."

My eyes lit up at that.

"Really? I thought I qualified after I passed the last test, but you didn't say anything, so I thought there was more."

He chuckled and shook his head.

"No child, you earned the right with the completion of the last test. To be honest…. I had hesitated."

I tilted my head in confusion at that. The old man never hesitated.

He seemed to read my thoughts.

"I am human no matter my wisdom from life, I to can hesitate. Anyway, my reason is your age."

I blinked at that.

"My age?"

He nodded.

"Mn. I have seen much of this world in my time, and its truly not that foreign a concept for one as young as you to enter into a combative lifestyle.

At least on the supernatural side anyway. On the mortal side it's much rarer but there are still special cases.

Many just don't ask questions when there is no benefit and things are left alone.

Many orphans awaken sacred gears and tend to drift to the underworld to start career paths as well.

But I hesitated because I was ten when I entered the guild under my teacher. You are eight and that made me almost reconsider things."

I went to argue my point, but he held up a hand.

"I know, I know. You are mature beyond your years; it truly is hard to recall I'm speaking to an eight year old after spending so much time with you.

My time training you has felt as if I was dealing with an incredibly curious and hardworking young man in a child's body, a truly strange feeling."

I felt a drop of cold sweat go down my back but thankfully he wasn't looking at me.

"It's no matter, I've gotten over my hesitation, you are ready. You have exceeded my expectations, gone farther, and done it faster than I could have hoped. I didn't truly think I would manage to get this far with the time I had left.

But your abilities played a hand in boosting your growth while slowing down mine, and for that I am grateful."

I couldn't help but interject.

"Then how come you won't take the life extending medicine? You could have more years to train me!"

He just smiled softly and shook his head.

"No child, let my time come naturally, I am ready to face my end. To see my teacher and loved ones on the other side.

Besides, I have taught you most of what I could, what you need is time and experience without ever stopping your training.

With those things, you could surpass me easily enough."

I swallowed heavily at that and tried to force down my sad thoughts while focusing on the other thing he said.

"Teacher, can you tell me where you stand in the scale of power in this world?"

He hummed at that.

"You have asked me this before."

"I have."

"And what was my answer then?"

"You are not ready to know. Am I still not ready?"

He smiled.

"Always eager for something new, child. Good, good, never lose that trait.

I shall share with you how I have viewed the power scale of the world until now."

He lifted his cane, and the end began glowing in a soft blue light.

The cane came to a stop above my head and began drawing as he spoke.

"I like to imagine power levels in numbers but beware that this is a rough outline of simply raw power. I will explain why I see things this way in a moment so don't interrupt.

If we take a normal adult human without any training, they will have a mana level of 10 units.

Now we have a low class level. These would be devils, angels, fallen, many of the Yokai, and other races. The three biblical factions would have low class signified by their single pair of wings. I estimate their power begins at 1,000 units.

Then mid class with two pairs of wings, and I will point out that while showing off how many wings they have is useful for status and or intimidation, most winged species will combine their wings into a single larger pair for combat. Having multiple pairs of wings is quite useless in a fight. Mid class would begin around 10,000 units.

High class with three pairs of wings and starting at 100,000 units.

The next few scales are purely theoretical since I have never met anyone above high class, but if they follow the trend.

Ultimate class would be 1 million units and Satan class would be 10 million."

He took a deep breath after speaking and stopped drawing for a moment, his cane has put the main points in the air with floating words and numbers to illustrate his points.

"Now, here is where things get complicated.

Take myself for example, I am purely human with no sacred gear, and if I were to estimate my raw mana level, it would be around three or four hundred.

It's not even half of the raw power of a low class being.

And yet, at my height, I had killed multiple mid class beings.

Do you know why I could do that?"

"Skills?"

He nodded.

"Indeed. Many of these beings live very long lives and yet fall to mediocracy. They grow rusty or perhaps never bothered to really train before at all.

For beings so far from humanity who love to look down on us, they sure act similar to us.

Now skills can be gained by all manner of beings, but the ones at the top of the food chain are the ones who have pioneered a path for themselves with their own skills.

They pushed past their limits and found their way like no one else could.

And not only that, but the more they gain fine control over their raw power the more deadly they become. Some of them can fight for weeks, months, or years by conserving energy.

We are assassins, we are skilled warriors who strike when they least expect it. If your fast and deadly enough, they wouldn't even know what hit them before they died.

I have taught you about how humans can grow powerful enough with sheer physical training and special weapons to match high class level beings, and it's through skills and equipment.

Those humans are still outmatched in raw power by a factor of 100 to 1, sometimes even more.

And yet they can win.

The same thing goes for other races.

There might be thousands of high class devils but many stand above their peers.

The same with ultimate class beings, they are not all equal.

There are all kinds of reasons for such things from bloodlines, sacred gears, mutations, legendary tools and weapons, fine control, and all kinds of things.

But at the end of the day, you can overcome a gap in raw power with skill and wit.

The majority of them are not but glass canons, unable to control their vast amount of power or simply using brute force."

He got impassioned with his words and started raising his voice a tad in his fervor before he settled down and looked toward me.

"But you Hei, you have the potential to do what few humans have done before. You have the potential to combine skill with raw power.

I don't know what you could do with such power, but it is not my path to take.

You will grow, you will experience, you will find your way, and you will bring honor to the name of Lupa."

I understood what he meant.

My sacred gear was truly broken.

Spell card #7: Trade - Establish a trade between two parties. Goes into effect immediately and will be fulfilled immediately on completion of the agreement.

My sacred gear gave me, a human, the same power as a devil.

Using this spell card, I could gather energy from a contract the same way a devil gathers power from them.

Traditionally, in the days of old, devils performed contracts and received power in equal exchange, unless they managed to rip off their customer but that's bad for business.

With the changing of times, successfully completing contracts became more of a status symbol and less of a way to gain power.

It just took too much time for their liking.

"Teacher, can you explain again how devils gain power from contracts?"

He nodded and waved his cane again to make an image.

He drew an image of a stick man on one side and another on the other but with devil wings.

"To use my example of power from before, normal untrained humans have a mana pool unit of 10.

Devils can come and offer humans contracts, where they shall perform a desire for the human.

Both parties have to agree before the contract is set.

And when the devil fulfills their side of the agreement, those 10 units of mana from the human go toward the devil and it permanently increases their energy pool.

That human would slowly regenerate their mana over a period of time, but it is no matter to them because they don't use mana.

Now, when the human in question has much more mana, the contract will be much more equal, and the mana spent by the human will be the exchange for the deed by the devil.

The bigger the contract, the more the cost.

For a magician for example, losing a portion of their mana pool for a prolonged period of time would be very painful for them. A mage without mana is just a human with lots of theoretical knowledge.

Of course, the devil could always make a deal with other supernatural beings instead of humans, but there is a lot of bad blood between the races, and many would rather kill themselves than make a contract.

Not to mention the arrogance of devils.

So you see, gaining power through contracts is not an ideal way for devils to grow stronger. To a high class devil with 100,000 units of raw power, gaining 10 units from a few hours on a contract is worthless.

But devils love their traditions and so they keep track of successful contracts and use it for bragging rights.

Bah, the morons."

He waved his hand and dissolved the image in the air before pointing a finger at me.

"You child, you can do what most humans wanted to do. You can use the skills you learned from me, and gain raw power like those devils, and then you can stick it to em. You could rise to the level of the gods like the heroes of old. Claim your place from the shadows while they bicker and distract each other. By the time they realize, it would be too late."

I was a bit overwhelmed by his speech.

Sure I had always wanted to grow stronger, and I was ready to do what I had to do to get there, but it's a different feeling to be so clearly told how much potential you have by someone you respect.

It felt good, to have such praise.

It also felt heavy, to have such pressure placed on you.

Before I could go down that mental path though, his cane landed with a thud on my shoulder, and I looked up at him.

"Child, do not mistake my words for trying to force you to do something. I am simply speaking of your potential.

I wish for the name of Lupa to continue, but I wouldn't care if you stuck on the mortal side of the underworld if you so wished.

Keep the name going, bring honor to its legacy, and then find an heir before it's your time.

That's all I ask of you.

But above all, I want to say I'm proud of you."

I smiled and wiped my sleeve over my eyes quickly.

"Mn. Thank you teacher."

He smiled again and nodded before slapping his hands down on the arm rests of his chair and standing up.

"Now then, come, it's time to take you to the guild. These old bones of mine shall accompany you for your first mission, but I shall not interfere unless you're on the edge of death, understand?"

I nodded.

"Yes sir."

"Good. Collect what you need and meet me in the front in ten minutes."

*Line Break*

The ride into the city was peaceful.

We got on the bus and rode into Barcelona with the sun setting in the distance.

It was during the ride that I recalled what I knew of the Mercenary Guild.

It was a guild built by freelancers and outlaws who didn't want to be subjugated under any of the factions.

It's a neutral organization that will not take sides or be bribed to betray it's members.

They follow a strict code of conduct, and it's built on honor and strict rules that will literally cut the head off the snake to remove corruption.

If the guild leader was corrupted, the organization's rules have ways to remove them and instill a proper leader.

The guild operates worldwide and is nothing but a middleman and safe zone for work.

They accept jobs from the mortal and supernatural worlds and offer them to their members while taking a fee for their work.

They hold no responsibility for what happens, they just introduce two parties and that's it.

If their members die on a job, or vanish, it's not their problem.

Further, if someone complains to them about their member, they also won't care.

The only rules are that you must fulfill the job established.

Furthermore, any guild established territory is a safe zone. There is no fighting inside their buildings, or you will not wake up the following morning.

When you have an army of assassins at your fingertips, all you have to do is drop some blood and the sharks will come.

It's one thing for one faction to issue a bounty, and another for the guild to issue a bounty.

The rules are rarely broken.

We entered into a hotel in the downtown area just as it became dark out, and I immediately noticed the change from the noise and heat of the outside to the cool and calm feeling of the inside.

The lobby was tastefully decorated to create a welcome feeling.

I followed behind my teacher while wearing a tailored suit and a black facemask like Kakashi coming to just under my eyes except with my dark black hair falling over the sides of my wine red eyes.

My teacher was dressed in a similar tailored suit but didn't bother with covering his face.

We walked with calm, measured, and silent steps up the concierge.

"Welcome to hotel… ah! Mr. Lupa, it has been a long time sir."

An older perfectly dressed and groomed Spanish man looked up from his desk to greet us before his eyes widened on my teacher and he smiled while inclining his head.

My teacher inclined his in return before grunting out.

"Sam, always a pleasure."

"It is indeed sir; it has been far too long. Are you here on business?"

Sam's eyes trailed to me, and he gave me a smile that I returned with a slight bow of my head.

"Of a sort, is the manager in?"

Sam nodded with a smile.

"Of course sir, he is in the lounge. Would you be requiring a room tonight?"

My teacher reached into his pocket and placed a gold coin down on the counter.

"Mn. Just one, one night."

He nodded and took the coin.

"Right away sir, just a moment."

I sent my teacher a questioning look, but he just waved his hand, and I didn't comment.

Sam came back with a keycard and told us to reach out if we needed anything before my teacher guided us toward the side where a hallway led to the hotel lounge.

It was still early, just after sundown, so the lounge was pretty empty.

There were only a few waiters and early customers drinking calmy at the bar.

All kinds of people, but they were all dressed sharply, and none sat to close to another.

There were a few curious looks sent our way, but they seemed to lose interest and go back to their drinks and mind their own business.

My teacher seemed to see what he was looking for and guided us toward a booth in the back where an older gentleman was reading a book with a glass of wine.

He looked up as we approached, and a smile grew on his face.

"Mr. Lupa."

He closed his book and stood up to greet my teacher with a hug that was returned.

"Winston, it has been a while."

"To long old friend."

"Never long enough."

"Haha I cannot blame you, how has retirement been treating you?"

"Well enough, I have been busy."

Winstons eyes trailed to me.

"I can see that, is it that time old friend?"

"Mn."

My teacher didn't say more than that and Winston seemed to already know enough.

He turned to me and stretched out his hand.

"Hello young man, my name is Winston, and I am the manager of this fine establishment."

I nodded and shook his hand.

"Hei, the pleasure is mine."

He smiled and backed off while gesturing to the booth.

"Come, I'm sure we have much to speak on. Mr. Lupa, would you have the usual?"

"Mn."

"*sigh* time doesn't seem to loosen your tongue old friend, always a man of few words."

Winston signaled the bar keep and sat down as he seemed to place a small device on the table and a transparent bubble seemed to wrap around the table and the sounds of others were not muted but dulled.

My teacher made no comment on it, so I didn't say anything.

The two older men made small talk to catch up for a moment while I sat still and patiently while closing my eyes.

I paid attention to their words and focused when the subject turned to me.

"So he is your heir?"

"Mn. The Lupa name shall not die with me."

"*sigh* our time is coming to an end. Yours before mine it seems."

My fist unconsciously clenched at that under the table, but I remained patient and calm on the outside.

They were silent for a moment as they sipped their drinks before Winston continued.

"Is he ready?"

"Mn."

"Age?"

"He's ready."

"Very well, I shall not question your judgement. The Lupa line is known for being eccentric enough as it is. He seems to be quite patient at least, always a wonderful trait to see."

My eyes snapped open and stared across at where Winston was eyeing me.

"Observant to, you found a good one old friend."

"Mn."

Winston addressed me next.

"So young man, you wish to carry on the Lupa Legacy?"

My eyes turned toward my teacher, and he nodded so I answered honestly.

"Yes sir."

"You understand what that means?"

"Yes sir."

"Do you believe you are ready?"

My eyes matched his own.

'I know I look young, but I don't appreciate having my conviction and knowledge questioned.'

My hard eyes stared into his own.

"Yes sir, I do."

Instead of being offended, Winston just smiled.

"Good, I like the fire I see in your eyes. Just by the fact that he brought you here means you were ready, but I like to see the eyes of the members I meet.

One's eyes can tell a lot about a person."

Winston lifted a large book from his side that I could have sworn wasn't there before.

He winked at me before placing it down and opening it up.

"Now, before I enter you into the guild, I must clarify the basic rules.

The guild is only responsible for connecting members with interested parties.

The guild is not responsible for anything that occurs outside of the guilds territory.

And violent action performed on guild territory will result in fines and possible extermination.

Guild staff are not to be threatened or harmed unless in self-defense.

Those are the main ones; the others are simple things you can read in the pamphlet you will receive."

I nodded along to the rules, they were simple and to the point.

He flipped to a certain page and pulled out a pen.

"Now then, name?"

I looked at my teacher again and he nodded.

"Hei."

"Good name. Don't worry, this is only a temporary entry, and it shall be replaced with Mr. Lupa soon enough.

Preferred codename?"

"Lupus."

Winston rose a brow at that.

"You wouldn't happen to be connected to a certain up and coming brand name would you?"

I didn't answer and he chuckled.

"You need to work on your poker face son, I would be interested in commissioning a few bottles if you are willing."

I internally sighed.

'It should have been expected but it doesn't hurt to make good connections.'

"Something can be arranged."

He smiled at that.

"Wonderful. I shall assist in your endeavor to keep a low profile."

I nodded in thanks, and he went on and asked a few more questions before stopping.

"Perfect, your admission is complete, you shall receive an ID card within twenty four hours. But I must apologize, even with Mr. Lupa as your referral, you must start from the lowest rank of bronze like everyone else.

It's simply the rules."

I nodded at him without minding it.

"It's fine, I wish to make my own way."

"Ha, good, good, I think you can go far young man."

He slid a mobile phone over to my side.

I almost chuckled at the sight, it was a blackberry, the fabled drug dealer phone from back when I was a teen in my last life.

"That's for you, untraceable and damn near hard to break without intentionally doing it. I've seen one stop a bullet before.

Unlimited data, text, and call.

You can look through active jobs available for your rank, accept jobs, use it for work purposes, as well as track your current progress.

If you lose it you have to pay for a new one.

The guild will hold the down payment of half the job fee for any client and will turn it over to you upon completion in whatever form you wish, cash, gold, or direct deposit.

If a client does not pay the rest, they will be blacklisted from the guild and whatever action you take is not our concern.

Any questions?"

I turned over the phone before nodding.

"How do I rank up?"

He chuckled.

"Your job record. The smoother your record, the easier to move up. Have a messy record and it will take time. If you fail to many missions in a row, you can be banned from the guild and terminated if you try to make problems for the guild.

Understood?"

"Yes sir."

"Good, that takes care of business. I welcome you to the Mercenary guild Hei, or Lupus if you prefer."

"Lupus is preferred, I plan to wear a mask on jobs."

He nodded at that.

"Perfectly understandable. The less who can identify you the better in this line of work."

Then he gave me an excited look.

"Now, about that commission."

I internally sighed.

I had a feeling I would run into quite a few 'alcohol connoisseur's' in the future.

Around the world, many leading individuals sneezed at the same time. Some on their unfortunate partners, making them the unfortunate ones as their partners eyes shined in malice.

*Line Break*

The talk with Winston ended on a good note and I was internally rolling my eyes as we entered into a lush hotel room on the 23rd floor.

My teacher had kept silent and let me deal with my entry mostly on my own, only reassuring me that I could speak freely and then sharing a casual conversation with Winston while I went through the blackberry with curiosity.

I was currently a Bronze rank member and had access to see only specific types of jobs.

The guild had 4 official ranks, and 3 unofficial ones.

The official ranks were:

Bronze – Silver – Gold – Steel.

Each rank opens the member to bigger profile clients and work. Bigger risk/bigger pay out.

I heard from my teacher it's a bit of a running joke in the guild for the members in the 'know' and those not about why 'Steel' comes after 'Gold'.

The official answer is that it signifies you are now a veteran and have been hammered into strong steel.

But the true answer is that 'Steel' is the gateway to the supernatural type jobs.

If you don't know about it, the guild will give you an orientation.

Contrary to how I would have thought, it seems many Steel members choose to remain in the mundane side of life.

My teacher explained that they are simply comfortable with what they know and don't want to take unnecessary risks.

They make more than enough money through mundane jobs as it is.

Others get interested and step into the supernatural world, for better or worse.

Many are overconfident and die within the first year after messing with supernatural's while treating them as normal human targets.

But for those who go farther, there are three more unofficial ranks.

Ruby – Emerald – Platinum.

The members of these ranks are far and few between, but they are true monsters.

The deadliest humans in the underworld.

Ruby means you can take out low class level beings. Doesn't matter how you do it as long as you complete the mission.

Emerald is for mid class level beings. Again it doesn't matter how you do it.

And Platinum is for high class level beings. There have been less than ten Platinum's in the history of the guild.

My own teacher was an Emerald member.

Not all jobs are extermination jobs, they range from all things, but the ranks stand for a reason.

The guild receives jobs and ranks them based on its contents and their information.

As a bronze member, I only have low paying jobs available, but I only need to show twenty completed missions to rank up to Silver.

From Silver to Gold however is a much bigger divide. The less said about Steel at the moment, the better.

A cough got my attention and I turned to my teacher who was waiting patiently at the leather chair in the sitting area.

"Do not think too much child, focus on the job and think about miscellaneous things on your free time."

"Yes sir."

I sat down across him and changed the screen to the current jobs available.

The mark for Bronze access was clear and showed an extensive list.

There were two main tabs open to me.

[Contracts] [Bounties]

I ignored bounties for the moment and went to contracts.

Bounty hunting is fine, but I wanted something nearby for my first mission.

Under Contracts was an advanced search bar.

I specified Barcelona, Spain, and the list shrunk dramatically.

Then there were sub categories for types of jobs.

[Termination] [Information] [Sabotage] and many others.

I clicked on termination and found a few dozen available contracts currently active for the city of Barcelona.

Scrolling through them, I found interest in a certain contract calling for the end of a manager of an accounting firm.

Nothing outrageous but the job was offering 10G for his head.

The file spoke on how the target was overworking his employees beyond the breaking limit without a care for their health or lives and eventually someone snapped and issued the contract.

The contract stated they wanted it to look like a natural death.

I chuckled at that and decided to take it.

The address to the firm was only an hour away and they would still be open for another three hours.

There were a few additional notes, and one caught my eye.

I showed the contract to my teacher, and he nodded.

"Accept it and prepare. Again, I shall only be shadowing you. I shall judge your actions when you finish, and we are back here."

"Yes sir."

I took off my suit jacket and revealed a bag that was flattened against my back.

Taking it off and opening it up revealed a set of clothes and gear.

I pulled out my belt and got an item from one of the pockets before throwing it in my mouth.

#15: Parrot Candy – Sucking on this candy enables you to produce any voice. The effect lasts until you next ingest something. A set of 2 packs, 50 candies per pack.

Very useful stuff and I have a nice stock of them saved up.

I called the number for the contract on my blackberry and confirmed the job was still on before accepting.

Low grade jobs are not the type where you meet your client in person. That's usually for higher grade jobs.

Then I called the concierge and ordered a specific item from one of the hotels services before I went into the bathroom to change.

From the suit, I moved into a tight black sleeveless shirt, form fitting black pants, combat boots, a cloak, thin leather gloves, and a reinforced face mask similar to Hei from 'Darker than Black' with the red lines.

When I recalled that show and how our names were the same, I decided to emulate his style a bit.

I had my pistols holstered to my sides, and a belt with a few items such as poison, smoke bombs, a knife, and a few others like the voice changing candies.

The cloak wrapped around my form nicely and covered my body from sight.

It wasn't just a normal cloak either, but one of my cards.

#45: Secret Loyalty Cloak – You will be under the effect of "Blackout Curtain" while wearing this cape. Can be worn indefinitely. Each cloak is bonded to the first one to wear it, it will not allow another to use its effect.

Blackout Curtain is a spell card that protects the target location from all forms of divination, tracking, and recording for a time.

Spell Card #22: Blackout Curtain – Hide a location from all divination, tracking, and recording for a time.

The cloak keeps up the effect permanently as long as it's worn.

It's also stylish with a hood and it's very comfortable for hot or wintry weather.

It's major downside is that it's just cloth, it has no special durability so it can be destroyed easily.

I stepped out of the bathroom ready to go and my teacher looked me over before nodding.

He was the one who taught me that It matters not how strange you might look if it serves a purpose.

There was a knock on the door, and I answered only to see a small tray on the ground without anyone around.

Taking it inside, I removed the two small vials on the tray and put them in my belt.

We left the room and stepped into the elevator before hitting the button for one of the basement floors.

Members can use any number of exits from the hotel, but the main ones are from the basement level that has a dozen tunnels that end in sealed doors.

The doors can be opened from the inside at any time but to enter from the outside one must use their room number and member ID number.

The elevator reached the 14th floor when we stopped and a bald well-dressed man with an interesting barcode tattoo on his head stepped in with a briefcase in hand.

He nodded toward my teacher and myself, not giving me a second glance like it was a normal thing.

I inwardly shrugged.

'I'm really starting to love the DxD world.'

We hit the basement, followed a tunnel, exited a sealed door into an alleyway a few blocks from the hotel, and we were off.

My teacher hung back while I rushed on keeping to the shadows.

I memorized the address and had seen a gps image on my blackberry before I was off.

Our steps were silent, and we moved between buildings fast enough to blend in without sticking out from street or car lights.

I stopped a few times to make sure of my direction before kicking off the walls to reach the fire escape and climbed to the roof at record speeds.

After being trained with hopping tree's in the mountains, short roof jumps were simple parkour for me.

I made it to my target building under the hour and began scouting with the information I received.

The office was on the 8th floor and the target had his own room in the back.

The time was around 7PM and there were only a few people still visible through the windows.

The jump to the building's roof was too far but thankfully I came prepared.

I tapped my boots together lightly and a certain stone installed into the backs of each boot activated.

I took a running jump and seeming to make a jump that wasn't humanely possible to reach the other side and touch down gently.

#48: Levitation Stone – A stone about one carat in size that levitates. It can levitate one person and receives energy from sunlight. 1 stone per card.

I only needed one, but I put one in each boot just in case.

I custom ordered steel tipped combat boots with a small hollow in the backs to fit the stone inside.

It allows me to stand on air and move like a Bleach character in the air, but any direct flight is very slow and not worth the effort. It's better to use them as support tools than directly trying to fly.

I broke the lock on the roof access door quietly and moved inside down the stairwell.

The building was only 12 floors high, so I took the stairwell and kept clear of camera's on the way down.

My cloak protects me from recordings but if someone was directly looking through the feed, they could still see me.

Silently opening the 8th floor door, I made my way into the office, quickly moving toward the office while staying low and out of sight.

I only spotted two ceiling cameras and they were easily avoided.

The few workers around were sleep deprived and had bloodshot eyes focused on computer screens, those old blocky kinds.

Sneaking into the office in question silently wasn't difficult.

My target was playing a game on his computer without caring about his surroundings.

Before he even knew what happened, I was behind him holding a hand over his mouth while the other chopped the back of his neck to make him pass out.

It's commonly referred to as the 'carotid punch' by applying trauma to the Carotid Sinus.

The carotid sinus is where there are "baroreceptors" that regulate blood pressure. The baroreceptors within the carotid sinus are tricked by the trauma into believing the sudden influx of pressure upon the area is due to increased blood pressure so the baroreceptors response is to send signal to quickly lower blood pressure.

Since it was tricked, and the blood pressure wasn't high the sudden drop in blood pressure results in unconsciousness.

This process takes seconds and it's difficult to pull off in an actual fight since you have to hit the right spot rather the surrounding muscle.

If you do it carefully though, it leaves no mark and it's a perfect method for assassinations.

Reaching into my belt, I pulled out the two vials I got from the hotel store.

The first was a small needle I injected into the targets neck.

The second was the dead body of a bee.

On the additional notes of the contract, the client stated how the target was highly allergic to bee's.

So, I purchased a bee and some venom from the shop and planned this situation out.

The targets body began seizing up but since I never removed my hand from his mouth, he quickly lost oxygen and suffocated.

The bee sting will set the stage for the target dying from 'natural causes'.

There was almost no sound from the office since I entered a couple minutes before, and I was out with none the wiser.

I left through the office window and made sure to close it behind me before levitating over to the fire escape and getting back to the roof to jump across back to the first building where my teacher was waiting.

I looked at him and waited for his words, but he turned away.

"The job doesn't end until you are not in the immediate area, let's go."

I shook my head with a chuckle and followed after him.

While running, I send the client a notice of completion and the second half of the payment was wired to my new account set up by the guild.

Taking jobs through the guild gives you a certain level of professional reputation that mercenaries won't lie about job's being completed.

If they did, the guild would step in if it happened to many times.

They also won't protect you if you cheat the wrong client and they come after you.

So generally, guild members don't lie about such things unless they truly believed they completed the mission.

Anyway, first mission was a success.

I didn't feel any issues with taking the targets life.

It's not my job to care if they are good or bad people, I simply take the job and complete it.

End of story.

I take no joy in taking life, it's all a step by step process to grow stronger.

Climbing the ranks in the guild will get me access to bigger jobs, those bigger jobs have direct contact with clients where I can begin gathering energy through contracts to grow my mana pool.

And when I get stronger, I can begin taking supernatural jobs.

It's just business.

Nothing more, nothing less.

*Line Break*

My after mission report from my teacher was mostly positive, but being the annoying old man he is, most of his words were aimed to point out faults in my plans.

No matter how small they were.

*sigh* old people love to nitpick.

With the completion of my first mission, I seemed to pass the initiation test and was given free run to take Bronze rank jobs in my free time.

That free time was mostly on the weekends since my weeks were still full of my regular training schedule.

Just because I could take missions didn't mean my teacher was letting up on me.

In fact, he was pushing me harder than ever.

I knew why….

He was coughing increasingly as the days went on, I didn't know how long he really had left.

I debated sneaking in some of the life extending medicine into his food, but I always hesitated and stopped in the end.

It was selfish of me to want to force him to live longer when he denied wanting it.

So instead I took whatever crazy training he hit me with and gave it everything I had.

I pushed harder, spent more time just listening to him share stories from his life, and tried to make the most of our time together, even if it was just enjoying each other's company in silence.

And on the weekends, I would take two jobs in Barcelona and head home.

Sometimes I would stay overnight at the guild hotel when I had to spend more time to find my target, but it usually didn't take long.

The work was interesting to say the least.

It challenged me not in difficulty of force, but in technical skills.

I had to be very careful with some jobs.

Information gathering by breaking into secure storerooms and data centers.

Spying on corrupt officials or unfaithful spouses.

Tracking kidnapped children or teens.

Terminating groups behind kidnapping children and teens.

And strange but interesting requests.

Some had me have to stakeout a location and await my target appearing to hit him between the eyes with a bullet from a distance.

Others had me keep things quiet and make use of silenced pistols, poisoned darts, and all kinds of creative ideas.

One time I took another 'natural cause' job and ended up killing the target with a temporary paralytic poison before shoving chewing gum into their throat.

Around a hundred people a year die from choking on gum, it's a natural cause.

At least that was my argument when I got a questioning eyebrow from Winston.

He just chuckled and walked off.

I started making a small name for myself with my iconic image of a white mask with red lines and all black clothing.

Lupus was the name I set down, but others were calling me the 'Reaper' which made me chuckle.

It was an active couple of months but when a little over three months passed, I was officially a Silver rank member.

I only failed four contracts in that time.

Two because of faulty information that the clients paid the price for.

One because the target got wind of a contract on his head and got out of the country.

And the last one because someone else got there before me. It wasn't even an assassin, just a wronged civilian.

Two people had tried to cheat me out of my payment after the job was done, but they quickly found a bullet between their eyes before the sun rose.

I didn't honestly care about the money, but I had to build a reputation here.

Can't have people thinking they could push me around.

It really wasn't that hard to make it to Silver rank, but to be fair, I have been training to fight supernatural's.

Untrained civilians are nothing but sheep before a hungry wolf.

With Silver membership, I can start taking contracts on gangs and mafia groups.

But before I could begin the grind, Mr. Lupa called me to the living room for another talk.

"Hei! Come here for a moment."

He was sitting in his rocking chair like usual with a blanket over his legs and a book on the table to his side.

I had just taken a shower after finishing my work out for the day.

After close to five years under his instruction, I was looking far different then I used to.

I was only around 4'8 but my young body was streamlined like a panther.

Small scars littered my frame from all my training. No matter how many I heal in the hot springs, I only seem to get more so they come and go. A few don't seem to change much no matter how much time passes.

I still hadn't hit puberty yet so I wasn't gaining large muscles anytime soon, but with a body of 100% pink muscle, I would never look like a body builder but a streamlined human with incredible force packed into my smaller frame.

Even at almost nine, I could bench press three times my own weight, hop along tree branches for hours, shoot a sniper without issue with recoil, and do hundreds of one handed hand stand pushups.

It's mainly due to my insane workout regimen but my current progress wouldn't be possible without my sacred gear.

#34: Mad Scientist's Steroids – Get all the muscles you want without exercise. You must drink a liter a day for a week, and it tastes horrible. One box with 7 one liter bottles. First use will transform the body to the users wishes. Further use will give boosts to growth and help break limits.

My old life brain makes me leery about the word 'steroids' but I know it's just a description now. It's not actual steroids.

Hell, I don't even know what it is, I just drink it and try not to puke from the taste.

I make sure to use the medical checkup card to make sure there are no issues with my body, and I never see anything wrong.

I'm being limited by my age, but my body is already becoming something more.

'I wonder when the day will come when I break the human limit'.

I walked into the sitting area wearing a form fitting sleeveless shirt while rubbing my dark hair with a towel.

"Yeah teacher?"

I walked over and moved to fill up his tea cup from the pot and fix his blanket.

He playfully slapped my hands away.

"Bah, stop mothering me child, I'm old not a cripple, now sit down, I want to explain a slight change that will happen soon."

A worried look grew on my face, but he waved it away.

"Not that, well that to, but that's not what I'm referring to right now. What I wanted to say was that it's time for the next stage of your training."

I tilted my head in confusion.

"But I thought you said I learned almost everything I could from you? That time and experience were all I needed."

He nodded at that.

"I did say that, and it was accurate. There is not much I can still teach you, that doesn't mean there isn't more for you to learn. If I was in my prime I could handle it, but as I am now there is only so much I could handle.

Besides, I believe there are others more suited to teaching these lessons."

I hummed at that.

"Ok, so who and what do you want me to learn exactly?"

"Energy sensing for one." (?)

My eyes widened at the unexpected voice, and I rolled forward with my instincts screaming into a roll to come up with my back toward my sitting teacher and both my pistols drawn and pointing to a corner of the room.

"My~ My~ good instincts on this one Lupa."

My teacher chuckled behind me, and his cane came up to lightly press on my arms, lowering my weapons from the new guest.

"That is enough to make your point Leone, and Hei, this is your new teacher."

A light but slightly husky laughter rang out.

"Haha, I was just having some fun old man."

The now identified woman named Leone stepped out of the shadowed corner and my eye twitched at the sight.

A curvaceous body with short blonde hair with two long tufts that frame the sides of her head and golden eyes.

She wore a revealing outfit with a black tube top, detachable sleeves, pants, boots, and a scarf around her neck.

And she had cat ears and two cat tails swinging behind her lazily.

Her slit eyes were staring at me with playful evaluation.

'The universe is fucking with me.'

She was an exact replica of Leone from Akame Ga Kill. Except with the ears and tails.

I turned my head slightly to send a questioning look at my teacher while keeping the other on her.

That seemed to only make her smile wider.

"Teacher?"

"Yes child, she is the one I told you of before when you asked what would happen if I were to die without finding an heir.

Leone here is an old friend who owes me a debt, a debt she will pay by teaching you."

He sent a look at Leone whose eye twitched in response.

"Oi, I said I would train the brat if he passed my test."

My hand twitched toward my gun again, but my teachers cane was faster and stopped me.

"Well then go out back, we can talk more when you are finished."

"Puurfect."

Her gaze turned predatorial on me and I shot my teacher an annoyed look before accepting his silent order.

'If she wanted to test me then I'll show her where I stand.'

We moved toward the back of the house in the trap filled forest area in silence.

When we reached a clearing, we faced each other, and she made her first comment.

"Your quite the silent stoic type huh? No questions, not curious?"

I checked my magazines on my pistols and replied absentmindedly.

"Assassins don't need to ask questions. Besides, curiosity killed the cat."

I finished my words by pointing both guns her way and she smiled wide.

"Hahaha I like you kid, let's see what you can do."

She took a coin and flipped it up into the air.

I didn't need her to explain.

Our eyes narrowed and I watched her body tense up slightly.

The coin reached its apex and began falling to the earth.

The shine of the sun reflected on its surface as it spun and finally touched the earth with a light *ting*.

*bang* *bang* *bang* *bang*

Without missing a millisecond my finger pulled the trigger and aimed exactly for her vitals without error.

If she didn't move that is.

She was fast and her figure blurred as she shot off into the tree's while throwing thin knives at my location forcing me to move.

I attempted to predict her movements and fire where she was going to be by the time the bullets reached her, but she was able to mislead me.

She closed in on me, forcing me to move backward into the tree's to keep up the distance while keeping up the fire.

A game of cat and mouse began as she chased while throwing occasional knives and tossing fucking logs of wood at me like javelins while I jumped between branches and used one gun to fire while the other supported and then I switched when I had to reload.

Various traps activated throughout the forest along our way forcing us to dodge poisoned darts, arrows, moving logs, pitfalls, rope traps, and all kinds.

Some I knew of, but my teacher never stopped the weekly trap shuffle.

'Even on your last legs, you're not making things easy for me old man!'

Loene's voice rang out from among the tree's.

"Hahaha! Your good kid! Lupa has really made steel out of you."

I tried to pinpoint her location as we had switched to a game of stealth but then my hair stood up as a voice whispered in my ear.

"But you have much to learn to fight the bigger kids."

I spun as fast as I could and put up a half block but that's all I could manage before the hardest punch I ever felt hit me, cracking multiple ribs, and launching me off the branch and through three fucking tree's.

"Huuuuu."

My voice came out in a pained gasp as I laid indented in a tree.

Leone's playful voice rang out from nearby.

"Still alive kid?"

"Uuuuh. Anyone get the number of that truck."

There was a pause before heavy laughter came out.

"Nyahaha! So you do have a sense of humor in there huh?"

I pushed off the tree with a groan and fell down from the twenty feet height I was at but rather than hit the floor, a pair of warm arms caught me.

"I got ya kid. I'm honestly surprised your still conscious, that hit should have knocked out a star bodybuilder."

She jumped to the ground, and I pushed off her lightly with a groan to stand on my own feet.

"Hehe, I've had worse."

That was bullshit and from the smile on her face, she knew it, but for my small measure of pride, she didn't call me out on it.

"Yeah yeah, macho man. Let's head back, I think I've seen what I needed to."

I held a hand to my side where my ribs were tender and nodded while walking alongside her.

I could have used a card to heal myself, but I didn't know if I could trust the abilities of my gear with her. I trust my teachers judgement, so I'll wait for his call.

My eyes turned slightly to Leone who was walking next to me with a happy smile and her hands behind her head.

"So did I pass?"

She gave me a teasing smile.

"I thought assassins don't ask questions?"

I scoffed and rolled my eyes while continuing on.

I could feel her smug grin on the back of my head until an arm wrapped around my head and pulled me halfway into a hug. A hug that had my head pressed into her breast.

"Haha take a chill pill kid, I'm just having some fun with ya."

"Leone."

"Yes."

"Can you let go."

"Oh~ why? Are you shy?"

"Your aggravating my ribs."

"Ah… my bad."

She let go with an awkward chuckle and I just shook my head as we entered back into the house and the living room.

My teacher's voice rang out as we entered.

"Leone, tell him what you will be teaching."

"What? Not even going to wait for my judgement?"

He scoffed.

"Hei is my heir, I'm perfectly aware of what he is capable of. Stop messing around."

She stuck her tongue out at him.

"Bah! Old age just made you more annoying."

I chuckled at the byplay but that got my teachers attention and he scolded me.

"Hei, why are standing there like that, fix yourself already child."

I sent him a questioning look while Leone tilted her head in confusion.

He gave me a nod, so I shrugged and called out my ring.

"Book."

The binder popped up and I went to the spell cards while Leone looked interested.

"Oh! This is your sacred gear kid? Greed Island? Never heard of it, what does it do?"

I ignored her string of questions and grabbed a card.

Spell card #23: Water of Life – Washes a single target in healing water of life. Heals all injuries in seconds but does not cure illness's, curse's, or missing organs/limbs.

It's my only healing spell card. It works instantly and on more serious situations then the hot springs. But it's not as thorough as the designated card Angels Breath which repairs anything missing, it could fix a brain or heart before someone fully dies, or regenerate missing limbs or organs.

Instead of putting the card in the activation slot, I did something new I learned about my power.

I crushed the card in my hand, and it dissolved into motes of light as its energy wrapped around me in what looked like glowing water and healed my cracked ribs, bruised organs, and whatever else I was dealing with.

God had said he left some wiggle room for me to adapt the power to myself and this was one of the new ways I learned to use it.

I'm sure there are more things I can do with it, but it's a matter of experimentation.

Leone looked fascinated as she watched.

"Oh~. So you can heal yourself with it? Why didn't you do that earlier?"

I rolled my shoulder to confirm the effect and shrugged.

"Among other things, and because I don't know you."

She held a hand over her heart.

"Aw, that hurts kid, and after our hot and passionate dance back there."

I rolled my eyes at her and sat down calmly while closing my eyes.

I was going to wait for the serious discussion to start.

Leone huffed at the sight.

"Sheesh, he's your heir alright Lupa, I swear I'm going to bring some more emotion to this one."

My teachers actually chuckled at that.

"Your welcome to try Leone, now sit, we can have tea while you explain."

She plopped down on the couch but rose an eyebrow at the lack of tea on the table.

That eyebrow was joined by the other in shock as the door opened and an upright panda in a maid costume casually walked in, placed a tray of tea on the table, poured three cups, handed them to each of us, and walked out.

My teacher and I calmy sipped our tea while Leone sat there blinking in shock.

That lasted a few seconds before her brain rebooted.

"Nya! What the fuck!?"

A cane somehow stretched beyond space to smack her on the head.

"Language."

"Ow."

I ignored my teachers casual breaking of space; I don't question old people and their weapon of choice inside their home. Traumatic memories of my last life with grandmothers when they get a slipper or wooden spoon in their hand flashed over my mind and I shivered.

Leone rubbed her head and looked at us with confused kitten eyes.

"No really, what the hell was that?"

I decided to get things moving along.

"It's another ability of my gear."

She shot me a weird look.

"Your gear heals people and makes sentient panda maids?"

I calmy took a sip of my tea.

"Among other things."

Her eye twitched and she huffed in annoyance.

"Fine! I'll get my answers later and ignore it for now. Kid, you passed my test."

I turned and gave her my full attention.

"First off, your scary good for your age, how old are you, like 12 or 13?"

"I'm 8, almost 9."

"Right, so as I….. your 9?"

"Almost."

Leone's head swiveled to my teacher.

"Old man, what the fuck?"

*Bang*

"Ow!"

"Language."

"He's not even 9 yet?!"

"You saw what he is capable of, he is not a normal child. I found him when he was 4 years old and even then his eyes held a spark of maturity beyond his years. Besides, it's not that rare for one to start so young in our world."

He was speaking of the underworld, but my mind took it as DxD which I agreed with. This world was crazy and I'm ok with that.

Leone turned slightly sad eyes at me.

"But still."

My brow twitched and I addressed the situation.

"Leone, I thank you for considering my wellbeing, but I am well aware of what my path involves as well as what I might miss out on. I much rather prefer what I have now, I actually enjoy this life very much."

Her eyes narrowed at that, and I corrected myself.

"I enjoy growing stronger and learning, not taking life."

She lost some tension but still asked.

"And why do you want to be strong?"

I answered without hesitation.

"To be free."

Her eyes widened slightly before she let out a breath.

"You really are one scary kid you know that? Who speaks like that at your age, sheesh. Whatever, the old man is right, it's not that abnormal for kids to end up in the underworld.

Especially those of other races. Even the nekomata of my village start training young. But still, it shouldn't be possible for a kid your age to be so strong."

Her eyes stared at me searchingly and I shrugged.

"My sacred gear has many uses."

She raised a finger before pausing and slumping.

"*sigh* damn that biblical god, he made so many bullshit tools."

My teacher and I chuckled at that; it was the truth.

She finally relaxed back into the cough and took her tea.

"Whatever, we will be having a talk on what exactly your gear did to you later, I will need to know your capabilities if I am to train you."

I nodded at that; it was perfectly reasonable.

"Let me start by formally introducing myself. I am Leone, a two tailed Nekoshou from the Nekomata village in the underworld."

My eyes widened a bit at that.

'She is one of the Nekoshou that died in the massacre.'

"This old man here, Lupa, saved my life big time when we were younger, well when he was younger considering my race lives much longer than humans, and I owe him a lot.

He only asked me to find and train his heir if he died before finding one, but now that we are at this stage, things are much easier for me."

She took a sip and then pointed a finger at me.

"Age aside, you already have a perfect foundation. Strength, speed, stamina, durability, reflexes, hand eye coordination, weapon proficiency, that scary accuracy and prediction, highly tuned intuition, stealth, pain tolerance, and an adorably carved derriere."

My eye twitched at the last one and I ignored her teasing wink.

"I can't speak for the other area's as I haven't tested you in them, but I can see places you need to improve on as well as where you are severely lacking.

Your balance needs work, you were relying too much on force.

You're in-combat stealth needs some work. I could tell you probably do well out of combat but while in it, you need to think and move faster.

Of course you need to increase your bodies all around abilities but that will be solved by time and physical training.

And finally, it comes to what I wanted to teach you.

If your lacking in other area's I didn't focus on today, I'll improve them, but I mainly want to focus on energy sensing, energy suppression, sparring with supernatural's, and if you can achieve the activation requirement, I might be willing to teach you about Touki."

I nodded my head to each point she made.

My balance has always been a slight issue, I know I'm not the greatest at switching from active combat to stealth, and my body still had a long way to go.

But it was what she wanted to focus on that really got my attention.

"Touki?"

She nodded with a smile.

"Yup, it's one of the specialties of my race. It's using one's own life force to empower their bodies to two, three, or higher multiplications depending on how much energy one uses."

I tilted my head at that.

"How does using your own life force work? Wouldn't you be reducing your life span?"

She chuckled at that.

"Nyaha yes it would, and many people die from doing it. The trick is to substitute your own energy reserves as the cost. If you ran out of energy and still kept going, you would eat away at your lifespan. Nekomata instinctively know how to make that change, but many other races who have used touki have burnt themselves out and collapsed as husks of dead skin and bones.

It can be a double edged sword sometimes, so it takes proper teaching to use it well and know when to use it and turn it off before you burn yourself out."

That made much more sense to me.

"How does one start training in it?"

She gave me an evil smirk.

"By pushing your physical body to the breaking point over and over before finally being able to sense your life force, or ki, and pull on it. Once you do that, I can teach you how to make the change and get a feel for your own energy reserves, so you know how to stop the process.

I advise not trying to self-teach yourself, you might just kill yourself in the process."

I sipped my tea and nodded. She was obviously going easy on me in that sparring session. I thought I was pushing her but if she used touki, I would be fucked in seconds.

"Duly noted. So you were talking about energy sensing and suppression?"

"Yup, like how I snuck up on you in the forest and earlier before we met."

My eye twitched at that.

'I didn't need that reminder.'

She sent me a teasing grin.

"I know."

I rolled my eyes.

"Stop reading my mind and explain."

She stuck her tongue out but still went on.

"Energy sensing is incredibly important if you want to step into the supernatural side of the underworld. Lupa explained it to you right?"

I sent a look at my teacher who was calmy sipping tea and listening and he nodded.

"He did, but we didn't go deep into it since we were busy with other things at the time."

"Understandable, there is a lot of ground to cover to be a full heir. Anyway, you need to be able to detect even the faintest of signals like stars in the night sky.

The more power they have, the brighter and bigger their star.

Each race has its own feel of energy, I like to see them in colors.

Devils with demonic energy. Red.

Angels with holy energy. White.

Fallen with their cursed holy energy. Black.

Different Yokai have different feels to them. various.

Gods have distinct signatures and are entwined with their domains. Gold.

Dragons have powerful mana signatures. Blue.

Sacred gears have their own signature. Brown.

And if you can really refine the ability, you can sense the weak mana signals in humans.

Supernatural races use it to pick out humans with sacred gears and try to recruit them, sometimes peacefully and usually forcefully.

It has many uses but it's a very important trait for an assassin.

You might find your own way to sense them, I'm just making an example with colors and the stars, everyone senses slightly differently.

As for suppression, it's working on concealing your own energy from others sensing it. I can see you did well in masking your sacred gears signal when you are using it, but you still leave your own self completely in the open."

I thought on that and understood how valuable of a skillset it was before I turned to my teacher, but he seemed to understand.

"I didn't instruct you further on it because it is not my area of expertise. I never had much mana and never focused on magic, so my pool didn't grow too much despite my age.

I had prepared you for this though, your morning and evening meditation, your patience training, and honing your senses in the forests at night during the courses.

You're ready, you just have to take the step into your sixth sense under a guiding hand."

Leone added in.

"It does cost energy to use, not much but it's usually too much for the average human anyway."

I nodded along to that.

"Not a concern, I shall deal with that issue soon enough."

She sent me a questioning look and I just flashed my ring.

"My gear."

Her eye twitched.

"What the hell is your gear, a damn master key to life or something?"

A small smile grew on my face.

"Or something."

She flicked my head before I could react.

"Ow."

"Damn brat, only I get to tease."

"We can negotiate."

"Nya! What kind of disciple are you, show me some respect."

"Earn it."

She pulled on her hair.

"Nya! This is worse than getting a fresh heir to teach!"

My teacher and I shared a small smirk and calmy drank our tea.

Life didn't look like it would get boring anytime soon.

Chapter end.