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The following is a fan-based

FICTION

High School DxD, New, BorN, Hero and other products related to the DxD Series are all owned by Ichiei Ishibumi, Miyama-Zero, Fujimi Shobo and TNK.

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Chapter 10: Double Trouble

Waking up to the ceiling of my new room was… strange.

It was a curious sensation that was a mix of positive surprise in finding something unusual but also pleasant because it was a quick reminder that now I had some more liberty in my own home.

The place Azazel had bought was immense, not mansion-sized, but still quite decent for a house accommodating three individuals at once.

Indeed, I wasn't the only occupant of my new house, Baraqiel having picked a room on the first floor, leaving the relatively large bedroom to me and the modestly-sized room with smaller bed to Kunou-chan.

The girl accepted her new living quarters, deeming them to be almost similar to what she had back home but there was an adorable twist at it. As she first entered the room to study better the features of the European-styled room, the Blonde stopped to frown at the bed.

From my understanding she had a particularly comfy futon as bed since she decided to have her own room, thus seeing the 'contraption' in front of her was kind confusing for her and amusing for me.

I could remember her go through some testing about the material, coziness and the quality of the bed. The last results being a small smile as she literally melted by lying on it, her head receiving some attention by the soft pillow she had.

Blinking back to the present, I found myself stuck in bed, not because of craving for some more rest but… because of a small weight the night before wasn't there. Turning my eyes down, I stared at the twitching fox ears visible from my current disposition.

It would seem like… Kunou had decided to invite herself in my bed while I was sleeping and, much to my relief, she had kept her new Pjs on through the whole situation. She had been a little dismayed by the fact she had to adopt the new set of clothes, but a mere glance at her former 'nightgown' was enough to prompt me to pick her some new clothing before we left Kyoto.

I still had some money on me for the trip and the shopping spree was positively short and quick, picking her five more sets of clothes and her Kuoh Academy uniform. It was the uniform that actually piqued her interest the most, the girl finding exotic the flamboyant style it has, causing her to spend more time proving it around.

Sighing in her sleep, I held back a snore as I found my brain fully awake and ready to deal with the new routine of my life in Kuoh.

The girl had her head slouched on my chest, her partly open mouth letting out some brief and adorable snoring as a little trail of drool stretched down to my sleeping shirt, staining it just a little bit.

Blinking just once, I slowly let my hand wander out of its resting position and hover over the waiting head and then… started to softly caress her top.

She tensed a little, her snoring ceasing almost immediately as she stirred a little more and… one eyes opened to stare right at me.

Her lips, at first set in a neutral thin line, arched up in a smile and the girl nuzzled her head a little more on my chest. "Niichan… good morning-" Kunou paused just a moment to her greeting as she yawned cutely and I almost let out a 'Aww' at that sight.

"Good morning, Ku-chan." I stated softly, knowing that using my usual volume might cause some annoying effects on someone still waking up. "It's time for breakfast."

Her eyes lightened at the word related to some delicious food and, slowly and calmly, she started to shift away from the little cuddling, reaching one of the ends of the bed to get out of it. I followed her pattern on the opposite side and, without missing a beat, turned to walk towards the only door of the bedroom.

There was some feeble light coming from the windows of the hallway that led to the living room and Kunou softly tip-toed forward as I slowly followed her to the kitchen area.

The kitchen was quite big but easy to understand where everything was and I guess that is what is the most important for that room in particular. As we entered the zone, we were greeted by Baraqiel.

The Fallen Angel was sitting on one of the few stools, drinking from a particularly large mug of coffee while reading some newspapers from Kuoh Local.

He glanced from the paper and greeted starting with a small nod. "Good morning, Hoitsu-kun, Kunou-chan."

The girl nodded quickly, smiling his way as she hopped on another stool, while I moved towards the cooking area to begin to fix something for breakfast. Twenty minutes of careful tinkering around resulted in two steamy cups of chocolate milk and three cookies for each of us.

The blonde blinked at the content of her little mug but her nose picked up quickly its sweet scent. Eyes going wide open, Kunou didn't waste any time in dipping one of the cookie in the liquid and then bring it to her lips.

Her slow munching turned swift almost instantly and the cookies were decimated very quickly. The rest of the milk she drunk from a straw I had offered her and she gave a satisfied smile once she was done with it.

"That was so good, Niichan!" I chuckled at her energetic reaction and nodded myself as I did manage to get Ma's recipe to utter perfection.

Once I had cleaned up the three empty mug, Kunou and I reached for the two close bathrooms to prepare ourselves for the day.

I was certain the girl would have ended up needing some help with some of the things within the particularly modern bathroom, thus I rapidly went through my usual cleaning routine in my usual neck-breaking record of fifteen minutes.

By the time I was done and freshly donning my uniform, I was shocked by the sight of a giggling Kunou already out of the bathroom she had been using with her own uniform on as she twirled around to test it once more. She was smiling while doing so and her smile widened when she caught glimpse of my presence.

"Niichan, you're ready!" I nodded at her and couldn't help myself but smile at her bubbly excitement. I guess that is the reaction of someone as sheltered as her having the chance to see what a school looked like and befriend fellow teens her age.

"I am." I stated with a warm voice. "I guess we could go… now, actually."

She nodded and started to reach for the door but stopped right in front of it and frowned at the fact I wasn't following her quickly. Her head turned to see why I was being this slow and her eyes widened in realization and embarrassment at the fact she had almost forgotten about her school bag.

I was holding it in my hand as I had my own bag already on my shoulders. "There." I decided to not tease her forgetfulness and she nodded thankful at that attitude.

Having already settled with Baraqiel the night before that the training sessions were going to happen after school, we only waved at him and bid him a good day as we ventured inside the house.

The warm breeze of April hit us moderately, just enough to make us notice the difference between the indoor and the outdoor. The blonde glanced back with a nervous smile and I sighed as I went to take her small hand into mine. "C'mon, we also need to meet up with someone along the way."

She frowned at those words but slowly accepted this little situation.

Our walk took some minutes before we reached my usual meeting area where I would find Asia and Issei as the house was set in the outskirts of Kuoh Town. Just as we stopped for me to give a look around I heard familiar footsteps approaching.

"Senpai!"

I looked around to find where the loud call came from and I saw a familiar former nun approaching, a smile plastered on her face while Issei tried and failed to keep up with the surprisingly fast foreign girl.

"Senpai, you are back!" I nodded and as I opened my mouth to greet my kohais, I found Kunou slowly hide behind me. Frowning, I glanced her way with a confused expression and the younger girl glanced right back with a shy look.

"Kunou-chan, Asia-chan is a good friend of mine and she is as kind as your mom. Can you give her a chance?"

I could see the former nun blushing a little at the comparison and the younger blonde blinked with some hesitation before actually stepping out of my shadow and give a short bow at the older female. "I-I am Kunou Kurama, nice to meet you, A-Asia-san."

The human girl nodded with a comforting smile directed at the Kitsune-in-disguise. "My name is Asia Argento and it's nice to meet you too, Kunou-chan and… you can call me Asia-chan if you want-"

"S-Senpai." The sudden appearance of a wild Issei Hyoudou caused the younger blonde to back away a little and, before the brunet could react upon the little girl by my side with some wrongly-worded comment, I spoke before he could. "This is Kunou-chan, Ise. She will be my ward during her stay at Kuoh Academy and you will not say anything inappropriate."

The stern and quick threat seemed to hit home as the now nervous-looking boy nodded sheepishly. "S-Sorry, senpai. I wasn't expecting you to return with someone from your trip."

"It was a surprise for me too but..." I patted Kunou's head much to the girl's delight. "Kunou's mom needed someone to keep her safe and away from home. There had been some… unpleasant situations there."

"Oh..." Asia gave a sympathetic look to the younger blonde, to which the girl reacted with a small blush appearing on her cheeks.

"N-Niichan protected me." Kunou said with a minor stuttering, recovering from the minor embarrassment. "There were some bad people trying to kidnap me a-and Niichan tricked them."

"Tricked them?"

"Just fooled some eighty magicians with some simple spell, nothing to be flaunting about-"

"You faced 80 what?"

I groaned at the Hyoudou's explosive reaction to this fact. "Nothing noteworthy, I just escaped them with an astute plan and… that's all."

The little kitsune glanced up at me with a questioning look and I did realize that I didn't say anything about the 'Kuroka' situation. I shook my head at her and she nodded in silent acceptance of not saying anything about her.

"So Kunou-chan will be joining us at Kuoh Academy?" Issei asked, having recovered a little from the earlier shock and noticing the girl's uniform.

"That is correct. She will join the 2nd year of the Middle School section." After this the discussion moved to easier topic to speak about, like the souvenir gathering of the last day at Kyoto and the photos I had taken of the various shrines and temples around there that I promised to show to Asia once she had some free time from her Club.

"This is quite the interesting letter you brought me, Hoitsu-san."

Sona's tone was soft as she was distracted by the content of the letter Yasaka asked me to give to her to show my legitimate claim as the current guardian of Kunou while she was in Kuoh Town.

The bespectacled, short-haired girl looked lost in her thoughts some moments during the reading, possibly because some of the details within the letter could be detailing about the 'unique traits' of the little blonde sitting on the chair beside mine and her identity.

The leader of the Yokai Faction had been adamant in repeating that I was barely mentioned and the few sections about me were bare at best and lacking any possible correlation to what had transpired in Kyoto.

While the events had happened just two days ago, the news had reached far and wide through the entire supernatural world. The attack on the Yokai was something that sparked some outrage at the attackers and formal pity to the suffering community.

The heiress of the Sitri clan sighed as she folded the paper and gave me a confused look. "Hoitsu-san, how did you exactly encounter Yasaka-san and her daughter."

I blinked at the question but kept smiling. I was ready for this kind of questions and thus I had rehearsed them with Kunou before this situation.

"I actually met Kunou first at the Maruyama Park. She was playing alone while I was waiting for my boss to arrive and she asked if I could play with her-"

"Wait, you mean to tell me that Kunou-san asked you this?" Sona interrupted and then turned at the young blonde. The younger girl nodded and the president sighed. "Please, continue then."

"As I was saying, she asked me to play with her and we ended up spending some time playing stone skipping. By the time her mom reached us for the park, she thanked me for keeping Kunou occupied and safe."

"I beat Niichan." The blonde added with a big smile, ignoring or maybe gloating at the brief frown I threw at her.

"She is incredibly good at stone skipping..." I admitted and the kitsune-in-disguise giggled at my words, Sona watching the scene with a neutral glance.

"But why did Yasaka-san give you guardianship over Kunou-san, did it happen at the park or-"

"Actually it happened few hours later. A little before dinner if I have to be honest." I stated some half-truth, finding it quite the best way to deal with this predicament. "She managed to contact me and ask if I could come with haste as there was some matter of importance to discuss."

"And you didn't find anything suspicious about this sudden request from someone you barely knew about?"

Her words were legitimate as generally that wasn't a smart thing to do and certainly not something that I would normally go with in a normal situation.

"When I first met Yasaka-san I found that she was incredibly and genuinely honest with her words, especially around her daughter. The sense of worry and distraught sounded real and thus I decided to put some trust on the situation."

"And she explained to you about the need of you taking the guardianship for Kunou-san." The short-haired girl remarked and I nodded at it.

"She said that there were some people trying to cause some problems to them and she feared that Kunou could get targeted for it. Thus she asked me to keep her away from Kyoto until she was done with her education here." I finished with a small smile.

"That sounds quite the responsibility." Sona muttered looking at the folded paper. "Did it cause any problems with your parents?"

There was a minor hesitant pause from me, then I sighed. "I… am not living with my parents anymore."

…

"Could you elaborate that? I think some context should shed some light over what you just said."

I nodded at Sona's request. "It's been few months now that I've been contemplating over going living alone and, after accumulating enough money I managed to get a proper house in the outskirts of Kuoh Town."

"Any… particular reason why you decided to leave?" There was some concern in her voice but I smiled once more in a reassuring way.

"Our opinions about my future were clashing. Father wanted me to follow his steps in becoming a surgeon but I wished to take a different career path, I am still deciding but I am fairly sure it will not be related to medicine." I explained as honestly as I could. There was that aspiration that both mother and father wanted me to become and upstanding citizen like them, but I found going down the path of surgeon to… not be me.

I can't explain fully but I didn't feel like that was going to be the correct vocation for me, especially with the difficult road I am walking through right now in the supernatural world.

"Then I guess you will need to change your current address and..." Sona paused just a moment. "If you need some help, I can offer some support. Don't hesitate in asking."

I nodded at her kind offer. "Thank you, Sona-san. I'm always happy to know that you worry for me and the others."

She blushed at my words and nodded. "O-Of course. It's my duty as president of the Student Council." She sighed and then turned to the blonde. "I suppose you will escort Kunou-san to her classroom now, Hoitsu-san."

I nodded. "That is the plan, then I will be on my way for my own class."

"Then I leave you to your duty, I think we have spared enough time on the topic and I don't wish to have you go late for lessons."

I nodded again and, bidding the Sitri heiress a 'good day', Kunou and I started to make our way to the Middle School section of the Academy.

"Sona-san is… very cool." The kitsune commented calmly and I nodded.

"She is very professional and serious, but also very kind and flexible when the situation requires it."

The blonde nodded at my elaboration and she smiled. "School seems fun."

"I guess it could be if you can manage the lessons and the homework." I reminded her. "But I know that you will have not many problems at it."

As our brief chat continued, I felt footsteps approaching from behind.

"Good morning, senp-ai." I turned to see whom was greeting me and I saw Koneko staring questioningly at the younger girl by my side. Kunou turned to and looked quite confused at being stared with such intensity.

"Oh, Koneko-san, good morning to you too." I turned to the little blonde. "This is Kunou-chan and she is joining Kuoh Academy today as a student in Middle School."

At hearing the silver-haired girl's name, Kunou's eyes went wide in recognition as I did tell her about the young girl that would come for some Math repetitions. So she detached herself from my hand and approached the silent Nekoshou, standing right in front of her as she gave a low bow.

"My name is Kunou Kurama. I've heard good things about you and I hope you could take care of me..." She looked up, golden matching with golden. "Koneko-senpai."

If there had been some concern and distress at the new girl at school within Koneko's mind, it all vanished the moment that honorific sunk in her brain.

Eyes going wide for a brief moment, my little kohai blinked in surprise at the introduction but managed a nod through her shock. "I… It's nice to meet you too, Kunou-kohai. My full name is Koneko Toujou, I will help you around if you need."

They both nodded at each other and I felt like something between the two, a strong friendship, was going to bloom from that little gesture.

…

Or maybe I just wanted the two of them to be good friends and I was seeing stuff.

"Anyway, Senpai can I ask you if I can pass around for some help with the next exam?"

I blinked confused. "Sure, but I thought you had already done one quite recently-"

"Our sensei is very strict. She says that making several exams will preserve the best our current knowledge of the subject and the next exam will be by the end of this week."

"I guess I could help and- Oh right." I nodded in recognition. "I am currently living alone with Kunou, if you want I can pass you the new address-"

"I think I will ask Kunou-kohai." She remarked quietly, taking hold of the blonde's hand. "Since I will be the one helping her around."

…Wait, what?

"Koneko-san-"

"It's fine, Niichan." I blinked at the smiling kitsune. "Koneko-senpai said that she will be helping me around and I don't want to overburden you."

I frowned at that. "But I'm not-"

"Overruled, senpai." Koneko interjected and started to walk with Kunou on tow. "Let's go, kohai."

Staring at them disappear in one of the corners, I couldn't help but have my jaws hang low at how things have unfolded.

What had just happened?

Few moments later, seeing that it was getting fairly late, I reached for my own classroom and prepared for the Art lesson of the hour.

Just as I took my usual seat, our sensei entered the room with a happy smile, causing many of us to look quite confused at her unusually good mood.

"Today we shall have our monthly drawing contest. Please pick your partner and start to work!"

The short declaration was initially considered by many, then a large group of people started to move around to pick their own partner and, as I was about to move myself to find my own I saw someone dropping softly their art-book on my desk.

"May I be your partner?" The feminine voice asked, causing me to look up from my own books and blink at the smiling face of Akeno Himejima.

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu-!

AN

Koneko accepts Kunou as her disciple, MC is outsmarted by both Chibis and Akeno has some plans for today, plans about the MC.

Now, isn't this the recipe for disaster? Ara, Ara intensifies…

And now I am contemplating putting Akeno in the rooster for MC's hearts because some have suggested it. I am quite neutral over what to do about it and thankfully the shipping arc will happen much later in the plot so…Fufufufufufufu!

P a treon . com (slash) socialistbukharin

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