On Guard With Thee

Lala was finished two days later. She couldn't stop herself from working day and night on the project. When that was done – you decided it was time to acquaint yourself with Koneko a little more. You've only spent time around her during battle. It's hard to get a read on how she feels about you without speaking directly. Rias gives you permission to summon her alone.

The petite, white-haired girl looks up at you from below, "Is it my turn for you to perv on?"

"Perv?"

"Akeno, Asia and Rias have all spoken with me about their previous experiences with you. I do not understand what they see in a three-timing slug like you." You swallow. It's a good thing she doesn't know about Motoko, Chun, Venelana or Lala. This kind of casual, stone faced scorn is what you were expecting.

"You'll help me fight these invaders, right?"

Koneko turns her head away petulantly, "If the President demands it."

That isn't a 'no.'

"Rias told me that you're a little concerned about releasing your full power," you explain, "So I decided to give you a hand by having Lala build something for you."

You open the door and motion for her to follow you inside. Through an equally sturdy thick glass window is the training chamber Lala has designed for you. She really went above and beyond what you asked for; there's even a control panel that lets you summon different environments using moving pieces inside. Koneko is curious about what it's for.

"How much did she tell you?"

"Nothing more than that, but... you already know what I know."

"Everything."

You shrug, "Pretty much. I didn't want to bring it up without your permission."

Koneko closes her eyes and crosses her arms, "That's considerate of you, but I don't like that you know about that. It's meant to be my burden to carry."

"I'm not ordering you to play along with me. I'm just meddling. This chamber is made of a material you can't even get in this universe. If you want to try and unleash your full power in a safe place, this is it. There's no threat of causing any real damage."

Koneko takes offence to the mere idea of her nekomata powers being resisted by a static object; "I could easily crush this building into dust. Do you honestly think that I'll be contained by a chamber like this?"

"Lala hasn't led me wrong yet. She says you'd have to destroy the entire planet to get around these walls, but she also coated the floor in it – so that wouldn't even be enough."

Koneko steps back, "No. I won't be lured into releasing my strength so easily. You could get hurt."

You quirk your brow, "Concerned for me suddenly?"

She blushes and scowls, "No. If the President's fiancé died, she would be very upset. Rias trusts me to protect her and her peerage from harm."

"But you don't want to hold back if it means that they'll get hurt."

Koneko stops her retreat and sighs. You're right, of course. Koneko is extremely dedicated to Rias – if she asked her to master her nekomata form, she would do so through much personal distress. Rias was not so mean to ask something like that of her. Koneko wants to but is afraid of the consequences. She still believes that Kuroka is a murderer. Adding her sister to your mental list of future summons, you consider finding a way to make them reconcile. Hopefully the plot takes its natural course in the coming months and that tricky work can be left to them.

The first step to making that happen is for Koneko to stop fearing her powers.

"It's your choice. I know that this is a sensitive topic, and we don't even know each other all that well."

"I know you. The President never missed an episode of your show. She has a complete collection of every manga volume in her room. Akeno and I are the only ones who know about it."

"There's a big difference between the person you see in fiction and the real thing."

"No. There isn't. You're exactly as I expected you'd be. Hopeless, nosey, perverted."

To be fair, a lot of your future wives are responsible for the weirdest acts of perversion so far. The tone of her voice leaves you uncertain whether she finds that endearing or enraging. Koneko is covered with ice. It'll take a lot of effort to thaw her out. You are under no illusions that this single act will get you there.

"So what will it be?" you ask again. Koneko sways from side to side before landing back on two feet again. She slips both hands into her pockets and comes out with a pair of black MMA gloves. Wordlessly she walks through the door into the chamber. You lock it behind her and settle in to watch the show.

"I'm going to generate some targets for you," you explain through the intercom system. You press another button and watch as several dummies emerge in a flash of blue holographic light. Koneko decides to test the waters by beating them down using her fists. A flurry of punches and kicks shatter them into pieces, before they're replaced by new ones. Koneko moves past the dummies and up to one of the solid white walls – she pulls her arm back and delivers an intense punch to it.

But there's no sign of the impact. She steps back and inspects the point of contact again. Nothing. Not even a scuff mark. Her next attack uses a little bit of her normal magical power, but again there is no damage to the chamber wall.

"Are you sure about this?" she asks again.

"I trust Lala's know-how. But if you're that worried, you only need to start out small."

Koneko glares daggers at you through the reinforced glass. This is something private and supremely personal to her, and she doesn't even trust you that much yet. Without moving an inch, a pair of white ears sprout from beneath her bangs of hair. A single white tail emerges from her back and sways lazily in the air behind her.

"If you make any cat jokes, I will destroy you."

"What kind of joker do you think I am?"

"You are a louche who cannot contain his worldly desires. You spend most of your waking hours fraternising with different women." You grimace and press the button before she can go any further with her barbed words. A new set of targets appear at the back of the room. Koneko turns to them and gathers her nerves. She never uses her full powers. Learning to utilise them will take more knowledge than what you can provide here.

This is just a jumping off point.

You know that she'll eventually learn to manage her powers properly. For now, the best she can do is alleviate her own concerns about losing control. You sit back and observe as she tries to use Ki to enhance her attacks. Senjutsu is a technique that Koneko will excel with one day – but only with proper tutorship from a skilled combatant.

Koneko remains mostly silent for the next few hours. She occasionally barks an order to you, demanding a change to the play space of the chamber. You witness her immense agility, speed and strength first hand. The full usage of her nekomata powers though, that's not something that she can do just yet.

Eventually she grows tired of the pageantry and walks to the door, knocking on it twice. Your mind immediately thinks of a joke about a cat scratching at the door to be let inside, but her previous threat lingers heavy over your head like a hanging sword. She steps back through into the control room and disguises herself once more.

"See? That wasn't so bad."

Koneko huffs, "Destroying inanimate targets is different to a real battle. Controlling my emotions is not something I can learn here."

You smile, "I'm sure a time will come where you'll have a big opportunity to master yourself. The point of this was to encourage you to take it when it arrives." The white-haired cat stares at you for a moment, her cheeks reddening, lips parted. She turns her head away and tries to hide the star-struck expression she was just making. You do think the lady protests too much. You recognise that look. It has 'I want to join the harem' written all over it.

"Idiot," she snipes, "I didn't ask for your opinion, or your help."

"I know, but I wanted to help anyway – so here we are."

She peeks at you with the corner of her eye, still trying to hide her face from you; "I won't accept Rias' marriage to you until you prove yourself. I don't understand why she loves you. As her Rook, it's my responsibility to make sure that you aren't deceiving her."

You snicker, "Is that a complicated way of saying you want to hang out?"

"I never said that."

You reach into your pocket and hand her a phone, "Sure you didn't. If you ever feel like 'assessing' whether I'm worthy of Rias' hand in marriage, send me a message and I'll summon you."

Koneko snatches it from your palm at an incredible speed. "If there are dirty images on this, I'll kill you."

"I've never even used that phone. It's for you."

"You can never be too cautious around perverts," she responds. You sigh – this girl is tough.

Rias messaged you a few hours later, stating that ‘Koneko locked herself into her bedroom and refuses to come out.’ She clarified a moment later that she meant it in a good way, and that Koneko had suggested that she was interested in mastering her powers properly. That meant they were soon heading to the underworld to train as a team, as there is a rating game coming up.

You don’t know if it’s the same training scheme that they undertook in the anime; the ‘real’ version of DxD is a much more complex place than what can be shown on TV. They don’t skip over huge periods of time between important events to make things convenient. Regardless – you hope that Koneko finally learns that her power isn’t something to be afraid of. Does Kuroka even know how much of a problem she’s caused for her younger sister?

Rias also sent you some images of the rooms in the manor. She used Venelana’s pull to have some mock-ups created for you, and they’re very professionally done. They are highly detailed, transforming empty white rooms into lavish gothic landscapes. Heavy wooden furniture with plush silk cushions and wooden floorboards are the order of the day. As you flip through each one, you start to understand her affection for this kind of décor. It looks very cosy.

Particular attention has been paid to the master bedroom, which contains a monstrously sized bed. Four wooden pillars support an engraved canopy, which itself allows a selection of semi-transparent white curtains to surround it on all sides. It dominates the view with a commanding presence. Surely Rias has been considering just how many women are supposedly going to occupy it in time. You could easily fit twelve people on there with room to spare. It’s a good thing that money is no object for you at the moment.

You are also very happy to see that Venelana has not included any significant changes to the houses’ layout or exterior buildings. Eerily high ceiling crisis averted. Mitsuru speaks to you through a pile of discarded parts on the garage’s workbench, “I’m glad that our alien friends decided to keep away. It’s allowed me some much-needed time to test the form change system.”

“Now that you’ve said it, I’m sure they’ll attack again in a few minutes…”

“Don’t be so superstitious. You’re just subscribing to a form of confirmation bias,” she laughs, “Most of our conversations are on this very subject. It’s merely a matter of chance that significant events occur at the same time.”

“You’re right. We never talk about anything else anymore.”

Mitsuru adjusts her glasses, “Is that a problem?”

“Kinda? I feel like we haven’t had the chance to hang out for a while now.”

“Hm. ‘Hanging out’ can wait until the invasion of earth is ended.”

“You know that’s not true. I still find time to hang with… you know, the girls.”

Mitsuru rounds the table and points a wrench at you, “They aren’t the ones designing your equipment and monitoring social media for attacks. I’m a very busy woman. Not to mention managing our new media empire…”

You sigh. Mitsuru used to love shooting the shit about what anime she’d watched lately, or to talk your ears off about an amazing new invention she had come up with. It feels like a lifetime ago now. You both grew up, but it never felt like this before. Everything changed when she thrusted this superhero business onto you. Sometimes you miss the old days. Tucked away inside of your bedroom, watching anime above your age grade with the laptop facing the door.

“Don’t look so sad,” Mitsuru scoffs, “You should be the happiest damn guy on the planet right now. There’ll be plenty of time for us to screw around together when these aliens are dealt with. Keep your eyes on the prize.”

Things come to a sudden halt as an alarm triggers within the garage, a robotic voice calls out over a newly installed intercom system; “Warning! Alien incursion detected on fifth avenue, Wellton.”

“When did you program that?”

“When I almost missed an attack after getting too deep into my work. Get the bike and go, the form change system will automatically transport to you with the armour.”

You do as she commands and hurry over to the sheet-covered motorbike. You whip it away and mount up. Before you go, you trigger the armour bracelet and summon it onto your body. You notice that your left gauntlet bulges out slightly more than it used to, and an additional slot has been added. The engine roars and you slide beneath the still opening door.

Mitsuru crackles to life through your radio, “I’ve already prepared the first card for this system.”

Said card appears in your HUD as you power down the road to your target. A red scale is surrounded by orange flames. A subtitle, MANTLE, is plastered across the top. On the bottom is the name of the card, BOOSTING DRAGON .

“Simply insert that into the new opening and the system will handle the rest.”

“What? No new catchphrases?”

“I decided to program that into the armour. Letting you do it is a terrible idea.”

So why the hell didn’t she do that the first time? You grumble to yourself as you skilfully weave between cars and dodge red lights. Your heart is already pumping a flood of adrenaline into your system. You can hear it pounding behind your ears. The danger is clear and present. You can already see signs of the police trying to cordon off the area where the damage is happening. You easily slip through a gap in one of the roadblocks and continue on your way.

When you finally get to the scene, you find one of the local intersections in a terrible way. Several buildings have been severely damaged, with class, concrete and steel littering the tarmac below. Burned out cars and overturned traffic lights block your way. You dismount the bike and leap up onto one of the wrecks. A line swipes across your visor, the supercomputer that Mitsuru installed into the suit tries to lock on to any civilians who might have been left behind in the chaos.

“It looks clear. You shouldn’t have to worry about rescuing anyone,” Mitsuru says.

With a preliminary scan completed, you head further into the carnage and stop in the middle of the road. There’s no sign of the foot soldiers. Instead, a wormhole opens in front of you and your imitator steps out, with Vali in tow. The black armour has seen some refinement since your first meeting. Vali is immediately beside himself in rage.

“You may have gotten lucky last time, but I will not fall for the same tricks again!”

“I don’t care what you have to say, pretty boy. I want to hear from your lady friend there. Why the hell are you helping these assholes invade our planet?” The lithe figure hidden within the bulging armour shoots up as if she wasn’t expecting to be addressed. She points a finger at herself as if to ask if you mean her. “Yes, I meant you.”

Her voice is heavily distorted as it passed through the microphone, “Uhm. They told me that I could have some of my husbandos. So I agreed to help them out!”

“And you think that’s worth selling out every person on this planet?”

“Y-You’re doing the same thing!”

“Not in exchange for humanity’s freedom. If you told me that I had to pick between them and the Earth, you know what my answer would be.”

“They wouldn’t appreciate that,” she responds.

“No, they’d understand it. Unlike Vali here – they have morals.”

She crosses her arms and looks away, “This is why I prefer villains. Y-You goody-two shoes bums are always talking such a big game! But you’d throw away all of those values at the drop of a hat just to get what you really want! I’m just doing what I want to get what I want; I’m honest, unlike you.”

“I don’t know why you sound so proud of that…”

Vali snaps his fingers, “Insult my lady at your own peril, worm. I’ll soon wipe that smirk off of your face and show you that the power of the white dragon is superior to all.” You stare at him in silence. You know what? Vali isn’t really that evil when you get down to it. He’s the classic rival character. Someone who presents himself as a guy willing to do anything, but always ends up helping Issei in the end anyway.

“You’ve got a big mouth for a man I’ve blown away once already.”

“ You didn’t beat me – the red dragon emperor did.”

“What’s the difference? I could summon him right now and do it all over again.”

“Then go ahead! Like I said, I will not be defeated this time.”

Neither foe moves to stop you as you slide Issei’s card into the Sledgehammer and pull the trigger.

“ISSEI HYOUDOU! SHATTERING!”

“How many times do we have to teach you a lesson, Vali?” he declares the moment he steps through. It seems that he was keeping up with what was happening through your helmet cam. Passions are running high already, these two are itching to start a punch-up. Both dragons summon their armour and square up in the middle between their respective summoners.

“Boost!”

“Divide!”

Wings sprout and the two clash, flying up into the air and out of eyeshot. You stare down your own rival and put your finger on the trigger, “Let’s see how good you really are.”

She throws up her own black repaint of your weapon and fires it at you. Too slow. You dive behind a destroyed car and take cover from her opening salvo. You swing back outwards and return fire – she scrambles back as the shots land near her feet, kicking up tarmac and dust as they rip through the road. It’s immediately clear that she doesn’t have the same training that you do.

“I hope they didn’t just throw you out here with no training!”

She doesn’t respond to your barb. You catch a glimpse of her dashing through the doorway of a nearby storefront. You slide over the car and run after her. The door flies from its hinges as you crash through. Motoko’s intense house-clearing training weighs heavy on your mind. You check the corners and slow things down.

“Mitsuru, get me a read on that armour.”

“Already working on it. It’s spewing noise and heat signatures all over my sensors – clearly, they didn’t spend much time developing it. Whoever said that imitation was a sincere form of flattery was a moron, they’ve butchered my work.”

“Why don’t you head on over and give them some pointers?”

“Hilarious. But no.”

You hold by one of the store’s supporting pillars and wait for her to finish crunching the numbers. The sound of the dragons battling echoes through the broken windows. Mitsuru continues to type furiously, “I’m filtering the noise now. Triggering the overlay.” The visor switches shade as an additional visor slots down over the main camera, revealing the glowing outline of a hidden figure through one of the walls.

“Got them.”

You step out from your cover and aim carefully. With a well-placed round you blast through the plasterboard wall and shoot her in the back. A loud ping rings out through the shop as it ricochets off of her armour in a shower of sparks. She cries out in pain and staggers back out of the nearest door. You make chase once again.

Just as you break out into the alleyway behind the building, you are **** to dodge backwards as a beam of yellow energy shoots past your head. The interloper is someone you don’t initially recognize, with blonde hair, glasses and a well-fitted blue suit; he is quick to correct your ignorance with a boastful introduction.

“Assaulting a lady is poor manners. Arthur Pendragon will correct your insolence.”

You scowl beneath your helmet, should have seen that one coming.