DxD: Analog Destruction

Tutorial Stage #8. - Walking Corpse.

"That's great!' Kyu took in a shaky breath. "I was wondering what kind of activities that this club does. I mean, the name 'Occult Research Club' doesn't explain a whole lot." A bead of sweat formed on the side of his head.

"It's quite mundane. We mostly comb through countless books researching Youkai and other supernatural entities." She summarized. It was truly a shame because that sounded like fun to the boy.

"So... various mythology... stuff like that?" The strain had caught up to him, he was panting and sweating like he had just finished a ten-kilometre run.

"Yes-- Are you okay?" Himejima asked with a kind smile on her face.
"Yeah, the first years just had P.E. I guess I did a bit more than I'm used to." The boy lied without hesitation. He forced his breathing to even out and fought against the brief feeling of suffocation before shooting another question at his senior.

"Why does your club get to use this giant building?" He asked. Clearly, the young woman wasn't expecting such a question but she did have a response.

"Well, the original Occult Research Club was in the new school but after a few mysterious events, it was moved to this building, away from the rest of the students."

Kyu was impressed with her reply. It seemed reasonable that people would want the spooky club moved out of the school if some creepy things happened. It was too bad that he thought the story was horseshit.

It was bittersweet that the bell had rung. The sound echoed throughout the grounds and the boy felt frustrated and relieved at the same time. He wanted to probe for more information rather than these surface-level lies Himejima told, but at the same time, he couldn't bear holding his energy back any longer.

So, with a swift goodbye, Kyu walked away from the clubhouse and took off running after he heard the door close behind Himejima.

Himejima Akeno collected her items from the main room of the clubhouse located on the second floor. She had just told the only other occupant of the room, the club president, that they had to return to the main building.

"Something odd just happened." She brought up with her best friend and fellow school idol: Gremory Rias.

"Is something wrong?" The girl with crimson hair asked.

"This first year showed up at the club asking if he could join." Himejima began explaining, her story was brought to a pause by Gremory interjecting.

"It's always so sad to see the youth become enamored by my beauty, only to be shot down." She tossed her hair backward to emphasize her statement."Don't think that everyone comes to the clubroom just to see you, Rias." Himejima smiled. She typically kept her eyes closed when she smiled, it seemed she thought it added to her vice-president persona. It worked because many of her fans attributed her popularity to her calm smile. The two friends were close, very close, but they tended to turn their popularity into a competition of sorts, they had done this ever since they had first met. But they had gotten off track.

"He didn't have a presence, Buchou." The vice president got straight to the point. "It was like I was talking to a corpse."Gremory's face fell.

"Do you think the boy is a zombie of some sort? Maybe a spirit possessed him?"

It had been years since the Occult Research Club had dealt with a ghostly matter. They had to cooperate with the other group of devils ruling the school to resolve it last time.
"Do we have anyone that can keep an eye on this kid?" The president of the club asked her vice.

"Koneko-chan's in the same class as him."

"Perfect. We'll have her follow him after school." Gremory said.

"Are you sure we should have her monitoring him? If he is a spirit of some sort, she doesn't know any magic that'll affect him." Himejima asked.
The entire club knew that Toujou Koneko was a close-quarters fighter, she was formidable when in her element, but outside of it she was just a tiny powerhouse with no outlet.

"But, maybe we should send Kiba-kun, or even I could--"
"Akeno." The vice president fell silent at once. "I know you're worried. But--"

"Last time the Church almost--"

"That won't happen this time. We won't make the same mistakes, besides, we both know that Koneko-chan is the best positioned to watch that boy, no matter who or what he is." Gremory said with a tone of finality.
The two didn't converse anymore as they walked back to the school.

The final bell had rung and students quickly began hurrying off of campus.

The courtyard had become clear, only a few students who had lingered remained, and one of those students, a first-year, Toujou Koneko caught the most attention.

Like the others in the Occult Research Club, Koneko had a fanbase of her own. She had a reputation for being the school's mascot on account of her short stature and cute catlike appearance. Unlike the others who seemed to revel in their popularity, Koneko hated every bit of it.

As per her usual routine, she ignored the whispers, upfront conversation-starters, and just about any form of contact that the other students made towards her. Even if she wanted to talk to them, she was wholly focused on her assignment.

The president of the club had given her a person to keep an eye on.

The target was a first-year, like herself. He was described as pale, foreign, and skinny. As if he had one foot in his grave.
With a description like that, she simply searched for the student in her class who looked the most decrepit.

Suzuki Kyu was the alias that the creature was using. Akeno's assumption that he was a spirit or possessed in some way seemed hard to believe. Suzuki had a home address, and phone number, and his grades were pretty good for someone who just enrolled. Koneko, due to her prior experience with malicious spirits knew that the most violent ones were so consumed by their hatred in life that they could barely form a cohesive thought.

To see Suzuki achieving decent grades and holding an extended conversation with Yamamoto-sensei almost every day, he just seemed like an ill, but normal person. But alas, Koneko was specifically given this task and she wouldn't fail. Not again. If the vice president said that Suzuki Kyu was a specter, then he was a specter.
It wasn't difficult to tail the boy. Koneko simply pretended like she happened to live in the same direction he did, she made sure to keep her distance, roughly ten meters away from Suzuki at all times.
The tracking was going smoothly, the boy didn't make any stops and seemed oblivious to Koneko's presence. There was one instance where she thought he noticed her, he had suddenly snapped his head to the side, turning it as far back as he could as if trying to see behind himself, but it was a false alarm. It seemed he just had a stiff neck and was trying to loosen it up. After the two had entered the suburban area, where Suzuki's house was located, Koneko was disappointed that he wasn't up to anything, today, at least. She knew that it was unlikely that she would catch him up to no good immediately, but it certainly didn't ease her doubts. He seemed like a normal human.

Suzuki ducked into an alley between four houses, he probably used it as a shortcut on the way to his house. Koneko sped up to make sure he didn't take a different path while he was out of sight, and a good thing she did, too. She almost missed his blazer whipping around the corner at the end of the alleyway.

She entered the alleyway and sped up a bit more to chase after the boy, but her stalking was cut off by a concrete wall rising from the ground. She almost walked right into it. Koneko heard the concrete beneath her moving and twisted her body to look behind her, only to find another wall had risen behind her and the two were forming a ceiling, trapping her.

A rush of triumph thundered through her mind. Akeno-senpai was right! Well, for the most part! Ghosts didn't typically manipulate structures, but she was right that Suzuki Kyu wasn't a normal person!

She realized that he was probably running away while he had stopped her there. She pulled her fist back and shot it through the concrete wall in front of her, to her surprise it wasn't very thick only a few inches at best. Child's play to her. She raised her leg and swung it into the wall sending rubble crashing forwards, out of the alley.
She began running to the end of the alleyway, only for a flash of light to swing out from behind the corner and fill the area with light. Koneko let out a yelp as the light burned her sensitive eyes.
She felt the ground rumble beneath her and the next moment, she was being crushed between a newly-formed wall and the wall that sealed off the back of the alley.
She was pressed flat against the walls, even with her supernatural strength she couldn't get enough leverage to break either of them.

Her stoic demeanor was crushed much like her body, her high-pitched screams pierced through the air like a bullet. Eventually, she couldn't hang on anymore. Her previously burning white vision turned black.