3 Hunter and the Hunted

The defeat of Tsubaki brought a great shock to the student council, after all, their queen just lost to a normal human!

Although they knew that the vice president wouldn't use all her strength against someone without a reason, she was still a devil with the Queen piece!

This hurt Sona's pride, both as a King and best friend, but it didn't raise any hostility towards Touma. On the contrary, she became more interested in him and the thought of recruiting him to her peerage crossed her mind.

'Maybe a Knight piece would fit him.' Sona thought, but she immediately shook her head, 'I will need to discuss this with others first.'

Unaware of their thoughts, Touma took off his helmet and looked at the defeated queen with a professional smile.

'It's a shame that I didn't have the opportunity to use my abilities, but it's not like I am in need to show off.' I thought as I extended my hand for a friendly handshake. "Shinra-san, your physical capabilities are amazing, probably the most astonishing I have seen so far, but because of that you have grown too reliant on it which makes you more prone to make mistakes. It was a nice spar."

Tsubaki looked at his hand for a second and smiled. "I feel the same. Thanks for your guidance." She shook his hand with her own.

Then Touma gave her some pointers and went to instruct other members…

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After a couple of hours, the training session ended and they were preparing to leave, including Touma, as he was about to close the dojo for the day.

However, he couldn't just let them go without getting any information. Although he doesn't know anything specific about it, his instinct was telling him that it was related to the supernatural.

"Wait Shitori-san." Touma called her. Sona turned around and looked at him with question marks popping out of her head. "Did you hear about the case of missing people?"

Sona was caught off guard by his question as she didn't expect it. Choosing her words carefully, Sona replied in a manner that a normal person could understand.

"I heard from someone I know that there is a murderer around Kuoh who is hiding in the buildings of his victims, but apparently he only attacks at night." Sona said. 'He must be worried about his and his family's safety.'

"But don't worry, it seems that police will soon catch this psycho." Sona added, trying to reassure Touma. 'It seems that we need to kill the stray before it causes more damage! If it wasn't for its great concealment, it would have died long ago!'

"I see." Touma nodded and he started putting the odds together. 'That someone must be the higher-ups, so it's probably either Sirzechs or Serafall. And the murder is mostly like a stray devil.'

"Thanks for telling me.." Touma said while waving his hand "Be careful of your way!"

The student council bid their farewell as well and finally left.

Touma watched them leave and the smile on his face gradually faded. His expression turned serious and he looked over the city.

"It seems like the opportunity to test my skill has arrived." Touma said as he closed and locked the doors.

Before he went hunting the stray, Touma messaged his parents that he was going to have lunch outside.

Now, as every hunter does, Touma has to search for his prey.

'If what Sona said is correct, then the stray is mostly active at night and will rest in the daylight, almost like a vampire.' Touma thought as he strolled around the residential areas of Kuoh.

He took an onigiri that he stored in the [Inventory] and ate it.

Patience was a virtue.

It took hours and hours until Touma found the location and by that time, it was already afternoon.

From outside, the building looked completely normal, but the ominous feeling that it released was menacing.

"Excuse me, ma'am." Touma reached an elderly that was passing by. "I have some questions that I would like to ask."

"Hello, young man." The granny smiled upon being greeted. "Sure, I will answer for a handsome boy like you."

"Do you know who lives here?" Touma asked as he pointed at the house.

"Oh, it's the Kobayashi family, if I recall correctly. Their youngest son has been playing with my granddaughter lately, maybe they will even marry in the future." The granny laughed heartily before turning towards Touma. "Why do you ask about them? Did something happen?"

"Nothing like that, I am just doing a survey for my school project, but no one answered the door when I rang the bell." Touma casually lied, feeling some pity from the family and granny's granddaughter.

"I see, then have good luck on your project!" Granny said as she waved her hand and walked away.

'It seems that no one has noticed anything yet, so that means the stray still has some rationality to hide its tracks.' Touma thought and gradually approached the door.

He jumped over the fence and immediately summoned the Black Keys from [Inventory].

A red 'T' object appeared between each of Touma's knuckles.

Touma activated the Crest of Star and quickly went to the backyard. He approached the door and twisted the handle.

'It's unlocked.' He thought as he pushed it open but in that instance. The smell of rotten flesh had reached his nose.

'Fuck!' It was a disgusting smell and Touma held himself back from puking right there.

Not wanting to stay there any further, Touma rushed forwards and arrived at the living room. He widened his eyes when he saw three corpses, with flies flying everywhere around them. But what surprised Touma was the fact that they looked dry and withered.

'So it really was a vampire!' Touma thought and with a quick inspection, he didn't find the vampire on this floor.

So he went upstairs.

Touma silently opened the door of the master bedroom and finally found his target!

The room was dark, with the windows covered with curtains, which blocked the sunlight from entering. On the king-sized bed, the stray was laying there, sleeping.

The stray, like others of the same category, has a monstrous appearance.

It was a humanoid bat with gray skin, sharp long canines hanging out of the mouth, and a pair of big bat wings on his back.

Touma remained unfazed as he passed mana through the Black Keys and a sharp blade immediately came out of the top of each 'T'.

Without a sound, Touma raised his arms in a cross in front of his chest. So, without wasting time, Touma threw them at the stray devil.

The Black Keys pierced the flesh of the stray and the beloved weapon of Church immediately started doing its work, as blue flames covered the weapon itself and burned the stray at the same time.

The stray was woken up, but by this point, it was already too late for him, as his screams became the requiem of his own death.

"Devil and vampires are powerful creatures of darkness." Touma spoke, feeling pointless at remaining silent anymore, as he watched the stray burn by his weapons, but he didn't feel that was enough. So he brought more Black Keys from the [Inventory] and threw them at the vampire. "And because of that, they also possess many weaknesses, like the holy element and weapons like this."

Black Keys were weapons created by a certain priest in the past, who was also a swordsman at the same time, and the main purpose of this weapon was to kill Dead Apostles, which were equivalent to vampires in this DxD.

"Now time to pray, vampire." Touma said and threw more Black Keys at the stray devil.

"I will kill. I will let live."

"I will harm and I will heal."

"None shall escape my grasp. None will escape my sight."

The vampire let out a screech as some parts of its body already turned to ash.

"Be crushed. I welcome those who have grown old and those who have lost."

"Devote yourself to me, learn from me, and obey me."

"I give you rest."

"I will lighten your burdens and make you forget about them."

"You find forgiveness here. On my incarnation, I swear–" Touma threw the last Black Key at the corpse of the stray, which collapsed in a pile of ash, with the rest of Black Keys laying on the floor. "–Kyrie Eleison."

Touma finished the chant and sighed.

"The holy business leaves me with a heavy atmosphere." Touma muttered as he went to pick up the Black Keys and returned them to the [Inventory]. "Hopefully, I won't be too involved with them."

(A/N: How to raise a flag 101.)

(E/D: Your next line will be, "It was a cliche all along")

Out of curiosity, he looked around the room and saw a safe box.

So, as the good samaritan he was, he stored it in [Inventory] and went to take any money he saw in the house.

'This is the payment for your revenge.' Touma muttered as he took a Summoning Pamphlet from the [Inventory] and activated it before throwing it to the house.

At the same time, Touma immediately baited out and ran as fast as he could to his home.

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Already in his home, Touma took a quick shower to get rid of the smell and sat on his bed.

"Let's do this." He said excitedly as he exchanged all money in his [Inventory], even the one inside the safe box, to GP (Gacha Points)

[GP: 2 → 97]

(E/D: This hurts... my... my wallet... Gacha!)

(Gacha: You mean, our wallet!)

"Three multis…" Touma muttered and opened the Gacha tab. "I will pull twice and leave the last for the future."

Then Touma pressed his finger on the [10 Roll] button.