Highschool DxD: Crawling x Chaos

~Yuta Yukimura~

After taking a cold shower, or three, I started on my morning routine, I didn't wake up Asia since the girl was utterly exhausted after yesterday. So was I but she was human and I was a devil, I was built from birth to take punishment.

I took time out of my morning to cook several meals and refrigerated them for Asia to reheat when she wakes up. After that, I left my house after making sure my uniform was on properly and I was not missing anything.

Of course, the moment I left my house I saw Rias waiting for me again, I even left early this time too. For a king and Princess, she sure has plenty of free time.

"Ah good morning Yuta-kun, how was your morning?" Rias greeted me with a smile as always while I shrugged, I really didn't feel that great. I was uninjured but tired out of my mind. I followed her as we walked to school.

"Good morning Rias-san, could have been better after that insane exorcist nearly killed me." Rias stopped in place, making me furrow my brows. She turned to me with a dead serious expression.

"...Yuta-kun, what do you mean by that?" Rias said with a cold voice while I nonchalantly answered.

"Yesterday, I was summoned by a client, but it turned out he wasn't a client but a mad exorcist who shot me through my stomach, then my leg and stabbed me in the shoulder with his weapons. I drove him off though." Rias looked haunted, she clamped her hands on my shoulders and gave me a grave explanation.

"Yuta-kun, tell me everything, right now." Wow, she wasn't this mad about the fallen angels.

"Ok... but maybe let's get to the club or somewhere private first?" Without saying a word Rias grabbed my arm and formed a teleportation circle below us and teleported us to the Occult Research Club faster than I had ever seen her do before.

"We are here Yuta-kun. Now, what happened yesterday?" Rias asked me gently but furrowed her brows at my serious expression as I sat down.

"Rias-san, did you notice a demolished house yesterday?" Rias nodded.

"Yes, did Akeno tell you? We discovered the corpse of yet another contractor at the scene, it was most likely done by the fallen angels. Why was it perhaps..." In response, I wordlessly removed my top uniform, making Rias blush a split second before a much more serious expression settled on her face when she spotted the nasty scar on my shoulder and the smaller one over my stomach.

"It was actually done by me. I found who killed our contractors and was ambushed by him yesterday and drove him off." Rias narrowed her eyes, I could see an eerie aura around her as her hand crushed the desk she was sitting on with her grip. She spoke in a tone of barely concealed anger.

"Tell me everything Yuta-kun, don't spare any details, I want to hear everything, I will excuse you from your classes if we need time." I nodded and started telling Rias what happened last night.

I mentioned how I was ambushed by Freed, how Asia stood up for me, how I drove him off using natural weapons. By the end of it, Rias was hugging me like a teddy bear again, not that I minded being suffocated by her breasts.

"I'm sorry Yuta-kun... I'm sorry that I wasn't able to help you, I must seem pathetic to you." I could feel it in her voice, the fear and anger, at herself for me being nearly killed under her watch. She released my head and looked out of the window, the red aura surrounding her again.

"This provocation I can't ignore." She clenched her fist, tightly "I will find them and make them pay, even if they are from the Grigori, nobody hurts my family and gets away with it-" I cut in, my voice.

"Actually." Rias turned to me, the wind taken out of her sails with my voice, confusion apparent in her face. I looked Rias dead in the eyes.

"Rias, I will kill Freed myself."

"What are you talking about Yuta-kun? That's too dangerous, you already nearly died once." Rias frowned but I didn't back down.

"I need to kill him myself, I want to make sure I am the one that drains the light out of his eyes." My fist clenched. "And, I got stronger from surviving. So please leave this to me." I looked Rias in the eyes sincerely.

"Yuta-kun, this is incredibly irresponsible and needlessly dangerous." Rias met my gaze head-on.

"I know, but I have to, and I am confident in myself." Rias held my gaze for a full 10 very uncomfortable seconds before sighing in resignation and sagging her shoulders, making me release a breath I didn't know I was holding.

"If that's truly what you want to do, I will not stop you Yuta-kun, I will respect your wishes. But I want you to remember that whatever you need help with I will help you with it, you do not have to do this alone. Tell us if you need anything all right?" I nodded and smiled a little.

Thankfully Rias was still very understanding even if I was the one being unreasonable here. If I was in her position I know I wouldn't let myself go.

"Thank you Rias-san." Rias' frown gave way to a light smile but her narrowed eyes told me otherwise.

"However, if you recklessly go in and get hurt I will not be very forgiving understood?" I mock saluted like she was my superior in the army.

"Yes ma'am" Rias' expression finally softened as she leaned over and hugged me again, I did not mind as she was really soft but it was still a little weird regardless.

"Alright, Yuta-kun, I am choosing to trust you so don't disappoint me. Now, we should get going, we dont want to be late for class more than we already are." We both got up and headed to class after that since even Devils cannot afford to be tardy I suppose.

But the thought that lingered on my mind was...

Well, I better not disappoint after I talked all that.

I was going to crush Freed swiftly and thoroughly.

♢—•♧•—♤—•♡•—♤—•♧•—♢

~Yuta Yukimura~

Although I wanted to bust down the church door and tear Freed to shreds, as Rias had said earlier, it was very reckless for me right now.

In a direct confrontation, I wasn't confident in besting Freed, he was fast, strong and ruthless even if he wasn't very bright. And he wasn't sadistic enough to drag a fight out.

But unlike last time it wouldn't be so one-sided, because this time it wasn't Freed ambushing but hopefully it would be the other way around. The importance of initiative in a fight cannot be underestimated.

Still, I need something.

So that was why I was now in the woods at the back of the Occult Research Club, no one came here, which was perfect ground for some improvised training.

I was not strong enough with just my current powers to take down Freed, maybe with Iron Manipulation but I wasn't confident enough in it to trust my life with it. Then I thought about something.

My instincts as an Esper tickled something in the back of my spine, it told me that I wasn't utilizing my abilities well enough, a nagging feeling that I hadn't tried something.

I stared at the abilities screen in deliberation.

My abilities individually weren't anything too impressive, only Natural Weapons managed to drive off Freed because he was caught off guard.

Individually...

My eyes opened wide as I looked at the ability screen closely.

___/Abilities\_____________

-Active(2/2)-

[Uncommon - Natural Weapons]

[Uncommon - Sand Veil]

What if I try to use them together? But that doesn't work, there is no way for Natural Weapons to affect the Sand Veil and vice versa. Sure I could use the help Sand Veil provides to ambush my enemy with Natural Weapons but... that doesn't seem to be what my instincts tell me, I already knew about that, if it was that then I wouldn't feel such a nagging sensation.

I looked into myself. The points of light inside of my soul slotted into imaginary notches representing my ability slots.

Use them together. Together...

Their effects, not using them one after another or that sort of thing. Their effects, use them together, where do their effects intersect? Where could they intersect?

I felt it, it was almost like a magnetic force once I had found it, with a nudge, I felt the abilities want to combine as I pulled on both lights together in tandem.

____________________________

Temporarily Combine [Uncommon - Natural Weapons] and [Uncommon - Sand Veil]?

____________________________

When I approved I felt the sand of Sand Veil, instead of doing what it normally would and creating a sandstorm around me, instead swirled around my arm violently, I felt it, my command over the sand, I could shape it into weapons, projectiles.

My eyes moved over to the window. My lips curled into a smirk as saw I was what was on my ability list.

____________________________

[Combination - Desert Weaponry]

|Rarity: Rare| |Combination: Sand Veil & Natural Weapons|

"Desert La Spada!"

Allows you to form violent sandstorms into a variety of weapon-like projectiles.

____________________________

My inner weeb cried its heart out, even the system was telling me, just do it, it was begging.

I reared my arm back and the sandstorm grew more violent before I swung.

"Desert La Spada!"

The sandstorm I threw out turned into multiple fan-shaped blades, like guillotines made of sand, tearing through multiple trees like they were made of paper.

...So, this is what actual power felt like. My body felt tingly, like a current of electricity was hooked up to me. I felt like a child again, finding a fresh chest of toys to play with.

With a thought, Desert Weaponry fell apart back into Natural Weapons and Sand Veil. I wanted to see if I could find any other combinations. So I glanced over my ability list before deciding on a combination.

___/Abilities\_____________

-Active(2/2)-

[Uncommon - Natural Weapons]

[Uncommon - Sand Veil]

-Storage-

[Uncommon - Regenaration]

[Rare - Pearl Jam]

[Rare - Disguise]

[Rare - Iron Manipulation]

[Elite - Ghost Form]

Thinking of an idea I replaced Natural Weapons with Ghost Form instead and to my delight I felt the sensation of a potential synergy again, like putting magnets next to each other, you could just feel them being compatible.

And combining them gave...

____________________________

[Combination - Sandstorm Shift]

|Rarity: Elite| |Combination: Sand Veil & Ghost Form|

Allows you to turn into a living sandstorm. You can freely control the sand stream, the only way to damage you in this form is to destroy the sand particles that make up your body. Your sand cannot extend more than 20 meters away from your centre.

____________________________

A defence even better than Ghost Form, if I trained I could even pull a logia and transform the moment a punch hits me. The problem it had was that its on-and-off states were more difficult than Ghost Form. With Ghost Form, I could simply flicker it on and off. But with Sandstorm Shift I had to gather everything in one place to turn back.

Unfortunately, I didn't have all day and energy to keep working on synergies so I focused on Sand Weaponry the most during the break I had since the teacher was sick. Straight-up strong stopping power with decent was very valuable to me, especially against Freed, with its range he didn't have many ways to respond to it.

I could definitely work with this.

Synergies were seriously useful things weren't they?

A/N: Rias gives Yuta the go-ahead to go on his roll-collecting trip- I mean his revenge mission against Freed that is totally unrelated to the hefty stack of tickets he will get from clearing Act 1: Fallen Fiasco.

I decided to refine the combination abilities in MHA to a more refined version and came up with the synergy system, because Yuta has a lot of potential synergies, especially with Natural Weapons. What did you guys think about the synergy system? Do you like it? Have any ideas for your own synergies between Yuta's abilities? I'd love to your thoughts about it!

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