Returning to Kuoh Academy two months into the school year was surreal on multiple levels.
First, there was the obvious problem: I was Issei Hyoudou's younger brother, and everyone assumed I'd be just like him. The perverted reputation, the social pariah status, all of it transferred to me by association.
But second, and far more complicated: I knew what was happening behind the scenes.
Rias Gremory wasn't just a beautiful third-year student. She was a high-class devil, heiress to the Gremory clan, with a peerage of reincarnated devils serving her. Akeno Himejima was a fallen angel/devil hybrid with immense magical power. Kiba Yuuto was a survivor of the Holy Sword Project. And Koneko Toujou—the small, quiet girl who sat in front of me—was a Nekomata, a supernatural cat yokai with strength that could shatter concrete.
I knew all of this. But I couldn't let anyone know that I knew.
"Oh my god, there's another one," a girl whispered as I walked through the hallway on my first day.
"Do you think he's like his brother?"
"God, I hope not."
I kept my face neutral and my pace steady. This was expected. Canon Issei had built this reputation over a year and a half. I just had to weather it until I could establish my own identity.
But being at Kuoh Academy meant being close to the main plot. Raynare—the fallen angel who would kill Issei and trigger his reincarnation as a devil—was probably already here, disguised as "Yuuma Amano." The events that would kick off the series were weeks away at most.
And I had no idea how to handle it.
In my previous life, I'd yelled at screens: "Just tell him she's evil!" "Warn him about the spear!" "Why doesn't anyone communicate?!"
Now I understood. How do you explain that you have meta-knowledge? That you know the future because you remember it as fiction? That you're not even supposed to exist in this story?
You can't. So you watch, and prepare, and hope you don't make things worse.
The Weird Stuff - Seeing Through the Masquerade
The Speed Force had changed my perception in ways I hadn't fully anticipated.
I could see energy now. Not clearly—not like some kind of supernatural sensor—but as a vague impression, a feeling that told me when something wasn't quite normal. Rias Gremory walked through the hallway and left a faint trail of demonic power in her wake, like heat distortion on asphalt. Akeno's energy felt sharp and electric, dangerous. Kiba's was controlled, contained, disciplined.
And Koneko, sitting right in front of me every day, felt like compressed potential. Small body, enormous power held in tight check.
I wondered if any of them could sense the Speed Force around me. It operated on different rules than their supernatural systems, but that didn't mean it was completely invisible. I kept it tamped down as much as possible during school, never using my speed for anything more than maybe grabbing a pencil that fell too fast for normal reaction time.
Passing as human was harder when you could perceive time differently, when your body wanted to move faster than the world around you, when every boring lecture felt like it was moving in slow motion.
But I managed. I kept my head down, my grades high, my profile low.
Then Koneko asked me for help with physics homework, and my carefully maintained distance started to crumble.
The Beginning of Something - A Dangerous Friendship
It happened during lunch, three weeks into my enrollment. I was on the roof—the cliché anime protagonist spot that I'd claimed mostly because it was empty and I could eat in peace.
Koneko opened the door, paused when she saw me, then deliberately walked over and sat down nearby.
We ate in silence for several minutes, and I tried not to think about what I knew: This girl was a Nekoshou, a rare and powerful yokai. Her sister had gone insane with power and killed her master. Koneko had sealed her own abilities out of fear of following the same path. She was traumatized, isolated, and desperately lonely despite the facade of indifference.
And she was sitting here with me, for some reason.
"Hyoudou-kun," she said quietly. "You're good at science."
"I suppose so," I replied carefully.
"I need help with the physics homework."
We spent twenty minutes going over momentum equations, and I felt like I was walking a tightrope. Be helpful, but not too insightful. Be friendly, but not invasive. Don't let on that I knew anything about her real nature.
"It's not about memorizing formulas," I explained. "It's about understanding what's actually happening. When two things collide, momentum has to go somewhere. It can't just disappear. Things in motion stay in motion."
She looked at me with those golden eyes—cat eyes, though most people didn't notice—and said, "Unless acted upon by an outside force."
"Exactly."
"You're not like your brother," she observed.
I laughed. "No. Very different."
"That's good," she said simply. Then: "Thank you for helping."
The next day, she sat with me again. And the day after that.
I knew I should probably maintain distance. Getting involved with canon characters was dangerous. But Koneko was… easy to be around. She didn't demand conversation or social performance. She seemed content with silence, with simple presence.
And maybe, after years of deliberate isolation, of knowing too much and being able to share nothing, I was just lonely enough to let someone in.
Even if that someone was a supernaturally strong cat girl who could probably sense that something was off about me.
"Do you think there are things science can't explain?" she asked one day.
Loaded question from a supernatural being, I thought. Be careful.
"I think science can explain anything, given enough time and data," I said. "But there might be things that operate on rules we don't understand yet. Different frameworks. Different laws."
"Like magic?"
"Like… anything that follows consistent rules, even if they seem impossible at first." I glanced at her. "Why do you ask?"
"Just curious." She held my gaze. "Some things in this world are stranger than they appear."
"I've noticed," I said, and meant it on multiple levels.
We both knew we were dancing around something. She suspected I wasn't entirely normal—probably felt the Speed Force energy even if she couldn't identify it. I knew she wasn't human, knew her entire tragic backstory, knew she was part of a devil's peerage.
But neither of us could say it outright. Not yet. Maybe not ever.
"Your brother joined the ORC," she said.
My stomach clenched. So it had started. Canon was beginning.
"I heard," I said neutrally.
"Do you want to join?"
"No." Too fast. I softened it: "I'm not really a club person. Too busy with studying and… other projects."
She nodded slowly. "But you're interested in the occult?"
"I'm interested in understanding things that seem impossible." True enough. "There's a difference between wanting to know and wanting to participate."
That tiny smile again. "Yes. There is."
After that, Koneko became a constant presence. Not intrusive, not demanding, just… there. A friend, maybe. Or at least someone who didn't judge me for being a Hyoudou, who appreciated silence as much as conversation.
And if sometimes I caught her watching me with those too-knowing eyes, as if trying to solve a puzzle she couldn't quite figure out—well, fair was fair. I was watching her too, wondering how much she suspected, wondering what would happen when the mask inevitably slipped.
Because it would slip eventually.
I was the Flash in a world of devils and angels. Koneko was a Nekoshou in a devil's peerage. We were both hiding enormous secrets behind mundane high school facades.
Something was going to give.
I just hoped we'd both survive when it did.