The Trials and Tribulations of a would be Yuri Harem Goddess (Highschool DxD AU)

"Ah, sorry, I can't. Not here and now," you tell her.

Her eyes flash with annoyance, "Why not!?"

"Because it isn't safe. We don't have the proper equipment. And if anybody caught us or rumors started of us brawling in the streets then they could use it to shut down the club."

(Roll to see if you persuade her: Charisma. (10, 1, 2) 1 Success. Difficulty 2. Fail.)

"Right, as if you haven't gotten into your share of street fights," she shoots back.

"Not since I started the boxing club," you tell her, matter of factly.

"Airi, your clearly agitated. You shouldn't be picking fights like this!" Aika cut in. "I mean I know you boxers are all meatheads, but this is just ridiculous."

Airi bristled then turned to you, "you're nothing but a coward. Too afraid to loose to give me a real fight!"

(Airi rolls to see if she can persuade you: Charisma+Manipulation. (8, 7, 6, 2) 2 Successes. Difficulty 5 (Will+Vote(2/3). Fail.)

You shake your head. "Your obviously upset. Go home. Sleep on it. If you still want, we can have a match before school tomorrow... But before any of that, you're still bleeding. Let us help you."

She stares at her hands for a long moment, drawing your own attention to them. Now that you look they actually seem a bit bruised, probably from whatever fight gave her the split lip. "Whatever. Just do what you want." She says barely above a whisper.

It's all Aika needs before she's pulling a handkerchief and a bottle of water out of her bag. Soon the rag is soaked and she's applying it to the taller girl's mouth. "Hold still!"

"God, that didn't even hurt till just now. Be more gentle!" Airi snaps back.

"Oi, no arguing with the cutman!" You tease.

"We don't have a cutman," Airi replies.

Both of your gazes drift to Aika.

"Oh no!" The glasses girl puts her arms up in a firm x of denial. "You are not dragging me into your insane need to beat on each other like... like boys with more muscles than brains. Not in a million years! Wait, don't distract me!" At the last moment she realizes she'd stopped tending Airi's wound and came back with a vengeance.

"Ah, damn it! Save me Captain!" Airi pleaded.

"Nope," you cheerfully rejoin.

For the next hour or so you keep up the light banter while Aika tends the girls wounds. Though you must admit to being impressed with the sheer quality of the glare Airi gave you when you mentioned her hands needed attention too. It didn't phase you nearly as much as finally seeing those knuckles. The skin over them was torn up, though not bleeding with any speed. You can't help but wonder what exactly she'd been hitting, a brick wall? Asking is off the table though. She clearly won't open up until she gets this fight off her chest, whatever the hell it's supposed to prove.

Airi is, unsurprisingly the first to leave.

"You thinks she'll ever tell us what happened?" Aika asks.

"Maybe. We won't know until tomorrow. You going to be there?" You ask.

Aika scowls, "of course. I can't just leave this to you meatheads now."

"Thanks, Aika," you tell her with genuine gratitude.

She smiles a little shyly, "what are friends for?"

---

As you walk home you can't help but think of the fight tomorrow. Normally you'd be looking forward to it, but this is way off. Frankly, you don't think a fight is what she really needs. Something made her doubt herself, and if you win, likely but not assured, it may cause her to break. On the other hand you agreed to it... Damn, you wish you had some better options right now, but you don't so you decide.

[ ] Fight normally. Keep on the defense early on trusting to your superior dexterity and stamina to eventually wear her down.
[ ] Fight aggressively. Her reach is wider than yours allowing her a much larger striking zone. You may not have the strength to overpower her in a clinch, but getting close enough can keep you from getting picked apart at a distance.
[ ] Look for the one hit kill. You'll stay on the defense looking for the perfect moment to break through and take her down in one hit. It'll be pretty dramatic, but you don't doubt you'll be able to get the story out of her at that point.
[ ] Get someone to talk to her first. Maybe you can't get through to her, but maybe someone else can.
- [ ] Aika, they know each other now, kinda. The feeling of owing her for tending her wounds might Airi more talkative.
- [ ] Lin, they're pretty good friends. Surely Airi can tell her friend whatever it is.
- [ ] Hishida-sensei, the club adviser. She may not have the best reputation for success, but Hishida-sensei has heart. That sincerity may break through where others fail.
[ ] Ask around before the fight, try to get some idea what might be going through Airi's head. Then use that in the fight to control the mental aspect, and possibly pry the truth out mid-match.

 

At nearly any other school in Japan Haruka Hishida would have been a standout beauty. Her thin frame, long neck and expressive eyes would have had her stand out from the crowd despite being, in most ways, a very typical Japanese woman. At Kuoh Academy she was barely above average. Of course, she'd never really cared about any of that. Haruka had become a counselor because she truly believed her path in life was helping her students to achieve their dreams... Well for a while she'd conned herself into thinking that her task was to enforce conformity, that doing so would clearly lead to the best results for the student but an incident at another school had shown her the error of her ways.

That was why, despite it being disfavored with the Student Council President, who could sometimes be accused of all but running the school honestly, she'd volunteered to act as adviser for the Women's Boxing Club and had defended her position before the board. "We want our students to feel empowered by their education, not confined by it," were the boards words as they accepted the proposal for the club, and she'd felt vindicated by them. So when the nascent club's president had come to her for assistance as both an adviser and a counselor, she didn't even think of turning her down.

Nor did she particularly think through how she would approach the young miss Katsumori, other than catching her as early as possible before the actual match that morning. This is why she approached the girl in the changing room with most of her club members still around.

"Miss Katsumori," she didn't even blink when the taller girl turned and towered over her, "I was hoping we could talk before the match."

The other girls all but ducked behind cover, creating as much space as possible between them and the pair. Lin gave the taller girl a commiserating pat on the shoulder, but ducked away all the same. Airi gave the part-chinese girl a covert glare but immediately turned her attention back to the club adviser, though from her body language you'd think she were caged in with a lion.

"Hishida-sensei... are you sure it can't wait until after the match?" Airi tried.

"But it's the match I'm worried about. You've never been a battle maniac like your Captain and Vice-Captain. I think, if you have problems you should talk them out, that's much more fitting for you," Hishida said.

"No, no, that's okay, sensei. I think, this time I'd rather just have the match..." Airi looked distinctly uncomfortable, "even if I'm not a battle maniac, It's still kind of personal."

(Hishida rolls for insight into Airi's problem. Perception+Empathy+Leadership 4 dice. (10, 1, 5, 2, 5) 1 Success... Cursed removes one success. Difficulty 2. Botch.)

Hishida sighs, "let me guess, you were trying to catch someone's eye and it just wasn't working?" Airi blinked in surprise and started to nod... "There are better ways to work out your romantic tension with the Captain than to challenge her to a match." And the poor girl was struck speechless... But not the rest of the club as they quickly started to whisper about the apparent bit of juicy gossip.

"It's not like that!" Airi protested, her voice cracking. "I like boys. Men really. Big, strong men! With big strong... err, can we just not talk about this?"

Hishida stares blankly at the girl. "It's not good to bottle these things up. And I may not know much about boxing, but I know that if you aren't paying attention during the match you could get really hurt. As your adviser I can't just let this go."

"It's... There's nothing wrong with me! I'm not going to get hurt. I'm strong! strong enough for this, at least!" Airi protested.

(Hishida rolls again for insight into Airi's problem, this time she expends a point of kindness to add those dice to her pool. Perception+Empathy+Leadership+Kindness 8 dice. (7, 8, 3, 4, 1, 0, 3, 9, 0, 6) 5 Successes... Cursed removes one success. Difficulty 3. Pass.)

"Of course you're strong. Even I know you're one of the strongest girls in this club! And this club is for people who want to get even stronger still. If someone has been making you feel like you aren't strong enough, that isn't any reason to hide away or be ashamed. If someone else is saying you're weak then forget them! And if you think you aren't strong enough then that's what your captain is for, to help you get stronger! You don't need to prove anything to anyone first, just talk to them! They'd be ecstatic to help you," Hishida told the girl.

Airi blinked and stared in shock at the older woman. Then a tension she hadn't realized she had left her shoulders and for the first time in days she felt... unburdened. It seemed so obvious in hindsight, even if she won against the Captain, what would that prove? It wouldn't matter to that person and there was a good chance she could have lost, and then how would she have felt... And all along, she could have just approached the Captain honestly and gotten real help, not just a feeling.

"I... You're right, Hishida-sensei. I really haven't been thinking straight. Thanks," Airi replied.

"Of course. I'm your adviser, and a councilor, you should be able to depend on me!" Hishida turned to leave, but stopped and turned back. "Besides, I'm sure if you built up some muscle, you'll definitely catch the Captain's eye!"

"I'M STRAIGHT!"

(Hishida's success at doing good deeds has triggered her Curse. Misfortune follows her throughout the day.)
---

While you and Airi still had your match it was nothing like you feared. In fact it quickly became more of a spar, as you talked her through some of the finer points of footwork. Due to her long legs and high power, she usually only used really stable footwork that supported her heavy hitting style, but you got her to move around more without sacrificing her ability to dig in for a blow.

After the match she joined you in the small room set aside for officer meetings and you finally got the story.

"There's this boy... We grew up together really, all of the way through elementary school. I couldn't really explain it, but we were from a small town and everyone were old samurai lines, onmyouji, all of that and we were all just kind of expected to get into martial arts. My family didn't have any special school of our own or anything, so I just joined him after school for the basics then left when his dad got to family specific stuff. Anyways this kept up until the first year of middle school, and somewhere along the way I realized I'd grown a real crush on him. I was hardly the only one, I think half the girls in the school had a crush on Tamaki-kun, but I actually knew him, you know."

She leaned back for a moment, clearly uncertain how to continue.

"Obviously this wasn't Kuoh." You inject trying to give her a starting point.

"No... No I didn't come here until after... It's just that one day... Well one day it all changed. There wasn't anything big, at least not that I remember. Just this smell... It was... It was just a terrible smell. I didn't even know what happened really, I wasn't old enough to comprehend. I mean someone tells you that your childhood friend is in the hospital and his whole family was killed by... A broken gas main? That's what they said, but that wasn't what his eyes said. He'd seen things. I didn't understand that then..."

"That must have been horrible for you, even if you didn't really understand," you commiserate.

She barks a single hard, sarcastic laugh. "Horrible for me... I ran into him yesterday. I remembered how much he'd loved practicing martial arts, and the old feelings just kind of bubbled up. I said hello. We exchanged small talk. I couldn't help it. I felt like bragging a bit. I was a part of a boxing club and I'd placed well in the tournament..."

You nod.

"He laughed. Not a nice laugh, not even a sane laugh... Maybe... Maybe he's still broken, but that laugh." She unconsciously shivered, "and then he told me... That I was just a little girl playing pretend. He told me I was weak, and I'd never even imagined what true strength is. That I should just give up pretending and go hide away like all those good little people and hope I never find out what it means to be strong."

You wince, "that's... harsh. You certainly aren't weak, Airi. Hell, in pure physical strength you're stronger than me by a wide margin. I think if we can shore up your agility and get you some good counters you'll reach a whole other level."

She smiles shyly, "I realize that now. I let him shake me, and to his mind that probably proved him right. So I need your help Captain. I need to get strong enough to prove to him just how wrong he was!"

You smile, "absolutely! We'll get started this afternoon."

You left the room in good spirits with Airi behind you looking immensely relieved. Only to receive a barrage of wolf whistles.

Airi instantly crashed past you, red faced and shouting, "It's not like that, damn it!"

Throughout the day you're frequently bemused at the rumors of your being some kind of over the top lesbian Casanova capable of turning straight girls gay, and infuriated at the other rumors of your toying with a pure young maiden's heart. Mostly though, you have no idea where any of this started or why.

Day 2 - Tuesday
Like most school days, your day is already taken up by school and your club. Only the evening and night are available. Choose two.

[ ] [Action] Training. You can always tighten up something. (3 hours)
- [ ] Specify what you want to train in. You must already have a dot in it.
- [ ] Train with Airi (Dexterity, Athletics and Fighting(Ki Arts))
[ ] [Action] Socialize.
- [ ] Aika
- [ ] Lin
[ ] [Action] Play Eroge. It's relaxing and honestly kind of useless, but very satisfying.
[ ] [Action] Go looking for some delinquents to beat senseless.
[ ] [Action] Look something up at the school library.
- [ ] Specify what you want to look up. Can be as generic as a keyword or as specific as individual's name.
[ ] [Action] Look something up on the internet.
- [ ] Specify what you want to look up. Can be as generic as a keyword or as specific as individual's name.
- [ ] Tamaki may only be a given name, and a common one at that, but there can't be that many who survived their whole family's death. Maybe you should look this guy up, for Airi's protection of course. Wouldn't do to let her chase after someone really dangerous would it?
[ ] [Action] Wander around town. Why not, it's generally a safe place and none of the local thugs are much danger to you anyways.

 

Your first order of business on getting home is trying to look up this Tamaki guy from Airi's story. It's not that you don't trust her, or anything like that, but more that you don't trust him. Trauma like that doesn't usually produce really stable people, and given that Airi herself related that he'd become something of an asshole... Well you don't want her getting hurt, especially now that she's a friend.

Reality though kicks back. You aren't any sort of expert with computers. While you have a decent date range, you don't actually know where you're looking. Worse it somehow didn't make the national news, somehow, so you're forced to fiddle around until you can search a large segment of the local news sites. When you finally find something it's... underwhelming. It really doesn't take an expert to realize that someone went to a lot of trouble to keep this quiet.

(You attempt to determine if this was kindness or conspiracy. Subterfuge+Intelligence+Perception 5 Dice. (4, 8, 7, 0, 6, 4) 3 Successes. Difficulty 3. Success.)

And it wasn't for the benefit of the family, the Kennoki. It isn't easy to put it together, but frankly the void left by the lack of information tipped you off. There were no memorials despite the patriarch being in the news several times in the years prior. Their obituaries were short and empty of detail. There were absolutely no signs of an investigation by the police, and the house was somehow sold off only a few months later.

Still with a last name you could finally find some sign of Tamaki himself.

Well that was the idea anyways, but other than a few obvious false positives nothing came up. It was possible he'd been adopted and changed his family name, or was taken out of the country or something. In any case Tamaki Kennoki was a non-entity as far as the internet was concerned.

You do however make a note to ask Airi more about her home town. It seemed like a lot of weird shit was going on down in the Kyushu region these days, though you'd think the Amakusa islands would be a little out of the way from all that...

---

You had a crit on random event roll so I'm allowing you to vote on a general path to follow:

[ ] [Path] We Need a Montage! There will be training, it will be hellish, but you will improve. (A more shounen experience, hot sensei character, more likely to attract Sona's attention.)
[ ] [Path] A Lamb to the Slaughter! Your first introduction with the supernatural is decidedly not friendly. (A more horror experience, more likely to wind up friendly to the exorcists.)
[ ] [Path] You Never Go Full Goku! Even beyond harem potential, you need a broader cast of rivals and support characters behind you. (Side story, but lays the foundation for building your own faction.)
[ ] [Path] No! You can't be the Shrine Maiden! Visiting a small shrine in the middle of the night can get you involved in more than you bargained for. (Comedy side story, eases character into the supernatural with an eventual introduction to the Shinto and Yokai factions.)