Author's Note: A double chapter post! This is my present to all you readers, so I hope you enjoy them!
In a moment of genius, Ichigo accessed the game menu, noting with relief that when the world grayed out and stopped moving, so did Tiamat.
Now that he had a moment to think, he remembered the quest thing that had appeared earlier, and he groaned as he realized that there was really no way that he was leaving the dimension without the blue dragon as a familiar. How was he supposed to make her a familiar though? Obviously it was something Devils knew how to do, so some type of magic maybe? Did he even have that?
The first thing he checked was the spell tab in his skills page. When he saw the staggering number of spells he apparently had, his eyebrow twitched. There was no way he'd be able to look at each and every one to see if it was the spell he needed...oh look, a search bar. Awesome.
He entered the word 'familiar', and a second later only two spells were left on the page. They were called Summon Familiar and Bind Familiar, the second spell likely being the one he needed to officially make Tiamat his familiar. Luckily after he clicked on Bind Familiar he was given the option of creating a shortcut to the spell, which apparently meant that to use it all he had to do was say the name of the spell.
Sweet.
He did the same thing with Summon Familiar, just in case.
Ichigo exited the game menu and as the world regained its color, he looked up at Tiamat and told her bluntly, "I look forward to working with you," and then he took a breath, raising one hand to point at Tiamat as he intoned, "Bind Familiar!"
A bright blue magic circle appeared in front of his hand, and the magic didn't even take a minute before it took effect. He practically felt something click into place as the circle disappeared and the glow of the magic faded.
[Quest complete] The window appeared in front of him, and he didn't even flinch. He was too used to weird pop-ups to be startled by one now. [Gain Familiar - Tiamat, 1000xp. Kurosaki Ichigo has gained a level.] Huh, he must have been pretty close to leveling up earlier.
The second window was something he'd only seen once before.
[Tiamat has permanently joined your party as an active-combat type. You can now request to fight alongside Tiamat for an indefinite period of time.]
Cool.
Ichigo looked up at Tiamat. "You wouldn't know how to get back to the Human World, would you?"
It turned out she did.
He thanked her profusely even as he braced himself for the uncomfortable feeling of portal-travel.
The last thing he heard was a warning not to summon her for minor things, as she was a busy dragon.
Somehow he didn't think that that would be a problem.
The portal dropped him outside Kuoh Academy.
Which was cool, if a bit painful.
After he managed to stand back up he went straight home, and he must have looked pretty bad because Akagyoushi paused mid-ambush and then quietly retreated to the guestroom.
His futon had never felt more comfortable.
When Ichigo woke up the next morning and shuffled into the bathroom to get ready for school, he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror and stared.
...At least the bags under his eyes weren't too bad. That was something to be thankful for.
Breakfast consisted of instant noodles that he shared with Akagyoushi, who had apparently stayed the night.
Their bond went up a level.
He wasn't really surprised, but damn the Voice was annoying.
He called his sisters that day, just to let them know that he was still alive and relatively fine. This turned into an hour-long conversation with Yuzu telling him to make sure he had right and didn't just heat up instant noodles all the time (how'd she know?). Karin chimed in to ask about the sports clubs at Kuoh, which he really couldn't answer, but he did confess that he'd gotten a part-time job and a pet lizard that acted like Goat Face.
The girls were appropriately sympathetic.
Of course then Karin made a crack about him getting a girlfriend and got Yuzu started on the subject.
He silently vowed to send them both jewelry or make-up in retaliation (everyone opened their mail at the same time, so once Goat Face saw what he'd sent he wouldn't let Karin throw it away).
The next time Ichigo saw Issei do something abnormal (in this case transform his right arm into a crimson gauntlet), he promptly dragged the pervert someplace secluded to demand answers.
He consciously used his Intimidation skill, and amidst the frantic babbling and half-excuses, Issei gave him the full story.
Not a lot he didn't already know (the Three Factions stuff wasn't new to him, though the Rating Games were), but he was glad that Yuuma/Raynare (her real name apparently) was dead and the pervert had gotten closure. The news about the Sacred Gears and the Evil Pieces was rather surprising, mostly because he hadn't gotten that far in his reading yet.
Apparently Issei was a Pawn, alternatively the weakest and the strongest Piece due to its power of Promotion i.e. the ability to take on the traits and powers of other pieces when in enemy territory. The pervert's Sacred Gear was called Boosted Gear, one of thirteen Longinus', weapons capable of killing even a god, and it could boost/double Issei's power every ten seconds.
Lucky bastard.
It turned out Gremory Rias and Shitori Sona aka Sitri Sona were both High-Class Devils, and their peerages were the Occult Research Club and the Student Council, respectively. He couldn't say he was surprised.
The explanation finished about the time the lunch period ended so he let the pervert go, much to Hyoudou's immense relief. Ichigo graciously pretended not to notice the tears of relief shining in Issei's eyes before he ran away. Poor pervert didn't really know what had hit him, which was why he'd performed his impromptu interrogation that way; less chance for Issei to dodge his questions.
([Intelligence has gained a point!]
[Passive skill: Strategic Planning has been created!])
...He didn't know if he was offended by that or not.
Three days later Ichigo got the chance to find out what the Devil form he'd acquired in that vault was.
He'd just been minding his own business, playing around with some of the new powers of his Devil form, mostly leveling up his Telepathy by using it on various squirrels. It also turned out his encounter with Tiamat had given him Pyrokinesis, though he was hesitant to try that out in the middle of a forest. So reading the minds of small tree-dwelling rodents it was.
Once he got tired of hearing high-pitched, squeaky voices chanting about nuts in his head, he ceased his Telepathy, which now up to whopping level three. His Devil transformation also timed out, and he decided to seize the chance for a break and eat some of the riceballs he'd packed for a snack.
He was just finishing off the last of them when he had to abruptly grab his bag and leap forward, turning the move into a roll in order to avoid the fireball impacting right where he'd been sitting. The poor log he'd been using as a chair was reduced to cinders.
The one responsible soon came into view, and he groaned quietly as he looked at the Stray Devil in front of him, for what else could it be? No other Devils he'd seen looked deformed like that.
For the most part the Devil's torso and legs were humanoid, save for the scales covering its' feet, as were the arms down to his - the form was male - hands and his head except for the hair and ears. The Stray Devil's hands were long, blade-like red claws that flickered with bright orange flames, and his hair was a writhing mane of pure fire, his ears pointed like an elf's. A pair of thick horns jutted from the Devil's forehead, and the plain t-shirt and slacks he was wearing were threadbare.
The Stray Devil flicked his hands, sending tongues of flame slithering towards where Ichigo was crouching, and the orange-haired teen promptly jumped straight up, profoundly thankful that he was wearing the enchanted boots. As near as he could figure the boots merely increased his jumping ability by a lot, which was definitely handy in a situation like this.
His only problem was that his Fallen Angel and Devil forms were still recharging, or at least he thought so, so he was basically a human against a Stray Devil.
Yeah, he was kind of doubtful about his chances of winning, at least not without an insane amount of luck.
Ichigo spent the next few minutes dodging the fire attacks of the Stray Devil as well as being profoundly grateful that his Resist Fire ability had carried over, as he didn't quite manage to avoid all of the fire-whips. His pants now sported several scorch marks to match the ones on the surrounding grass and trees, though the skin underneath was unharmed.
This seemed to frustrate the attacking Stray, and he made a sound like a cross between a trumpet and a screech, venting his anger as he lashed out with glowing whips of controlled fire. His blade-like claws sliced through the air, sending scythes of flame towards Ichigo and forcing the former Substitute Soul Reaper to run almost straight up a tree before performing a backflip off the trunk.
Ichigo put the enchanted boots to good use, jumping around like a demented rabbit as he kicked off the ground and rebounded off trees. When he got close enough during a round of dodging he seized the opportunity to kick the damn Stray in the face, using him as a spring-board to avoid yet another lash of fire. His Resist Fire skill might be gaining levels like crazy, but those whips still stung like hell when they connected!
A minute later the Stray gave up on ranged attacks and charged Ichigo head-on, which made dodging that much harder because the fire-controlling Devil was fast.
The swings of the Stray's claws left trails of shimmering heat behind them and it was pretty much as test of flexibility for Ichigo to avoid being sliced in two.
While Ichigo dodged, trying to put some distance between the two of them, he mentally cataloged each move and anything that looked like it could be a weakness. The Stray apparently had to swing his entire arm to use the fire blades as projectiles and used his entire body as a pivot to swing them with more force, Ichigo couldn't take advantage of that unless his speed increased. One option down, he thought as he ducked another swing and felt a swathe of heat pass over his head.
Another option might be spraying his opponent with water, but as there wasn't a fire-hydrant in sight as he marked yet another idea off the increasingly short list as he backflipped away from a downward slice of the Stray's claws.
Surprisingly the Stray snarled, his eyes burning with rage as he barked out, "Stay still so I can kill you! I, the great Leorz, the Eruption Bishop, will not be defeated by a mere human!" His flaming hair burned higher in his anger and changed to a deep red color.
That brought Ichigo up short for a moment, as he hadn't expected the Stray to be able to talk. The hesitation almost cost him as the Stray took advantage of his pause to swipe at him again, but his magic boots saved him. He was up and over the Devil's head before the Stray really registered his move, and he seized the moment to kick the bastard in the back and send him tumbling forward.
Teach the jerk to take a cheap shot at him.
His training spot was taking a lot of damage, and some of the blackened streaks on the ground were starting to smolder rather alarmingly, and Ichigo was just pissed off enough that what he did next seemed like a perfectly reasonable thing to do.
He activated his untried Devil form, and the characteristic flash of blue filled his vision, though for some reason it seemed...icy.
When the blue light cleared away Ichigo noticed several things; the first being that he was taller than he had been a minute ago, and the second was that the clearing had completely frozen over. Ice and snow covered the ground and the trees and it was like he'd teleported into a winter wonderland.
The Stray - Leorz - was gaping at him, and just to be a jerk Ichigo announced, "Devil Form - Duke Valefor." Huh, his voice had changed too - it was a lot smoother and a bit deeper.
Deciding to take the time to experiment, Ichigo stretched out one hand (and yup, this definitely wasn't his body, he'd have to find a mirror if he survived this) and concentrated. A bolt of ice flew out of his hand, though sadly his aim was a bit off and it only hit Leorz' shoulder. But hey, the Stray's whole arm promptly froze solid, so that's something!
It turned out his Duke Valefor form could control ice and snow.
Awesome.
A savage smirk spread across his lips, and his eyes gleamed as he stared at the now very nervous Stray. Using both hands he began hurling bolts of ice at Leorz, the other Devil frantically diving out of the way of the attacks. Wherever his missed shots hit the ground, a large, sharp flower of ice bloomed. He switched it up as he tried to improve his aim with the ice bolts - changing from concentrated ice magic to widespread blasts of frost and back again.
His ability to hit his target began to gradually improve, the fire-controlling Stray being nicked by the ice magic being thrown at him, and Ichigo was intrigued to see that where the Stray was hit the skin turned blue, almost black. It was like watching accelerated frostbite...Neat.
Getting a bit bored with the standard icebolts and frostblasts, he began conjuring frozen spears in the air around him, testing the limits of what he could do with this new form. A rain of razor sharp icicles flew towards Leorz, the Stray panicking and frantically sending blast after blast of fire towards the oncoming storm. It had no effect, and one of the icicles speared the Devil through the thigh, drawing a pained howl from the flaming Devil.
That was when Ichigo brought his hands up until they were level with his chest, facing inward and towards the other, leaving plenty of space between them. He set about creating a whirlwind of small, sharp shards of ice between his two hands, and when he judged it big enough he sent it flying towards the bleeding, snarling Leorz. It hit the Stray in the side when he managed a limping lunge in an attempt to avoid it, and the impacted side was promptly torn almost completely to shreds by the spinning ice shards that mimicked razor blades.
By now the snow around Leorz was dyed a deep red from the Stray's blood and Ichigo didn't want to risk this transformation's time running out before he won. It was time to get down to business, he could experiment with attacks later.
Four minutes later, Leorz' hair was completely gone, his hands were frozen into blocks of ice, his fangs were chattering, and the Stray generally looked like he had a terrible case of frostbite. Ichigo decided to put the poor bastard out his misery and stretched out his hand again, aiming his palm towards the partially-frozen Stray. An icicle spear through the chest finished him off.
[Active skill: Devil Form - Duke Valefor has gained a level!]
The former Substitute Soul Reaper wandered over to where he had tossed his bag, having to dig through a snowdrift before he could find it, but as he shouldered it something occurred to him. He immediately accessed the game menu and went to his skills, tracking down his Valefor form and checking it out. It turned out there was a lot of information on his newest form's powers and abilities, and the more he read the more impressed Ichigo was. Damn, this guy had been pretty fucking strong. And his skills were nothing to sneeze at either.
A lot of the skills were grayed out though, showing that he wasn't a high enough level to use them. He would have to find time to work on that - maybe he should look into writing up a training schedule?
When he was done reading, he exited the game menu and was about to set off back to town when another idea came to him. This time he conjured up a mirror made out of ice and took a good long look at himself.
And then promptly gaped like an idiot, which frankly looked weird on his current face.
Duke Valefor, as it turned out, was 6"8 tall, and could only be described as absolutely gorgeous. Pure white hair that just barely brushed the collar of his coat framed his face, which was pale and regal. White eyebrows were positioned perfectly above a pair of icy blue eyes, and his lips were slightly pale, with the bottom one being a bit fuller than the top one. His body was slim but muscular, though his current outfit concealed the muscles he could feel he had admirably. Four pairs of pitch black Devil wings were visible behind him. His clothes had changed along with his form, and he was now wearing a white coat trimmed in pale blue and held closed across his chest with silver clasps, the garment going down to just passed his knees. The shirt beneath that was white, from what he could tell, and his trousers were ice blue with white detailing along the seams on the outside of his legs. He was wearing knee-high white leather boots with pale blue patterning around the tops and on the heels, and the silvers clasps on them matched the ones on his coat.
Through a great effort of will, Ichigo managed to close his mouth, and he spent a moment admiring his current appearance.
A minute later his transformation wore off.
There was a pause, and then a loud yelp echoed through the frozen clearing, "Jeez that's cold!"
[Passive skill: Resist Cold has been created!]
Ichigo made it back to his apartment in record time.
Author's Note: Not sure how I did on the fight scene, so let me know if you noticed any errors! I hope you all enjoyed these two longer-than-usual chapters! As always, constructive criticism is welcome!