Disclaimer: I do not own "High School DxD."
PoV: Shoichiro
Fire.
Fire dominates my dreams.
The only other thing I can make out is a single, terrifying red eye. Other than that?
Fire.
Fire as far as the eye can see.
Even I'm on fire. I mean completely, "covered head-to-toe in flames" on fire.
Eventually, I wake up. I'm not on fire, nor is my bedroom, which is oddly well lit for 5:00 in the morning.
Except it's not 5:00 in the morning; it's 1:29 in the afternoon.
That's weird... how did I sleep an entire day away?
Wait a second... fuck that, how am I even here?
It dawns on me what happened to me the day before.
I got stabbed in the gut by a crazy bitch with wings using a magic spear.
The hell with late; I should be dead right now!
But, I'm not dead... am I?
I peek outside and everything seems normal. No red sky or anything else I might associate with the afterlife.
So my scientific intuition tells me that I am still very much alive. Consequently, my memories of being murdered must also be a dream. Thus I decide to pay it no further mind.
I get out of bed, and I immediately notice several things are very wrong.
One, I'm naked. I never sleep naked. No real reason for it; it's just not something I do.
Two, I'm a lot closer to the ceiling that I was before. Did my house shrink or something?
Three, I am uncoordinated as hell all of a sudden, like my body isn't my own.
I stumble over to my mirror, and it becomes very clear.
My body really isn't my own.
Somehow, I've grown almost a foot taller overnight, and I am jacked. Like, "1980s professional wrestlers on steroids" jacked. I have muscles in places where before I didn't even have places. I try to take my contacts out, to see if maybe it's just my eyes playing tricks on me, except I'm not wearing contacts.
Okay... then why is my eyesight so sharp?
I try to blink away the confusion, which ends up being a really bad idea. Every time I blink, what I see changes. It's enough to make me dizzy, and I crash to the floor with a loud thud.
I can only hope that someone will have heard that. In the meantime, I try to sort out my eyesight.
Right now, everything is green. I can see solid objects, but no colors. It looks familiar, like something I've researched before... then it hits me.
My eyes are working like a pair of night-vision goggles at the moment.
I blink again, and now I see everything in greyscale. I think this is infrared, but I'm not entirely sure.
I blink yet again, and I see nothing. I hold my hand up in front of my face, and I can see the temperature contrast from the air. Thermal sight.
One more blink, and my room comes to life. Fortunately, I don't have to dwell on this one long. My TV, computer, even the power lines in the wall are all lit up. This must be electromagnetism.
It's still freaky, but at least this ability is the one that actually makes some sense so far. Tree Girl, Tetra Tits, Bat Cosplayer, even Yuuma right before she murdered me; I could sense some strange aura around all four of them.
Electromagnetic radiation, which now I can see instead of just sense.
I blink one last time and my sight returns to normal. I blink through them all one more time just to reassure myself. NV, IR, thermal, EMF.
Neat.
"Shii-kun, are you all-" Sure enough, my mother heard me hit the floor and has come to check on me. She stands in the doorway dumbstruck.
Wait a moment... I'm still naked.
"I'll.. be back. You get back in bed and get some rest, if you can." Wait, what? Get some rest? She's not chiding me for missing half a day of school? Something is not right here. But she's gone, from my room and the house, so I don't have the opportunity to question it.
Half an hour later and she's back. She hands me a bag; inside is a brand-new tracksuit. "You should go shopping for some new clothes," she advises me. "It looks like you'll need a whole new wardrobe, but be back by 9:00. Obaa-san is coming for dinner." She then leaves with a pained look on her face, which is absolutely bewildering. But I figure I can worry about that later; right now I need to do what she has told me so I can train before Obaa-san gets here.
I go to run my hand through my hair, except it's... not... there. It dawns on me that I never looked at my face in the mirror, so I take another look at myself. For whatever reason, the changes that have taken place below the neck are nothing compared to what's happened above it. I have facial hair now, a black mustache and goatee. I have to say, it's a good look. My hair, on the other hand... wow. What the actual fuck, my hair.
Instead of the poof I used to have, my hair is now laying down neatly and parted down the middle. It's braided on the sides, and threaded onto each braid are various beads: one each yellow, red, blue, white, orange, purple, and green. They seem to be facet cut, like you would expect... no. That cannot be possible.
There is no way in hell I have actual, literal gems hanging off my head. How?! It makes no fucking sense!
...Then again, nothing over the last 24 hours has made any sort of sense, so I might as well roll with it.
I do as Kaa-san has instructed me, and spend the next few hours buying all new clothes. Since I have to get measured for my new school uniforms, that's where I go first. The numbers are shocking to say the least. I'm officially 6'3" tall, 215 pounds, a size XL shirt, and 38x36 pants. That's 9 inches and 60 pounds that I was not carrying yesterday. Again, it makes no sense.
Something else that makes no sense is, these are the exact people I bought my unis from to start my freshman year at Kuo Academy and they clearly remember me, but they're acting like nothing about my appearance is out of the ordinary. Beyond weird.
I do the rest of my shopping to the tune of almost 100,000 yen - arigato gozaimashita, Obaa-san - and go home. By the time I put everything away and remove all my old stuff - I'll have Tou-san donate it to some charity somewhere, I guess - it's only 6:00. Perfect... I still have three hours to work out and get ready for Obaa-san to get here.
Unfortunately one thing becomes very clear, very fast. Hauling an extra sixty pounds is going to take quite a bit of effort to get used to. I'm winded after only eight miles, and forget stopping for strength exercises.
I end up at the park and go to splash some water from the fountain over my head, when it dawns on me.
This is where I dreamt of being murdered last night.
Before I can make any sense of it, the hair on the back on my neck stands up. I'm not alone.
I look up and the sky is nearly black - I'm sure it wasn't that late? - and someone is walking towards me. He's a good hundred feet away from me, but I can see him clearly enough. He's wearing a suit, trench coat and fedora, someone you would mistake for an everyday Japanese businessman heading home from work.
Except the murderous aura cloaking him tells me he's clearly here on some other type of business.
"Well, this really is unfortunate. Me running into you, that is."
He carries a similar EMF signature to Yuuma. So he's working with her, and he's here to kill me.
My body is shaking with fear once again. He glances up at me with evil intent, and I take a step back, wishing for one step to become a hundred.
Next thing I know, it feels like time and space are disorienting around me. When everything settles, the fountain is between me and this guy.
Okay... that was new. "Looking for a way out?" I hear him ask. It's as if he's mocking me...
I don't have time for this. I do the only thing I know for a fact I can do at the moment. I run.
Unfortunately, running does me no good. Feathers fall down around me. He can fly.
He lands in front of me and I pull up.
"Such cowardice... I can't abide lower-class beings." What the hell is this guy even talking about?!
"So let's see... it appears that your friends and master are nowhere to be found."
Friends? Master? What the fuck?
"You show no signs of disappearing, nor are any magic circles being deployed. Therefore, I will assume you are nothing but a stray, is that correct?"
He holds his hand out and conjures a magic spear, just like Yuuma.
"And that would mean... killing you won't be a problem!"
Just like Yuuma...
That's when I dig in.
He has a weapon; I don't. My odds of survival aren't great, but I refuse to go down without a fight. Whether this is a dream or some warped version of reality, I am not dying today.
He takes to the sky and cocks his hand back. I can see a line from his spear to the ground, and my body just so happens to be on that line. Out of instinct - or is it something else? - I dodge to my left.
As a result, the spear sticks into the ground. I'm mercifully unhurt, but I can't do this forever. I grab the spear, and it feels like time has stopped.
Frequency: 3.7x10^6 GHz.
Amplitude: 300 kVp
Encased in a neutron shell, with a second layer of waves at a frequency of 600 THz.
I'm able to analyze magic on a level like this. The spear disappears, he's already locked and loaded a second one, but it doesn't matter.
I think about the one thing I could use right now more than anything. My right hand starts to glow as a result, and I jump backwards moments before the spear impacts the ground.
My motions are almost automatic at this point after ten years of practice.
I reach into my quiver.
I nock the arrow.
I draw the string.
I take aim, and I can see exactly where my shot is going.
"If I can analyze your magic..." I let my bow sing as I shout out, "I CAN USE IT TOO!"
I fire an arrow under his left arm, between it and his body, and pierce his wing. He falls to the ground in pain, but I think that's mostly from the shock of having his own magic used against him. He stands up and dusts himself off. He's clearly not badly hurt.
I aim to change that, until he suggests leaving things at this for now.
"Not the worst idea you've had today." My next arrow is aimed right between his eyes.
"It's unwise to run loose like this. The next time you're out for a stroll, you might run into someone less cordial than myself."
"Is that so? Then here's a message for them." I adjust my aim and fire an arrow right into his shoulder. If he's anatomically similar to humans, I hit him just below the collarbone.
He laughs my shot off; I should have at least tried to jack up the amplitude. Instead of continuing to fight, he bares his wings and takes off.
"My name is Dohnaseek, and I pray you and I never again cross paths."
I don't know if that's for my benefit, or his. I turn to head home, my bow vanishing from whence it came. But before I leave...
"It's okay, you can come out now."
No response, other than the stillness and silence of the nearby woods, so I have a seat on the edge of the fountain. I cycle through my various sight modes until I reach EMF, and look up into a tree.
Now I see how she was able to hide from me for so long; she can turn invisible to the naked eye. A clever trick, nonetheless.
I reach out and make a grabbing motion, and a little bat-type creature appears next to me. It doesn't look the same, but it doesn't have to; its magical signature gives it away.
It's Bat Cosplayer Flier Girl. And she's terrified of me.
I give her a menacing look for a few moments. Then with the most delicate touch I can muster, I brush her wings with a single fingertip.
"I have a message for your master as well: I'll be coming to see her real soon."
Tomorrow afternoon there will be a meeting at school, club president to club president.
Having survived this particular brush with death, I enter my home thinking I'm safe and sound.
Wrong... turns out Obaa-san has arrived early.
My mother chides me for being late, and my grandmother chides her for chiding me. In the end, Obaa-san wins because she was the one who showed up early.
With that fracas out of the way, I take my shower. It's clear from the bumps and bruises on my body that I've been in some sort of fight, but I can easily explain them away as being clumsy while training. I get dressed and join my two maternal ancestors for dinner; Tou-san isn't home for some reason or another.
The three of us sitting around the table makes all the more clear who I really get my looks from. Obaa-san is darker than me, taller than me at 6'9" and looks like she was literally carved out of stone. As muscular as I woke up this afternoon, I'd still have to train for a hundred years straight to have a body like hers. She has red eyes - where is she from that they have red eyes? - and jet-black hair done into a single braid that she always wears over her right shoulder. She looks phenomenally young, too. If we were to go out in public together, I could see people confusing us for siblings.
The only thing that I find really strange about her appearance is a leather choker she wears. It's as weird as it is beautiful. It has a black rose with gold trim on it, superimposed onto three pairs of wings. It has to mean something, but I've never been able to convince her to tell me what.
She's looking at me strangely, with a sense of wonder. As a result, I try to keep a plate in front of my face at all times. She's really making me self-conscious here.
Finally she speaks, and she sounds oddly young when she does - even younger than she looks. "So, Shii-kun, did my daughter explain why she called me here tonight?"
"Of course not... more to the point, why did you refer to her as 'your daughter,' instead of 'my mother?'"
She and Kaa-san look at each other; Obaa-san laughs while Kaa-san sighs. "As perceptive as always... very well, Shii-kun. I'll get right to the point. She called me here because of you."
"Me? What did I do?" She says nothing, just gesturing at me. "Not my fault I woke up like this!"
"Nobody is blaming you, Shii-kun. In fact, it's actually a blessing. But before we go any further, you asked why I didn't call Haruhi your mother. It's because she's not."
I know the answer to this next question, but I power through it anyway. "If she's not my mother, then who is?"
"I am." Called it. "Haruhi has been raising you from birth, but she's actually your older sister."
"I see... then if I may ask Obaa- I mean, Kaa-san, exactly how old are you?"
My mother - scratch that, my sister - attempts to scold me again. My grandmother, now our mother, silences her. "I am three thousand, five hundred and sixty-six Earth years old."
I don't know what's more shocking: the fact that I'm learning all this, or the fact that I'm not more shocked by it. Although thinking about it, it kind of makes sense. The last couple of months have had me questioning my own humanity; this just confirms it. "Okay then, you're over 35 Earth centuries old. Clearly you're not human, so then what exactly are you?"
She smiles, as if she's been waiting for this moment for a long time. "I am the eleventh heir of the Black Rose clan, retired Auroch of Ages, and retired 3rd Legion Commander of the Bronze Dragonflight."
I listed to everything she said, but it felt like a lot to take in. That last word, though? That got my fucking attention.
"Are you saying..."
"I am. My name is Arceus, and I'm a dragon."
I can fathom no other reaction at this very moment other than to laugh.
My name is Shoichiro Seiryuu, I'm 15 years old, and apparently I'm a dragon.
PoV: Rias
I woke up extremely late this morning.
After last night's catastrophic failure, I couldn't bring myself to go to school today. I complained about a headache (wasn't too hard to pull that off) and stayed home.
Although for what it's worth at this point, I might as well just drop out. Not like an education in the human realm is going to do me much good as the bride of Riser Phoenix, anyway.
I'm laying in bed trying to figure out what went wrong.
The fallen angel did her job, so I should have been able to swoop in and reanimate the human boy easily enough.
Except I wasn't, because he wasn't human.
Suddenly, marrying Riser seems like the safest proposition. I am clearly out of my league if I'm desperate enough to try to appeal to other underworld beings, which could backfire not only on me but on my entire family.
I halfheartedly bathe and join my family for lunch. They ask me what's wrong, and more importantly what happened to my head. I still don't have the heart to tell them.
To admit that I not only went against the family's wishes, but failed so spectacularly in the attempt.
How am I fit to be the head of the Gremory Family if I can't even fill out my own Peerage?
By the end of lunch, nobody has said anything about it, not even my brother. That means he doesn't know, which means it wasn't a devil. In that case, I'm in the clear; as long as it wasn't a Devil or a servant from another Devil house, nobody in the Underworld will really care.
That still doesn't make me feel any better about failing, but I'll have to deal with that eventually.
Facing my Peerage tomorrow will be a daunting task on its own, but I certainly can't put that off forever. They expect better of me, and I've just let them all down in a major way.
If I were to agree to the Rating Game right now, we'd be outnumbered four-to-one, not to mention have a severe experience disadvantage. Just agreeing to the marriage would save us all the humiliation.
The rest of the day passes and I'm finally feeling well enough to eat dinner. Shortly after that, my familiar returns to me with disturbing news.
Seiryuu is alive. Not only that, but he can use light as a weapon. And he's, quote, "coming to see me real soon."
Dinner makes its second appearance of the night.
