A/N: Hey guys! Here's the opening prologue of Book 2 of my K.O.W.I. series! Before we get started, allow me to do the disclaimer!
DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own any franchise referenced or used, as they are the respective properties of their respective owners, creators, authors, and publishers. This fic is a continuation of my AU of Marcus Galen Sands own fic 'God Slaying Blade Works', and this book is mostly set in the world of High School DxD. Any references made to other fanfics or franchises are credited as used to the best of my abilities, with a meshing of canon lore in a manor that makes sense without over-relying on plot armor, and with my own original ideas thrown into the mix. This is a FREE FANFIC of a FANFIC, meaning a FAN-MADE FICTION of a FAN-MADE FICTION that I wrote for ABSOLUTELY NUDDIN'. So if you paid tyo read this, then you got ripped off. And if you do not like it, then you don't have to read it. Nobody is making you.
And now...
STORY START:
King of Wrought Iron Book 2: Guardian of DxD
Prologue: A Grudge Settled, New World, and New Opportunities
Dimensional Gap between Worlds
Shirou P.O.V.
I was not in a very pleased mood. Tetsu was even less happy than I was currently, as I slashed and he punched through the small army of ghouls that were blocking our path to reach the fucking bastard Dio Brando. That blonde time-stopping vampire has been a constant pain in the ass for the last ten years since he stupidly decided to steal from Zelretch. Between stealing the ability to jump to parallel worlds from one of Zelretch's grimoires, his time-stopping ability he copied after stealing research from Aoko's home in Misaki City, on top of his high-speed vampiric regeneration, let's just say he was a complete annoyance to catch and finally bury for good.
It's not that we couldn't catch the blonde prick; it's just that he's just that damned slippery! And it's not just ghouls we're dealing with either. A few of his victims have become vampiric thralls under his sway, making them somewhat trickier to deal with, given the fact they were slightly smarter and in physically better shape than the rotting carcasses that were a ghoul's body. As we carved our path through them, those bloodsuckers under Dio's thrall began to start cursing at me while Kurotetsu simply got more angry with each taunt…
"Hammer-swinging Demon!" *SPLAT*
Tetsu simply remained stoic in the face of the taunts, but if the way his punches were getting stronger, he was getting even more pissed off with the monikers they were calling me, since they didn't see him as anything more than a tool, despite having a mind and soul of his own. If he wasn't a known 'property of a sorcerer' like he is to the Mage's Association, they'd dismantle him for study and rip the soulstone right out of him for examination. Not that I'd let them anyway. In fact, the only reason Dio didn't try to take my buddy Tetsu was because he would fight back. That and Tetsu would splatter his ass if he tried.
"Heretical Sword Saint!" *SLASH*
That one actually made me cleave it down the middle with a single sword slash, killing it instantly. Tetsu and I were doing one-shot one-kills here. They were so weak compared to us, it was actually laughable. The only thing these lackeys were doing was serving as fodder to slow us down by barely a few seconds. All they were really accomplishing was slowly piss of Tetsu; the guy actually is less machine-like and almost indistinguishable from a normal human aside from his stoic disposition and literal 'man of few words' mentality…
"Wizard Marshal's Janitor!" *WHA-BOOM*
Tetsu didn't take that particular one kindly, and that bastard was lucky to suffer the sentient machine's fists over my blade for that one, as he hates being referred to by that name as much if not more than I do. The fact it was splattered into a smear a full ten meters across the floor and wall of the room was merciful death compared to getting carved to death by a thousand cuts in a split second by my hand for that one…
"Emiya Shirou!" *CLEAVE*
"Yep. Thank you, that's my name. Finally, one of you actually calls me by it."
I said in response as I cleaved it clean in half. And wasn't that the truth. Every one of these things has either groaned while trying to lunge at us in the case of the ghouls, or in the case of these vampire thralls, simply call me a demeaning moniker that Dio has taken to giving me several of and ordering his thralls to call me by as a taunt. Tetsu they just ignore. They don't see him as anything other than an extension of myself, and thus nothing to worry about if they take me down...or at least at first they did anyway…
Dio found out the hard way that trying to take me down actually sets Tetsu off far faster than insulting me would and in the most violent fashion, and makes him an even bigger threat, thus directing a few thralls to target him to keep busy while the majority still fight me. Bastard just barely managed to give us the slip before we found him again. That's the reason why he fled to this pocket space he set up for himself in the Dimensional Gap. After he stole a tome from Zelretch five years ago that gave him the ability to hop between dimensions and make a pocket dimension to hide within, he made a target of himself for the elder bloodsucker. Zelretch may be pretty laid back for the most part, but stealing from him is practically a death sentence for anyone stupid enough to try.
And five years prior, ten years ago during our first encounter, he stole research notes from Aoko's family home back in Misaki City, thereby making an enemy of the Fifth Sorcerer. Suffice to say Aoko was none too pleased, and when the bastard tried to capture and rape her, that set me off when I found out. There is one thing that'll set off my protective instincts faster than anything aside from hurting others, and that's rape.
When it comes to Dio Brando, he made Zelretch an enemy by stealing from him. Aoko he pissed off by breaking into her home and stealing secrets to her sorcery in a bastardized form and then tried to rape her. As for me, he pissed me off by using his newfound and stolen mysteries to essentially kidnap, rape, break, then murder countless women, several of which were forcibly impregnated from the rape he put them through. After he 'had his fun' with them, he murdered them when they bored him. Either by turning them into ghouls or mercifully killing them and draining their corpses dry. Suffice to say, he's going to suffer very painfully by the time I'm done with him for all the shit he's pulled over the years.
These thralls and ghouls are all the leftovers of Dio's most recent victims he had since the last time our paths crossed. It's been almost five years, and the blonde bloodsucker's been pretty busy with snatching women and turning the unfortunate enforcers sent after him into either ghouls or thralls under his total control. As for the women he's taken...well, most of these ghouls are the end result of what happened to the victims he's gotten bored with…
Suffice to say, had Aoko not time-jumped out of there when she did, she'd be among these walking corpses. After carving our path through all the vampiric thralls and controlled ghouls, we finally made our way to where Dio was desperately setting up some kind of fail safe he had apparently been working on in the event we showed up again. Not on my watch; Dio Brando was NOT escaping from me again.
Throwing my Black Keys in a carpet bombing over the entire room, I also threw a few of my more recent additions. It wasn't really anything seemingly special, aside from the glowing Nordic Runes on the one end opposite where you held it, it was an otherwise completely normal-looking wooden stick. From what Zelretch told me when he gave it to me though, it was meant as a gag, but this joke weapon was actually highly underappreciated, given it's effect.
Dio however, saw the stick among the Black Keys and jumped to the side after using his time-stop for a short burst before Tetsu neutralized it yet again. Dio just looked at me with his blood-red eyes glowing as his wounds were slowly beginning to regenerate back up after being hindered by the two swords in my hand, [Shirou] and [Sora]. Funny thing about the Dual Origin Swords, they can hinder regeneration for a while afterwards thereby rendering those not outright killed vulnerable for a while. He simply looked right at me as he said it in his arrogance his last words.
"Oh no you don't Emiya! I am NOT getting [Le Bonk]'d today!"
Oh yeah, that enchanted wooden stick is called [Le Bonk], the Comedic Sleeper. The gag for this weapon is that it was meant as a joke in that anyone who got struck by this stick would be getting an instant T.K.O. with one-hit if struck over the head. With a very funny 'bonk' sound in the process, hence the name [Le Bonk]. If the target was wearing a metal helmet, it would make a comedic 'thonk' sound instead. It's part of the reason why I like using this weapon in cases where I was outnumbered. Unfortunately, it doesn't work on ghouls or undead, but for facing vampires and their thralls it does.
Dio found out when I struck a few of his thralls over the head with it what it did, and has made it a point to avoid getting hit with the sleepy-time stick every time I bring it out. Funnily enough, despite being my enemy, the phrase he coined for getting hit over the head with [Le Bonk] became what it I started to have it called: Getting [Le Bonk]'d.
Unfortunately for Dio, he was so focused on my Black Keys and copies of [Le Bonk] he forgot all about Tetsu, who then started to pound the vampiric sex offender into hamburger with a barrage of electrified punches fired with a pace that would have given a machine gun a run for its money and focused enough to make it turn green with envy, as Dio was subjected to the electrified charges flooding his nerves, frying his body as the residual electric discharge was like getting hit with hundreds of lightning bolts back to back by the time Tetsu finished his barrage and pulled away for me to finish the bloodsucker off.
He wasn't going anywhere this time. He wasn't pulling a Houdini this time. He was going to die and that was that. As I stabbed him with [Shirou] right in the heart and [Sora] in his spine though the gut, he was essentially going to bleed out. He got stabbed through the abdominal aorta from the front. After which, I sliced my blades outwards, cleaving his flesh to free my weapons and gutting the vampiric bastard. He was going to bleed to death in a matter of minutes, and he knew it. Yet instead of screaming or cursing us for slaying him, he did something unexpected. He began to laugh. A hysteric laughter, born of madness as though he knew something we didn't, the unwarranted mirth of maddened glee in his voice as he spoke his final words making me wary of something...something BIG was coming…
"You've sealed your fate...Emiya...I deliberately led you here...now I hope you don't mind the thing I found here...something more dangerous than even TYPE-Mercury...say hello...to TYPE-Great Red...and rot in hell as I drag you...with..."
As he died, I suddenly felt it more than saw it. Grabbing Tetsu and bolting away, the two of us ran as we started trying to prepare for a jump, but Testu's clear worry made it obvious; he couldn't find a jump point to get us back to Zelretch in time. Chancing a glance over my shoulder, I saw a big fat eye as it glared down upon us, practically breathing mana...oh you gotta be shitting me…
"IT'S A ROOT-FUCKING DRAGON!"
Testu suddenly picked up the pace and I was doing the same. Normally, I wouldn't find dragons to be problematic for me to fight. Unfortunately, this one was the size of the Eiffel Tower and as big around as the Roman Colosseum at minimum! I was physically and mentally drained on top of that. If I were by myself, this wouldn't be a problem. But Tetsu's here, and he needs to get out of here, stat, or else he risks breaking down on me! We have to run, NOW! The damned thing starts to breathe as a very pissed off dragon's breathe is about to be coming down upon us, so I do something I know is risky, but I do it anyway.
"Tetsu! GRAB ON!"
He heeds my command as I slash the air before me to perform an emergency escape. I don't care to where or to whom we end up, but right now anywhere but here is safer to be! Random jumps are dangerous, as there is no telling where you'll end up, but right now I just want to get away from here! I can sort out where we land later! Tetsu and I just barely get through the portal before the dragon's breathe hits my back, and it fucking burns! We didn't so much jump into the portal as get booted into it! This is going to suck a lot when we finally land…
As I jumped through the portal, I could almost hear something speaking to me...two voices, begging as one for something as Tetsu and I jumped through…
'Thou **** in Ta**t*d St**l *** ****** ********
Please, oh ***** ** *******...Help us **** *** *****...'
Great Red P.O.V.
I felt something off within this space of infinite nothingness as I smelt something not-right and foul invade my domain. It reeked of blood and death, yet was fleeing from something that gave me pause. Two scents, both of fire and steel, yet one gave me a nostalgic feeling, like that old friend of mine...I've taken over this realm of infinite nothingness simply because I wanted a peaceful place to sleep undisturbed, so I kicked the Dragon God of Infinity Ophis out of here and took the space for myself.
Yet that unexpectedly familiar-scented guest obviously fought against the foul one, along with the other steel-scented one. Yet when I got closer to try and see why this one felt familiar to me so, he left, much to my disappointment, but I made sure to incinerate the foul one and his disgusting fellow's remains. Simply grunting as I was disappointed in not finding the familiar-feeling one who gave such a nostalgic sensation for me, I turned and went back to where I was resting before. Perhaps that nostalgic one's dreams will give me insight to why he felt so familiar to me…
Scene Change
Kuoh City, Japan
Shirou P.O.V.
My body was rather sore after the rough emergency jump and landing Tetsu and I pulled. Lifting my beaten and battered body up after I came to, I took notice that Tetsu was still in one piece, though somewhat battered himself from the landing. He looked at me in some concern, as he looked at me, but isn't able to talk much, given how much strain he put on himself, and his body locked up somewhat as a defense against moving in his current state. Tetsu was never much for chat, preferring action over words. Then again, he typically never says more than three short sentences back to back, and that's if you manage to catch him when he's felling chatty.
After starting to move again, he could pass off as being somewhat sore and slightly burned as he and I started to get up and get moving. It was blurry, but I could tell he and I were next to a road, and with a grassy patch next to us. That meant people might be nearby. Not good. Tetsu and I needed to get away from public view before-
"Oh my God! Hey! Are you two okay?! Doctor Takeyama! We need your help here, NOW"
Crap, we got spotted. On the bright side, he was speaking Japanese, meaning we were back in Japan. The fact he was shouting for a doctor meant we landed near a hospital, which meant we might get the help I needed, but the problem was with Tetsu. If they tried to treat him for something serious, it might cause problems…
"Takashi, what's the-HOLY SHIT! How is he even still alive?! Get an emergency room prepped stat! We need to operate to treat this, NOW!"
They picked me up and I felt myself being taken on a gurney while Tetsu is being carefully walked due to the soreness he plays at to cover up the mechanical movements he'd make otherwise. As they rushed me through the doors to the hospital, the older man, who I assume is Dr. Takeyama, began to asses my condition while trying to get me prepped…
"Don't worry kid, you'll be alright! You're in good hands." 'Takashi' says, much to my annoyance at the irksome way he calls me. Hey, I might not look it, but I'm about Thirty-six or Thirty-seven! I might be a kid to the old man, but you are most certainly not much younger than I am physically, so why-?!
Suddenly I noticed why, as when I saw my reflection just now in the elevator doors, I noticed it finally. I still had my two-toned rust-red and ash-white hair, dark caramel colored skin, and heterochromatic gold and silver eyes, but that's not what drew my attention so…
'Oh by the Mother of Akasha, Alaya, Gaia, and all things in-between...by the sweet divine whore who felt heaven, how the fuck did I turn back into a Root-damned teenager?!'
I mentally screamed in my head as I tried to figure it out, but the IV drip was causing me to conk out...I vaguely heard Tetsu tell them he was mostly okay, how he was just slightly burnt while mostly sore in a few places, but he was more worried about me...right before I passed out…
Few Days Later
Kuoh Hospital
I was laying in bed as Tetsu sat next to me 'sleeping' to conserve and build up his energy reserves. After coming out of the O.R. and being cleared for questioning, the local police came to question me. They asked why Tetsu wasn't saying much, then I smirked as I told them Testu wasn't much of a talker, even when he's being chatty. He rarely says more than three short sentences back to back, much to my amusement at the look of the detective as he heard this.
I heard him mutter something about a real-life Sado Yasutora before asking what happened. Now, I didn't like lying, and I sucked at memory alteration spells. So I did the one and only thing I could: I told half-truths and let them fill in the rest. I explained that Tetsu and I were friends and orphans who got kidnapped, managed to fight our way out of confinement, but the kidnappers doused the whole room in some kind of oil or grease, then threw a Molotov cocktail at us in an attempt to pull an impromptu fireball they made of that room in a failed attempt to napalm our asses.
Whatever happened to them or the others caught up in the blast was something I didn't know, and I basically have no memory between being caught in the blast and being half-dragged by Tetsu to wherever they found us, or even where 'here' is. Not necessarily untrue, but deliberately left out the supernatural elements of the story. The detective however, as much as I hated having to do such, took my story at face value, and the whole city began to crack down on kidnapping cases throughout the city, much to my guilt over having to all but lie to the guy.
After spending about a week here in the hospital, I was finally cleared for discharge. However, when Iwent to get the bill for the medical charges, I found myself and Tetsu being covered by the detective, adding onto my guilt of having owe a debt. Sighing as he refused to let a teenager pay for something like this, I realized I now had a debt to pay before I could leave, and even then, I couldn't go about things since Tetsu and I look like minors, meaning we'll both need to enroll in a school here until we can classify as legal adults.
So now Tetsu and I were transferred into the second years of Kuoh Academy, a former all-girls school turned co-ed just this year, with a male-to-female student population ratio of 80% female to 20% male...oh joy. And as if that wasn't enough, the second Tetsu and I walked onto campus, we both felt a bounded field of some kind used for detection, as well as a few different supernatural presences. Just great...this town has a Second Owner overseeing it, and we were basically trespassing onto their domain...just my shitty E-rank luck…
Whelp, best we can do is try to remain under the radar as best we can...only time will tell how long that'll last. As I walked into the campus in order to head for orientation, however, I noticed two particular presences that made me pause. The 'scent' of one that she gave off was most certainly not human, or at least not entirely. A hybrid, perhaps? She smelt of 'light', 'taint', and oddly enough...'lust'...that's what my brain registered as the defining traits of this signature. Along with...feathers? Odd, but I guess I can figure it out later.
As for the other...it was 'average'. I barely suppressed the urge to yelp and urn around at the source, managing a glance as I saw a brunette girl of about my current physical age. She wore glasses, but was smirking at me rather appreciatively in a very disturbing manner as she made all too clear what she wanted from me. That explains the odd feeling I got just now...it's faint, but I guess she's a natural-born magus to use an instinctive [structural analysis] on my body. That's a disturbing thought. A pervy female magus with an affinity for all five of the Five Great Elements. She could be this world's version of one Tohsaka Rin for all I know.
Turning to look over at Tetsu, he gives me a sympathetic look. Looks like I'm not the only one uncomfortable with her gaze. Hopefully nothing too bad happens, but knowing my luck, not likely with my track record. Root-damn my shitty E-ranked luck...
A/N: And that's the prologue for Book 2. Just so you all know, it's going to be set about six months before canon starts. To my understanding, and this is my currently updated understanding, Issei was a second-year transfer to Kuoh Academy's high-school division, not a first year like I originally thought. So timeline is six months before Issei becomes a devil. For anyone who can guess who the girl was from DxD that was the 'average' reading Shirou got, you get a cookie. Also, thank you to my good buddies Vein Bloodborne and Tsunashi777 for bouncing story ideas back with. The angel one isn't Akeno, but an OC idead that Tsunashi helped me out with. Bet you'll find it funny when I get around to revealing it. Until next chapter, PEACE OUT!