Sorry, this took so long and is fairly short. I would have liked to make it longer but I was in the middle of exams for around 3 weeks and didn't want to keep anyone who actually wanted to see more of the story, wait any longer.
Thanks for the support I've received on the first chapter. I appreciate it a lot!
Daniel wasn't exactly sure what to do. He had just arrived in Kouh, a small Japanese town full of prestige and apparently some of the most beautiful women in the world. He wasn't sure about the second part, but it definitely helped in choosing to go.
He was in a situation where some police officers saw him walking around during what was apparently a school day, and because he didn't have any fake ID on him, they saw his real age of 17, nearly 18. It took a few minutes for them to calculate it, but they eventually asked for his guardians, which he didn't really have, hence his situation. He was sitting in a police station in a waiting room. They were trying to sort out schooling arrangements for him, strangely enough. It was weird to see people care about a random kid on the street so much.
They didn't bother with his housing arrangements since he had already gotten a house, but now they were waiting for one of the board members from the academy in the area to arrive and see if they would accept him into the school.
He was blown out of his thoughts by a woman dressed in a formal business suit walking into the station escorted by one of the officers who were trying to help with the school arrangements. She had black twin tails in her hair with two ribbons, one for each tail. Her eyes were dark lavender colour, and her face looked rather young. The suit she was wearing was supposed to hide her figure, but it didn't do a good job, she was still rather curvaceous. That wasn't why he was shocked though. It was because he knew this person. Rather intimately too.
In front of him stood Serafall Leviathan, one of the four Devil Kings.
Her dark lavender eyes locked with his piercing red ones. Upon contact, she seemed to visibly lighten up. He was glad they were in public, otherwise, she would have smothered him by now.
"Is this the boy you were talking about?" She asked the officer who had escorted her.
"Yes, this is him." The officer replied. "Apparently he only just moved here. He has no guardian and no school to go to."
Serafall sighed.
"Don't worry the school will take the boy, besides I know him already," Serafall replied. "He went to one of my old schools. Quite gifted in a lot of the things he does."
What she said wasn't exactly a lie. The way he knew her was because she taught him some magic a few months after he left Scathach. He had picked up Scathachs' fighting style so quickly she only had to teach him for a few months. It was a similar story for just about all of the people who had taught him in the past two years, even the woman in front of him.
"Is that so?" The officer trailed off in response. "Either way, the boy already has a house to go to, so if your willing to take him you two can be on your way."
"Of course, thanks for your help." Daniel smiled at him. It was a rather agitated smile, but he had gotten good at playing it off as a legitimate smile thanks to some of his old teachers.
"Not a problem, young man." He smiled back, tipping his hat a small bit like a gentleman.
Serafall stifled her giggles a little seeing the gesture since she could tell Daniel didn't care in the slightest.
They all gave a small bow as per the culture of the nation they were in demanded and made their way out of the station, where Daniel's immediate response to everything that had just happened was moping. He didn't want to go to school. He had originally gone there because he heard something about Kokabiel pulling some trickery in the town, tricks that weren't very funny.
"Aww~ don't act so sad, or you'll make me sad too!" Serafall chimed from the side. She had far too much energy for someone who had just seemed so dead inside merely 3 minutes ago.
"Don't act sad? Are you kidding me?!" Daniel retorted. "I have to go to school!"
"Mhmm!" She nodded. "We can have lots of fun every day, not to mention you can finally meet So-tan!"
"Yeah, if I actually go there. It's not like anyone is forcing me." He crossed his arms in defiance. He didn't want anything to do with the Devils in the town, and if Serafall was anything to go off, they were in the school he was being sent to.
"Hmm~ is that so?" Serafall asked menacingly. It was in her usual voice, but there were very negative connotations in it. "Then I'll make you come to school. You'd never say no to me, would you?"
He shuddered. Yes, he was strong, so was his holy sword; strong enough to best ultimate-class beings, but the woman in front of him could easily beat him. She was something known as a super-devil. The difference between an ultimate-class and super-class was night and day, almost two times more powerful than that of an ultimate-class.
"O-Of course I wouldn't, how could I say no to the breathtaking magical girl Sera-tan?" He stuttered, fixing his flow a few words in, trying not to seem as tense as he really was. "Anyway, what are you even doing here, aren't you supposed to be in the Underworld acting as a Satan and not some school teacher?"
Serafall put a finger to her chin in thought.
"Well, I originally came here today to see Sona because I got the day off, but after doing so the whole incident with you came up. Venelana, Rias' mother, who also happens to be the head of the school board wasn't present. So, I decided to help out since I didn't have anything else to do." Serafall explained, rather seriously compared to her previous manner of speech. "I'm really happy you showed up today. I missed you." She admitted, looking straight into Daniel's eyes with her own glassy ones.
Daniel took a moment to register what she was had said, and the look in her eyes. He could really only think of one question.
"Are you about to cry?" He asked abruptly, ruining the moment, making Serafall's face blank.
Silence. There was not even the cry of a cricket or the engine of a car.
"No!" She yelled at him, pretending to not know what he was talking about.
"Oh, you so were about to cry!" He teased her.
"No, I wasn't!" She argued.
Daniel laughed to himself. Her tsundere side didn't come out often, but he enjoyed it when it did.
"...Don't worry Sera, I missed you too." He sighed gently, looking down at Serafall who was shorter than him by a few inches.
There wasn't a response or at least a response in words. Instead, he felt something hit him. It was Serafall who was tightly hanging from him. Her head was laid on his upper chest and lower neck, and her hands were grabbing the shirt he was wearing. It was a sign to give her a comforting hug. Perhaps he underestimated how much she truly missed him.
He wrapped his arms around her. One hand rested gently on the back of her head and slowly made its way to the ribbons holding the twin tails in place. He pulled them and undid them, before stroking his fingers through the soft hair she had. His other arm was wrapped around her lower back, slowly rubbing up and down. He remembered how much she enjoyed such gestures when she was training him. It was proven again that she liked them when she held no resistance to the actions, or when he tried to stop, she grabbed his hands and made him continue.
School, a hell hole worse than those that actually existed in the Underworld. A place where children were forced to go every day to apparently better their intelligence. Daniel had no reason to attend such a place thanks to his extensive education, not only from the Grigori but all of the mentors he had received over the years. Scathach had taught him how to kill a man with a single finger for christ's sake.
The night before was good, but it could have been much better, had it not lead to him attending the school he was standing in front of. Kouh Academy, a prestigious and former all-girls school, apparently filled to the brim with perverts, both male and female. How fun he would find the school he was about to attend - not to mention it only got better. Instead of having Serafall there, she had informed him she would be occupied for another month before being able to see him again. He was quite literally guttered. The situation he was in was terrible, he couldn't hate it any more than he already did.
While he didn't need to attend the school for lessons that day, he was still required to pick up his schedule and uniform as requested by Serafall. He specifically waited for classes to start before arriving, he didn't want to be seen by anyone who didn't need to see him.
Walking to the grand building in the centre of the school which he was assuming was the main office of the school, he was met with two students from the third year. They were both devils, he could feel it, but he could also tell where they hailed from in the school. The student council. It wasn't very hard to figure out since they had their positions written on some badges on their uniform. In front of him were both the President, and Vice President of the school council. More importantly though, in front of him stood Sona Sitri, Serafall's younger sister; and her queen, Tsubaki Shinra.
He took notice of the calculating gaze that Sona was giving him. Perhaps Serafall had told her of him?
"Good morning ladies." He greeted with a small bow.
They bowed back, "Good morning to you too." Sona replied in kind. "Can I ask why you are here? You don't appear to be a student."
"Yes, one of the directors of the board came to see me yesterday about my admittance to the school. I was told to drop in today to receive my uniform and schedule." He explained to her.
"You must be Daniel then, correct?" Sona questioned with a critical gaze. Probably because it was Serafall who told her about him joining the school when she wasn't actually on the board.
"That is correct." He reassured her.
She nodded in response to the information. With a small hand gesture, she said, "Follow me."
They walked into, and through the office in silence. No words were spoken until they had reached the school building. According to a map of the campus, he had spotted in the office; the uniform shop was on the other side of the school.
"Do you perhaps believe in the Supernatural, Daniel?" Sona asked, interrupting their silence.
"Depends. What mythology are you proposing I believe in?" He countered with his own question.
"Occult demonology." She answered rather quickly.
"Why would you like to know?" He dodged the question.
"No reason in particular, we have an Occult Research Club at our school, they are always looking for new members so I thought you might be interested." She shrugged, pretending she meant nothing by it, despite the topic being rather uncouth to bring up.
Daniel wasn't an idiot and knew exactly why she was asking such things. Despite having sealed Joyeuse, because of the mutation on his body which increased his life span, to someone who could read aura's; it felt like he held a powerful sacred gear. It was a little bit of a problem sometimes, but he was sure he could play off whatever Sona was trying to find out. He didn't require the attention of Devils after all.
"Well, I do believe in God," he answered, specifically saying Gods name to elicit a headache from them, purely for his sadistic sense of humour, "I never really thought about Devils though. I suppose it makes sense if you look at it. Holy, demonic; divine, mundane. There is always something to counteract the other."
Sona gave a thoughtful nod at his words. "I suppose you're correct."
"Though I do find something funny though," Daniel began, before being cut off by Sona's immediately interesting words.
"What is it?"
"Your last name." He responded flatly. He noticed her tense a little. He was going to have a lot of fun messing with them. "Even from my limited knowledge about the existence of Devils, I do remember something from a grimoire; the lesser key of Solomon. Do you know it?"
"Yes, I do." She composed herself, listening intently.
"According to said book, there exists something called the Ars Goetia, in which there is a demon in the rank of President; Sitri." He smiled to himself, knowing how agitated the now flinching Sona was. Her queen wasn't far off either. "Shitori sounds rather similar to it, don't ya think?" He concluded.
"Y-Yeah, it does when you think about it, right, Tsubaki?" Sona asked her queen, though there seemed to be a hidden message in the question.
"I get what you mean." She nodded.
"Fun fact of the day," He grinned before noticing there was something wrong. "haha. Right?" He asked nervously before he blacked out.
When Daniel opened his eyes, he wasn't expecting them to be flooded with blinding white light. And no, it wasn't an Angel, not of any kind. No, there was a spotlight pointing toward his face. Yeah, he was taken hostage, if the ropes around him were something to go by.
He could sense that there was a peerage of Devils surrounding him, and if he had to guess, he was assuming it was Sona and her servants. They were the ones who knocked him out after all, not that he really cared. It's not like they could use magic to make him tell the truth, Scathach had made sure he learned counter methods to that. That and how to effectively torture someone with said magic, but, that was a different story. Thinking about it now, Scathach was pretty fucked up.
"My, my. I can tell I'm very welcome here if you know, the whole interrogation setting was anything to go by." He shrugged to himself, seemingly just trying to elicit any sort of reaction.
As his eyes adjusted to the light, he noticed Sona was sitting in a grand chair, behind a desk, with her hands folded. She wore a sceptical gaze on her face. If he was honest, it was rather amusing to see her like that. She looked like a stereotypical villain.
"It's good to see you're awake, Daniel." Sona greeted monotonously.
"Yeah, nice to be awake." He returned the tone of voice, looking around at the room, which seemed to be some sort of office. "So, where am I?"
He received a hit to the head with something like the flat side of a sword. It didn't hurt, but he pretended it did. "You don't get to ask questions." A feminine voice reprimanded him from behind.
"Oh, so you like to do it from behind. Kinky." A sly grin came across his lips as he provoked her.
She was seemingly about to hit him again before Sona raised her hand, signalling her to stop mid-swing.
"So, it's obvious you know what this is, Daniel. So, I'm expecting you to answer all my questions, honestly. I can assure you, I'm very good at being able to tell when someone is lying." Sona attempted to intimidate him. "I'm sure you knew that though, you seem rather comfortable in such a setting."
"Yeah. This happens every once in a while." Daniel admitted with a shrug.
"Then let's not waste any more time." Sona grinned. "Who are you?"
A smirk came over Daniel's face. "Heh. Let me tell you a story..."
Sona was silent, everything was silent. Then suddenly:
He received a hit over the head.
"Just your name and age will do," Sona ordered, once more in that monotonous voice of hers.
"Daniel, no last name. Age, 17 nearly 18." Daniel rolled his eyes. "Is that good?"
She seemed to absorb the information, using her spell to see if he was lying. Not that it mattered since Daniel had already debunked the spell without her realising. He was basically hacking it to always say true.
"Where were you born?" She asked, looking down at some pieces of paper which held some documentation of his records.
"I was born in the Vatican, before being moved to a countryside orphanage." Daniel answered with a shrug.
"Your faith in God makes sense then." She lifted her glasses all the while examining the paper in front of her. She tore them to pieces then threw them in the bin beside her. Perhaps she finally realised the information on the parchment was fake. "Now tell me, honestly this time, what of the Supernatural do you really know?"
"I know Angels exist, I have been able to see them since childhood." He told a white lie. He had seen Angels since he was young, only they weren't pure Angels. "However, that's it."
She nodded, "Why are you here?"
"School?" He raised an eyebrow in fake confusion, receiving a hit on the back of the head.
"I see..." She sighed. She was cursing herself on the inside, had she really kidnapped a student because of a coincidence that she had caused?
Looking at the boy she resigned herself to a slouch in her chair. "Daniel, look at my fingers quickly, okay?"
"Sure." Daniel agreed knowing she was about to wipe his memory of the events, or, at least attempt to wipe his memory.
As soon as he laid his eyes on her fingers, she clicked them, creating a small light in the room emanating from them, which dissipated momentarily. Daniel feigned the act of fainting, to help them believe that his memories were indeed wiped. What was keeping them out of the loop a little longer anyway? The only problem was, he might have actually knocked himself out properly.
He woke up leaning on the stump of a tree, being prodded on by two girls. One had fairy floss pink hair in pigtails, and the other had long chocolate hair down to her lower back. Both were rather mature for their age as an addition, but he would ignore that for now. The one with pink hair poked him childishly on the cheek a few times before he finally acknowledged them.
"Ano... hello?" She asked, a confused smile on her face.
Daniel looked between them a few times with an unreadable look on his face. He wasn't expecting those two girls to be the first thing he saw, in fact, he didn't even know he had knocked himself out, or the fact he was leaning on a tree.
"Hello." He replied awkwardly. "Is there anything I can do for you two?"
"Well, we were just wondering why you were sleeping on the tree out here?" The one with chocolate hair asked, she sounded very cautious.
Taking a small look around, he took in his surroundings and realised he was leaning on a tree right behind the wall that surrounded the school.
"I came here for my uniform and schedule, but I can't remember how I ended up here. I'm a new student starting next week." He explained, slowly moving himself up in an attempt to stand. Judging by the orange glow in the sky, it was already afternoon. Looking below where he was lying he saw a timetable and a uniform, meaning he had been laying on it. Were the student council so unoriginal they would just ditch him on a tree? Wasn't that a little cliche?
"O-Oh, I see. I thought you might have been someone from the street." She stuttered. "I hope you can understand my concern." She asked while rubbing the back of her neck, looking down at the lush grass they were on.
"That's okay, I would have been suspicious too." Daniel reassured her, a small stretch occurring whilst doing so. "Either way, my name's Daniel. Nice to meet you two."
"My name's Katase!" The one with pink hair announced to him. She was childish but not like Serafall. She was mature but playful if that was a way of putting it.
"M-Murayama." She avoided eye contact with him. "Nice to meet you too." He knew she was acting like that because she was embarrassed, he had heard of such stereotypes about Japanese people, but he couldn't help but find it entertaining. She seemed like the kind of person with a hard exterior but a very soft interior.
""Please take care of me."" They all spoke in unison with a courteous bow. It was tradition to say such things, it was their way of saying 'please be nice' and other things of such purpose.
A comfortable silence ensued as he looked around once more, spotting no other students on-premises, bringing a single question to light.
"So why are you girls back here so late?" He had seen the afternoons, it was never so dark unless it was around 5 pm, and Serafall had told him clubs ended at around 4 pm.
"We were doing some extra kendo training," Katase answered quickly. "We're both running for the captaincy of the team, so we have to be the best we possibly can be."
He had only just seen the large bags they were carrying in addition to their normal ones. It made sense.
"Oh, do you mind if I drop in sometime? I'm from Europe, where I used to do some swordsmanship. I'm interested in seeing some of the cultures of Japan." Daniel asked. He really just wanted to see if they were any good.
"Of course!" Katase approved immediately, bringing a small smile to Daniels' face.
"We'll need to ask the president of the club, but we'll see what we can do." Murayama nodded. He didn't seem like a pervert, and having a guy in the team might not have been so bad in her opinion.
"Thanks." Daniel bowed again.
"It's not a problem." Murayama reprimanded him with a smile.
"Mmm! You don't seem like the rest of the guys in this school, so I'm more than happy to accommodate you." Katase agreed.
"Oh, and what are the other guys like?" Daniel asked curiously.
"The biggest perverts you have ever seen." Murayama answered at lightning speed. Daniel could sense that there was something else behind it. "We have a problem with a trio of boys who like to repeatedly peek on us while we're changing."
"Tell me, do you perhaps punish them?" Daniel asked. While he was a pervert himself, he couldn't stand people who would actively invade others privacy. It was something not even Azazel his father - an angel who fell from heaven for lusting over women - would do.
"We teach them a lesson, yes." Katase nodded. "By beating them with Shinai."
Daniel snickered lightly, and the comfortable silence re-ensued.
"Either way, we better get going. We'll see you tomorrow?" Murayama asked.
He spoke with a small nod of agreeance, "Of course."
"Awesome!" Katase exclaimed excitedly.
"Good." Murayama nodded.
""Sayonara."" They all bid before leaving Daniel there on his own.
Though not done purposefully by the two girls, Daniel had stayed intentionally. Throughout the conversation and in fact, ever since he woke up he had felt the presence of a gaze on him from afar. It held a familiar presence. It had something to do with his last name, one he had once adopted in hopes of becoming someone when he was young, but it was also the same one he had once renounced. No one who had ever tutored him knew about the story, only that he had once lived in a rather fucked up lab of sorts. He had never named the experiment nor how he had ended up there. But all of it had something to do with the person who was watching him.
A feral grin appeared on Daniels' face. Oh, how he had longed to see him again, the one responsible for his involvement in the torture. The reason he became the prodigy of the Holy Sword Project.
"Isaiah~!" Daniel sang in a voice of subtle enragement. He laughed a little, it was an insane laugh. "I know you're there!"
Magical energy filled the air around the schoolyard. It washed over Daniel thoroughly, and he could recognise the signature and nature of the power. It was Isaiah alright, and not only that, it was demonic too. Oh, how the mighty had fallen. He who had always proclaimed he would wield a holy sword and slay things of demonic nature.
He felt a barrier appear around the area. It was weak, but it was enough to keep prying eyes from peaking.
On the bottom of the small mound of grass where the tree stood; where he stood. The boy in question appeared.
He had gold hair which bowled over his head and was significantly shorter than Daniel, standing around 5'11. He was wearing the school uniform, and in another pretence might have been one of most attractive boys many of the girls in the town had seen... had he not been wearing such a prudent scowl upon his lips, and a gruesome stare elicited from his baby blue eyes.
At the sight of Isaiah, Daniel silently growled. It might have just been his pride or even ego, but it was Isaiah's fault that he endured hell. All of his sufferings was his fault!
"Hello... brother."