Reviews:
xbox432:
I will work on the pace. I just wanted to introduce the starting major players before the events of the story really begin. This will be the last of the introduction chapters. The reason for Rias and Sona not knowing more beyond the fact that a campione was coming to the school will be explained in this chapter. Also, it was ironic that that was your guess for his past with Akeno and Rias. That was how I was originally going to do it, but I decided something that would fit a little better with Rias's family and how I wanted Ben's family to be. Also, as I mentioned in that message, Erica will be rubbing quite a few people the wrong way, one of which will be a certain fried chicken. Trust me, it'll be entertaining. Finally, it's actually pretty easy to do crossovers for anime since there are a lot of connections of world-building in them. For instance, the concept of gaining or transferring power through kisses appears in quite a few, just to name one.
Ivan Tridelan:
Well, since you numbered your…concerns, I shall do so to answer them.
He is neither spineless nor an idiot. He does, however, let those he cares about get away with more, but everyone can say that. I'm guess your main example for this question is in regards to the scene where Kotori found him in bed with Erica. There was little he could do in that situation as Kotori clearly wasn't accept the truth and it's not like he could force his way past Kotori, since she's only a little girl in Ben's eyes. Also, a lot of the things they'll get away with is because he's either taken by surprise or because he has no idea how to react.
Well, that's…one way to see it. Rias was never what I would call a "spoiled brat." Sure, she was more well-off than the average person, but she never acted like she was better than anyone. Also, it's not really surprising that she didn't leave Kuoh town all that much, since she was assigned the area. She frequently calls it her territory after all and it's not like she could just abandon it to try and find new peerage members. Also, they do actually show the rest of the peerage training, just not early on, since Issei is the one that needed the most improvement and they were helping with that. As for your issue with her 'whining' about the engagement and not doing anything to prepare, what could she do? She wasn't allowed in the rating game yet and Sirzechs doesn't bring it up until Riser starts to speed the engagement along. Also, what would challenging the veteran rating game player to a fight before that point accomplish anyway? She only would have had three useable pieces besides herself. Finally, her family was actually working on ending the engagement even before the whole fight with Riser. They never say how, sure, but they were, so clearly Riser was speeding things along to try and prevent that.
…yeah, you might wanna just stop reading, since you clearly didn't read the author's note at the very beginning of the first chapter.
otherbarry6:
Oh, I'm definitely gonna do more with her. Don't worry about that. I'm gonna change her background slightly to fit more in the DxD universe, but beyond that, she's not gonna be changed too much.
A/N: So, I've been really enjoying writing this one and I wanted to finish up the semi-introduction chapters for when the events of the story really begin in the next chapter. As such, this will be the only time I do two chapters in a row for the same story. Anyway, please review with any comments, questions, concerns, or constructive criticism that you might have.
Chapter 3:
Things Get Weird
Ben woke up in his bed the morning of his second day as a Kuoh Academy student. He sighed contently, knowing that he wouldn't have any surprises this morning. He'd prepared for Erica trying anymore of her tricks. No more worrying about her sneaking into his room as he'd used his desk chair to block the door closed. He moved to the small mirror on his desk to take a look at his hair, moving his desk chair out of the way to get a good look at how bad his bed hair was. As he did, a red flag went off in his head and he looked down at the hand which was on the back of his desk chair. The same chair that he'd used to block the door.
He turned to look at his bed, already knowing what he was going to find. Sure enough, there Erica was, the blanket covering her more private parts.
"Erica, how the hell did you get in here!?" Ben demanded.
She groaned and sat up, clearly not bothered by the covers falling and exposing her nude body to him.
"Must you be so loud in the morning?" she yawned, rubbing her eyes, "Can you get me a cappuccino?"
"Erica, seriously, how the hell did you even get in here?" Ben sighed, looking away from her. While he might not be able to stop her tricks, Ben was not going to be surprised by them.
"You shouldn't underestimate your love," she teased, "Now, about my cappuccino?"
Ben sighed and got dressed before leaving the room, not wanting to risk being caught again with a naked Erica by Kotori. With his bedroom door closed behind him, Ben caught a whiff of someone cooking breakfast. He followed the smell to the kitchen where there was an honest to goodness maid cooking breakfast.
"Um, hello?" he said, getting the maid's attention.
"Oh, hello, you must be Ben! Erica told me all about you!" she said, waving a greeting at Ben before turning back to the food.
"Uh, does Ms. Hasegawa know you're here?" Ben asked.
"Of course! After Erica requested I join her here, we set it up that I could stay here in exchange for helping around the house," the maid said.
"I see," Ben said, "What's your name if I might ask?"
"Oh, sorry, I'm Arianna," the maid said, "I'm Erica's personal maid."
"Nice to meet you," Ben said honestly, "Is the food ready? I could go for some breakfast before school."
"Sure! Let me fix you a plate," she said before putting a plate on the table for him.
"So, you'd obviously know Erica, can I ask you a question about her?" Ben asked.
"I'm sure she'd tell you her sizes if you ask," she teased.
Ben blushed at the comment and started eating before saying, "So, about my question?"
"Okay, okay," she giggled, "What is your question?"
"Why did she follow me here? She just left Italy to follow someone here? It makes no sense," Ben said.
"It would if you'd been listening, my Ben," Erica said, coming into the room, "My love is what had me follow you here. I wish to stay by your side."
Ben looked at her with slight confusion. He could, of course, understand her words, but he couldn't understand her. The idea that she'd actually fall for him after such a short time just didn't seem real to him. Ben turned back to eating his breakfast in silence while he contemplated her words. Erica, of course, sat next to him while she ate her own food.
Once they were done eating, Erica and Ben headed for school with Erica once again hugging his arm between her breasts.
Deciding to bite the bullet, Ben sighed and said to Erica, "Hey, Erica, can I ask a question?"
"What is it, my Ben?" she asked with her usual mischievous smile on her face.
"It's about being a campione. I don't exactly understand what that means," Ben said, "I mean, I get that it means I'm a godslayer and so-called 'king of kings,' but what exactly does that mean?"
"Oh, is that all? All you had to do was ask," she said as they walked through the gates to the school, "Well, you see, it's, hmm?" she stopped in her tracks, pulling Ben to a stop as well.
He looked at the blonde on his arm, "Erica? What is it?" he asked.
The girl didn't answer him and instead continued to stare in the direction they'd been moving a second ago, a curious and suspicious look on her face. Ben looked to where she was staring and saw a pair of girls their age blocking their path. Ben had to admit that they were both very beautiful and they probably would have been even more so if their eyes weren't red from the tears running down their faces.
"Uh, do you know these two, Erica?" Ben asked, confused by the scene.
"No, but I can tell what they are," she said, her usual playful tone disappearing.
"What they are?" Ben repeated with obvious confusion as he looked from Erica to the two girls approaching them.
"-ou," the redhead said, moving within arm's length of Ben.
"Excuse me?" he asked, blinking in confusion.
"I thought I'd never see you again," she said and, before Ben could react, the teary-eyed redhead wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him deeply right there in front of Erica and the entire student body. After a few seconds, she separated her lips from his and the dark-haired girl replaced her.
"Who are you two? Wh-what are you doing this for?" Ben asked.
The two girls stared at him with a mix of hurt and shock. The redhead recovered first and shook her head before saying, "Come with us." She and her dark-haired companion turned and left, heading towards the old school building.
Ben looked at Erica with confusion and curiosity, "Think we should follow them?"
"Yes, but be on guard, devils like them can be tricky," Erica said.
"Devils?" Ben asked, curious as to her strange wording as he followed Erica and the two other girls.
The two girls lead Erica and Ben into the old school building and to a room on the top floor.
Erica and Ben sat on one of the couches inside while the two depressed girls sat on the couch across from them.
"So, um, would you mind explaining why you two kissed me?" Ben asked.
"We thought you were dead and when we found out you were alive, I guess our emotions got the best of us," Rias said, trying to regain her composure.
"Why would you think I was dead? Do we know each other?" Ben asked.
"B-Ben, it's us! Rias and Akeno!" the redhaired girl said, "Surely you remember us!"
"I'm sorry," Ben said, genuinely, "I'm afraid I don't. If we met the last time I was here, I'm sorry to say that after I left here, I was in a plane crash and I lost my memory. I don't remember anything from my time here."
"Nothing? Nothing at all?" Akeno asked with a pained tone.
"Nothing. Sorry," Ben said sadly.
"If I can interrupt," Erica said, putting herself into the conversation, "How do you know my Ben?"
While Erica's possessive tone went unnoticed with Ben, it did not with the now frowning Rias and Akeno.
"We met him when we were very young," Rias said, "My father had some kind of business arrangement with Ben's parents. I was too young to be involved in it so Akeno and I hung out with you while it was going on. We became really close, so it crushed us when we heard that you had died."
"Oh, I'm sorry that you went through that," Ben said honestly, "If I hadn't lost my memory, I would have told you I was okay."
Rias and Akeno smiled at his words.
"We know," Rias said, "It's obvious that you haven't changed all that much from when we were kids."
"So, besides catching up with him, is there something that devils like yourselves would like with Ben?" Erica asked, moving against him and glaring at Rias and Akeno.
"Uh, why do you keep calling them devils?" Ben asked.
"Because that's what we are," Rias said, before wings sprang out of the backs of both Akeno and Rias.
"So, you're not human?" Ben asked in shock.
"Sorry, Ben, I guess I should have told you about this before now. I sensed there were magical beings here in the school, but, since I've not been around devils often enough to be able to differentiate them from human magic users, I had no idea they were devils," Erica explained.
"It's fine," Ben said, shrugging, "So, I guess, this kinda leads to one question I asked you earlier: what exactly does it mean to be a King of Kings?"
"You don't know that?" Rias asked in surprise, "Haven't you been told anything about this?"
"We have not had much time yet to discuss such things," Erica said.
"So, what does it mean?" Ben asked.
"Well, it's kind of a long story," Rias said, "We don't really have a lot of time before class starts."
"Luckily, I know some magic that'll make this move much quicker," Erica said with a smirk. Ben barely had time to register the devious expression on her face before she pounced on him to kiss him deeply, pushing her tongue into his mouth.
"H-Hey!" Rias and Akeno shouted, blushing at her sudden making out with Ben.
Ben managed to push her off of him enough to separate their lips, "Erica, what are you doing?"
"I told you already: using magic to give you the information. Using my tongue makes it go even faster," she explained before she forced their lips back together.
It was after a few seconds that information started filling Ben's mind. He learned the history of the devils, fallen, and heavenly angels and their war. He learned how their numbers were wiped out and they started reincarnating humans into refilling their numbers. Most of all, however, he learned of the importance of Campione in the supernatural circles. Campione were the only ones that could deal with the heretic gods without suffering massive casualties. Additionally, since Campione are immune to magic all but those the same level of Authorities or injected into them, most of the members of the supernatural world couldn't hurt Campione. Finally, since the members of the supernatural respected strength and power over little else and Campione had powers of the gods, Campione had a lot of political power. Once the last of the information had been downloaded into Ben's mind, Erica slowly separated her lips from his, a string of saliva connecting their tongues.
"Y-You didn't have to do that, Erica," he said, back away from her, "You could have just told me all of that."
"Maybe, but I wasn't gonna lose to these two," Erica said.
Ben blushed lightly before they heard the warning bell of the school go off.
"Gotta go!" Ben said, before he hurried off, though he heard the three girls giggling at his embarrassment.
He wasn't able to escape the blonde for long as she sat next to him in class and was quickly surrounded by girls that were talking about how sorry they were about Ben's 'betrayal' and that he probably tricked Rias and Akeno. The boys of his class, however, were attempting to intimidate him and accusing him of either 'corrupting the beauties of the school' or 'keeping all of the hottest girls for himself.'
After a while, he'd had enough and started moving to go out of the classroom and, as he moved past the group, Ben reached in to grab Erica's hand and pull her with him. After he and the girl were out of the room, Ben closed the door and turned to face her, "Look, Erica, I-who are you?"
It turned out that the girl he'd pulled along was one he didn't know. She was usually quiet and, as such, Ben hadn't had a chance to speak to her.
"I-I'm Yuri Mariyama," she said shyly, "Please forgive me, Great King, but I really need to speak with you."
"Uh…okay?" Ben said, not certain why she was acting like she was the one that just dragged him out of class.
He followed the shy and almost subservient girl down the hall and out of the building, past the sports fields where a man was waiting.
"Ah, there you are," the man said, "Thank you for bringing our newest king. I hope you won't be too harsh with her for her little deceit."
"Uh, deceit?" Ben asked before he realized the meaning, "I didn't grab you by accident, did I?"
"N-No," she said almost in fear of the boy, "I'm truly sorry, but we needed to speak with you. It was my fault entirely. I couldn't think of another way to get you alone so we could speak," she said, bowing before him, "So, please direct your outrage towards me and me alone."
"Look, it's not-" he said before she interrupted him with a frantic "Please!"
Ben sighed and moved to the still bowing girl, "Alright, if you're so desperate to receive some punishment for this, fine. Hold still."
The girl closed her eyes tight while Ben raised a hand and the man with Yuri didn't speak or react. Ben chopped her head so lightly it was barely even a tap on the top of her head. She looked up at him in shock.
Ben, however, smiled at her and said, "There. Punishment given."
"It appears, Yuri, that this new Campione is quite different from those that we are used to dealing with," the man said.
"I don't know about that," Ben said shrugging, "But who are you anyway?"
"Ah, yes, my apologies," the man said, "I should have introduced myself before now. I'm Amakasu Touma. I'm a member of the History Compilation Committee. We work alongside shrine maidens like Yuri here."
"What's this committee?" Ben asked.
"Well, it is our job to deal with and control the human side of supernatural events. We try to keep the average person from knowing about the supernatural, so that humans can live in relative peace. We also work with the various supernatural factions when members of their races go 'off script' as it were," Touma said.
"Okay, so why did you want to speak with me?" Ben asked.
"Well, as a campione, we would like to start up a good working relationship with you," Touma explained, "Yuri here will stay in school as your liaison to our group."
"Okay, but why did you wait until now to contact me?" Ben asked.
"Well, ideally, we would have met with you before now, but the Copper-Black Cross tried to keep your identity a secret and until very recently, we were only able to learn that there was a new campione and that the king was going to be a student here at Kuoh academy. I guess they wanted to make sure you were connected to them first and foremost before other factions had the chance," Touma explained.
"Copper-Black Cross?" Ben asked before he remembered where he heard it before, "Oh, the group Erica's a member of."
"Ah, yes, Erica Blandelli, the infamous Diavolo Rosso. I heard she bonded herself to you after your little adventure in Italy. Quite strange," Touma said.
"What do you mean?" Ben asked, confused.
"Well, Erica is quite famous in our circles. Her beauty is known to drive men wild with desire and that is without considering the influence she has in her group. As such, she has had no shortage of admirers and yet not once has she let a man get close. That is until you. Quite strange, don't you think?" Touma asked.
Ben gulped nervously, as he could feel where this was going: the idea that he'd been afraid to broach, "What are you saying?"
"I don't mean to imply anything…untoward, but perhaps it should be considered. As I said, she's very well sought after and yet the first man she gets close to is you," Touma said, "I mean no offense of course, but many of them have been very wealthy and influential, whereas you…well."
Ben nodded. The thought had crossed his mind more than once, "The only thing that's special enough for her to be interested in is being a campione."
"It is something to consider," Touma said, "Again, I'm not saying this is how it is, but you should consider the idea that she was ordered to get close to you in order to honey trap you into joining the Copper-Black Cross."
"Yeah," Ben said, distracted as the idea continuing to weigh on him. While he was constantly the target of Erica's jokes and manipulations, he had to admit he was interested in Erica, specifically her confidence, her intelligence, and, yes, her beauty, and actually enjoyed her presence, so the idea of her lying to him just to force him into joining her group made him actually nauseous.
"As I said, I don't know for certain but you both should go back to class. I already cleared it with your teachers so that we could have this little talk," Touma said.
Ben nodded and walked back towards the school, his mind swirling with thoughts he didn't want to think about.
"U-Um, my lord?" Yuri asked.
"Please, Yuri, just call me Ben," he said, softly.
"U-Uh, okay," she said clearly uncomfortable at the idea of being so informal with him, "I just…wanted to know, are you okay?"
"Yeah, I've just…been avoiding some things that I shouldn't," Ben said, sighing, "Don't worry about me."
Ben spent the rest of the morning in a fog, barely hearing the teacher or anyone else. Once they were released for lunch, Ben headed for the nurse's office, hoping that he might have a quiet place to think. He was surprised to find Chisato Hasegawa sitting at the desk with a lab coat over her usual outfit.
"Ms. Hasegawa? You're the school nurse?" he asked in surprise.
"Oh, yes, I guess I did forget to tell you that," she giggled, "And please, when we're alone, you can call me Chisato."
"Okay, uh, Chisato, could I stay here for lunch? I…need a quiet place to think," Ben said.
"I don't have a problem with that," Chisato said, gesturing to the beds, "Please have a seat."
Ben sat on the edge of one of the beds, sighing.
"What seems to be the problem?" Chisato asked, sitting by his side, "Talking about it might make it easier."
"Well, it's kinda complicated," Ben said, "You see, I recently came into an…inheritance and it came with a lot of…influence."
"That doesn't seem like much a problem," she said.
"Well, it's not that. Erica and I…we didn't exactly get along and we got involved in a situation. During the situation, she learned about my inheritance and suddenly she was proclaiming her love for me," Ben explained.
"I see, you're worried that she's only interested in you because of your inheritance," Chisato said.
"Or because she wants me to use it for the group she's a part of," Ben said, "I'm not sure how I'd take that. I've lost a lot through my life. I lost my family, my home, my memory, and I just learned that I lost the time I had with my friends during that period. I'm not sure I can take having more taken from me. I…refuse to allow it, but I'm afraid of what she'll say if I asked."
"I understand, but surely this isn't the first time that a girl has shown interest in a cute boy like you," Chisato said.
Ben blushed lightly, "Well, sure, I've had girlfriends before, but they never went far. They never went as far as saying they loved me or traveling halfway around the world to be with me. That's what makes Erica different from them. That's why I'm so conflicted."
"I see," Chisato said, nodding, "Well, in my opinion, while I haven't known Erica for very long, I don't think she's the type of person who would lie like that, no matter what she might get out of it. That said, your fears won't disappear until you talk to Erica," she said, putting a reassuring hand on his and leaning closer to him.
Before their skin touched, the door to the office slammed open and Origami was there with her blank face.
"You missed our lunch," she said as the two moved apart.
"Sorry, Origami," Ben said, "I, uh, was feeling ill and needed to see the nurse."
She stared at him blankly for a few seconds and said, "You owe me," before closing the door again.
"I should get going," Ben sighed.
"Okay," Chisato said, nodding, "Just remember what I said."
Ben nodded and managed to make it through the weird day. He wasn't too weirded out by what he found out about his childhood friends. After all, he's managed to kill three gods, so finding out devils exist wasn't even on the top ten list of weirdness anymore. Besides, he did want to get to know them more, but he wanted to deal with the situation with Erica first. Once he did that, he knew he'd be able to relax one way or the other.
As he and Erica walked home as they had taken to doing, Ben stopped them and said, "Erica, we need to talk."
"What's wrong, my Ben?" she asked, smiling.
"Why are you with me?" he asked, finally giving voice to the question.
"I've told you already," she said.
"Yeah, I know you say you love me, but why? What draws you to me?" he asked, "You don't even know me, but all of a sudden, when you found out…about me, you, well,…"
"I see," she said, nodding, suddenly very serious, "You think I'm with you because you are a Godslayer."
"I don't know!" he said, "That's the problem!"
"Then, this weekend, spend the day with me," she said.
"Huh?" he said, taken aback.
"Spend the day with me and everything will be made clear," she insisted.
He sighed and simply said, "Fine."
The two didn't realize they were being watched by a winged figure nearby.
"So, he's the one," their observer muttered as they watched the two resume their walk, "He could be a real threat to our plans. I'll let him have a few days and then I'll let him enjoy his last sunset."
A/N: And there's chapter 3! Please remember to follow, favorite, and review with any comments, questions, concerns, or constructive criticism that you might have. Now, just a reminder that this will be the only time I do two chapters in a row for the same story.