Obviously, I don't own High School DxD.
AN:
[=-CHAPTER 1-=]
(?)
Death wasn't beautiful, strange, or even beyond human comprehension.
It was boring.
Now, I'm not the most creative person, nor am I the guru of excitement but even I can tell this place is bland and uninspired.
I mean, really, a void of infinite darkness? So cliche.
Finally, you've arrived
Oh great, and now there's a mysterious godlike jackass cliche.
I know you're only acting like this out of fear and desperation, so I'll let your blatant disrespect slide
Allow me to introduce myself. I am Sin
Edgy.
Quite
I was previously known as 'The Game' but after I split my powers 7 ways, I think this name matches me more
Before that, I'm curious. Are you really not concerned about your memories or how you died?
Can't miss what you don't have.
Also, you just said your name used to be 'the game', so you must want to reincarnate me or something, right?
And since I know I should feel more excited about this, I'm fairly certain you're the one who's messing with my emotions and memories.
At least I hope so, it's hard to sleep when I don't have a body and I really don't want to spend more time here. If you can't help me, I'm fucked.
Fair enough
You assumed correct, you will be reincarnated. Six others will also be reincarnated in different universes than your own
Others? If you're gonna make me share a universe with others like me I'd rather you just erase me.
Some of those isekai protagonists are absolute monsters who just robotically force their way to the top of the multiverse. I'd rather not get in their way.
Yes and no
Stop speaking and let me explain or I'll just give it to the next person who wanders into my darkness room
Sorry.
It's just hard to keep my mouth shut when I don't have one. Let me remind you that I'm just a soul at the moment.
Moving on
You and six others will be reincarnated into separate universes. Alone. You won't ever meet
Each of you will be given an aspect of my power and must get as powerful as possible with it
These powers are known as a [Sin]. Each one is derived from a certain part of [The Gamer] ability
So it's a high-score type of game where I get my own universe for as long as I live?
Precisely
Sweet! Even if I lose I win. So do I get to choose which [Sin] or I get?
Sadly, the first player has already gone through their lifetime and gotten their score. Therefore, you have only six choices instead of seven
You both having the same power would defeat the purpose of this experiment
The purpose? Are you not doing all of this for fun?
No
The previous real gamers died when they awakened a being they couldn't comprehend
So I'm only doing this to see which part of [The Gamer] I should focus on improving when I revamp it for use
Oh, okay. That makes a bit of sense. It sounds like they woke up the blind idiot god.
I do hope you warn me if I'm about to awaken a being that could kill even a high level gamer. If anything like that is in the same plane of existence as me I'll just give up.
Any rules though? If this is just an experiment for you there must be some stipulations, right?
No, there are none
However, the world you will be put into will be a world you are unfamiliar with. Abusing future knowledge wouldn't exactly help me with my experiment, after all
Booooo! Let me take advantage of my future knowledge and become the god of destruction with ease.
Speaking of DBZ, if you die- that's it. You're dead
No Otherworld or 'actually I didn't die and just-' No. I decide what is classified as death so don't try any loopholes
That's fair. I wouldn't kill myself anyway, even if I knew it'd be beneficial to me.
You never know what could happen, after all. King Yemma could just slap me into hell because I happen to redirect a ki blast onto a different planet.
Too risky. And dying isn't good for you anyway, it's been proven by many studies.
Now if you're finished needlessly worrying about semantics
Choose a [Sin]
I wouldn't say it was needless, this is my life we're talking about here…
...
Just gonna ignore me? Rude.
[Pride] - You are simply superior in every way: The ability to master any skill at a faster rate and to perfection
[Sloth] - How about instead of putting in any effort, you just learn it: The ability to learn any skill from simply touching a book about it
[Envy] - No one is allowed to be stronger than you, you'll kill everyone and take their strength for your own: The ability to slay others and 'level up' (UNAVAILABLE)
[Lust] - You have no problem seducing your problems away, it's a valid strategy for life: The ability to gauge your relationships with others and gain 'perks' through succession
[Greed] - Everything will eventually return to its rightful place, your impenetrable pockets: The ability to store anything you subconsciously consider an 'item' into a subspace
[Wrath] - Those who cross you will feel your cold ruthless wrath: The ability to always be in a state of rational thought. Immune to mental disorder
[Gluttony] - Food is love. Food is life: Your body works differently, making you unable to die unless your 'HP' drops to zero. You can eat food to regain 'HP'
Aw man, whoever the first player is was lucky as hell, they took the best one! Leveling up is probably the most powerful part of the gamer ability.
Sloth is just being able to have skill books. I've got no idea what Lust is, but it sounds pretty weak. Greed seems equally as weak, but only because I don't know the limitations.
Can I open it hundreds of times and pull a Gate of Babylon? If I react fast enough, can I store projectiles coming at me in the inventory for protection?
Too many unanswered questions, so it's too risky.
Wrath will just make me psychotic. Being unable to be irrational or have any bad thoughts will just make me a robot in the long run. I think.
And Gluttony is straight up just Gamer's Body. It's honestly not that bad of an ability. It just makes someone have zero weak spots in favor of dying if they take too much damage.
Not bad at all.
But the obvious choice here is Pride. In a post-apocalyptic world, Sloth is trash.
So be it
While you were making that choice, three worlds were chosen completely randomly
Choose
[Highschool DxD(AU)] [Kirby] [The Demonata]
...Can I get a reroll? This selection is beyond garbage.
No. This was a completely random choice. A random anime, game, and book
It could be much worse, don't whine
I mean, yeah. But just because something can be worse doesn't mean I can't complain about it.
Anyway, I've read The Demonata and it's a world with demons who are consuming everything bit by bit. And at the end of the book, they restart the universe with only one demon left because all life is going extinct.
Absolute bullshit.
I don't know enough about Kirby to say it's that bad but from my experience, that place is fucked to epic proportions. Almost every other little thing is an evil overlord and the rest are either super cute weaklings or eldritch horrors.
Plus I'd stick out like a sore thumb.
I'll choose Highschool DxD. It sounds like a slice of life anime and I can just become the next Tony Stark or something with my [Pride] ability.
Oh, question. AU means alternate universe, right? If so, what changed from the normal canon?
I don't see why you care, you haven't watched the anime
Whatever. The only thing that's changed is the beginning. The Protagonist is killed in the beginning of the show. In this AU, they're killed by a different person
That's it?
That's it
Changing a single person can't fuck up a timeline that badly, can it? Wait, don't answer that. Dumb question.
Let's just move on.
For you to be pestered by the plot and have extra incentive to grow stronger, you will be granted a boon
Choose
[Sacred Gear] [Hero Lineage]
Hero Lineage? Does that mean I'd be obligated to be a good guy?
I'm not an evil guy per se but I'd rather not have to run around saving schmucks and getting nothing in return. It would probably be fun for about five minutes and then I'd hate my life.
I'm more of a neutral guy. You don't hurt me or my friends and I won't hurt yours.
So I'll take the gear thing.
And so we've reached the end
Remember, your goal is to be the strongest
Wait! What happens if I get the highest score?
Then you can own [The Gamer 2.0] as my first test subject
The game ends when you die, so if you fail to get the highest score I'll give you an afterlife of your own design
Now, Goodbye Katsuo
(Katsuo)
Opening my eyes, it takes a moment to blink off the blurred vision. Eventually, my shitty eyes focus and I can tell the room I'm in is... unremarkable and bland.
At least there's a mirror on my wall.
Sitting up, I take a moment to internalize everything that just happened. In doing that, however, I accidentally start recalling the past of my current body.
My name is... Katsuo Naoki. Seventeen years old. Someone who despite being apparently lazy was a top student at his past school. Even though he was laid back most of the time, he was quick to resort to violence if annoyed and scared those around him with his 'creepy smile'.
He thought it was funny how they squirmed.
Welp, I guess this is me now.
My parents left me in Kuoh Town to finish my education, because the local school has both a college and high school division, while they travel the world.
Apparently, they are successful day traders. Neat.
Ignoring that, why does the name Kuoh sound familiar? Have I seen this show before?
...No, I probably just heard it once or twice. I do tend to drop anime after a single episode.
Shelving that thought for later, I go take to the bathroom to wake myself up completely while checking the time.
From what I can tell, school should start in about a quarter of an hour but I couldn't care less. I think I misjudged what type of anime this is because high schoolers don't need hero blood, but I still don't care about school.
Since I have the technical knowledge but none of the social memories of my old life, it's a waste of time at best.
Plus I doubt anyone would care if I'm late. It's my first day so they'd probably just assume I messed up the dates.
Getting out of the shower, I take the Kuoh uniform they sent me and carefully put it on while assessing my looks in the giant ass mirror I have.
Yeah...no. It's way too hot to have this stuffy blazer and bow tie on. I'll just put on a normal green shirt. I'll carry the blazer with me if they wanna get pissy about it, but I'm not wearing a bowtie.
Roughly 6'1 with an alright physique. If I had to describe my body, it'd be similar to Saitama's in that it only looks defined when I take my shirt off and flex. Otherwise, I look like a really pale skinny guy.
...And I have chin-length brown hair, with two sharp reddish-brown eyes. Overall? Not bad.
«DING!»
[Skill Unlocked: Appraise]
Enables the user to see how powerful a target is
Ah. I almost forgot about that; I didn't even check my skill page yet.
That's a bit anticlimactic of a skill gain message though, but it'll have to do I guess.
Status? Nope. Apparently, I don't get one of those.
Skills.
《Skills Page》
[Appraise] - Lv. MAX (OFF)
[Sacred Gear: ?] (LOCKED)
...is that it? Welp. No free starter skills for me I guess.
How do I turn this Appraise thin- oh.
I was sort of hoping for something similar to the 'observe' skill from the original gamer, but this works too.
The moment I said the skill name it became clear what it did. Letters slowly formed above my head to tell me just how weak I am.
Katsuo Naoki - Battle Power: 1
Unique Ability: [Pride]
Is a 1 good? ...Oh who am I kidding, a 1 is never good. Still, I'm gonna have to check out other people to make a sound judgment on where I stand right now.
But on another note, if I could get an 'observe'-like skill simply from checking myself out in the mirror, what else can I get?
Can I get the most overpowered broken skill, the instant dungeon?!
Raising my hand into the air, I try to think back to the manhwa and remember what he said to focus on to create one.
Something about concentrating the mana to my hand, stretching my fingers, and just... focusing really hard on the fact that I want to create an instant dungeon.
Seems pretty self-explanatory but it worked for him so it should work for me, right?
...Guess not. I've been standing here for a solid five minutes looking like a dumbass and I've got nothing. No feeling, no skill, just nothing.
I guess if it was that easy to use magic then everyone and their mother would have it, huh. I could try something else though.
Sitting on the ground, I ignore the fact that I'm probably horribly late for school and empty my mind, focusing on nothing in particular.
And in just a few minutes...
«DING!»
[Skill Unlocked: Meditation]
Increases the ability to look within
Hell yeah. I've got no idea what it does from that vague ass description but I'm gonna grind the shit out of it. The original meditation restored MP, right? I don't have a stats page but it's gotta be useful for something.
Well... I'll find out later. I actually have to go to school now before they just lock the front gate and door. That'd be awkward.
I head out the door, not bothering to make any breakfast. I'll probably regret it later but I have a foreboding feeling that if I'm late on the first day, I'll incur someone's wrath.
Don't know who, but my gut hasn't failed me yet.
It's a long, boring 20 minutes to school but silence has always made me either go to sleep or ponder about things. In this case, I'm walking so I can't do the former.
With time to think I can't help but wonder, what build should I go for? I need to scope out if magic exists in this world but it's obvious that there's something supernatural here.
Speaking of, as I'm walking I notice that I haven't seen anyone outside myself with a battle power above 0. Does that mean that 0 is the baseline and anything above that is superpowered? Odd.
And do I focus on that supernatural element of myself or do I focus on my body? The original gamer focused on magic and it would be cool to play around with that, but he has way more going for him than I do.
I only have the skills page, after all. I don't have a party system, or the ability to heal from every injury easily, nor do I even have an inventory page.
The only reason magic was so overpowered was because he was one of the rare people who could regenerate his mana as if it were nothing. Bleh, I'll think about it later, I don't even know what I'm up against.
For now, I'll just focus on gaining skills to run away with.
My thoughts are interrupted when I notice a black-haired girl with glasses and an irritated look on her face gazing into my soul. She's standing at the gate of the school, seemingly waiting for me.
But why? Who is this chick?
Sona Sitri - Battle Power: 580
Unique Ability: [Innate Water Manipulation]
I repeat; Who the hell is this chick?!
I knew a '1' couldn't have been that strong but to be five hundred times weaker than someone? Fuuuuck. If my battle power is truly my overall capabilities, she could swat me like a fly.
When I get home, my homework can wait. I'm gonna grind the hell out of my skills.
"Katsuo Naoki?" Sona calls out when I finally get within speaking range.
"Nope," I say blandly as I walk straight past her. Better safe than sorry when dealing with people way stronger than me. Her power combined with that glint I saw in her eye is ringing alarm bells in my head.
Out of the corner of my eye, I notice her staring at the air with an expression of pure confusion. She'll probably catch on in a minute or so and I don't want to stick around for that so I speed up my walking.
I make my way to homeroom by using common sense and the schedule they gave me before coming to the school.
I get there right on time, and as the teacher ushers everyone in, I scan the classroom for anyone who might be stronger than normal. Thankfully, everyone has a battle power of 0, and only two people have unique abilities.
Something called the 'Size Scouter', whatever that is.
There is someone with an interesting description, even if it is only slightly different from everyone else's.
Issei Hyoudou - Battle Power: 0?
Unique Ability: [None?]
...Wait a fucking minute. That guy looks familiar as hell. I think I saw him in one of those 'spot the protagonist' memes.
If that's not the protagonist, then I'll be shocked. He's got the typical protagonist hair and an apparently secret ability too.
It is alarming that my Appraise skill can't detect hidden abilities, but maybe it's because he doesn't know what it is either.
A locked sacred gear maybe? That's the only other thing I've seen with question marks so far.
Nah. That's a bit of a stretch. And the protagonist of an anime would probably have hero blood, not some lame locked gear.
Ignoring that, why is everyone staring at me?
...
Oh yeah, I have to introduce myself. Sitting in that void for so long fucked up my social skills.
The teacher steps back and gestures for me to speak, while the rest of the students stare at me with a mixture of interest and suspicion. I ignore that and step to the front of the classroom as everyone quiets down.
"Yo. The name's Katsuo..."