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The following is a fan-based
FICTION
High School DxD, New, BorN, Hero and other products related to the DxD Series are all owned by Ichiei Ishibumi, Miyama-Zero, Fujimi Shobo and TNK.
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Chapter 3: Infinity and Chocolate
The two weeks that followed Issei's entry in Kuoh Academy were relatively quiet. As expected, the boy had a bit of trouble finding some friends at school, something that worried me as people Matsuda and Motohama were around, getting punished left and right and... providing Issei with quite the tempting notion of becoming friends with the easygoing pervs. I managed to dissuade him for long enough for that loneliness to be solved. It came out of the blue, but I took the blessing with as much relief as I could.
Much to my surprise, it wasn't a guy that approached Ise to become his first High School friend. Oh no, it was a girl. And... definitely a greater surprise when I learned who it was. Reya Kusaka, future Bishop to Sona Sitri's peerage and currently a shy magician that had just started school this year. Truth be told, a large part of Sona's peerage had started school this year, meaning that it was going to be troublesome to keep Issei from getting claimed by either Rias or Sona.
It wasn't like I didn't want him to get a faceful of the redhead's boobs or of the mostly-female peerage from the bespectacled girl but... yeah, politics were bitchy and I was quite sure I wouldn't get that fine with Azzy if he learned I did nothing to get Issei involved with Grigori and join the organization. So, I remained 'neutral' about it, taking action to prevent the brunet from joining the Underworld's affairs just yet. Let him learn and train, I thought calmly to motivate this plan. After all, things were nonetheless getting crappy after a few years, but at least the boy had the means to become stronger through it before 'canon started'.
Gah, it feels so awful to talk about canon and me being somewhat part of it. Truly unpleasant.
Still, I mentioned a bit of an intruder last time. And, if I have to be honest, said intruder was first a stalker. A very quiet and silent stalker that I ended up befriending through some unexpectedly good moves from yours truly.
It was a nice day to sit in one of the benches here in the park.
The birds were singing, the flowers were blooming, kids were playing around and having fun... if it isn't too clear considering the kind of individual I was, I wasn't there out of personal interest. Not when the situation was a bit more grim than it appeared to be at first glance. No, the reason I found myself sitting here on a lovely Monday morning with my grocery bags resting by the side was correlated to a lone figure stalking my steps. And no, I did jack shit to warrant this kind of situation. In fact, I was slowly realizing as it became clearer with each quick glance behind my back during the paced walk to reach this place that this individual was definitely onto me for reasons beyond my current capacity of action.
Lo and behold, a pair of dull dark eyes staring at me at a relatively short height. The owner of such a gaze was one of the few individuals I didn't expect to deal with early on in my 'new life' as she was supposedly meant to be around, terrifying other individuals and plotting her way back home. Then again, I could assume that Ophis' presence in Kuoh wasn't driven by my actions, but by the events that brought me to this dimension. Sure, I didn't have proof of it until a conversation ensued, but I could tell it was the only plausible reason she would check on me. I had nothing special on myself that would warrant this kind of visit beyond being the victim of a tactical isekai.
Now, many men would have trouble handling the situation. A gothic lolita hunting you down and having the powers to obliterate your existence with the wrong move? Yeah, that wasn't exactly a fun situation, but one that was technically feasible to survive through. Not by running, not by hoping in Azazel picking up the phone and getting to me before she had the chance to do something to me, but... by appeasement.
I know, I know. This sounds wimpy in a way, but the truth was that the way I planned to appease the Infinity Dragon was through something I had and could give up with the hopes of not only being spared by trouble, but perhaps obtain an extra safety blanket for the near future. So, I carefully walked to the nearby park, reached one of the benches and... channeled my inner Forrest Gump in the waiting game. I retrieved a single object from my bags, a small box that contained a few chocolate chips I had bought as afternoon snacks. Those seemed to do well when Issei whined about homework and had to be silenced without going too ballistic on him.
Ophis remained perched over the top of one of the nearby trees. She was aware I could see her, but gave no hints of any reaction. Nothing good or bad. Only a neutral glance aimed at my patient self as I waited for a change. One that didn't come. I would have expected curiosity to become a driving factor to approach me, to push back self-preservation to the point of 'daring' into this situation. But the more I waited, and the more I saw her remain still in her perch, the more I realized she was stuck in a crossroad due to the many chances this could end poorly for her.
What if... I 'invited' her to sit?
Now, a verbal invitation would have been too 'loud' and would have attracted unwanted attention. No, I wanted her to know I was inviting her to join me without feeling troubled by any external distractions. So, I carefully lifted my right hand from the box and carefully patted the empty spot beside mine twice. It was an indirect offer, one that I wasn't sure was going to draw a response or not. I knew she had seen, she was facing the perfect post to see what I was doing as clearly as it was possible.
"Who are you?" Quiet, blank but... curious.
I blinked, holding back from jumping at her sudden relocation.
"John Bukharin," I replied curtly. "You are Ophis."
"Yes," The girl answered quietly, slowly shifting her head closer, leaning her nose onto my arm and sniffing. "You are human."
"I am-"
"But not a normal human. Normal, but not this dimension's normal," Ophis explained, ignoring my attempt to confirm that claim and leaving me perplexed with that answer. "No influence from others, no curses, no magic of this world but... magic. Untapped. Odd, you are odd."
That was kind of rude, but kind of the standard from Ophis. She was brutally honest about everything, having no filter in this kind of situation.
"Well, does that make us similar?"
She blinked. "How come?"
"You were kicked from your home just like I was," I explained calmly, trying to further keep the situation calm and friendly. It seemed like that was working well for me at the moment. "And you don't appreciate how 'loud' things are at times."
"Always," The Dragon corrected me, "It's always."
It kind of felt sad in a way. While one can be frightened by Ophis' inability to feel, react and behave like other beings, one has to also accept the notion that she wouldn't be a fixture of this world if not for Great Red kicking her from her own home. Eternal peace, a 'silent' world devoid of anything but void and endless quiet.
So, it was time to go for the 'kill' about it now that I had the excuse to hand out the 'appeasement' itself. I shifted the box closer to her, with Ophis' gaze instantly aimed at the object.
"You can have them. I just bought them."
...
No hesitation, the girl carefully picked the box and set it on her lap. She opened it, and slowly tested the small chips inside. A tentative first bite... was then followed by numerous faster ones. I wasn't sure how much those satisfied her hunger, but I could tell from the small smile on her face, still devoid of much feeling beyond relief from hunger, that she appreciated the offering.
"Good. It was good."
"Glad to hear that," I answered... to no one.
A blink and Ophis was gone, the box going missing too. I stared at the empty spot with a hint of surprise and... annoyance. Nothing wrong in surviving that encounter, but it felt quite rude that she just left like that. No explanation, nothing to warn me about her next move. Quite unpredictable and fairly Ophis-like in terms of suddenness. I thought this was it, that this would have been a one-time encounter that would have mattered very little.
So, I got back home, I dealt with today's work, helped Issei with homework and how to handle Reya. As a friend. He made it clear he found her attractive, but he rightfully felt that going after her this soon would just be 'too much' on their friendship. And I agreed wholeheartedly with that point as I helped him to get a steady thing going with Reya. It was the beginning of something beautiful, I could feel it in my bones, but that very day was also far from over when Issei left and... Ophis visited again.
As I went to close the door and walk back to the living room, I found the girl already there, sitting on my sofa and glancing at me with a calm look.
"Who is that?"
"Why do you need to know?" I counter-questioned, maybe a bit too defensively. And Ophis picked on that.
"He smells familiar, but still normal."
"He is nothing of importance in the general scheme. He is a student of mine."
A hum made its way through her lips. "Oh? A student?"
I slowly nodded and she adopted a pensive look, deeply thinking about what I just said as I calmly approached her, deciding to sit just beside her and wait for a response. It took her a solid minute of pondering to get the conversation resumed.
"You are a teacher?"
"Not a school-related one. I help him with life."
...
"A life... teacher?" She asked slowly, almost playing with the terms with her tongue, trying to memorize them as she failed to understand them. "Right?"
"Something of that kind."
"How does that work?" The girl asked and I gave a brief thought about it before going with a precise answer.
"He is a bit of a social inept at times, so he needs help in handling that sort of stuff."
...
"But why?"
"Why what?"
"Why is that important? Social... stuff," Ophis inquired, clearly failing to understand the reason why humans would just care for it. I thought someone would have told her about it, but perhaps she was just too 'ominous' for anyone to tell her things about society and traditions. Or how humans normally behaved.
"Well, it's part of being part of a community. To not be alone and have friends, lovers and family."
"But why is that important?" She repeated herself. "Why would that matter to humans?"
"Because being alone sucks for us," I replied bluntly, catching her off-guard with that straight-forward answer. "We like to speak with someone rather than ourselves, we like to share our experiences with others rather than keep those to ourselves, and we tend to die by loneliness quite a lot."
For the first time ever, I saw Ophis show genuine disbelief rather than a hint of it. It was quite 'expressive' in a way.
"Humans die when alone?"
"At times. It's not an immediate process but... it happens that sadness makes people less prone to live," I elaborated, preferring to not go too deep in the details of this topic. Too unpleasant to even consider. "Hence why social interactions, especially this early on in one's life, are quite important."
...
"I see," The Dragon accepted and then gave me her trademark blank look. "Do you have more chocolate chips?"
I had a few in my fridge, but Ophis lingered a bit more after she was done devouring those. We talked about simple things, watched a bit of TV and... then she left. Once again, without a warning or a 'bye' before she decided to just leave my proximity. Was this the end of Ophis' visits? Obviously not. And the Infinity Dragon was keen to check on me at random times to either talk or steal some food from my fridge. Nothing of real concern, but it was instantly reported to Azazel and... he was fine with it. In his own words, 'if she doesn't do anything against us, then it would be best to avoid any confrontations'. He didn't sound that convinced about my full explanation, but resolved his doubts in admitting Ophis had that kind of mindset. To stalk novelties, and definitely stalk those anomalies that were similar to her own origin.
She would come only when it was just me and I was 'decent'. No accident has happened to get her to restrain herself about it, only that she found any indecent scenes 'distracting' and lessening the chances of 'talking'. And I was glad she did that because I didn't need the Inter-dimensional FBI to pick up my traces and send their version of Chris Hansen after my poor butt. I was spared by that horrible fate, and I got bigger news from Issei when he proclaimed he got a second friend, and this one was a guy. Very awkward phrasing aside, the brunet told me it was Saji. Which was quite good considering Saji was actually a bro-tier individual if befriended the right way. And Issei seemed to have done it.
So yes, Issei just made friends with people that I knew about, but didn't have major roles in the near future. Which was good since it prevented anything crazy from happening, but set up an awkward situation for when Sona was going to get both Saji and Reya. Would she go after Issei too? Would their friendship be used to one-up Rias in the acquisition of Issei in the bespectacled girl's peerage? I couldn't tell on the spot, and I would have to keep a close eye on the matter.
Nonetheless, the next few months were quite tame and lacked any reason to worry about anything. All was well and the status quo survived... until Issei had the bright idea to 'surprise' me by inviting Reya to my house.
"Reya, Saji- this is the Sensei I told you about!"
Ah yes, Issei was already giving me heart attacks this much early in our odd relationship. To think that was a distinct warning of what would have happened a few years later...
AN
Ophis is a bit of a leech when it comes to chocolate chips and conversations, while Issei proceeds to sow the seeds of chaos for the next few years. Nonetheless, MC now has two more 'kids' to babysit and help with their homework. Small sacrifices, or the prologue of something insanely good but still damning in strange ways.
Also, before anyone say, "Where's my Kuroka/Asia/Serafall/Koneko?!", I would like to remind you that there is going to be enough time to introduce a good part of those individuals before 'canon start', but only those I can fit without making the crack too strong. In fact, I will just say that a new girl will appear in two chapters from now, and she is... Well, not going to be the wholesome shoulder loli for the MC like Ophis currently is.
REVIEW Q&A!
Mevizo2401: I've seen the Yujiro and Truck-kun one.
Terrmilion: I have a story ideas/snippets thread on Questionable Questing. Most of the new stories come from there, this one was actually unpublished here.
Dragon King of the West: Obviously. XD
Otto Morris: The name was from a gamertag I had created after playing lots of Totalist nations in DH/Hoi4 Kaiserreich.