Hey yall. Timeline ended up moving a bit faster than anticipated. Here's the new chapter one.

The supernatural world had a very clearly defined power system. It wasn't given any grandiose name, and those on it didn't get a grandiose title. It was simply called the top ten, and it was exactly what it sounded like. It clearly defined the top powers of the world, be it by pure strength, military might, or abilities.

Despite this ranking system existing, there were five beings that no matter what scale you put them to, they likely exceeded every parameter thought of. It was unanimously agreed upon to not trifle with these beings, otherwise you would find yourself in an early grave. The only likelihood of being taken down by anyone else would be them having to be on the top ten, while having the help of at least one other entity on it.

The known quantities of it started with the Judeo-Christian God. Born of the light at the beginning of the world, a little known fact of him is he had a twin born to the primordial dark as he was to the light. Neither much knew of the other though. God was stronger than most everything in the world, not just with his pure strength but one of his main abilities. There was a reason he was referred to as the 'Almighty God.' However, he had died over a millenia ago, and his essence returned to his father. However his death was in part due to the next entry on the list.

The Trihexa. The beast, also known as 666 who will bring about the end of the world in the book of revelations. An incredibly powerful amalgam of 7 beasts starting with the original Trihexa itself, who was a beast of pure avarice. God could not defeat it, but precognition allowed him to see a way out. So he sealed the beast, and much of his power was spent to keep it from waking. That was the only reason he lost and died, and even then, it was a calculated move on his part that would keep the beast sealed for millenia more without interference.

The next is also detailed in the book of Revelations. Great Red, the dragon of dreams and dragon of the apocalypse. Not much is truly known about this creature, only that it will appear at the end as well. It lives in the dimensional gap, a realm that's incredibly hostile to all living beings yet all living beings need it for teleportation. None have truly survived setting foot in there, or if they did, they never returned.

Another dragon, the Ouroboros, also known as the infinite dragon god, but nowadays goes by the name Ophis. Quite the character this one. Known to apparently take on the form of a fetish loli, she leads an organization to fight Great Red and retake her home, the dimensional gap, from him, since he's reportedly 'too noisy' and she just wants peace and quiet.

The last on the list is primarily only known by the others on it. Present at the start of the world and the one who separated the realms of life and death and made the system of reincarnation as well as the realms of the dead before fading into obscurity for millenia. Very little is therefore known about him as nobody had seen him in ages. He had many names, but the ones referred to by the ones who knew of him just called him one thing. Reiou. Nobody knows what happened to him or where he went though, so he's regarded as little more than a myth aside from the statements of Ophis and God with his apparent reverence and respect towards this being. It's likely he won't appear again though with his history of isolationism.

It was evening in Kuoh, and most everyone had returned home for the day. Those who weren't home were either busy or involved in the more supernatural side of things. Unfortunately, that wasn't the focus of the person we're following today. He was trying to live a more normal life after Yhwach's defeat.

Ichigo Kurosaki was taking a late day to help clean up around the campus. Primarily he was helping clean up after the kendo and archery clubs since he was involved with them as somewhat of a tutor for kendo, and he used it as a way to get community service hours. Plus, he didn't mind helping either.

He had transferred to Kuoh a little over a year ago. No offense to Karakura, but there were too many memories there and way too much stuff to deal with, even after the defeat of the Quincy King. Plus, he was offered a spot as part of a scholarship program because of his grades. Considering he could already hold a job, he didn't really need it, but it helped with spending for the apartment that came with it and food and whatnot.

Unfortunately it seemed like supernatural stuff followed him like a plague.

As soon as he arrived he could sense that a multitude of students weren't quite normal. And he could tell they noticed him too. Even with his better skill of suppressing his power he wasn't able to completely mask his presence. At that point he just tried to remain ignorant, even when he ran into one such student near the first couple days for, surprise, an 'infringement' on school rules.

"Mr. Kurosaki, dyed hair is against school regulations." Those words were spoken by Sona Shitori, the president of the student council. He had to hold in his normal response to that by taking a deep breath as he formulated a response.

"My hair is naturally this color. My mom was originally from Europe and had a similar hair color, and one of my sisters has the same as well. Sorry for any perceived wrongdoing." He was normally disrespectful to those more in power, but that was mainly in combat and other such things. This was school, and with a peer of his no less. He wasn't going to get called a delinquent if he couldn't help it.

His response surprised the girl before her look became thoughtful and she nodded. "Very well. I'll confirm it for myself, but thank you for telling me." Her gaze lingered on him for a bit longer before she made a gesture of dismissal, which he acknowledged and left back to class. From there, there wasn't any overt action from her or that Gremory girl and her entourage, but he caught them watching him every once in a while. Say what you will about her and her methods, but Yoruichi was good at teaching situational awareness.

He did notice another thing about them all though. All the students had a slightly darker taste to their power. Not overtly bad, but more like their power lied and aligned more with the darker spectrum. Similar to hollows in a sense actually. But they didn't act like it at all. At least, these more human ones didn't.

Every once in a while he felt presences similar to hollows pop up. Some were dispatched by the groups, but some he dealt with. They were different than hollows in spiritual make-up and power, but remarkably similar in mannerisms. They talked just as much too. From them he learned they were called 'devils', which he really just shrugged at. Of course devils existed too. He shouldn't be surprised.

One thing that did surprise him though was his Fullbring's return. He had already gotten a way to use his powers in his body (thanks Urahara, you're a lifesaver), but that had the unintended effect of bringing it back. He had to admit the armor was pretty damn useful though, and since it melded well with quincy control techniques he learned from Uryu, he was able to take to them a lot easier.

Overall his time here was a lot quieter (minus the occasional check in from his dad) until a couple nights ago.

There were larger fluctuations of power appearing in the region. He read about three that were high above most everyone else in the school by a good margin. They also felt different. One of them felt a bit like Toshiro's bankai, but only vaguely. The other two felt somewhat like quincy honestly, but also very different. He just planned to watch for a bit honestly to see what happened, but things seemed to pick up right at the most inopportune time.

He had just finished cleaning the kendo dojo when he felt the barrier take form around the school. He let out a curse at that before he stretched his senses out. He was caught off guard, being lost in thought as he was. It was more annoying than debilitating though.

The barrier was a decently strong one, he could tell it was made by most of the student council by their energy signatures. Inside he could feel one of the quincy-like beings and the Occult Research Club, along with what felt like a slightly above average human, five signatures similar to Zanpakutou, one human with a strong soul, and another that felt rather wild and almost insane, similar to Nnoitra mixed with Mayuri. Not a good combination.

He couldn't leave the barrier without alerting those who made it at this juncture, so he'd settle for just watching things unfold. "Old Man. Little help?" Receiving what amounted to a mental nod he felt the quincy portion of his powers come more to the forefront as the shadows bent and twisted around him, rendering him mostly invisible to being sensed and seen as he made his way to the battle. Really, Quincy abilities were damn useful.

The fight wasn't going well for everyone else. Even he could tell that much. Sure, they beat the one apparent exorcist easily enough, but the stereotypical vampire looking guy was practically toying with them. Even he could see that. And he acted way too much like Kenpachi and Nnoitra for his liking. It was annoying.

He had watched the pervert Issei, who had a surprisingly useful power of transferring exponential power boosts to people, boost Gremory and Himejima who both attacked him and well, neither attack worked. He brushed them aside and proceeded to toy with the rest of the group there. Sure they got some hits in, but it was mainly luck and him getting flustered. But it was easy to see when he stopped taking things like a joke.

"This fight is getting boring."

With that the light swords he had grew much more intense in their brightness. It looked like he was planning on ripping off his attack again, and this time, it would take care of the rest of the group fighting him.

Ichigo wouldn't let that happen. His name was 'One Protector' for a reason.

Taking a deep breath, he let his power cocoon him and form up into his armor. It had a bit more skull motifs than before due to his jaunt in hell, as well as a couple red markings reminiscent of his hollow tattoos and a fur collar, but there was no armor that would be more comfortable or form fitting, even if it looked so macabre.

The man, whose name he learned was Kokabiel, released his attack. And Ichigo moved. Before it could reach the group, he was already in front of it, one hand reaching out to grab the beam. He was using some of his quincy abilities on it too, and in front of everyone, the slash of light that would've consumed the school and broken the barrier with little difficulty shrunk before finally getting crushed in his gauntleted fist.

There was palpable surprise from everyone who saw. The devils and human behind him gasped when recognizing who it was, while Kokabiel just looked more angry.

"Kurosaki-san?" That was the voice of Kiba. He was good friends with the boy, normally spending time sparring with him to keep his swordsmanship sharp and assist the other. He won most of the time, but it still helped.

"Hey, Kiba-san. Sorry for butting in, but I got caught up in the barrier and thought you lot could've used a bit of help against Twilight reject over here." He glanced back at the blonde when he said that before switching his gaze back to the absolutely livid Fallen Angel who was back to building up power.

"You dare! One more bug getting in the way of my war won't mean anything! Once I'm done with you you'll wish you just stayed in the background!"

This prompted an eye roll from Ichigo as he watched the angel merge the swords into a spear that kept getting bigger. Jeez, compensating much?

He reached for his pocket and one hand grasped his badge before bringing it out, shifting the wooden object to a blade of black energy that seemed to leach the space around it of color and light. His other hand gripped around another blade that formed in his hand made of shining white light. The differences between them were obvious beyond their coloration. The white blade was longer, more european in design and form factor. It was a sturdy and elegant piece, similar in design to a Seele Schneider. The black blade seemed to roil and was larger and somewhat more cruel looking, like his unmastered fullbring. It held similarities to his Shikai's trench knife. Both gave off what appeared to be flames of power. A manifestation of his quincy abilities, plus some in the white blade, and a manifestation of his hollow and shinigami power in the black, the blade being held together with a mix of reishi manipulation techniques and specialized Hierro.

That was somewhat annoying to Ichigo that they did that. He was better with control, but he just couldn't get his blades to not leak a bit. It brought no end of teasing from Shiro, even as the Old Man encouraged him that he'd get it eventually. Shiro was just frustrated more that he wasn't brought out.

"You can't tell me you'd have fun with this guy. Sure, he's around the level on Kenpachi when we first arrived, but that's it."

"Well, yeah, but I'm bored out of my mind here! Doesn't matter if you would turn him into paste, I haven't gotten any action in ages!"

"Fight addict. Fine, I'll spar with you in our inner world later. I'll even use a bit of your power so we can keep going."

"... Fine. I'll let it slide that you're not using us just this once."

Ichigo shook his head of the distraction that was his internal monologue before looking up at the yellow spear that was around the size of the school now. Really, Ulquiorra was a lot more impressive. He could put more power in his lance and make it a whole lot smaller than this guy.

"Die!" And they couldn't even come up with anything new to say either. He let out a breath when the spear of light streaked towards him before he brought the black blade up. The spear impacted the edge of the blade, but didn't explode.

Actually, it started to get a lot smaller.

He applied a mix of quincy and hollow abilities to the weapon. Quincies could absorb and repurpose energy, but it didn't make them stronger. On the other hand, Hollows grew stronger the more they ate. This took advantage of both.

The black energy spread over the spear and shrank it before it was consumed by the blade. Ignoring the look of shock and outrage on the Cadre's face, he raised the white blade, where a small point of white light was rapidly growing. He couldn't tell why, but seeing that made the blackened angel recoil even more. Unknown to him, some of the others watching did so as well.

He wasn't a fan of bows. Swords and hand to hand were his main armaments in combat. Kido was a bust. Well, ok, it wasn't really. He may be prone to making explosions, but they came from his hands. It just took the correct application to make a pretty cool fighting style with that. Anyways, that's off topic. He didn't use bows, like the quincy primarily did. He used his blades. So he needed a different way to use their main techniques, and different variations of them.

Luckily, he was a fast learner.

"Heilige Löschung." Holy Erasure in english. Ironically mirroring the name of Kiba's sword that was made to destroy holy swords and energy, this attack was a variation of Heilig Pfeil set to fit him. Not his most destructive attack sure, but a very useful one. It was practically a quincy version of a cero. Kokabiel seemed to recognize it though. So did another, though he was further away.

The point of light rapidly expanded into a beam that Kokabiel couldn't dodge in his state. He didn't make it strong enough to kill though. Still, it struck the fallen angel head on, sending him shooting back and filling the air with the scent of something burning before it continued and shot a hole in the barrier around Kuoh academy. It was a small one though, so it was patched up rather quickly.

The Cadre-class fallen angel unceremoniously fell to the ground in front of the group after the attack. Ichigo took a deep breath before dissipating his weapons and armor and turning back to the mostly beaten group behind him.

"Well, uh, that's done. You probably have questions but you guys should probably like, heal up and rest up-" He was cut off by a shout before letting out a groan. Second time this has happened. He hits someone with an attack they shouldn't get up from but then they do. He felt the angel rushing towards him, a lot weaker but still somewhat capable. He turned instantly before the swords impacted his collar, only to be met with extreme resistance.

They barely bit in by a centimeter. At the point of impact, there were black veins pulsing under the skin around two patches of black where they impacted. The Angel quickly retreated in the case of a counterattack seeing that his didn't work. The aesthetic changes soon faded from his body, small trickles of blood going down his shoulders after leading to a wince from him as his gaze trailed back up to the Angel who was again making a bigger spear.

"No! I will not let him get in my way! Not now! Not again!" He was somewhat confused, but he got back into a fighting stance. Kokabiel seemed too far gone to reason with and was backed into a corner. This seemed like a last resort attack he would put everything into.

Then the barrier shattered and the spear rapidly shrank. Ichigo looked up at the point that it broke, spotting the armored form that felt like Hyorinmaru when he was sensing the city. He couldn't tell they were there because of the barrier, but now he could see why they felt like that. The armor seemed to have a heavy dragon motif, which was remarkably similar to Issei's gauntlet. And he was getting stronger as the spear shrank. It looked like he was cutting power away and taking it for himself.

Whatever he did, it appeared he was gunning for Kokabiel. The Fallen Angel growled in rage as he turned to face the new threat before promptly being decked in the face by a gauntleted fist. There was a significant amount of power behind it and it sent the angel to the ground, actually out cold this time.

"Sorry to interrupt. I believe you had it handled, but my boss needs him alive to discipline him and make an example of him."

Ichigo shifted on his feet to face the new, and likely much more dangerous possible threat with how easily he took out the fallen. "And you are?"

There was a tinny chuckle before he spoke. "My name is unimportant. You can simply refer to me as Albion. I'm under conscript for the leader of the Grigori, Azazel, to take this one in for attempting to restart the war. You did most of the work, and I thank you, but I must be going."

Or he would've gone if a voice coming from Issei's gauntlet, what, stopped him.

"Are you really going to leave me here, rival?"

And then the ARMOR, spoke, rather than the wearer. "Ddraig. Fear not, we will do our battle eventually. Your host is not yet ready, and there are more interesting things at the moment to occupy me than our rivalry."

The armor's occupant spoke next. "You heard my sacred gear, Issei Hyoudou. As the owner of the Divine Dividing, and you as the owner of the Boosted Gear, we are bound to come into conflict. But you're too weak right now. Grow, my rival, and then we shall do battle." And with that, he turned around and flew off in the wake of the shattering barrier.

Most of the people seemed to forget about him in that reveal. At least, until the members of the student council arrived and he cleared his throat a bit.

"So… Since you're going to have questions for me I have some for you too. Give and take?" He had to admit he sounded a bit sheepish there. You couldn't really blame him though. This was a bit of new territory in the supernatural world, even for him.

They planned a meeting for the next day after school. Mainly because Rias needed to dole out 'Punishment' to her rogue pieces. The day went on as normal, with a bit more of a tense atmosphere though. Once the final bell rang he made his way to the old school building where he could sense the occult research club and the student council waiting.

He opened the door without much preamble and stepped into the meeting room before finding a seat and taking it before looking at the rest.

"I'll let you guys go first since I have a somewhat basic idea of what you guys are."

Speaking first was a somewhat simple power play when speaking to others, but considering what they saw of him the night before, he wouldn't need to do much to take control of the situation.

Sona was the first to speak, clearing her throat a bit before looking to him. "My first question would be what your sacred gear is. You're obviously quite adept in using it and hiding it and your power, so we feel that is an important thing to ask."

Ok, he didn't have any ideas at all. The closest he was able to tell was during the fight, Issei's gauntlet was apparently called that. Might as well just come out and say it then.

"I don't have one. More than that, I don't know what would qualify as one. From what I've seen though, Issei has something referred to as that. The gauntlet that boosts his power? That's a sacred gear right?"

He garnered a look of surprise before Rias continued for Sona. "A sacred gear is a divine blessing made by the Christian God to give humanity a fighting chance. They're put directly into the cycle of reincarnation to find a soul to host them. Primarily they were made by sealing a being into a weapon. Would you have anything that qualifies?"

Ah, that explains it. He nodded a slight bit, but didn't really elaborate. He had his own secrets, and she likely knew to respect them, going by the sigh at his refusal to do so.

"Alright then, what about your faction? Where do your loyalties lie?" That was spoken by Sona again and he tilted his head before shrugging.

"My only loyalty is to those I care for and wish to protect. And, if my friends are to be believed, I have a bit of a hero complex, so… pretty much anyone I can help." He was being completely honest with that, which seemed to surprise the president. Even with that though it seemed to relax the room a bit knowing he wasn't really against them.

"Now, going by that faction comment and sacred gears, I actually have a lot more questions now."

The groups went on to explain their standing and species. They were devils, part of the Judeo-Christian faction, regarded as one of the strongest in the world. Or they would be, if the reveal of God being dead just last night was anything to go by. Even without their main power though, the devil faction was well known throughout the world for having two of its members on the list of the Top Ten strongest.

Something about the statement of God being gone seemed to trouble the Old man for some reason, but he put that off for a while to listen to them.

The rest of the top ten had other members from other religions. Finding out that most every mythology was alive and involved in the supernatural was a bit jarring to say the least, but it wasn't as bad as a near all powerful Quincy threatening the world, so he would be able to take it.

There was more explanation on Devils too, about how they used evil pieces to reincarnate willing creatures, or at least, usually willing, into devils to repopulate, which while somewhat concerning on other implications assuaged his worries about it being like slavery.

Then both offered for him to join their peerages.

He shook his head a bit at the offers. "Sorry. Can't do that. For one, I kind of like being a human. Sure I wouldn't mind helping now and again, but I don't really want that. Also, from how you explained it, I don't think you can reincarnate something stronger than you."

Which was true, and both seemed to be mildly embarrassed at remembering that. Overall, the meeting went rather well. It was cordial and there were no hiccups.

At least not yet.

Well, not with them.

Parent-teacher day would be coming up soon.

That was where the hiccups would no doubt be.

Oh sweet soul king in a crystal, his dad is going to be harping on him to get with one of the girls in this school isn't he? Now it makes so much sense why he was so supportive of him coming here. Dammit.

Let's just hope he's not the only one who gets an embarrassing experience then. Not much can compare to Isshin though.

There's chapter one done. This admittedly could've been better, but I wasn't in a place I could watch Highschool DxD, so the fight scene is based entirely on like, 5 year old memory otherwise there would probably be a bit more description.

Also, Kokabiel just isn't really a match for Ichigo, so it would've been rather short anyways.

It's a whole lot better than the original chapters though.

Anyways, hope you enjoy, I definitely think it's better than the last one, but tell me what you think!

(apologies as well I'm not the best with dialogue that can basically be glossed over, brain just doesn't let me write it out as well. There's some stuff I know I probably could've done better on but I'm not in the best state of mind to do so)