Chapter Three - Unpacking The Past

To be honest, when Griselda was hyping up a dorm of in-training pro exorcists for a crazy secret society of magic people under the fucking Vatican, this was not what Vin was expecting.

[SLASH!] A TV hummed aloud.

"Fuck! WE'RE GOING AGAIN!"

"Dude, you've lost the last eighteen rounds, give it a break."

"EAT A DICK!"

Yeah, wow. Just… wow.

The door led Vin and Griselda right into the common room, where multiple black leather couches faced a large flat screen television mounted to the wall. Atop one couch sat a large dark-skinned man casually lounging back wearing a bright pink fluffy hoodie and a pair of grey sweatpants. His expression the definition of serenity, as he held a controller in his hands.

Meanwhile his companion was the exact opposite. Erratic, and particularly incensed; an angry, short red-haired boy wearing a Pokémon shirt and a pair of black shorts. He sat on the floor at the foot of the couch, an arcade stick in his lap that looked ready to break from abuse.

The taller of the two looked over towards the door, his eyes widening, as he gave a soft nudge to the redhead with his foot.

The redhead looked up in response, and went equally wide-eyed, but actually managed to vocalize himself, and as he eloquently put it.

"Oh shit, new guy."

And then he scurried off further into the complex. Well… That was… interesting.

Meanwhile, the tall boy got up, and holy shit, he was tall. Standing at what must have been a good six-foot-something. Even Vin, who by most standards fell into the category of 'gangly teen' had to look up to meet the boy's eyes. Damn, he hadn't had to do that with anyone since he was thirteen… Hah, how he does not miss the days of his dad holding things above his head…

A sprout of encompassing emptiness swirled in Vin's stomach. Dad. He took a deep breath. Bury it… bury it… annnnnnd gone.

He stretched his hand out in greeting, "Hey, it's nice to have a fresh face around here. I'm Jafar, and you're...?"

Vin returned the handshake, "Vin. It's nice to meet you."

Jafar gave an easygoing smile, "Likewise, man. I'm sure Ethan's already running off to tell the others about you, so I'd suggest getting ready for that."

"Jafar, I trust everything's been orderly since I've been gone," Grisleda asked.

Jafar gave a nod, "Yup, everything's been pretty chill. I decided I'd finally humor Ethan, give him something to do while I keep an eye on him, you know how he can get."

Griselda pinched the brow of her nose, "Do I ever…"

"Yeah guys, new kids right over here," The distant voice of Ethan called out, as he soon emerged, leading a group of teenagers who all stood a good few inches taller than him.

Vin could vaguely recall a few of the faces from the little crowd that found him after awakening his… what did they call it? Sacred Gear? Yeah… yeah, that sounded right. But amongst the crowd of people, there were two faces that stuck out to him more than the others.

"Oh! Vinny, you're really here!" Irina enthusiastically called out, hopping out of the crowd, and effortlessly breaking his personal space bubble.

Vin looked down at Irina hanging off his arm, clad in a pair of fuzzy purple pajamas, wow she looked way too good in those. He strained his eyes to focus solely on her face, and tried to ignore the fact that he could probably catch a glimpse of something if he looked down at her shirt's collar.

Really didn't help that Irina was a very pretty girl who was probably the first super pretty girl who was practically hanging off of him. Try to stay calm Vin, try to stay calm, give a response!

"Eheheh, uh… yeah, I am."

Nailed it.

"This is gonna be great! You're going to have so much fun here with us!" Irina beamed.

Oh boy, just what the hell did Vin manage to get himself into?

"Hey, guys, c'mon and introduce yourselves to Vinny! Trust me, he's like, the sweetest guy in my class." Irina called, as she finally released Vin, instead opting to stand slightly to his side.

But wait, did he really get called 'sweet' by the Irina Shidou? Oh boy, what the students at school would do to him if they ever found out that little tidbit.

But before Vin could indulge anymore in hypotheticals about being 'put in his place' by an angry student population in the name of their sweet Irina's honor, an unfamiliar boy stepped out of the crowd in front of him.

"Very well, I shall be the one to measure the caliber of this new budding warrior," Declared a boy with messy black hair, and… was that a cape?

Vin blinked, yep definitely a cloak. The boy was wearing a long black and satin purple cape over a pair of shorts and a Iron Maiden t-shirt.

Oh, well at least he had good taste.

The boy tossed his cape theatrically with his hand, "Greetings budding warrior of the sacred crystals. I am the Jet-Black Conduit, the Blade of Divine Judgement, you may call me… Ezekiel."

Vin shifted his eyes towards Irina, whispering, "Hey, so is he like…"

"Oh!" Irina perked up, before leaning into his ear; the feeling of her breath on his ear causing goosebumps to break out across his back, "Zeke's kind of… special. He thinks up the funniest things, like he's a real life superhero or something. Once you get used to it, it's actually pretty cute."

"Ah. So he's a Chuuni," Vin stated matter of factly.

"Chuuni? Oh! Chuunibyou! You know Japanese?" Irina smirked, as she poked Vin's cheek with her index finger.

Ah shit, that just came out. Abort! Abort!

"Not a word…" Vin deadpanned, a faint dusting of pink crossing his creeks.

"Alright, I guess I'm up then!"

Vin nearly fell to the floor as suddenly, a weight leapt up onto his back. After regaining his balance, accompanied with a feminine giggling just behind his head, a head of brown and dark orange hair filled his vision. With a flick of the head, the hair flipped over to reveal the face of a youthful girl with a playful smirk.

"Hey, I'm Vanessa. How ya doin'?"

"Vanessa, what have I said about jumping on people?" Griselda's disapproving voice called out.

"Do it if it works?" The girl added hopefully.

Griselda fixed her with a flat look, "No. Now get off your new teammate, and introduce yourself."

With reluctance, Vanessa climbed off Vin's back, and walked around to his front, letting Vin see her thin, wily frame clad in a tank top and short shorts.

"Great to meet you Vin!" Vanessa smiled, her mouth full of pearly white teeth so sharp they wouldn't look out of place in the mouth of a shark.

"Hey," The shorter kid, maybe around five-foot-four stepped forward as Vanessa slicked back into the group, "Name's Ethan. You play Guilty Gear?"

Oh, Vin could tell he was going to like this kid.

"Yeah."

"Hell yeah, who do you play? I'm tired of playing against Jafar's busted ass Justice."

"You're only angry because I play a character that works better against yours," Jafar called from behind Vin.

"OH SCREW YOU! YOUR JUSTICE IS CHEAP AS HELL! SPAMMING ISN'T A VALID TACTIC!"

"Say that to my win-loss record."

"WHY YOU!"

"Hey, you wanted me to play with you," Jafar shrugged.

"Ugh… See what I gotta deal with? So, who do you main?"

"Order Sol," Vin responded.

"My man!" Ethan cried out, grabbing Vin's arm in a spartan handshake that soon became a bro hug. As they broke the hug, a sigh resonated from the back of the common room. Looking towards the source, Vin found Xenovia looking extraordinarily unamused. She quickly turned around to leave, until Griselda's voice made her freeze rigid like a statue.

"Xenovia dear, please get to know your new teammate."

"G-Griselda, my time is better spent training-"

"I'm closing the training hall tonight. You will stay in the dorms, and get to know Vin like everyone else," Griselda declared, "You'll have plenty of time to train tomorrow, understood?"

Xenovia froze, before closing her eyes and bowing her head, "...Understood."

"Good," Griselda softly smiled, "Now Vin, they've dropped off your boxes in your room, so how about you head over there and get unpacking while we begin making supper."

"That sounds good, thank you Griselda."

"You're welcome, Vin. Now go on."

Walking down a hallway connected to the common room, Vin soon found that the fourth door on the right side had a plaque with the name 'Vincenzo' on it. With a twist of the knob, the door swung open to reveal a spacious white room with dark wood flooring covered in a sea of cardboard boxes.

Looking around, what Vin could see was that a bed and wastebasket had already been prepared for him, and… was that his desk and wardrobe? Damn, that one worker that came with them didn't mess around. Vin went to go and open one of the boxes, determined to at least get his clothes put away properly before dinner was ready. Then it struck him.

"Fuck, how am I going to get these open?"

Vin looked at the tape-sealed boxes, then to the distinct lack of anything sharp in the room. He sighed, resigned to his fate of having to ruin his fingernails, before a brilliant idea struck him.

Crystals were sharp, right?

Looking down at his hands Vin came to another important realization. He had no clue how to summon his Sacred Gear. Vin tried to concentrate, closing his eyes, and clenching his body all over to try and drum up a way to summon the rings back onto his fingers.

After a minute of attempts to no avail, Vin gave up. The only thing that was going to do was make him fart. Stuffing his hands into his pockets, he made a great discovery, as his fingers brushed up against metal.

Grabbing the object from his pocket, Vin yanked out his keyring, complete with his newly gained elevator keys. But it wouldn't do to get an important key like those ones gummed up from tape, so Vin took to his other two options. One was his bike lock key, and the other was his house key.

Well, not his house anymore. Vin spent a while staring at that key, initially feeling the telltale choking feeling of sadness begin within him, before it was snuffed out, like a candle being blown out. From then on, the only emotion that the sight of the green, house-shaped key inspired in him was a pervasive emptiness. Vin snapped the key off his keyring, and hucked it into the bottom of his room's trash can.

He could afford to gum up his bike key, anyway.

Right before Vin could slice through the first of his boxes, the sound of a knock echoed through the room. Turning towards the door as it creaked open, Vin found Irina's head poking through the gap in the door. Her expression shifted from curious to bright and cheerful as she and Vin made eye contact.

"Ah, Vinny! Can we come in?"

"Uh," Vin looked around the room for a moment, "Sure."

Soon the door opened, and in walked Irina, Jafar, and right behind them, Xenovia.

"We thought we'd help you out with getting things set up," Irina cheered.

Jafar nodded, "We thought that this would be a good opportunity to get closer to you as well."

"I had nothing else to do," Xenovia admitted, "At least here, I can get a bit of exercise."

"Um, alright… Well, do you guys have any knives to open these boxes with?"

"Yep, I came prepared," Jafar reached into his pant's pocket, and pulled out a pocket knife, before setting to work on opening the tops of boxes around him.

Irina spun around the room, looking over Jafar's shoulder as he worked, while Xenovia walked over, and sat down on the edge of Vin's bed.

"Okay, so Xenovia and I'll go ahead and get started on unpacking things then. What should we start with, Vinny?"

Vin shrugged, "Anything really works, I'll tell you where things go as we unpack them. Oh, but you can leave the box of clothes to me. I'll deal with those later."

Yeah, he was not unpacking his boxers in front of two of his school's most famous girls. He had some semblance of decency, damn it.

Vin began to work on slicing open boxes, but came to an important conclusion pretty quick. The silence in the room was killing him. Thankfully, his solution came when he sliced open the next box.

"Sweet, there it is…" Vin declared as he dug the object out of the box, gathering the attention of the others as he did.

Irina skipped over to Vin, leaning over his shoulder as he pulled out a black canister.

"Uh, what's that?" Irina asked.

Vin unscrewed the top of the canister, tipping it over, as a black and white tube cylinder fell into his free hand.

"My speaker," Vin answered, as he dropped it onto his desk, and pulled out his phone.

"Oh yeah! Pump some tunes!" Irina cheered.

"That's the idea," Vin responded as he turned on his phone, and began scrolling, "What kinds of stuff do you guys like?"

"Whatever you have, I'm pretty open," Jafar replied as he sliced open the top of another box.

"What about you Irina?" Vin asked.

"Oh! Pop music!" Irina replied.

Yeah, he kind of figured that… but hey, never hurt to ask, right? Now, there was only one other person in the room who hadn't been asked.

"Xenovia, what kinds of music do you listen to?"

"I don't listen to music."

Vin's head snapped up so fast, you could swear it snapped.

"What."

Xenovia nodded, "I don't listen to any music. I consider it a distraction."

"Oh nononono… Xenovia, c'mon you can't be serious. Do you have any idea what you're missing?"

"No, not particularly. I just know that it's not necessary."

"Alright. That's it, I'm going to get you into music," Vin declared.

Xenovia scoffed, "You're not. You ought to focus your efforts in a different way, now that you're one of us."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm still going to do it," Vin waved off, "So, you let's do it this way, we all get a turn playing a song, and we'll swap it around as we work."

"Sounds good to me," Jafar said.

"Let's get this party started!" Irina cheered.

Vin tapped his phone before leaving it on the desk, as he took back to working on opening the boxes around him. It went on like that for a while, everyone taking turns putting on different songs as they slowly began to assemble the room around them. The sounds of all different kinds of music echoing around the white room as it slowly and surely became less and less empty.

All in all, it was a great time. Irina would dance around the room to the tune of each and every song as she put items in the place, all the while comically playing up her scandalous reactions at any explicit lyric that came up. Jafar would bob his head in time with the rhythm occasionally drumming on objects to the beat. Vin himself would quietly sing background vocals for songs he knew; and although she would never admit to it, Vin had most certainly caught Xenovia tapping her foot on more than one occasion within his peripheral vision.

There was a surprising serenity to it, as someone who preferred to stay limited in his close connections, having three people in his room never seemed all too fun, but now that he was experiencing it… maybe it was the isolation he felt deep in his heart, that hurt that no matter how much he buried, he was still actually aware of, but he was definitely seeing the appeal. Great, being forcibly recruited wasn't enough, now they were turning him into a people person, ugh.

They continued on at their pace for another hour, as before they had unpacked about three quarters of the boxes in his room. Right as they were about to begin on another box, a knock was heard on the door. Everyone looked towards Vin, before he shrugged, paused the music, and went to open the door.

"Ah, there you four are," Griselda leaned her head into the room, gazing around, "I could hear the music from the common room. It's nice that you three thought to spend some time with your new ally. Especially you, Xenovia. I'm proud of you."

"Ah, um, I assume dinner is ready, m-ma'am…" Xenovia said. That was… weird. How does a girl as stoic as Xenovia become so meek in the face of Griselda? There had to be something that he was missing there.

"But yes, dinner is on the table everyone, come on now, before it gets cold."

"Sweet, what are we having?" Irina asked while darting up to the door.

"Nothing too complicated, I figured everyone would be alright with a Mushroom Risotto."

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Irina looked back into the room, and waved her arm, "C'mon guys, let's go!"

Dinner in a Vatican dorm house was a lot different than dinner in his old home, that was something that was painfully obvious as soon as he sat down to eat. After all, they had to say grace before eating. Vin would be honest, he just mumbled gibberish the entire time. Benefit of sitting next to Irina, she was very enthusiastic about grace, so her own prayers covered his murmuring facsimile of a prayer quite splendidly.

The food was really good. Mushroom Risotto wasn't necessarily his favorite, but to be frank, he was really hungry, and he would eat just about anything short of dirt if it was put in front of him. And credit to the chefs, this was one of the better dishes of Mushroom Risotto he'd had.

Looking around, Vin saw everyone else enjoying their dinner: Irina was digging in with the most blissfully content face he'd ever seen, Jafar was eating slower, but was obviously enjoying savoring every bite he took, Xenovia was already done her meal, obviously eating that fast because it was more 'convenient', or whatever her stupid ideology was. Ethan and Vanessa were bickering with each other about some irrelevant and ultimately pointless topic; and Griselda sat at the head of the table, eating her meal with all the grace of a queen.

That's when it finally clicked inside Vin's head: this was his family now. He'd lost one family, sure. But this could simply be the start of another. He thought back to the little party in his room, and that's when he realized in a bizarre twist, that a part of himself was… relieved about everything that happened.

He almost threw up his dinner in disgust when he realized that fact. But that would be rude, so Vin drank down the glass of water in front of him, and as the cool liquid poured down his throat, he mercilessly buried the thought into the back of his subconscious, where it would just stay still, and stay quiet.


Hours later, and everyone had turned in for the night. Vin had enough stuff out that heading straight to bed wasn't going to be a worry, yet he still felt compelled to stay up and unpack one last box. Opening the flap, there sat rows upon rows of family photos.

With shaking hands, Vin reached into the box and pulled out a random photo. Flipping it over revealed to him that it was a photo taken during his seventh grade science fair in elementary school. He'd taken home the first place prize that year with some invention that he no doubt disassembled for parts some week or two later. He looked at the photo, a little version of himself with the widest, brace-filled grin on his face, cradling a gold trophy in his arms like a newborn child. Beside him was a younger and even smaller version of Lisa, holding a thumbs up for the camera. God, she was so proud of him that day, she all but demanded that their parents get them sundaes for dessert that night. His father was behind him, a comforting hand messing with his long brown locks. Geez he had it that long even back then? His mother kneeled beside him, her arm wrapped around his younger self's side in a weird hug of some sort, a smile on her face which showed just how proud she was of her child.

Vin tried to look for the little details in the background of the photo, but he couldn't make anything out due to the frame shaking in his grasp. The feeling of heat behind his eyes crept up on him in a vengeance, too strong to contain anymore. Vin practically threw the frame back in with the others, and slammed the box underneath his wardrobe.

Throwing himself onto the bed, Vin grabbed a pillow and buried his face into it so he could scream. All the emotions he contained finally boiling over in one simulacrum of a moment: as he wept.

That night, for the first time in twelve years, Vin cried himself to sleep.


I know, I'm sorry for hitting you all with the 'sad chapter' two times in a row. But hey, there was some fun in there!

Now, like before, I want to say thank you to everyone who's been reading, following, favoriting, and especially reviewing these chapters as they've come out! The day that chapter two was released, I got over four hundred people to come and read my story, which blew my goddamn mind. You all are absolutely incredible, no doubt in my mind!

You know, every time I get a review, it puts the dumbest smile on my face. I'm always thinking, 'Wow, people are really out there enjoying and engaging in the story I've written enough that they're leaving comments talking about how much they love it.'

So, I love interacting with this community, so that got me thinking... Why not answer some of the reviews at the end of these chapters? It gives me a chance to interact with you all a little bit more, and I'm always down to answer some questions about the story, characters, my writing process, etc., so why the hell not? Now, for the first time in this story, let's get into...


THE REVIEW ROUNDUP

Crestowl Asks:

"Great story so far, and I love that the grammar is actually really good, you would not believe the number of DxD fanfictions with horrible grammar. Will this be a fanfic focusing on the church, or will he also go to Kuoh? Does Issei exist? So many questions, so few answers"

Great comment Crestowl. Unfortunately, I am… painfully aware of the amount of poorly written DxD fanfics out there. Personally, I still can't decide whether I hate the whole 'I'm going to write my fanfic like it's a script' trope, or the 'Infinite harem' nonsense. A large portion of the initial motivation for making this script was because I spent months upon months scouring here, Wattpad, and Ao3 looking for a quality DxD fanfic to read. I found a few little gems in there along the way, but ultimately, nothing much. Eventually, I just decided to try my hand at writing one myself, and here we are!

Now for some, it's time to rip the band aid off. Yes, Issei is in this story. He'll be featured later on, so for now, it's just Vin, Irina, Xenovia, and the others in Italy. If you guys wanted a rough estimation of where this first story arc would fit on the DxD timeline, I'd say about nine months before the beginning of DxD New/S2/ LN Vol.3.

Truthfully, I don't get Issei hate; but I mainly think that it comes from the fact that people can't seem to write Issei with quite enough vulnerability to him, which leaves him to seem cocky, arrogant, and like a villain. Really, I think Issei hate is solely perpetuated by people thinking that horribly OOC depictions of Issei are the same as canon Issei. Doubly so for Rias… Rest assured, this fic is firmly pro-Issei! I plan on keeping my boy pure, perverted, and slightly traumatized!

Thanks for the review, Crestowl! You rock!

PaperTucan Says:

"Well that was sad TT. Good chapter hope to see more soon"

Well… You got your wish. I'm also about a third of the way through writing chapter four at the moment. May take me a little bit more time than this one due to some university work I have to do soon (Gotta love midterms…).

In terms of that chapter being sad… Yeah, what can I say, sometimes the best trail foreword is paved in tears. But leaving the edgy musings aside, it's mainly here to show how rough the transition is for people entering the world of the supernatural. I always kind of thought that things were a bit too lax in canon; like, they really just throw around the fact that they're devils in canon. For me, it always felt more appropriate to be this tight-lipped secret that's guarded with a manic amount of secrecy. No witnesses, you know? Also, Vin having to leave his family? Yeah, that's not going to get forgotten about or retconned. It's sticking with him, a little chip on his shoulder, you know?

Also, bonus credit: thank you PaperTucan for being the very first person to leave a review on this story! You coming by and just leaving a simple comment on each chapter that's been uploaded has been such a welcome sight to see, and I love it every time! Thanks time and time again for coming by and reviewing!

FateFan Says:

"It's good that Xenovia's attitude is still serious, it's disgusting when she barely leaves the church she becomes a girl obsessed with having babies, and please tell me that both Xenovia and Irina are going to be in a relationship with Vincenzo, because the I really hate those fanfics where there is a good OC and yet the best girls always end up with the idiot of issei, so please I hope they are both with Vin and not that they join the harem of a perverted devil that is no different than riser"

Ah.

Well, to start off with, yeah I want to keep Xenovia firmly with her early S2 personality for this story arc, at least for now. She's not mean, just cold and closed off. Part of Vin's journey to get closer to his new family is going to be breaking through that shell of hers.

When it comes to the whole 'Xenovia wants a baby' bit. I'm… actually going to keep it. Upon re-watches and research, I found myself actually beginning to understand something about that specific bit. She wants a baby, sure. But she want's one, because now that she's out of the church, she can finally have the things she could never have before, she says that herself. And what does Xenovia want most? What could she not have before in the church?

A family.

Sure, she has Griselda, but the LN always frames their relationship as more tenuous and more so the relationship of a mentor and student, than a mother and daughter. Xenovia later on in the LN learns to accept Griselda as more than just a caretaker, but the reasons are still there. Xenovia doesn't feel like she has a true family in the church. At least, that's how I read into it.

Moving on, um… So, the topic of harems, or multi-ships is a complicated one. I've already expressed how I'll be keeping Issei in this story, and with the placement of this first story arc on the DxD timeline, we won't ever see the events of the Riser arc (They would play out just like canon, by the way). Vin… won't be with Irina. He's flustered around Irina, sure; and there's some element of physical attraction, because hey, an overly affectionate, bubbly and very pretty girl is right in your face. But it doesn't really go much beyond that. I have plans for who Irina is going to end up with, and it just might be Issei. Because yes, Issei is going to have a harem. Cut down slightly? Maybe. But he'll still have one.

Anyhow, thanks for taking the time to drop a review! It's super appreciated!


Alrighty! That's it for this round of the Review Roundup! If you want to have a question or anything answered, don't forget to simply drop a review. Even if it's just telling me what you liked or didn't like, I always appreciate feedback. Leave a favorite or follow if you enjoyed it, and get ready, because chapter four is on the way!

Have a great day everyone!