Chapter Thirteen - Epilogue 2: Final Days
Vin felt himself floating in the abyss, the murky depths of the unconscious festering around his being like the lapping waves of a river. Eventually, with a groan, he opened his eyes.
Surrounding him was the seemingly infinite expanse of darkness, pure vanta-black as far as the eye could see. He was standing on something, but he truly couldn't tell what it was.
Although there was no slight before him, sound took hold of his senses, a rustling here, the sound of something grinding there, and before long, something beneath Vin's feet began to shake.
With the hefty sound of geodes scraping against each other, a whole in the sky opened up, a piercing ray of ethereal light shining down, and as soon as it landed, it refracted the revealed crystals lining the floor. Rainbows of color travelled from crystal to crystal as Vin squinted his eyes from the bright light, looking around himself to see that he stood in the middle of a massive dome of brilliant quartz.
[I assume that you've realized your position again,] A voice called out, and before long, Vin was met with the sight of a single massive, shimmering amber eye looking down at him.
Vin sucked in a breath at the dazzling sight, he could remember alright, he could remember everything. God… How many times did he have this dream without ever realizing it?
[Far too many times, child,] The eye pulled back, and with the sound of more ear-grating groans and scrapes, the full head of a crystal dragon came into view, it's entire body like an ice sculpture given life.
"You've been in my dreams for months now," Vin decided to state the obvious.
[Not quite your dreams,] The dragon hummed, looking to the sky, [This space exists within the Sacred Gear. Now I must ask, child: do you remember who I am?]
Vin put a hand to his chin, "No, no clue… Aren't you… I don't know, not real?"
The dragon let out a dry, booming chuckle that seemed almost... disconnected from its body, [No, my child, I must assure you, I am quite real; though I do not blame you for your mistake. When I first began to inhabit this Sacred Gear millennia ago, I was simply a weakened soul, barely an ember in the vast darkness… But over each and every generation I've passed along with this Sacred Gear, slowly gaining more and more power along with its users, ever so slowly regaining my strength, reforming my body in the process.]
Vin sat down, "That must have been hard for you."
[It was… It was… Some users died young, foolish things they were, always convinced they were utterly invincible… Until the day where they met their hubris.] The dragon reminisced, [Some were simply never suited for gaining strength, some lived full lives unaware of the Gear lying dormant within them… It was a long process, but eventually, I gained enough power, and right around that point, I arrived in you.]
The dragon made a sound like a coo, [But child, you denied me so much… I could feel my power flexing, desperate to break out of the confines of that silly pathetic Sacred Gear. Why, my power was already leaking through so much, it was influencing the Gear directly… I knew that we could have achieved something more… But we were always just shy of that evolution, that awakening, that last step… You were so close, that I had to begin to take… desperate measures to try and… give you the little push you needed."
Vin cocked an eyebrow.
"Define 'push'."
[Have you been feeling any form of intense emotions, perhaps like an impulsive need to do something, or experiencing a degree of emotion that you don't think is proper for a situation?]
"Yes?"
[That was me.]
"Really? You're joking…" Vin said, "You have that much control over my body?"
The dragon remained silent.
[…I'm simply glad that you finally awoke to your true potential, child,] The dragon said, [We don't have much time left, child, but before you return to the world of the living, I believe that proper introductions are in order.]
The entire space rumbled and shook as Vin fell onto his back. Around him, the dome of crystals slowly split apart, revealing themselves as a pair of brilliant shimmering wings, and the ground in which the boy stood, the palm of a massive talon.
The one dark space opened up, and all around, there was nothing but light, shining from every angle, yet none at the same time. It nearly blinded Vin, as he cast a hand over his eyes, wincing away.
The dragon raised its hunched-over head, uncurling itself in the light-filled space like an embryo to a baby, revealing it's towering, serpentine form, complete with four powerful talons, and that set of all encompassing crystal wings. Both the massive amber orb in it's chest, and the two smaller jewels that made up it's eyes twinkled and pulsed with vigor. As it began to speak once more, it's mouth still never opened, instead choosing to project its voice from some disembodied place.
[I…]
Vin's vision began to be overtaken by light, creeping from the corner of his vision, and rapidly lacing into the rest of his hampered gaze.
[…Am…]
The sounds around him became muffled, like someone talking through a wall, by his vision had since left him, but right before he could feel himself being pulled out of unconsciousness, a final name graced his ears, one that he determined to sear into his memory.
[...Bheithir...]
The first thing Vin registered when he slowly emerged from his sleep was the sounds of some sort of argument.
"Are you kidding me, Griselda! This is insane!" Okay… That was Xenovia, but why the hell was she so… angry? I mean, obviously something was wrong, what was…
Vin winced, a flood of images racing through his head. The look of a scared child, his face illuminated by a pool of haunting golden light… The sounds… The screams…
Vin looked down at his hands. The blood. Oh, the blood… His hands were covered in blood, not his, no; but his friends. He desperately tried wiping his hands against the medical bedsheets. Still, nothing worked. Hell, he couldn't even get the blood to smear on the sheets.
He closed his eyes, fresh tears prickling behind his emerald irises. He couldn't speak, he felt his throat close up, his gasps of air weren't enough to give his lungs any moment of levity… He was hyperventilating.
Beside him, a heart monitor began to spike rapidly, beeping like a haunting alarm clock. Quickly, the voices outside of his bed quieted, as a hand reached past the medical curtains surrounding the bed, and yanked it open to show Grisleda and Xenovia, both looking at Vin with similar levels of alarm.
The two stared at Vin, eyes wide as they saw the teen sitting up in bed, his breaths erratic, and tears streaming down his cheeks silently as he kept staring at his bare, clean hands. Vainly trying to wipe his hands against his knees.
"Vin!" Griselda rushed to his side, a hand grabbing his shoulder, Xenovia silently following her, doing the same with his other shoulder, "Vin, can you hear me?"
Vin just kept crying, his gaze never once leaving his hands as he subconsciously muttered a stream of nearly incomprehensible words.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry Ethan, oh god, I'm sorry…"
Griselda tightened her grasp on Vin's shoulder, shaking him lightly, "Vin. Listen to me, focus only on my voice. Focus on my voice..."
Slowly, Vin's breaths began to slow down, as he blinked, his tear-filled eyes registering confusion as he stared at his palms.
"Where did it go? Where's the blood?"
"Vin," The boy looked up at Griselda, "You were having an episode, whatever you saw wasn't real. The blood wasn't real."
Vin slumped back against his pillow, "Oh thank fuck…"
The three sat in comfortable silence for a while, before Vin finally spoke up.
"How… How long was I out for?"
"Three days," Xenovia supplied before lightly bonking Vin on the head, "Don't worry us like that again, okay? It's silly, but I thought that we'd lose you too."
"What happened while I was out?"
Xenovia's face froze in a mask of apprehension and sadness, as she clammed up on the spot, opposite her, Griselda let out a withering sigh.
"The first day after you fell unconscious, we held a funeral for Ethan," Even just hearing that made Vin's heart ache, "Shortly afterward, we held a meeting to discuss our plan for dealing with Kokabiel."
Kokabiel. The sneering, imposing shadow of the man caught Vin's mind, causing the boy to grit his teeth, and grab fistfuls of bedding.
"What's the plan then?" Vin asked through his clenched jaw, "How are we going to deal with him?"
"..."
Vin looked up, "Well, what are we going to do-!"
Vin's sentence froze as he gazed upon his mentor's face. Griselda Quarta was a lot of things: a skilled exorcist, an incredible teacher, and someone who held professional integrity in extraordinarily high regard.
Yet here she was, tears silently flowing from puffy, red eyes.
"I'm so sorry... both of you," Griselda wrapped an arm around both Vin and Xenovia, pulling the two into her shaking body, "I-I wish I could have fought more for both of you. I wish this didn't have to be this way…"
Vin remained wide-eyed and shocked at this sudden breakdown, "G-Griselda? What's wrong?"
"...T-They're sending you," Griselda sobbed out, "You, Xenovia, and Irina are going to head over to Japan to try and get the fragments back from Kokabiel."
Vin's movements fell still. No. No no no no…
They couldn't do that…
They were just going to do that? Make the kids who just fought something so out of their league again?
They were going to die.
They were going to die.
Vin always wondered if he was going to end up dying in this line of work. He'd passed around the idea once or twice in his head, and he'd considered all manner of ways he could possibly meet his end. Training accident, stray devil, you know, the expected.
Yet, never did he think that the church would be the one to truly kill him. What were they hoping to accomplish? All they would become are suicidal martyrs!
"What do the others think about this?" Vin asked, his shell-shocked state keeping him from breaking down for a little while longer; even if it took all of his experience in burying his emotions.
Griselda's body buckled, her knee shooting up to lean against the bed, as she tugged the two even closer.
"... Jafar and Vanessa went missing two days ago," Griselda choked out, "We found a note from Vanessa saying that she couldn't stand by the church anymore, and that 'her eyes have been opened'. Jafar left no message, but it's easy to assume that the two's disappearance are connected. Their bank accounts connected to the Vatican's Supernatural Division were drained over the night when they disappeared."
They were gone. They knew that they couldn't stay with an organization that would callously throw their lives away. Vin could faintly remember that fateful day in his old house, where he could have chosen to fight, to try and escape… But he didn't, and in some ways, he was both thankful and regretful of his choice.
Griselda eventually let the two go, and stood up once more, drying her face with her sleeve, "Now that you're awake, Vin, the ritual will begin tomorrow. After that, you'll have a week before you three get sent on your mission."
May 8th, 2013
Six Days Until Operation Crusade
Despite the fact that everyone had told him how much of an honor this ritual was, Vin, right down to his core, truly wished he was anywhere else.
Standing just outside of a heavy set of double doors that lead into one of the smaller cathedral halls in the Vatican, Vin mindlessly adjusted the sleeve of his new outfit. Griselda had called in an exorcist's 'ceremonial garb', essentially another version of his standard exorcist battle outfit, except with a few key differences. All along the seams and lines of the outfit was golden trim, the sleeves of both the outfit and the coat had been extended to his wrists, and most notably, the goat lacked any form of armor or harnesses, and it's color scheme changed from a gunmetal grey to a bright white and mint-green coat, complete with extravagant lapels.
It wasn't a bad outfit, by no means. Vin knew quality when he saw it, and most certainly, Vin could tell this was made with an eye for painstaking detail. It was just what it all stood for, he supposed. Later the previous night, over dinner, Griselda explained the finer details of what the church was calling 'Operation Crusade'.
Vin pointedly ignored the small headache that spiked in his brain; there was a lot of wine passed around dinner that night, thankfully Vin was a bit more tolerant than most. He was sure that Griselda was nursing a killer hangover right now, she had been drinking a lot that dinner. It was… saddening, to be honest. She never made an ass of herself or anything, she just remained depressingly silent the entire time, and just kept drinking.
They ran out of red wine in the dorms by the end of the night.
On each side of the door, stood an armed guard, exorcists with more heavily-armored uniforms that wouldn't be out of place in a fantasy rpg game, each one holding a hardlight-bladed spear with the posture of a Buckingham Palace guard.
One of the guards checked their timepiece, "Alright, it's hit the hour, you're free to head on in."
Wordlessly, Vin nodded. The guards marched from their posts, and each one grabbed one of the door handles, pulling them open slowly, as Vin stepped through.
As soon as he stepped in, Vin noticed just how bright everything in the hall was. Everything shimmered and glistened, each surface polished to immaculate condition, Vin hated it; it meant that wherever he looked, he would be staring right back, and he hated the judgmental look in his own eyes.
Vin noted all the people seated in the many rows of pews in the hall, all in crisp suits and robes. Workers, miscellaneous exorcists, the few angels that arrived the night Kokabiel attacked, and finally, sitting in the front, right hand row, sat his friends, his found family.
As long as that lasted.
Out of everyone in the hall, only Irina was smiling brightly, her enthusiasm for seeing the ceremony clearly outweighing the emotional weight that recent events brought onto her. Or perhaps she was trying to remain bright in spite of it. She was wearing a nice, tasteful white dress that came down to just below her knees, not the best thing Vin had ever seen her wear, but it seemed like the de facto 'I'm going to the church' outfit, so he could respect it.
Xenovia sat on her left, wearing a similarly fitted sky blue dress, which she seemed thoroughly out of her element in. He didn't know why seeing the usually athletic, and somewhat tomboy-ish Xenovia wearing a dress was so bad for him, maybe it was the nature or everything that was going on, but it only spurred on reminders of how trapped they were, not just being confined to what they wore, but confined to the fate that the church had planned for them.
Vin wouldn't be surprised if they already had plaques prepared for a group grave beside Ethan.
His bitter thoughts only intensified as he turned his gaze to the far end of the room, to the source of the bright lights, where the archangel Michael stood, his twelve golden wings sprayed out and radiating golden light like the sun.
Forcing his face neutral, Vin walked forward, down the aisle until he was a few paces away from where Michael stood. Despite the nausea building in his stomach, Vin forced himself to take a knee and bow his head towards the floor.
"Vincenzo, please rise," Michael instructed.
"You've been a remarkable servant of the Lord God in Heaven, and for your servitude, by the power invested in me as an Archangel of Heaven, I grant you God's blessing, and the ability to wield holy swords."
Michael turned around, and grabbed an object off the table behind him. Vin narrowed his eyes as his gaze followed Michael's hand, and caught a glimpse of Excalibur Rapidly, already cleansed of it's previous wielder's blood… Vin gulped, fighting hard to keep his nerves in check.
Facing Vin once again, Michael reached his hands out, which cradled a golden octahedron, with shaking hands, not out of reverence, but nerves, Vin clutched the object.
"Now, hold it to your chest, as I infuse you with Heaven's holy power."
Michael held his hands forward, as his twelve golden wings shimmered and pulse, a thin, but noticeable golden line of energy connecting the exorcist to the archangel, casting Vin's body alight, as the octahedron began to sink right into his skin, before disappearing completely into his body. Shortly afterward, Michael severed the connection, and the golden outline around Vin's body pulse once, twice, before softly fading away, like dust in the wind.
"Now, I bestow upon you, Excalibur Rapidly," Michael presented the jagged blade to Vin, it was obvious that he was supposed to grab hold of the blade as confirmation of his status as a holy sword wielder.
Yet as Vin's hand shakily reached for the blade, but right before he grasped the holy sword, his eyes went wide. In the blink of an eye, the weapon was once again covered from head to toe in blood, viscera oozing and maring the blade. The boy's heart rate spiked as his eyes went wide. He needed to calm down, not in front of the others, stay strong.
Vin screwed his eyes shut, and hesitantly reached forward, grasping the blade with a concealed grimace. Vin held the blade skyward above his head, as the crowd began to clap in congratulations, even despite the fact that if they looked carefully, they would see that Vin's downturned head conveyed nothing but complete revulsion.
The rest of the day passed by with little to no fanfare. Vin was all too happy to let the workers take Excalibur Rapidly back into the vault, the weapon feeling too incorrect in his hands.
It wasn't his weapon to wield. Never was, never would be.
May 13th, 2013
One Day Until Operation Crusade
The final day was harrowing, that was the best way to describe it. Michael and the angels had left several days prior, and with the other exorcists and workers busy with preparations for the mission dispatch, preparing a flight to Kuoh, Japan; that left the four exorcists-in-training alone for the day.
Hopelessly, stiflingly alone…
Vin had spent the day in the training hall, working himself with his new Sacred Gear as much as possible, trying to get the hang of it. He could still create crystals with his hands, but it wasn't as effective as making them with his feet.
Sweeping kicks sent arcing licks of crystals slashing up from the ground, stomps creating explosive bursts of crystals in a radius around him. Overall, it felt stronger, more powerful, yet he still couldn't help but feel the depressive apathy clutching it's talons deep in his mind.
Why was he working this hard? In a vain attempt to try and survive the inevitable death waiting for him in Japan? Or was all this training only ensuring him a more prolonged and painful death, struggling as he slowly wears down in the face of Kokabiel…
Kokabiel… Vin grit his teeth, and prepped his feet.
With all his rage, Vin shouted, spartan kicking, and creating a veritable mountain of crystals bursting forth like countless shimmering spears promising nothing but pain.
Exhausted, Vin slumped onto his knees, wheezing breaths as he dragged himself to his feet, making his way to his stuff, and wiping his face with his towel. Plucking and pulling at his soaked shirt, Vin grimaced at the clammy, wet feeling.
He needed a shower before heading to bed. Sure, his chances at actually getting some sleep would be next to nothing… But the principle of it all would hopefully give him some reprieve.
… The shower was nice. Short, and cold; because Vin couldn't stand to be under the hot shower and let his mind wander. That was too dangerous right now. Plus, the cold water distracted him, even if that distraction was purely a physical reaction.
Vin finished getting changed as he yanked on a worn Black Sabbath band shirt that he'd gotten years ago for his birthday. All these years later, even after it grew small on his lean frame, he'd kept it. It reminded him of home, it reminded him of better times, it was a comfort shirt, even when it graduated from being a proper shirt, and became sleepwear.
He hoped that the small comforts would help him through the night.
It was when Vin walked down the hall, the absence of three members of the family leaving the dorms hauntingly silent, that a muffled sound pricked his ear.
It sounded like crying, sobbing, more accurately. He was pretty sure that Ezekiel was with Irina right now, so tracing the sound, Vin found himself out front of Xenovia's room.
The awkward part of Vin felt it could be wrong to invade Xenovia's personal space like this. She rarely showed enough emotion to people to display crying, and Vin had no clue if Xenovia wanted him seeing her like that.
Yet the sounds of Xenovia's choked sobs stirred a memory in Vin's head. It must have been eight or so years ago… Lisa had been only seven years old, and had somehow got herself exposed to some horror movie or scary story, and she came to his door in the middle of the night, sobbing her little eyes out, fearful that the monster would come to get her in the night.
Vin, ever the sucker for his sibling, back when she was still cute and not a mischievous little devil, had grabbed his flashlight, ripped the sheets and blankets off his bed, ran downstairs grabbing all the couch cushions, and finally, a full roll of duct tape. He showed back up in her room, and the two, at midnight, constructed a massive, cozy pillow fort, and fell asleep beside each other, under the artificial flashlight.
It worked once before, why couldn't it work again? Truth be told, maybe the idea came to Vin because he desperately didn't want to be alone with himself that night. So, Vin quickly darted back into his room, and tore his bedsheets off his bed; he rummaged around his room, before pulling a roll of duct tape from a box filled with mechanical parts. He didn't have a flashlight, but he did have a clip-on work lamp, which could work just as well.
Grabbing his mish-mash of plush building materials, Vin dropped them off in front of Xenovia's door, and then arrived in the abandoned common room, and stole all six of the couch cushions from the two couches, bringing them with him back to his totally-not-a-crush's door, knocking on the door with his foot.
After a few seconds, the door opened, and Vin came face to face with a very puffy, red-eyed Xenovia. She gazed, confused at the items grasped in Vin's hands.
"...Vin," Xenovia's voice was dry and cracked, an obvious side-effect of her sobbing, "W-What do you have in your hands."
Gingerly, Vin gave the bluenette a small smile, "Care to have some company?"
"...S-Sure…"
Vin quickly made a few trips, delivering all his materials by the foot of Xenovia's bed.
"Alright, so how are we going to do this?"
Xenovia gazed over, confused, "Do what?"
"Make this pillow fort," Vin glanced over at her, "Oh yeah, we're making a pillow fort by the way."
Xenovia sighed, pinching her nose, "Vin, look. I'm fin-"
"Shut up."
"I beg your pardon?"
Vin got to work on plugging in his desk lamp, clipping it onto the bed frame, before beginning to string his sheets up, the roll of duct tape worn on his arm like a bracelet, "I don't want to be alone, and it's obvious that you're upset about things. I don't think a pillow fort or a friend spending the night with you is going to be a problem."
"I'd just keep you up…" Xenovia wrapped her arms around her frame, "I… I don't think I could sleep tonight."
"Huh, cute," Vin finished attaching the bed sheets to the wall, setting up the stolen pillows as an entrance way, and a few extra on the floor next to the bed for an area where he could stay, "I wasn't counting on getting any sleep either."
"Why are you doing this, Vin?"
The brunette looked up at Xenovia, out from under the constructed pillow fort that now covered both Xenovia's bed, and the floor to it's left, flicking the lamp on in the process.
"Because I think that nobody should be alone right now, and… well… I care about you."
Now, it could have been a result of the low light, or her crying, but for a moment, Vin sword he could see a slight blush paint Xenovia's cheeks.
Finally, the sword-woman let out a sigh, getting down on her hands and knees, and crawling into the fort, "Fine, but don't think I didn't warn you."
… The rest of the night was spent with the two in each other's arms, as they took turns venting their insecurities, even if it was through simple hugs, or bawling tears.
Neither of them knew what they would be facing in the next coming days… And with only a predicted 8% survival chance, it was nearly impossible to expect them to come home alive. For all the two teens knew, this was their last night safe, it could be their last night alive.
And they were determined to spend it together. Tensions were high, and hormones were higher… Despite being under the roof of God, the two teens sought solace in the one place they could: each other.
It never fully escalated; it couldn't, at least not safely. In truth it was pretty tame: an inappropriate touch here, a sloppy kiss there, but nothing beyond that. Sweat, tears and saliva were all that was passed between them.
The words 'I love you' were never uttered. Despite the fact that Vin came out of it at all at three in the morning, shirtless, confused, excited, and a little scared by the newfound complicated status of their relationship, something that could potentially ruin their friendship; despite finally achieving a taste of what he wished his his deepest, darkest teenage fantasies, the regret of it all kept him awake, even after Xenovia fell asleep around his nude torso her soft cheek squishing against his upper abs.
He didn't know what even started it… Maybe it was his snarky comment proclaiming that maybe they could escape death by getting kicked out early if they boned before marriage.
Vin rubbed one hand over his eyes. God, he was so fucking stupid.
There we go! That's the final epilogue for the very first story arc, 'Unwanted Beginnings'.
Truth be told, I originally had a very different plan for what happened in this chapter, and there was an additional scene at the end with Irina, Vin, and Xenovia boarding the plane to Kuoh, and being seen off by Griselda, Lint, and Ezekiel.
Maybe I'll end up making that the opening scene for the first chapter of the next arc...
Regardless, I really like how this chapter turned out a lot! I really enjoyed trying to build in the trauma and pseudo-PTSD that Vin experiences as a direct recourse of Ethan's death.
Also, I think that the ending of this chapter is going to polarize people a bit. Let me make this clear. Vin and Xenovia did not have sex. The most they did was probably some grabbing at each other, and some kissing.
This also does not confirm Vin and Xenovia as a couple. Not yet. I originally wanted to delete this part because I thought that it was a bit too forceful, but then I realized that this could be a new dimension to the two's relationship.
That's right baby, we're entering the awkward 'post-one-night-stand' phase of their relationship! It's going to be fun to write these guys with that endearing, awkward sorta-sexual tension between each other.
So everyone, please have some faith in me here, trust me, I wouldn't go include this scene if I didn't feel like I could make it work for something other than just meaningless fanservice or ship-fuel.
Now, I don't think that there's too much to go over besides that, so let's jump right into the comments, which by the way, we passed 100 comments between this and the last chapter! Thanks so much for the insane amounts of support everyone!
Also, keep your eyes peeled on both this fanfic, and on my Instagram which is dxd_alternate_official, because I may or may not have commissioned some art, and it's predicted to be done in the next few days. I got to see the linework, and guys, the interpretation of Vin is fucking on point to exactly what I've imagined him as.
REVIEW ROUNDUP:
TorresStormer Says:
"Hello there.
First things first, this fic is one of my favorites because i like it a lot but after the last chapter where Ethan got killed I kinda dreaded seeing the story, and that is so good because most of the time I see a character death is just an "yikes, well that happened... I wonder how that will affect the story" and now it was a "oh... wait no that can't be right I must have missed reading it... oh no... I didn't..." it felt so real and I could feel it, mad props to you my man, this is another level, even more with after this chapter that gives the feeling of the last church members of the gang are on a death march meanwhile the others are going to a certain group, also I do se quite clearly that Vanessa is going to very trigger happy next time she encounters vin. Although I suppose only time will tell, the suspense is killing me man...
Also for the weapon of vin a stray thought occurred to me that it could be the the blade of knight mordred, the knight of treason, I have no idea if that sword has a name in arthurian mythos but it could be quite a interesting piece of irony considering he started in the supernatural world with team excalibur wielders, also it could be a relatively strong blade if it survived it's duel with the complete Excalibur, obviously the power and skill of the user may also take a lot in account, the blade itself does not need to be as strong as the excalibur of it's time, just strong enough to not be broken or heavily damaged, but those are my thoughts.
I love this story and I will read it to the end with great glee and excitement. Saludos!"
Like I've said a few times before, I'm so glad that the death of an OC in my story carried weight to you guys. My biggest fear with pulling that move was that no one would care, and it's super amazing to see everyone showing genuine emotions over it. I count that as one of my biggest successes in this story.
Vanessa is in a real 'fuck you, supernatural' mood right now. Jafar much less so, he's kind of tagging along to look after her. But yeah, long ways down the road, that reunion is going to be fun to write.
Vin's future weapon isn't going to be any type of super special sword or artifact from a historical figure. I love the theories, but I'm a little scared some of you are getting your hopes up a bit too much… Think less a specific weapon, and more like a general type of weapon. That's all the spoilers I can give.
Thanks so much for leaving a review, and I hope that you enjoyed this chapter as well, as we head on into the 2nd arc! Rock on!
Crestowl Says:
"Great chapter as always, and more great headcanon! The idea that they couldn't just send in Vasco, Ewald, Dulio or some other powerhouse for fear of another war is really logical, since sending any one of those monsters to a territory with 2 siblings of the 2 most sis-con Satans after a (supposedly following orders) leader-class fallen is guaranteed to start a war. I don't have much else to say other than great work and godspeed!"
Aw, thanks so much Crestowl!
One of my main goals with that chapter was to clear up a lot of the icky mire that covered the details of exactly why the church thought it a good idea to send two teens and a random schmuck into a hostile situation, and I think the extra political tension really adds to the flavor of the DxD worldbuilding before the peace treaty.
Also, there's something of a bit of foreshadowing towards this in chapter eleven, when Kokabiel is confronted by Michael, and seriously considers fighting him, but decides that it won't 'stir the pot enough', aka, it would be too contained to start a war.
I'm glad you enjoyed that chapter so much, and hope that this one also makes for a satisfying end, weird teenage hormones and all.
pairogerio512 Says:
"If Vin had a Japanese voice actor, which would it be?
I wish I could picture him angry or very serious.
By the way I think balance breaker is going to be something that totally affects the environment."
I never gave much thought to hypothetical voice actors before… Hmmm…
In Japanese, I could see Vin voiced by Yuuki Ono, the voice actor for characters such as Kyosuke Kiryu from 'Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D'S', Alicel from 'Devil is a Part Timer', and most famously, Josuke from 'Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable'. That last one I feel especially embodies the kind of voice Vin would have; it's gruff and deep, but it still conveys a level of childishness that's suited to him for scenes such as anytime he banters with the other characters.
On the topic of his Balance Breaker, there will be no details given, I feel like I left enough breadcrumbs in these roundups already, but it sort of affects the environment.
Thanks for reviewing, and I hope that you enjoy the chapter!
For the sake of getting this chapter out tonight, I'm going to cut it short there! Thanks to everyone who left a review, positive or not, it at least shows that you all are connecting and engaging with the story enough to make critiques, and for that, thank you.
If you enjoyed what you read, then please consider leaving a follow or a favorite. And if you have any comment, question, or critique about this story you'd like to ask me, then please leave a review. Even if it's just to tell me what you thought of the chapter, I make sure to read through each and every one I get.
Also, please consider following my Instagram page for this fic, it's called dxd_alternate_official, and on there I post memes, behind the scenes stuff from this fic, chat with you guys more, and even give updates and sneak peeks at new chapters!
With that, we have officially finished the first story arc of this fanfic! We're going to be entering the canon soon, mates, and I hope you're ready for more of this wild ride, because I sure as hell am!
Rock on, you beautiful bastards… rock on!
