Arc 1: Prelude to Canon
Chapter 1
"..ru-sama! Haru-sama! Wake up!"
"…mrrrg…"
"Haru-sama~! It's seven in the morning!"
I groggily opened my eyes and stared up at the smiling, youthful face of one Tsurara Oikawa, my Personal Attendant and my older sister in everything but blood. "Good morning to you too Rara…" I yawned and snuggled into my blankets closing my eyes. "…now shoo, shoo, I wanna sleep more…"
I don't have to look at her to know that she's pouting. "But Haru-sama! Your training begins today! Then there's your school too! You need to make friends too you know?"
"…nnngh…don't wanna…" I curled up and dug myself further into my blanket.
"Muuuu…."
"...mmh…"
"…"
"…zzzzz…."
"Haru-sama…" Hearing that tone, I opened my eyes and felt a shiver crawl up my spine. "…please don't make me cover you in ice."
I sat up on my bed and scooted away from her. "Alright! Alright! Sheesh! I'm up! Winter's barely passed, don't do that!"
"Good morning Haru-sama! Did you have a good night's sleep?"
"Until you came to wake me up, yeah."
"Hm? What was that Haru-sama? I didn't quite hear you, can you speak louder please?"
"Yes! Yes! I had a very good night's sleep! Slept like a log!"
"Excellent! You cannot grow up into a healthy young Dragon if you don't get proper sleep!"
I shrunk and nodded. "Y-Yes, that's right! By the way, is breakfast ready?" Please go, you're scaring me.
"It will be ready in a couple of minutes!" The 19 year old chirped. "Do you need my help getting dressed Haru-sama?"
"N-No… I'll be fine getting ready by myself."
"Kyaaa~ Haru-sama! How bold of you!"
…what?
"To think that you still need my help getting ready~"
Stop blushing and wiggling with hands on your cheeks, you're 19 for crying out loud! "I-I said I'll be-eep!" Please stop looking at me so coldly with that creepy smile on your face!
"Hahaha! How silly of me! You're only six years old! Of course you will need your beloved, wonderful, young and beautiful PA to help you get dressed, right?"
I whimpered. "Y-Yes ma'am…uuuu…"
Greetings readers who are wasting their valuable time reading this, I am Haru Hinode, a reincarnated soul, currently six years old physically and 24 spiritually. As you can tell from the above conversation, I'm currently being molested by my PA with the excuse of getting dressed up. You must be confused right? Why I, a Dragon, am being so subservient to my PA?
It's simple really, I am only 1/4th Dragon and 3/4th Human. My mother- who can die in a ditch for all I care- was half Human and half Dragon, while my father (sperm donor)- no one knows who he even is- was a Human. From today onwards I will start going to school and train to get a hold of my Dragon powers, which might be a few considering my heritage.
My PA, the older sister in everything blood, Tsurara Oikawa is a Youkai, in fact, her kind of Youkai is one of the few that are my favorites: a Yuki-Onna. She wasn't bragging about her being beautiful. Her eyes and hair are what that would immediately catch your attention if you so as much spotted her in the corner of your vision. Her eyes' iris is a striking yellow with three black rings surrounding the pupil. Her hair is a unique mix of three colors: blue, black and white.
She is 19 years old and has trained in hand-to-hand combat, along with several kinds of Magic, with Ice Magic being her strongest and primary one. Therefore, I know that I'm weaker than her and resisting her display of affection will only result in me being turned into a Popsicle, once is enough as it is. My Dragon heritage won't help, not until I've mastered everything that it grants me.
And even if I do master them in the next few years, I lack something she doesn't. Experience. She has combat experience that is required of her due to being my PA, which also amounts to her being my bodyguard, so yeah, there's no way I'm winning against her.
Although, I don't mind being treated like this, not the manhandling or molesting, mind you. Rather, how she wants to make everything easier for me, technically spoiling me so to speak of, which is rather nice compared to the… circumstances I had in my previous life.
She takes her duties as my PA very seriously. Whenever I would need something, she would be right there by my side with it, as if reading my mind. It was creepy at first, there was lots of complaining, I had even spoken with my grandfather and his PA (Tsurara's mother) about it. The latter only encouraged her daughter in making me a good-for-nothing like she proclaimed to have done with my grandfather despite him being anything but that, my grandfather on the other hand…
"You get used to it." He had said that with dead eyes and lips curled in a smile. Seeing that I started to question who exactly was the head of the household, but sadly, women that we approve of tend to be the ones with power despite us officially being the ones with power.
When I realized that Tsurara won't stop at nothing to look after me and take care of my needs, I gave up. Women can be stubborn like that. And as I had mentioned above, she's stronger than me and that doesn't help the situation at all either, because as my PA it's her duty to protect my life with hers, and she is determined to be stronger than me, not only for myself but also so that she can carry out her duties.
And against that determination, I have nothing. So I just decided to roll over and go with the flow. And even if I do surpass her in the future, I would still cower in front of her. It is the unfortunate fate of men in the Hinode Household. Grandfather said (read: deadpanned) as much. And I don't have it in me to change it, as it often leads to me being spoiled, so yay~!
Once Tsurara was done dressing (read: molesting) me up, we had headed off towards the dining hall.
"Haru-sama, today is your first day at school. Are you excited about it?"
"Hmm, not sure."
"Are you nervous Haru-sama?" I nodded. My previous life hadn't been the best one, so I'm not confident with my people skills.
And in this second life, growing up in a humongous castle with only three living beings around me with the staff being Automata created by my grandfather, I didn't exactly have that many people to talk to. It doesn't help that the castle is situated on a hill past a slightly dense forest away from civilization.
Moreover, my grandfather, Yukihira Hinode had made quite a lot of enemies in his youth with allies being only a few. And those allies are so high up in the totem-pole that coming down to help him will get them in trouble, so he always refrains from asking them for help, not like he had ever needed to.
It's because of his enemies, that no one, him, Setsura or Tsurara wanted me to go outside of the perimeters of our territory.
The school that I'll be attending is one that's close to our property. Nariyuki Elementary School in Nariyuki Town, which is North-East of our territory. It's your average ordinary public school, one that would help in blending in with the masses, but the problem is, my unique hair color is bound to get more than a few looks in my direction. So it wouldn't be easy to blend in, but the least we can do is try.
Sure, I can be home schooled in the safety of the castle, but the problem is that I'd be detached from society and will be lacking friends. Moreover, I can't go around the world making connections, getting jobs from different factions as a freelancer or ally myself to one faction without having the skill to properly start a conversation, that's why I'm reluctantly attending a school. It's a necessary evil.
"It's understandable that you will be nervous, but don't worry Haru-sama, we will be on the lookout for you and make sure no harm comes to you until the day you can soar the skies freely."
"Thanks Rara."
"Fufu~ you flatter me Haru-sama."
Soon we arrived at the dining hall, Tsurara scurried forward and pushed open the door for me. I nodded in thanks and walked in taking a seat opposite to grandfather and Setsura with Tsurara sitting beside me.
"Good morning Yuki-jii-san, Setsura-san."
My grandfather's name is Yukihira, Yukihira Hinode. He is at the moment 63 years old, but looking at him you wouldn't believe that. He looks like a tall middle aged man with tanned skin, mid-back length icy blue hair, goatee and eyes. Personality wise he is similar to Romani Archaman from F/GO, except he isn't lacking in self-confidence and isn't cowardly.
Yuki-jii-san looked up from the newspaper he was reading and nodded in our direction. "Good morning you two. You're just in time for breakfast."
Setsura yawned. "Morning… you two…"
"Mother… don't tell me Yukihira-dono had to wake you up again."
Setsura gave my frowning PA a goofy smile and a thumbs up. "Yup! As is the norm."
"…have some shame and take your duties seriously would you?"
"Nah, I wouldn't be me if I did that."
"Now, now, you two, let's eat breakfast. Haru-kun and Tsurara-chan have to leave for school within a bit under an hour."
"Riiiiight, what was the name of that school again? Narabumi Elepantary School?"
'That's way off mark.'
"It's Nariyuki Elementary School." Tsurara corrected.
"Yes, yes, same thing."
"Elepantary is completely different from Elementary!"
"Booo~! Ha-chan~! Yu-chan~! Tsu-chan is bullying me~!"
Both I and Yuki-jii-san ignored her. We know better than to get in between Tsurara and her target of ire.
Setsura Oikawa looks exactly like her daughter (or is it the other way around?), except she has crimson iris, and instead of having blue, she had amethyst for hair color with black and white highlights. Her personality is different than her daughter, or more like they are complete opposites of each other.
Setsura is free spirited, lazy, laid-back and likes to give nicknames to friends and family. She is also a bit of a lewd character, dropping sexual innuendos every chance she gets, especially in front of her daughter and me. She also likes annoying her daughter with her antics. That's why these two are often seen quarrelling, or more like Tsurara ranting off at her while she tunes out the younger Yuki-Onna.
Tsurara on the other hand is a cheerful and dedicated Youkai. She takes her duties way too seriously and is yandere-ish when it comes to me.
Ironically enough, even though it was Setsura that taught Tsurara about her duties as my PA, the older woman herself doesn't give a shit about them, content with lazing around. It doesn't help that Yuki-jii-san doesn't protest and disapprove of her mannerisms, then again, he did tell me 'You get used to it.'
"Ha-chan, don't worry about school. I'm sure you will do just fine."
"Alright."
"Besides, I'm confident that Haru-sama will breeze through everything."
"Eh, I'll try." Hopefully I won't have to invest on Aspirins.
I realized I was born in High School DxD, the world that bid farewell to logic and Physics, when I prodded Yuki-jii-san into telling me more about him. Turns out he is the Magician counterpart of the Vasco Strada and is known as one of the Strongest Humans.
My grandfather, Yukihira Hinode was born to a Magician couple who worked in the Magician organization that had the Mephisto Pheles as the chairman, Grauzauberer. He and Setsura were Mephisto's personal students and in short time had become two of the organization's Top Magicians. Soon after that, with Mephisto's recommendation the two had gone around the world doing jobs as freelancers.
It was sometime later into his life as a freelancer that he met the person who would later become his wife. She was his generation's White Dragon Empress and had been passing by when she smelt him and challenged him to a duel. He had refused and Setsura even threatened to freeze the girl solid, but she didn't listen. She followed the duo everywhere they went, constantly bothered them until Yuki-jii-san finally accepted and barely won against her.
They had hoped she would leave them alone after that, but she kept on challenging him. Sometimes she would win, sometimes he would. Setsura even gave up on stopping them from fighting, instead stuck to containing the destruction. And before they knew it, they had become a team of three, and things happened, him and her fell in love, blah blah blah. They even had a child, but grandmother Riza eventually had to fight her rival, the Red Dragon Emperor.
Juggernaut Drive happened, she won, and died not long after the end of the battle. My mother had become whatever she is today after grandmother's death leaving me in Yuki-jii-san's care not even an hour after my birth.
Hmm? How does that factor in me being a Dragon? My grandmother awakened Divine Dividing when she was dying after Kokabiel's goons attacked her and her family. At her dying moments, she wished for power, for vengeance against those who have wronged her, and to avenge the death of her parents. Albion heard her plea and had asked 'Even if it means to give me your body? Power doesn't come without a Sacrifice.' She had answered with a 'yes' and Albion had given her the body of a Dragon, one made with his own flesh and blood, making her his daughter.
That's how I am a Dragon and a legit descendant of the Heavenly Dragon of Supremacy, Albion Gwiber.
"Dragons. They are concepts of reality made manifest. Elements of the world brought to life. Solitary by nature, Dragons tend to keep to themselves for the most part except for those with their personal Hoards or families. Though, even a single Dragon can prove to be a fatal danger if ever properly enraged." I paid rapt attention as Yuki-jii-san lectured prudently and pointed out diagrams within worn text laid between them.
Before I start training with my Dragon powers, Yuki-jii-san had made it clear that as a Dragon, I have to learn about the history of my race. That's why we are currently in the massive library going through books on my race.
"I'm assuming that we don't generally live in large groups." I'll admit that being regarded more as a Dragon than Human by my own family was unnerving at first, but now I take pride in being regarded as one. I mean, what's cooler than being a Dragon? Dragons are the incarnation of Power and as mentioned above, concepts of reality made manifest! How is that not cool?! Moreover, Albion is my great-grandfather!
"As I said, Dragons are solitary creatures. They have no uniform system of governing nor do they generally acknowledge any sovereign state. Though a few will politically align themselves with the governing powers of their home."
I cast my eyes back to the book and studied the more generic forms that Dragons are known to take. "Do Dragons live in the Human World anymore? Dragons that aren't me or that woman?"
"…as far as I'm aware, no. There aren't any Dragon living among us Humans other than you and…her. They have made their home within the unclaimed territories of the Underworld. Some have even aligned themselves with the rule of the Four Satans. Most prominent of them is the former Dragon King Tannin."
"Dragon King?" I asked despite knowing the answer, can't pretend to know things I shouldn't.
Yuki-jii-san reached out and turned the pages of the book until stopping on two specific pages showing a hexagram composed of six magic circles. Each circle is of different colors and marked by a single word written in a different language. I recognized five of the six being Hindi, Chinese, Arabic, and two with Norse Runes but the last one escaped me.
"Dragons, despite their independent nature, have a social ladder. Low-Class, as in new born Dragons, Mid-Class are the ones that are the Dragon equivalent of Human Teenagers and High-Class, that is the Dragon equivalent of Human Adults. After them is the Dragon Kings, then the Heavenly Dragons, and finally, the Dragon Gods."
"Is great-grandfather a Heavenly Dragon then?"
"That's right. Albion Gwiber is known as the Heavenly Dragon of Supremacy, the White Dragon Emperor, while his rival is the Heavenly Dragon of Domination, the Red Dragon Emperor."
"Dunno what those words mean, but okay. And Dragon Kings?"
Yuki-jii-san chuckled and continued.
"The Dragon Kings are six individual Dragons who have marked a place in history through their power and legends." He tapped the purple circle with the Arabic word. "Tannin, the Blaze Meteor Dragon, for reasons that are his own, he gave up his status as a Dragon King and became a Devil. Despite his reincarnated status he is highly respected in the Underworld and is somewhat of a celebrity among the children."
I blinked in fake confusion and asked, "We Dragons can change our race?"
"No. Devils have found out a way to turn every race but the Gods and Buddhas into one of their own. That's something we will cover on a later date." He moved to the next circle, the grey one with Norse Runes. "Jörmungandr, also known as the Midgard Serpent or the World Serpent, from the Norse Pantheon. He is the largest Dragon known to exist and the third Strongest Dragon King. Similar to Albion, he too is a Poison Dragon with his venom being right after Albion's own. Not even a Hydra's venom can get anywhere near the level of Jörmungandr's own or Albion's for that matter."
Next is also another one with Norse Runes but gold colored. "Fafnir, the Golden Dragon Monarch, the Gigantis Dragon. He is very unique in that he has an entire treasury of weapons that he uses in combat and is also known to curse people by descending into their dreams." Ah, forgot he can do that. "He is the second Strongest Dragon King."
Vivid green with Chinese followed. "Yu-Long, the Mischievous One. He is quite young compared to the other Dragon Kings and is known to be a pacifist, rarely venturing forth from his lair."
The Hindu one is black, and I can already guess which one it is. "Vritra, the Prison Dragon, the Dead Drought Dragon from the Hindu Faction. He was slain by Indra centuries ago and later his spirit was sealed into a series of Sacred Gear, which is another topic for another day. While he is considered the weakest of all Dragon Kings, his wide range of abilities mark him as one of the most dangerous."
"And finally." He tapped the Azure one with the sole language I didn't recognize, but I can make a rough guess about the Dragon. "We have Tiamat. The Mother of All Dragons and the Chaos Karma Dragon. She is the oldest and most powerful Dragon King. Not only that, she is the only one of the Old Ones alive, and a former Primordial Goddess."
"Goddess!? Old Ones!?" This is news even for me.
"Yes. The Old Ones are beings who have existed since Creation itself, before Humanity even showed up on the map. Tiamat is the only one alive. She was the Goddess of Salt Sea and the embodiment of Primordial Chaos. She is the one who gave birth to not only Gods but also the first generation Dragons who had poison for blood."
"…how…how did she become a Dragon? If she gave birth to the first generation Dragons, shouldn't that mean she's the strongest Dragon? Why is she a Dragon King?"
Yuki-jii-san sighed. "That's something no one knows Haru-kun. Tiamat goes by the title of a Dragon King, but why she does so is unknown."
"…"
"…"
"…where does she reside?"
He looked at me like I lost my mind. "I don't know the answer to that but, why do you want to know where she lives?"
"…I want to know why and how she came to be a Dragon King instead of a Dragon God or something else entirely."
"…if you go to her asking that she might kill you."
"Then I'll just give her the sad puppy eyes."
He shook his head and smiled in amusement. "You do you, maybe in the future you will encounter her and actually get the truth out of her? Either way, she is the Strongest Dragon King at the moment and will remain so until Fafnir defeats her." Press 'X' for doubt.
"I see, and the Dragon Gods?"
"There are only two of them that exist. Great Red, also known as the Dragon of Dragons, the Apocalypse Dragon and the Dragon of Dreams. He is currently the Strongest Dragon in existence."
I gave him a faux dubious look. "Great Red?"
"That's what he is known as, he never gave out his true name." He shrugged. "The other one is Ophis, the Infinite Dragon God, the Ouroboros Dragon. Weirdly enough, unlike other Dragons, Ophis doesn't have a gender. Sometimes it shows up as an old man, sometimes as a child of either gender, etc."
"Ophis is weird."
"Ditto."
From what I remember, canon began at around 2008 so, that would mean that Issei was born between 1990 to 1992 and I was born in 1986. That means…
'I can avoid the canon cast and live a peaceful life~! Yay reincarnation!'
This means I will have zero chances or reasons to be around Kuoh Town, the town South-West of our territory. Since I have no reason to be around Kuoh, or in it, I will have no reason to get dragged into the mess that is canon. I can go my merry way, get myself a good education, then move on to freelancing, make a good name for myself, earn loads and settle down with a family of my own.
Hahaha! With my fool proof plan, I won't have to deal with Kokabiel, Khaos Brigade and Hero Faction etc~!
Since I didn't have any need to prepare myself for canon, I didn't have a time limit to train myself into becoming as OP as possible. So my training was done with relative ease, in a slow and steady pace.
Mastering the powers granted to me by my Dragon heritage and refining them took longer than I would've liked, but since I didn't have any rush, I didn't complain. Goku had emphasized that rest is an important part of training, the reason he was stronger than Vegeta after training in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber was because Goku rested and spent the remaining time before the Cell Games with his family. Goku's body got the time to recover from the yearlong training he put it through and adapt to the power increase, while Vegeta's didn't.
So following Goku's mentality, I made sure to train myself in moderation. Sure I had to go beyond my limits but it wasn't anything intense. If I was at Lvl 10, I trained myself to skip Lvl 11 and 12, jump to Lvl 13 instead of Lvl 20 at the end of the training session.
I didn't want to be a one trick pony or Dragon, so I made sure to learn a few Magic, sword fighting and hand-to-hand combat. But who would've known that I wouldn't be learning any normal sword fighting or hand-to-hand combat styles? Zanjutsu and Hakuda, the former for sword fighting and the latter for hand-to-hand combat. And you know what's scarier? My teacher Genji Goryu is.
He looks like Yamamoto from BLEACH around the time before the first Shinigami-Quincy War took place. What's worse, he was just as strict as Yamamoto in training me, making me empathize with Shunsui and Juushiro. At least Tsurara was there to comfort me after every training sessions as she was his former student.
As for my Magic training, I didn't bother delving too much into it, instead I focused on mastering only a select few including Elemental Magic.
My education wasn't rushed, but I did skip a grade in Middle School and High School, and finished University when I was 21 with Majors in History and Modern Literature and minor in Mathematics and English Language. After that I went around the World on a trip with Tsurara for sightseeing, freelancing and bounty hunting, until a year later when my beloved grandfather accepted a job on my behalf without even telling me.
"You did what!?" I hissed at Yuki-jii-san who was sweating nervously with both hands raised up in the air.
"Ehehe… I uh… got a job for you as a teacher at Kuoh Academy? Hehehe… don't worry! Kuoh Academy has turned co-ed this year, so there will be both boys and girls! All you have to do is teach History and Modern Literature for three years, you can quit after that…"
I glared at him. "Did you even bother asking if I would actually want to teach a bunch of snot nosed brats? Kuoh Academy is an Elite Private School, the place where snot nosed brats gather! Don't get me wrong, I have no problems with being a teacher. What I have a problem with is that you didn't ask me. Also, I neither have experience nor a teaching license, how do you expect me to teach a bunch of teenagers high on hormones without them?"
Yuki-jii-san scratched his cheek and answered, "Well, I knew you wouldn't say no to becoming a teacher, so I contacted my friend and got you the job? I know you lack experience but I'm sure you can do it! It's high paying too! As for the license…" he opened his hand and a paper poofed into existence. "…here."
I took a good look at the paper and realized with a deadpan look on my face that it was a legit teaching license that has an expiry date in five years starting from last week. I sighed and handed it to Tsurara for safe keeping. "Alright, fine. When do I start?"
"Next month. You have enough time to look for a house to stay in for the duration of time you'd be a teacher."
I dragged a hand down my face and sighed again. "For your sake let's hope that I don't get my job duration extended Yuki-jii-san." He gulped and I headed towards my room. "Rara, get some rest after making two copies of that certificate, we'll be looking for a house to stay in tomorrow."
"Understood Haru-sama."
Looks like whoever reincarnated me here has gotten bored of my life in the last 22 years and decided that no, I cannot stay away from the canon cast, so I will have to teach them if I can't be their fellow student! I don't have any problems with being a teacher, if it was any other school then I would've been fine, but no, it had to be Kuoh Academy that Yuki-jii-san got me a job in.
Ugh, just thinking of having Issei as my student makes me uncomfortable. And the girls, oh the girls, they'll either go full feminist on me or ogle me to their heart's content. And honestly? I'd rather deal with a bunch of feminist idiots than deal with Horny Jail candidates.
Then there's the biggest problems. Namely, the Devils. Rias Gremory and Sona Sitri will no doubt get a file on me the moment they hear my last name and both will definitely try to recruit me into their peerages.
I mean, my grandfather is one of the Strongest Humans and the Magician counterpart of Vasco Strada1 my grandmother was the previous White Dragon Emperor and finally, I am a quarter Dragon. Sure I don't have a Sacred Gear, but having a Dragon in a Peerage, quarter or not, is far better than having a Sacred Gear wielder.
I am practically a Prime A5 Meat free for the taking! I should've known everything won't go the way I want! Damn it all to Hell!
Note: This story will have elements from two other FFN stories. Do Me A Wrong by ChaosEmperorNex, and Ain Soph Aur by dragonliege242. I had PMed them in FFN asking for their permission to take elements from their stories. Neither have replied, so I'm going ahead and abusing their stories.
If ChaosEmperorNex and dragonliege242 are reading this, then I'm sorry for stealing things from you, but neither of you have replied to me, so I'm going ahead.