Well folks I bet you didn't expect this so soon did you?
Well, I didn't want to leave the story hanging on that little opening for too long.
Anyway I've been doing some brief searches about some Japanese customs... mainly honorifics, so if I screw up something about this then let me know.
Well, hope you all enjoy this, I'll see you later... hopefully.
[[]]
"Next stop: Kuoh station. Next stop: Kuoh station"
That was the automated voice that snapped me awake, apparently I was on a train headed for Kuoh... Well, I guess I won't have to improvise on the fact I'm a local.
Fortunately I was sitting alone, mainly because I don't like sitting in a cramped seat.
Either way when the train stopped I stepped out and made my way to a corner of the station, to check out something new that popped up in front of me.
[A letter has been placed in your Inventory]
Making a show of reaching into my pockets I pulled out the letter and began to read it.
-Vincent Lane- To help you get settled into your new role as a Gamer several things have been taken care of for you already. First off, your application to Kuoh Academy has already been sent off and you were accepted. Secondly you have been given a house that has lacked any occupants for sometime, that way you won't have to worry about sleeping on the ground, don't worry about paying anything, it's all covered. Third, You've been given knowledge of the Japanese language, both written and spoken. Fourth, within your list of I.D.'s you have one known as your Sanctuary, further information will be given once you choose to enter it. Now then, the address of your house has been logged into Information tab, and is written down on this letter, head there and get yourself settled in. You're a second Year at Kuoh and classes start in 1 month, make the best of what you can in that time.-
I took a look at the address and nodded to myself as I memorized it, and I grabbed a map pamphlet from a stand as I passed.
'Okay so I've got a month before my new school life begins...' I thought to myself, 'My first order of business is to locate my new house, get an assessment of everything. Second is that I need to make friends with someone from Kuoh, preferably Issei, or Rias, or Sona, or their Peerages. Then power level, the Shade's are weak, but they're pretty much ghosts, that's going to be useful... Actually... Menu, Spirits.
[[Spirits]]
[Shade Spirit Lvl 1]
'Can I examine the Shade Spirit for an explanation of their abilities?' I thought
[Shade's: These are spiritual monsters that take the form's of floating robes and are usually armed with iron hooks.]
[Abilities available]
[Shadow movement: Shade's can sink into the darkness and pull others with them, for either combat or a quick escape.]
[Phase: As a ghostly creature, Shade's can easily phase through solid object, though they cannot phase through attacks- That would just be too easy for them]
[More abilities can be unlocked by finding Spirit Guides]
'Not too shabby.' I thought with a smirk.
I looked up and noticed I had actually reached the address of my new house, "Well shit, I gotta read when I walk more often if this is how fast I walk while I'm reading something."
Pulling out a set of keys that, thankfully, came with the letter I unlocked the door to the house and decided to look around.
A kitchen, a living room, a bathroom were all on the ground floor, and on the second floor was a quartet of rooms, three bedrooms and a bathroom with a shower.
"Well... It's bare as all heck, but it's a nice place." I said wiping the dust off the table, "Just needs some new furniture... and a little dusting."
I looked over to the refrigerator and not smelling anything, figured it was empty, which after I checked, was empty, "And I need to stock up on food for guests. As a Gamer I may never get hungry, but I can't have a visitor show up with no food to give them, that's just not courteous."
And that's when I remembered I leveled up.
"Stats." I said.
[Vincent Lane]
[Title: The Gamer]
[Age: 17]
[Human (For now)]
[Male]
[Sacred Gear: None (You might want to hold off on getting one for a while)]
[Level 2]
[Exp: 50/300]
[HP: 110/110]
[MP: 80/80]
[STR: 6]
[VIT: 6]
[AGI: 7]
[INT: 6]
[WIS: 5]
[LUCK: 6]
[Unused Stat points: 5]
"Plus one to Wisdom, One to Vitality, One to Luck, and two to Strength." I said moving those stats into position.
[HP: 132/132]
[MP: 80/80]
[STR: 8]
[VIT: 7]
[AGI: 8]
[INT: 6]
[WIS: 6]
[LUCK: 7]
"Okay after this I'm gonna save up those Stat points for a while, at least until I need them." I said, what better way to get an opponent to go 'WTF?' than having a sudden power spike... plus I kinda wanna wait until I need to start using them before I start spamming them.
Next on my agenda... Well, I need some quick cash so I think I'm gonna go shoot some Shades.
"Create I.D. Shades." I said.
Pretty soon my world was replaced by that dark and creepy forest once again.
I gave a quick thought about the Shade in my Spirits and soon enough the little ball of flames appeared in my hand.
Seeing as I can equip my Spirits on my equipment screen I figured I'd just toss this one in front of me.
Doing so, when the Spirit hit the ground it dissipated almost instantly, causing a Shade to float out of the ground and into existence, the only difference I saw was that it's cloak was now a deep shade of red, enough to stand out among other Shades.
"Well, at least I won't shoot my Shade thinking it's an enemy Shade." I said pulling out my revolver and keeping it to my side as I walked ahead.
An enemy Shade formed not too long after I started walking, and in reaction I quickly lifted my revolver to my hip and shot before I could properly aim.
[You've now created Firearm mastery. Sorry it took so long for this, you weren't allowed to have it in the tutorial.]
[You've created a new Skill: Quickdraw.]
[Quickdraw Lvl 1]
[Pulling up your weapon quickly and firing it from the hip without care for exact accuracy allows for a faster, stronger shot that can stun most enemies.]
[[INFO: Stunned Enemies]]
[When an Enemy is stunned, your next Physical attack/Combo can potentially do a lot damage, just make sure you don't keep the combo up too long or the enemy will snap out of it and counterattack]
[Enemies defeated during a Stun attack have a higher chance to leave behind Spirits.]
I looked away from those screens and saw the enemy Shade was leaning pretty far back from the recoil of the shot, on top of losing 10 HP.
I quickly stowed my revolver away, and ran up to the stunned Shade. I grabbed it by it's hook arm ad kneed it in the 'gut', dealing a surprising 26 damage, and causing it to tumble back, but as I was holding onto it I pulled it back to me before letting go and giving it a roundhouse kick to the back of the head, dealing 29 Damage, more than enough to kill it.
"Roadhouse." I said glaring at the dissolving Shade before I burst out laughing. I couldn't help myself on that one.
[You've created Hand-To-Hand Mastery, now start punching everything!]
Aside from my new pop-up, I noticed that the Shade had left behind another Shade cloth, and a small stack of Yen, I counted 300 Yen.
"I'm gonna be here a while aren't I?" I asked my Shade.
It responded with a nod of it's hood.
"Ho boy." I sighed pulling out my revolver, "Time to shoot some shit up!"
[]
About three hours of constant gun fire later I had decided to take a break.
I reached Level 3.
My Shade grew to Level 3.
I've picked up a total of 11,250 Yen, combined with my 6,570 Yen from before, that put me at 17,820 Yen, should get me by for a while.
I've picked up over two dozen Shade Cloth's.
I've gotten myself 7 extra Shade Spirits.
"Well, I think this was a successful run don't you?" I asked my Shade.
In nodded and gave me a thumbs up... Or at least the best it could do without having hands.
"Dismissed." I said, causing my Shade to revert back into a glowing ball of flames and return to me, "Heh, 8 Shades... I got my own stealth team."
After that I left my I.D.
[]
Once I was back in my house I grabbed my map of Kuoh and left, hoping to find a grocery store, that was I can stock up on supplies.
"At least I have a couch, dining table, and T.V." I muttered as I left.
[]
Walking through the town, I made sure that my Level 3 Shade was following me in my shadow.
What? In a town like this I'd like to have an ally to watch my back... quite literally in this case.
Still... I was a little lost, and I'm man enough to admit I need help... though I'm not yet man enough to wear pink.
'Right, time to crack down and ask for directions... who's around?' I thought looking around... 'Ah fuck my life.'
Standing in front of me and seemingly just passing the time was a violet eyed woman with long black hair.
[Raynare Lvl 35]
[Alias: Yuuma Amano]
[Race: Fallen Angel]
[HP: 540/540]
[MP: 760/760]
'Ah fucking hell, it's Raynare.' I thought, as I looked at my map so in case she looked my way she wouldn't see me staring at her, I occasionally looked up to look at my surroundings.
'Okay Vincent, let's look at the status, you don't have much power, nor do you have a Sacred Gear, so she's got no intention of attacking/killing you.' I thought, 'Hmm... Maybe if I meet up with her often enough we could become friends, maybe then I wouldn't have to kill her...'
[A new quest has been added.]
[A Fallens rehabilitation]
[You've found the Fallen Angel Raynare: See if you can coax her into becoming your Friend, doing so may save her life, she might even hesitate should you two fight one another.]
[Main Objective: Befriend Raynare and ensure her survival.]
[Bonus Objectives: ? (Collect more information from Raynare to unlock for viewing)]
[Reward: +5,000 EXP, +10,000 Yen, +Title]
'Well crud, now I've got to try.' I thought, 'Got my back Shade?'
I heard a hiss as confirmation and cleared my throat, "Ah, excuse me, miss?" I said to Yuuma, as that's what I'll be referring to her disguise as when she's in it.
"Hmm?" Yuuma hummed looking over at me, hiding an annoyed look on her face as she looked me over, "Did you need something sir?" She asked putting on her kind voice.
"Yeah actually." I said scratching the back of my head for effect, "I'm... Kinda new to Kuoh, and Japan in general, do you think you can showing to the nearest grocery store?"
Yuuma gave me one last look over, "Sure, my names Yuuma Amano." Yuuma said.
"Vincent Lane, I'm from America if you coulnd't tell Yuuma-san... wait, did I get that right?" I asked.
To my relief Yuuma nodded, "Yes, we aren't really friends yet so calling me Yuuma-san is fine." Yuuma said, "Now follow me Vincent-san, there's a store over here you can buy some simple stuff at."
"Thank goodness I didn't screw that up." I said, mostly to myself and my Shade, "That would have been a really shitty start."
[]
After loading down my arms with a few bags full of food Yuuma and I left the grocery store, "Thanks again Yuuma-san." I said turning to the disguised Fallen Angel, "I'd probably be lost for a while longer if you didn't help me."
"That's fine, I understand what it's like to be in a completely new place." Yuuma said as she kept her smile.
'I'll bet.' I thought avoiding the rolling of my eyes, "Well, it's getting late so I should head home." I said aloud to Yuuma, "But maybe sometime in the future we could get together again, I'd really feel a lot more comfortable around this town when I know someone here."
Yuuma's eyes widened in surprise, "I-I'll have to talk with my colleagues about that, we're really busy as of late." Yuuma said coming up with a quick excuse.
"Well if you ever have a chance," I said putting down my bags, pulling out a pen and notepad, and my phone (Which thankfully still works) and wrote down my number on the notepad before tearing it out and handing it to her, "Here's my number, if you never call for any reason I won't hold it against you."
Yuuma took the note and nodded, "We'll see what happens Vincent-san, goodbye." Yuuma said as she walked away.
I walked rather slowly on the way back home, and once my Shade had given me the 'All clear' I deposited my bags in my inventory and smiled, 'I have NO idea if Yuuma's gonna call me, but at least I made an effort, but didn't make too strong an effort.'
"You think I did good?" I asked my Shade, getting a hiss for a yes.
[A new skill has be created, Detect Bloodlust. Its never a good sign when it's created, get ready for a fight.]
"Ah... hell." I grumbled as my Shade readied itself.
"Lookie here~" A female voice said, "A human wandering out all alone in the dark~ how delightful~"
'That's an even worse sign.' I thought turning to the source of the voice.
It was a woman older than me with blood red hair, she was wearing nothing more than a spike nippled black bra and panties, as well as boots, in her hands was a blood red katana sheath with a katana in it no less.
[Hiromi Haruta lvl 10]
[Race: Stray Devil]
[Evil Piece: Rook]
[HP: 500/500]
[MP: 120/120]
'Well she's not too bright.' I thought.
"I'm going to have fun with you~" Hiromi said with mad glee as she drew the katana from it's sheath, spreading her wings at the same time.
[BGM Start: Stray Devil: Dead Rising 2- Own Little World]
"Shade!" I called out as I pulled out my Revolver and shot at the Stray.
The bullet bounced off her, dealing only 5 damage to her, but Shade rose up behind her and slashed at her with it's hook, apparently cutting through her Rook Defense and dealing 12 damage.
"Gahh!" Hiromi shouted as she spun around to face Shade, "The hell is that thing?"
I didn't answer with words, I answered with a 'Quickdraw', shooting her in the lower back and dealing 4 damage, along with stunning her.
I ran up behind her and grabbed her neck with one arm in a choke hold, and started punching her in the back, each Punch doing 10 damage, I managed to punch her 5 times before I got uncomfortable with how long I held her, then grabbing arm waist with my other arm I lifted her over my head and slamming her head onto the concrete, dealing 27 damage to her.
[You've created a new skill: Suplex]
[Suplex]
[lift your foe over your head and slam theirs into the ground for some hefty damage.]
'Great!' I thought rolling away from the Stray as I reloaded my gun and took aim at her again.
Crap, I haven't even done 100 damage yet.
"You're gonna pay for that you worthless piece of trash." Hiromi growled, "In blood."
Hiromi literally flew at me and slashed at me, though I quickly jumped back, and in turn my Shade took the hit and lost 43 HP, leaving it with only 42 of it's new HP total of 85... basically it can't take another hit, and I don't want to be hit.
"So I can kill that thing." Hiromi chuckled as she lifted her katana, allowing me to see it's blood red blade in the moonlight.
I shot off another 'Quickdraw' that stunned her yet again on top of 5 damage.
I ran around her and restrained her arms, "Shade!" I shouted.
Shade floated up to Hiromi and lifted it's hook and began to start stabbing her repeatedly, getting in 7 stabs of 18 damage each on her before I suplexed her once again to deal 29 damage to her.
I rolled away once again and checked her, she was at 242 HP now, more than half dead now. Good.
[From lifting a heavy object so much (Because anything remotely humaniod can't be considered light) Your STR has increased by 1.]
'Thanks for the tip.' I thought annoyed as I fired of my remaining five shot at the downed Devil, dealing a total of 28 damage.
"You piece of shit, I'm going to tear you limb from limb!" Hiromi shouted.
"Puh-lease." I said, "You've yet to hit me slowpoke."
[You've created a new Skill: Taunt]
[Taunt]
[Makes you the primary target of the enemy and slightly increases their attack power, but it lowers their defense more than the attack they gain.]
'Nice.' I thought smirking.
"You're gonna pay for that you son of a bitch!" Hiromi shouted as she charged me and slash, nicking me in the side and taking off 33 HP.
That left me with... 122 out of 160 HP, wait, when did my max HP increase? I guess STR affect my HP, so does VIT I'll bet, and that Level up I got off the Shades' helped.
[I know it's a bad time, but your INT just went up by 1, and yes, your Max MP went up too]
'Yeah it's a bad time.' I thought annoyed as I shot at Hiromi six more times, dealing a total of 36 damage to her before I had to reload.
"When the fuck are you gonna run out of ammo!?" Hiromi shouted as she raised her sword to slash at me, only to get a 'Quickdraw' to the gut, dealing another 17 damage to her, stunning her, and causing her to drop her weapon.
I quickly grabbed her katana and upper cut her, dealing 18 damage and knocking her back a bit. I then slashed at her with her own sword 4 times, each time dealing 30 damage.
"I bid thee adieu!" I shouted before running her through with her own katana, finishing her off.
[OST End]
[You've reached Level 4]
[Your Shade has reached Level 4]
Shade sunk back into my shadow as Hiromi stumbled back with the katan still stuck in her, seeing as I let it go.
"Shit... " Hiromi moaned before she fell over.
"Crap." I muttered looking at the damage she caused with just one slash, "I ought to look into armor."
"I'm surprised a human could take on a Stray Devil so effectively." A female voice that I recognized said.
Turning around with my revolver drawn I faced a woman in the Kuoh academy uniform, she had long black hair tied up in a ponytail and reaching her legs, as well as having a pair of violet eyes.
[Akeno Himejima Lvl 46]
[Title: S&M Priestess of Thunder]
[Race: Fallen Angel/Devil Hybrid]
[Evil Piece: Queen]
[HP: 1,010/1,010]
[MP: 1,390/1,390]
"Who are you?" I asked breathing heavily, to give the appearance of being winded from the fight.
"Akeno Himejima." Akeno introduced, "I came here to deal with a Stray Devil that has been reported to be attacking humans, normally there would be the rest of my group to help deal with her, but the other all had business to take care of."
"I don't think you would even need the help Akeno-san." I said scratching the back of my head as I lowered my revolver, "She wasn't really tough, strong and durable yes, but not too fast... on the feet and the brain."
Akeno gave a slight chuckle at that, "I suppose that's true if she lost to a human." Akeno said, "Well, I'm on a schedule myself so I'm afraid I can't stay and talk."
"Maybe we'll see each other again someday." I said, "Oh right, my names Vincent Lane, and next time we meet I want an explanation on what you mean by 'Stray Devil' okay Akeno-san?"
"Of course Vincent-san." Akeno said walking over to Hiromi's body before picking it up by her leg and vanishing in a magic circle.
I turned around and continued my walk home, "I can't wait for bed now." I muttered before looking at my shadow cast by the street lights, "You think I woke up the neighborhood?"
[[]]
Alright folks, that's the first official chapter of this story, I hope you all enjoyed it and please, tell me what you think of it.
See you all soon.