Roadside, Japan – Friday Morning

A man in ragged clothes walked down an empty road through very hazy heat and approached what looked like an abandoned gas station. He pounded on the mart's entrance.

"Hello?" He called with a hoarse voice. Peering inside the rusted glass, he could not make out a single thing and could hear no noise coming through from the inside.

With bated breath and a nervous look, he rolled up his sweater over his right fist and broke through the glass. He entered through the broken double doors. The bell above chimed following his walking around the store's aisles.

He begins pulling snacks and energy bars from the shelves, along with bottles of water, and stashed them in plastic bags. Stopping in front of a magazine stand, he grinned slowly as a faint blush spread across his face. He took one issue and flipped through it, putting it away in his bags too.

Once he finished rummaging through literally everything, the man went to the counter and set down the bags. He spots the register and wings it to hit a button on it, laughing quietly to himself as it snaps open successfully. As he's busy looting the cash, a TV box overhead flicks on, showing only static.

The homeless man had shut it off, only to have a radio to his right suddenly turn on to white noise. His brows furrowed underneath his beanie as he reached a hand out to shut it off as well.

Then a high-pitched single tone attacked his ears from out of nowhere. He quickly clutched his head as his face grew terrified. As it continues, he dropped the money in his hands and crouched to the floor in groaning agony. The window above his head shattered as the sound resumed, and he dropped to the floor completely.

He hurriedly leapt to his feet in an attempt to escape, but more glass on the ceiling and walls shattered. He looked around cautiously through all of the noise and screaming he did before his eyes rolled to the back of his head, blacking out.

DxD: H'sR

Kuoh, Japan

'Okay, this is getting out of hand,' Hiro said while roughly rolling his neck joints around. He stopped abruptly and cringed when he did it too hard as an annoyed look appearing on his face.

Our protagonist was doing his best walking to the academy as leisurely as he could. But his recent and very mysterious back pain wouldn't let up and leave him alone. All night, Hiro had trouble dealing with it and he couldn't get a wink of sleep yesterday.

And that's why everyone in his vicinity had backed away at how scary he was looking. Dark bags were underneath his eyes, his shoulders sagged all the way, and his walking looked really sluggish. Some pedestrians took caution and left him alone to his devices, mistaking him as some delinquent who doesn't want to be messed with.

All in all, the day for Hiro is already ruined from the very beginning.

"Hiro! Wait for us!" Hearing the distant shout, the dark blonde turned around and was surprised at finding Katase and Murayama running up to catch him in his walk.

As the two finally caught up, Hiro was unprepared for a hug courtesy of the brunette of the duo as she laughed, "Hey, you're getting better at getting to school early! What's up with that?"

Katase looked miffed from behind the two, seeing as she wanted to beat her to the punch in greeting Hiro. Her cheeks were puffed out cutely at watching Murayama sneak a smug expression her way while Hiro was still stuck on replying to the latter.

"...Guess I just took Miss Shitori's words to heart. I went to bed earlier than usual, that's all," He finally answered, still a bit confused why she all of a sudden chose to hug him. Although inside, a tiny part of him didn't complain in the least.

When Hiro finished, the two girls both gasped in shock as they heard him, "What?! You actually got to talk one-on-one with Sona?" Katase asked with a shrill whisper.

Hiro blinked at their surprised looks, "Uh, yes? Why are you guys so bent out of shape about it?" He asked as the three of them started walking to school together. Was it mainly because she was technically in charge of the school activities right underneath the staff or something?

Katase and Murayama both looked to each other as the former spoke again, "That's pretty cool that you guys talked, even if it was school related. What a privilege…"

"Okay, you guys are being ridiculous about all this. I don't see what the problem is," Hiro reprimanded with a bemused expression. As the girls took offense to that, they arrived at the gates of the academy with their fellow students already making their daily commute.

Hiro drowned the talking down as he was deep in his thoughts while eyeing the floor when a voice spoke, "Hiro Takahashi?"

The aforementioned blonde stopped as his two friends and the rest of the student populace all gasped at who appeared in the middle of the courtyard. Hiro looked up from his thinking and saw a beautiful woman with long crimson-red hair and warm blue-green eyes standing there, a pretty smile on her face.

Just like that, Hiro's expression morphed into a blank slate, betraying all kinds of emotions. Subconsciously, his fingers twitched to his side as he calmed them down and kept to himself. He did his best to strain a small smile to not look out of place in front of everyone that was watching, especially the two girls with him and the other in front of him.

Behind Hiro, the co-captains of the kendo club appeared a bit tense for a moment, but then composed themselves. They were all caught off guard at the rare presence of one of the two Great Ladies of the school wanting something to do with Hiro of all people. What made him so special to warrant Rias's attention?

Said dark blonde blinked once, then twice as the redhead smiled warmly at him, "I don't believe we've properly been introduced all this time since the beginning of the year. I'm Rias Gremory. Sona has told me a lot about you recently, unfortunately just about how much you've been missing school lately."

Hiro, despite knowing how important this moment was–and not in the good way–to him, sweatdropped with an exhale of breath, "I thought I told her I was going to take care of it," Hiro then thought about it and continued with an unconscious look, "did she send you to tell me something else?"

Rias giggled and waved the boy's question off with the same smile, "No, nothing like that. I'm just here to greet you like I did with everyone else. I want a good acquaintanceship with all of my classmates, and I came to rectify that with you here."

Not fooling me, Gremory. You think she'd at least better hide her identity. Rookie mistake, Hiro mused to himself in his head while keeping his polite grin, "Oh, that's cool. Nice of you to do that."

The heiress nodded with a chuckle, "It's our duty as seniors to look out for our precious juniors. So if you ever need anything, do not hesitate to ask me or Sona. Is that alright with you, Hiro?"

All the boy did was nod silently, still grinning. Satisfied with Hiro's answer, Rias gave him another sweet smile and nodded before turning around and walking back towards the school. As if on cue, the surrounding students broke out into hysterics and gossiping the day away about what just happened.

Hiro plugged his ears with his thumbs and turned to the girls, "We have to hurry to class before things get more out of hand."

And so they did while trying to ignore all the points and stares aimed their way.

DxD: H'sR

Old School Building – Kuoh Academy

"Are you positively sure that that was the right move to make, Rias? If I were him, I'd say that was a suspicious thing of you to do," Sona said from her position from the couch, another bespectacled girl with long black hair and light brown eyes next to her.

It was nearing the end of the day and the Student Council head paid a visit to the Occult Research Club. Rias was at her desk as usual with Akeno serving tea and Kiba sitting on the other couch with a petite white-haired girl with hazel eyes who was snacking on a bag of sweets.

Rias sighed and leaned forward in her chair, "Yes, it was a terribly risky move on my part. However, I had to get the ball rolling somehow and, for whatever reason, that's what I thought was best. Like I said, as mysterious as he is, Hiro is such an interesting of a character to just ignore. I'd say he's a bit of a suspicious player myself as well."

Sona and Tsubaki Shinra, her associate to her side, both rose a questioning eyebrow as the redhead continued, "Have you ever stopped to think about the slightest possibility of what could be behind his constant tardies? Just what exactly goes on with him outside of school? You have track records of his history, don't you?"

The president of the Student Council nodded stiffly, "I do, and I have checked high and low on everything about him and nothing screams 'suspicious' to me. Besides this power within him, Hiro Takahashi is as innocent as a baby. What could you possibly have in mind that you think he's hiding something from us?"

Rias said nothing and only pondered on it some more before answering quietly, "...I'm just certain there's something up with him. I've never had this much trouble with anything except for…" Akeno gasped when the crimson-haired devil stopped herself abruptly then frowned heavily.

Kiba's usually kind gaze was troubled and fell down to the floor, thinking on his part when he talked with Hiro yesterday. His deep thoughts were then cut when he noticed the small girl to his right flinched and stiffened in her seat, "Huh? Koneko, what's the matter?"

Koneko Toujou's eyes widened a fraction as her lips parted, "...Mangy mutt."

Picking up on the meaning behind her tone, Rias and the rest all tensed. Sona was the first one out the door as she was followed by the rest of her fellow devils, "I should've known something was wrong…"

DxD: H'sR

Kuoh Town – Evening

Just outside the premises of Kuoh Academy, Hiro was heading down a lone street with no cars to big him. But something was off about him and the way he was leaving. His walking seemed rushed and ragged and he was breathing a bit heavily.

After crossing an empty road, Hiro's pace quickened and then turned into a full-on sprint. He turned a corner to a supermarket and jumped a fence blocking the entrance to a dark alleyway. Going unnoticed by him, a blue light flashed and peeked out from the thin fabric of his black trousers as it vibrated.

His phone was blowing up, but he didn't care. He knew what was going on and it relatively doesn't matter. As long as he's there and gets to the bottom of it, nothing's going to happen to this town.

While he ran, Hiro only breathed out in a sigh fashion as his mind remembered just a few minutes ago…

...The bell signaling all classes were done for the day rang through the halls of Kuoh Academy. Already there was a flood of students who were all ready to go home or spend time in their clubs for the day.

Hiro was still in the classroom, packing up his things while Katase and Murayama were talking in the background. Something about the kendo club and what kind of activities they were going to do together.

Knowing the drill, the blonde turned back around to face them with a smile as Murayama blushed cutely, "...S-so?"

The only boy in the room rolled his shoulders in a slight shrug, "Well, I have given it some thought and if you would have me, I'd love to–" But his sentence was cut off by a beeping sound.

Hiro grunted as his brows knitted in worry while checking his phone. But his expression fell into one of confusion and shock as he saw nothing but a set of coordinates and one word that spelled 'Now.'.

With that out of the way, the blonde male knows only one way to wiggle out of this one, "Sorry, that was family calling and I have to go," Hiro started, turning to find the creeping frowns on the girls' faces, "but I will say that I'd love to join the kendo club. It'll have to wait 'till Monday, since I have a busy weekend ahead."

Simultaneously, both of their faces lit up exponentially as Katase replied for the two of them, "Mm! Okay, sure!" With that, Hiro internally sighed in relief and bid them goodbye with a wave, the girls happily returning the gesture…

...As the sun sets, Hiro pulled up in front of a neighborhood house on foot. He slung his bag from his shoulder and draws out a gun and a flashlight and walks up to the dark house. Walking up the porch stairs, Hiro jimmied the front door and entered the house. And–to his great disgust and guilt–almost immediately, he found two bodies dead and bloodied, jugulars ripped from their throat.

Eyes averting quickly, Hiro found a set of bloody footprints further into the house and had his gear at the ready. He idly checked a closet in a hallway it found nothing inside. Just as he closed the door, a man appeared from behind it and barreled into Hiro, disarming him and knocking him to the ground.

On instinct, Hiro pulled his strength together and kicked the man in the nose and knocked him backwards, allowing him time to unsheathe a silver knife from his backside. The second-year student did a kip up and slashed at the young adult, catching him on the back of his hand. The wound hissed and burned but it had no apparent affect as the man rushed Hiro and grappled him, pushing the blonde back into a wall.

Although in a tight predicament, Hiro could make out the man's features. The man had mid-length hair that is light brown and reached his shoulders and blue eyes. He wore a beige jacket over a plain white tee, navy blue skinny jeans with the legs overlapping a pair of dark brown boots. What was most discernible, however, was the pair of sharp fangs and claws he bared with no fear.

Despite the chokehold, Hiro has room to make a comment, "...Y-you wolves never seem to know when and where to quit, huh?"

With a slight chuckle and the wound on his hand beginning to mend, the werewolf exposed his fangs with a low growl, "I was correct in assuming that you're the one that's been causing trouble around here lately. You people will never cease to amaze…"

"I'm causing trouble? Yeah, and I'm also the one invading houses and tying up innocent people to feast on their hearts. Put me in cuffs now!" Hiro retorted, sarcasm leaking from his monotone.

The monster moved to attack again, and Hiro punched and slashed him across the face with his knife. They continued trading attacks and dodging until Hiro was thrown back on the ground. Just in time, the blonde teen evaded in time from a boot to the chest and tripped the werewolf up with a low sweep.

"For murdering my children," Hiro was confused by his words and was distracted by a feint attack from the werewolf, "you'll see to it that you pay," He barely had a small window to evade a swing from the monster and backed away as he did so. Hiro withdrew another pistol from his blazer and shot at the werewolf dead in the heart, but it had no effect at all.

As the teen was lost on why that was, the werewolf rushed with great speed and tackled him through a door and into a living room area. Hiro gasped in pain and rolled on the floor, his spare gun sliding across the other side of the room. The moonlight shone from the window as the adult werewolf took the young man by the neck and slammed him against another wall.

Hiro received a hard punch to the face as the monster spoke, "You ever think of hurting my sweet kin again," Hiro was hit again straight in the cheek, "don't, because you'll be dead before you start."

The werewolf threw Hiro across the room and into an entertainment center, glass and decorations falling on his person. The high school student gasped and arched his aching back in pain. He rolled on his side and wasn't given another second of breathing for the werewolf came in the blink of an eye.

Taking a clawed hand, the man promptly stabbed through Hiro's blazer and into his chest. Through the teen's screaming, the dark-haired werewolf twisted his fist inside of his skin, further aggravating Hiro's unfathomable pain. But in what seemed like a miracle, the dark room lit up in a bright and loud red light.

Through an otherworldly sense, the werewolf hurried over to the window and jumped. Looking back as the light show continued, the man unveiled his monster features again at the boy. He continued and crashed through the glass and onto the left side of the house, running away and disappearing into the night.

Although, however short that miracle was, it was too late. Rias, Sona and the others had made it there with not enough time to spare. Easily as she could make out in the day, Rias gasped and ran towards Hiro's bloodied body and knelt down while holding his head in her lap.

"H-Hiro…? No…" Kiba was another one that appeared affected the most with Akeno and Koneko adopting frowns on their faces. The only other blonde in the room sighed and buried his wavering face in his hands while averting his attention away.

Sona, on the other hand, could only rub the bridge between her eyes as he glasses pushed up to her forehead, "Rias, what are we going to do now? We can't just leave him here to die alone; he has family."

All was silent until the Gremory heiress clenched her fist and slammed it into the wooden floor, knuckles stained from Hiro's blood, "You're right. I won't leave him," That's when everyone aside from herself wore shocked looks as Rias pulled out a single red pawn piece from her skirt.

"Rias, no–" "Don't tell me no!" Rias cut off Sona with a stern voice and dark look unseen and unheard of between the two for a very long time. The redhead's expression then softened as she directed her attention to the dying boy in her arms and closed her eyes, hovering the chess piece in front of his stomach.

But it didn't react at all. Rias began to worry and repositioned the piece and was about to begin again. However, what took the group of devils by surprise was the seven other pawn pieces from her pocket levitated and joined the eighth. The crimson-haired princess shook it off and went along with her incantation.

DxD: H'sR

Parts Unknown

An enormous aura of energy in the form of bright white smoke flew through the darkest atmosphere of Earth. Aimlessly, it sped through the thickest of clouds and densest of airs. Howbeit, it abruptly stopped in its hovering. It felt a magnetic pull from all the way towards the main surface; a special force.

For something to attract its attention from all the way down there, there was something amiss about it. The bright entity shot down towards main ground and swirled around in its flight, leaving a trail of glistening smoke in its wake.

DxD: H'sR

"I order, in my name Rias Gremory, that you, Hiro Takahashi, become my servant. Lead a brand new life as my Pawn!" Rias finished. All eight pawn pieces embedded themselves into Hiro's flesh and inscribed into his soul, the conversion complete.

"Oh my… Rias?" Akeno said unsurely with a hand to her cheek. Her King stayed by Hiro's side and turned to the others, a strained smile plastered on her face. Sona and Tsubaki withheld their stoic expressions, both eyeing Hiro with unreadable looks.

The Student Council president was to say something to Rias if it weren't for a bright white light suddenly filtering the entire room. It was so blinding and hot to the devils as they bent down and clutched their heads in agony. It didn't help that there was a high-pitched ringing accompanying the light as well.

"Rias, what did you do?!" Sona screamed as best as she could, trying to communicate over the ringing. It literally fell on deaf ears as Rias was still trying to suppress the pain attacking her eyes and eardrums. The other devils weren't holding up as good as their Kings, being low-ranking devils and not having much of a resistance to light.

From the chaos, Hiro's lifeless body began to levitate in the air. His corpse was then surrounded in a shroud of light, cloaking him entirely. The boy's lips parted as light began leaking from it as well as his eye sockets.

With the devils, they began to see the light finally fading and the noise drowning out too. They breathed a sigh of relief before gasping again at what was happening to Hiro as his body began to descend. Rias and Akeno ran to him again before he fell but was late.

And to their immense surprise, they had to helplessly stand and watch Hiro land on two feet. Koneko, from the side, could hear his heart beating critically in his chest. She and rest watched with morbid fascination at Hiro lifting his head and facing them with a sleeping face.

Rias, after a few baited seconds, hesitatingly approached and reached out to the resurrected teen, "...Hiro?" But she reeled back in fright at Hiro's eyes snapping open, revealing glowing gold orbs of pure power.

The surprises didn't stop there as another bright but tolerable light shone, casting what looked like two large bat-like wings behind Hiro on the surface of the wall; devil wings. Everyone in the room, sans Hiro, couldn't believe their eyes. Such intense energy was radiating from Hiro like an invisible aura.

Craning his neck and cracking a few joints, Hiro stared directly at Rias as his astral wings and glowing eyes faded. The latter was rendered speechless at the brilliant sight of her new servant, wanting to go and embrace him all of a sudden. But it all seemed like a moment in time had frozen and the devils blinked once, only to find Hiro to have disappeared from thin air, the sound of wings flapping all that was left...

...No sound was emitted for quite a while. Not a word was exchanged between the devils at all during this time. Rias was left all alone where Hiro was just standing mere seconds ago. Her company left her be while trying to understand what the hell just happened.

"Impossible…" Tsubaki broke the damning silence in the air, usually serious eyes now completely shocked and confused about everything. Sona was inclined to agree with her Queen, finding the situation to be unheard of in all that's she's learned and seen with her own eyes as a devil.

Akeno made the brave approach and went to console her King and friend, "Rias, what now?" She received no answer, only a slow shake of the head with Rias standing there, lost in her own wandering thoughts as well.

DxD: H'sR

Parts Unknown, Japan – Night

A grown body was thrown like a ragdoll into a brick wall. The impact left a large dent in between the glued bricks and exposed the nightly air from outside.

The person fell to the floor and spit up a bit of blood, the bitter taste of iron left on their tongue. They then were suddenly gripped tightly by the neck and was shifted up against a part of the wall that was still in tact effortlessly. Their teeth clenched together in a struggle, baring sharp fangs and eyes slitted like a snake's.

Their sights were forced on a fair-skinned young adult male with azure blue eyes and short unkempt hair that is jet black. He was dressed in a mid-length beige trench coat over a plain white T-shirt, dark brown trousers with the pant legs rolled up that exposed his ankles, and low-top white canvas shoes.

Tightening his hold on the person's neck, the teen beared an emotionless expression on his face as his lips moved to speak, "Is this truly what they've stuck me with?"

He casually moved his other hand up to the person's forehead and planted his palm roughly on the bare skin. A bright light soon leaked out of their eye sockets as they screamed in agony at the burning flare, more irradiation seeping from their mouth while a sharp ringing followed the intense attack.

The male teen felt them fall limp from their dangling position in his grasp and so freed his hold on them. They fell unceremoniously onto the floor again, body loose and dead as the night outside.

Dull blue eyes stared lifelessly at the equally mortified corpse on the ground. The brunette lifted his head slowly and threw an arm behind him to stop the brutal swing of a random haymaker. He turned to find another person hell-bent on maiming him down to the bone, making it the umpteenth time tonight.

"You appear to be getting a bit ahead of yourself," The boy spoke tonelessly as he pushed forth and shoved his assailant off of him. They stumbled backwards yet recovered quickly and rushed at him again, but was unprepared for a fast knee to the gut.

The figure bent forward in pain and was struck again by a harsh elbow to the back. Falling to the unforgiving floor, they were laid flat on their stomach. But the teen lazily rolled them over on their back and pressed a foot on their chest.

Applying a bit of pressure and ignoring their pained grunts, the teen eyed them blankly, "Exactly what did you expect?"

From underneath the teen's coat sleeve came out a long, silver, triple-edged dagger. It slipped neatly into the boy's right hand as he gripped it firmly by the frictionless handle. He then held it high just directly above the terrified face of his struggling guest.

"Sleep tight," With that, the boy bent down and promptly stabbed straight through the person's agaped mouth. The blade continued and pierced through the hardwood flooring with no problem. The brunette's eyes grew half-lidded as he extracted his blade and twirled it around by the cross section, slipping it back underneath his sleeve like a sword to its sheath with his fingers.

He stood and breathed, uncaring eyes scanning the ruined room. There was overturned furniture and broken glass on the floor as far as the eye can see. With impatience did the teen hurriedly walk over to one door and fiercely punched forth, tearing it completely off from its hinges. This led him through a dark hallway area.

Upturned blues followed a flight of stairs and caught in time a leaping figure from the second floor. They swung on a hanging chandelier before wall jumping for the teen. However, the momentum wasn't too kind as the male easily sidestepped and kicked a small chair underneath the spot where the person was to land.

His prediction was on point as they landed on the back of the chair on their crotch. The blue-eyed teen followed up and kicked the chair to the ground, despite the added weight. Once on the floor, the person rolled and stood back up, gritting their teeth at the apathetic male.

"Upset over a little shortcoming?" He shot uncaringly. The person seethed a bit more before they reeled in fright of the boy's eyes now shining a more prominent, shining blue color in contrast to their regular hue.

As quick as his wit, the teen's left hand shot in front of him. The shadowed character was hurled back by an strong unforeseen force and crashed through a glass door that was the main entrance. Lowering his hand slowly, the boy's eyes simmered down and returned to their normal azure.

The anomaly fell backwards some more and findly tumbled over the porch and onto the grassy terrain outside. They screamed in anguish and, with haste, skedaddled like a bat out of hell. However, they crashed mid-run and fell against what seemed like a brick wall.

"I don't think an escape plan will work out this time around, especially nothing this pathetic," A blank voice spoke. They then were grabbed roughly by the face and cried in torment underneath the loud, piercing ringing noise. Their eyes and mouth bled a ton of blinding light before their limbs lost all of their feeling.

The brunette rudely pushed them to the side with a forearm, their person laid flat and motionless on their side. An apathetic gaze met with the unsightly demise before blinking idly and facing forward like nothing was wrong at all.

As his hands swung to his side idly, the trench-coated teen stood still and squinted his gaze. His eyes scanned the bare and quiet area illuminated by the moon above and behind him. The teen's shadow was casted on the front of the cabin while he turned around and walked away from the scene, leaving the bodies in his wake.

His stoic expression remained strong and cold as the crickets and owls' were loud tonight, the sound of wings flapping played in the air with the teen disappearing from the premises who left no trace of himself behind.