Hello! Breaking my own rules because screw education, I don't know. How are we doing then? No actual combat in this one, but the mandatory reveal. Anyway, let's go!
Super hero time!
Shuujin: I see flames, everywhere I go... be cautious!
Issei: You look like you could do some more reading!
Shuujin: Until the heist is over, there can be no distractions.
Issei: Because nothing says no distractions more than searching for a treasure in a troubled mind!
S + I: Break the chains! Phone up the future!
Yasaka was a busy woman, that much was true. Having to deal with multiple contradicting complaints from the many yokai tribes and collectives vying for attention and extra powers, keeping a hold on her title from people who wished to ascend to far greater heights than they should be as well as dealing with the threats that came from the many religious factions meant that the woman certainly had a large amount on her plate, no matter what her advisors and servants attempted to try and assist.
But one thing was able to easily draw the blonde's mind away from the copious work, a single event with the capability to attract the attention of the greatest powers within the supernatural world. The aura of strength managed to reach the kitsune leader all the way in Kyoto, the familiar feel encompassing Yasaka.
'That strength… I came across it before, but when?' she wondered from her seated position within her home, undisturbed. There were only so many people she came across with remarkable power that was enough to produce a long range aura, but for the life of the busty woman, she just couldn't remember it at all.
"Not the devils, angels…" she mumbled, blue eyes focused upon the ground as she wracked her mind until a brief encounter popped into her head when the Kitsune had been unfortunate enough to get caught up in an incident involving one of the yokai under her control, another kitsune at that.
Yasaka cautiously made her way through the forests to where she had felt the distress signal come from, ears occasionally twitching as she followed the subtle sounds of suffering. Finally finding her way into a less dense collection of trees, the woman was shocked to find what appeared to be an old man holding one of her fellow Kitsune, noted to be rather rough around the edges, by the neck against a trunk.
"May I ask what's happened here?" Yasaka quickly interjected before one of the yokai she was responsible for could get himself into even more trouble. The man turned his eyes onto her and it took only a single glance before a strong shiver crawled upon her spine, near pinning the woman in place. One might expect there to be a little malice, annoyance, even maybe some bloodlust considering how tightly he gripped the flesh within his hands. Instead, there was not even anything, a black hole of emotion that willingly sucked all of the bravery from your entire body.
"This, Kitsune. It, threatened my mother." The old man growled with not even a drop of emotion within his voice. Yasaka noted the way the elderly figure seemed to practically seethe without any visible or verbal anger when he said the word 'threatened', but it didn't seem like it would be too hard to sort out for the woman.
"I'm sure he didn't mean to offend you. My friend is just a little careless sometimes, saying things he has no place to say." Yasaka reassured, a pointed glare towards the male kitsune trying to establish her authority, but he just had to mess everything up by opening his fat mouth!
"Maybe if this bastard didn't start on me, I wouldn't have to talk about his mot-!" As the grip grew in strength tenfold, a surge of pure power came down upon the both of them, secretly making Yasaka hope that the man would soon turn to her next, anything in order to escape the unbearable power. Her underling was doing far worse though, going limp and letting the damp patch upon his trousers grow without conscious care.
"Do not, speak of her. You, don't deserve to." The old man near snarled, dropping the blissfully unaware body onto the ground without a second thought. When he turned upon Yasaka, she dropped onto the floor with her head upon her hands.
"Please, spare us! I'll make sure he doesn't ever come into contact with you ever again!" the request was almost forced out of her, a stark contrast to the proud and skilled woman that had entered the forest. An excruciated moment passed without words until the man turned away deeper into the forest, Yasaka hesitantly raising her head to see an empty clearing before rapidly taking the male kitsune over her shoulder and running out, carefully making sure that the disgusting stain upon his clothing never made contact with her.
"I see…" Yasaka hummed, rising her head when she felt the approach of a regular arrival, one of her messengers.
"Miss Yasaka, I bring you a message from your daughter!" they exclaimed, a single letter within their grasp as Yasaka swallowed the gasp of delight that threatened to ruin her reputation in one fellow swoop. Ever since the disappearance of her daughter, Kunou, Yasaka had been desperately sending out groups to where she would normally run to, but to no avail. Without pause, the woman snatched the brief out of the messenger's hand scanning through it with disbelieving eyes.
"Dear mother,
Hi! I'm not dead, but in a place called Kuoh! Isn't that great!? I found this really cool girl and her father is awesome to! They can combine their powers to become super awesome as well, did you feel it!? There are also these devils around and they can be nice, I guess, but Phis and her father Issei are just… wow! Can they come over when I go home? I would love it so much! I'll be staying here for a short bit, but Issei says he can get me home pretty easily!
Kunou
"Oh my dear child, what on earth have you gotten yourself into?" the blonde asked in despair before she looked towards where the power originated from. Just as she feared, it was in the direction where Kuoh, the home of two heirs of high up devils resided if her information was correct, was. Barely a moment of deliberation passed before she called to one of her servants that was passing with a determined look.
"Prepare for departure, we leave for Kuoh. I hope you'll keep yourself safe Kunou…"
"He seems well, though I can't tell when he'll wake Rias." Akeno stated with a small frown, letting her hands fall away from the comatose body. "Such a large amount of power flowing through an unprepared body, then quickly removed means he'll be trying to restore his natural supplies for a good amount of time. The only positive I could say is that he should have a marginally larger store."
"Just as I feared then." The crimson haired student acknowledged as she slumped into the chair she had selected for her desk, the rest of the peerage sat upon the sofas within the centre of the room with a younger looking Ophis and Kunou stood over Issei's body. She had just sent a letter to where she had been instructed by the small kitsune, or at least, as close as she could with the great defences that had been set up to keep the rulers safe. She had thought that tonight, she might've been able to get a new servant of hers prepared to start on some contracts, something simple after having learnt of the great discovery that they were a devil, but this was clearly not what she had planned for at all.
"You wished to see me?"
Raising her head from its defeated slump, Rias let out a small smile when Sona came through the old school building's entrance, the stern student council's eyes falling immediately upon the comatose corpse set upon the centre table, changed into a makeshift hospital bed with whatever spare materials were lying about.
"As you can see, things haven't turned out exactly how we planned it, thanks partially to the appearance of a werewolf. " Rias stated to her friend, a gesture towards Issei where he rested. With the peaceful expression upon his visage and his relaxed body covered in blankets, it was almost enough to make him appear as if he was merely sleeping, waiting to awake to a perfectly normal day. The appearance of a kitsune and a whole horde of devils however, was not likely the initial ideas thought off when that was said.
"I believe that he was the source of the sudden power outburst then? Was it controlled at all?" Sona asked with a raised eyebrow, Rias' shake of her head making the boy raising a level within her eyes. It took considerable levels of magical or sheer power in order to release so much without effort. All it would take was training in restrain, for there was no chance that the majority of the power released was used effectively rather merely wasted into the atmosphere just like a flame and its heat, before he would be a brilliant addition to her friend's peerage against her engagement.
"Is there anything you can do?" Kunou interrupted, tired of waiting for the water manipulator's analysis. With a small wave of her hand, Sona's queen Tsubaki stepped forward, a blue magic circle appearing at her hands as she gently moved them up and down Issei's body, letting out the occasional nod or hum of interest.
"It doesn't look like there's anything we can do that a good amount of rest cannot achieve." The naginata wielding queen eventually stated, opening her eyes and standing as she allowed the circle to disappear, turning to her king for further instruction.
"Well if there's truly nothing we can do, then I suppose we should just return to our homes." Rias conceded with a deep breath out, looking to Ophis who had yet to remove her eyes from the one she called father. "Ophis, do you think you could take Issei and Kunou in at his house? I don't think there's anyone else who can really take them in."
"I, understand." The gothic Lolita stated before letting her eyelids fall closed, growing in front of the disbelieving eyes of Sona's peerage before gently taking a hold of Issei, everyone who was standing moving out of the way as she carried her important objective out and home, Kunou following behind with a cute yawn, waving a vibrant goodbye before she closed the door behind her.
"What the hell was that!?" Saji Genshiro, the latest addition of Sona's peerage with a requirement of four pawns, yelled in shock, rapidly pointing towards the door with an ineffective flapping mouth. "C-Can we all do that!? Is that a pure devil thing!?"
Akeno couldn't help the teasing giggle that escaped her mouth, holding up a dainty hand to block it. "Ara, ara, looks like our newest little pawn's a little jealous!"
"I'm not jealous!" the brown haired secretary immediately roared out, giving off a small yelp and cowering back when a deadly aura emanated from Sona, not exactly the same as that brought about by great amounts of power, but just as murderous.
"Do not embarrass your king in front of other devils Genshiro. We do not have the ability to grow to whatever we like, so please keep the dirty thoughts you doubtlessly have in your head contained." She sternly stated, Saji giving a wordless salute as he stood to attention with trembling legs.
"Got it, absolutely president! I won't do it again!" Kiba couldn't help it, letting out a chuckle that prompted Reya and Momo of Sona's peerage to join in before everyone present apart from Koneko was laughing openly at Saji in some way, the pawn falling upon his head with a sweatdrop, a small rain cloud appearing over his head and letting him soak.
"What on earth did I do to earn this sort of treatment!?" the boy yelled to the sky, the laughter only growing in intensity as the hours of the night continued on. Kunou's attention would be attracted to the echoing sounds of laughter as well as Ophis thanks to their enhanced hearing, but the black haired girl would refuse to pause in her mission until Issei was safely within his home.
Issei awoke to flames. Normally, it would bring about a great amount of terror, followed by the boy flailing about like a madman in order to put out the raging fires until eventually succumbing to the burning embrace of death.
Today wasn't a normal day though.
Instead, Issei chose to relax, letting his eyes follow the natural flickers of fire that danced around him in a welcoming display, sometimes letting a weak hand reach out to hold the fires within his palm so he could marvel at them up close. They did no damage to him and in fact, almost seem as if they were healing him up, Issei using the returning amounts of strength to force himself up in the burning wasteland.
The only thing you could see for an endless horizon was fire, no sign of anything else residing within apart from him. A stray thought passed through the student's mind, one that was undoubtedly false, but still rather amusing to loosely ponder as he began a slow trek forward.
"Perhaps the lack of people or any organic matter explains why they don't hurt me." He explained aloud, regarding the fire as if it were simply a part in a grandiose experiment held by the school. "the fact that I'm walking on burning air would mean that the fires don't even work to the laws of physics. Maybe the fact that there's nothing around to burn means that they haven't learnt that they're meant to hurt the things the burn and instead, have lived peacefully without causing any damage. Then here comes a normal person they haven't seen before. Well, first they burn around him in order to try and learn who he is and then when they know he isn't any form of danger to them, they relax."
"I must admit, that's not an explanation I've never heard from my pervious hosts. It really does show how special you'll be."
Quickly turning around before promptly falling flat upon his butt, Issei certainly wasn't expecting the ginormous body that flew at super speed past him, the figure shrouded in shadow as it roared further and further into the air. Seeing it turn as if to come back down because it missed, the brunette could only do the one thing he had done so well before thanks to countless times practicing with the Kendo club girls.
RUNNING AS FAST AS HE POSSIBLY COULD TO GET AWAY FROM THE IMMINENT DANGER!
"Come now child, do you really think you could outrun someone as great as me in my own prison!?" Hearing the grand masculine taunting from behind him getting closer and closer with each passing second, Issei cursed himself when he tripped, turning around and holding his hands in front of his face when the shadow mass came to finish him off.
"Perhaps with a bit of training, we can get away with that cowardice of yours. What happened to the bravery you showed before in that battle?"
Or maybe not. Lowering his hands to take a look at the creature that had nearly turned him into a snack, Issei was greeted by a flame lit red dragon, the body continuing further than he could even see.
"Who... are you?" was all that he could gasp out, pulling at the neck of his uniform. They hadn't bothered him before, so why did the fires seem to get so much hotter all of a sudden. A deep grunt came from the dragon as it backed away, rising to a height Issei didn't believe could be me by even the most advanced of mecha shown on anime and tokusatsu shows.
"Is that all you have to say hmm? No extras asking about where you are, why you were brought here? That's usually the type of stuff you humans ask." The dragon asked back with a more opened eye, unable to raise an eyebrow without one. "Well then, let me answer you. I am one of the greatest dragons alive, able to become exponentially powerful! I have brought thousands upon thousands of females to their knees in pleasure and even more males to theirs in battle! I am the Welsh dragon, Ddraig!"
"And why are you here?" Issei added with a dull voice. In reality, he merely wanted to go to sleep, like he thought he would after he used so much power against the werewolf guy. Could you really blame a man for wanting a rest after spending so much energy trying to kill a creature from myth? The dragon let out a snort before lowering his head towards Issei, who stood firm against the judgemental look.
"…You're remarkably calm for the situation you're in." Ddraig remarked with a hint to his voice of pride. "You'll do well as a host of mine. First, tell me, what do you know of the items known as sacred gears?"
"I don't think I was ever told about those." Issei answered, his mind drawing blanks at the term, making the dragon nod slowly.
"That's good. It means you won't have any misconceptions. A scared gear is a gift given by god in order to give humans powers they could never have even believed." Ddraig explained in his deep booming voice. "And you have been gifted one of them. In fact, you've been gifted one of the most powerful available to your kind, yes. One of the most powerful indeed because it bestows power. Upon yourself or upon others, it doesn't matter because that power belongs to you and you alone, at least for now."
"So I've been given something that grants me power from god?" Issei repeated sceptically, looking at the dragon defiantly before laughter rang out in the burning wasteland, where only two stood in defiance of one another.
"Perfect. Not a flinch and not a single tremble anymore. We've reached the end point and so I must tell you. Yes, you've received a Longinus, one of the most powerful sacred gears out there. You received the boosted gear."
"You received ME."
Let's put that on hold for now. What do you think? is it alright? Who will be next to join the crew? Will he be taken by a faction? So many questions! Please keep reading in order to find out more next time!