A Dragon's Symphony

Chapter 3: Asserting Dominance

A/N: Much love for the reviews, follows, favorites and views. To address the concerns over Issei's power and whether he becomes a devil or not, just be patient. In due time these things shall be revealed. Enjoy your stay here everyone

~ADS~

It's only been two weeks, and already Issei was ready to drop out. He couldn't stand the people here, Not like he tried to anyway. He thought the common rule of "leave the silent big guy alone" applied everywhere but he was wrong. Everywhere he turned, people talked to him or tried to get his attention. He could deal with that, but the faculty wouldn't let him wear his headphones around the building. That meant he had to hear what these parasitic people wanted from him. Constantly wanting to learn about him, to dissect his being and then gossip about it later on to their peers. He was an enigma to the entire school, and everybody wanted to be the first one to solve the puzzle that was Hyoudou Issei.

What they didn't know was that he was a puzzle, trapped in a rubix cube, trapped in a chest and burried underneath layers of complex tunnels of emotion. Unless he gave you the map, you weren't getting anywhere near figuring out what how he really felt. Downside is due to his lack of responses, people took that as an invitation to try and strike up a conversation.

They just would not quit and they were beginning to grate on his nerves.

It was early in the morning, the sun barely breaking the horizon and the birds are still asleep in their nests. However there was one oddity to this otherwise peaceful scenery. It was in the Hyoudou household, on the second floor. In the room, a young man laid on the bed writhing in pain. Over his face, he clutched and bit into a pillow to muffled his grunts and groans of pain. He still didn't know why this happened but some time after Yuma's death, he had this agonizing and wrenching pain deep within his body. It would alternate spots at random yet the pain would never change. The duration of the pain would alternative as well. One week, it would feel as if his shins were being smashed with hammers. Other nights his fingers felt rigid, unable to flex at all. The longest he remembered the pain and sleepless nights lasting was a month and two weeks. His stomach, ribs and chest, mostly his heart, were in an amount of pain he couldn't put into words.

This whole week, his back was the main source of his pain. Even if he wanted to roll over to ease it a little bit, he could barely get any power in his movements. After a while the pain stated to die down, although not gone all together. Gingerly, he rose out of bed and journeyed down the hall to the bathroom. Looking into the mirror, he looked at himself and sighed in defeat. His eyes were bloodshot from the lack of sleep along with the slight bags that hung underneath them. His hair was a dishevled mess, more so than usual anyway but it was still noticeable. Deciding not to waste anymore time, he hopped, into the shower and turned the warm water on, hoping that it would release the stress built up in his back.

A couple of minutes later, Issei stepped out of the bathroom with his towel wrapped around his waist and the steam from the shower billowing out behind him. Shaking his head to rid of some of the water in his hair, he began to get dressed for school and to get some breakfast. He took a glance at the clock and once again sighed in defeat. He was late, which meant more unwarrented conversations with people he did not care about. But even though he was late, he sat down and ate his breakfast.

Didn't matter if he was late or not, nothing stands in the way of his bacon.

After leaving the house and making sure his door was locked, Issei put on his headphones and made his way towards school. He started to bob his head, his eyelids lower than usual as he went to his personal nirvana and let the music take over his mind and body. (A/N: The song I was listening to while I was typing this was Embrace The Martin by Crookers. Any song that you're listening to at this moment or something that makes you bob your head and do that little rock you can input that here.)

As he was walking, he almost folded himself backwards in pain as his back had lit up immense pain. His eyes widened and he let out a gasp of pained breath as he tried to keep his composure and not cause a scene in public. His usually brisk walk slowed down considerably as he tried to adjust himself to the level of uncomfortableness. Shouldering his book bag, his mood turned from apathetic to down right annoyed. He prayed to whatever God or guardian angel that watched over him that nobody thought it would be a good idea to try and talk to him today.

Unfortunately, his prayers would not be answered.

~ADS~

Walking into the school's courtyard, he was immediately greeted by the student council president and vice-president.

"Hyoudou-san, you're late." before Issei could get a word in the president continued to berate him "I understand that you are a new student to this school but that does not excuse such behavior. However seeing as how this is only your first offense you will be issued a warning."

As she was speaking, her eyes closed as she went into her spiel, she didn't spot the tensed hands of the person she was currently addressing. Nor did she hear the deep breathes through his nose that were supposed to keep his calm. However, her second in command did and quickly wrote the warning on her pad and issued it to Issei who took it slowly.

'...she needs a mute button' Issei thought to himself as he continued his deep breathing exercise. This girl was starting to annoy him and the damn headache that was slowly building up was not making his damn any better.

"Don't let this become a habit Hyoudou-san, please make your way to class. Every second of learning should be taken advantage of." she finished before turning around sharply and walked back to the building, Tsubaki following a few seconds after. Before entering the building, she turned her head to watch the imposing figure of Issei Hyoudou-san as he slowly took his headphones off his head, put them around his neck and run a hand through his hair to relax himself, unknowingly freeing his eyes from the curtain of hair that was normally in front of them.

'His eyes...they're so dull' Tsubaki thought to herself as she shuddered at the emotionless eyes that belonged to the school's enigma.

~ADS~

The silent Issei made his way through the halls of his school, his irritation rising as his headache would not go away. Knowing exactly what would happen as soon as he walked through the door to his class, he briefly considered skipping as he honestly did not want to deal with their nonsense so early in the morning. He then dismissed that thought knowing should he skip, that would arise more questions and then he would probably have to deal with that chatter box that stood at the gate.

Damned if he did, damned if he didn't.

Taking a deep breath; Issei stepped into class, his eyes half closed and his body slouched, stopping the lesson in progress. The teacher turned to the disruption and showed his displeasure by turning to the late student of his and crossed his arms and addressed him.

"Ah~, and so Mr. Hyoudou-san decides to grace us with his presence. Even though there's only" he turns his gaze to the clock "only three minutes of class left. Tell me, what makes you believe that you can just enter my classroom whenever you please?"

His answer was just a empty stare. Eyes that held nothing in them whatsoever. No light, no darkness, just nothing. The teacher honestly felt a bit disturbed by it but refused to back down to the admittedly intimidating student.

The student body could only whisper to each other as they watched the stare down between the two in front of the class.

"Man, Hyoudou sure has a pair on him to stare down sensei"

"Wonder what made him so late though? Do you think he's a delinquent or something? "

"Do you think Shitori-senpai got to him first?"

"Please don't answer him Hyoudou. Three more minutes and we're out of here!"

The stare down continued to go on, neither side backing down. Eventually, the bell rung, the students eagerly packing up to hurry on to their next class or to gossip about how quiet giant Issei turned into a rebel. Before the teacher could get a word out to stop the stampede of eager students, they were already out the door, including the subject of his ire.

He still had no clue how such a large teen could easily disappear from sight whenever eyes weren't trained on him.

Outside of the classroom, students watched as the largest student in school seemingly split through the flowing traffic as if he were a rock in the middle of a stream. His apathetic gaze easily causing a few students to shudder, still not accustomed to somebody wit such...emptiness in their gaze.

"Man, did you hear about Hyoudou-san?"

"No, what happened? "

"He came late to class, and stared down his sensei when he asked why he was late."

"He didn't answer him?!"

"No! He just looked at him and then left."

"Maybe if we asked, he would tell us? I mean, we're students too so maybe he'll tell us instead?"

"Yea, okay. You ask him and see how that turns out. That's like trying to talk to a block of ice!"

The main topic of discussion simply shook his head and continued on his way to his next class; Gym. He entered the locker room and immediately headed towards the back where his locker was. He took his time getting dressed, putting on his school regulated uniform underneath his grey sweat suit. He followed after his classmates towards the field and groaned inside of his head.

The school often switched who was in charge of the class, believing that this would prepare them for the random shifts of power in the work place. Today's instructor was the school's resident stickler for the rules, Imari-sensei. She was a young and slim red haired woman, close to early thirty's who utterly loathed anybody who didn't abide by the rules. By the way that she was boring holes into the center of his eyes right on the bridge of his nose, he knew that this was not going to be an easy class for him.

"Hyoudou! Where is your uniform?!" she question, her voice appalled at the blatant disrespect to the school's uniform policy.

"...on" Issei replied, shocking the class at the amount of sass that he spoke to the no nonsense teacher.

"Real funny Hyoudou-san, but where is your uniform?" she asked again, her temper rising a tad bit.

"...on" she received the same reply, his voice still dull and emotionless.

"Hyoudou-san...your joke has gotten stale. I will ask you one last time. Where. Is. Your. Uniform?" she ground out, her brow creased in annoyance.

"...on"

She lost it.

"Hyoudou-san I will not play your games like these other teachers will! If you do not get changed into your uniform, I will fail you for this class and report you to the principal's office!" she screeched, her face turning slightly red, not used to such an unruly and disrespectful student. The students waited on baited breath to see what Issei's next move would be.

The man in question could only breath through his nose as he tried to calm himself down. He had no idea why, but he was starting to get annoyed a lot more easily then he used to be. Why couldn't they leave the other teacher in charge? Any other teacher, literally anyone else but her. At least they would doc him a few points for the uniform but that was it. But no, they just had to put this strict, uptight, control freak in charge and make his life a lot more difficult than it had to be. He would perfer to just walk away and sit on the grass and listen to his music and just lose the points. But then if he lost the points, he would have to go and report to the principal, who would then go and call his mother. His mother would then call his grandmother who would go out of her way to come to his house and wack him with that twice damned cane of her's.

With the moods he's been having as of late, he would rather not explode on her and have to deal with the fallout that would inevitably happen afterwards.

Groaning under his breathe, he grabbed the hem of his grey sweat shirt and pulled it over his head and off of his body. The gasps and mummered voices he heard only increased his annoyance along with his headache as he pulled down his sweatpants and stepped out of them. He crossed his arms over his broad chest as he stared down Imari-sensei, who was wide eyed at what she saw.

"...done" he stated.

The class was silent as they stared at the now properly dressed student. The first thing they noticed was how just in shape he actually was. They could only get a rough guess seeing as how the school uniform mostly hid his physique. But now that he was in Kouh's white t-shirt with blue lining the ending of the sleeves and blue shorts that ended just above his knees, they could get a clear look.

The boy was built.

His arms were thick and cut, clearly showing the power that they held. Some of his veins on his forearms were visable as well. His broad chest stretched the shirt across it that went well with arms. His legs were large as well, his thighs and calves were packed with thick muscle that held a lot of power and hid the fact that he was also deceptively fast.

However, that paled in comparison to what really left them speechless. They saw his scars. They littered his skin, leaving only a small amount of it untouched. They were old ones, new ones, large ones that made their skin crawl, small ones that they paid no mind too, but his body was a canvas for them.

"Oh my kami..."

"W-where do you think he got them from?"

"No wonder he wore the sweat suit..."

"H-H-Hyoudou-san, what happened to you?" the now throughly disturbed teacher asked shaking slightly.

"...fighting" he replied, his answer holding just a little bit of annoyance in it.

"Fighting? Who would be dumb enough to pick a fight with him?"

"The guy definitely has to be a delinquent!"

"Do you think that's why he was late today?"

The voices that followed his statement only increased his ire and he was tempted to look back at them and glare just to shut them up. Imari-sensei finally got her wits about her and got the class under control, telling then that it was time for warm ups and then jog around the track. The whole time, eyes were trained on Issei and his scars. They just couldn't get over the fact that they had such a dangerous figure in their midst that could easily hurt them if he so wanted to. They gave him a wide berth on the track, afraid that if they even breathed the same air as him, he would snap. When the warm ups were over and done with, they were to pick teams for the soccer match that would take up the class period. Immediately the teams were formed and they had one odd man out.

"Um...Hyoudou-san, which team would you like to join?" Imari-sensei asked.

"...neither" he replied before walking away to sit on the grass hill that was on the outside of the track. The relief on the student's faces weren't hard to miss and the instructor for the day could only sigh and begin the match.

On the grass, Issei laid down and put his hands under his heads as he watched the clouds drift across the sky. His headache was starting to get a bit out of hand and it was causing him to lose his grip on his emotions. He could not afford to let that happen, he refused to give these parasites even an inkling of who he was if it killed him. The info he already gave them was enough to get the rumor mill turning and by the way everyone was talking, he was going to be at the forefront of every conversation for a few weeks now. Sighing to ease his nerves, he returned to his cloud watching, hoping that time would pass by quickly. A few moments passed, the sound of feet trampling the ground to chase after a sphere made of black and white pentagons and the yelling of his classmates filling the air was all heard. The sun kissing his skin softly as he let himself go and enjoy the feel of nature.

But all good things must come to an end. Soon the whistle blew, signaling the end of the period. He did not feel like congregating with the students, knowing that they'll just mutter around him even more than they used to. But hopefully, that'll stop then from trying to talk to him. He got up from his resting place and made his way back to the bleachers where his sweat suit laid. On the way, he heard the hushed and scared whispers that surrounded him. Whenever he glanced at someone's direction, they would shudder and hurry to get away from his eyes. As he proceeded to the locker room, he groaned in annoyance in his head. He was not in the mood for everyone to have their eyes on him the whole time, staring at him as if he were a tiger in a zoo.

~ADS~

The end of the day couldn't come quick enough. After gym had let out, Issei was bombarded with wary glances and whispers throughout the whole day. At first it didn't bother him, being used to it since the first day he came to the school. It then began to get tiresome when the whole school treated him as a highly combustible element. Most of the teachers and students could barely make eye contact with him long enough before they scurried away or broke into a nervous sweat. In total honestly though, he perfered the way they are now then the way they were earlier.

As he walked out onto the courtyard with his book bag and headphones on, he was ready to go home and sleep off today like a bad hangover. Well that was the plan anyway, but soon his attention was drawn to the running of the two perverts and the Kendo Club. Issei honestly disliked the two pervs. Not because of their perverted nature, everyone was perverted in a way, it's just that these guys took it over the top.

What kind of idiots would proclaim their desires for a harem, in a recently turned co-ed school, where the girls are more than likely to pummel you to death than to hug you?

Deciding to ignore the vicious beating the two were going to receive at the hands of the Kendo club, he made to side step the whole situation before he was caught in the middle. But then, the two jackasses decided to make his already pretty bad day even worse. They turned him into a scapegoat. They sped up their running speed, tapped him on the shoulders and floored it as they screamed at the top of their lungs so that pretty much everyone heard them,

"SAVE US HYOUDOU-KUN!"

They were going to die...slowly.

He would regret nothing.

Before he could even get a word out, he was promptly surrounded by the Kendo Club. They held their bokkens trained on him as the student body watched in equal parts worried yet hopeful. Worried that should Issei should be telling the truth about his fighting background that he could potentially hurt their only defense from perverts. They were hopeful on the other hand that maybe he was not strong enough to take them all down and they wouldn't have to worry about a stronger and more terrifying pervert that wouldn't take no for an answer.

"I should've known that you were pervert Hyoudou. Why else would you come to our prestigious school otherwise? " a voice laced with enough venom to kill a elephant 12 times over. The speaker was the long black hair tied in a top knot third seat of the Kendo Club, Mikoto Mitsuya and she was as bitter as they came. She was left behind as the two captains went to a tournament along with some of the other members while she was told that she wasn't ready. She hated how she was never acknowledged for her hard work in stopping most of the perverts in school whenever her superiors were away. Today, she should show everyone that she deserved to be revered just as much as anybody else, by taking down this so called super predator.

Issei simply just glanced at her and sighed. Before he could even defend himself verbally, he was forced to take a quick step back as a swing aimed for his side came from her as she glared right at him.

"Stay still and accept your punishment for your transgressions!" her battle cry caused her team members to respond in kind and rush at him.

They moved in tandem with one another, weaving in, out and around each other in attempt to cause serious bodily harm to the large pervert. All of their actions were all for naught as he danced and moved around them with the greatest of ease.

'Four hostiles. Their swings are sloppy. Fueled by embarrassment no discipline. Break bokkens. Detain, do not decimate' Issei thought as he ducked under another swing before rolling over to the right to escape a downward slash that echoed off of the ground. He waited for the opportune moment to make his move as his aggressors became frustrated with their lack of success at hitting their target. When one of them rushed ahead, breaking the pattern and over reached with a stab at his left thigh, he struck.

Moving his targeted leg back, he then used his left hand to yank the weapon out of her hands before stepping forward and invading her space. Using his right hand, he gave a swift chop into her diaphragm, winding her and causing her to her knees holding her stomach. When she looked up at him, fearful of what he would do next, he looked her in the eye as he raised the stolen weapon in the air and harshly brought it down onto the ground, snapping it in half and dropping the remains next to her as he walked past her to deal with the rest of his problems.

Two of his aggressors went for a pincers attack with one aiming high at his chest from the front and the other from behind for the back of his thighs. They had their bodies angled in such away that he was boxed in and it would force him to take the hits.

Twisting to his right, he gave a right palm thrust towards the assailant aiming at his chest directly to her sword hand making the wooden weapon jerk upwards. He then stepped back before using his right leg to deliver a swift axe kick on top of the sword aimed at his thighs forcing down and into the ground, breaking it in the process before side kicking her on her shoulder which put her on her the ground. With her disposed off, he turned towards the other one and gave her a harsh shove to the her knocking her down and snatching her weapon out of her hands.

He then stalked towards Mikoto, dragging the head of his stolen weapon on the dirt ground. The crowd of students watched with bated breath knowing that this was the climax to this one sided bout. They were hoping for a miracle but they knew deep within their hearts, it would not happen.

The third seat lost her composure when she looked at the fallen forms of her comrades that laid on the ground. She was furious along with fearful as she glared at the lumbering form of what was supposed to be her greatest accomplishment. It wasn't supposed to be this way, with her hands in tremors barely holding onto to reliable kendo stick. He was supposed to be on the ground, broken and bruised for daring to associate with the most perverted entities in Japan. She was supposed to be hailed with praise and respect that she deserved. She looked up into the emotionless eyes of her supposed prey...

And lost it.

Screaming in both rage and terror, she swung with enough force to cut through the air aiming directly for his neck, repercussions be damned. The man she was attacking simply raised his weapon to block and squeezed the handle to the point that some his veins appeared on his hands. When the attack connected to his defense, his arm didn't even shake but she felt as if she hit a metal wall. Her arms were shaking like a screen door in the middle of a hurricane. She couldn't hold on to it any more and dropped her means of defense.

Issei however, wanted to make a statement. He broke the one he stole over his knees before discarding it behind him. He then grabbed Mikoto's and raised it in the air with his hands on both ends. What followed installed an even greater amount of fear in everyone watching. As if bending a toothpick, it looked as if he just clapped his hands and snapped the kendo stick in a pure deat of strength. The cold and destructive force that was Issei then turned and walked away, ready to head home and take a few aspirins to cure this devilish migraine.

"HYOUDOU-KUN! " the yell of his name stopped him in his tracks right underneath a large sakura tree. Turning around, he saw the two assholes that caused him to deal with an unnecessary obstacle on his way home walking towards him with smug smiles on their faces.

He was going to enjoy this way more then he should be.

Motohama and Matsuda felt as if they finally found their secret weapon, something that would give them an edge against all the other factions in the school. They would finally be free to peak and even force all of the buxom and not so buxom for Matsuda beauties to be their own personal harem. No body would dare deny them now that they had such a monster in their pockets as their friend.

"Thanks for the save Hyou-!" whatever Matsuda was going to say was cut off with a vicious spinning left back elbow to the left side of his jaw which launch him into the trunk if the tree they were standing under.

"Wha-!" again, whatever Motohama was going to say was cut off as he was caught in a bear hug from the front and the launch like a missile with his back colliding with the stomach of his best friend. As they groaned trying to get their bearings about them. Looking up, they shuddered in absolute fear at the largest person in the whole school.

In the old school building, the Two Great Onee-samas watched as the man of interest continued to brutalized the bane of the whole school despite their pleas of mercy and screams of pain.

"Buchou?" Akeno asked.

"Yes Akeno?" Rias replied.

"Are you seeing what I'm seeing"

"If you're asking about seeing Hyoudou-san using the glasses wearing pervert as a weapon to beat up the blade pervert, then yes, we are seeing the same thing."

They both winced as Issei forced the two to continuously headbutt eachother.

"Buchou?"

"Yes?"

"Are you aroused as I am right now?" the second in command questioned as a blush covered her cheeks and she begun to rub her thighs together to ease a bit of her arousal.

"*sigh* No Akeno, I'm not." she answered as Issei finished his show of dominance and then proceed to simply walk off of school grounds. Rias could only lick her lips, his power was very... addicting.

'I wonder...'

~ADS~

Later on that night, Issei was sitting at the desk in his room after finishing his work. His headache had not Gome away after taking two super strength aspirins. His headache then started to throb and spread from the right side of his head to the entirety of his head. The throb ing began to increase, to the point it felt like hell to even breathe it hurt so much. It got to the point that as he tried to get up and get his parents to help, he collapsed face first onto his desk.

When Issei opened his eyes, he was surrounded by a sea of black. He couldn't see no more than two feet in front of him and he could barely move. Another thing he noticed that his headache was also gone. Now if anybody else woke up surrounded by dark nothingness along with the inability to move, panic would soon start to set in. However, the young man felt as ease, as if he belonged right here

Looking straight ahead, the nothingness that he was in started to shift and move. A loud groan sounded out in front oh him. Not long after that, a being of immense size and power started to make its self visible. It had a pair of golden horns that framed it's face. It's had scales a mixture of a royal shade of amethyst and onxy along with scars that covered its body. It's eyes were a toxic green with no pupils that seemed to pierce straight through Issei.

"Allow me to introduce myself young hatchling. My name is Bahamut, the face of desolation. The forgotten Dragon king of the void and everything it touches. Patron father of song and destruction. And" the now aforementioned dragon stated as a grin started to stretch across his muzzle. His fangs were like serrated blades, used to render flesh from bone. "The wrecker of everyone's shit"

Iseei, after hearing the dragon's introduction could only say the first thing that came to mind,

"...Nice titles."

~END~

A/N: And so ends the third chapter of A Dragon's Symphony. I know this chapter took...forever and a day but hey, I get distracted ok? Life is a pain in the ass, especially when you work for Amazon. Anyway, any comments, concerns, flames, suggestions are welcomed. I like the feed back. Have a good day everyone.

P.s: This should be up by March 28th, which is my birthday. 19 straight years of fucking up right here son!