Last of the Line
I do not own Highschool DxD or any of it's characters. I own only Vale.
Author's Note: Alrighty guys, first off I wanna say sorry for the slow update sl0bad, I decided to start working on the second half of a previous project. Second, I'm trying to decide who Vale's Mutation Rook will be. So, I'm gonna let you guys decide. As always, the poll is on my profile. I'm trying to decide between a dragon or a Longinus user. I'm thinking that if Vale's gonna get a mutation piece he's gonna use it right. I mean, Sirzechs' Mutation Rook would've been able to take down the Jabberwocky if he could control his power. Now, onwards to a new, albeit shorter chapter.
Chapter 9- New Devil On Campus
One hour after Riser Phenex's engagement party...
"So, what did you wanna show me Ajuka?" Sirzechs asked his fellow Satan and friend as he stepped out of the crimson magic circle. Ajuka was hunched over his desk dressed in an untucked black dress shirt and blue jeans scribbling undecipherably complicated equations and calculations in pencil on a small notebook.
"Do you know what this is?" Ajuka said as he pointed with his pencil to an image on the wall. It was a screen shot of the fight between Riser and Vale. More specifically, it was a close up of the black, segmented dragon tail that had sprouted from Vale's back.
"No idea. I assumed it was a Sacred Gear that Vale had stolen from some unfortunate target during his mercenary days." Sirzechs said with a shrug, Ajuka was always going on about thing he couldn't understand. Usually because Ajuka never took the time to explain himself.
"Nope. No Sacred Gear in the history of ever takes the form of a black dragon tail that allows the use of Abyss Physique powers. Especially not the type Vale uses. It closely resembles a technique developed by a high daylight walker vampire a few hundred years ago. And none of the the Sacred Gears could have used a technique like that, seeing as how it wasn't even invented when they were made. But, I do have a theory." Ajuka said as he pointed his pencil at the ceiling of the cluttered lab.
"Oh? And what's that?" Sirzechs asked with a heavy sigh.
"I think he made it. Think about it, with Drain Zero and Abyss Physique his body would serve as the perfect incubator to create both more Sacred Gears and the consciousnesses necessary to power them. I remember reading something from a few papers the leader of Grigori published several years ago. The Longinus Annihilation Maker's ability to produce monsters, more specifically, Anti-Monsters, works by reading the capabilities of it's enemies and finding the weak points of them and accentuating them in a monster designed to target the target's weakness and incubate it in an environment nearly identical to the conditions the Abyss Physique creates in its possessor. If he used Drain Zero as a scanning and replication device, Vale could be capable of manufacturing fully functional Sacred Gears, whether he knows it or not. The funny thing is, if he had anything other than those two abilities, he wouldn't be able to do this. But, I guess we just figured out what this Super Devil's special ability is. How weird is that? One SD makes Sacred Gears, one cancels them." Ajuka said with a chuckle as he continued to scribble.
"Wow... That's impressive. Wait! How did you get a hold of a paper published by Azazel?" Sirzechs asked skeptically as he turned to face the still furiously scribbling Ajuka.
"Who?" Ajuka replied off-handedly, still lost in his own little research and calculation filled world. Sirzechs sighed and face-palmed himself before he reopened his magic circle and headed home to his wife and son.
Back at Kuoh Academy...
Vale found himself standing in a small white room. Though calling it a room might be a bit of a stretch it appeared to simply be a large white cube he was standing in. On the other side of the room there sat what appeared to be, at first glance, a small, puppy-sized animal. Vale began to slowly approach it, noting that it appeared to be dozing peacefully. As he neared it he saw it was a small, black dragon, looking fairly similar to Asia's familiar, Rassei. It had shiny black scales on its back and limbs with gold scales on it belly. Vale knelt down slowly to examine it when he saw it's eyes shoot open, revealing crimson irises with slitted pupils. It sat up slowly and stretched its wings and arms as it yawned adorably, letting out a high-pitched sigh.
"Hello." it said in a startlingly low voice as it turned one crimson eye on him.
"...Hello. I guess I should ask what your name is." Vale said after a long pause. The dragon looked down, examining its paws as if seeing them for the first time.
"I... do not have a name." it said as it looked back up at him.
"What do you mean? Everyone has a name. Have you forgotten your name or something?" Vale asked with a raised eyebrow.
"No. I was, never given one. I remember nothing before this room but the feeling of separating from something, followed by the image of wings of flame with flashes of... black lightning and shards of ice. The next thing I knew, I woke up with you standing over me. I don't know why, but I feel safe with you. You seem... I guess the correct term is fatherly." The dragon said as it nuzzled up against Vale's calf.
"Mmmm... I disagree, everyone who knows me will agree, I'm no father. Listen I don't know what you are but- What the hell is that?" he asked as he heard a faraway woman's voice calling,
"Vale c'mon, get up. It's time for school. C'mon, you can't sleep all day." he said as he felt the room start to shake. He looked down to see the dragon seemed to be drifting away from him, like a paper bag caught in the wind.
"Fear not Father, we shall meet again." the dragon said as it drifted out of sight...
Vale blinked himself awake to see Rias standing naked in front of him as she rifled through her underwear drawer. His sleepy brain took a few seconds to process the veritable feast for the eyes. The second he realized what he was seeing he patted himself down before scowling,
"Curses!" he exclaimed angrily.
"What? What's wrong?" Rias asked as she turned to face him with a curious look on her face, a red lacy thong held in her hands.
"My pants are still on." he said with a disappointed sigh. Rias giggled as she bent down and pulled the underwear on over her long, shapely, legs. Vale took a moment to appreciate just how pale and flawless her skin was before he heard her say,
"Yeah. Unfortunately you passed out on my bed shortly after we got back. But I'm sure that we'll have plenty of opportunities in the future. After all, we are engaged now." She said as she strode gracefully over to his side of the bed and planted a kiss on his cheek, sending goosebumps rippling across his cheek before placing her hand on his opposite cheek and stroking it gently with her thumb.
"Oh Satan, that's right. Vale Beleth, 17 and engaged. What's the world coming to? Oh, kill me now." Vale said as he tiredly rubbed his eyes. Rias gave another small giggle at his phony resistance as she took her hand off his cheek as she walked over and grabbed the matching bra to her underwear set, slipping it over her shoulders before saying, before saying,
"Can you help me with this part?" Rias asked as she turned to look at him over her shoulder.
"Yeah, sure. It's weird, one would expect that a man in my position would have more experience taking your bra off than putting it on." He commented as he hooked the bra behind Rias' back.
"Hey, I left your uniform in your bedroom on your trunk. Why don't you go get dressed and we can head to school." Rias said as she turned to face him.
"Ohhhh man, do I have to?" Vale groaned.
"Yes, you have to." Rias said as she turned back around, as she examined herself in her mirror. She reached for her hairbrush as Vale turned and attempted to fall on the bed. Attempted being the operative word, as Vale fell about a foot short and fell toward the ground, about midway through he realized his mistake,
"Oh sweet lord!" he exclaimed with his limbs flailing about, as he hit the ground with a thud, causing his cape to flutter up and land over his face, obscuring it from view. Rias tried her best not to laugh hysterically, it was a large credit to her composure that only a small giggle escaped. Vale did his best to ignore her adorable laugh as he lie there on the floor, red-faced as all get-out.
"Would you like me to pretend that little accident never happened?" she asked as she began to brush her long crimson hair.
"Very much so." Vale squeaked from the from the floor as he got up and tried, and failed, to leave with his dignity intact. He hurried down to his room and opened the door to see Zenki and Goki passed out in his room. Zenki was spread eagled on his bed, while Goki was slumped in the corner. Thankfully none of his stuff was sporting teeth marks. Both of them were still in their human forms thankfully. Vale clapped his hands loudly, startling the twin ogres awake.
"Alrighty, either go away or assume a manageable form. Looks like I'm going to school today." Vale called out as he shut the door behind him. The twins turned to look at each other before disappearing in a puff of smoke. Vale thought they had left until he saw a cute chibi-style key chain with the two of them dangling off in miniature versions of themselves. Each of them with large flower shaped head, like round orbs with five points extending like a pentagram. There was blue Zenki with his single horns and two downward pointing fangs with his eye sockets shaped like the Seven Star Tree of Renewal, next to him dangled red Goki with his two horns and two upward pointing tusks jutting up from his lower jaw with his eye shaped like a pentagram. Vale sighed as he grabbed the key chain and clipped it to his bag which was propped up against his trunk. He saw the uniform laying neatly folded on his trunk as he began to strip out of his formal attire. He had just removed his underwear when he heard his door open, followed by an all-too-familiar sounding scream.
"C'mon Asia, if you keep walking in on me naked, Issei might get the wrong idea." Vale said as he pulled on a pair of underwear and his school dress slacks.
"Kay, you can look again." he said as Asia cautiously peeked out between her fingers before saying,
"Sorry Vale, I was looking for my bag. I left it here on Friday, I must've taken a wrong turn somewhere. I'm really not trying to peek on you I swear." Asia said as she blushed and began to fidget nervously as Vale started to put on his black dress shoes.
"Well damn, and hear I was thinking I might have a shot with my favorite blonde kouhai." Vale said as he grabbed the shirt of his uniform off the trunk and started to button it up leaving the two topmost buttons undone before grabbing and donning the black blazer.
"Wait, what?! W-what do you mean by a shot?" Asia stuttered nervously as she saw Vale open his trunk and toss the tie in as he thought, not in this lifetime...
"Well... Let's just say I can think of worse people in town to date than the lovely Ms. Argento." Vale said with a shrug as he slung his backpack over one shoulder. He was halfway to the door when he froze in place as Asia asked,
"Hey Vale, what's 'Miracle Levia-tan'?" Asia asked as she pulled a shirt that had the name printed on it out of his trunk to examine it. Before she could get as good look at it, Vale snatched it away.
"Its this silly kid's show down in the Underworld, I used to watch it when I was little. Its kind of a mahou shojou deal, I don't watch it a ton anymore but I like to catch it when I can. Its kind of a guilty pleasure. Besides the shirt's for Mil-tan, not me." Vale said as he rubbed his neck and stared at the ceiling, obviously embarrassed.
"I kind of get it. If I still had some sort of way to connect to the Church, I'd hold on to it any way I could. I love my life here, but I still miss it sometimes." Asia said, thankfully not mentioning the fact that the shirt was obviously too small for Mil-tan.
"Well, it's not a huge deal. Let's just head to school." Vale said as he and Asia left to meet up with Rias. They met Rias outside the clubhouse before they headed off towards the new school building.
As soon as they stepped onto the campus Vale heard many of the students, both male and female, begin whispering about the new boy on campus who had showed up his first day with the school's number one beauty and the pretty new foreign girl. Most of the girls' whispers were gossip and theories, while most of they boys' were death threats and condemnations, not that Vale cared about either's opinion or thoughts about him.
The school gate was wrought iron and the school behind it looked like something from an anime. It was a three stories tall European style building at the end of an enormous courtyard flanked by two other buildings on either side. The courtyard was packed with pretty girls and many average guys ogling them. Vale saw Issei with a bald kid and a boy in glasses eating under a tree but decided to ignore them for now.
They continued towards the entrance to the main building and turned down a hallway before turning off onto a stairwell. They walked all the way up too the top floor, Asia and Rias catching up on Issei's condition and recovery after Riser's party, interspersed with run of the mill high school girl things. As they turned off at the top floor until Rias stopped,
"Alright here it is, come on in Vale." Rias said as she gestured inside. The classroom was packed full of beautiful women, and best of all, not another man in sight. Maybe this won't suck too hard after all, Vale thought to himself with a smirk.
"Actually, if it's all the same to you, I'd like to walk Asia back to her classroom. There's just a few things I'd like to discuss in private with her." Vale said as he put his hand on Asia's shoulder. Rias furrowed her brows at Asia as he said this,
"Now Asia-chan, you wouldn't be trying to steal my fiancee away from me would you?" Rias asked severely. Asia flushed as she sputtered
"N-no! Of course not Buchou! I would never" she said as she flailed her empty hands in an attempt to preempt any aggressive action from Rias.
"Hmm... Okay then, hurry back Vale." Rias said, apparently satisfied with Asia's answer, as she headed into the classroom.
"Of course, anything for my Princess." he called after her with a grin. After that, he and Asia headed back towards the stairwell.
"Hey Asia, a little bit of fair warning; Issei's gonna tell you that I knocked him out when he got to Riser's party, this is in fact true. I did it to protect both him and yourself, I just thought you might not enjoy going to his funeral. If, by any chance he remembers waking up somewhere other than the Underworld, I'd like you to tell him it was just a fever dream." Vale said as he accompanied Asia down the stairs.
"Well Vale, I'm not sure I feel comfortable lying to Issei. Though, I do appreciate you protecting Issei from Riser. I'm not sure what I'd do if he died, or was hurt that bad again."
"Well do whatever you feel is best, I just wanted you to hear it from me first. So anyways-" Vale began when he heard a girl call out.
"Hey Asia-chan, who's your friend?" Vale turned to see the source of the voice was a bespectacled girl with brown hair in twin braids. She looked like a girl version of one of the guys he saw Issei with on the way in
"Oh, hello Kiryuu-san. This is my friend, Vale Beleth. What was it you were saying Vale?" Asia said as she turned and gestured to Vale.
"I was saying that if you're gonna walk in on me naked, at least gimme 5 minutes warning to put the whipped cream underwear on." Vale said casually with a grin.
"What?!" Asia said in a voice somewhere between a shriek and a squeak as her face went from peach to crimson in 3.5 milliseconds. Kiryuu covered her mouth with a hand as she began to giggle.
"Kukuku. I never knew you were so lewd Asia, but its nice to see someone beat Hyoudou-kun to the punch." Kiryuu said maniacally.
"I-I'm not! Tell her Vale!" Asia said as she began to tear up.
"I've no idea what you're talking about Asia. But hey, I gotta go Asia. Stay beautiful." Vale said as he turned and strode from the room when he heard Issei call out,
"Hey Vale-san, can I talk to you?" Issei called as he got out of his seat and began to approach him.
"I gotta tell you Issei, that... that just sounds awful." Vale said as he stepped out of the room back into the now crowded hallway. He was on his way back to the stairwell when he saw a familiar white head of hair walk past. He turned to see Koneko walking down the hallway, he didn't see her with anyone so he turned and headed to catch up with her.
"Hey Koneko-chan, wait up." Vale called, Koneko turned around to see him jogging toward her.
"What do you want?" she asked apathetically.
"Just thought I'd come visit my favorite white-haired Rook. So, did you hear we're gonna be classmates?"
"Yeah. Just wanna let you know, trying to ingratiate yourself with me won't get you into Buchou's pants any faster. So you can scram." she said in the same apathetic tone.
"Two things: First, I'm not trying to ingratiate myself. I really like you, you're the only one in the club who sees Issei for the pervert he is, and who actually scolds him for his reprehensible behavior. Second, I'm not trying to get in Rias-hime's pants. I don't like big oppai. I'm lolicon anyways." he said with a grin. Koneko narrowed her eyes at him menacingly. Or as menacingly as a four foot six nekomata could.
"You're lying." she growled as she clenched her fists at her side.
"Hmm, well it looks like you'll never know. He said as he turned and rushed back to his classroom as he heard the bell ring. On his way back to the stairwell, he saw Akeno who was heading towards the same stairwell.
"Hey Akeno-san, how's it going?" he asked as he walked up next to her.
"Ara ara, fancy running into you here Vale-kun. Buchou and I are looking forward to having you in our class." Akeno said as he followed her up the stairs.
"Well, that makes two of you. Be warned, when I get bored I get pervy. So, I apologize in advance if you catch me staring at your oppai."
"Ara, oh Vale-kun, you're shameless. Ufufufu" Akeno said as she covered her mouth with her hand.
"Meh, shame is overrated. So how are things?" he said with a shrug.
"I'm fine. That was quite the performance at Phenex-sama's party. Buchou is so lucky to have a man willing to go to such lengths for her." she said as they reached the landing before resuming their climb.
"Oh well thanks for the praise. But, I'd do the same for Koneko, Kiba, Asia, or hell, even Issei. But I wouldn't like doing it for him. But no, I'd move heaven and earth for you. Your dad, Baraqiel, has made me a lot of money over the years. I at least owe him doing anything I need to to save his daughter." he said with a shrug. Akeno stopped her tracks as she heard this groundbreaking news.
"That man... is not... my father." she said slowly with a hard look on her face.
"Oh... Okay, I get it. Trust me, I understand better than anyone not liking your parents. I'm just saying that, if you ever need anything, you can call me. I'll do it, free of charge. Which is a pretty big deal for a guy like me." he said as they arrived at the classroom and Vale held the door open for Akeno. She said nothing as she entered the room.
"Oh, and here's our new student now. Hello Beleth-san and welcome to our class. Would you care to introduce yourself?" the teacher asked as Vale entered the classroom.
"Nah thanks, I'm good. Where do I sit?" he asked as he shoved his hand in his pockets.
"Oh, um..., Why don't you sit next to Gremory-san?" the teacher said awkwardly as she gestured to the empty seat next to Rias.
"Coolness." he said as he sauntered over. As he walked he felt a malevolent set of eyes on him, he glanced over to see a young woman around the same age as Rias with black hair styled in a short bob cut and violet eyes. She wore a pair of red glasses and the Kuoh Academy girls' school uniform. He felt the demonic aura of a pure blood coming off of her as he sat down next to Rias, before leaning over and whispering,
"Who's the Devil chick with the black hair giving me the evil eye?" he whispered surreptitiously to Rias.
"That's Sona Sitri-san. Why do you ask?" she replied quietly.
"Sitri? As in the High-Class family?" he asked slowly.
"That's correct." she whispered back.
"Oh shit..." he said as he laid his head on the desk. This was gonna be a long day...
Author's Note: Alrighty guys, here it is. I know it's the weekend and you're busy but please please please PLEASE review guys, I only got two last time. The lowest out of any chapter ever. I'm not kidding when I say reviews gimme the inspiration to keep writing. But, the decision is ultimately yours. Please don't forget to vote on the poll as well. This is The 19th Angel, signing off...