Chapter 10

Junichiro leaned back and stretched his arms over his head while letting out a pleased groan. He'd spent the last few hours reading up on human magic and actually found the topic rather engaging. He was also certain he could do some rather interesting things using it and his standard Artificier skills. After all, how much of a boost could he give his spell scrolls if he wrote out an actual spell circle using local magic rules instead of just using a ton of magical ink and mana? He'd have to experiment and see just how much it could effect things.

A glance out of his window told him it was getting later passing from late afternoon to early evening. He double checked the time on his watch as he made his way to the kitchen. He had been so absorbed in checking out his new magical flora and library that he'd skipped right over lunch and it was quickly approaching dinner time. He couldn't help wondering what Azazel had stocked the kitchen with given the quality, not to mention quantity, of stuff in his new workshop.

"..."

Junichiro slammed the door of the fridge violently closed and checked the cabinets.

"..."

The cabinet door enjoyed the same treatment as the fridge door while Junichiro let out an annoyed groan, "He fills the workshop to the brim and doesn't even bother throwing a single thing into the kitchen?!"

Every cabinet and drawer in the kitchen was empty of food. The kitchen was completely bare of anything edible. Grumbling to himself about what he felt was a deliberate oversight, he made his way to the front door. Whipping it open he noticed something and felt like an idiot. All of the stuff he'd brought from the junkyard was still sitting in the driveway where it had arrived with him. He'd completely forgotten to come back and collect it all.

With a distinct 'fuck it,' he ignored his stuff and focused on his Vespa. No way he was going to leave that behind. It was a good thing he brought it too! With a one hundred meter long driveway just walking would have been annoying as hell. He quickly made sure the bracelet that made people ignore his age was active and hopped on his Vespa. There was no way he was going to go and do full grocery shopping this late in the day. He'd just go to a restaurant for dinner then grab some stuff from a convenience store for breakfast. He'd do some real shopping tomorrow.

Junichiro sighed as he walked toward his Vespa carrying a plastic bag with some microwavable food in it. He smiled as he heard some light singing coming from somewhere nearby, further lifting his mood on top of a full stomach. Dinner hadn't been too bad. He refused to waste money so he'd gotten an inexpensive meal. It hadn't been horrible, nor had it been great. It was all 'meh' food but it was filling and that's what mattered. The convenience store meal would do for his breakfast in the morning, then he'd do his real shopping.

Thankfully he had his little trailer or he'd have to carry everything by hand or make a dozen trips for just a couple of things at a time. Considering he needed everything for his kitchen, that would have been tedious as hell. He'd still have to order things off of the internet if he couldn't find them in person. He was one hundred percent certain he would forget things and end up having to go out again anyway. Of course, he would only remember them when he needed them to cook. That was annoying as hell. He was one hundred percent certain that Azazel had skipped the kitchen just to annoy him! Petty bastard.

"Ohhhh how wonderful! Dinner delivery in this city is so high class."

Junichiro froze as his blood ran cold. His head snapped up as he looked around his surroundings. Just a moment ago he'd been crossing the parking lot to his Vespa, the sun had just barely gone down and he would be heading home. Except, now he was in an unfamiliar building shrouded in darkness. Sure, he'd been a little lost in his thoughts bitching to himself about Azazel, but he hadn't been that distracted!

Yet, his internal protests meant nothing because he found himself inside of a darkened home. The only light coming from the open door he'd just entered and between the gaps of the boards on the windows. The interior of the house was completely trashed with debris scattered about. Just a cursory glance would make anyone wonder how the place still stood with the interior so thoroughly destroyed.

"Mmmmm dinner smells wonderful."

Junichiro's head rapidly looked around trying to locate the sensual female voice. Now that he was paying attention, he could hear an undertone of magic laced within the female voice. He finally located two large eyes floating in the darkness reflecting golden light back at him.

"Come, come, such pleasure and pain will you find in here."

The magic laced into the voice became stronger, urging him to walk deeper into the darkness. He could easily see how such a voice could ensnare his senses if he wasn't paying attention. Now that he was, it was entirely useless and the female voice seemed to realize that as well when he spun on his heels and fled toward the still open door. There was no way in hell he was dealing with whatever was in the house. Though his mind, not so helpfully, decided that it was likely a stray devil or man eating yokai of some sort. Those seemed the most plausible.

He'd just barely made it to the threshold when a pair of impossibly strong hands tipped with wickedly sharp nails grabbed him by the shoulders. The next moment he was flying through the air until gravity took hold once more and violently slammed him into the floor. Junichiro quickly sat up to get his eyes on his enemy while his right hand moved toward his belt when his Wand of Fireballs was located.

Standing silhouetted by the moonlight in the door frame was a female figure. She might have been beautiful once upon a time, but now she was a hideous monster. Though she was nowhere near as deformed as the centaur-like stray devil shown in the beginning of DxD cannon, it was still pretty bad. He skin was bone white while moonlight glinted off of fish-like scales covering her face and what was visible of her arms. What was visible of her legs was similarly covered in scales though her feet looked more like swimming flippers than actual feet.

Most hideous of all though was her face. Her eyes were massive and reminded him of a dead fish. Her mouth was so wide it looked like the bottom half of her face had been sliced open, fitted with a hinge, and filled to the brim with rotting black dagger-like teeth. She stared at him as he fumbled for his wand, "Dinner should know it needs to stay in the house."

Despite her hideous looks, her voice was still melodious and tinged with magic that wanted him to listen and obey. He completely ignored her as he whipped his wand out and pointed it in her direction. The very moment he had it aimed at her, she was gone.

Junichiro turned to his torso to his right, his eyes having just barely followed her movement, moving his arm so he could aim his wand at her the moment he spotted her and fire off as many fireballs as it took to put her down or make his escape. He'd use the entire thing if he had to. It was only as he finally had her within his vision once again that his brain finally noticed there was something seriously wrong.

The fish-like stray devil was holding something in her hands that she hadn't had just a moment ago, a human arm.

A human arm holding a wooden stick in its fist.

A human arm that looked hauntingly familiar.

His arm.

Slowly, painfully slowly, he turned his head to look at his arm. Or, at where his arm used to be. His shoulder was still intact, that was nice. However, disconcertingly, his arm stopped at a clean cut just a few inches further down. Where his arm once existed there was nothing but a stump spurting thick red blood. It was only as he looked at the wound that his shock clouded mind finally registered the mind altering pain.

PAINPAINPAINPAINPAIN!

Junichiro screamed in agony as a pain so deep he was certain he could feel it in his soul tried to crush his mind. He'd never felt pain more deeply in either life and had no point of reference to even beging to understand how something could hurt so deeply. It was agony beyond anything he could have imagined. Yet, even with his mind clouded by nothing but sheer agony, his throat burning from his screams, and his mind floundering in an attempt to even work, he could clearly hear the sharp cracks of teeth crushing bone. The loud cracking sound was quickly followed by a rapturous moan so sinfully sensual it wouldn't have been out of place in the highest class of pornography.

"Mmmmm dinner tonight is so superbly sweet! I dearly hope future deliveries to my new home will be just as tasty."

Hearing the sensual female voice talking about the flavor of his arm turned some of Junichiro's overwhelming agony into anger. Pain no longer all he knew, all he could understand, or his entire being. Anger spread as he refused to die here. He wouldn't let some fish bitch end him. His mind kick started itself as he quickly registered the need to live, to fight, to KILL THIS FUCKING BITCH!

He used his left arm to rip open one of his expanded pouches, distantly acknowledging how wise it was to never leave home without his utility belt. The fish lady wasn't paying any attention to him as he squirmed and bled out on the floor, she was far too involved in devouring his arm like the worlds largest chicken wing.

He retrieved a rolled spell scroll, while gripping it tightly he activated it with a touch of his mana. The scorching agony that had replaced his arm faded slightly as the wound healed at a visible rate. A scroll of Minor Regeneration was something he had several copies of. Mostly because it was great at healing smaller wounds, bruises, and light burns. Things he constantly experienced while working. Using one at the end of the day would heal the minor annoyances that came with working with open flames, heavy metal objects, and sharp pieces of metal. His Ring of Regeneration helped too, of course, but it pulled on his magical power constantly when in use and was slower but constant. The scrolls allowed for him to pre-spend the mana and use it at a later time, such as now! It didn't help that the ring was currently on the arm being devoured either.

However, neither ring nor scroll were near powerful enough to regenerate missing limbs. His overall power was nowhere near enough to make anything capable of such strong healing. The name of the spell scroll would probably be more honest if it was the Scroll of Accelerated Natural Healing, but that was way too long. With the ongoing bleeding taken care of, there was one less thing Junichiro needed to pay attention to. Though, the blood already lost was making him light headed and it would take a while for the lost blood to be recovered. Still, he was in no danger of bleeding out anytime soon, so that was a plus.

Still being ignored by the stray devil, she had only eaten the upper part of his arm and half of his forearm so far, he went for his next scroll while wishing his Teleportation scroll was finished already. He quickly dug into another pouch to pull out another spell scroll. With a surge of his mana, the scroll faded and he felt a buildup of power in his body.

Seemingly feeling the surge of magical energy, the thing eating his arm turned to look at him. His blood ran from her lips and coated her fangs as she smiled at him, "Oh, is dinner up to something?" She let out a demented giggle, "There's no rush dinner, I'll get more of you soon. So many delicious helpings to choose from!"

To emphasize her words, she lifted his arm and turned it so she could loudly bite off one of his fingers. He could hear the bones snapping and cracking as her teeth crushed them to powder. Junichiro felt a sudden surge of pure rage at seeing her do that. He gathered the power of the spell scroll and layered his own power on top of it, pumping as much of his magical power into it as he felt he could.

That was one of the advantages of using a spell scroll that targeted your own body to cast an external spell, you could pump your own power into it to enhance the spell. Spells that just fired from the scroll were always locked at the power they were designed with. He inhaled deeply as he pushed every last drop of his energy into the spell. With the power of anger and agony fueling him, he opened his mouth and roared, "FUCK YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!"

As he dragged out the last syllable of 'you' a torrent of flames launched from his mouth and spread with abandon in front of him. The heat was excruciating and, due to his own mana added to the spell, significantly higher than it would have been. So high it actually felt like it was burning his own skin when he should have been protected from the spell by its very nature.

Flames filled the room like a flood and coated everything. He could hear the soul wrenching screams of the woman as she was bathed in flames. He wanted to say something about her deserving it but his mouth was occupied as he continued to roar out a seemingly unending torrent of fire. It was only when he ran out of breath that the flames and screaming ended.

He sat there for a moment looking at the crackling and spreading flames from his spell. He'd only made the firebreath spell scroll for giggles. He'd been thinking of his plans to steal Boosted Gear from Issei and the idea of breathing flames made him smile. Despite that, he'd still put some effort into it and made it as good as he could. The results spoke for themselves as the entire house was on fire now and he couldn't see even a small part of the demon that had been eating his arm.

He needed to leave, to get out of the house and away. Except, he couldn't. His legs refused to move, his whole body hurt, and he could see darkness encroaching on his vision. He needed help and he needed it now. There was only one option and he reached for it.

Which was considerably awkward as the cell phone he needed to reach out to the nearest member of the Grigori was in his right hand pocket and he no longer had a right hand to grab it with. Twisting and contorting his body he managed to shove his left hand into his right pocket and fish out the phone. He managed to flip the phone open and spot the unique red button located slightly off to the side out of usual button pushing reach.

He stared at it for a moment as his brain continued to slowly shut down and his vision continued to darken. Exhaustion, magical exhaustion, injuries, and fading adrenaline were taking their toll and he, almost drunkenly, used his thumb to push the button. His head lolled to the side as he looked into the encroaching flames once more.

Rising horror barely managed to make itself known as he watched a wretched blackened husk slowly rising out of the flames through his fading vision.

Junichiro slowly woke up to the annoying sound of a beep going off constantly. If Azazel hid some stupid ass prank item somewhere in his bedroom he was going to hunt him down and... and do something to him! Okay, there wasn't anything he could do to Azazel, but he would remember this grudge, nurse it, and when the time was right he would unleash it on the governor general a thousand fold! If he didn't forget before then.

Taking a deep breath and letting it out, Junichiro wondered at how soft his new bed was. It felt infinitely more comfortable than what he'd been sleeping in for the past few years. Hell, anything was better than a park bench, the ground, and abandoned cars. He'd had a small camp bed in his shed in the junkyard, but it had nothing on a real mattress.

He slowly opened his eyes as the beeping refused to cease it's annoying repetitive sound. He also noticed, now that he was more awake, that the bed seemed to be slightly off, like he was leaning more to the right than felt normal. Or maybe he'd slept wrong? Speaking of, when did he go to bed?

As soon as he asked himself when he went to sleep the events that happened just before he passed out went through his mind like a bolt of lightning. His head snapped to the side to stare at where his right arm used to be. There was nothing but a stump covered in white gauze. He immediately began to hyperventilate causing the annoying beep of the heart monitor to go crazy.

As he descended into a full blown panic attack, the door to the room slammed open and a familiar petite blonde came storming into the room. Junichiro's dark eyes, swimming with suppressed tears, turned to face the bright blue concerned eyes of Mittelt. When he spoke, his voice was hoarse from last nights abuse and a lack of hydration, "It's... it's gone."

The last the he saw before he passed out once more was the look of concern on Mittelts face.

AN

So, how'd that twist strike ya? I'm enjoying these little twists and surprises. Junichiro getting into some sort of trouble seemed a given considering how often I had him taunt Murphy. Something had to happen eventually!

Besides, now I have an excuse to give him a killer Magitech arm with lots of gizmos and shit.

How did you guys like the siren style stray devil? I didn't want to do some massive monster like Vizer (or whatever her name was in canon) and went for a smaller faster one, I'm thinking she was a Knight before.

Before you all jump to conclusions and start ranting about this coming out of nowhere for no reason, I request you wait until the next chapter.

I'd also like to address thoughts about me just punishing Junichiro for no reason or other such similar lines of thought. My goal with this rewritten version was not punish the character, but to make the power he will gain feel EARNED. In the original he just grabbed literal garbage and turned it into an infinity engine. No effort, no work, just BOOM! POWER! I don't want that in this story. I also want to take the pre-canon time to show you all, not TELL, how he goes about gaining his strength. I want to do this so that in future time skips and later chapters, when he pulls out the 'Uber Staff of Ungodly Powerful Spells of DOOM!' you don't scream about it being 'plot armor' or random BS and understand that he did work to earn it.

The whole point of this rewrite is having Junichiro EARN his strength, to grow, change, and mature, until he becomes just as strong as the Junichiro in the original story. Except this time everyone reading and enjoying it should be proud of him for all the effort put in rather than just shrugging as he Chad's it up.

Anyway, I'm up to chapter 20 on pat-reon slash thomasdarkrose. I'm also planning to start releasing chapters of this, and maybe Biokinetic, on Webnovel to get a few more people reading it. If there's any other sites I could post on for people to enjoy the story and give me feedback, let me know.

Oh, final thought. I'm done talking about Rias and him joining as an author. I can't be bothered to repeat myself anymore. As for Juni being wishy washy waffling in the wind about stuff, he's young and dumb. Just remember that in the future, yeah?

Until next time!