Stardust

Summary: Issei's parents had abandoned him but a pregnant youkai woman, taken by her retuning maternal instincts and his cat ears, took him in. Life was peaceful. He had an older sister and a younger one, plenty of food, and a warm home. However, he was blinded to the true nature of his father, who was to be referred to as 'Master.'

Note: keeping up my trend of redoing my previous works but different. Don't bother looking for the original.

Enjoy.


—[†]—

"Kuroka-nee, I'm thirsty..." A young boy muttered, shifting under sheets from within the warmth. The only thing peeking out was a tuff of brown hair.

There came another slow movement. Following it was a yawn and a new voice. It was the voice of a young girl. "Go back to sleep, Ise.."

For a minute or two, there was no movement other than the gentle, rhythmic rise and fall of the blanket mound. The boy had fallen asleep again, listening to the girl without any trouble.

'Kuroka-nee' on the hand, having sensed his return to slumber, slipped out from the cozy mound with the grace of a cat. First, one of her lithe legs slid out from under, testing the distance between the floor and the bed. Having found the stone-cold floor, the rest of her body followed. She was completely nude, revealing her young teenage body. Her skin was deathly pale, contrasting her short black locks. Her golden, cat-like eyes struggled to remain open as she slouched.

Now completely bared to the air, she was racked with shivers. She nearly tripped as she strode away from their makeshift bed ruined room.

The girl shook her head, absentmindedly.

She really spoiled Ise. He was always the needy type. It never changed since she had first met the boy. Not with both herself and Shirone feeding into his wants and desires. The latter was always a good girl, willing to do anything anyone requested of her so long they showered her with love.

So, she only had herself to blame as the eldest and most sensible.

She stumbled. Her foot had gotten caught on nothing but the floor as her thoughts trickled back to her sister. But she shook her head to fight them back and the exhaustion which threatened to overwhelm her. There wasn't time to truly rest no matter how comfortable it was under the makeshift blanket.

She had to focus on Issei.

The girl had barely succeeded in her efforts to draw him out of Juggernaut Drive, the ultimate technique of the Boosted Gear. She was lucky. While their owners had studied his dormant Longinus, neither research nor any past knowledge had marked the form as a cursed technique, a forbidden ability to deal with the soul. However, she found out otherwise with her firsthand account.

If it weren't for one of specialties laying with cursed techniques themselves (and thus setting herself up for their power-hungry master), she was sure neither her surrogate brother nor herself would've escaped devil territory. It had taken everything she had to reverse the form. As she did so, she tried her best to survive because there was no way she could take him head on. Even as a recent awakening, the cursed technique raised Issei's power through the roof, dwarfing her own.

Still, she could not stop him from rampaging.

And it was her fault. She had completely underestimated the lengths their owners would go to awaken the mythical Longinus and how consequence of unleashing it would bite them all in the ass. She knew she should've looked into the matter. Their owner would stop at nothing in their quest of ultimate power.

And ultimate power they received.

Her brother figure went from desperate anguish at the sight of her bloodied, whimpering body to inexplicable rage in a flash.

In the next moment, he shifted into mechanical titan. Red armor had sprouted from nowhere before anyone could blink. Despite the sudden growth, her little Ise still moved the same way he always had, like a cat. This time, it was with a flare of fire that she had barely caught and a show of dexterity that left her green with envy. His armored claw swiped her drugged and numbed body from torture table she had been chained onto.

Kuroka prided herself in her ability to sustain damage without so much as a grunt and heal up just as easily. However, she had cracked. And she had cracked bad furthermore.

She had gotten cocky.

Her owner hid the serum from her, never forgetting to praise her durability at every meet. Because of that, she was thoroughly fooled. The Japanese Demon Arts and Sage Arts she had grown subservient to had been flushed out of her system with her unable to even muster panic. Her genius talent raised the blindfolds to the weaknesses of them: herself.

She clutched her injured arm where a glowing entry wound still throbbed with black veins and energy, feeling the encompassing panic return. It had only brought even more repressed memories out of her. The panic sent her back in time; to the massacre; their childhood village; to her spineless mother.

—A gust of cold air poured from the fridge where a row of water jugs greeted her with a slight swish. The growing frown on her face slipped away as she refocused at the matter at hand: Ise wanted some water.

If not for the caps, the jug she selected would've spilled given how much her arms trembled. She didn't bother thinking about it.

Only one thing mattered right now: Issei. And, he was thirsty. She could fix that now unlike the major issue that prevented her from healing herself.

Issei's severely depleted lifeforce.

Previously, it left her utterly drained down to the last drop, but she had to seal his gaping wound across his soul before the damage grew or, in the worst case, became irreversible. She could stomach the injuries. Kuroka had always been the durable type even before her reincarnation into a Rook half-breed.

"...welcome back, Kuro-neechan.." her 'brother' muttered, smelling her return.

"I got your water, Ise."

The boy rose with half-lidded and foggy eyes. All the while, his clawed hands tore into the sheets. He couldn't control his newfound strength and transformation. She knew the new strength he had firsthand and had bore it with some minor discomfort as they rested.

She glanced down to get trembling hands and shook her head softly.

"I'll feed you, like old times, nya?"

The boy mustered a tired smiled. Patiently, he waited.

And so, she tried her best to control her arms and gently tilted the glass against her lips. Water splashed into his nose, spilled into his lap and it only started to go downhill from there.

All in all, she failed her task. Horrendously.

However, before she could pull back, his scaled hands latched onto her wrists and held her still. She flinched, scratching her wrists in his grasp. The memory of his gigantic claw wrapping around her flashed through her, refilling her with another flash of panic. The tightening grasp, razor scales filling in her skin with lacerations, the perverse and overbearing aura that no longer felt like Ise suffocating her, and his deafening roars of outrage as he dragged her across the air, fighting against their master's servants and household for daring to harm her.

Just as quickly, Issei had pulled back and apologized. His eyes, which were of texture like mixing chocolate, now resembled a dragon's rather than a cat. His fervorous apologies fell against her deaf ears.

Why?

She fulfilled her mission. Her lil Ise was back.

"W-Welcome back, Ise."

His eyes were no longer foggy. His soul was stained but finally relaxed. And he was finally fully conscious without a hint of delirium. No longer was he in autopilot. Honestly, she should've realized when he asked for water. However, she too had been running on autopilot, so focused on him yet so blind.

Tears welled up in her eyes as she collapsed to floor, holding herself back from rushing Issei. She tried to lift herself up, but her world wobbled, blinded her with a severe increase of saturation before she knew no more.


Issei frowned. He was seated before his resting sister. She was naked, but that wasn't uncommon with his older sister figure. His eyes lingered at each angry scab, burn and tear, deepening his frown at each stop. They were healing at a snail's pace. However, it was still an odd sight. Kuroka had always been the indomitable castle with impenetrable walls. She rarely ever had wounds since her reincarnation.

Although, he wasn't so blind to think that she could never be harmed. Both he and Shirone had cut her when they first unlocked their claws. Kuroka simply smiled, puffing her chest as it healed before their very eyes.

So, what could do this to his sister?

He wasn't angry, just confused. The last thing he could recall was being sent into a room and nothing else after that. His brows furrowed. His memories had a hole in them. He could tell that much and a little more: this was Kuroka's work. She had trained him every other day if she could. At this point, he knew her mystic signatures. And, it was all over him.

He lifted an arm, sniffing himself.

There wasn't an odd or misplaced thing about him. He was perfectly fine. If anything...

Issei clenched a fist so quick, the air clapped back. He was stronger. A ton more. His eyes drifted back to the makeshift blanket. Kuroka would never lose control of herself. That was all him.

Although, that did remind him. He tried his best to grab a hold of the curtains gingerly and drape it over his sister. Keeping her warm and comfy was the best he could do. He was terrible with healing arts, focusing on Touki and his close combat skills with his claws...

Something caught his eye. Kuroka's two tails were left out. He shook his head at his mistake and gently pushed her twin black tails back under. He glanced back to his own tail. He was still at a single, whereas Shirone had already unlocked her second tail recently. That was without a single bit of formal training.

So where was his second tail?

Also...

His thought of Shirone brought his thoughts to the girl. He hadn't seen a single sign of her. He sniffed, trying to focus on a familiar scent that wasn't Kuroka. When it came up empty, he quietly prowled the immediate vicinity. Again, nothing. The only thing he learned was they were in a dingy apartment. Perhaps it was abandoned because there were so few other life signatures of any real significance.

In the end, he returned to Kuroka's side. She had not fret nor been frantic about the lack of her own blood, so he wouldn't either. His younger sister figure must be okay, right? It made no sense for her to be away.

Unless he was the cause?

—[†]—


Aes: this story shouldn't have much edge or angst overall. For now, I'm just getting most of that out of the way and I know- or well, the fandom used to love it anyway. No idea about more recent times.

This story will serve the purpose of dealing with other lesser utilized factions of DxD while the mc is a sort of antihero-like character (they're not joining Vali). It's different from Devil Versus the World because there Issei is enemy numero uno and overpowered as can be.

Also, he won't be a Japanese cat monster. I'm not sure if it'll be a flaming cat from Egypt or Nemean Lion or a shadowcat of sorts based on the Egyptian God of Darkness, Kek, if I wanna be extra edgy. They all seem equally fun.

Been struggling to write lately either way and wanted this out earlier and longer but... oh well.

Edits: sum
Words: [2,050]