EXAMS ARE FUCKING FINISHED! YEAH BABY!

"I am a pacifist." — Normal speech.

I am trying to be a pacifist.— Thoughts.

[King]— Title/P.O.V/Current Place/ Current time.

A desert filled with grains of thousands of shadows— Quick thoughts, Instinctual Foresight etc. It depends.

[Issei Hyoudou]

My eyes opened to a red, carpeted floor. Covered in black, flowing… liquid that I recognised as something that was similar to blood but not exactly it.

Blood was more liquid, I could tell even from my dazed sight.

I felt my entire body shake in pain as I slowly stood up, but felt no pain.

I turned my head from side to side, looking for anything which would indicate where I was at.

I found more of the liquid. Dripping from the walls, splattered on the ceiling and completely covering the floor except for a small circular area around me.

My attempt to take a step forward was a failure as I almost fell into the shallow black liquid but grabbed onto the decorated, long, red chair that was placed evenly spaced from mine… huh.

Looking forward, I saw copies of the same chair repeating until my vision saw a red wall decorated for a wedding. The same was for the chairs behind me which ended with a large open door.

I was alone here.

Where was here—

*Clnk.*

I turned my head to look at the noise behind me. The green, glowing visors of a figure wearing an almost mechanical dragon-like red mask met my sight.

I fully turned my body to face the figure. It wore a ragged robe that fully covered its entire body with the exception of its dragon mask and…

"A tail?" A long, serpent like red and black tail that was splayed on the ground in front of it retreated into its rob—

I heard the sound of something breaking, then, without warning the thing was rushing at me, it's robe flying back at high speeds as I took a step back and in panic, kicked the chair in front of me at the thing.

It swiped at the long chair, pushing it out of the way and stopping for a brief second. Revealing it's red, clawed hand with a round red and violet jewel embedded in the middle.

I stumbled back and jumped over the chair behind me before turning and sprinting to the side.

The thing chased after me. I could hear it throwing chairs away as I ran out the room through the open door and swerved to the side, barely hitting the wall as I used the momentum I had gathered to run on it for a moment before dropping down and continuing to run through a long hall.

The walls in the hall were also covered in the same, blood-like liquid. That was the only thing I noticed about the place before I heard the sound of my pursuer rushing at me, the sounds of heavy footsteps splashing shallow blood(?) getting closer and closer as I came across another intersection and ran to the left.

The hall stretched further and further as I ran across it. Blood red symbols and weapons of all kinds were strewn about the place, making it hard for me to—

"Go back."

Blackness suddenly replaces the red sky outside the patterned glass walls to my left as a massive voice echoes throughout the hall, making me freeze in place.

The noise of movement behind me stops far behind.

Rugged, scaly purple coloured skin a hundred— no, a thousand times larger than my body encompasses the blackness before retreating back.

The walls around me were massive, but the thing outside. Its size just based on the pupil that was beside me would make this place look like an ant.

Wait. Hold on a minute.

"Child, I will not-" The large voice repeats its last syllable for a moment, "-say it again."

I was chased by a dragon mech looking dude and now there's a giant monster outside.

I recall as I fully turn to face the giant eye with a frozen look on my face.

"Oh…?"

I pick up a broken spear laying at my feet.

This…

"You…" I step forward and lean back, crouching as I pull the arm holding the broken weapon back.

"Huh, he was right."

…is a weird fucking dream.

"... AREN'T EVEN SCARY!" I release the spear as I shoot my upper body forward with the only thought of 'Become Plant'.

The broken spear twists and blooms as it flies at the gigantic eye, metamorphing from just a broken piece of metal to a long, vine-like spear that spanned the distance between me and the giant black pupil before piercing through the black liquid inside.

One second.

Two seconds.

Three—

"Your loss, kid."

The darkness exploded into a shower of sludge that covered the entire hall.

What a weird dream.

*Slap!*

I slapped myself in the face and…

"Ow… can I wake up already?" I asked myself, pinching my cheek to see if that would work… it didn't—

The world turned black.

The sudden change of colour made me stumble back and trip on… something wet and fleshy.

I fell onto my back. Blood —or something which felt like it— coloured my shirt and hair, staining my back as I pushed myself off the ground and looked down at what I had tripped on…

I scrambled back from the headless corpse I had been sitting on and almost threw up.

My eyes were closed shut.

Allright. Not a dream, a nightmare. I hadn't had a nightmare in years, the last one I had was in the Tarenzikrov jungle when Shinohara-san took us there for a vacation.

It was traumatic. I don't remember more than glimpses of it but from what I could remember, I couldn't sleep for more than a week.

"Ha… ha… just need to wake up…" I slowly lifted myself off the ground, body shaking in fear and opened my—

Dead bodies filled my sight.

Long, humanoid, purple coloured bodies that had been gutted, decapitated, sawn in half, had their spines ripped out, had been sliced into ribbons and much, much more were piled up infront of me in a straight line which ended on—

I puked.

The thing at the end of the string of mauled and destroyed corpses was beyond description.

Needles piercing a bed of blood and gore.

A head, skinless and contorted into a perpetual scream.

Chains stretching the skin out to its limit and;

Wings that were made from the bones of the ribs which were pulled out from its back.

Those were the only sentences that I could muster up at the sight of the thing.

Yet, subconsciously I knew I had seen worse.

And then there was the contorted weapon that held it in place, which made me puke out more of my lunch.

I… don't even know how to describe it other than: 'Giant Black Arrow that pierced through the spine'

Blood was still flowing out of the location where the 'arrow' had been pierced.

*Thud!*

I stumbled forward and almost fell as my vision started to get blurry.

It was a blessing because I didn't have to see that thing again.

"And that was why I said to go back." A reptilian, yet human voice snapped me out of my daze as I turned to face… it.

The mechanical dragon thing that had chased me down a few moments prior, only, different.

I could list off all the details that had changed from the mask that I barely saw but was engraved into my mind but there was a large, glaring one that even a blind person could notice.

The green visors had been switched to a cool shade of violet and the mask itself had changed colours from red to a mix of both red and black, it's upper half almost primarily being red while its lower was a light shade of black, red outlines still being visible as the 'mouth' moved in a slow and steady pace. Almost if breathing.

It's hood was also absent, revealing the green hair behind its mask that flowed down to reach its neck.

It sat down beside me with its robes still obscuring its body.

"You don't want to see his sins, kid." It spoke… Welsh? No… something closer to Nordic but it's words were wrong, letters were replaced with others I did not recognise but I managed to translate its words subconsciously due to Shinohara-san's lessons. "Trust me, anything that can scar a dragon for its entire… afterlife, will scar you. And I don't want another kid searching for his 'heart'."

His voice was soft and his words, even though they were mechanised due to the mask, felt genuine.

"What… are you?" I asked, my words slightly slurring as I felt my body slip away into consciousness… Was this his doing?

"Oh, right." He stood up and slightly lifted his robe—

A sectioned black tail, long and sleek, was wrapped around his entire body. His chest was puffed(?) up as if there was something which the tail was covering, something round and orb-like.

"We'll meet again, young barin." The mouth of his mask tilted upward. I could barely make it out as darkness crept in from the edge of my vision… "Sooner than you expect. Until then, sleep until you find unrest, I and the dragon shall guide you."

I blacked out.

"You got a date, kid?"

I woke up.

Shinohara stared as Issei slowly shook awake. The cloth that he had wrapped around Issei's head gradually becoming undone as the boy slowly lifted himself off his sleeping position.

The man smiled down at the child he had seen grow-up blink around in confusion at where he was for a moment before deciding to break the silence.

"You got a date, kid?"

The girl he had met earlier and told to wait at the entrance of the park would probably be still there, she seemed scared of him earlier… Hopefully that didn't ruin the kid's chances with her.

"Eh— wha- Shinohara-san? What're you—"

"Oh, I was out on a casual walk in the park."

"So you saw—"

"Yes, and we're having a talk about that. I told you to let go of that toad two years ago Ise," He sighed, "Why do you still search for it."

Issei, who was now sitting on the bench they were sitting on, pointed at him.

"Because you bo- augh!" A swift chop to the head from Shinohara shut him up before he could finish.

"Later, you don't keep a lady waiting… unless you're my father…" He mumbled the last part under his breath before standing up and lending a hand to Issei, "She's at the entrance, get a date and get your mind out of gardening for a while. You need a break."

"But—"

"Later." With that, Shinohara… ran… away… So much for being a mentor figure huh?

Issei stared at the direction where he ran out for a moment, blinked and stood up before walking towards the entrance, perplexed.

"Yoo!!" He called out from a distance to the girl who had asked him out who was waiting for him at the entrance of the park. The setting sun reflected off her body, exaggerating her… uh, 'features'. Issei chose to ignore them by looking at her face.

She waved back, seeming to have been shaken long before he made his way to her— or before he even woke up.

He wondered if she still wanted to go on that date with him.

Did Shinohara-san's weirdness scare another person again? Shinohara-san was a good person… who didn't get much social interaction except for him, his parents, the mailman and…

The last one didn't matter.

"Are we still going out on that date… um…" Right, he still didn't know her name.

"Amano Yuuma." Yuuma smiled at him, walking forward and leaning into his personal space which let him see her assets almost at full view. "But you can call me Yuuma, Issei-kun."

"Ri-right! Yuuma-san, are we still going on that d-date!" Issei shouted as he reeled back, his eyes darting at her face so that he would not see the view of heaven that laid between tho—

STOP! He yelled at himself, HAREM KING COMES SECOND! HAREM KING COMES—

"Hm? Issei-kun?" She pushed up against Issei's body with a sky smile, leaving the boy no space to run except behind, which, he was too distracted to do since his eyes and mouth came too close for comfort to hers.

Issei almost fainted.

"Mou~ you're fun to tease, hehe." She backed away from him, letting him take a large breath as he tried to clear his mind of perverse thoughts.

Oh great saint Shinohara-san, Shinohara sneezed while talking about what life and humanity meant, please help me conquer this challenge!

That prayer to God was all he needed to build up resolution in his heart and calm himself down, the thoughts of perversion disappearing into the back of his mind as he faced Yuuma with a small smile.

"When should we go out Yuuma-san?"

She blinked, clearly not expecting him to recover that quickly but responded nonetheless,

"I was thinking of sometime around saturday."

Issei winced, "I have club duties on saturday… Can we go out on sunday?"

"That works, where should we meet up Issei-kun, I'm not quite used to this part of town so you're going to have to choose the location!" She cheerfully added, letting him know that she was not from this part of town.

That explains the school clothing I don't recognise. "We can meet up at the mall in the middle of town?"

"Hm…" She put on a thoughtful expression, "Ok, near the entrance of the mall on sunday?"

"Yup!" Issei flashed a thumbs up at her.

"Alright! Then see you on Sunday, Ise-kun!" She yelled out as she slowly walked away, skipping step-by-step into the sunset before disappearing. Issei waved at her as she went away before turning back and going to the bench near the fountain where he had put his bag earlier.

Oh, Shinohara-san took off my gloves. That's weird, he didn't notice.

G-5

One of the commonly found living organisms here that were a rarity in NEW_Avalon.

They were once a humongous, brown bark coloured axe that could spread off into roots of spikes and bloom into a shield of grass;

Now, due to this world's commodity of trees they have turned into a large brown gauntlet which covers a third of one's arm. Its functions remain the same but it is stronger in some regards.

[A couple hours later]

Shinohara-san's front door creaked open, revealing the greenhouse of a home that he had built over the years.

Vines and potted plants of all kinds hung from the ceiling, several flowers and fruits from all over the world were held behind glass walls all around him and several outgrowths were growing from beneath the floor almost making the place look like a jungle.

There was a path laid out infront of him though, the glass ceiling that let the moon shine down on the plants as well as the several artificial lights that lit up the room showed him the path to the middle of the room, even though he knew this place like the back of his hand.

Issei walked slowly for a while, admiring the flowers, plants, vines, well trimmed grass and the overall variety of nature around him that he wished that he could recreate when he became older.

That was his dream after all, harem King came after that.

"You're right on time Ise." Shinohara-san's voice rang out from the middle of the room as he saw him sitting on a chair with a table and another chair infront of him, sipping green tea… although…

"Eh? Shinohara-san what happened to your hair?" All the aura of coolness that was just in the air frizzled out as he said those words.

Shinohara's hair, which was always straight and pointed downwards, was now puffy, more… soft(?) and more importantly shorter.

"...A friend played with my hair." He sighed, slowly dropping his tea to the table before massaging his hair a bit, "It'll take a while for it to return to normal, soft hair makes for a bad decision when you let someone like her touch it… ha…"

Her? Wait hold the fuck on. He knows a girl— "SHINOHARA-SAN YOU KNOW A GIRL—!?"

"Yes?" Oh right, he is a literal saint…

"I wonder if you'll ever get a wife…" I got my hopes up for nothing…

"Anyways, sit down." He pointed at the chair infront of his desk, "I'm moving our weekly appointment to today."

Issei raised his eyebrows in confusion but complied with his mentor's words, sitting down infront of him after a short walk and taking a sip from another tea cup set on the table.

"So, why'd my weekly therapy get moved up?" Issei asked. Shinohara hadn't moved up their daily psychology evaluations since they had started at his parents' request when he was six years of age… excluding the 18th of January because Shinohara goes to Germany on that day every year.

"I need to go to Germany on sunday." Huh, did something happe— "I need to prepare a bouquet of lilies to place on mother's grave, it is going to be her tenth year of her death on wednesday so I need to go and search for the lilies that she was fond of in Germany." Oh…

"Uh… you're adding maiglöckchen's to the bouquet?" That was the only flower that he didn't keep in here due to personal sentiments and would actively gather from Germany specifically whenever he needed them.

"Yes, and some other ones that are grown in Germany so I need to leave early. Anyways," The air around the two shifted oh so slightly that it would be unnoticeable to anyone else other than them as the white haired man pulled out a pen and a book from… somewhere. "Are you partaking in your hobbies, Ise."

Translation: 'Are you gardening, being a good student and jerking off in your room because you're at the age when your hormones will kill you if you don't."

"Yes sir! Watering plants is my passion!" Issei responded with a salute.

"...are you handling your perversion well?" Issei froze, that was enough for him to get his answer. He sighed, "Ise, how many times have I told you that your perverse nature is a part of you? You have to indulge yourself in it privately, your room is the most private part of your house so you have the freedom to do whatever you want in there… How many times have you relieved yourself in the last week?"

Issei groaned, the awkwardness of that question never went away no matter how many times he was asked that.

[Thirty minutes later…]

"—so that's how many times I have… slain my dragon in the last week."

"...you took that much time to say that you had jerked off two times since last wee—"

"SHINOHARA-SAN!"

"What? Jerking off is a normal thing for boys your age to do… that's what father told me…"

…right…

Despite being the best therapist and botanist in —Issei wasn't sure about the first one—the whole world, Shinohara, the man who he viewed as perfection incarnate, was a complete idiot in social thinking. He could probably find a new species of plants but would not know how to interact with a human being other than himself or his parents.

To put on simply; He was a genius in some parts and an idiot in others.

Shinohara's confused expression made Issei sulk. He didn't try to convince the older man that looked younger than his father but was probably older than him about proper manners because he had tried to do that every single time he came for his psychological evaluation.

"Now, tell me about your week, Ise."

Smiling, Issei told him everything as they settled into happy, therapeutic talk.

[One hour, seven minutes later]

Shinohara's face was completely natural as Issei finished telling him about the dream he had after he was knocked out, letting the boy take a sip of newly prepared tea to moisten his throat.

"So you're having nightmares again." He said, scribbling down words in the small notebook in his hands that he retrieved, again, from somewhere, "And even worse ones it seems."

"Yea…" Issei replied, slumping down on his chair as Shinohara stood up from his own.

"Wait here for a moment." He requested, walking up the stairs to one of the upper rooms and leaving Issei behind as he disappeared into the darkness of the upper floor.

Issei stared up at the moon above him for a moment, eyes tired and stifling a yawn before standing up and walking towards one of the enclosed flower displays.

"Huh… this one's new…" He lazily breathed out, observing a spiralling red flower whose purple petals folded into itself, forming a spear like covering of petals above it's stigma, style, pistol and the entire flower itself down to its stem and sepal.

Issei wondered if it was a new part of the Primulaceae family that his mentor had made from out of the blue.

He would do that sometimes, when he was bored.

There was a time where Shinohara had created a literal chomper from plants vs zombies at his request, fun times.

"That's a new one, Shinohara-san." Issei spoke as the noise of footsteps echoed behind him. Shinohara walked up to his side.

"Reylialcus Primulaceae. I created it a few years ago and now it's grown so I decided to bring it out." Shinohara responded, handing him a bottle of red and white candies and pointing at the spear-like petals of the flower, "Those petals are special, they're more like hardened leaves on the outside but they're soft on the inside. Anyway, eat one of those candies before you go to bed, they should keep your dreams at bay."

Issei examined the bottle in his hands and nodded before walking towards the exit. Shinohara smiled at him,

"Good luck on your date kid… oh, wait a second." He retreated into a room covered by vines right behind him and came out a few seconds later holding out a bouquet of flowers of various colours… including black roses.

"Eh? Shinohara-san, why are you giving me this?" Issei asked, confused as Shinohara thrusted the bouquet of flowers into his hands.

"Just reminiscing on the past that's all," Issei barely noticed, but the smile on his face soured, "give it to your date if it goes well."

"Hai!" He saluted, clutching the flowers close to chest as Shinohara waved him goodbye.

Sunday was going to be awesome.

[Sunday]

[Issei Hyoudou]

It indeed was, AWSOME!

The days leading upto the date also increased his mood significantly, the student council had been helping him in searching for Ryounosuke —and he swore he would hear the amphibian in his head sometimes—, The bouquet that Shinohara-san had given him was carrying in a bag he had carried to the mall.

He had met Yuuma near the entrance of the mall. She was wearing a pink blouse that showed off her upper body, a gold chain necklace was wrapped around her neck and she wore a black skirt.

She latched onto his arm as soon as she saw him.

On Sunday, 1:17 P.M, Issei Hyoudou started his date.

On Sunday, 5:36 P.M, Issei Hyoudou died for the first time.

Next chapter is going to be a fun one to write and there's something you might or might not expect to happen.