Anything you recognize isn't mine, thanks again to Third Fang and slashfan2018 for letting me borrow your stuff.
Issei had been having a rough day.
Getting murdered by his first girlfriend, being reviewed as a devil and waking up to have a discussion with the devil after holding his little sister hostage in front of him.
All in all? After that he wanted nothing more than to get some sleep and forget his problems for as long as he could.
Unfortunately it seems his troubles weren't through with him yet.
"How can something so Colorful be so creepy at the same time?" Issei groaned to himself. As he looked out to the multicolored mist that surrounded him, stopping him from seeing more than ten feet in front of him.
"The swords and ghosts probably help." He mumbled as the most muscular old man he had ever seen walked past him, his body made of shadow, and a fancy scarf around his neck.
Indeed since Issei had woken up surrounded by the mist, he had yet to go ten minutes without finding some kind of weapon stuck in the ground or some ghostlike shadow creature of various shapes and sizes passing him by.
It was worth noting that even when he hadn't moved for those ten minutes the weapons in the ground would be replaced if he wasn't looking.
And they weren't the only things that changed. As Issei had wandered through the mist he had walked through a dense and lush forest, a snow covered field, a barren desert, a bleeding volcano, a rundown slum, a superb that looked suspiciously like his neighborhood, and finally the well furnished and ginormous library where Issei currentlyfound himself. What's more he could never tell when exactly the environment around him changed.
Thump-thump thump thump!
And to top it all off theirs that super creepy heartbeat coming from the sun of all things, which was the only thing clearly visible in the cloudy sky. This continued to hold true in the library.
Most people would be confused or scared in this situation.
"Damit Aaron, where are you!" Issei groaned, clearly annoyed. As previously mentioned Issei had had an extremely rough day, and wanted nothing more than to sleep.
He probably would be more cautious if he were in danger, however Issei's presence enhanced instincts told him that he was looking at his best friend when he gazed at this bizarre world. Add in the fact that he couldn't talk to Ddraig, his years of developing his own mental defenses, his frequent interactions with his Tennant, and he could reasonably deduce that he was inside Arrons mind.
This annoyed him greatly.
Aaron was extremely paranoid when it came to mental defense, to the point that Ddraig had combined about the extent of training he had tried to force on Issei. In light of this Issei correctly thought Aaron really should be aware that there was someone in his mind, even if Issei wasn't doing anything more than walking around.
"Fuck it." Issei growled, finally reaching the limit of his patience.
"Oi Aaron where the hell are you!" The young dragon announced itself, demanding an audience with its peer.
The tense silence that followed told Issei that he might have made a mistake.
The sudden and intense earthquake that followed told him he had definitely made a mistake.
The ground rumpled, and the air creaked as books fell from their shelves. The swords in the ground pulsed with power as if trying to hold the world in place, the shades around him scattered, only to be replaced by new ones wielding what Issei assumed were swords pulled up from the ground.
Issei could tell with a glance that every one of these shades were far stronger than him.
All of the shades were glaring at something up in the distance, it didn't take long for Issei to regret following their gaze.
Issei had always known about the black beast. As a child he had more than a few nightmares after seeing its partial awakening all those years ago.
After getting to know Aaron the fear he felt was turned to concern for his friend.
Then after meeting Ddraig that concern changed to sadness after imagining having a feral monster inside your head, as opposed to the slightly grumpy old man Issei had grown accustomed to.
Somewhere in the back of his otherwise frozen mind Issei felt foolish for thinking he could comprehend Aaron's burden.
The monster towered over all others, its eight heads eyeing their prey. Its black and red scales made of darkness reclaimed the colored mist around it. Its mechanical tendrils pulsed like veins, as the sword pinning its chest to the sky pulsed and the sun bore down on it harshly.
It wasn't the monster's size or appearance that froze Issei in his tracks.
Nor was it the immense power so vile that he could almost hear the cries of the souls that had fed it.
No what parlayed Issei was much harder to describe, the innate awareness that came from using presence revealed a whole new level of terror to the monster. The hunger, the malice, the hatred it emitted, and worst of all the deep gut retching feeling that surged above the rest. An instinctive denial of this monster and its existence, its definition, its nature. Because at its core the monster was-
Before Issei could comprehend his revulsion, Issei felt a hand firmly grabbing him by the scruff of his neck pulling him out of the mindscape just as the shades charged at the monster.
The next thing he knew Issei was on his ass looking up to the concerned face of Aaron.
"Breath." Aaron ordered.
Issei stared at him in confusion before realizing he was in fact not breathing.
"C-cough! Cough cough!" Issei let out a ragged breath, as Aaron silently waited for him to regain control of his breathing.
"You ok?" He asked once Issei had stopped coughing.
Issei nodded weakly. He looked around and discovered he was in a large green meadow.
Aaron sighed in relief.
"How the hell did you get into my head anyway?" Aaron asked.
"I *huff* I don't know." Issei replied.
Aaron held his face in his hands and took several deep breaths. When he removed his hands he had a smile on his face that was near identical to Sirzechs's normal expression. (This was a large contributor to why Issei couldn't calm down in the Maou's presence.)
"I'm gonna give you the once over. Don't freak out ok?" Aaron said politely before Issei felt the familiar but still unsettling feeling of Aaron's eyes scanning his existence.
Aaron paused for an unblinking moment before face-palming and muttering several curses under his breath.
When he moved his hand he wasn't smiling, instead he let out a sigh that seemed to age him a hundred years.
"Am I dying?" Issei asked half jokingly.
Aaron took another deep breath and went to answer, before both teens' heads snapped towards a seemingly random direction.
There they saw a tall, pale man wearing pure darkness like a coat.
The man gave off an oppressive feeling greater than even the black beast, though it was nowhere near as traumatic as the monster. In fact the aura was almost nostalgic to Issei.
"Ophis?" Issei asked.
The man in darkness seemed to stiffen for a moment and Aaron groaned, "No he's… just let me do the talking."
"And what exactly do you have to say Aaron?" Asked the pale man, now standing in front of the pair. Making Issei jump at the power in his voice. "We have had this discussion before, you are not allowed to use my realm as your personal clubhouse."
Aaron sighed. "Believe it or not, Dream I'm not trying to game the system this time it was an accident."
"You accidently pulled someone into the Dreaming?" The now named Dream asked skeptically.
"No that part was on purpose but the new spirit bond between us that let him into my mindscape was an accident." Aaron replied tiredly.
Dream seemed to ponder this. "That does not explain why you brought him here."
Aaron threw up his arms in frustration. "What did you expect me to do!? He was a second away from getting eaten by that monster!"
Aaron let out another tired sigh. "Look, can we just stay here? I can't send him back to his body without risking my body reacting, and he was trying to go to sleep anyway. We're not going to try anything so can we just rest?" Aaron pleaded.
Dream was silent for a few moments as he searched Aaron's face for any falsehood.
Finally he answered. "Very well I will allow this, tomorrow the boy will awake in his body. I expect this will not happen again."
Aaron sighed in relief this time. "Thank you, but no promises. This could be useful."
Dream gave him a glare before sighing and vanishing without another word.
"Spirit bond?" Issei asked, latching onto the one part of the conversation he understood.
A spirit bond was what it sounded like, a passageway between two entities spirits typically made via a contract. While not unheard of in most of the world they were much more common in Hellsalmes Lot, typically for the purpose of sharing or teaching powers.
Aaron signed and held his face in his hands. "Yeah, to revive you I had to claim one of Ria's pawns, add that with all of the power I've gotten from you over the years, the nature of the revival spell, and my sheer desperation and we get a new spirit corridor."
"Won't that cause problems for you?" Issei asked.
While spirit bonds were useful to most there were those who had powers and dispositions that made them dangerous or even lethal. Aaron was in the former category.
"It's fine there's no essence or aura coming through the bond. It's more like a ceremonial bond, like an adoption or marriage bond." Aaron waved off Issei's concern.
An awkward silence followed that statement.
"If I weren't so tired right now. I'd punch you for that." Issei said.
"Even if I weren't so tired. I'd let you." Aaron chuckled and replied dryly.
Aaron took a deep breath, seeming to brace himself before looking Issei in the eye. "What happened after I left?"
So Issei told him everything, waking up in a room full of monsters, taking Rias hostage, the cover story Zelrich and Rias had spun, and waking up in Aaron's mind..
Throughout the whole story Aaron had not moved, or made any notion that he had heard Issei at all.
"...And then you pulled me here." Issei finished.
"... Did you hear anything about what condition the city was in?" Aaron finally asked.
"Eh? Uh no. After everything that happened I was just so tired I just went straight to bed." Issei answered nervously. "Would the damage really have been that bad?"
"I flared my presence at full powe." Aaron answered numbly, returning his face to his hands. "You'd need to be at Ultimate class power, or receive appropriate training to endure that. Not even taking into account the emotions I must have emitted. With Kuho's usual nightlife, there must be at miraculous minimum 50-100 casualties."
Issei flinched. "Eh well…." He trailed off trying to find the words to comfort Aaron.
"Why?" Aaron asked him.
"Why what?" Issei asked, confused.
"Why are you trying to help me?!" Aaron yelled, surprising Issei. "I could have saved you! I should have saved you! I got there before you died but I froze! I should have noticed the fallen the second they arrived! I should have kept you safe!"
"H-hey don't beat yourself up, you're not perfect." Issei replied nervously, not wanting to upset Aaron more.
Aaron barked out a laugh. "Understatement of the year." He said. "It was stupid of me to think I could protect anybody in the first place."
"Don't say that." Issei said forcefully.
Aaron looked at Issei with dead yet tear filled eyes. "Why are you so nice to me?" He asked quietly "All these years, why have you all been so kind to me?"
Issei opened and closed his mouth, trying to think of an answer. Then a memory flashed through his mind…
…and the duo found themselves in a forest instead of the open field they had arrived at.
"What the hell? Issei asked.
"We're in a dream. The landscape changes occasionally when you think about or remember something." Aaron answered on instinct as he examined his new surroundings. He knew this place, but he was having trouble placing where from.
"Hm, hm, hm." The two turned to see a brown haired child walking around with a bug catching net in his hand, humming a Merry tune to himself.
"Is that?" Issei asked.
"Yup that's you." Aaron confirmed.
"I remember this." Issei muttered. "This is the forest behind grandpa and grandma's house before-"
Issei's realization was cut off by a bright flash of light appearing a few feet away from the young boy. The light was followed by a sound between thunder and a Bestal roar.
"Before I happened." Aaron finished for him.
"Yeahhhhh." Issei confirmed.
Little Issei fell flat on his back at the sound. After a few minutes of rolling around clutching his ears, he began to shakily pull himself up to a sitting position.
Only to be frozen stiff at the sight before him.
In front of Issei there was a large pitch black mass that looked like a cross between a ball of writhing snakes and molten lava.
And emerging from the strange object was the arm and face of a boy not that much older than him made of the same black substance, reaching out to him in desperation. Only to be held back by a strange cage of shifting multicolored light.
"H-he-eeellp m-me." The child's distorted voice rasped out.
The young Issei couldn't even begin to process the situation in front of him, much less any kind of solution.
"Well this is quite the problem." A voice next to Issei said.
Issei turned to see an old man in a suit standing next to him stroking his neck length beard.
"What to do, what to do….?" The old man murmured to himself.
"C-can you help him?" Issei asked.
The old man turned to Issei, seeming to notice him for the first time. He was quiet for a long moment, considering the question before smiling broadly.
"Of course I will child."
The old man reached out his hands as he walked forward, and in a flash of light there was a golden cup filled with rainbow fire in one of his hands, and a huge black sword with a tallon like crash guard making an x between the hilt and blade in the other.
Then much to issei's shock and horror the old man of the kaleidoscope drove the demon sword into the monster and child. The sword pulsed and it bound the monster to the child. And the grail bound the beast to protect the boy.
However neither task would go unchallenged.
The beast writhed and ranged against the bindings lashing and biting at them trying to consume the old man.
But the beast was weakened and wounded, a mere fraction of what it once was trying to make itself whole with an incompatible host. And while the old man was far from his prime, he still commanded the might of countless possibilities.
RRRRRRAAAAAAA! The boy and beast roared in agony as they were bound to each other.
Issei couldn't see any of this happening as the sheer force generated kicked up too much dust. However he could somehow tell without question that was happening.
When the lights and dust and power finally calmed down the old man was standing in a large crater, his clothes torn, bearing several scratches, and holding an unconscious child in his arms.
"Well that w*cough-cough*that was unpleasant." The old man said, breathing heavily.
The two observers could hear Issei's parents coming to see the commotion as the world seemed to blur and change around them.
When the world stabilized it was in Issei's grandparents dining room a few days later, with the Hyoudou family staring at Aaron bawling his eyes out in front of them. All of them were looking at each other in confusion, even the grandfather was unsure of how to react to the sudden change.
Surprisingly the first to make a move was Issei, with an audible gulp the human boy walked to the sobbing child and gave him a cautious pat on the shoulder. This awkward attempt at kindness spurred the already overwhelmed child to wrap Issei in a bear hug, much to his surprise.
"W-what! Hey, let me go!" The boy protested to no avail.
"Wwwwwaaaaaaaa!" Aaron cried.
The adults could only gawk at the sight before them, after a few moments Issei's grandfather burst out laughing at the sight. Causing his wife to berate him and Issei's parents to attempt to pull Aaron off their son.
The world distorted again, this time showing the kitchen in Issei's parents' house in Kuoh.
Issei sat in front of his parents with a confused and concerned expression. "Aaron's gone?" He asked.
"Grandpa and Grandma looked everywhere, they even asked their neighbors and put up fliers but so far there's been no sight of him." Issei's mother said sadly.
"Did someone take him?" Issei panicked.
His father winced. "No, we think he left on his own."
"Why?" Issei asked both why they thought so, and why Aaron would leave in the first place.
Issei's father sighed. And took out his phone. "He left this message for us." He said
With a beep the message played, but Issei could barely remember the apologies and explanations that followed. He did however remember the overwhelming feeling that he had failed in helping his friend.
The world changed again a still young Issei was walking home from school like any other day, when out of nowhere with no promoting visible to him, a girl around his age with long black hair and blank eyes walked right up to him and started poking his arm.
"Eh?" Issei said, understandably surprised. "Wha- who are you?"
The girl paid him no mind as she continued to poke his arm until…
All of a sudden Issei felt something pulse in his arm, followed by a flash of light that dissipated to reveal a fingerless red gauntlet with a green jewel in the back.
Before Issei could process what just happened a voice yelled "Ophis!"
Then Aaron jumped down from the roof of Issei's home glaring at the strange girl. "What are you- what is that?!" He asked.
The girl simply pointed to Issei's arm and said "Ddraig."
"Aaron!" Issei yelled, surprised.
"Ddraig?" Aaron asked stunned
"Ddraig" Ophis nodded.
"Issei?" Issei's mother asked as she stuck her head out the door.
"Mom!" Issei yelled, pointing to Aaron.
"Aaron!?" Issei's mother exclaimed.
"Ddraig?" Aaron asked himself quietly.
"Aaron?" Ophis asked, tilting her head in what could have been concern.
"Miki?" Issei's father called his wife in concern.
"Gorou!" Miki called her husband over.
"Aaron?" Issei said, concerned as Aaron began smiling.
"Aaron?!" Issei's father exclaimed as he saw the boy in question.
"Mom?" Issei glanced at his mother as Aaron's eye began to twitch while still smiling.
"Ddraig?" Aaron asked in a strained tone.
"Issei." Miki pulled her son behind her as she remembered Aaron's previous breakdown.
"Ddraig." Ophis repeated her answer to Aaron.
"Who?" Issei's father asked.
"Ophis." Issei said half answering his father half remembering it himself.
"Ophis?" The boy's parents repeated in confusion.
At that point Aaron finally snapped. "FFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUU!"
Before he could finish what was a long long string of curses that a child had now place knowing however. The world shifted again.
This time they were back at Issei's grandparents house, and the two boys, now a year or two older, were rolling on the ground pummeling and grabbing at each other and shouting all the while.
"Super sentai!" Issei yelled.
"Power rangers!"Aaron roared in defiance.
The two continue their meaningless squabble as the adults and Ophis watch with mixed reactions.
"Shouldn't we do something?" Issei's mother asked, concerned.
"It's fine." Ophis replied with her trademarked blank tone. "Children should play and fight when they are young."
"They're both holding back alot despite what it may seem." Said a blond woman who looked no more than seventeen sitting next to Ophis. "It's actually quite an impressive display for children there age."
The mother did not look convinced.
"Bah! Let them be." Issei's grandfather waved off her concern.
Neither of the dreamers could remember when exactly this day took place, it was simply one day of the many they had shared.
The world shifted one final time.
The two were in Issei's parents' living room. The sun was shining brightly through the windows. In contrast to the tense mood indoors. Issei's mother was out shopping, and his father was working. And if one listened carefully, you could hear the sound of a girl crying from the stairs.
"I'm sorry you had to see that." Aaron said as he leaned against a wall while looking at the floor.
"It's fine, you didn't do anything wrong." Issei said from his seat at the table. Though he couldn't look his friend in the eye.
"Maybe not this time." Aaron chuckled to himself.
"Is that why you've been acting like a dick lately?" Issei asked. "Because you went too far?"
"No, that's…." Aaron sighed. "A whole other mess."
"Yeah, sorry to pry." Issei apologized.
"...Are you scared?" Aaron asked.
"...Maybe a bit, but that's not all. Mostly I'm just embarrassed." Issei replied.
Aaron looked up at Issei.
"I mean the best I could have done was punch that guy. But you handled that whole situation perfectly. It was terrifying, but amazing." Issei continued.
"So you're jealous of me?" Aaron asked with a sarcastic smile.
"More like I'm just embarrassed that I couldn't do anything." Issei said. "I'm just an idiot after all."
"Heh, maybe that's true." Aaron chuckled. "You'd have to be one to stick with me after all this."
"Still really I messed up this time." Aaron said, referring to his rage against the fallen.
The two boys couldn't remember when they had stopped observing and started playing out their memories and neither bothered to try.
"Yeah sorry I was no help." Issei said.
"Don't apologize you did nothing wrong." Aaron chided him.
"Maybe, but I'm kinda relieved in spite of it all." Issei chuckled dryly.
"How so?" Aaron asked.
"Well I know that things are going to get harder now, I've completely messed up your plans, and what happened to the city is a tragedy. But honestly? I've always wanted to help out with some of the messes you get yourself into." Issei finally looked towards his friend with a large and honest smile. "So getting you to help take down your ass of an uncle has got me feeling pretty happy right now."
Aaron simply stared at Issei for a moment, stunned. Before a crooked, yet gentle smile formed on his face.
"You're right, you are an idiot." He sighed.
"I know right?" Issei laughed.
The two sat there a while chatting pointlessly, noticing as the world slowly became blurry. They continued to talk in peace until they woke up.
AN:
And done! Sorry for the late update guys busy holidays. I think the chapter was pretty good though, lots of vague foreshadowing, some look into Aaron and Issei's history, a sprinkle of world building, and both of them getting a well deserved chance to rest up before they deal with the mess that is their lives. Please tell me what you think in the comments. I don't own highschool dxd or anything else you recognize.
I'm thinking of writing a Natsuverse fanfic I've been writing in my head for a few years. If you like this story check it out!
Happy new year everyone!